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Treats & Snacks

Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw, x For Freezer x

Gingerbread Men

If my kitchen frolicking has taught me anything, other than the limits to my belt-expansion, it is that how food tastes qualifies as only one segment of its true appeal. When is just as crucial to our taste buds because of the memories it can set in motion. And who plays a decisive role in a food’s celebration.

Nothing demonstrates this better than Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Gingerbread Men are suffused with happy memories for me. I start pimping them from early November, just so I can bathe in childhood memories and mad amounts of oxytocin.

Happy holidays everyone! May endless mistletoe and sherry be upon you.

 

Ninjabread Men

A note for wily mums; you can replace some of the ground almonds with milled flaxseed or hemp powder, to inject some omega-3 artillery into your little ones.

4 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil

3 tablespoons maple syrup (or raw honey for snotty noses)

100g (4oz) ground almonds

1-2 teaspoons ground ginger

Pinch of unrefined salt

Gently melt your coconut oil in a small pan over a shy flame. Remove from heat and stir through the remaining ingredients. Scrape the mixture out over a sheet of baking parchment. Press it into a rough dough ball, then place another sheet of parchment over it and flatten with a pastry rolling pin. You’re looking for a couple of mm in depth.

Transfer to the freezer for 10 minutes, until barely set. Alternatively, you can freeze for up to 3 month and let thaw for 5 minutes before cutting into gingerbread men. Choose a cookie cutter, and off you go! No need to bake. We store ready-to-eat gingerbread men in a freezer bag, waiting for unexpected playdates and midnight munchies.

Taking the hell out of healthy.

Hit “BOOM” at the top left corner with your email address my friend, to receive new monthly recipes direct to your inbox. Free of charge. Namaste!

Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw, x For Freezer x

Sea Salt, Date & Cacao Halva

Apparently, women think about chocolate more then men. Some scientists think this is because eating cacao helps release a cavalry of dopamine in the female brain, the same substance released during orgasm. It’s even been suggested that when women eat chocolate, it affects activity in the cerebral hemisphere responsible for regulating sexual desire.

Only one way to find out …

 

 

Sea Salt, Date & Cacao Halva

 

3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
1 mug light tahini (circa 340g)
Up to 1/2 cup date syrup (125ml)
Good pinch of flaky sea salt
2 tablespoons carob powder (can be subbed with cocoa/cacao)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons raw cacao nibs

 

1. In a small saucepan, melt your coconut oil and date syrup together over a gentle flame.

2. Keeping the pan on a very low heat, add the remaining ingredients together, mushing with a fork. Ensure the oil is well mixed. Taste, and adjust with vanilla or sweetener. Work quickly, as the oil will begin to separate from the other ingredients as soon as it starts cooling. If this starts to happen, whack up the heat.

3. Line a small rectangular container (a little lunchbox perhaps?) with cling film so that it comes out over the sides. Transfer your gorgeous gooey gloss into the lined container and tickle with more cacao nibs and flaky salt (if you have any left).

4. Transfer to the freezer for 6 hours before indulging. Store it there too, as it melts quite quickly at room temperature.

We serve this in great big hunks and chards, alongside coffee and hygge (naturally).

 

******

This recipe is from page 208  Tasty. Naughty. Healthy. Nice. cookbook my friends. One of 140 healthy-assed recipes to help turn your kitchen into a wholefood mecca. 

If you live in the States, you can nail 20% off both my cookbooks this month by using the code SUSANJANE20 at the checkout of my US publisher’s online store www.RoostBooks.com. Here’s hoping I lovebomb your kitchen! Namaste. xxx

 

 

 

Breakfast, Lunchbox, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw

How to Make Sesame Snaps

Cutlery numbs my taste buds. I’m convinced my fingertips start to recognise flavour before any of it reaches my mouth. Eggs and guacamole on toast? My digits get to taste it first. Imagine the same breakfast with a knife and fork? Or eating a hamburger with cutlery? Sushi perhaps? Even pizza?

Look, if I’m to be perfectly honest, I think we can taste words too. Often reading a restaurant menu is the best part of the meal. Each word is like a little comet of deliciousness.

I don’t think any of this constitutes as news, except that I rarely spot people using their fingers with the same giddy determination and shamanistic frenzy I apply to my meals. Clearly, more people bow to the sophistication of a fork –  a majesty which I think is comically misplaced. There are some intriguing results out there, led by scientists, to suggest other homo sapiens behave like me. Phew. (Although it’s possible these studies were led by historians rather than gastro physicists. Nevermind).

 

 

This week’s recipe is a playful experiment for your taste buddies. Let’s munch half the batch with our fingers. And then chew the rest of the sesame snaps using a fork. Ask your taste buds to vote.

Sesame seeds morph into extraordinary little explosions of flavour in the oven. We love them for their sweet nutty smack, but also for their plant-based calcium which makes them great for growing nippers. In Hinduism, sesame is referred to as the seed of immortality. This is probably because of its pumped portfolio of plant lignans and other crazy cool protective compounds like phytooestrogens.

These sesame snaps make me feel like I’m going to live forever. And if I don’t? I’m happy to die trying.

 

 

 

Sesame Snaps

 

5 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoon rice malt syrup or maple syrup

Pinch of sea salt

 

Preheat your oven to 220C.

In a cup, mash the ingredients together with a fork. Spread the mixture over a baking tray lined with non-stick parchment as best as you can. It’s outrageously sticky, but don’t worry. The heat will help the mixture collapse.

Bake at 200-220C for 5 mins, until bubbly. You want the water to evaporate from the mixture which will give it its crunch.

Allow to solidify once cooled. Smash.

 

 

 

Taking the hell out of healthy.

Hit “BOOM” at the top left corner with your email address my friend, to receive new monthly recipes direct to your inbox. Free of charge. Namaste!

 

 

 

A special announcement

Join me on Substack

Howdy! I’ll be deleting this website shortly. Gah! But please stay in touch – I so appreciate your loyalty and lovebombs.

You can continue to access my recipe drops over on Substack.  Hope to see you there, and to continue frolicking on this veggie-fueled dance floor.