Deliciously Ella's Raw Coconut & Cacao Bites

I'm a huge fan of Deliciously Ella's app and blog. Her book is on my Christmas Wish List though I'm not sure I need it as she has so many wonderful recipes on her blog available for all. Still it would look great on my green and lean book shelf!

Some of you may know that my husband is Type 1 Diabetic and he carb counts in order to control how much insulin he injects therefore I need to weigh a lot of our meals in order to give him correct guidance.

Since I've discovered Deliciously Ella's snacks he has been helping himself to my stack in the fridge but can never get the carb count right so this evening I weighed out all the ingredients using my american cups and my Kitchen Craft Measuring Spoon Set.

So in more detail here in grams is Deliciously Ella's Raw Coconut & Cacao Bites.  Please check out her site to read more information about why these are so great and of course the method.

Ingredients

90g Desiccated Coconut

160g Almonds

80g Cashew Nut Butter

20g Coconut Oil

12g Cacao Powder

165g Medjool Dates (150g after being pitted, approx 8 dates)

15g Desiccated Coconut for dusting

I weighed 20g of mixture to roll into balls and in turn made 23 balls. I like to firm them up in the fridge before eating and storing in an air tight container, also in the fridge.

Nutritional Information

Per ball:

125 calories

9.5g Fat

6.8g Carbohydrates

2.8g Protein

Cost (prices correct as of Nov 2015)

Ingredient	Qty	Unit	Source	Qty in bag (g)	Unit Price	Cost of ingredient
Desiccated Coconut	90	g	Sainsburys	250	£1.50	£0.54
Almonds	160	g	Sainsburys	200	£2.20	£1.76
Dates (weight with stones)	164	g	Forest Feast	180	£2.59	£2.36
Cashew Butter	80	g	Sainsburys	170	£2.80	£1.32
Coconut Oil	20	g	Lucy Bee	300	£6.00	£0.40
Cacao powder	12	g	Sevenhills	500	£6.99	£0.17
Desiccated Coconut for dusting	15	g	Sainsburys	250	£1.50	£0.09
Total Cost						£6.64
Cost per ball (qty 23)						£0.29

Salmon disaster

Yesterday evening I gave 6 children ages 6, 5, 5, 3, 3 and 2 oven baked salmon, white basmati rice and peas.

What a disaster!

My daughter aged 3 only ate the peas.  I'm amazed she didn't eat the rice as she'll eat it mixed in with chilli con carne.  My son aged 5 made it clear that he didn't like the salmon but polished off his peas and rice.  

I left them all to it and attempted to make a dent in tidying the playroom mess. I was 5 metres away when they all started throwing peas at each other.  This is what happens when they are bored of eating....they find other things to do!

Will be striking this meal off the menu planner for the time being!

Green Porridge

Would you believe I wake up most mornings craving a cup of herbal white tea and a bowl of green porridge.

I've really got the hang of making this breakfast and letting cool down to the perfect temperature.....a knack you need to be able to eat this all year long including those hot summer months.

I use this great microwaveable lidded saucepan from Lakeland and add 50g of porridge oats, 250g of almond milk. Yes grams as I just use the scales. I zap in the microwave for 2 minutes and 40 seconds and then let it sit for 10 minutes.  After this time I add 1 heaped tablespoon of flaxseed, 1 heaped tablespoon of hemp protein powder, ½ teaspoon of wheatgrass powder and I stir in about a tablespoon of manuka honey. When I first started eating porridge it was more like 2 heaped tablespoons of honey but my tastebuds have changed this year. I pour the porridge mixture into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of chia seeds.

Since having this for breakfast I have found I have a lot more energy for the day!

Sweet Potato with Butter Beans and Avocado

I followed a recipe from Livia's Kitchen which I couldn't wait to try out.  The hubbie and I would regularly have Jacket Potato with Cheese and Beans but since eating more green and lean I've substituted the basic baking potato for a sweet potato but still having it with baked beans and adding some crumbly goats cheese on top.  However I won't lie, baked beans have a habbit of making themselves known the next day and I'm not a pleasure to be around!

So when I came across this recipe of Olivia's website I was eager to give it a go.  I had all the ingredients in stock; butter beans, avocado, cherry tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, limes and coriander. However when I mixed them all together I felt it needed a little more something so I added some spring onions and some feta cheese.  I zap my sweet potato in the microwave for 10 minutes whilst the oven is warming up then place it on the top shelf of the 200C oven for a further 10 minutes.

This dish was super yummy and I can't wait to have it again!

Welcome to The Nutritious Penguin

This blog is a follow on from my previous blog The Organised Penguin. I've been clean eating since February 2015 and now I want to introduce clean eating to the rest of my family and get my friends on it too.