Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Superfood Breakfast: Vegan Banana Chia Pudding

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I love my superfood breakfasts. I wish I could have time every morning to make one of them. In real life I usually eat one or two pieces of seasonal fruit (nowadays it is an apple) and have a quick bite a bit later: most of the times it’s a piece of toast with almond or cashew butter and my mom’s sugar-free plum jam on top.

Chia seeds and chia pudding is getting more and more popular. The seeds are native to South America and have been a staple in Mayan and Aztec diets for centuries. The word chia is derived from the Nahuatl word chian, meaning oily.

I’m trying to eat as much as I can because of its nutritional benefits:
– they can help your diet by making you feel full (it’s because they absorb 10 times their weight in water, forming a bulky gel)
– they are the richest plant source of Omega-3
– chia seeds slow down how fast our bodies convert carbohydrates into simple sugars, studies indicate they can control blood sugar
– they are an excellent source of fiber, with a whopping 10 grams in only 2 tablespoons
– chia seeds are rich in antioxidants that help protect the body from free radicals, aging and cancer
– chia seeds contain no gluten or grains
– the outer layer of chia seeds swells when mixed with liquids to form a gel (this can used in place of eggs to lower cholesterol and increase the nutrient content of foods and baked goods)
(More info here.)

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I used chia seeds before but mostly to place an egg in vegan cakes. Chia seeds are very similar to flax seeds – if they are mixed with water its consistency becomes gel.

Don’t miss this pudding, it’s not only a healthy choice for breakfast but it tastes divine!

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Vegan Banana Chia Pudding

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 2-3 ripe bananas, smashed with a fork
– 4 tablespoons chia seeds
– 1 and 1/4 cups almond milk (you can use rice, oat or soymilk too)
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– hazelnut

Method

Prepare your breakfast a day before. In a bowl mix chia seeds with almond milk and let it rest in the fridge for the night.

The next day toast the hazelnut in a dry non-stick pan for 7-8 minutes and chop them roughly.

Mix together the chia almond milk pudding with the smashed bananas and vanilla. Serve in little bowls with the toasted hazelnut.

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Glazed Walnut Green Lentil Loaf

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Before Christmas I’m trying to share more vegetarian Christmas meals recipes. Whether you are having a vegetarian (vegan) Christmas or you need a veggie recipe to serve a guest, these recipe ideas might be helpful for you. These meals are so delicious so believe it or not meat-eaters will be jealous!

I think a vegetarian Christmas dinner’s centerpiece should be a nut roast, like last year’s cranberry and pistachio nut one or Mrs. Myrtleberry’s walnut roast with lots of yum side dishes. Plan the menu in time, make preparations, buy good quality ingredients and the success will be guaranteed at the Christmas dinner table.

This nut roast is rich in lentils (high in protein, vitamin B1 and minerals), walnuts, hazelnuts, cashew so it’s not only delicious it is a nutritious, healthy meal.

Glazed Walnut Green Lentil Loaf
(Recipe inspiration: Oh She Glows)

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

For the loaf
– 190 g (1 cup) green lentils
– 100 g (1 cup) walnuts
– 60 g (1/2 cup) hazelnuts and cashew nuts
– 3 ground flax seeds + 6 tablespoons water
– 2 big onions, chopped
– 3 cloves garlic, chopped
– 120 g (1 cup) carrot, chopped
– 1 medium apple, peeled and grated
– 40 g (1/2 cup) oat flour
– 60 g (3/4 cup) whole wheat breadcrumbs
– 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
– 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
– 1 teaspoon chili flakes (optional)
– 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
– salt, pepper

For the balsamic glaze
– 60 ml (1/4 cup) ketchup
– 1 tablespoon maple syrup
– 2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
– 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Method

Place lentils into a pan with 750 ml (3 cups) of water, season with salt, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for at least 40-50 minutes (add more water if needed) until lentils are cooked. Set aside.

In a small bowl mix ground flax with water and set aside.

In a dry non-stick pan toast walnuts, hazelnuts and cashew for 6-8 minutes and set aside.

Use a kitchen blender to grind toasted walnuts, hazelnuts and cashew. Place the grinded nuts into a large mixing bowl. Using the kitchen blender chop onion, garlic, pasley and carrots, then add to the grinded nuts. Add grated apple, rosemary, thyme, chili flakes, oat flour and breadcrumbs. Mix all ingredients together. Using the blender again, purée the cooked green lentils until smooth (or mash lentils with a spoon). Add lentils also to the mixture and adjust seasonings to taste.

Preheat the oven to 180C (356F). Meanwhile in a small bowl mix together the glaze’s ingredients.

Grease a 23 cm (9 inch or a bit longer) long loaf pan with olive oil and spoon the 2/3 of the glaze into the loaf pan and spread evenly (reserve the rest for serving). Pile the walnut green lentils mixture in the tin and pack it down with the back of a spoon.

Bake at 180C (356F) for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. Cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve with the remaining glaze on top.

Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread aka The Legend of Homemade Nutella

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Homemade edible Christmas gifts are so popular and fashionable nowadays. Cookies, biscuits, jams, chutneys, granolas, savory treats make special presents for any occasion, especially at Christmas. A homemade edible gift has so much love in it. Download cute food labels, wrap the presents nicely and the success will be guaranteed.

This homemade Nutella is not only mouthwatering on the photo but it is very addictive. Make sure to do a double batch because you will want your own Christmas gift too. 🙂 Look for good quality milk- and bittersweet chocolate for this recipe to avoid unnecesarry additives and sugar. For more sophisticated friends  and relatives make this Nutella from 350 g milk and 150 g bittersweet (70% cocoa content) chocolate. Vegans should use chocolate made with rice milk.

There is a similar recipe on my friend, Emiko’s blog (she also shot a video too).

Homemade Nutella

Ingredients (makes 500 ml, about 2 cups)

– 250 g hazelnut
– 400 g milk chocolate
– 100 g bittersweet chocolate
– 3 tablespoons hazelnut or coconut oil
– 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C (338F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the hazelnuts on it and toast them for about 8-10 minutes until the nuts have darkened and the skins have blistered. Wrap the nuts in a kitchen towel and rub to remove as much of the skin as possible. Let cool completely.

In a food processor grind the hazelnuts until they form a paste (about 10-12 minutes). Add hazelnut oil, cocoa powder and salt. Continue to process the mixture until it is very smooth.

Add a little boiling water to a saucepan and heat until simmering. Break the chocolates into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl. Suspend the bowl over the simmering water, but do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water. Heat the chocolate, stirring regularly, until melted, then remove from the heat.

Add the melted chocolate to the hazelnut mixture and continue to blend until smooth. Transfer to a jar and let it cool (the texture will be a bit runny, but it will thicken as it cools).

Enjoy!

Jamie’s Two Nuts Chocolate Cake

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I used to live in England for two years and this is how I “met” Jamie Oliver for the first time. That time he was not known in Hungary at all. Since then I have admired Jamie’s hard work, his food and enthusiasm to change the way for people to eat healthier and encourage them to cook more at home. I even had lunch in his Fifteen restaurant in London. This is a huge experience to always remember.

His Food Revolution campaign is also big I stood for with a few food blogger friends around the world. This food revolution movement is for everyone. If we care about about our children and their future, we should educate ourselves about food and cooking. He also launched a back-to-school campaign to support better food education through the work of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

Love at first sight: yellow creamy sugar butter with dark brown chocolate and nuts mixture…

The other day I started re-watching Jamie’s “Naked Chef” series. He made this cake from walnut and hazelnut. I had almond at home so I used that instead of walnut. You don’t need too many ingredients to bake this cake but the ones you use, should be good quality – that is the secret.

It doesn’t contain any flour so it’s very rich from the almond & hazelnut and chocolate-y. You need only a thin slice from the cake… first. Then half an hour later another thin slice… until it lasts.

Jamie’s Almond Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

Ingredients (serves 4-6, for a 18,5 cm – 7,28 inches – spring form pan)

– 75 g almond
– 75 g hazelnut
– 150 g chocolate (70% cocoa content)
– 125 g soft butter
– 50 g cane sugar
– 3 organic eggs, separating the white parts from the yolks
– pinch of salt
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded (this wasn’t in the recipe I added as an extra)

Method

Line the spring form pan with parchment paper then spread butter the bottom and side. Preheat the oven to 190C (374F).

Place the almond and hazelnut into the food processor and whizz up until finely grounded. Add 100 g chocolate and whizz for a minute to break up the chocolate. Put this mixture in a bowl and set aside. Place soft butter and cane sugar into the food processor and blend. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and blend until pale and fluffy.

Mix sugar butter mixture with the nuts chocolate one. In another bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the butter nuts chocolate mix.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Press the remaining 50 g chocolate into the batter in small pieces. Bake the cake at 190C (374F) for about 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven when a cocktail stick just comes out of the cake cleanly. Cool somewhat before removing from the pan.

Serve…

One slice for you… Do you like it?

Vegan Pumpkin Cake with Coconut Vanilla Cream and Roasted Hazelnuts

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We went on a hiking trip to Bakony Mountains on my birthday so I didn’t have the opportunity to bake this yum cake for my birthday. I found the recipe at the end of September on the blog My New Roots and I fell in love with it. I knew this was going to be my special treat for myself.

Bakony is a mountainous region in Transdanubia, Hungary. It forms the largest part of the Transdanubian Mountains. It is located north of Lake Balaton. The Bakony is divided into the Northern and Southern Bakony. Kőris-hegy in the Northern Bakony is the highest peak of the range with its 706 meters. There are no high mountains in Hungary.

The medieval castle of Csesznek

I thought we had arrived at the peak of foliage but nature mother decided to stay green a bit longer than last year. Although the view of the hills and small villages made an amazing sight. We admired the quiet walks in the middle of the forests listening to the sound of nature and stopping every fifteen minutes to take it all in. Breathtaking and relaxing.

We stayed at Hotel Bakony in Bakonybél at a rustic but reconstructed hotel at the end of the village. The food and the service were amazing. The hotel’s restaurant offers a wide range of foods, especially focusing on rural flavors and the specialties of the Bakony. They say that “The secret of the Hungarian cuisine lies not only in producing certain foods so classy, but serving up one after the other, so that the food consumed calls for the next one, and when we already think we are quite well fed, there is something served, that makes us say: However, we must eat it!“

If you are still reading this post, here comes the recipe…

Vegan Pumpkin Cake with Coconut Vanilla Cream and Roasted Hazelnuts

Ingredients

For the cake
– 1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (I prefer home made but you can use canned)
– 1/2 cup maple syrup (or honey)
– 2 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
– 1 teaspoon apple vinegar
– 6 tablespoons coconut oil
– 2 cups whole wheat spelt flour, sifted
– 1 cup white spelt flour, sifted
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 2 teaspoons ground ginger
– 1 teaspoon cardamom
– 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
– 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
– 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
– 1 tablespoon cinnamon
– 2 tablespoons chia seeds

For the cream
– 3 cans of coconut milk
– 1/4 cup honey
– 1 cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

Method

Place cans of coconut milk in the fridge for at least 4 hours to cool. Roast pumpkin halves at 180-200C for 45-60 minutes. Let cool and scoop out 1 and 1/2 cups flesh. In a dry non-stick pan roast hazelnuts for 3-5 minutes, let cool and chop roughly.

Open the cans and scoop out just the top coconut cream layer, leaving the liquid portion (save for soup). Place in a bowl and whisk together with the honey and the vanilla. Place the bowl of cream in the fridge for set.

In a big bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and chia seeds. In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients: pumpkin puree, bananas, maple syrup, coconut oil and apple vinegar. Add dry ingredients to wet, mix and stir to combine. Pour batter into a 22 cm spring form cake pan. Bake at 175-180C for about 35-45 minutes (or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean). Set aside and let cool then remove from pan.

Slice the rounded top edge off of the cake (this ensures that the subsequent layer will sit flat). Then slice the cake in half so you have two layers. Place the bottom of the layers on a cake stand or plate and cover with the icing, followed by the roasted hazelnuts. Add the top layer, repeating the icing and hazelnut procedure until you’ve used all the cream. Top the cake with hazelnuts.

Happy birthday to me! 🙂