strawberry

Vegan Strawberry Coconut Popsicles

June 13, 2012 by Zizi

Mr or Miss Weather has been so hot in Hungary. There have been warm mornings, hot afternoons since three weeks. The sun is flaming. I can feel it on my skin. I drink a lot and don’t eat too much… mostly cold, raw fruits. I sent my oven to go on holiday. I don’t even remember when was the last time I switched it on. I barely cook, just once or twice a week.

In the flat there is 29-33C (84,2-91,4F)… yes, you see it right. There is no air conditioner. Anyway… with cold drinks and cold popsicles I will survive, I know.

Look at this beautiful pink and yum popsicle! Isn’t it tempting?

The great thing is, there are only three ingredients in this popsicle. It’s almost like a frozen smoothie so you can have it for breakfast too… without feeling guilty.

Because eating popsicles for breakfast is good.

We deserve it, don’t we? 🙂

Vegan Strawberry Coconut Popsicles

Ingredients (for 4 popsicles)

– 160 g strawberry (you can use raspberry, sour cherry or red currant)
– 250 ml (1 cup) coconut milk
– 3-4 tablepsoons maple syrup

Method

Place all ingredients in the blender and process for 5 minutes, until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds, insert sticks and freeze until solid (about 2 hours).

Superfood Breakfast: Almond Butter Toast With Almond Milk Coffee

June 4, 2012 by Zizi

I don’t deny it… We are in love with almond. Roasted almonds, almond butter, almond milk… yum. We found a great producer at the organic farmers market who sells creamy, thick, light beige coloured almond milk that smells like marzipan when you open the bottle.

I know I could make my own almond milk (only need almond and water) but to be honest I’m a bit lazy that’s why I buy it. You can sweeten or make it spicy with vanilla, cinnamon or cardamom. There are great recipes on the internet, I would choose this or this.

Almond butter is a food paste made from almonds; it may be crunchy or smooth. It is high in monounsaturated fats, calcium, potassium, iron and manganese. It’s considered a good source of riboflavin, phosphorus, and copper, and an excellent source of vitamin E, magnesium, and fiber. Almond butter also provides dietary protein. Recipe here and here. It’s excellent to spread it on toasts, use it for baking (cookies, cakes) or eat it as a snack, dipping apple or pear slices in it.

I’m sharing a very easy recipe today. It’s not even a recipe just and idea how to have a nutritious, healthy breakfast. We sprinkled maple syrup on the almond butter toast and put strawberry slices on top (choose whatever fruit you would like). We used roasted grain beverage as a substitute for coffee, sweetened with coconut flower sugar and added almond milk to it. The result was a creamy, silky, light coffee.

Almond Butter Toast with Almond Milk Coffee

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the toast
– a few slices of whole wheat bread
– almond butter
– maple syrup / honey / rice syrup / agave syrup
– fresh strawberry, sliced

For the coffee
– 400 ml almond milk
– 4 teaspoon organic cereal – barley, rye, chicory – beverage (you can use Nescafé too)
– 2 teaspoon cane sugar

Method

Toast the bread slices then spread them with almond butter. Sprinkle with maple syrup and place a few slices of strawberries on top.

In a pan heat almond milk. Put 2 teaspoons of coffee and 1 teaspoon of cane sugar in each cups, add the hot almond milk and stir it until smooth.

Strawberry Leather Or The Healthy Version Of Gummy Candy

May 31, 2012 by Zizi

This is going to be a very red post, full of strawberries. Strawberry leather… have you heard about it before? This is actually fruit leather and you can make it from juicy apricot or peach (I will definitely try from these stone fruits too!). This leather thing is exciting not only for children, for adults too. It’s very easy to make but it takes a few hours. Anyway, you will be amazed with the result so don’t miss it!

Last year I found a couple of fruit leather recipes online but somehow I’ve never made them. This year when the Hungarian strawberry season started I was the first one at the market to buy a batch and try to make these yum gummy candies.

Why should we make our gummy candies? The traditional gummy candy (bear) is made from a mixture of sugar (a lot!!!), glucose syrup, starch, flavouring, food colouring, preservative, citric acid, and gelatin (derived from the collagen mainly inside pig skin (hide) and cattle bones!!!). I think that’s enough reason to convince myself to make my homemade version as healthy as possible. We can say that gummy candy is only a plastic chemical product. Remember this next time when you stand at the cash desk and all the colourful candies will tempt you to buy them.

Raw food diet followers make fruit leather in food dehydratator. I don’t own one so I baked my version in the oven at the lowest temperature. Ingredients are only strawberry, honey and vanilla. Do you also think it’s a healthy gummy candy?

Strawberry Leather

Ingredients

– 5 cups strawberry (about 600-700 g)
– 3 tablespoons honey (you can use maple syrup or rice syrup too)
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

Method

Hull and half the washed strawberries. Place them in a pan and cook on low heat for about 12-15 minutes. Turn off the heat, add honey and vanilla. Pureé it with a hand blender. Pour the strawberry mixture on to a baking sheet (38*35 cm / 14,96*13,77 inch) covered with parchment paper.

Put in the oven and bake (dry) at 50C (122F) – this is my lowest temperature in my oven – for about 6-8 hours. Leave the oven door a bit open to let the moist out.

First time when I took the sheet out of the oven the leather was very firm so I put it back in the oven and I let it cool there. The next morning the leather was softer and it was easy to peel off from the parchment paper. Use a scissor to cut stripes and roll them up.

Strawberry leather on baking sheet…