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

Xmas-Laced Energy Balls

No need to straddle a packet of biscuits to nurse that stinking hangover.

When these energy balls are programmed into your festive calendar, you’ll jumpstart your battery faster than immediately.

I made them on TV3’s Seven O’Clock Show tonight, so you can watch the demo here with the inimitable Lucy Kennedy (love her wicked humour).

1 1/2 cups (225g) sticky Medjool dates, stones removed

1 cup (140g) walnuts (Lidl have great ones)

1/4 cup (20–25g) raw cacao or cocoa powder

3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil

1 teaspoon spirulina powder (optional)

Pinch sea salt flakes

4 drops of culinary-grade orange oil (or zest from 1 unwaxed orange)

3 tablespoons goji berries, very finely chopped (optional jolliness)

Pulse all the ingredients except the gojies in a food processor, and not a blender. Whizz until the nuts clump together in a large dough ball. One minute should be about right. Taste and decide if it needs more orange oil to mask the taste of spirulina.

Make 20 golf ball-sized truffles or 30–40 smaller ones by rolling some dough between your palms. Place on a non-stick tray and chill until relatively firm. Once set (about 30 minutes), you can trying rolling them in the bright red goji berry dust. Raw cacao powder or desiccated coconut work well too, but the racy colour of gojies is freakishly festive. So I like these.

I pop some lolli sticks into the energy balls at this stage, so my nippers can enjoy them too.

Store in the fridge and grab on the run. And highfive my 13 year old neighbour Chitra, for sparking the inspiration for this recipe!

Photography by Joanne Murphy

An adaptation from The Virtuous Tart, Irish Cookbook of the Year 2015

December 7, 2015

Breakfast, Treats & Snacks

Saffron apricots with pistachio yoghurt and mandarin sauce

Dried apricots are basically a bundle of nutrients squeezed into juicy, amber baubles. Good for all things dermal and duodenal *inappropriate wink*.

These soft saffron apricots with sticky mandarin sauce is what I am waking up to every morning this week.

I noticed there’s a preposterous difference between bright orange apricots and dark apricots. The dark dried ones have no preservatives, and taste considerably better than the bright orange ones. But they are also hard on the wallet, like saffron.

Don’t go buying saffron especially for this recipe my friends. Chances are, someone you know will have a jar of saffron, and often no idea what to do with it. Go get it!

Saffron Apricots with pistachio yoghurt and mandarin sauce

A highfive for Anna Jones, who inspired this version of lickystickyummy.

250g dark dried apricots

a good pinch of saffron strands

Juice from 6 mandarins

1 cup Greek yoghurt

Handful of shelled pistachio

Heat the apricots, saffron and mandarin juice in a small saucepan. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the apricots are plush. The timing will depend on how hard the apricots were in the first place. If you bought semi dried apricots, simply simmer for 5 minutes instead.

Serve right away with thick clouds of yoghurt and smashed pistachios, or cool and refrigerate until needed (for up to 8 days). Trickle in some orange blossom water for a good Persian smack, if you have some in your cupboard.

December 3, 2015

Breakfast, Treats & Snacks, Vegan &/or Raw

Thanksgiving: Star Anise Poached Pears

Happy Thanksgiving my little health fiends!

Poached pears look so impossibly gorgeous perked up on their plate, dribbling with boozy sweetness (like your favourite batty aunt by 4pm every Thanksgiving). These ones have star anise which helps with digestion and feel achingly good after a big meal.

Do them 1-3 days in advance so that you can sit back and enjoy everybody else’s chaos. Devastatingly tasty with thick Greek yoghurt, soya cream (pictured) or home made coconut yoghurt.

Red wine poached pears with star anise
Serves 4-8

450ml dry red wine
3 tablespoons maple syrup, date syrup or brown rice syrup
1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 star anise
4 firm, ripe conference pears

Bring the red wine, your chosen syrup and the juice of 1 orange to a rolling boil. Add the spices, letting it simmer for 5 minutes while you peel the pears. I like leaving the stem intact and slicing the butt off the pears to create a flat base. Gently place the peeled pears in your poaching liquid, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes. It’s useful to turn the pears every so often to ensure even colour.

Remove the saucepan from its flame, uncover and cool with the pears still upright. Once cool, cover and chill in refrigerator until dessert time. Remove the pears delicately from their liquid and leave at room temperature. Meanwhile, reduce the poaching liquid over a medium-high flame for 25 minutes, until the liquid is more viscous and slightly syrupy.

Serve the pears on individual plates, and mmmmmizzle with the licky-sticky poaching liquid, a dollop of yoghurt or cream, and some mortifying Christmas photos.

For more sweet treats with a health twist, subscribe on the left. Then click ‘boom’ to receive a weekly recipe straight to your inbox.

Until then! xxx

November 24, 2015

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Breakfast

Xmas-Laced Energy Balls

Saffron apricots with pistachio yoghurt and mandarin sauce

Thanksgiving: Star Anise Poached Pears

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