Wholefood super smoothie

Process the following with a hand held stick blender (I like Cuisinart brand) or stand alone blender until mixed well:

• Choose a base: 3/4 cup yoghurt (eg Meredith Sheeps milk) or home-made kefir (or coconut water, coconut milk, coconut yogurt for dairy-free smoothie)
  

• Choose a natural sweetener: ½ banana or 1-2 dates or 1-2 teaspoons of raw honey or maple syrup. These would not be necessary with coconut water which is already quite sweet.
  

• Protein booster: 1 tablespoon of frozen or refrigerated home-made gelatinous beef bone broth (tip: freeze beef broth in ice-cube trays and add 1 ice-cube per smoothie or buy my frozen beef broth cubes or frozen beef broth & spinach cubes if not eating green separately). If home-made beef broth not available, then 1 tbsp Collagen Hydrolysate (plain or Peruvian Superfood blend) sold at Broth Bar & Larder or online at GPA Wholefoods or GelPro).
  

• Add extra optional nutrient-density: 2 teaspoons shaved raw frozen livers, ½-1 tbsp extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil or Brain Octane Oil, 1-2 raw egg yolks (if not eating eggs separately).
  

• Choose a flavour:
  
  Chocolate: ½ - 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder
  Vanilla: ¼ teaspoon vanilla bean powder
  Cinnamon: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder and pinch of nutmeg
  Berry: 1/4 cup of frozen or fresh berries
  Mango: flesh of 1/2 ripe mango (fresh or frozen)
  Lime & Mint: juice of lime plus handful of mint leaves (use with dairy-free base)

Apple Crumble

This is dessert is free of concentrated sweeteners and a great way to use up some excess apples. It also makes for a great breakfast!

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 5 apples, chopped  and cored (leave skin on)

• 1 bunch rhubard, chopped (discard green leaves)

• 2 star anise or 1 drop Young Living clove essential oil 

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder or 1 drop Young Living cinnamon bark oil

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or 1 drop Young Living nutmeg oil

• 4 tablespoon coconut oil or butter
  

Crumble topping:

• 7 medjool dates (approx 160g), seeds removed

• 3/4 cup (90g) desiccated coconut

• 100g frozen butter, roughly chopped

• 3/4 cup (130g) activated nuts of choice eg almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias

• 1/3 cup (65g) activated cinnamon buckwheat
  

Directions:

1. Melt coconut oil or butter in a large frying pan or cast iron pot. Add rest of filling ingredients and cook on low heat, covered, until fruit is soft, stirring occasionally. Remove star anise. Add cooked fruit mixture to a large rectangular oven proof dish. 

2. To make crumble, process or pulse ingredients in food processor until it resembles a coarse crumbly mixture (Thermomix speed 9, 5 seconds).

3. Spread crumble mixture on top of fruit mixture and bake at 120 degrees Celsius for approximately 30 minutes. 

4. Serve with cream, cream fraiche or home made vanilla or macadamia nut ice-cream. 
   

Variations:

• Add 2 teaspoons of raw cacao powder to filling ingredients for a hint of chocolate.

• Substitute or include pears in the fruit filling.

• Add 1 drop of Young Living lime and/or cardamom essential oils for a more exotic flavour.
  

Any left over crumble mixture can be made into biscuits by adding the mixture to a food processor together with 1 egg and processing until well combined. Roll  into small balls and pressed down on a baking tray and bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until golden brown. In fact I typically make double the amount of crumble so that I have enough leftover to make a good sized batch of biscuits. 

Creamy Rice Porridge

Occasionally I love a creamy rice porridge for breakfast. My kids love it too, especially in winter. It’s the perfect winter warming comfort food for breakfast. The recipe below can be used for any type of gluten-free grains but white rice is our favourite closely followed by oats. 

As detailed in this blog, grains should ideally be properly prepared (such as by soaking overnight) before cooking them in order to make them more digestible and nutritious. 

I like to add in egg yolks, butter and cream as nutrient-dense bombs into my porridge to provide a creamy, super nutritious and satiating bowl (otherwise grains alone are too glycemic and leave me hungry a couple hours later). I like my porridge quite milky as I find grains can be very drying. If this is too much liquid for you, simply reduce the volume of milk to 2 cups.  

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice

• 3 cups full fat milk

• 1.5 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil)

• 2 tablespoon cream

• 3-5 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder or 1 drop Young Living cinnamon bark essential oil

• 1 drop Young Living vanilla oil

• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg or 1 drop Young Living nutmeg essential oil

Toppings:

•  chopped banana

• a handful of fresh berries

• a scattering of goji berries 

• a scattering of raw cacao nibs

• a handful of coconut flakes

• a handful of gluten-free activated muesli

• dusting of raw cacao powder

• dustings of cinnamon powder 

• a drizzle of raw honey

Directions:

1. Soak rice overnight in a bowl of water (add enough water so that the rice is well covered).  
   

2. Strain (and discard the soaking water) and rinse rice in filtered water. 
   

3. Transfer rice to a saucepan, add milk, and cook on high heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk just begins to simmer then immediately lower the temperature and cook, covered, stirring occasionally until the rice is well-cooked and completely soft (approx. 10 mins). Be careful not to allow the milk to boil. 
   

4. Turn off heat and stir through the rest of the porridge ingredients. 
   

5. Divide between 3 bowls and serve with any one or more of the suggested toppings.

Serves 3.

Variation: Instead of rice, use any other gluten-free grains such as oats, millet, amaranth or quinoa and reduce the volume of milk to 2 cups instead of 3 cups.