Healthified Millionaire’s “Shortbread”

These are so good that if I didn’t have my healthy blog, I would definitely pop them straight onto this blog. They are best served cold, and can be enjoyed as a “whenever you feel like chocolate” snack, or as an energy boosting bar that satisfies your sweet tooth when you are attempting to be healthy.

These are full of good fats (coconut oil, nuts, nut butter), which is both great, and deadly. The trick with healthy foods, is generally that moderation is still important. The high-protein, high-fat nature of these means they are very filling. Any more than one or two, and you’re definitely not enjoying them out of hunger, rather sheer enjoyment of the creamy, chocolatey, caramely goodness.

Check out the recipe here.

Bliss Juicery

There are so many delicious bakeries, coffee shops, fast food restaurants around, that it’s quite tough these days to find somewhere convenient to get something healthy to snack on, something quick that’s not loaded with sugar or salt or a million and one preservatives. I have recently found a delicious and unique solution to my problem, and it’s only 5 minutes away from work!

Bliss Juicery is tucked away in the Colony Shopping Centre in Craighall, Johannesburg, and has been operating from there since the beginning of the year. They started out as a cleanse-only delivery service, which has now upgraded to supplying ready juices, practically on demand. They still offer juice cleanses, and they deliver your order within 15km of the shop.

Juice cleanses from Bliss Juicery involve drinking 6 juices per day, for your choice of 1, 3 or 5 days. They also offer nut milks for some added protein, which seems like it would offer some welcome relief from straight juice for the whole day. Their Vanilla Almond Milk is absolutely incredible – and so fresh as well, it’s amazing.

Bliss guides first-time juicers through the process, pre-warning them about the potential (side) effects. Basically a cleanse is like a detox, so when you go on a cleanse, you may experience similar symptoms as a standard detox, which involves headaches, caffeine withdrawal (is that really a bad thing?), and hunger. Also, “hunger”: we eat out of habit or boredom. I think that would be a big deal for me to overcome…

Their juice recipes are designed based on a combination of flavour and health-benefits, in conjunction with a dietician, so not only does it taste like it’s healthy (especially their broccoli, spinach and courgette juice), but it actually is!

Bliss stocks a range of other healthy snacks as well, for those who feel like they are missing out on fibre or just want something delicious to nosh on. My favourite is their stock of Raw’s Truly vegan and gluten free snacks, especially their truffles. My mind is reeling just thinking about them, I can barely put into words how amazing they are… *zones off into daydreams of the melted “chocolate” and creamy “caramel” centres*

I am really looking forward to this health trend that many new restaurants are picking up on. It really helps when you are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I hope to try a juice cleanse soon – hopefully flush my system of all the other delicious snacks I’m experimenting at the moment.

Those with hidden beginnings are often the ones who are focusing on what is most important.

Food lately

Oh my word I can’t believe it’s been so long since I actually posted anything! I do have a ton of reasons (internet, laptop, camera, etc.) but excuses don’t mean anything at the end of the day: it didn’t get done, and now I need to fix that!

Just because I haven’t posted anything doesn’t mean that I haven’t been doing food stuff lately – that will never happen! As you can see above (and below), Easter happened, so of course food happened. I entered a competition  on Yuppiechef.com (#eastercakeoff), and had to bake their amazing Spiced Almond Hot Cross Bun Cake, and maybe I didn’t win the awesome Le Creuset hamper (*tear), but you can’t not be winning at life when you get to eat an amazing cake like this. Instead of toasting coconut flakes (which were impossible to find the day before Easter) (also I burnt the one bag of coconut flakes that I did have, but don’t tell anyone that!), I bought some really delicious cereal topping from Woolworths, which came with flaked almonds, coconut flakes, and white chocolate. Totally makes up for the burnt coconut (and because there is now some cereal topping left over…) #WinningAtEaster!

Easter = eggs (obviously). (Let’s see how much of this blog post I can write in parenthesis…) So quiche was the order of the day – you know, to be healthy and stuff, and I have finally found a super reliable shortcrust pastry recipe which I will share (in a really cool and special new way), sometime in the new future).

I’ve also recently decided that I should probably start being a bit healthier. I am in the Wellness and Health & Fitness industry so I should maybe start setting a better example. I had a week of jar salads. I got over it. And how can I not, when there are these amazing chocolate-chocolate éclairs in a recipe book just asking to be made!

So new week, I had to try be healthy again. I’ve gone the Herbalife route now. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will certainly hear more about it from me in the future. It’s such an amazing product, and look at the delicious (and nutritious) smoothies you can make with it. Trust me, these tasted just like a chocolate-covered strawberry, just as they should!

I’ve also started working with a more regular income. Just because it is regular, doesn’t mean it is hugely lucrative, but it does mean that on pay day I get to go buy “other people” some treats from bakeries I’ve been meaning to try. These are from Chocola. J in Northcliff and they were heavenly, especially the crème brûlée cupcake, and the Bar-One cheescake…

  Vovo Telo always presents their food so well. I have an absolute favourite sandwich at their restaurant, but I decided to give this croissant a try for a change. That’s literally one of my most challenging things ever: saying no to the things you love to try something new, even if it is likely to be as delicious. Can’t I just have both?!?!?! I kept my consistency by having African Summer Tea from Toni Glass though. I am in love!

So that’s what’s been happening in my food world over the past month or so. I’ve made a couple loaves of bread, tried to be experimental with media, and also trying to figure out this whole work-life balance thing. It’s quite tough if you’re trying to make the things you are passionate about (the “life” side of the equation) part of your work… But we are getting there. And the rest of April is going to be an amazing adventure in preparation for May and the rest of the year. Second Term starts soon: New Term, New Me (again)!

My local – Urban Angel Café

It’s taken me ages to get this post out, purely because I love this little café so much that I would rather spend my time eating there than being tortured by the glorious memory of it. That’s before I even have to edit all the photos of their amazing food. Gosh no, it’s just too difficult. Urban Angel Café is my new favourite little hot spot, and it’s less than 3km from home!

Amazing range of breakfasts and café meals – quinoa with apple and salted caramel, french toast with banana and nut butters (homemade), and hugely delicious chicken prego burgers

So I’m writing this post in the comfort of their wafts of freshly baked bread, with an unhampered view of their mountain of fresh biscuits, sitting on the counter, whips of steam still practically floating above them.

This is my first draw once I walk in the door: every day they have something new and interesting on offer, from bagels and mince pies to protein bars and cheesecake brownies. Cookies and doughnuts and all sorts of different breads keep the meals special on each visit

What I absolutely love about this place, is their modern menu. And I don’t mean modern in a pretentious way, where owners are trying to sell the “next best thing”. I mean they genuinely care about producing meals that taste amazing and happen to have all these amazing new superfoods in them. You can go to Urban Angel café on pretty much any diet, and you will probably find something that suits you – and it’s guaranteed to be delicious.

The bagel bun is my go-to breakfast as a protein filled bun of fresh sour dough bread. Their meals are original with everyone’s favourite toppings, like cream cheese! “Eggs done your way” is also one of the awesome things about the café

And if you’re not on a diet, they have these incredible brownies that were recommended to me by everybody – friends and strangers alike – that I tried to resist for so long. I knew that if I gave in, it would be over for me. And it was… My advice: stay away from the brownies if you value your waistline.

Sweet and salty mocha with a swirl of caramel. Literally best drink ever!

For the most part, their creativity is pretty spot-on. My first experience of their food wasn’t that great though. I ordered a peanut butter espresso milkshake and was highly disappointed to find it was made with homemade nut butter, a combination of peanut and cashew. In the end it just tasted like very milky coffee with chunks of nuts. But hey, that’s what happens when you try to be too healthy, it doesn’t always work out. Pretty good otherwise!

Their meals are reasonably priced and really generous, full of healthy goodness! Grilled chicken with beautifully flavoured sides – their mash was some of the best I’ve ever had!

Their service is great as well, always extremely friendly.

Urban Angel Café: Bakery, Café and Food Store can be found just behind the shopping centre in the office park (President Fouche Drive And Hawken Avenue, Randburg, Johannesburg). It’s a bit difficult to find, but I guess that way it can be a little piece of hidden gold until everyone learns about its magnificence.

Zucchini brownies? Not for me thanks!

Alternative title for this post: How to get kids to eat more vegetables. Or: How to mess with your friends who say they don’t eat vegetables. Or: A slightly healthier brownie recipe (but still includes sugar).

Not your typical background props for brownies

Zucchini was stalking me. It was like a green veggie monster lurking in every corner of my life saying “Eat me, eat me!” (In the creepiest veggie monster voice you can imitate). I was like, “ew, no! Vegetables!? Too much green! Too much health! Too much not chocolate!”

That peanut butter stripe… That melted dark chocolate… That richness that looks like it translates to goodness…

I figured though, since I had given in and made the carrot cupcakes, I would just have to give these babies a shot. Problem is, zucchini isn’t the same as it is overseas. We have mini zucchini, which I took an unfortunate while to realise is what we refer to as: baby marrow. I assume it’s the same thing???

I follow quite a lot of blogs, and there was a week where every single one of those blogs sent me some form of zucchini cake/brownie/muffin/savoury-thing recipe, and they all looked so amazing! But still… Vegetables… When I got this one from Yammie’s Gluten Freedom, I decided that that had to be the one. Her recipes are reliable, and her brownies have always come out tops in my books. Alas, my trust has been broken!!

Just kidding, she will always be amazing, and these brownies aren’t half bad. The peanut butter topping definitely makes them worthwhile. My major complaint with this recipe is that they kind of taste like vegetables… Kind of a lot… We gave some to a friend though who refuses to eat veggies – we didn’t tell him – he actually said he enjoyed them, and that they had a nutty flavour. So the key to this recipe is: deception. Obviously, as the baker, this didn’t work so well for me, and all I could taste was green…

Zucchini, baby marrow, grown up marrow, courgette, by any other name does not belong in a brownie

Zucchini brownies – made in SA

Ingredients

• 2 cups finely grated baby marrows/courgettes/zucchini (I used the zester to grate mine superfine – I didn’t feel like having huge chunks of the stuff)
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 ¹⁄³ cup applesauce (mine was a good jar of the stuff)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• ²⁄³ C oat flour/food-processed oats (ground down to a flour)
• 1 C cocoa powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• Additional: chocolate chips of whatever degree of healthiness suits your taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC, and line a 11×11″ baking tray/dish
2. Mix the sugar, eggs, apple sauce, vanilla and baby marrows
3. Mix the oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and salt together
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well, ensuring there are no floury dry bits
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan/dish
6. Bake on the middle shelf for 1 hour
7. Remove and leave to cool before frosting – I frosted mine with melted chocolate and a mix of melted chocolate and peanut butter

Peach smoothie

So, I made a smoothie today. Well, it was supposed to be a smoothie. It’s delicious and super simple, but I don’t know if it has a weird texture because I’m used to drinking smoothies with a straw and not a spoon or if it is just super thick.

It would make an awesome pudding, like some sort of healthy custard. Or if you froze it, it would make an amazingly creamy ice cream… But I felt like a smoothie, so I put it in a glass and ate it with a spoon and pretended it wasn’t 4 degrees outside (does that weather honestly even look that cold? It’s so deceiving!).

Peach smoothie – serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 can of peach slices (in syrup), prefrozen the day before (decanted and frozen, not frozen in the can)
• 2 bananas
• Some milk – about 100ml or more, depending on the consistency you’d prefer (add slowly to figure this out for yourself)

Method

1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth and creamy
2. Yum (that’s a step right?)