Recipe – Page 2 – ShakeUpFit

December 27, 2015 — No Comments

Mince Pies!

MincePies

Christmas may be over but these delicious things have gone down so well I'm still making and devouring them....a great alternative for any vegetarians, and they are gluten free!

This list of ingredients made me about 16 little mince pies, with all their lovely misshapen imperfections.

Ingredients

For the 'pastry':
– 400g of ground almonds
– 6 tablespoons of coconut oil
– 2 tablespoons of water
– 20 medjool dates
- 2 eggs
- a handful of Buckwheat flour to roll it out

For the filling:
– 2 red apples
– 1 vanilla pod
– 300g sultanas
– the juice of 3 clementines
– 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
– 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
– 1 teaspoon of ginger
- 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

First start by throwing all the filling ingredients into a pan on the hob and let it simmer until the apples are nice and soft. If it starts to stick to the base of the pan just put in a drop of water to unstick it. It will probably take about 35-45 minutes to get it all nice and soft and sticky.

While that is being done, put all of the ingredients for the 'pastry' into a blender, except the flour and one egg and blend it until it's a big sticky mess!

Turn your oven onto 180c to start heating while you finish the pastry.

When it's done, use the flour to flour a surface, throw a bit in the mix and dust your hands and a rolling pin with it to help you make the mix move to the surface. Use the flour in small portions, you want it to help you move the mix around without sticking to the surface rather than drying out.

Grease some cupcake trays with liquid coconut oil (melt it under hot water if it's solid) so the mix doesn't stick. Then take small balls of mix and squash them, poke them and mould them into each of the cupcake tin spaces, trying to make sure there's still a little bit just over the top (to catch any filling that goes over!). Put them in the oven until they start to go golden brown, which will probably be about 10 minutes or so but keep checking on them!!

Once you take them out, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of spiced apples and sultanas into the pastry bowls you've made. Then with the leftover pastry, try cutting out shapes to put on top, I used stars as it's the cutter I had! Put the shape on top of the mix and use the last egg to brush the pastry shapes on top as well as the top of the pastry bowls you've made which will help them go a lovely golden colour

When you've filled them all up put them back in the oven for another ten minutes or so until deliciously golden brown.

Let them sit for half an hour or so and then enjoy them with a lovely cup of tea!

Let me know how you get on with this one

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in General, Recipe

Tags: christmas, cinammon, festive, free, gluten, mince, pie, vegetarian

December 17, 2015 — No Comments

Choco Balls

This recipe always makes me chuckle as it's well known by my friends that I don't like chocolate, milk, dark, nuts, none of it! Yet I seem to be pretty good at whipping up chocolate substitutes with healthy vegan and gluten free chocolate options. This recipe is a variation on my Energy Balls recipe so give both a go and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

100g medjool dates
25g goji berries
25g cashew nuts
50g almonds
100g shredded/dessicated coconut
3 tablespoons of cacao powder
1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil
1.5 tablespoons of maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons of coconut milk

Put the goji berries, cashews, almonds, coconut and cacao powder in a blender and whizz them up until they are as fine as you want them. If you prefer them chunkier leave them in less time.

Add the dates, coconut oil, coconut milk and maple syrup to the blender and blend again until you get a big doughy sticky mix.

This is where you can tailor the recipe. Taste it and see what you think! If you want them smoother then add small amounts of water until it's as smooth as you want. If you prefer it with a stronger chocolate flavour, add a touch more cacao powder. If you prefer it sweeter add a little more maple syrup. Make sure when you add extra into the recipe you add in tiny amounts, blend and taste again as you can always add more but you can take any out!

Once you're happy with the mix, line a baking tray with baking paper and roll the mix into small balls onto the baking tray. Should make you about 15 choco balls with the quantities above. Put them in the freezer for an hour or so then just store in a container in the fridge until you want to eat them. The best time to eat them seems to be if you take them out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you want to enjoy so they begin to slightly soften.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in Fitness, Food Tips, Recipe, Uncategorized

Tags: almond, cacao, cashew, chocolate, coconut, energy, free, gluten, maple, milk, oil, syrup, vegan

December 10, 2015 — 1 Comment

Energy balls

This is one of my most favourite treats, a little recipe I stumbled across and have made my own by mixing up. You can guarantee that a new batch of these is made every single week and in the fridge to be eaten all week. Sweet, sticky, nutty and nutritious it's a complete guilt free snack that replaces my cake cravings!! Give them a try, all you need is 10 minutes preparation time and a blender....that's it!

Ingredients:

200g Almonds
400g Medjool dates (any dates can be used)
2 tablespoons of Goji Berries
2 tablespoons of Chia Seeds
1 tablespoon of Milled Flax Seeds
2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil
2 tablespoons of Almond Butter

Super easy recipe to make. Put all of the dry ingredients in the blender: almonds, goji berries, chia seeds, flax seeds. Make this as chunky or as fine as you want. I personally like mine with lovely little nuggets of almonds so I give it about 30 seconds to a minute altogether in the blender.

Pit the dates (big seeds taken out from the centre!) and pop them, the coconut oil and almond butter into the blender and blend it up. It should all be nicely sticky and start lumping together. If it doesn't then just add a teaspoon of water at a time until it does. Add the water, then blend and see if it sticks together and if not then continue until it gets nicely sticky together.

That's pretty much it. Now the best thing is to put a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, roll the mixture into balls of the size you want and pop them on the tray. When I make this many I usually make between 25 and 30 balls but it completely depends on the size you want them. Then pop the tray in the freezer for about an hour just while it all sets. Then you can either leave them in the freezer and eat from there (I do love them frozen too, they're like little frozen cakes!) or I usually add them to a plastic container and pop them in the fridge.

I have kept mine for about 3 weeks but just be aware that the longer they're in the fridge the more they tend to dry out if there are more nuts to the mix.

Then you can tailor the recipe as you like. If you want to be more nutty and less sticky just play with adding less dates and more nuts or the other way around. They are great little snacks to eat all the time.

One of the girls in my class even got her own DIY kit which you can see in the pics below. I gave her all the ingredients in their own little bags for her to give a try. Easy as 1, 2, 3!!

Bags of ingredients Energy balls