Tag Archives: cacao

Cacao & Coconut Energy Balls

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Literally just whipped these up this evening. I was craving something sweet so made do with whatever ingredients I had in my cupboard to make these balls. Energy/Protein balls are so versatile, you can be so inventive with them and change around ingredients as well. I made these within a half an hour and got around 11 golf sized balls outta the below mixture.

Ingredients

200g pitted dates soaked in water (keep water aside after draining the dates)

70g cashew butter (can use alternative nut butter)

50g cacao powder

50g gluten free oats (you can use regular oats, I just used these so ma sista can eat them too)

2 tbsp milled flaxseed

good handful of desiccated coconut for coating the balls

Method

  1. Soak the dates in warm water.
  2. Meanwhile, place the rest of the ingredients in a blender/food processor – cashew butter, cacao powder, oats and flaxseed.
  3. Drain the dates but keep the water aside. Add the dates to the processor and blend.
  4. If you find the mixture is too dry, add some of the water in – not too much because the mixture could get too wet. You don’t want it to be too sticky.
  5. Once you’re happy with the mixture. Roll into golf sized balls and roll the balls in the desiccated coconut to coat.

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Enjoy 🙂

Tee. X

Cacao Overnight Oats

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Pretty obsessed with these overnight oats! They’re probably my most common breakfast especially during the winter months. Oats are such a nutritious breakfast and if you’re any bit of a nutrition nerd like me, here’s all you need to know about why them oats are so good for ya! ~ https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-benefits-oats-oatmeal#section3

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Ingredients

half cup porridge oats

heaped tsp cacao powder

half cup dark chocolate almond milk

half cup coconut milk

Method

  1. Stir the oats and cacao powder together in a bowl.
  2. Add in the milk and stir.
  3. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.
  4. In the morning, heat your oats in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes or in a saucepan on a low/medium heat for roughly the same amount of time.

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Enjoy 🤗

Tee. X

Seedy Cacao Balls

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Long time no new recipe!! I definitely haven’t given myself the time to try anything new recently but decided to mess around with a few ingredients during the week and came up with these energy balls. To be honest you can be as creative as you like with energy/protein balls, that’s the great thing about them and why you’ll probably find so many different recipes for them out there. But they’re a great snack to have ready especially when you’re on the go. I made these at the start of the weekend and they lasted me for the week ahead, I had one every day for my mid-morning snack 🙂

These are the ingredients and method I used but feel free to use it as a guideline and leave out or include different ingredients if you fancy 😀

Ingredients

200g pitted/medjool dates (medjool dates are probably best to use as they’re softer but are more expensive so go half pitted/half medjool if you wish..just make sure to take out the pit if you’re using medjool!)

100g warm water

60g cacao powder

200g mixed seeds (sunflower/pumpkin)

40g bee pollen

40g cacao nibs

40g goji berries

1 tsp of himalayan salt

desiccated coconut/chia seed to coat the balls

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Method

  1. Soak your dates in the warm water for 5-10 minutes.
  2. In a food processor, put the dates, water and cacao powder and blitz until combined.
  3. Add the seeds and pulse again until roughly combined.
  4. Add the bee pollen, cacao nibs, goji berries and salt and blitz again.
  5. The mixture should have come together now.
  6. Using your hands, weigh out the balls at 50g each and roll into a ball.
  7. Once they are all weighed out. Roll the balls in desiccated coconut or chia seeds if you like, you can also leave them plain and not cover them in anything.
  8. To store them, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge as this will keep them for longer. They should keep like this for up to a week or 2 weeks max.

 

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Enjoy,

Tee 🙂 X

Cacao vs. Cocoa: The Same Or Different?

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I used to think that Cacao powder and Cocoa powder were exactly the same just with a difference in spelling!! However I’ve learnt since that Cacao and Cocoa are actually two different powders which have been processed differently giving one a nutritional benefit and unfortunately stripping the nutritional benefit from the other.

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Cacao powder is extracted by first cold pressing the whole cacao bean to preserve the nutrients. By this technique, cacao powder contains much of the nutritional benefit as the whole bean. The nutritional benefits of cacao are that it is high in fibre, high in plant protein, high in vitamin C, high in iron and calcium and low in sugar. I use it all the time when I’m baking now, I’ve picked it up in supermarkets and health food stores. The two I’ve used most are;

Iswari Raw Cacao Powder…

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And Nua Naturals Cacao Powder 🙂

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And there you have it, Cacao vs. Cocoa powder 🙂 You learn something new every day!!

Happy Tuesday,

Tee. X

Healthy Rice Krispie Buns

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These look like rice krispie buns don’t they…

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But.. They’re not 😉

Instead of using rice krispies I followed one of Deliciously Ella’s recipes from her cookbook and made these really delicious Quinoa and Cacao Crispy Treats! The main ingredient used in this recipe instead of using rice krispies are Quinoa Pops…

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Quinoa is one of my favourite foods because it’s so nutritious and I love adding it to everything and anything so you can imagine how excited I was when I found this recipe 😀 I used love making rice krispie buns when I was younger for any parties that were going on and I know to this day that rice krispie buns are a staple food party piece at most children’s parties which is why I really want to share this recipe with you all because these quinoa and cacoa crispy treats are just as fun to make as your normal rice krispie buns but they have the added bonus of being super nutritious 😀

Anyway enough chatter.. here is the recipe from Deliciously Ella’s (http://deliciouslyella.com/) cookbook which I would highly recommend purchasing!

Quinoa and Cacao Crispy Treats ~

Ingredients

  • 1 and a 1/2 cups (60g) of quinoa pops (I was able to buy these in Cornucopia, the health food shop in Macroom)
  • 1/3 of a cup of raw cacao powder (80g)
  • 6 tbsp of pure maple syrup/honey
  • 5 tbsp of coconut oil
  • 2 tbsp of almond butter (or preferred nut butter)
  • cupcake cases

Method

  1. Place the coconut oil, cacao powder, maple syrup/honey and almond butter into a saucepan and gently heat it for a few minutes until it’s melted.
  2. Next, pour in the quinoa pops and stir it all together until all the quinoa pops have been covered in chocolate.
  3. Scoop the mixture out into the cupcake cases and place in a fridge/freezer for approx. 20 minutes or until the chocolate has set.

Enjoy 🙂

Tee. X