Rainbow Smoothie

I have just returned from a lovely few days holiday in the country, staying in a big house with 90 acres of land with my family, boyfriend and a close friend of ours. My sister is really into making smoothies and inspired me and my friend to get decent blenders and get puréeing!

I was just out with a client who wanted to do a four mile run, so instead of taking my bike, I decided to do the run with him. When I got home, I needed a quick, easy and nutritious post-workout meal, so I came up with this smoothie, based on what I got in my organic veg and fruit boxes this week. I decided to beef it up with some organic grass-fed whey protein powder as it was to be a meal replacement, but this is entirely optional and really won’t affect the flavour or consistency of the smoothie.

Rainbow Smoothie (serves 1-2, generously)
Ingredients:

1 raw beetroot, sliced
1 pear, roughly chopped
1 cup chard, roughly chopped
1/2 frozen banana
1/4 frozen avocado
1 cm piece ginger, peeled and sliced
1 cup ice cubes
1 scoop organic grass-fed whey protein powder (unsweetened and flavour free)
1-2 cups water, depending on how runny you like it.

Put all ingredients into a blender and whizz for a few minutes until smooth.
Serve in a (martini) glass, put your feet up and revel in the fact that you are being incredibly healthy! (If you feel too virtuous, add a dash of vodka! Just kidding!)

A Delicious, Moist, Grain-Free Chocolate Cake

This is one of the best chocolate cakes I have had in a while. The texture is rich and dense, so you could easily use this recipe for brownies. The recipe is based on one which came from a newspaper article about cooking for cancer sufferers, but I tweaked it a little. I will definitely be making this one again (but not when my man is around as the ground almonds would make him very sick!)

Beetroot Chocolate Cake (makes a 23cm diameter round cake)
Ingredients:

300g cubed beetroot, cooked until very tender
4 eggs
4 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
125g ground almonds
1 tbsp coconut flour
125 dark chocolate (plus 3 extra squares for the topping)
4 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C
Line and grease a 23cm diameter cake tin.
Blend beetroot, eggs, honey, vanilla, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a blender or food processor until thick and creamy.
Add dry ingredients and blitz again.
Melt the dark chocolate in a Bain-Marie with the coconut oil. Mix into the batter.
Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 mins
Remove from the oven.
Place the 3 squares of chocolate on the top of the hot cake and allow to melt, spreading the chocolate over the surface of the cake with the back of a spoon.

Bacon Beetroot Brownies

Yes, you read it right…bacon, veg and chocolate in one, unctuous bite! Surely that’s an entire meal in itself?

I’ve been reading various American paleo blogs for some time now, many of which swear by putting bacon in brownies. I’ve been putting beetroot in my brownies since long before I banished grains from my diet, thanks to Harry Eastwood and her lovely book “Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache”. So yesterday I decided to marry my paleo beetroot brownies and bacon. I think they will enjoy a happy life together, albeit short as they are delicious and therefore won’t last long (actually I’m going to send them off with my other half when he goes away for business tomorrow – too tempting to have hanging around the house!)

Ingredients: makes 16 brownies

6 rashers bacon (I used unsmoked dry cured)

200g coconut cream

9 medjool dates

450g beetroot, peeled and diced

3 tbsp boiling water

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

100g dark chocolate (85% cacao)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

Pinch of sea salt

Fry the bacon until really crisp, remove from pan and drain on kitchen paper. Leave the fat in the pan.

Cover the dates with the boiling water and microwave for 2-3 mins until really soft (you could do this in a pan too, if you don’t want to microwave). Mash well with a fork until they are a pulpy goo.

Melt the coconut cream in the pan you used for the bacon. Once it is goey, add in the date mixture and mix to fully incorporate.

Cook beetroot until really soft, then purée. Return to bowl or pan and add the dark chocolate. Make sure you do this quickly as the beets still need to be hot so the chocolate melts. Stir well once all the chocolate has melted.

Beat the eggs with the vanilla. Add the date and coconut mixture, then the beetroot chocolate mixture, the cocoa powder, baking powder and sea salt. Crumble the bacon into the mixture and give it a good stir. Pour batter into a greased, lined pan and bake at 180 for  30 mins.

Let cool completely before snaffling! They are best eaten from the fridge when the chocolate has slightly solidified. Enjoy!