Summer Recipes: Açai Bowl, Avocado Salad, Watermelon Juice

I cannot believe I am typing these words... but the last days of Summer has gone. What?... Seriously where did the time go. Don't get me wrong, I love fall too but as you may know Summer is my favourite season of the year due to the warmth and the amount of glorious sun we get each day. It's now the end of September and to celebrate the beautiful summer days I wanted to share with you all a few picture, and recipes of the amazing food I've had this summer.

1. Watermelon Juice

My number one most consumed juice this summer is definitely this Watermelon Juice... I have had several if not cups, but pitchers of this juice. It has been hydrating me all summer long and watermelon is just my all time favourite fruit. It's super refreshing, hydrating, and delicious. Ok just make sure you don't drink a whole pitcher before going on a long car trip ;)

How to Make:

This super simple and you can definitely elaborate on the basic recipe. 

Ingredients:

~ 2 Cups Watermelon (Cold)

~2 Cups Water (Cold)

Method:

Blend these two ingredients in a blender and pour into your favourite glass, jar, etc.

Variations:

1. Add a few Mint Leaves to make it extra refreshing!

2. Add a few drops of stevia if you want it just a touch sweeter.

3. Add some Lemon Juice for an uplifting touch. 

Seriously the variations are endless! Play with it! 

...

 2. Raw Fruits and Veggies

Summer foods must must must include raw fruits for me... I am addicted to raw fruits. Especially in the mornings. I find myself devouring a crazy amount of either mangos, peaches, or watermelon, all my summer faves. 

Ok next to raw fruits... Salads are also a must. Another reason I love summer I can eat lots and lots of raw foods in which the amazing enzymes in our veggies have not been cooked and killed. This summer I have been obsessing in salads, in particularly this one Im gonna share with you all. 

This is my Summer Avocado Salad.

How to Make:

Again... So simple. Basically you just toss everything together ;)

Ingredients:

~ 1 Cup Arugula

~ 1 Cup Spinach

~ 1 Baby Cucumber

~ a few Cherry Tomatoes

~ 1 Avocado

~ 1 Tbsp Hemp Seeds

Dressing:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, a few dashes of Garlic Powder, Sea Salt, Black Pepper, and Paprika 

Method:

Basically chop, and toss everything together in a large bowl and season well.

Super Simple.

...

Best for Last:

Açai Bowl

Saving the best for last. My current obsession. I am OBSESSED. I can have this everyday for every meal. No joke. The oh so humble Açai Bowl. What makes it humble? Well first off Açai is a Super food and it is very high in antioxidants, Vitamin C, boosts immunity, and promotes anti aging properties, along with many benefits to a healthy heart. The list of pros is quite long and I could go on and on about how amazing Açai is for our bodies. Now some people use the frozen Açai Packets which are usually easily found in North America in stores such as Whole Foods, but in Europe it is a little harder to find so I like to use the powder form of Açai which I find from my local health food store. 

My Açai Bowls usually consists of frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen/fresh kale, almond milk, a few dates, grounded flaxseeds, Maca Powder, and Açai Powder. This bowl is filled with superfoods, and foods high in fibre. I promise you it tastes like ice cream, and is just heaven to start off the day with... especially when you know its super good for your body.

How to Make:

This recipe is definitely not by the book, I definitely experimented with how I like mine to taste, and also what to add in for the nutritional benefits. So feel free to take out or substitute any ingredients that you need.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Frozen Blueberries

2 Frozen Bananas

1/2 Cup Frozen Strawberries

1 Cup Almond Milk

1 to 2 Tbsp Açai Powder

2 Large Dates

1 Tbsp Maple Syrup (Optional)

Method:

1. Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend. If you don't have a high speed blender slowly blend each frozen fruit.

2. Note that it is often that the mixture gets stuck due to the fact that it is frozen. If this happens add a little more almond milk.

3. Blend everything together until smooth and transfer to your favourite bowl.

4. Add Toppings! This is the best part! The choices are endless here are just a few I love:

Goji Berries

Granola

Fresh Fruits

Almond Butter

Chia Seeds

Bee Pollen

Cacao Nibs

Hemp Seeds

Inca Berries

...

The simplest, yet most delicious. I love topping it with my Maple Coconut Pecan Granola, which I have a recipe for and will share very soon, but seriously you can go all out with the toppings. I love love Açai Bowls because they taste too good to be healthy, yet they do wonders for our health. I really hope you guys will try all these recipes out. I look forward to the new month of October and creating many yummy fall recipes. Till then I send everyone lots of love and happiness.

xoxo

Coco

Heart-healthy bowl of Goodness

Good morning everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful week. The weather has been beautiful the past week. Here in Amsterdam we had a few days where the temperature was 18 degrees, and we were hit with an abundance of sun, which I feel "O so grateful" for. I now write to you on a much less sunnier Thursday where I am at home free of work. On these days where I am free I really like to spoil myself with breakfast. Usually during working days because I mostly active all day I cannot exactly stuff my belly to the point of where my tutu doesn't close. Besides there is absolutely no time for that during work. But work aside on these free days I love to be spoiled and take the time to sit down to a warm bowl of my favourite "Superfood Oatmeal".  Seriously this stuff makes me feel like a princess, its one of those stay in bed and cozy sweaters all day kinda comfort foods, and it is super simple to make.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup Water
- 1/3 cup Oats
- 1/4 cup Coconut Milk
- 1 tsp of Sweetener of choice
- 1/2 ripe banana (mashed)

Topping Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1 Tbsp Hemp Seeds
- 1/2 to 1 Sliced banana
- 1 large handful of Blueberries
- 1 Tbsp of Almond Butter
- 2 Tsp Maple Syrup
- few dashes of Cinnamon 



How To:

1. Start with a small to medium pot, and fill it with a cup of water, bring this water to a boil
2. Add in your 1/3 cup of Oats and let that cook
3. As the Oats cook pour in 1/4 cup of Coconut Milk (Optional)
4. Prepare 1/2 of a smashed ripe banana, and incorporate this into the oats
5. Sweeten with stevia, or coconut sugar, or maple syrup (Optional)
6. Keep stirring
7. Pour into your favourite cozy bowl and now its time to make it awesome

So now that we have our Oatmeal finished, we can really start to have fun... here is where you add all your favourite toppings. The possibilities are seriously endless. I personally love to top it off with some sliced bananas, an abundance of blueberries, a generous sprinkle of chia and hemp seeds, a heaping tablespoon of almond butter,  a drizzle of maple syrup, some goji berries, cocao nibs,  and sprinkles of bee pollen. Ofcourse I don't put all these topping on in one bowl, but these are just some of my personal faves. There is no limit. Oh and don't forget a dash of cinnamon!

With a cup of coffee on the side I'd say Im all set for the morning. I really hope you give this a try, it is super simple, and adjustable to your liking. Enjoy this "heart healthy bowl of goodness" and I send you all lots of love and happiness from my bowl.

xoxo
Coco

Happy Easter!

I guess I've never really celebrated Easter until this year, you see I grew up with Asian parents who never have celebrated this holiday. I do however always think of Easter as that holiday where parents hide eggs for their young ones to find, the supermarkets shelves are fully stocked with chocolate eggs, and there are displays of bunnies almost everywhere one looks. Though Easter has become more of a commercial holiday (just like all the other holidays) it is a holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am not a Christian, but that does not mean that I don't believe in "God" and it also does not mean that I cannot celebrate Easter, I think everyday is a gift and it should be celebrated as you want. And so after 20 Easter's in my life I have decided this 21st Easter was one where I would celebrate.

To celebrate I decided to make a "Superfood Energy Balls", as a replacement for the traditional supermarket milk chocolate eggs, and I made some Sweet Potato Scones, my own version of those tea time Sunday scones.

Superfood Energy Balls

Both recipes are vegan, so it makes everything taste even just that much more amazing.

For the Sweet Potato Scones, I put a spread of Coconut Oil, and Blueberry Jam on as a filling, but they are really delicious on their own as well.

Sweet Potato Scones

Apart from cooking delicious food I also caught up on some much needed sleep... Happy Easter everyone!!!

xoxo
Coco

Coco's Happy Pancakes: Pumpkin Banana Love

Happy January everyone! I recently got back from home over in Canada, attempting to blog whilst I was away I decided to fully lounge into the luxury of a holiday, but now that I am back I am super excited to share one of my favourite recipes with you on my blog. This is probably one that I cook most often and one that I get praised for. I have to say I am seriously working on the "Healthy Cooking" concept. I love eating this way, but things don't go right all the time and I believe it takes lots of patience, forgiveness and giggles to get it right, and thats exactly how this pancake recipe worked for me.

I like to call these pancakes "Coco's Happy Pancakes", Ok well I hashtag every picture of the pancakes I make on Instagram with #Coco'sHappyPancakes, but seriously having these as a late brunch on a Sunday morning just makes me super happy. *Oh and I quick side note I have many different variations of these pancakes and I cannot wait to share them all on this blog, but for now I want to share with you these first ones I have made. I started working on this recipe from the beginning of September when the "Squash, Pumpkin" family was just rolling into season, so these lovelies are my Happy(Vegan) Pumpkin Banana Pancakes. *This recipe makes 2 servings.

Ingredients: 

Coco's Happy Pumpkin Pancakes with Buckwheat Granola

- 1 ripe Banana
- 3 Tbsp Pumpkin Purée
- 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1/2 Cup Self Rising Flour
- 1/2 Cup Buckwheat Flour
- 1/4 Cup Oats
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- 3 Tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk
- 2 Tbsp Raisins (Optional)
- 7 Dashes of Cinnamon
- 1 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice



Directions:

1. Start by mixing the Flours, Oats, Baking powder, Sugar, Maple Syrup, Salt, Cinnamon, Pumpkin pie Spice (DRY Ingredients) in a large mixing bowl.

2. Next mash up your 1 super ripe Banana and mix in the Pumpkin Purée in a separate bowl for (WET Ingredients)

3. Add Coconut Milk to the Banana and Pumpkin Mixture (WET Ingredients) and add in your Vanilla Extract, and Chia Seeds. Allow this to sit for around 10 minutes or slightly more.

4. Now pour your WET Ingredients mixture into your DRY bowl, and mix together gently.
* The consistency of the pancake batter should be slightly runny so if it is too stiff add in a Tbsp of Coconut Milk, or Maple Syrup depending on your preference.

5. Now lightly grease your pan with some coconut oil and cook these little guys up!
* Lightly grease, and flip the pancakes once the sides begin to bubble.

I personally love topping off these pancakes with my "Buckwheat Granola" which I will share with you all very soon, and of course fresh Blueberries, Coconut Oil and Maple Syrup. *I am Canadian after all. I hope you all enjoy this recipe and it brings happiness into the new 2016!
xoxo
Coco

Happy Sunday