I have a confession to make that I actually made this for supper last night, but it would make a lovely weekend breakfast that is not too sinful.

At the moment people seem to be throwing yogurt at me, not literally, but in the last few weeks 3 cool bags of the stuff have arrived.  I have already written about Total and The Collective.  Both Onken and Twekkelo are in the review queue.

Making toffee yogurt by sprinkling dark brown soft sugar over natural or Greek yogurt and leaving it to dissolve is an old, but useful trick.   The resultant mixture is delicious, sticky and toffee like, but still not too sweet and with none of the nasties of many commercially produced flavoured yogurts.   Being allowed a sprinkle of dark brown soft sugar on cereal was a weekend childhood treat.

I combined my toffee yogurt, with sliced bananas, Dorset Cereals new pecan and toffee good honest crunch cereal and a few raspberries.   Dorset Crunch’s slogan of  “life is too short for boring breakfasts” reminded me that we are nearing the end of the month and I have not yet made anything for Breakfast Club, which this month is hosted by Nayna with the theme of berries.

Breakfast Club: Because breakfast should be more interesting
than tea & toast or coffee & cereal!

Recipe: Indulgent Breakfast Banoffeeish Pots

(Serves 1)

1 small banana
about 4 oz / 1/2 cup natural or Greek yogurt
2 tsp dark brown soft sugar
2 tbs crunchy cereal
handful raspberries

Slice the banana and place in a glass, cover with the yogurt, then sprinkle the sugar over and leave in the fridge overnight.

Just before serving sprinkle over the cereal and the fresh berries.

 

I see no reason why this would not work with non dairy or soy yogurt.

Ever since my Cuisinart Blender arrived last month, I have become green smoothie obsessed.    At first I was just chucking in everything, but now have become a little more methodical with my breakfast green smoothies, and am focussing on flavours a little more.

Just before Easter I was lucky enough to be asked to a Total Greek Yogurt Master Class, held at the fabulous L’atelier des Chefs, tucked behind John Lewis on Oxford Street.     During the day we cooked a wide variety of dishes with Total, and were treated to a talk and Q&A from a celebrity nutritionist.

I feel that I have little need for a dietitian, nutritionist or nutritional therapist (all are quite different roles), but I am always interested to hear what people have to say. My nutritional philosophy is simple, eat what makes your body feel good and is sustainable. I aim to eat more raw food and less animal products than the average person, as this makes me feel fantastic and is also good for the environment.

If you need some pointers I highly recommend this article on how to make healthy eating incredibly simple on nutritionist Sophie’s wonderful blog (please do hop over there and encourage her to post more often!)  I am also an avid reader of Limes  & Lycopene by Australian nutritionist Kathryn which is packed with wonderful advice and recipes.    To learn more about increasing your intake of raw food visit Amber’s site and read about her training as a raw chef.  All three of them tackle nutrition by encouraging people to make their own healthy meals.

However I digress.    Although I aim to eat less than average, I do enjoy my meat & fish, eggs & diary, and Total Yoghurt is one of my favourites.

After the talk we moved on to the class held in the demonstration kitchen, where we were shown how to cook six very different dishes all using Total yoghurt.    Total is a highly versatile ingredient which works well as a cream or crème fraiche substitute, it contains far fewer calories and all the flavour, as well as being live and thus full of good bacteria.   The higher fat varieties are also heat stable, making cooking with them a breeze as they should not spilt when heated.  (I have successfully cooked with the 0% but you need to be very gentle with heating it.)   It is also delicious on its own!

I especially liked the Mackerel Tartare with Minted Cucumber Soup and the Chestnut Tiramisu recipes.

Yoghurt Tartare of Mackerel with Minted Cucumber Soup (serves 6)For the Tartare

• 12 Fillets of mackerel
• 1 Banana shallot (Echalion)
• 25g Pickled gherkins
• ½ bunch Flat leaf parsley
• 50g 0% TOTAL Greek Yoghurt
• 10g Ketchup
• 3ml Tabasco
• 10ml Worcestershire sauce
• 25g Capers in vinegar

For the Soup

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Garlic clove
• ¼ bunch Fresh mint
• 3 pinches Fine salt
• 10ml White wine vinegar
• 50g 0% TOTAL Greek Yoghurt

Start by preparing the mackerel: fillet the fish if necessary and remove the pin bones. Remove the skin from the fish and then cut the flesh into dice. Keep refrigerated while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Peel and finely dice the shallot. Chop the gherkins into small pieces. Pick the leaves from the parsley and roughly chop. Mix these chopped ingredients

with the mackerel and add the capers and Greek yoghurt.

Mix well and then add the ketchup, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Taste the tartare mix and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

To make the soup: peel the cucumber and the garlic and pick the mint leaves. Place these ingredients in a blender with the salt and the white wine vinegar. Blitz for a minute to make the soup.

Add the Greek yoghurt and pulse the mixture for 5 seconds. Check the seasoning.

To serve: place a large quenelle of the tartare mix in the middle of a small bowl and pour the soup around. Serve immediately.

Recipe reproduced with permission of Total

Greek Yoghurt Chestnut Tiramisu Rapide (serves 6)

• 1 Egg yolk
• 50g Caster sugar
• 300g Sponge fingers
• 80g Sweetened ‘crème de marron’
• 125ml Double cream
• 250g 10% TOTAL Greek Yoghurt
• 20g Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 100ml Espresso Coffee
• 30g Caster sugar
• 25ml Cognac

For the cream: whisk together the egg yolk and the sugar until the mixture turns white and fluffy. Add the chestnut cream and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whip the double cream until thick and then gently fold in the Greek yoghurt.

Add the chestnut mixture to the Greek yoghurt and the cream mixture and gently fold together.

To assemble the dessert: mix the coffee with 30g sugar and the cognac.

Dip the biscuits into the coffee and then place in the bottom of your glasses. Top with a layer of the cream and then a sprinkle of cocoa powder.

Repeat this until you glasses are full. Finish with a layer of cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.

Recipe reproduced with permission of Total

Lots more recipes can be found here, including one of mine!

Many thanks to Total for a lovely day and the lovely cocktails afterwards – the perfect start to the first long weekend!

Totally Green Breakfast Smoothie (serves 2)

1 glass orange or apple juice
1 large handful of spinach
2 small bananas
2 kiwi fruit
1 handful green grapes (mine were frozen)
6 mint leaves
2 heaped tbs Total 0% Greek Yogurt

2 sprigs of mint to garnish

Simple throw everything into your blender and blitz (I run the smoothie cycle on mine several times) until smooth.    Thin with water if desired.

For a thicker and creamier smoothie use frozen bananas.

I am sending my smoothie to Only Cooolers & Mocktails which is hosted by Nayna at Simply Food this month.

Imagine a rich, buttery, velvety smooth chocolate mousse; one so rich that an espresso cup full is more than enough.  Now imagine that the little fat in this mousse is primarily monounsaturated (thus good) and the entire pudding is cholesterol free.    Now imagine that this pudding also contains no refined sugars and takes less than 5 minutes to prepare.

Created using Clearspring’s new organic silken tofu which when whizzed up is deliciously creamy,  this was partially inspired by Jac and by an avocado chocolate mousse that can be found all over the internet.    I need you to trust me here, the finished product does not taste of either avocado or banana although on the surface they do seem to be odd ingredients.

This is probably more of a chocolate pot than a traditional mousse, without raw eggs it is safe for small children to eat, and there is no worry about the mousse separating in the fridge.

So Healthy Chocolate Mousse (serves 6)

1 350g carton silken tofu
1 ripe banana
1 avocado
4 dsp cocoa powder
4 dsp maple syrup
Scant zest of half an orange

Cacao nibs (optional)

Add all ingredients to the food processor and whizz.    Dollop into ramekins, or if feeling fancy, chill and then pipe into espresso cups.   Sprinkle with cacao nibs.

Enjoy and polish your halo for being so healthy.

Sending to this  month’s Sugar High Fridays, where the theme is grain free,  hosted by Z at Z”s Cup of Tea.

I am happy to say that I am about to have a giveaway of some lovely liquid chocolate from Hotel Chocolat.   But in the interests of my readers I feel that that it is only fair that I extensively test the product before I post the giveaway, and give your some ideas of what to use it for.  Liquid chocolate as a hot drink is lovely, but liquid chocolate in baked goods is even better!   Muffins are one of the Fuss Free Flavours signature recipes so a muffin using the liquid chocolate it had to be!

There is one banana in 3 of these muffins, so that is one of your five a day sorted.   They are also vegan* so contain no cholesterol.  Positively healthy.   In the interests of my blog I need to go and make another batch as I really need to get better photos.    These were fantastic,  chocolate and banana are perfect partners, the liquid chocolate and the dark chocolate drops are rich and not too sweet.    I am pondering if I could make a quintuple chocolate banana muffin with chocolate batter, liquid chocolate and 3 types of chocolate drops?  For an extra treat these are 50% larger than my usual muffins.

* I try and bake vegan as I firmly believe that there is no excuse for eating eggs that are not free range and organic.    If you cannot afford quality eggs, then you can bake really well without them, seriously just leave them out!

Substitute finely grated plain chocolate for liquid chocolate, regular cow milk would work in place of the soy milk (I really do not like diary milk, although I can eat cheese and cream literally until the cows come home).

Double Chocolate & Banana Muffins (makes 6)

“Dry” Ingredients
7 oz plain flour
2 oz  sugar
2 tbs liquid chocolate or finely grated plain chocolate
2 tbs chocolate chips
1 heaped tsp baking power
pinch salt

“Wet” Ingredients
7 oz  milk (I use soy)
2 oz  sunflower oil
2 very ripe bananas

Whizz the oil and milk mixture with a stick blender or liquidiser until smooth.    Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).   Bake at GM5/190C/375F in your favourite muffin pan (I use this one)  for 20 – 25 mins until risen.

Enjoy warm from the oven.

Thank for Hotel Chocolat for the free samples of liquid chocolate and chocolate drops

London is hot hot hot and humid to boot.    I am positively enjoying my supermarket trips at the moment as I linger  and closely examine every object in the frozen section.    And what better for these hot summer mornings than ice cream for breakfast?    This is totally healthy, unprocessed, raw and vegan and tastes fantastic.   What better way to start (or end) your hot summer days?

This is another contribution to my series of easy, economical and healthy recipes of what to do with the contents of the co-op “boxes” for the Food Co-ops and Buying Groups project run by Sustain – also part of the Making Local Food Work programme funded by the Big Lottery.

The secret behind this ice cream is blended frozen banana which has been written about all over the internet many times before.   When put into the food processor the frozen banana transforms into a fluffy creamy mousse like ice cream, add some milk and it makes the perfect smoothie base.    Try it and be amazed!  Peel and slice the bananas into 2″ pieces and freeze on a baking tray.  When frozen pack into boxes.   I now always have several boxed of bananas and soft fruit in the freezer for smoothies and ice cream.     I think that this would also be perfect for fruit hating children.

Banana & Strawberry Ice “Cream” (serves 2)

3 frozen bananas
handful frozen strawberries
handful fresh strawberries
Cacao nibs to sprinkle (optional)

Put the banana and strawberries into your food processor and leave for a few minutes to slightly soften and then process.   Depending how powerful your machine is you may need to add a little milk and scrape the sides of the bowl down to speed the process along.      The fruit will slowly transform into a fluffy whipped ice “cream” resembling Mr Whippy ice cream.    Serve immediately with some more fresh fruit and a sprinkling of cacao nibs.   Eat immediately.