Paleo Coconutty Berry Cereal

July 23, 2013 by Nazanin Kovacs 8 Comments

We’ve been having a bit of a crazy heatwave here in England, which is a welcome change to the usual cold, wet weather but when you have no aircon and no fly screens on your windows it can be a pain! This extended heat is unheard of so those things aren’t very common in houses here or so I’m told.

To make it worse both Joe and I have been sick recently. First it was me and then yesterday he was REALLY sick and spent most of the day in bed, hardly being able to eat! Luckily today he is feeling a bit better but is taking the day off today as well just to be on the safe side. Also we are having some issues with our rental property right now which is doing our heads in so we are currently in search of a new place to move into! It’s not so easy though… we’re having problems finding something that suits our needs. Fingers crossed something good comes up soon!

Anyway since it has been so hot lately, I have been struggling a bit with my usual breakfast of eggs + veggies or leftovers from dinner etc and I’ve been having a bit more fruit than usual, mainly berries just because they are so good! The other day I decided I wanted to make something different to my usual breakfast because I just really didn’t feel like eating any of my usual breakfast foods.

I would definitely call this a breakfast treat though and it’s not something I personally would have on a daily or even weekly basis, it’s probably something I’d have every now and then just to change things up. It’s super quick and easy to make and it tastes delicious!

I had a bit of a hard time coming up with a name for this recipe but since cereal is one of the first things that popped into my head that’s what I decided to go for. So here it is…

Paleo Coconutty Berry Cereal

Ingredients:

1 cup full-fat canned coconut milk*
1/2 cup shredded coconut.
2 heaping Tbsp cashew butter/almond butter.
1 Tbsp cinnamon.
1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
3-4 Medjool dates pitted or use sweetener of your choice.
1/4 cup blueberries.
Handful of strawberries, sliced.
Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt or use some Sea Salt.
Chopped hazelnuts for garnish.

*I always buy full-fat coconut milk and most of the time unless I am making something that specifically calls for the thick coconut cream that sits at the top of the can I pour the whole thing into a glass mason jar and shake. I then take another glass mason jar and pour half of the mixture into that one and then I fill up the rest of the jars with filtered water and give them another good shake before placing them in the fridge. I personally find it too heavy to have the coconut milk out of the can as is and this is what I did for this recipe. You can use the milk straight out of the can without diluting it though if you wanted to for this recipe.

Method:

Place the coconut milk, coconut, cashew/almond butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract, Medjool dates and Himalayan Pink Salt into a blender.

Blend until well incorporated then pour into a bowl.

Add your blueberries and strawberries on top. Sprinkle with some chopped hazelnuts for some added texture and crunch. Enjoy!

Paleo Coconut Berry Parfait

June 19, 2013 by Nazanin Kovacs 6 Comments

I’m backkkkkkk! Did you miss me? Heheh I missed doing blog posts and actually I wasn’t even planning on putting this recipe up since I literally whipped it up in 2 minutes and thought to myself it’s not blog worthy so I just shared it quickly on my Instagram… but actually it is because it’s so delicious and I wanted to share it with my blog readers plus I also wanted to get back into the swing of blogging again!

Don’t worry I’m working on blog posts about my holiday and I’ll be sure to share lots of photos with you! The other thing I’m working on now is my entry for Paleo Magazine Readers’ Favorites Cookbook…. how AWESOME is that! I received the email about one of my recipes being chosen towards the end of May, but since my parents were here and then I was away on holiday I haven’t had a chance to complete all the details needed yet but will be working on that in the next few days and putting it all together! SUPER EXCITED about this! I just hope the photos I send through work out well!

In the mean time here’s today’s recipe. As I mentioned above you can whip this up in minutes as long as you have a couple of the ingredients prepared before hand (I’ll note these in the ingredients list).

Paleo Coconut Berry Parfait

Ingredients:

1 cup chilled coconut milk – taken from 1 can of full-fat coconut milk which has been shaken so the contents inside are mixed and left to chill in the fridge overnight or at least for a couple of hours.
1 tsp rose water.
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
1 Tbsp raw honey.
Mixed berries – I used a combination of cherries, blueberries and strawberries that I had previously cut up in a ziplock bag in the fridge. No measurements for this, just use however much you like.
Toasted cinnamon coconut flakes for topping – I almost always have these in the fridge, they are great to have on hand! Simply take a bag of coconut flakes and pour onto a lined baking tray. Spread out evenly and sprinkle with some cinnamon, mix to coat all the flakes with the cinnamon then bake at 180C/350F for about 6 minutes, they toast up quickly so keep an eye on them. I like mine nice and toasted but if you don’t give them less time. Let them cool out of the oven then store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Method:

Pour 1 cup of chilled coconut milk into a mixing bowl and add in your rose water, honey and cinnamon. Mix well to combine.

In a small glass (like the one pictured above) place a layer of berries on the bottom. Pour over your coconut milk mixture.

At this point you can place the glass back in the fridge to chill for longer OR if you want to eat straightaway add another layer of berries on top then sprinkle on some of the toasted cinnamon coconut flakes and gobble it up! 🙂

*Alternative Method*

If you want to do something different, instead of shaking up the contents of your canned coconut milk you can leave it the fridge unmixed so that the thick creamy part pulls away from the liquid below (I usually leave the can in the fridge over night for this).

Remove the thick part of the coconut milk into a mixing bowl and keep the watery liquid part to use later in smoothies or drink straight up.

Add your rose water, cinnamon and raw honey to your thick coconut cream and whip it into a cream consistency (aka coconut whipped cream) and use this in between the layers of berries.

I know it’s such a simple recipe but it’s definitely worthy a try 🙂

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Paleo Coconut Berry Pancakes

February 28, 2013 by Nazanin Kovacs 4 Comments

I’m a BIG breakfast person, I need to sit down, eat and take my time doing so even if it means I have to get up an hour early before having to be somewhere. Joe on the other hand is a rusher, he rushes he never sits down in the mornings to have his breakfast and is out the door in a flash.

I don’t know maybe things will change in the future, I’m working on getting my documentation together to start looking for full-time teaching work here and fingers crossed I’ll find something soon! Well it all depends on when my documents come through but even back in Australia when I was teaching full-time I still made sure to get up early enough so that I could sit down to eat breakfast, most days anyway!

Here’s the breakfast I whipped up this morning. I wasn’t sure about putting it up as a recipe on here since it just came together really quickly but after eating it I felt the need to share it with all of you. It was delicious!

Paleo Coconut Berry Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 banana (ripe but it doesn’t have to be overly ripe).
2 eggs.
2 Tbsp coconut cream from a can of full-fat coconut milk (the thick part of the coconut milk that sits on top of the can).
1 tsp cinnamon.
1/4 tsp nutmeg.
1/4 tsp cardamom powder.
Pinch of sea salt.
Berries of your choice (I used strawberries, blueberries and blackberries).
1 Tbsp coconut oil.
Optional toppings: raw honey for extra sweetness, nuts for crunch or some nut butter for some creaminess.

Method:

In a food processor or high speed blender add in your banana, eggs, coconut cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and salt. Blend to combine.

Heat a large skillet on medium and add in your coconut oil. Once heated pour in your batter and allow to cook on one side for a few minutes before flipping over to cook the other side. It is easier to cut the pancake up into quarters before flipping over, unless of course you can flip the whole thing over without breaking it… in that case kudos to you!

Once cooked on both sides, transfer to a plate and if you want spread some nut butter (almond, cashew etc) on other or leave it plain as I did.

Top with berries of your choice and add nuts if you want some crunch (I didn’t have any nuts on hand) and drizzle with some raw honey if you want extra sweetness, I found the berries to be sweet enough so didn’t add any honey.

Eat up and enjoy!

In other news our apartment is slowly taking shape, Joe stayed home yesterday so we could clean up the second bedroom/study area and do a bit of shopping for a few things we needed. Today I plan on finishing things up and dealing with those last minute bits and pieces and tonight we’re probably going to sit down and advertise the sofa and coffee table that wouldn’t fit in the apartment! Fingers crossed people will bid on them!

I’m thinking that we are most likely going to have to sell our dining table as well, it is big for the space we’re in now and most likely if we end up moving to another place (we have 6 months minimum stay here and can move after 6 months if we want) we will still probably need a smaller dining table as homes/apartments here are much smaller. Other than updating our furniture we also need some extra storage space for our kitchen so we are most likely going to head to Ikea sometime in the near future and pick up a few things… I just think back and wish that we had just sold everything back in America so we wouldn’t have to deal with this now! Oh well, hopefully soon enough everything will come together 🙂

Anyway I’ve been procrastinating and putting off doing stuff that needs to be done around here… I spent this morning researching different websites for organic fruit and veg delivery boxes. There are so many options here, I think because there are lots of farms around! We used to get a weekly box delivered in Michigan as well but I only found the one option over there and there weren’t really any farms close enough to drive to.

I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of choices and will decide on one shortly, we’ve been buying our produce from the supermarket near by but it’s not very cost effective. Plus the box is so much easier, we don’t have to worry about produce shopping and I like that each week they send you something different. I’m also thinking of possibly signing up for a meat box, again there are SO many options of getting good quality meat online here. You can get weekly/monthly boxes that range in size from small to large or you can get a share in a whole animal (cow, pig or lamb) and choose the cuts of meat you want from each animal.

There is a butcher that is very close to us, which we haven’t had a chance to visit yet so we’ll probably go there first and check out the prices to see if it’s worth doing a shop online, also as I mentioned in a previous post the meat quality in general is great here compared to the U.S. Even in regular supermarkets they carry things like outdoor reared pork, grassfed beef, free range chicken etc so it’s not much of an issue.

I’m also eager to order some raw milk online, I’ve been wanting to try raw milk for a while now and again could not get any in Michigan. There is a farm here that sells their raw milk online and I’m tempted to order once from them to see how I like the milk, I’ve heard and read great things about raw milk so I feel like it’s worth a try at least.

Well, I’ll have to do a bit more research on all of this and will update you with what I decide to do.

Do you order your fruit/veg online? How about your meat? Have you tried raw milk and if so what are your thoughts on it?

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