Healthy recipes @ Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Healthy

Raw Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Avocado Frosting

raw chocolate brownies

*click* *tap* *click *click* *tap*

That is the sound of some readers who having seen the rather bizarre title of today’s post, may have gone elsewhere for fear of what they were going to see. But lean in closer Dear Reader, because I’m glad that you’ve stayed and I’m going to share with you a rather unusual recipe today. Yes raw brownies with a chocolate avocado frosting.

I have a bit of a fascination with raw food stemming from one person. Demi Moore. I know, very random but when I read in a trashy mag (i.e. the Oracle ) that she subsisted in a raw food diet I was suddenly sold on it. OK I know, the chances are highly probable that her youthful looks are more based on a combination of a few other factors that have nothing to do with her choice of a young husband. But considering I’m all kinds of hopeful about everything I choose to believe that it has something to do with it.

raw chocolate brownies

Delicious Raw Honey from Walkabout Apiaries, Milawa

I got the recipe from my wonderful friend Hannah from Wayfaring Chocolate who posted about how good these were. They were easy enough to whip up and even better they need to be eaten while frozen although they never quite freeze up hard. They are also vegan, gluten free and dairy free.

And the taste? Well it’s pretty good! It’s not the same as a gooey fudgey baked brownie but of course that’s nothing that a truckload of butter, sugar and eggs won’t fix. It does satisfy a chocolate craving, even if there is actually no actual chocolate in it. And there is icing too. Can you see how hard it is working to convert you? The icing, made out of avocado, honey and cocoa is actually pretty good and not at all “avocadoey” and gives it that more cake like quality. I would recommend perhaps putting this in a smaller tin, it was quite thin by the time it was all spread out. And best of luck not eating the medjool dates before they go into the mix!

I looked in the mirror-so far no Demi Moore like moments and I didn’t get the urge to post a picture of myself in a bikini and put it on twitter. Perhaps some things are best left to the experts!

So tell me Dear Reader, which celebrity or person (said as if the two were mutually exclusive) would you like to look like when you get older?

P.S. And I have to say a big congratulations to Lauren W. who won the auction for a dozen of my cupcakes and she chose the baby booties cupcakes in a pale blue. I am afraid that I let you all down a bit when I said that I’d let you know when the auction was on. When I had a look at Sabrina’s site, she was having technical difficulties with the software that she was using so I didn’t want to send anyone there just then and by the time I realised that it was fixed the auction was over! But in fantastic news, we raised $8,269 for Second Harvest Japan!! That’s over three times what she was aiming for and if anyone wants to give you can do so here.

And here is a message from Second Harvest Japan:

“Thank you so much for your efforts to raise fund for our disaster relief operation in Japan! We are SO grateful for you all. I’m so touched that all the bloggers got together and concentrated their energy on this. I think this inspires other people to participate in support for people in the affected areas.”

Congratulations on your baby Lauren and thankyou for supporting the people of Japan

raw chocolate brownies

Raw Brownies with Chocolate Avocado Frosting

Adapted from Wayfaring Chocolate and here

1 cup (110g) walnuts
1 cup (150g) medjool dates, pitted
1/3 cup (30g) cocoa powder

For frosting

1 avocado
70 g/2.5 ozs raw honey (the honey makes them non-vegan though) or agave nectar
30 g/ 1 oz. cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
dash salt
dash cinnamon

raw chocolate brownies

1. Combine walnuts, dates and the 1/3 cup of cocoa powder in a food processor and process until the mixture, according to the original recipe, “looks like potting soil”. Pat this into a loaf tin (I placed this in a 2x20cm square pan but found it a bit too thin).

raw chocolate brownies

2. In the food processor, whiz the avocado, honey or agave, second lot of cocoa, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon until smooth.

raw chocolate brownies

3. Spread the icing over the brownie base, then put in the freezer for about an hour to set. No matter how long the brownies stay in the freezer, they never become rock-hard.

raw chocolate brownies

106 comments | April 8th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella

A Splendid Yet Healthy Afternoon Tea!

healthy afternoon tea

I scared you there for a minute Dear Reader didn’t I? Don’t worry I haven’t gone over all healthy on you although I do have my moments and post Christmas is my inevitable moment. The time where I scramble to find healthy ways to make food in a kind of schizophrenic but well intentioned bid at losing any kilos that Christmas hath giveth (although alternating it with a rich cheesecake the other day might not be the smartest idea…).

healthy afternoon tea

Mr NQN asked me why I was making healthy food but then going out for pizza, pasta and ribs and I answered him that it was a carefully balanced and orchestrated way of eating that he simply wouldn’t understand. Ahem. But look isn’t that a famous sportsperson over there*?

*subject changing, I do it often.

healthy afternoon tea

One meal that I just love but is not considered a low fat or low calorie affair is the afternoon tea. It is usually seen as a chance to legally eat copious amounts of cupcakes, cakes and pastries in the tiresome lull between lunch and dinner. I received a book in the mail called “The Complete Food Makeover” from ABC books which lo and behold held an afternoon tea section! Curious to try out a few recipes I reasoned that I should invite the girls over so I sent out an invitation to some lovely lasses for a New Year’s Resolution friendly afternoon tea. I raided my darling friend The Second Wife’s teacup and teapot and travel spoon collection-if a friend lends you her precious Limoges Legle tea set you know she’s a great friend!

healthy afternoon tea

I made a range of things including Portuguese custard tarts (not from the book) using reduced fat puff pastry and skim milk instead of full butter and cream, chocolate truffles, blackberry matchsticks, chocolate and banana muffins, scones, profiteroles, little stuffed sandwich rolls, iced Turkish apple tea, Pimms and lemonade and caramel black tea.

healthy afternoon tea

After trying half a dozen recipes from the book everyone assembled liked the taste of most of them except for the chocolate banana cupcakes which were in Sisko’s words “Just not right-like the banana and chocolate are battling each other”. And I made the brownies but didn’t even serve them as they were as hard as a rock. The author likes to use raw sugar which as most bakers know, does not cream well and remains as hard, crunchy crystals.

healthy afternoon tea

My favourite tea cosy-I actually bought this as a gift for Queen Viv but couldn’t bear to part with it. I’m so mean!

I also tried the book’s recipe for faux cream which is made by whipping up a chilled tin of evaporated milk but there were no instructions saying that this had to be used straight away or it would dissolve and break down-in fact it told us that the cream kept its volume which it didn’t. I made it the day before and stored it in an airtight container and found a strange, half deflated holey creation in the fridge. I passed on serving this as it tended to dissolve on contact with spoons and heat (it was a hot weekend).

healthy afternoon tea

Flowers from Queen Viv

The favourites were the chocolate truffles, Portuguese custard tarts, matchsticks and the heart shaped scones. I found the recipes a bit hit and miss and some recipes were just not very good-not only did the chocolate banana muffins taste “funny” the recipe also said that it made 24 muffins. Using my standard muffin tray I could only make a meagre 6.5 muffins! Quantities seem a little odd in many of the recipes that I tried. On the plus side there are some clever ideas for saving fat-I thought that splitting the baked puff pastry rectangles in two and using each half to sandwich the ricotta cream and berry was very clever and a way to lower the fat. And the ricotta cream is a nice substitute for cream and the faux cream is interesting and perhaps quite good if you want to use it straight away.

healthy afternoon tea

A gift from Myriam

Besides the food, every now and then you need to have a sports free zone, a chance to get together with the gals and discuss the important things in life. Who bought what shoes, which celebrity has new boobs and conjure up new and bizarre dinner party ideas. Vive la girlfriends!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you trying to eat healthier at the moment? If you are, how is it going?

Chocolate truffles

healthy afternoon tea

These chocolate truffles don’t use any chocolate itself but cocoa powder and are a ground up mixture of dried dates , sultanas and coconut and almond meal. They’re very quick to make and are about half the calories of a regular truffle. Although they aren’t going to match a luxurious hand made truffle they are very good at satisfying a sugary, chocolatey craving and had Mr NQN baying for an invite to the afternoon tea. I told him no unless he wore a dress.

Approximately 35 calories, 1g fat each

Makes 40 truffles

Adapted from The Complete Food Makeover Click here to read the full story

73 comments | January 17th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella

Avocado Hommus & How to Survive The Football

I’ve never proclaimed to be a fan of many sports – tennis and ice skating are about my limit. In fact I watched my very first game of Rugby Union a few weeks ago. Granted the lure was that it was hosted by Tourism New Zealand and we were watching Australia vs New Zealand in a giant football by Sydney Harbour. So you understand that I now expect all rugby games to be catered affairs with free flowing wines in giant rugby balls…

Not Mr NQN, when he is playing on the computer he likes to put channel 1 on and this is when things get ugly. We barter that whomever has the laptop must give up the rights to channel selection and I inevitably get to choose as he usually hogs the laptop. I’ll even admit that once I stuffed the remote control down my pants so that he couldn’t change the channel. I’m not a cruel wife though, he is allowed to watch what he wants on occasion and when he really wants to watch a game I will make something nice for him (but yes mostly to entertain me). This weekend has two football games and no doubt he’ll want to sit pitched in front of the television watching them.

Click here to read the full story

59 comments | October 2nd, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella

The Fabulous Buzo Cabbage, Pine Nut, Raisin & Pecorino Salad

buzo cabbage salad

Listening is certainly an art and it’s one that I must confess I’m guilty of trying to learn it as it does not come naturally. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m so busy writing my opinions about things that means that I don’t often listen to others. I do try to listen though and I do make a sincere effort to do so. But my efforts in listening are often thwarted by my enthusiasm for a subject and I often find myself getting so excited that I blurt out things over people and my words climb all over them like an overenthusiastic (or badly trained) puppy. I swear that I am listening but I am also often so delighted to be talking to you that I appear not to be.

buzo cabbage salad

Mr NQN is a pretty good listener but there are times where he doesn’t. Shopping for this salad is a case in point. I was weighed down by work so I asked him to do the grocery shopping. It’s a daring task to assign to him as it often means that a second trip is needed to recover the items that he couldn’t find or purchased incorrectly. Either that or there are a half dozen phone calls from the supermarket. The poor thing…I do realise I am a nightmare to grocery shop for as I insist on certain brands.

Click here to read the full story

47 comments | September 30th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella

Weekend Project: Home Made Labne Yogurt Cheese

If you take a look into my parent’s garage you’ll see one thing apart from their car. It is about a year’s supply of soy milk, a collection of jars and about three month’s supply of juice. I don’t believe that they think we’re in danger of an immediate nuclear threat (nor does barricading yourself in a garage help in this circumstance). The truth is that they saw these items on sale and since they regularly buy them, they filled a shopping trolley full of them.

labne cheese

I’m afraid this strange hoarding behaviour sometimes rubs off on me. I don’t hoard a lot of things-there is simply no space to do so here, but when I see a good deal I get very excited. When I was on my Auburn food tour I saw this 2kg container of natural yogurt for $3.99 which still had 3.5 weeks until expiry so I popped one in the trolley. Mr NQN ate about a kilo of it with some delicious maple caramel syrup ribboned throughout it and I decided to make the other kilo into labne, a delicious yogurt cheese inspired by the fabulous Celia’s adventures making labne.

labne cheese