Healthy coconut Cocoa fudge

If you want something sweet to eat and yet want to avoid loading yourself with processed sugar and unwanted calories, then this is one recipe you can try. Fudge of this kind is usually made with coconut butter, but I like the crunch of coconut in the fudge, so I did not blend it a lot in the food processor, but you can always do that.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup organic honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup pureed raspberry or raspberry preserve (without sugar)

Method:

Place the coconut into a food processor and blend on high till it becomes soft. You can continue blending for about 15-20 minutes if you want to make coconut butter. (I did not blend it for so long)

Remove coconut from food processor and place it into a medium bowl. Add all the remaining other ingredients and mix well. Heat a pan and pour the mix and cook for about 5 minutes till the mix is hot and starts binding together. You can avoid the heating part if you are using coconut butter. Since I did not wait till the coconut turned into coconut butter, I had to warm the mixture.

Press fudge into a small dish lined with parchment paper. Place in freezer for 10 minutes remove and cut into 15 small pieces.

Sweet potato and quinoa patty:

One more healthier patty to my list of veg patties J. I loved the orange color of the sweet potato with red quinoa with a blend of white oat flour- I have used everything organic here

½ onion

2 sweet potatoes

1      garlic cloves

¼ cup organic quinoa red

¼ cup oat flour

Cilantro

Salt

Chili powder according to taste

½ tsp Coriander cumin powder

Canola oil spray

Cook the red quinoa in 1 cup boiling water for about 15/20 minutes. Drain the water and keep it aside to cool. Chop the white onion finely and add some chopped garlic cloves to the onion and cook all this on medium heat in a pan with 1 tsp of oil.

You can either bake the sweet potato in the oven or microwave, later peel them and mash them with a fork and keep aside.

Add the oat flour with finely chopped chili, cilantro, coriander cumin powder and salt to the mashed sweet potato mix. Now add the cooked onion and garlic mix to the mashed sweet potato mix.

Form the patty using hands. Take a frying pan and use the cooking spray and put the patty on the hot pan. Cook it till you see the brown color on the patty. Please note that you have already cooked all the ingredients and so you won’t need to cook these for a long time. You can also bake these patties if you wish in an oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. Enjoy on a multigrain bun with greeens and avocado slices. I also used a pepper based spread with my sandwich. 

Tom Yum Thai soup (Vegetarian)

If you have a cold or a sore throat, this soup will help your throat. Tom yum is a soothing soup with lemongrass, ginger and veggies.

Ingredients:

Low sodium vegetable stock

1 whole carrot chopped (rounds)

½ cup chopped button mushroom

¼ cup chopped onion lengthwise

2 twigs of fresh lemongrass cut into 1 ½ inch pieces

4/5 large ginger pieces cut

½ tomato chopped lengthwise

Spring (green)onions chopped to garnish

Cilantro chopped to garnish

Salt to taste

½ tsp soy sauce (low sodium)

½ tsp rice vinegar

Juice of 1 whole lemon

2/3 lemon leaves

Boil the vegetable stock and add the chopped onion, carrots, mushroom, lemongrass and lemon leaves with ginger and continue boiling. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar and salt as per taste. Add lemon juice little at a time and taste before adding everything.

After boiling, turn off heat and sere hot. Before serving, garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro.