Everybody needs a Naturopath like Naomi Judge, especially if she’s gonna be creating desserts like this! Naomi guest blogs on the site today…over to you Naomi….

I love experimenting with making tasty desserts and snacks but without adding too much sugar. Sometimes it works really well, such as my pumpkin pie recipe, and other times it is a complete fail! This time I nailed it. The creaminess of the coconut, mixed with the strong flavor of cacao balanced up with vanilla works a treat. This dessert isn’t for the faint hearted though, you also need to love raw cocoa and coconut, which isn’t hard to do in my books.

I love using vanilla, not only because it creates a beautiful warm sweet flavor, but because it has so many medicinal qualities. Vanilla is particularly good for the brain; it contains vanilloids, which are the constituents, and which give vanilla its brain and mood boosting abilities. Vanilla has been used for centuries as a calmative and nervous system soother.

You can’t use your bog standard vanilla drops in glycerin though, you’ll need to invest in vanilla beans, powder or pure essential oil to get the real benefits, and trust me, you’ll taste the difference too! If these types of vanilla are hard to find, go for a good quality vanilla extract.

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Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Raw cacao powder
Raw honey or maple syrup
Chia seeds
Coconut milk
Vanilla powder
Coconut oil 
Salt

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Rich Chocolate Chia Dessert

Although this recipe is simple with not too many ingredients, it does take a bit of prep time, as you need to let it sit over night.

Servings 4

Author Naomi Judge Naturopath

Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 tablespoons raw cacoa powder
• 2-3 teaspoons raw honey or maple syrup
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or powder, bean or oil
• 40 gm cacao butter or coconut oil
• pinch sea salt

Instructions

• Blend the avocado with a tablespoon of cacao powder, ½ teaspoon vanilla and a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup. Blend until creamy.
• Next, divide the mix into 4 and pop in the bottom of 4 glasses.
• For the chia layer, place chia seeds in a bowl; mix in 1 ½ cups of coconut milk, 2 cups water and ½ teaspoon vanilla . Leave for 15 minutes to allow the chia seeds to expand and absorb the liquid.
• Split the chia mix equally into 4 serves and place on top of the avocado layer.
• Next make the chocolate topping. Heat the remaining coconut milk in a pan (1 cup), when steam begins to rise add in cacao butter or coconut oil, a tablespoon of cacao powder, teaspoon of vanilla and 1-2 teaspoons of honey or maple plus a pinch of salt. On the lowest heat setting, keep stirring so that the cacao butter or coconut oil melts down. The longer you stir, the thicker and creamier the mix gets.
• Remove the chocolate mix from the heat, allow to cool down for a few minutes, spoon chocolate mix onto the chia layer. The mix should just reach the top of the glass.
• Finally add coconut flakes as the final layer. Place desserts in the fridge; leave them to sit over night to set.
• Other toppings could include cacao nibs, frozen berries or a fruit puree. You may also experiment with other flavours, cinnamon, chilli, salt and caramel.

Notes

When you are ready to serve, remove them from the fridge and enjoy

A big thank you to Naomi for sharing her beautiful recipe. And check out her Facebook page which is full of lots of great information on women’s health and general wellbeing.

Her vision is to identify healthy food choices for her clients and be the ultimate wingman on their journey.

The recipes Penni creates are just wonderful and I’m so pleased to be able to share with you this glorious cake full of goodness which she created.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Gluten free Chocolate, Apple and Chia Cake

Number of Serves: 20
Serve Weight: 77g

Ingredients

4 medium apples
1 cup of brown rice flour
3 tb of chia seeds
½ cup of cacao powder
2 tsp of baking powder
¼ cup of almond meal
4 eggs
175g of honey
½ cup of coconut oil
Vanilla pod scraped or essence

Icing

100g of Dates
1 tb of Cacao Powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 deg
Grease and line a 20×20 cm cake pan
Grate the apples into a mixing bowl
Add the dry ingredients, mixing through
Crack eggs into another bowl and add the honey, vanilla and oil, mixing together
Pour the egg mix into the flour mix and stir well to combine
Pour into the prepared cake pan and let the mixture stand for ten minutes before placing into the oven
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or till a skewer comes out clean
To prepare the icing, simmer dates in 100ml of water till soft, approx 10-15 minutes
Add more water if becoming dry
Cool briefly, then blend till smooth
Add the cocoa powder and mix through, again adding water if too thick
Ice the cooled cake

Tip: The ‘icing’ makes for a delish dip with fresh strawberries or with whole walnut sandwiches, especially if some orange zest is added

‘Penni operates A Method of Cookery, a nutrition and wellness consultancy with a vision of providing healthy food choices for the rising dietary concerns people face today. As a qualified chef she applies cookery theory to sound nutrition principals and develops recipes and menu plans for long term sustainable change. To support the daunting journey of dietary change, Penni also offers nutrition & wellness coaching. She is a mum to three small children (5,3 & 20mth) and fully understands the ‘what’s for dinner?’ dilemma, weight management concerns and all the guff that come with grown up life. This recipe was developed for the many clients facing gluten exclusion and to prove to her sceptical husband, that gluten free can be delicious’

Check out Penni’s website here and Facebook page here

So when I found some “need to be used” coconut cream and ginger in the fridge, I decided to throw it into the batch of rice I was cooking that night. The end result was a delicious and subtley infused rice.

This rice was perfect with a simple red kidney bean, sweet potato and kale casserole for dinner and with the leftovers I made a winter-warming rice porridge for breakfast.

So keep in mind this recipe made enough rice for 1 dinner and 2 breakfasts for a family of 4 (or 2 dinners & 1 breakfast).

If you decided to cook only 1 cup of rice, then add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of coconut cream.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Basmati rice
Coconut cream
Chia seeds
Sunflower seeds
Cinnamon
Vanilla powder
Raw honey or maple syrup or coconut sugar
Cashews
Coconut flakes
Brown rice syrup

Here’s what I did…

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Coconut & Ginger Infused Rice Porridge

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 2 cups basmati rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 3 big slices of ginger
• 1 cup of chia seeds
• A good handful of sunflower seeds
• Both are quite neutral tasting for difficult for the kids to detect, otherwise you could grind them up
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla powder
• 1 tablespoon of raw hone pure maple syrup or coconut sugar for serving
• ½ cup almond flakes
• ½ cup cashews
• ½ cup coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon brown rice syrup honey or maple syrup

Instructions

• Put the rice, water, coconut cream and ginger into a saucepan and stir.
• Bring to the boil and then turn down to low & cook for approximately 20 minutes until rice is ready.
• Discard the slices of ginger.
• You can now serve for dinner and/or save some or all for breakfast.
• In the morning put desired amount of cooked rice into a saucepan with double the amount of milk.
• Add chia seeds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, vanilla powder.
• Put on low heat for 10 minutes to heat and absorb some of milk.
• While this is warming up heat a small to medium frying pan and toast up the almond flakes, cashews and coconut flakes in the dry pan.
• Just before the nuts were lightly toasted, added a tablespoon of brown rice syrup and stir the mixture around for a further minute.
• Serve the rice porridge in bowls, topped with the nut mixture and some slices of banana or your favourite fruit.

If you’re looking for some lunch inspiration, take a look at my recipe ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes. It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved! 

Stay warm.

Bren x