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Banana Flapjacks

This is a simple plant-based flapjack recipe, that holds together really nicely. Using bananas, dried fruit and maple syrup means you don’t need to add crazy amounts of refined sugar.

Ingredients:

  • 3 bananas
  • 250g organic oats
  • 75g mixed seeds (sunflower/ pumpkin/ chia)
  • 75g dried cranberries
  • 50g desiccated coconut
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C
  2. Take a large bowl and mash the bananas up with a fork
  3. Melt the coconut oil gently in a saucepan until it becomes liquid
  4. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup, coconut, seeds, dried fruit and oats to the banana mash
  5. Mix together thoroughly
  6. Transfer the mixture into a shallow baking tin lined with baking paper and use your fingers to spread the mixture evenly into the tin
  7. Bake for 30 minutes and then place onto a wire rack to cool

 

 

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Bonfire Night Parkin

I was a bit unsure whether to post this recipe, as it’s not exactly healthy. To make it more in keeping with the Natural Born Fitness ethos, I’ve modified the traditional Northern English recipe quite a bit, omitting the muscavado sugar completely, and substituting the butter and cow’s milk for olive oil and rice milk respectively. Best to use it as a delicious seasonal treat or as comforting hill food.

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil – 100g
  • Treacle (or molasses) – 100g
  • Golden Syrup – 100g
  • Self raising flour – 200g
  • Ground ginger – 3 tsp
  • Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
  • Bicarbonate of soda – 1 tsp
  • Pinhead oatmeal – 100g
  • 1 beaten egg
  • Oat milk – 120ml
  • Stem ginger – 1 tablespoon – chopped
  • Optional: apple puree – 1 tablespoon

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 150 °C
  2. Line a square cake tin with baking paper
  3. Place the oil, treacle and syrup in a small saucepan and heat gently until completely mixed together
  4. Remove and allow to cool
  5. Add the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda, oatmeal and stem ginger to a large bowl and mix together
  6. Gradually stir in the cooled treacle/syrup/oil mixture
  7. Next stir in the beaten egg, oat milk (and apple puree if using) until you get a smooth mixture
  8. Pour the batter you’ve created into the cake tin
  9. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 30 mins
  10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool
  11. Ideally you should store the Parkin for a few days before eating (good luck with that)

 

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Scones

I wouldn’t exactly call scones a superfood, but they can certainly be made into a vaguely healthy snack: they’re home made, delicious, especially with home made jam on an autumn or winters afternoon, and can be easily be made dairy and gluten free.

There are countless recipes for scones, but the basic method  is extremely simple, which means you can knock out a batch in less than 30 minutes: 5 minutes preparation and approximately 20-25 minutes baking time.

Some recipes add egg to the mixture, but I’ve never found any advantage to doing this, and adding sugar is completely unnecessary – you’re about to cover them in jam!

I’ve given the basic scone recipe below, which is very quick and easy, but check out this other recipe for a more interesting variation.

Basic scone recipe:

Ingredients:

  • Self-raising flour (gluten free works fine) – 3 cups
  • Olive oil or butter – 3 tablespoons
  • Milk (cow’s milk, rice milk, oat milk, it doesn’t matter) – 1 cup

That’s it!

Instructions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
  2. Mix the flour and oil/ butter in a bowl
  3. Rub together with your fingers until you get a fine breadcrumb-like texture. (you can sift the flour if you want but I find it doesn’t makes a great difference to how the scones rise)
  4. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the milk
  5. Mix, just enough so you get a smooth dough, but try not to over-mix or knead
  6. Flour your hands and roll out the mixture into a slab about 3-4 cm thick
  7. Use a cookie cutter (or knife) to cut out your scones – you should get about 6-8 depending on size;  place on a baking tray
  8. Brush the tops of the scones lightly with milk
  9. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until a light brown colour
  10. Serve immediately with jam or honey

(Tip: pack the scones tightly together on the baking tray – they will rise better)

 

 

 

Hommus

A delicious and easy-to-prepare dip. Ideal for getting your kids (and yourself) to eat more veggies. Also good with flatbreads.

Ingredients:

  • Chickpeas: 1 tin (400g)
  • Chickpea liquid: 1/2 cup
  • Garlic: 1 clove
  • Tahini: 1/2 cup
  • Juice of 1 lemon (1/3 cup)
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • Large pinch of Sea Salt
  • Large pinch cayenne pepper
  • Large pinch paprika

Instructions:

  1. Place ingredients in a blender and blend until desired consistency is reached
  2. Serve as a dip with chopped vegetables of your choice (eg. carrots, cucumber, celery)

 

 

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 Hommus
Servings
Servings

Raw power balls – banana, date, almond

An awesome pre or post workout snack. As always, various substitutions are possible with the ingredients. For example, you could use hazelnuts instead of almonds, currants instead of dates, and obviously cocoa powder is fine, rather than cacao.

This recipe makes approximately 16 balls.

Ingredients:

  • 2 bananas (medium size)
  • 1/2 cup raw almonds
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons cacao powder
  • 1 ½ cups desiccated coconut

Instructions:

  1. Place almonds, bananas, dates, balsamic, cacao powder in a food processor and blend until it becomes a relatively smooth paste
  2. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and keep adding the dessicated coconut until the consistency becomes firm enough to shape into balls. This usually requires between 1 – 1½ cups, but sometimes a bit more
  3. Shape the mixture into balls and roll in a bit more desiccated coconut
  4. Place in the fridge to chill and firm up before eating (ideally 2-3 hrs)
Print Recipe
 Raw power balls - banana, date, almond
An awesome pre or post workout snack. As always, various substitutions are possible with the ingredients. For example you could use hazelnuts instead of almonds, currants instead of dates, and obviously cocoa powder is fine, rather than cacao.
Prep Time 15 mins
Servings
balls
Ingredients
Prep Time 15 mins
Servings
balls
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Place almonds, bananas, dates, balsamic, cacao powder in a food processor and blend until it becomes a relatively smooth paste
  2. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and keep adding the dessicated coconut until the consistency becomes firm enough to shape into balls. This usually requires between 1 - 1½ cups, but sometimes a bit more
  3. Shape the mixture into balls and roll in a bit more desiccated coconut
  4. Place in the fridge to chill and firm up before eating (ideally 2-3 hrs)