Tag Archives: Wholefood

Wholefood Hazelnut Carob Dream Recipe – The best Chocolate Milk ever!

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If you’ve been following me for a while, you may know that I have a major soft spot for Carob that goes back to childhood! It was the ‘chocolate’ of choice that my Mum would buy for me, and amazingly enough the wholefood ingredient of Carob itself is still one of my favourite creamy, sweet wholesome foods when I feel like a treat!

So, what exactly is Carob?  Besides being one of the most delicious earthy flavours/foods on earth, it is a legume ~ a bean that grows on a tree and is native to the Mediteranean and The Middle East. It grows in Australia among other dry warm climates and is one of the only known trees that can withstand severe drought without dying. It is a hearty, strong and resilent tree!

Being a legume, Carob is quite high in plant based protein, making it a great ingredient for Vegans and Vegetarians to incorporate into home-cooked recipes for extra oomph. Aside from it being nutritious, Carob is naturally sweet and creamy and when the bean is roasted and made into a powder, it is the perfect subsitute to Cacao or regular Cocoa powder for making Chocolate. It can even be a great substitute for sugar, as it has such a beautiful natural sweet taste.

Do you or your kids love Chocolate Milk, but want a healthier, cleaner, more nutritious option?

Well my friends, I have just the thing for you!

Hazelnut Carob Dream ~ aka: the best Chocolate Milk ever! 

It’s super simple to make, will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days after making and requires only four ingredients.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of soaked hazelnuts
  • 1/4 tsp of sea salt
  • 2 heaped tblsp of roasted carob powder
  • 4 cups of water (filtered water or spring water)
  • *a piece of cheese cloth or a nut-milk bag for straining the milk once blended. (Ask your local health food shop, most shops stock these bags.)

To make this delicious milk follow the following simple steps:

  1. Add soaked hazelnuts to your blender
  2. Add water
  3. Add sea salt
  4. Now blend on high speed for 2-3 mins
  5. Place your cheese cloth or nut bag over a large jar or jug.
  6. Pour the contents of the blender into the bag/cloth and strain out the fibre, so you just have the milk in the jar/jug.
  7. Once strained, place the solids to the side (you can reuse these in another recipe or compost them.)
  8. Next add the milk back into your blender to ‘Carob-ify’ it! :) Add your roasted carob powder and blend for 2-3 mins until blended and smooth.
  9. Next pour into a clean glass bottle or jar and drink or store in the fridge for when you feel like a smooth creamy snack!

Voila! So simple SOOOO and easy!!  Try this at home!

Nourishing, creamy, healthy and delicious.

Enjoy!!

With love and wishes of goodness to you and your family!

x Lorien

Feeling Tropical! Vegan Black Rice Porridge Recipe

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Vegan Black Rice Pudding Recipe - Organic Wholefood Ayurvedic Cooking Vegetarian

H E L L O ~ D E L I C I O U S N E S S !

My aaaaalllllll time favourite food while growing up was this – (apart from its fruity counterpart: fresh papaya!)

I was first introduced to this nourishing, exotic, delectable pudding while on holidays in Indonesia with my mum. I also grew up close to an authentic Indonesian restaurant called ‘Masakan Indonesia’ on the Gold Coast ~ my love for black rice pudding was sustained between our family trips to bali and our family dinners at Masakan. :) Such happy , yummy memories! I’m smiling just contemplating those precious black rice days!

Mum and I made it at home also ~ as with anything delicious, it is fun to explore making it for yourself and this also adds to being able to appreciate the subtlety and elegance that chefs go through in order to master their recipes. I loved the ones we made at home and I loved the ones we ate either in Bali or at Masakan.

I recently discovered ORGANIC black rice for sale at my local health food shop. Excitement! :) One of the reasons I had not made my black rice pudding in a while was because I could only find black rice at specific exotic asian grocery stores – and this was not always convenient to find and I really do prefer to eat organic whole foods for optimum nutrition and care of myself and planet, so buying the non-organic heavily transported type turned me off a bit.

The second reason I stopped buying or making black rice pudding is because the bought ones in restaurants often have loads of sugar in them (as delicious as they are!). This turns me off. I have a new respect and awareness of sugar these days since reading ‘Sweet Poison’ by David Gillespie (great easy read!) and also since studying nutrition and the way food affects our immune system, mental functioning and emotions. Black rice tastes so good with sugar – these days I like to use WHOLE-FOOD sweeteners as much as possible.

My Favourite Wholefood Sweeteners:

  • Medjool dates
  • Maple Syrup
  • Carob 
  • Honey (not for baking or cooking)

If I’m ever going to use sugar I will choose the most ‘whole’ form I can get such as coconut sugar, rapadura sugar or jaggery. In my ayurvedic studies I learnt that these whole forms of sugar can be good for the body and this is true – at certain times and in certain instances, some whole sugar can be medicine. On the whole though – for me personally I feel cleaner, clearer and have more energy when I keep to my natural WHOLE FOOD sweetness listed above as even though whole-sugars still have minerals intact, they can still affect the body in a similar way to regular processed sugar as if you think about it – they are still concentrated condensed crystals of energy. It is easy to be addicted to sugar these days so I choose to get myself hooked on more sober tastes and flavours when I want a sweet hit and the list mentioned above generally always does the trick! :)

Organic Sugar-free Black Rice Pudding is now well and truly back on the menu in my kitchen! :)

If you feel like having some tropical ‘Indonesian’ black-rice pudding fun at home, here is my sugar-free + vegan black rice recipe for you to have a play with! :)

Wholesome Vegan Coconut Black Rice Pudding Recipe

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup organic black rice
  • 3 cups of boiling water
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp maple syrup (optional)
  • 2 cups of coconut milk
  • shredded coconut (to toast and add as a garnish!)

Creation process:

  1. Rinse your black rice and boil the kettle (it’s always good to give your grains a rinse prior to cooking).
  2. Place your rice in your pot and add approx 3 cups of  boiling water to steam the rice.
  3. Bring to a boil and place the lid on. Cook until the rice is soft and the water has absorbed.
  4. Remove from the heat once steamed and add 2 cups of coconut milk, a dash of maple syrup, 2 tsp’s of cinnamon and your love!
  5. Serve your pudding warm in your favourite bowls and garnish with some fresh banana, papaya, toasted coconut and or a few cheeky raisins.

Voila! So easy, black rice pudding in a flash with whole food ingredients to make this sweety treaty nourishing and delicious! :)

Happy creating in the kitchen! 

Love,

x Lorien

Kauai Hawaii – Fresh Red Mulberries

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Here is a little (massively juicy) photo from a few years ago on our trip to the magical garden Island of Kauai, Hawaii.

Naturally, the fresh-food-produce scene over there, CAPTIVATED me!  There was a local farmers market held on the island every day of the week. I’m not joking.

Every day! Fresh papaya’s in abundance. Flavours and tastes that had never touched my lips before visiting the Island. It was magical!

One of my most memorable adventures on the island was a walk I did with my Mum and her partner, Brian.

We hiked for 2-3 hours in the most lush, green national park I have ever seen. Along the way Brian gave me a personalised ‘bush-tucker’ tour of our surrounds and these juicy berries that you see in my hand up above, were the star highlight of the whole experience.

Freshly picked wild red mulberries – flowers and all. Straight from the vine. HEAVEN!

So juicy, so delicious, so red, so real. So raw!

I hope to return to this magical island once again sometime soon. I have never forgotten your sweetness dear mulberries or the tranquility surrounding you in your wild luscious rainforest!

I’ll be back! :)

x Love,

Lorien

Our 2nd Birthday – Thank You! :)

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Two years of wholesome loving goodness creations and we are celebrating from across the seas in Canada! Yippee!

Two years ago on this date WLG was born, out of a love and inspiration for sharing the beauty and magic of real – wholefood – organics – Ayurvedic medicine and wholesome nourishment with kitchens and families around the world!

…The amount of beauty, inspiration, joy, amazing new friends, connections, inspiration, wholesomeness, love, goodness, fun and creativity that has come about over the last 2 years has been INCREDIBLE and so nourishing on every level! Whoa!!

Filled with gratitude today and everyday for this community and for all the friends near and far who have supported this creation and it’s organic growth since the beginning!

Thankyou, thankyou, namaste and thankyou!

It is each and everyone of you being part of this community and being amazing in your own lives that makes these dreams possible and a reality.

Gratitude and love from the shores of Cananda (…where the health food shops, organic produce and green trees are amazing!)

x Om Shanti!  x

Lots of wholesome loving goodness love!

x Lorien