A Recipe for Raw Chocolate | 'Cooking With My Smallest Chef | Raw Vegan Toddler / Children Ideas

Opeie decided that he wanted a kitchen for Christmas whilst shopping in Ikea . He was so excited by the idea of making things and cooking that I couldn't wait for Christmas morning to come . ( Even though we celebrate Christmas Day on Boxing Day in our house ) It was totally worth the wait ! 

Opeie has been cooking up a storm in his Diner but the other day he asked if we could make some chocolate together , as chocolate making is one of my favourite things to do , I quickly started melting the Cacao Butter , while Opeie carried the equipment from the main kitchen , to the Diner kitchen . 

{ I need to get some non-glass containers for him to play with however, as yesterday these fell off the shelf and almost smashed. Any ideas of nice plastic, bpa free containers, comment below! }

I decided to use his empty advent calendar tray as a mould so we could talk about recycling as we made them . Despite being 2 1/2 Opeie understands the concept very well .I'd like to get some good 'Ice lollie' shapes ones so that we could make raw ice cream too, but all the ones I've had in the past don't support well, and the ice cream always topples off.... anyway...

We also made "raw Reece's peanut butter cups " which I'll come to later-  if you're wondering why there's peanut butter on the table . 

I'd recommend using a toddler safe bowl while making these, something that has grip to the bottom as you don't want a chocolate-y mess everywhere, we used our trusty Oxo Tot bowl from the Small & Large Set  as I knew these wouldn't move around while Opeie was stirring. I'd also recommend using a silicone whisk as i find the metal ones are abit slippy if they get the cacao butter on the handle, which happened to us (we didn't have one however)

To make enough chocolate to fill 25 small moulds and to cover 12 Raw Reece's . 

0.5 cups melted Cacao oil / butter 

0.5 cups melted coconut oil 

12 tablespoons cacao powder

6-8 tablespoons maple syrup or agave

Pinch of salt 

Scraped vanilla pod 

••••••••••••••••••••••

Mix the melted  cacao butter & coconut oil together, Add the salt , vanilla and syrup ( I prefer to use less syrup - around 6 tablespoons , and opted for agave ) 

Once mixed, slowly add the cacao powder, whisking to make sure it's not lumpy . 

Fill the moulds until almost at the top , we decided to use the moustache moulds we had for Christmas also since there was a little left over . When they're all full - put in the freezer for 15 minutes to set, or the fridge for 30 mins if you're not impatient ! 

(  Opeie's favourite part, licking the utensils clean afterwards ) 

When the moulds are cool - pop out of the tray and eat , or store in a airtight tub ! Enjoy ! Have you made anything nice lately ? Are you on a post Christmas diet ? Is your New Years resolution to loose weight & be healthier ? 

Detoxing Raw Vegan Chocolate Avacardo Dessert Mousse Whip

For Harvey : 

I was talking to my other trainer today at the gym, he told me he has a real sweet tooth, and that he's on a 16 week program to shred his body basically, where as I'm on an eight week plan to try and undo the damage that was done from my c-sections. 

Anyway, I was thinking of a dessert that Harvey my trainer could make, and I remembered that I made this quite alot in summer. Enjoy!!!!

Makes enough for 5 portions. 

• 1 ripe avocado, skinned and destoned
• 1.5  ripe banana, peeled
• 1/3 cup grape or orange juice - for natural sweetness
• 5 tablespoon cacao/cocoa powder - excellent detox  ( + 1 teaspoon cinnamon -optional)
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup - very low G.I
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or scrape out 2 vanilla pods. 

Add the whole lot of ingredients to a food processor or high seed blender, and blitz, continue to wipe the sides down with a spatula, and keep blending it until it's perfectly smooth.

It reminds me of Angel Delight, that I had as a kid, I often have this for breakfast with fruit on a hot summer day .

Raw vegan brownie recipe, Banana & cacao brownies • Healthy , detoxing , Raw foods

Fudge Brownie Banana Brazil Nut Bites:

Quick recipe for you all , I'd been craving something Brownie-ish and thought of this : 

4 overly ripe bananas

7 tablespoons of Coconut Butter melted

4 table spoons raw Cacao

12 Brazil nuts

2/3 cup of raisins

1/4 cup agave

Put everything in a food processor appart from raisins and Brazil's . Blitz until smooth, add Brazil's and chop up into small chunks, then stir in raisins . 

 

( coconut butter is not the same as Covonut oil, Coconut butter is the coconut meat ground down until its liquid, coconut oil - the meat of the coconut is pressed to make oil) you could use coconut oil however it just won't taste as rich ....)

Transfer to a mould tray and put in the freezer for 12 hours - 24 hours ( depending on the temperature ) they freeze and are easy to handle, but melt as you bite them ! 

Organic Banana Dairy Free Ice Cream Lollies | Vegan | Soya Free |Gluten free | For Children

With Opeie and I being Vegan, minus soya (and most gluten 99% of the time ) , Seth and Pauly being on limited dairy I wanted to think of a way to get them to be able to Enjoy a frozen dessert that's not a sugary / fructose syrup sorbet type thing .

So I came up with the idea of freezing bananas and sticking them on Ice lolly sticks initially .

Here's how I made them-   ( It seems pretty simple, but they can go wrong!)

Chop/ break up peeled bananas to the size you'd like - I do some smaller for Opeie as he's only a toddler.

Push lolly sticks into the bases of the bananas. Be careful not to push them too far - if if comes out the other end the banana will break up & it won't be a lolly .

Pop them in a air tight bag and freeze for an hour or two .

Remove from freezer and enjoy ... Or....

As a really indulgent treat - I like to add a layer of melted chocolate - either home made organic Raw chocolate or Organic Moo Free chocolate .

I melted around 3/4 of a 100g bar of  Moo Free Chocolate over a pan of boiling water . 

Once melted - and not hot , roll the bananas around in the melted chocolate , or drizzle the chocolate over with a spoon . As the bananas are frozen the chocolate should set immediately - if not within a minute .

Pop in a zip lock bag and store for 1 month maximum - these last about 1 week in our house- we all love them ! Enjoy !

Comment below with your vegan ideas for desserts !

Raw Vegan Reece's Peanut Butter Cups recipe . | Reese's Raw Dairy Free

Reece's peanut butter cups - a more ish guilty pleasure ?! Not anymore!

Yesterday while the boys played in the garden , I was talking to a few friends online whilst making some raw vegan fudge and thought - I've been meaning to make some Reece's peanut butter cups for ages .... So I threw caught to the wind and started making it .... Not really following a recipe - just guessing - I told my friend who goes to the same trainer as me if they turned out ok , I'd take him some . 

They turned out fabulous ! 

Here's how I made them - 

Ingredients used

For peanut part - 

1/2 cup peanut butter - unsweetened I salted , I used Meridan. 

4 tbsp coconut oil melted 

5 tbsp agave / raw pure maple syrup 

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch salt . 

For the chocolate 

1/2 cup raw cacao butter . 

6 heaped tbsp raw cacao powder

5 tbsp agave - or maple syrup 

Pinch salt 

Chocolate - Melt at a low heat cacao butter , add agave and salt , then mix in the cacao powder , leave to thicken . 

Peanut - mix peanut butter ( I used crunchy but will use smooth next time ) with melted coconut oil , agave and salt . Press into cupcake cases ( I only had muffin cases so mine turned out huge - the boys didn't mind ) top with melted chocolate & put in freezer ! Longer the better .... 

I added too much cacao powder first time round , but I've altered he recipe for you . Enjoy. ! 

MOO FREE Chocolate Review ( Dairy Soya Gluten free Chocolate) for Vegan Lactose Intollerant

Moo Free chocolate is one of the best things I've found since I stopped having  dairy/soyain my diet.
It is so remarkably like 'real' chocolate that you literally wouldn't know the difference without reading the packaging. 

The things I love about it most is that it is Organic, and also that they make it without any soya. Believe me , it is so hard to find soya free things!

It is really creamy, melts in the mouth, is perfectly sweet and can be melted down easily over a bowl if you want to use it to dip strawberries/ biscuits/ or pretzels in it.

My baby boy loves it as a treat, and so do I. I've been buying mine for over a year from Goodness Direct and Eco Green Store , I tend to buy it in bulk, 10+ bars at a time as Moo Free goes out of stock so quickly online, but that lasts us months! (The bars are around £2.50 for 100g. )

(They are trying to get more machines however to cope with the demand, but need your help, you can pledge money. )

I am yet to try the rest of the range, but would really love to try the pralines, the Honey comb chocolate, and get an easter egg for Opeie to enjoy!