Tag: Coconut butter

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Blueberry banana smoothie with chia seeds

This simple and creamy blueberry banana smoothie is packed with antioxidants, protein, fiber and healthy fats.  It is an excellent substitution for your afternoon cookie or candy bar. It is also a good mid-morning treat.

The blueberry banana smoothie recipe is great because it’s easy to keep all of the ingredients on hand. We buy buckets of Artisana raw organic coconut butter which last for 15-18 months from the date of manufacturing. Additionally, blueberries and bananas can be stored in your freezer, frozen blueberries are good for 6-8 months and bananas for 2-3 months. Dried chia seeds have a shelf life of 2-4 years.

I am featuring chia seeds in this recipe, but I actually use them almost daily in my green smoothies. We buy Nutiva organic chia seeds (120z) bags at Costco (several at a time), but you can also get very affordable ones on amazon. Mostly, I add them for extra fiber and protein. It’s ideal to soak the chia seeds in water for at least 10 minutes before blending. Soaking them helps to sprout the chia seed adding in their digestion making the nutrients more bioavailable.

Two tablespoons (or 1 ounce) of chia seeds has about 130 calories, 8 grams of fat, 11 grams of fiber (about 50% of daily recommended value for women), 5.5 grams of protein and no sugar. It also provides 18% of daily calcium, 27% of phosphorous, 30% manganese, and some potassium and copper.  Chia seeds have lots omega-3 fatty acids which help to increase HDL, the good cholesterol. The aid in weight-loss, with diabetes, digestion and detox.

Recipe for blueberry banana smoothie with chia seeds

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1 medium-large banana
  • 2 tablespoons coconut butter – we buy this in bulk and use it to replace milk in all dairy and non dairy recipes – Artisana Organic Raw Coconut Butter, 17 Pound
  • 2 tablespoons chia seeds
  • 4+ cubes of ice
  • 1 and 1/2 cups water

Mix all ingredients in blender on high for two, 30 second intervals until very creamy and seeds are well incorporated. This smoothie has the best texture when consumed fresh but it will store for up to 2 days in the fridge.

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Chocolate Banana Blueberry Smoothie

Yum. This healthy chocolate banana blueberry smoothie recipe is kinda like dessert in a glass, but it has amazing SUPERFOODS in it so you can’t really feel like you’re making a bad choice here. All of the ingredients here would be best organic : ) Play around making some substitutions if you don’t have all the ingredients.

Recipe for healthy chocolate banana blueberry smoothie

Yield: About 4 cups

Ingredients:

  • 4 medium frozen or fresh bananas
  • 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (frozen is better because you can add less ice)
  • 2 heaping tablespoons coconut butter
  • ¼ cup or less flax seed
  • ¼ cup or less raw cacao powder
  • 1 cup filtered water
  • 6-10 ice cubes

Blend on high in good blender, the finer the better (especially for the flax). Don’t let the smoothie warm up in the blender, blend in increments and add a few ice cubes at a time. Share and enjoy!

 

healthy chocolate banana blueberry smoothie

 

If you like this smoothie recipe check out my other smoothies:

guava passionfruit green smoothie recipe

blueberry banana smoothie with chia seeds

chocolate banana flax smoothie

green smoothie love

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Buckwheat spelt pancakes with sunflower seeds and bananas

These pancakes are made with HEALTHY HEARTY STUFF. When served  to Adam’s nephew, he gasped, “how did you make these taste so good?!” It’s true they are really quite yummy.

This pancake recipe highlights buckwheat, which is a highly nutritious and gluten-free cereal also referred to as kasha. It has numerous health benefits. For example, it contains rutin, glycoside, that has been shown to strengthen capillary walls and improve circulation.  It also contains all eight essential amino acids, thus is high in protein.  Buckwheat also has a lot of fiber, B vitamins and is shown to regulate glucose levels which is helpful for controlling diabetes.

This recipe uses coconut butter milk instead of buttermilk, (or milk substitute made by blending coconut butter and water), honey instead of sugar and is topped with sunflowers for added protein and banana for some fruit vibes!

Buckwheat pancakes with sunflower seeds and bananas

Servings: about 6-8 pancakes, ~5 inches in diameter

Equipment: frying pan and blender if making coconut butter milk

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup buckwheat flour
  • 1 1/4 cup flour (I use spelt, but you could try using gluten-free flour mixes, or another mild or complementary flour like coconut, or almond)
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 organic eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups coconut butter milk (blend heaping tablespoons of coconut butter into water at room temp)
  • 1-2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Steps:

  1. Combine wet ingredients and stir
  2. Combine dry ingredients and stir
  3. Stir dry into wet and combine but not over stir, batter shouldn’t be too thin, less runny than cake or brownie batter but not thin. Think about the batter for the box-kine pancakes. If too thin add a little more flour until thickens up a bit
  4. Let rest for 30 minutes or so for best results
  5. Heat pan on medium to medium high depending on stove top
  6. If using non-stick you just add a little butter or coconut oil. Otherwise with stainless steel, use a significant about so that it cover the pan and the pancake will not burn. This is always the hardest part about pancake.
  7. Cook on one side, add sliced banana and sunflower seeds, check bottom when it begins to brown and when top begins to bubble a little flip. Turn down heat if necessary. You want it to cook inside before it burns on the outside : ) About 2 minutes per side.
  8. Eat alone or serve with jam or maple syrup  : )

 

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Immune boosting coffee with chaga mushroom and coconut butter

This chaga coffee recipe results in a creamy, slightly sweet morning treat. It is absolutely the best, creamiest, super-beverage coffee that I have ever come across. The use of the medicinal mushroom chaga is comparable to use of reishi mushrooms by the coffee company Organo Gold.

It is an amazing way to sneak the superfood powers of mushrooms into your daily life. No need to drink mushroom tea! The flavor of coffee completely masks the earthy mushroom flavor. The coconut butter makes the coffee velvety and creamy and the maple sweetens it just enough. This is a great way to start you’re day off with healthy fats, immune boosting properties and minerals from the maple syrup. Read more about chaga at the end of this article. Lately, we’ve been drinking our coffee black, without the coconut butter and maple syrup, this is fine and there is no weird taste from the chaga.

Equipment: French Press, cheese grater

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

  1. high quality whole bean organic coffee
  2. organic coconut butter (not oil)
  3. pure organic maple syrup
  4. wild harvested whole chaga

Steps:

  1. Use a cheese grater to add up to 1 tablespoon of powdered chaga
  2. Boil water first (212 F) and then reduce to simmer and add chaga and leave until water is brown. Traditional knowledge describes that chaga is best decocted in temperatures between 150F and 180F, although many people give it a boil for up to 30 minutes (including us because a slow extraction is more time consuming and because we like hot coffee, we believe that many benefits are retained).
  3. Add to 4 tablespoons ground coffee in french press, steep for 5 minutes, and press the top down to strain.
  4. In coffee cups add 1 heaping tablespoon coconut butter and 1 tablespoon maple syrup.
  5. Pour less than ¼ cup hot coffee in cups and cream the coconut butter until smooth.
  6. Add rest of coffee and enjoy!!!

chaga mushroom

Chaga

(Inonotus Obliquus) is a mushroom that grows exclusively on birch trees. It feeds off of a non-toxic parasite in infected trees in cold areas like the northern parts of US, Canada,  Europe, Russia, and Korea. It has been used traditionally though out history as food and as medicine.

We use chaga primarily to boost our immune system, but it has several other health benefits due to it’s antioxidant properties (named in parentheses). It’s antioxidant properties are partially due to melanin,  a natural black pigment which has many polyphenols. Chaga also protects against oxidation and free radicals (super oxide dismutase enzymes).

Chaga has the highest ORAC score of any superfood. Beyond helping with the immune system  (Beta-D-Glucans), it helps to maintain healthy blood vessels, can help with ulcers and gastritis, can normalize blood pressure and cholesterol levels (betulinic acid), can help fight cancer (phytosterols), can aid in pain. It also reduces blood sugar in people who suffer abnormal blood sugar peaks.  It is known for reductions in fatigue and inflammation, as well as increased mental sharpness. Traditionally, Siberians used it in their stews, soups, and teas. They extracted it with hot water. It is also important not to boil the chaga past 180 degrees, which would destroy the proteins, sterols, and enzymes.

Chaga is available whole, in chunks and in powder. Like many ingredients, the more whole the product when you receive it, the fresher, and more health benefits it will impart. I buy my chaga on Etsy. Here is a link one seller that I’ve bought from.

Contraindications:

  • high in oxalates, which in large doses can prevent the absorption of nutrients and may be toxic in high doses

Chaga resources

  1. http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/chaga-mushroom-the-immune-boosting-superfood/#3
  2. http://www.faim.org/sites/default/files/documents/PPNF-Journal-Chaga.pdf
  3. https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/chaga-mushroom
  4. https://oriveda.wordpress.com/chaga-the-facts/
  5. http://www.organogold.com