Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Last week we introduced you to the newest addition of the Fruitful Day family, a fruit bouquet! It’s made with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, physalis, and a touch of mint.

We wouldn’t want you to go without a new recipe for your Valentine too though!  This week we are sharing a recipe for an avocado chocolate mousse, which is a little different than your typical mousse as it uses melted chocolate achieving an extra creamy texture.

Whether you’re single, taken, or just plain hungry, we’re sure you’re going to love this dessert!  Wishing you a happy, healthy Valentines Day from the whole Fruitful Day family. 

Avocado Chocolate Mousse (serves 2/3 for dessert)  

30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 100g dark chocolate (you can use 70% cacao)
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 100g coconut cream (to make this – put the tin of coconut cream in the fridge overnight. In the morning, scoop only the cream off the top leaving the water behind. Set aside).
  • 1 avocado from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ½ tbsp honey (optional)
  • 50g full fat yoghurt or coconut yoghurt

METHOD

1. Place a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place into the bowl to melt.

2.  In a separate bowl, smash the avocado with a fork.

3. Place the coconut cream in a bowl and beat with a hand beater until it forms soft peaks.

4. Add the chocolate, vanilla, yoghurt, honey to the avocado and blend with a hand blender.

5. Add the whipped coconut cream and blend (leave a few tablespoons aside for garnish)

6. Garnish with coconut cream and grated dark chocolate.

6 Ways to Live a Healthier February

Last month we introduced you to Michelle (click here if you missed it!) who works as a Nutritional Therapist. This month Michelle shares with us her 6 tips for living a healthier February. Our hope is that even if you weren’t able to stick to your New Years Resolutions, these are some simple tips that will help you to slow down and think about what you’re eating, when you’re eating it, and why you’re eating it. When mind and gut work together, you will feel the difference in your health and well-being.

1. Start the day with a glass of water with apple cider vinegar 

We often wake up dehydrated due to the lack of fluids overnight. However, the morning is a time when people stereotypically drink diuretics such as tea and coffee (diuretic beverages cause your kidneys to flush extra water through urination). Hypothetically, if we drink 1 cup of coffee, we would need to drink 1.5 cups of water to counter the diuretic affects of that. 

It is estimated that up to 90% of people have low stomach acid due to factors like stress, excess carbohydrate consumption, nutrient deficiencies, allergies and excess alcohol. Since the stomach is a naturally acidic environment, (pH 1.5 – 3), a lack of acid can compromise our digestive function greatly, leading to all sorts of digestive issues. Apple cider vinegar does wonders to help our stomach reach the environment pH it needs to properly digest. 

Starting the day with a large glass of water and two teaspoons of ACV will set you off well in regards to both hydration and getting the stomach ready to digest food.

2. When eating out, focus on quality of food > macros

For example, if you’re following the paleo or keto diet, you might always be drawn to meat options on the menu when you’re eating out. However, bear in mind that unless advertised, restaurants will not be purchasing organic, grass-fed or pasture raised animal products. You might be cutting down on carbs by choosing a steak over a vegetable curry, but don’t forget to factor in the hormones, antibiotics and altered nutritional composition of a battery farm or feed lot animal. Grass fed beef, for example, contains up to fives times more omega 3 fatty acids than grain fed beef. 

Also consider the overall impact on the environment in choosing non sustainable animal products. Both your health goals and the environment can be jeopardised by a choice to dogmatically stick to what’s ‘paleo’ or ‘keto’ (as an example), rather than considering the complexity of these choices. 

3. Be connected to your food’s origins. 

Have you ever seen a cashew apple? 

Each apple gives rise to one cashew. Imagine a whole bag of cashews and what that would look like on a tree. Perhaps it would be a whole branch, or even an entire tree!? Would one ever eat the fruits of an entire tree? Unlikely. However, when it’s packaged in the grocery store in a bag, we are so disconnected from the reality of how things grow that we can easily over consume. Trying to reconnect to that can really give us great insight into how to live a healthier life. 

4. Eat in a parasympathetic/relaxed state. 

Did you know that we can only properly digest food in a parasympathetic/relaxed state versus a sympathetic/non relaxed state? Our enteric nervous system runs the entire length of our digestive system governing all manner of processes such as the production of digestive enzymes, to the movement of of food through our intestines. When we are in a sympathetic/non relaxed state our body will slow down digestion to favour the fight or flight stress response which takes priority in tense states. Eating in a sympathetic/non relaxed state, for example; driving, rushing before a school run or even at a ‘stressed out’ family dinner table can compromise your entire digestive cascade from the beginning leading to many issues relating to mal digestion. 

5. Ask yourself ‘am I making this choice out of fear or joy’? 

When I first had the realisation that many of my decisions were being made out of fear it was quite a shock! Choices out of fear come in many forms. For me it usually involves making a choice in the present to avoid something that might happen in the future. By doing so you’re totally living in your own internal narrative – one that actually has little to do with the real world. By being present in every moment and responding to actual stimuli, you’ll not only feel less stressed, but also more successful because you’re responding directly to the people and situations around you.  

6. Create a morning routine.

It’s very tempting to look at emails, what’s app and Instagram immediately upon waking up. When I do this, I find that the first few hours of my day become disjointed and inefficient. I also start the day seeing people on Instagram doing/eating/wearing ‘better’ things than me. This can lead to misguided thought patterns assuming other people’s lives are ‘more fun/inspiring’ than your own. 

Creating a morning routine that involves really simple things such as making tea or coffee, stretching for five minutes, watering your plants or doing five minutes of journaling can really make a difference in terms of clarity and assuredness. 

Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake

We hit a big milestone this week, 15,000 followers on Instagram!  That was so exciting for us as we put a lot of love into our account and we are ever so grateful for the love back.

Last week we introduced you to Michelle who is behind all of our recipes.  You’ll be hearing more from her soon.

In the meantime, to celebrate our milestone, we wanted to share a new cake recipe with you. If you like citrus flavors combined with chocolate, you’ll love this Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake recipe!  This is a great way to make the most of the citrus season and as always, we have the most delicious mangos in our boxes, which will give it a delicious sweet touch. 

In case you prefer to leave out the chocolate, it’s also possible to omit the cacao nibs and cacao powder for a nutty, mango, citrus and coconut cake.  Yum yum yum.  Either way, we know you’ll enjoy this one!!!

Thank you once again to all of our amazing followers and in case you aren’t already part of the gang, come join us at https://www.instagram.com/fruitfuldayuae/

Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake (makes one 20cm cake)

9 hours (including time to soak nuts and set)

Ingredients for the base

  • 1 cup mixed nuts and seeds from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1/3 cup cacao powder  
  • 2 tbsp shredded coconut (fresh is the best)
  • 1 cup dates
  • A pinch of salt
  • 3 tbsp cacao nibs
  • 5 drops food grade citrus essential oil

Ingredients for the filling

  • 2 cups cashews from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 cup of mango from the Fruitful Day Box
  • Zest of 3 oranges from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ¼ cup citrus juice (grapefruit/lemon/orange) from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1/3 cup melted cacao butter
  • 3 tbsp coconut cream
  • 10 drops food grade citrus essential oil

Ingredients for the garnish

  • Zest of 1 of orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 400ml can of coconut cream
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs

METHOD for the base

1. Blend all dry filling ingredients; mixed nuts and seeds, cacao powder, coconut and salt in a food processor.

2. Add wet ingredients; dates and essential oil and blend until it comes together as a dough.

3. Add cacao nibs and mix with hands into the dough – if you blend the nibs in the food processor they will become too small and you’ll lose the great crunch texture they give.

4. Line the base of your cake tin and then press the dough down evenly into the bottom.

METHOD for the filling

1. Soak cashews for at least 4 hours or, if possible, overnight.

2. Drain and rinse cashews

3. Put all filling ingredients; cashews, chopped mango, zest, juice, melted cacao butter, coconut cream and essential oil into a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

4. Pour filling mixture over the base mixture and set in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Garnish with coconut cream – to do this leave the coconut cream in the fridge for 2-4 hours, open the can and then scoop only the cream from the top leaving behind the water.

6. Garnish with zest and cacao nibs. 

Who is Michelle?

I’m Michelle and I work as a Nutritional Therapist and Recipe Developer focusing on integrative solutions to healing. 

My ten year path to this point was never linear but always straddled the place where creativity and functionality collide. I did a BA in design at Central Saint Martins in London, however, my interests always gravitated towards health and wellness. I later went to culinary school and found that cooking bridges the between wellness and creativity; you create to nourish! This has always been exciting for me. 

After culinary school I apprenticed at a fine dining restaurant in San Francisco. Working there taught me a lot about discipline, however, I craved something more grounding. I moved to Argentina to work at a horse and cattle ranch that was also a boutique hotel. The focus for this year was on how our food comes into being. 

Since returning to Dubai, I worked as a pastry chef in two different health food cafes. I believe that people shouldn’t feel they are sacrificing taste to be healthy. Creating desserts from whole foods ingredients plays a part in that. 

Knowledge of how food interacts with our bodies is key when it comes to deciding what to eat. For this reason, I decided to train as a nutritional therapist, bringing my interest back to it’s origins. 

Michael Pollen’s quote “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” resonates with me because it insinuates a simplicity to nutrition and eating which I believe has been lost in the age of fad diets. If you’re aligned with your own body and mindful about where your food comes from, good health will naturally follow. 

Banana Bread

We can’t believe it’s 2019 already!  We’ll be continuing to share recipes this year, but what we’re even more excited about is that Michelle Harvey, a Nutritional Therapist, is going to guest blog throughout the year and help us to understand how some simple changes to our diet can have a huge impact on our well-being. Look out for her first blog article in the coming 10 days. We think you’re going to love her just as much as we do!

In the meantime, we wanted to share an easy banana bread recipe with you.  This banana bread is a little bit different as it has banana flour in it. You may never heard of banana flour, but it’s actually a great addition to your diet because it’s a prebiotic!  What is a prebiotic you ask?  A prebiotic sets the environment for probiotics to work so it’s important to consume them together. Prebiotics, which are a type of non-digestible fiber compound, can be found in foods like bananas, artichoke, onions, garlic, apple skin, chicory root, beans, and many others.  Although they haven’t gotten the press in recent years that probiotics have, they are actually just as important as they are the fuel that allows probiotics to work. It’s all part of keeping your gut healthy something Michelle will be talking a lot more about throughout the year.

We hope you’ll come back soon to learn more about simple ways to improve your health in 2019.

Banana Bread (makes two loaves 11cm x 22cm)

1 hour

Ingredients

  • 100g coconut sugar
  • 2 ripe bananas from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 50g peanut butter
  • 170g banana flour (you can order on Amazon)
  • 50g oats
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100g milk or dairy free milk of choice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 3 free range eggs
  • 100g coconut oil
  • 80g dates

METHOD

  1. Blend dates, bananas and peanut butter
  2. Combine mixture with all remaining ingredients and stir until a consistent texture is achieved
  3. Prepare loaf tin by lining it with greaseproof paper and preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
  4. Pour banana bread mixture into tins and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
  5. Allow to cool on a rack before removing from the tin to consume.

Paleo Toffee Apples

Our last recipe for today is one the kids are sure to love, toffee apples! This is a great one to get the kids involved in making together and we’re sure the whole family will enjoy.  

Whereas traditional toffee is made with a lot of sugar and often with other unnatural flavoring agents, this recipe idea is a very simple alternative that tastes the same and can serve as a post dinner festive snack! When you’re shopping for the ingredients make sure to buy good quality honey and coconut cream with only ‘coconut kernel’ and ‘water’ on the label. Most coconut creams will contain thickeners and stabilizers such as guar gum, which you want to avoid. 

We hope you and your family have a wonderful time over the festive period! We’d love to hear from you if you’ve enjoyed our special edition holiday recipes.  Drop us a line anytime on [email protected] even if it’s just to say ‘hi’!

Paleo Toffee Apples 

 

1 – 1.5 hours

Ingredients

  • 3 apples from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 cup of coconut milk
  • 1 cup of honey
  • 1 pinch of salt

METHOD

  1. Place coconut cream, honey and salt into a heavy bottom saucepan on medium heat.
  2. Bring to a simmer. Once bubbles start forming you can stir to keep from bubbling over. This should take 20 – 30 minutes.
  3. Continue to simmer until the temperature reaches 120 degrees C on a candy thermometer.
  4. While the honey and coconut cream are simmering, poke your sticks into the apples – you can use popsicle sticks or actual sticks from a tree.
  5. Line a baking tray with baking paper for the apples to rest on.
  6. Once 120 degrees C is reached, remove from the heat and allow to cool to around 80 degrees C, which will be a good temperature for dipping.
  7. Dip the apples one by one into the toffee and then place them on their sides on the baking tray. You can also add nuts or desiccated coconut to the toffee at this point.
  8. Allow to set in the fridge for several hours. Some of the toffee will drip off which you can either discard or mould with your hands back onto the apple.

Chocolate Orange Tart

It’s Christmas Eve and what better way to celebrate than with a chocolate orange tart!  This tart is rich, creamy and indiscernibly healthy. How you wonder? If you use coconut cream and a refined sugar-free dark chocolate it is gluten, dairy and refined sugar free, which seems surprising for how decadent it is. Even if you use full cream and 85% Lindt chocolate, it’s still a gluten free dessert with minimal added sugar! 

This makes our Chocolate Orange Tart the perfect to please both the health conscious and the more indulgent festive eaters. With that, we wish those celebrating a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

We are so grateful for your loyal support through out 2018. We wouldn’t have been able to make it this far with out our most important ingredient – you our customer. Your continued support has allowed us to grow the team and get more creative in the process. We hope to continue to deliver the freshest, tastiest hand picked fruits to you and to continue to brighten up your days.

Chocolate Orange Tart (makes one 21cm tart)  

1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients for the crust

  • 120g gluten free flour
  • 120g buckwheat flour
  • 2 free range eggs
  • 100g butter
  • 100g coconut sugar
  • Zest of one orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 tea spoon cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt

Ingredients for the filling

  • 1 ¼ cups full cream or coconut cream
  • 2 tea spoon orange zest from the Fruitful Day Oranges
  • 300g dark chocolate (I used 85%)
  • 2 eggs
  • Pinch of salt

METHOD for the crust

  1. Remove butter from the fridge to soften and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
  2. Add all dry crust ingredients to a mixing bowl; gluten free flour, buckwheat flour, coconut sugar, zest, cinnamon & salt and sift together.
  3. Chop butter into cubes and whisk eggs in a separate bowl.
  4. Put cubed butter and eggs into the bowl with the dry ingredients and bring together as a dough in your hands.
  5. Wrap dough in the cling film and allow to harden in the fridge for one hour.
  6. Grease a 21cm tart tin or silicon mould with ghee or coconut oil.
  7. Once the dough is set, remove from the fridge and place onto a clean, dry floured surface.
  8. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a flat circular shape. You may not be able to roll it very thinly as gluten-free crusts are much harder to work with.
  9. Once in the mould, you can press with your fingers to even it out across the bottom and up the sides. Then prick the crust with a fork all over.
  10. Cut out a circle of baking paper approximately 30 cm in diameter.
  11. Place this over your pie crust and pour some rice or beans into the centre to hold the paper down – this is called ‘blind baking’ – it allows the crust to bake evenly on it’s own before putting the filling in. The beans or rice act as weights to hold the baking paper down.
  12. Blind bake for 15 minutes and then set aside while making the filling

 

METHOD for the filling

  1. Put cream in a heavy bottom saucepan on medium heat and add the zest and salt. Bring to a simmer and stir.
  2. While cream is heating, finely chop 230g chocolate and place in a wide bottomed bowl.
  3. Pour 90% of the cream onto the chocolate and let it sit for 3 – 5 minutes. This allows the cream to melt the chocolate.
  4. Pour the remaining cream into a bowl with the eggs and whisk quickly. This tempers the egg mixture so the eggs don’t curdle when they come in contact with the hot cream.
  5. Next, add the egg and cream mixture to the chocolate and cream mixture. Stir with a whisk from the centre outwards until everything in incorporated evenly.
  6. Pour this mixture into the crust and bake for 18 minutes or until the chocolate is set in the centre.
  7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
  8. Remove from tart tin and garnish with remaining chocolate and orange zest.

 

Persimmon Spiced Tea

This time of the year is always special. It’s a wonderful time to reflect on 2018 and get excited about the year ahead. It’s a time to be grateful for family and friends near and far.  It’s also a time to stop and appreciate yourself. Taking care of yourself, your mental well-being, and your physical well-being is one of the most important things you can do. So take a moment and appreciate what you’ve done for your health and happiness in 2018. Use this time during the holidays to slow down and simply enjoy the joy of the festive period.

With that in mind, what better way to get into the holiday spirit than by enjoying a spiced tea infused with fruits, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise! There’s no reason to even buy a tea bag, you can actually make your own and create all sorts of unique flavors. For instance, you can use citrus zest, any sliced winter fruits, and add in herbs like mint and a sweetener in the form of honey or dates. 

The combinations are endless and we’re sure you’ll enjoy slowing down for a moment once you have a delicious cup of tea.

Persimmon Spiced Tea (makes approximately 1 liter of tea)

 

1 – 2 hours depending how strong you like the tea!

Ingredients

  • 2 liters of water
  • 1 table spoon finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 6 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 sliced persimmons from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 12 cloves
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 tea spoon peppercorns
  • 2 crushed cardamom pods

METHOD

  1. Add all ingredients to a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.
  2. You can simmer the tea for almost 2 hours which really concentrates the flavour and makes it very spicy. You should taste it after 30 minutes and again every 15 minutes. Then stop the simmering process when you are happy with the flavour. The longer it simmers for, the more the flavour is concentrated.

Poached Pears

Sometimes the simplest things, are the best! Pears are a beautiful fruit to enjoy in the winter while they’re ripe and delicious. While traditionally this dish, poached pears, is made with a lot of sugar, this is a healthier alternative that doesn’t compromise on flavor. A few tablespoons of honey, plus the sweetness from the added citrus fruits concentrated down, makes a really amazing tasty syrup. 

This dessert looks really impressive on a plate, but is so simple and easy to do. Don’t forget to cut the bottoms off the pears when you’re preparing a plate, so they can stand up on their own.

If you’re wondering why pears should be part of your diet, they contain high levels of antioxidants, vitamin C, and fiber. That means all sorts of good things like better digestion, guarding against age-related diseases, and having anti-inflammatory effects. Go on and enjoy your dessert!

Poached Pears

 

1 – 1.5 hours

 Ingredients

  • 1 liter of water
  • 3 pears from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 2 crushed cardamom pods
  • 2 table spoons of honey
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 star anise
  • 12 cloves
  • 1 thinly sliced orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 2 tea spoons finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 table spoon of apple cider vinegar
  • Ice cream/full cream to serve (optional)

METHOD

  1. Peel the pears but leave the stems attached.
  2. Cut out a baking paper circle the same diameter as your saucepan – you can do this by placing the saucepan down on the baking paper and drawing around the base of the saucepan with a pencil.
  3. Place all ingredients in the saucepan and place the baking paper on top. It should float on the surface of the water – this keeps the pears fully submerged while they are poaching.
  4. Bring to a gentle simmer and allow to simmer for 1 hour. After 1 hour check the softness of the pears. If they need more time continue cooking, however, be careful not to overcook or they will be mushy. The amount of time they need depends on the size and ripeness of the pear.
  5. Once the pears are soft, pour the liquid through a strainer into a bowl. Set the pears aside, discard the spices and place the liquid back in the saucepan.
  6. Now on high heat, boil the poaching liquid until it is reduced to around 2 table spoons. At this point it will be viscous and syrupy.
  7. Place the pears in a bowl and pour the syrup over. Add ice cream or cream as the combination of the hot pears and cold ice cream is great!

Granola & Apple Compote Jars

It’s been a while since we posted a recipe on our blog, but we’re back!  This time with a delicious home made granola recipe, which is much better than any store bought granola that often contains added sugar, palm oil and non-gluten free grains. Once the granola is pre-prepared, it is very quick breakfast you can put in a jar and take with you to work or as a post-workout snack.  In our jars, we’ve paired the homemade granola with apple compote and yoghurt, but you can get creative with just about any fruit! This time of year pears are some of our favorites, for instance.

We have some more exciting recipes coming up in the next weeks so keep checking back!

Granola & Apple Compote Jars 

1 hour

INGREDIENTS for the apple compote

  • 4 apples from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil

INGREDIENTS for the granola 

  • ½ cup fresh shredded coconut OR dried desiccated
  • ½ cup oats
  • ½ cup walnuts from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ½ cup hazelnuts from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ½ cup peanuts from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ½ cup pumpkin seeds from the Fruitful Day Box  ½ cup sunflower seeds from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 4 tbsp honey OR maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ginger powder
  • ½ cup cranberries from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ½ cup raisins from the Fruitful Day Box

METHOD for the apple compote

  1. Preheat over to 180 degrees C.
  2. Peel apples and chop into quarters.
  3. Place on a baking tray, sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut oil and mix around with your hands.
  4. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes until soft.
  5. Remove from the oven. You can either eat the apples as they are or put in a food processor for a more compote like consistency. Alternatively, you can cut them into smaller pieces at the beginning before roasting for a chunky compote.
  6. To serve, layer the granola, compote and yoghurt into a jar in any order.