Home Made Chocolate and Traveling News

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It´s been a long time, that I did not post anything. I am very sorry. Life just got me spinned up in the famous web of “to-do-lists”. I was very busy, so there was limited time for creativity. But now I am back. The reason I was so busy is good news. I am going to travel from now on (tomorrow) without return date. It´s very exciting for me and it is even harder to believe, that I really made it through all the to-do-lists without going crazy… Because there is a lot that needs to be done when traveling for unlimited time. But now, ready to go!

I will try to discover some delicious recipes on the go. Anyway, you can follow my traveling on melea-und-eddi.tumblr.com. Eddi is the name of a car…in case you were wondering :)

But now, before I leave, here is a very simple, at the same time very tasty recipe how to make your own chocolate. I can totally recommend trying this, because it is easy and you can store the chocolate in the fridge, for a very long time. I have no idea, how long really, but I guess delicious as it is, it wont last so long. And you can surprise your guests with this!

So here we go. You will need a hot water bath.

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Home Made Chocolate

1 part coconut oil
2,5 parts cacao powder
0,5 parts agave sirup

To spice it up

hazelnuts
walnuts
any nuts you like
cacao nibs
chili
vanilla
salt

Prepare a form with a sheet of baking paper. Fill in your favorite nuts or seeds or just plain air.

Above, there is just the equation. You choose how much chocolate you want to make. I think I took 1/2 cup of coconut oil and then adjusted the other ingredients.
You melt the coconut oil and then you add the agave sirup and the cacao powder. Stir until everything is well combined and be careful, that the whole thing does not get too hot. Otherwise it changes consistency from liquid to cloddy and you might be very sad (it happened once to me…). If you want to add chili, vanilla or salt, now is the perfect time. Pour the liquid chocolate mass (I am sure you tried it already :)) into the prepared form. Put into fridge or alternative into your freezer if you are too impatient to wait (I put it into the freezer). Wait until it is set. Cut into funny pieces.

E voilà, here it is. Your first homemade chocolate. You did it. It was easy, wasn´t it? And you know exactly what the ingredients are!


 

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Banana Spinach Smoothie

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Hello everyone. There is spinach in the blender. You can see it :) It is very green and I like that. I wanted to post this recipe a long time now. So here it is. Drinking green smoothies is an easy way to get good amounts of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and some carbohydrates in one glass.


Banana Spinach Smoothie

3 cups fresh spinach
1 banana
3 dates
pinch of salt
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients with your blender. Add more water, if it is not liquid enough. Add more dates, or a bit of agave sirup, if it is not sweet enough for you. The smoothies I drink could be too green for green smoothie beginners. So if you are a little skeptical, you can substitute one cup of spinach with one extra banana. Have fun with the color anyway :)


top_19-6-2014_spinach_banana_smoothie_245 I remembered to take the photo after blending a little… top_19-6-2014_spinach_banana_smoothie_235 Green, green, green!

Summertime Berry Banana Ice Creme Cake

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Seeing these photos, I want to eat this cake again and this time alone :) No, no, no. I like to share… I made this cake for my mothers birthday and she was very happy about it.

This cake is only fruits and nuts. And it is so delicious. Now, summertime is time for berries, so let´s eat many of them.

The inspiration and almost all the recipe I got from This Rawsome Vegan Life. One thing I added is the cake base. The preparation of this cake takes about 1 1/2 hours. So this cake takes some time, but as you can guess from the pictures, it is worth all the effort :).

Remember to soak the cashew nuts about 6 hours before you begin to make the cake

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Base

1 1/2 cup Almonds
1 cup Dates
3 tablespoon Coconut Oil
Pinch of Salt

Melt the coconut oil. You can fill it in a cup and then put the cup in hot water. Put the almonds in your food processor first. Pulse a few times. Add the dates and the coconut oil. Mix in your food processor until it sticks together as a kind of dough.
Press into a spring form pan.

The rest of the recipe you find here. I used fresh fruits instead of frozen ones.


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hmmmm…

 

Banana Chocolate Coconut Creme Cake Suprise

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This cake is a cake surprise, because you may not believe at first what the ingredients are. It´s amazing, because it is only fruits and vegetables. Yes you read it right :) Vegetables. I was so stoked about the idea that I had to try it.

The main actors here are chickpeas, avocados, bananas, coconut and cacao.

I like to sprout the chickpeas about two days before I make the cake. Therefor I soak them for one night (8 hours) and then put them in a sprouting device and rinse them 2 or 3 times a day. When they have a white tail,I cook them for about 10 minutes. There is a big discussion about, if it is advisable to eat sprouted chickpeas raw or not. Chickpeas contain a toxin called lectin, before they are sprouted. Some say this toxin is gone after 2 days of sprouting, others recommend to sprout them way longer (up to 7 days) or cook them for 5-10 min, so the toxin is definitely gone. As I am not sure yet about what fits for me, I will stay on the save side in this recipe. You can also cook the chickpeas for one hour after soaking them. The soaking process is the only thing you can not bypass, unless you use chickpeas from the tin. Which is perfectly possible (my english is not the best, but you understand everything I guess :)).

You will need a blender and/or a food processor for this recipe. Well, if you find other ways, tell me in the comments. I am always interested in innovative mixing possibilities (as this one here: how to create a human powered bike blender)


Base

1 cup chickpeas
1 cup coconut flakes
1 cup dates
1/4 cup coconut oil

Put everything together into your food processor and mix until it is a dough like consistency.

Chocolate Creme

3 small avocados (or two big ones)
1/4 cup agave sirup
1/3 cup cacao powder (use raw cacao powder, if you can afford it)
1/4 cup coconut oil

Blend all ingredients together with your blender, handheld blender or food processor until very smooth. I haven´t tried it yet, but maybe a fork works as well (might take some more time though…)

Layering and Decorating

3 bananas
cacao nibs
coconut flakes

Press half of the dough into the bottom of a spring form pan. Put half of the chocolate creme on top of that. Put this into the freezer and wait for 1 hour. Now press another layer of the other half of the dough on top of the chocolate cream. Cut the bananas and put them on this layer (save some banana slices for the decoration). Put the other half of the chocolate cream on top of that. Garnish with some banana slices, coconut flakes and cacao nibs.

I would put the cake into the freezer for at least another hour, to let is sit. You can also store it there if you want to eat it some days later.


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This cake has a special story, because it landed upside down on the kitchen floor… It was a big mess. We were scraping all the good chocolate creme from the floor back into the form. But somehow it looked beautiful in the end.

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Be aware, it is a pacman cake :D

Elder Flower Lemon Water

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The scent and the taste of elder flowers for me is clearly related to the beginning of summer! Sweet and intense! So let´s bring some summer into the kitchen! The Name of this recipe is already telling you all ingredients, which you`ll need for the preparation. It is really simple. When gathering the elder flowers, make sure not to take them near big roads. Otherwise there will be exhaust fumes in your water later. The elder blooms from the begin of May until end of June. The elder flowers have a richer taste, when gathered after good weather periods. The outcome of this recipe is very refreshing.


Elder Flower Lemon Water

2 elder flower umbels
1 untreated lemon
2 Liter of fresh water

Wash the lemon under hot water. Cut it into thin slices. Add everything into a pot or a bowl which you can cover. Leave it there over night. You can also use the ingredients for another infusion.

Et voilà!


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