Rhubarb Almond Ginger Cake

Along with the Coconut Lavender Ice Cream recipe I shared with you guys, I also made this rhubarb almond ginger cake for my mom’s birthday. It is a simple recipe to make and is healthier than you might’ve thought.

This is a moist and fluffy cake that has a mixture of the tartness from the rhubarb, the sweetness from the coconut sugar and the healthy addition of ginger. Instead of sour cream, I used Greek yogurt with great success.

Also very easy to make and clean up since it’s a one-bowl recipe! I love one bowl recipes.

Banana Açai Smoothie Bowl

Açai has been everywhere on Instagram so when I saw a packet of açai puree at Trader Joe’s, I jumped at the chance to finally make my own açai bowl. First of all, for those of you who wonder what açai is, it’s a berry that comes from Brazil and it contains a lot of antioxidants. I’m not sure about the rest of the claims, such as preventing diseases and weight loss, but açai sure is delicious.

I always thought it was pronounced a-KAY, but it’s not! The real spelling is açai, with a c-cedilla, so that means the ‘c’ is said softly and the ‘i’ is not silent. The correct pronunciation is ah-sah-EE. You’ll thank me in the future when you’re faced with the prospect of ordering something with açai and don’t want to embarrass yourself pronouncing it.

I added 1/2 cup almond milk in my açai bowl, which was a bit too much because it doesn’t have the consistency of scoop-able ice cream, so I revised the recipe and cut the milk down to 1/3 cup to make it thicker.

• Servings: 2
• Time: 10 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

A smooth and delicious bowl of creamy goodness. Made with bananas, blueberries, açai and spinach, this is sure to subside the sweet cravings for the day.
Ingredients:
2 bananas, peeled
1 packet of Trader Joe’s açai puree, put under warm water for 5 seconds
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup spinach, washed
1/3 cup almond milk

Instructions:

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth and thick. It should have the consistency of ice cream. Divide smoothie into two bowls and enjoy right away with toppings such as berries, granola and coconut flakes.

Kohlrabi and Zucchini Fritters with Wasabi Mayo

I didn’t even know kohlrabi existed until a few months ago. It was my brother’s birthday, and someone decided to give him seeds to plant in the garden. I looked at the package, frowning at the foreign name, and that was my first encounter with kohlrabi. Fast forward to the present, and the seeds have transformed into lovely green bulbs with leaves on top. These fritters are the first time I used the vegetable, so I was quite surprised by how hard of an effort it took to cut into it! I also recognized a smell but couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Of course, my mind needed to know, so one online search later and I came up with Martha Stewart’s definition of kohlrabi: it’s like a cross between a radish, jicama, broccoli, and collard greens. And that was it! My nose had detected the radish smell. But when the kohlrabi’s cooked, it doesn’t really taste like radish but more of a mixture between broccoli, zucchini and potato. Strange, huh?

These fritters are a wondrous combination of the strange veggie named kohlrabi, zucchini, egg, breadcrumbs and spices. It’s crunchy and soft (oxymoron point in English class!) plus the fritters smell so good when they’re cooking in the pan. It’s excellent with the wasabi mayo, which gives it an extra pop that I love.

Fig, Banana and Peach Smoothie

After a 6-week long holiday in Europe, I’m finally back home. It was a beautiful trip, which I will post about later, but for now, you’ll have to content with a smoothie recipe. One thing about traveling is that you can’t always find the healthiest foods all the time, so I’m trying even harder to eat healthy now that I’m home. For example, this was my first smoothie in 6 weeks!!! And I think I passed my monthly quota of meat and potatoes by a mile. Whoops.

This smoothie is the sweetest smoothie I’ve ever tasted, and this is without any additional sugars. The sweetness mainly comes from the figs, which came from our own fig tree! The rest of our garden exploded as well, including the lettuce and zucchini. The only thing that kinda turned for worse was the grass. Brown grass is not that nice… Anyways, I’ll try to finish up the vacation post soon (hopefully), and make more food!

Greek Yogurt Healthy-Freddo with Berries

The day I’m done school the weather decides to be blistering hot. Well, blistering hot compared to the rest of the year. It’s 30°C here and I know that might not seem hot in other places, but trust me, here it’s incredible.

I decided to beat the heat by making a cold dessert, and what better than the Italian dessert Semifreddo, which literally means half-cold? I was looking at Elisabeth Prueitt’s cookbook, titled Tartine All Day, and I happened upon the most gorgeous picture of chocolate Semifreddo. I was so hyped to make it until I saw the ingredients and realized I didn’t have half of them and it wasn’t as healthy I would have liked.

No-Bake Matcha Tahini Energy Bites

Sometimes we all need a bit of extra energy. Especially when it comes in the form of a sweet and nutty ball with matcha and dates. These bites literally melt in your mouth! And I absolutely adore the soft texture of the dates with a bit of crunch from the almonds and chia seeds.

I call this the easiest and healthiest dessert, snack, whatever, invented! (My dad called them donkey shit but whatever, it’s the taste that counts, right?) It only takes 5 minutes to blend all 5 ingredients in a food processor before popping them in the fridge for a few hours. I may or may not have also licked the pot sparkling clean while waiting for the bites to firm up.

Matcha Coconut Smoothie

My birthday was a few days ago and I made the most chocoholic cake ever. It was a layer of chocolate cake (from Minimalist Baker) with Greek yogurt chocolate mousse (from Half Baked Harvest) topped with melted chocolate, but it wasn’t healthy enough and didn’t look that nice to post, but it was so goddamn good.

These matcha lattes will just have to replace the cake :(. Last week was so hot (well, compared to our rainy weather), and I decided to make a cool drink. The smooth and cold coconut milk mixed with the sweet and green tea flavour of matcha definitely works together.

Avocado, Spinach and Brie Sandwiches

We’re approaching finals again and I’m relieved that provincials have been removed. I still need to do a few final exams, but I think it’ll be okay. I predict that food will become my best friend during those stressful times, which is why I’m trying to eat really healthy now so I’ll be prepared for those food urges later on.

Last week, I made Style Sweet CA’s lemon mousse cake with raspberries and it was so good! There were a lot of eggs in it, but the result was mouth-watering. I changed a few things to make it healthier, and I was very pleased with the cake. Probably going to post it on Instagram soon since it looked so good.

Matcha and Sesame Mousse Cake

A week ago, I tried to make matcha cake with white chocolate ganache. Sadly, it didn’t work and turned out kind of dry. So I tried again this week, but with two layers of sesame cake and matcha mousse in between, which turned out way better than my first attempt except for two things.

Firstly, the matcha mousse was not firm enough, so it kind of drooped (as you can see in the picture but that’s because there’s no eggs in it!). There was also the problem with the sweetness. Because I was trying to make it healthy, I reduced the sweetness, but since matcha powder is bitter, the cake was a bit too bitter for some, especially with the extra matcha powder on top. I thought it was just right though, but that’s probably because I like the bitterness of green tea in general.

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Omg, I can’t believe I just made those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (you know, the ones with the orange package that every peanut butter lover goes crazy over?) in a much healthier and delicious version. I’m over the moon right now with joy!

With only 5 ingredients and a bit of modifying with Beaming Baker’s recipe, I ended up with three decadent and sweet chocolate peanut butter cups. I wanted to make more, but one look at my overflowing freezer and I knew I was never going to be able to fit a large 12-muffin pan in there. So I had to content myself with 3 individual metal tins lined with cupcake liners that I kind of inserted in the nooks and crannies of the freezer. By the way, this is totally worth making and since the recipe only makes three, you won’t be wasting a lot of ingredients if you don’t like it (which has about 0.000001% chance of happening because who can resist peanut butter and chocolate? Not me, that’s for sure).