coconut

As school progresses I learn a lot about the natural state of the human body and the conditions under it works the best. It’s nothing like our life, like my life for that matter. Our body is not designed to resist stress 5 days a week from 8 to 5. If you are in a constant fight or flight mode your body suppresses all of his other functions and thus making you feel fatigued, mentally, spiritually, sexually, etc.

We have to take time to relax, to have deep breaths, to meditate, enjoy life, do what you love and not worry. For me, a big part of this process is food, anything that has to do with it and naturally I crave for sweet, chocolatey treats.

Most of the times when I prepare something, I start with my cravings and work from there with what I have. This time I wanted something creamy like a chocolate mousse and with a crunchy layer so I came up with this.

What will you need:

For the creamy layer I used: For the crunchy layer I used:

1 avocado 4 tbs of sunflower seeds

50 gr creamed coconut 1 tbs honey

3 tbs honey 1 teaspoon cocoa powder

3 tbs cocoa powder

60 ml water or almond milk

3-4 drops of vanilla extract

You can skip the creamed coconut it you don’t have any, just add a bit more milk.

How to:

1. In a small bowl I mixed the seeds with the honey and cocoa powder, split the mixture in half and layered it in a small glass bowl.

2. Heat up the water or milk and melt the creamed coconut in it.Toss all ingredients for the chocolate cream into the blender, blend until smooth, layer on top of the sunflower seeds.

This is it! It keeps in the fridge, but it’s going to harden a bit.

I’m not calling this vegan because I used honey. Yet again I don’t really care about labels as long as my food is healthy. An yes, I used organic honey which I received from my dear mother.

As everybody and anybody I do like to eat something sweet once in a while. Even though I take all the sugar I need from my day to day food, I sometimes crave for something special.

Why do we need sugar in our body?

The answer is that we don’t actually need sugar, we need it’s molecular form of glucose in particular. Glucose is found in carbohydrates and it is the energy your body uses to keep going, I mean it is literally fuel to your cells. It is metabolized in the blood stream and our body either uses this glucose imediately or stores it in our liver or muscle cells for later use. You can find carbohydrates in mostly any foods: fruits, vegetables, cereals, grains.

Does fructose do the same thing as glucose?

Not really. Fructose is only metabolized in the liver and it’s not our body’s prefered source of energy. Because it doesn’t stimulate the release of insulin which is a regulating hormone it’s a much more dangerous type of sugar and recent descoveries suggest that it behaves more like a fat in your body.

So, why is added sugar unhealthy?

Added sugar it’s found mostly in processed food. When sugar is eaten your body separates it in glucose and fructose and while it uses glucose as an energy source simultaneously stores fructose as fat. This fat collects in your liver and around your other organs which is much worse that the fat under your skin. It also leads to insulin resistance which creates metabolic problems such as diabetes.

So you do need a type of sugar but not the type that you find in refined carbohydrates ( like white pasta, white rice, white sugar even the brown one, white bread ), the type you find in sugary treats and drinks and the type you find in processed food. That is bad sugar, it’s gonna give you an extra something ( hint *health problems ) besides the energy your brain and muscles need.

Stay close to and eat fresh fruits and veggies, wholemeal cereals and grains, nuts and seeds. When you eat this way you have a balanced intake of sugars so you can use natural sweeteners like honey, stevia extract, maple syrup because I’m sure you’re not gonna mindlessly pour it on your every meal.

That being sad let’s move on to the good stuff.

Raw Coconut and Cacao Cake

Ingredients:

Crust

1 cup hard nuts ( almonds, hazelnuts, etc. you can even use oats )

3 tbs coconut oil

Coconut filling

1 cup shredded coconut

2 tbs coconut oil

2 tbs honey or prefered sweetener

1tbs water

Cocoa topping

4 tbs cocoa powder

4 tbs coconut oil

2 tbs honey or prefered sweetner

Method:

1. Use a cake form of 15 cm or 6 inch diameter. To be honest I just used a cling film lined soup plate.

2. For the crust blend the nuts in a food processor until they are finely chopped. Add the melted coconut ( use bain marie to keep it raw ), blend it into the nuts and pour it in the form. Use a spoon to level it.

2. Melt the coconut oil, blend all the ingredients for the coconut filling, pour it onto the crust and level it.

4. Again, melt the coconut oil, mix it with the cocoa and sweetener and pour it over the coconut filling.

5. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Eat it! Enjoy!

For me a serving is enough, even though this was so good I ate more 🙂