5 x BREAKFAST

For me breakfast is the best meal of the day; my schedule is such that I usually have the most time in the morning.

Apple-banana porridge on oats from our farm with raisins and black currants plus a little bit of almond butter on top. I cook the apple with the oats and put the banana in about half way trough, but the berries and raisins after. A basic porridge becomes more fancy that way, almost like a dessert. A small spoon of peanut butter, instead of almond such, is also good.

But here we have it on bread instead; peanut butter banana sandwhich, an apple and a hot cocoa drink with almond milk, vanilla, charadmom, coconut sugar and some cinnamon.

And peanut butter with citrus! Who would have known those two tastes would blend together so well! Peanut butter banana-.sandwhich with cumqats - I have a little tiny tree in the house and Dag kept picking the fruits off. So they ended up on my breakfast sandwhich.
Also, avocado sandwich with sundried tomato paste and chive, lemon water and some strawberry-rhubarb compote.

First outdoors breakfast of this year! Black coffee and raw bars with berries and cocoa.

(And wowza, now I am totally going to renew myself and add a fifth thing instead of my normal four):
Brekkie no5 is a smoothie made of mango-orange oat milk (oat milk with mango pulp and orange juice in it. Nice in drinks but terrible on müsli. Just sayin'), banana and frozen strawberries, together with some dates with almond butter.

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PUDDING

Chia chocolate pudding. The kind of dish (or even, perhaps, treat?) that I am not really sure if it's just kind of edible or actually good.

I've made a few sets of chia pudding, or porridge (or slime) and they have never been much to cheer about. Very 'meh'. So why would I still keep making it? A) Because I still have a lot of chia seeds left over to be used up and B) you know when you sort of get this feeling you should like something (happensa lot with so called "superfoods") because you would like to like it and everyone says it's really good and also good for you? I kind of got that going on with that pudding now.

God damn it a (very) long time ago I used to make a small cup of linseed slime that I tried to get down every morning because it's really good for the stomach. The first mornings it was rather OK but after a while it just got unbearable. I mixed it with porridge but I could still feel the slimyness trough. During the same time I was also drinking apple cider vinegar in the morning (yeah those were the gourmand-mornings of 2001); a couple of spoons in a big glass of water. Cleansing and good for metabolism and all that. So they say. But it was the same with the vinegar, after a while I had to start pinching my nose and thing happy thoughts to get it down. Yuck. But that was then and now is now -I eventually (quite fast actually) gave up on the linseed slime. And vinegar. So one'd think that I now at this age would just forget about any self torment when it comes to what I ingest and move on with my life without any more superfood slime or chia seeds.
But then we get back to point A and the fact that those small little f**ckers don't come cheap.

What I had been missing all the time was of course cocoa.  Because anything related to chocolate makes most things better. And  ta-da, that chia jar of mine is started emptying up and, like I said, it might even be that it does so in a very tasty way.

The chocolate chia pudding (< bolded for those who think there is way much text here by now and just want to know what's in the cup in the picture without having to read it all):
So my chocolate chia pudding consists of chia seeds (surprise!) and vegetable milk. I use almond, but hazel or maybe coconut milk (not the canned one but the runny milky one that for example Go Green sells) is next on the list to try.  Then in with some vanilla powder, cocoa powder (quite a lot) and coconut sugar. I make it semi firm, with the milk covering the seeds well before I leave it to set over night or at least for some hours. I have a jar of lingonberry powder that I also add a little bit of. That gives a some extra sting. You can also add a tiny little pinch of salt.

When the pudding is ready I whip it a bit and mix in black currants and sprinkle coconut flakes on top. This goes well with  banana too, and with some raisins or finely chopped dried apricots mixed in. I am thinking of perhaps running the pudding in the blender when done though, to get it smooth.

Also, I've noticed a lot of small things taste better when served out of a coffee up. How is that one may wonder? The reason is probably the same that makes any beverage taste better when had out of a mason jar (according to the young and hip at least).

Do you have any food or dishes that you can't really decide on, yuck or yum?

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RAW MANGO CHEESECAKE

Spring is here, Easter around the corner, pretty much all food featured anywhere is yellow.

So I am not going to be any worse - here's a yellow cake suitable for the season! (Or at any other time of the year, of course.)

You will need:


A couple of mangoes, cashews, pecan nuts and almonds, lemon juice, dried dates, dried pricots and cocoa butter.

This recipe makes for a rather small cake, 20-25cm in diameter.

Let the apricots and dates soak for about 10-15minutes in water so that they soften up.
I used six (small) apricots and 2 dates.

Make the crust first. Mix almonds and pecans in a mixer; I used 1,5dl of both. You can use just pecans too if you so like (and perhaps live somewhere where pecans are not ridiculously expensive). You don't need to mix them all smooth, leave a little crunch. Add the apricots and dates plus a pinch of salt and mix.


Press the crust out in a baking mold. Add a baking paper or plastic film if the mold does not have detachable edges. I usually put a bit of baking paper in the bottom anyway.

Put the crust the fridge while you make the filling.


First start by puttig the cocoa butter, 1-2 tbs, to melt in a cup or glass placed in a bowl with hot water.

Mix 200g cashews along with some squeezed lemon juice in the mixer (about half a lemon). You can add a few drops of lemon more after a while to make the mixing easier. Use a spatula to push down any cashew crumbs that rise along the edges of the mixing bowl. The mixture has to be very, very smooth. It has to be all smooth before you add anything else; you can not "go back a step with this one".  The mix will start forming a ball when it is ready.


Slice one mango and add it in pieces. Mix smooth.
If you want you can add in a spoon of honey or agave (or some sweetener of your choice), but it will be fine without.


When the cocoa butter has become liquid (add some more hot water to the bowl if it has not yet melted), pour it in a thin string while mixing. Mix for a while so the cocoa butter blends in well.
The cocoa butter is used for firming the filling. You could also do this with coconut oil.

Take a couple of slices of the other mango and put it in the mixer with the filling. Mix for a while so the mango gets a bit chopped up and mixed in, but it does not need to dissolve completely.
(Use the rest of the mango for decoration on the cake or just go ahead and eat it while you wait for the cake to be ready.)


Take out the crust and pour the fill on. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours or in the freezer for about half an hour before serving.

Then enjoy!



Next time I think I will take some bits of dried mango and grate in on top of the cake for some extra mango-ness!

The cake will stay fresh some 3-4 days when kept cool.

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