Who doesn’t love chocolate?!
Is that a silly question?
Friday’s seem to be my day of inspiration in the kitchen. Last Friday I felt like something different to start my day, following my yoga practice, so I created a chocolate smoothie! A mango, banana & cacao smoothie. It was divine & full of nutrition…which makes it a perfectly suitable breakfast choice! Or in fact, any time of the day.
Some of the benefits in such a simple smoothie include:
Cacao benefits – aids in weight loss, promotes heart health & healthy skin due to its high amount of antioxidants, it’s mood enhancing, an aphrodisiac and of course being a superfood is packed full of vitamins and minerals.
Banana benefits – very high in potassium and low in sodium which promotes an alkaline condition in the blood and therefore the body. When your body is in an alkaline state it has a greater ability to heal itself. Bananas are also rich in serotonin & norepinephrine which can help reduce depression.
Mango benefits – rich in vitamin A which is essential for skin health and during times of infection, viruses, pregnancy, lactation and the ‘pill’ also depletes vitamin A (as well as B vitamins plus more). The beta carotene supports growth, strong bones and teeth, healthy skin, hair & eyes. Mangoes also have a powerful ability to purify the blood, normalise blood pressure and assist the digestion of protein foods, due to their high content of organic chlorine (which is also found in a high amount in tomatoes). Vitamin C, potassium and magnesium are also prominent.
Getting back to my creativity in the kitchen on Friday morning…
I had a full day of teaching ahead of me so decided I would experiment with my friends cold press juicer that I am minding at the moment & make a green juice (my Champion Juicer, although amazing, does not tend to get a lot of juice out of green leaves – so i was excited by my next experiment). I had lots of Kang Kong left from the markets, as well as some coriander, parsley, kale, celery leaves and celery stalks, ginger and a little apple. My green juice became a potent way of getting a large amount of chlorophyll to support my blood, brain & nervous system. These greens would have also provided my body with a lot of calcium, vitamin K (for blood coagulation), folate (for health red blood cell production), cleansing the blood plus so many other benefits!
I had so much coriander from the local market that I decided to make some pesto with it. I soaked some almonds overnight and to break up the strong flavour of coriander I added a little kang kong and parsley with a few leaves of basil. With garlic, beautiful olive oil that I picked up from an olive grove in South Australia, sea salt & 1 heaped teaspoon of savoury yeast flakes (to create the parmesan cheese flavour), my pesto was ready to be eaten. This delicious vegan pesto was perfect on my freshly made homemade kamut sourdough bread. I took this for lunch.
If you are wanting any details on how to make your own sourdough bread, please ask. It is another great way of getting fermented foods into our diet, in order to help feed our healthy gut flora. This assists in keeping our immune and digestive systems strong.