No Need to Feel Guilty: Chocolate Banana Mousse for the soul

Let’s get real here. We all love dessert. If you know someone who says they don’t like desserts, they are either lying or are the living dead. Stab them. Stab them in the dick. Do it now! Save yourself!

The most commonly loved dessert item amongst most people is none other than the wonderful chocolate. 9/10 people swear they could live off of it if they were allowed to by society and nutritionists, sadly we can’t, and more often than not, most of the chocolate in our lives comes from processed candy sources which defile the very concept of chocolate, transforming what was once a pure and antioxidant rich item into a sugar coated joke.

Today, and over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing with you random recipes for utilizing chocolate to satisfy that sweet tooth of yours without messing up your nutrition plan. Heck, some of these will have enough protein to battle it out against your average steak!

Let’s get crackin’! Today’s recipe is none other the coveted Chocolate Banana Mousse!

Yes, mousse is composed of cream, a fuckton of butter and a clusterfuck of sugar, which is why the mousse in this recipe won’t be your traditional type and will require a bit of creativity on your part. There are always alternatives when it comes to cooking and baking and it’s all about reading up and learning how you can use them.

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• 8 pitted/skinned ripe black dates
• 1/2 can coconut milk [you can find those in Alfa or Metro or Seoudi supermarkets]
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder [Hershey’s unsweetened from Metro/Alfa/Seoudi supermarkets] (can be replaced with 2 scoops of chocolate flavor whey protein)
• 1 Tbsp natural peanut/almond butter
• 1 Tbsp honey (optional)
• A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Pop open the can of coconut milk, but make sure you grab the thick Thai style coconut milk, not the lighter/thinner version as the higher fat content of real coconut milk is necessary to make a good mousse.
2. Pour half of the coconut milk into a food processor/blender, add the dates, bananas, vanilla extract and peanut butter.
3. After blending for a minute, add the cocoa powder (or whey protein) plus the salt. Pulse a few times then scrape off any chunks which gathered on the sides of the container and continue blending until you have a super smooth consistency.
4. Transfer the mixture into a deep bowl then start whipping the mixture continuously for 5 to 10 minutes to incorporate air into the mousse. If you’re an experienced baker, you’ll already know that mousse mixtures don’t experience a big increase in volume on account of whipping the way heavy cream or egg whites get volumized.
5. Pour your mixture into smaller individual bowls, cover them with saran wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so before consumption. You can always garnish with berries or fresh banana.

This definitely hits the sweet tooth every time. As mentioned you can make it a protein snack/dessert by replacing normal unsweetened cocoa powder with chocolate flavored whey protein scoops.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you!

Pancakes: The All-Time Naughty Breakfast Favorite (Or does it have to be?)

Pancakes. Who doesn’t love the ever living shit out of a goddamn pancake? If you’ve raised your hand to indicate being such a person, please exit my blog and never visit it again. Then proceed to hang yourself from the gonads, because we don’t need your filthy genes in the gene pool.

Now that we’ve got that settled, back to our main topic. Pancakes. We all love them. Sadly for any who wants to be fit, they’re not exactly known for their muscle building/fat burning qualities. They’re sugary, heavy and we often go the extra mile of covering them with syrup and butter, because why the fuck not? If I’m clogging my goddamn arteries, I might as well be a bona fide artist at it, right?

Lucky for you youngling, I’m about to introduce you to one pancake recipe you can actually enjoy tomorrow morning that won’t only NOT add onto your expanding waistline, it may as well help you lose fat and pack on some muscle while you’re at it too!

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 1 banana
• 50 ml skimmed milk or almond milk (or zero sugar soy milk if you like that foul-tasting crap - which you can find in Gourmet or major chain supermarkets) Note: Ideally, this recipe would utilize sugar free almond milk, but since we live in a country where your only option to drink almond milk is to make your own, we’ll switch out to local ingredients for convenience’s sake. But lo and behold I've taught you how to make you own if you think it's worth it to really get the recipe just perfect!
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons flaked oats - my recommended brand is  Emco’s Flacons D’Avoine and you can find it in damn near any supermarket around the cereal section in Cairo. If you have access to Quinoa from abroad it'd be fantastic as well since it's gluten-free.
• 1 tablespoon of honey (I prefer Royal jelly honey - most brands are the same, Isis, Vitrac it doesn't really matter)

Process:

• Separate the yolk from the white of your eggs (you can discard the yolk or choose to use it for something else if you are baking for instance!)
• Mix all the above ingredients in a blender or food processor until the desired pancake mix consistency has been achieved.
• Add on a sauce pan on your stove on low heat (just like you would an omelette or normal pancake mix) until it cooks
• Keep dishing out those bad boys and stack’em up on your plate

Bonus Tip: You can dice up strawberries, bananas or kiwis to add atop your pancakes to add more vitamins, anti-oxidants and fibers. You can also add almonds, pistachios or cashews to taste. Seasoned kitchen veterans can also add a tablespoon of nut butter into the blender to ensure that nutty taste becomes part of every bite.

Additionally, you can make some high protein sauce for your pancakes using whey protein. All you need is to mix one scoop of whey protein (preferably Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard chocolate flavor - or any flavor you prefer, it’s your dish goddamit) with 50 ml of skimmed milk/almond milk (or the zero sugar soy milk) and heat in the microwave under high power for 20-30 seconds and voila! You now have some high protein (roughly 24-30 grams of protein) sauce syrup to garnish your high protein pancakes.

Personally, I think it’d be a crime if you don’t work your ass off in the gym or the track right after enjoying this beauty. Your body’s now loaded with complex carbs and a ton of protein; creating the optimal condition for you to dish out some exercises and sweat it up.

Let me know how it tastes and comment below with your own healthy twist or additions you can think of to make it even tastier (and healthier)

Self-Pampering 101: Working them Nuts

More often than not, you'll find that you are unkind to yourself, wishing that life would be kinder to you, that your friends would bestow their kindness upon you and that you deserve to be pampered.

It's probably best if you figure out that there's no one out there who can pamper you better than you. Naturally, in the realm of foods when the word "pamper" comes to mind you jump into cakes, burgers, pizza slices and other waist-expanding treats. That shouldn't be the case. No sir.

You can always take a crack at simple basic ingredients and give them the right twist to add buzzing flavor that'll definitely hit your sweet tooth while actually providing your body with high quality nutrients.

Let's take a crack at a breakfast meal. 

Let's say you're a sucker for peanut butter and jam. Sadly for you fitness freak in the making, jam is basically fruit (which is great) that has been literally drowned in processed sugar (not so great). What to do? How do you get your fix? That sweet, sweet sticky peanut butter. Peanut butter is actually quite amazing if you can get your hands on some high quality natural supplies - since the majority of the off-the-shelf products are super packed with sugars and preservatives. Peanuts are packed full of proteins, healthy fats as well as various antioxidants.

When it comes to peanut butter you've got two routes, one where you buy it from the grocery store (ready made and packaged) 

My recommended options include the Jif natural option (which you can usually find in Seoudi Markets around Cairo) as it's the one with the least ingredients (pretty much just peanuts and sugar and salt) unlike other brands which pack a ton of other processed chemicals and preservatives in there.

Your other option is a recently discovered treasure which I came across by chance, PB2 peanut butter powder which has powdered peanut butter that has 85% less fat [there's even an option with pre-blended-in dark chocolate!]. Where do I get this you ask - since I clearly do not live in a country where they create such awe inspiring wonders for my palette? Why, you can order it by messaging Superfoods Egypt of course! Their Facebook page also showcases plenty of super cool healthy products (including the most wonderful guilt-free probiotic chocolate bars ever!) Another option is ordering naturally made nut butters from Lettuceat, a Zamalek and Nasr City based entity which delivers across Cairo. They have some amazing samples of almond, cashew, peanut and hazelnut butters as well as many salads and sandwiches of the healthy variety. They deliver right to your doorstep, just give 19657 a call!

OR you can make your own! Sounds complicated, really isn't...

Steps for making your own peanut butter [Makes 1 1/2 cup of peanut butter]:

1. Get two cups of pre-roasted (raw) salted peanuts.
2. Spread on a baking pan.
3. Place in an oven (180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit  for 6 - 8 minutes while shaking the pan every two minutes so they aren't scorched.
4. Let them cool down for a few minutes
5. Add the roasted peanuts to a food processor with a metal blade.
6. Add 1/2 table spoon of peanut oil (if available) or vegetable oil.
7. Work them around the processor for 2-3 minutes till mixture has formed a ball.
8. Scrape the peanuts which get stuck against the walls down using a spoon and keep processing until the desired consistency has been achieved.
9. Add a dash of salt or brown sugar according to taste. Honey can also be blended into the mix during processing.
10. Store in an airtight container (outside the fridge) for a day or two so the taste and flavor settle in and voila! You've made your very own peanut butter!

Alright, now that you've made your very own batch of super healthy peanut butter you sexy chef you, what are you going to do with it? How are you still going to get that sweet taste of fruit on your sticky peanuts without wrecking your waist with jam?

Why, you use frozen fruit of course. The optimal candidate for this is banana, as it takes just under 20 minutes to freeze and can still be easily chopped and mashed (or kept whole) and added directly onto your peanut butter toast. The frozen banana adds a wonderful contrast to the heated multi-grain toast upon which rests the peanut butter - basically a party in your mouth.

You can virtually replicate this using most fruits, berries are also premium candidates, grapes can frozen and sliced to be added atop the toast. You get the idea.

The above example is what I had for breakfast this morning, and you can even spruce it up by adding some flax or Chia seeds or cinnamon sprinkles on top for good measure. You can replace peanuts with almonds or cashews and make different nut butter batters. It's your sandbox to go wild in. Go crazy. Go nuts (pun totally intended)