Almost Bulletproof Tea

Happy New Year all!

I hope you all had lovely relaxing holidays.
If you are anything like me you have probably spent the last few weeks eating and drinking all those things you know you shouldn’t.
Some of you will by now have begun the traditional January diets. Some will be joining me in Dryanuary where we give up alcohol for a month.

I wanted to share with you something I tried over the holidays when we visited some friends we’ve not seen for a while.
As the friends in question don’t drink – 1 of them is pregnant so she’s disqualified anyway – we spent most of the day drinking tea and chatting around the dining table which is one of my absolute favourite things to do, that I don’t do often enough.

At some point I decided to go for a herbal tea – there’s only so much builders tea I can stomach.
(For my US readers “builders tea” is standard black tea with milk and 2 sugars)
My choice was peppermint and liquorice and after giving it a few minutes to cool I headed to the kitchen to add some honey as I’ve still not managed to find a herbal tea that doesn’t taste like dishwater without at least a little sweetening.

Imagine my surprise when I got there to be told
“Oh I’ve already put honey in for you, and some coconut oil”

Yes that’s right coconut oil in tea.

I’ve never heard of anyone doing this before, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

I’m sure we’ve all heard about Bulletproof Coffee  where you add butter and oil to coffee and the famous Yak Butter Tea of Tibet, Nepal and other regions has been known for centuries.

Both of these fat infused drinks boast health benefits, mostly centred around weight loss.

One theory is that by adding fat to your morning drink you will feel fuller and be less inclined to snack before lunch.

There is also a lot of talk about it kicking off Ketosis.

This one I’m less sure of.
Ketosis happens when your body burns fats as fuel due to a deficit of carbohydrates.
If you use your bulletproof coffee as a replacement to the Wheaties you used to have for breakfast perhaps you are moving towards a state of ketosis by removing the carbs, but if you simply add the butter to your coffee and continue eating as usual this is not going to start ketosis on its own.

Anyway, back to Coconut Oil Tea

Firstly, in the tea I had it tastes amazing.
I’ve since tried the same tea without it and far prefer it with the coconut

Secondly, coconut oil is good for you.
It’s a great healthy fat and most people would do well to get some into their diet.

I’ve had a jar of it in my kitchen for some time now.

My Raw Vegan Lemon Cheesecake calls for rather a lot of it and where possible I try to fry with it (not everything as I feel some things just don’t go with coconut)

However I still don’t eat it anything close to daily, more like every few weeks if I remember to cook something in it
Having a teaspoon or so in my tea in the mornings means that since I tried it I’ve eaten (well drank) it every day, normally several times per day.

Some info on Coconut oil:

• Coconut oil has high levels of saturated fats containing mostly HDL (good) cholesterol.
• It is made up of medium chain triglycerides(MST’s) which are quickly available to the body for use as fuel and have been shown to increase fat burning in the body for hours after consumption
• It has been shown to help regulate insulin production which can help avoid blood sugar spikes

Obviously being a saturated fat there are some concerns about it contributing to weight gain and heart disease.
This is a much bigger issue than I intend to address here.
Suffice it to say that personally I subscribe to the theory that it’s sugar that causes weight gain, not fat.

Thirdly, coconut oil makes a fabulous lip balm.
As it sits on the top of the tea it gets applied to your lips as you drink it so you get this benefit without even trying!

Anyway, I hope this has convinced some of you to give it a go, I’m really glad I did

R

All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach” blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.

Raw Lemon “Cheesecake”

This recipe is perfect for people with many different dietary requirements as it is vegan, gluten free and raw.
It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare with a further 3-4 hours setting time in the freezer so is perfect for when you have guests.
As you will see from the recipe it contains almonds and coconut so is sadly no good for those with nut allergies

It is adapted from a recipe that can be found here

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unblanched almonds
• 1/2 cup Medjool dates
• 2 large ripe bananas
• juice of 1 & 1/2 lemons
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil

Method

Line a small freezer-proof dish with baking paper.

Remove the stalky top bits from the dates and de-pit them. The easiest way to do this is to slice them lengthways after which you can pull out the pit.

De-pitted dates to the left, Pits top right, Stalky bits bottom right

Blend the almonds until fairly fine, then add the dates and blend again.
Tip the mixture into a bowl.

Left – unstirred mixture, Right – stirred mixture

You may find that you need to give the mixture a quick stir in the bowl – my blender left quite a bit of almond at the bottom that was unmixed with the dates.

Squeeze the mixture in a kneading fashion to form a rough dough – it won’t be a smooth dough like bread as there is no real liquid, but as long as it mostly holds together it will be fine.

Press the mixture into the bottom of the dish.

Now blend the remaining ingredients to a thick sauce-like consistency.
Pour/spoon the mixture over the base

Put the dish in the freezer for approximately 3 hours to set.

Remove from the freezer and slice to serve.

Any that is leftover can be stored in the freezer, but this recipe makes only a fairly small amount so you will probably get through it quite quickly.

One quick note – make sure that when you blend the topping your blender base hasn’t come loose or you can end up with a real mess!

Sadly rather than pouring the topping it was more a case of desperately try and save what you can by any means possible!

Happy not-baking!
R

//All content provided on this “CurlyhairRach blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.  The owner of “CurlyhairRach” will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.//