I’M on a real health kick at the moment.

Which basically means I’m cutting out of the c**p that I’ve been eating recently – you know too much white bread, biscuits and chocolate etc – and paying much more attention to my diet.

Since Easter Monday, I’ve been eating well, eating less and moderating my booze intake and whatdoyaknow, but I feel a million times better already.

I’ll be honest, the last couple of months have been a bit of a challenge personally. Injuring my back back in early February meant that I haven’t been able to do any exercise – bar my physio – and that, combined with a daily dose of pain and feeling sorry for myself, all added up to a bit of a sad Katie.

I just didn’t feel my best, you know?

Anyhow, all of this gave me the kick up the butt that I needed – things happen for a reason right? – and so over the last few weeks I’ve got my s**t together and made some changes.

Bad stuff has been replaced by healthy food and lots of fruits and vegetables and the weekends have become my only time to indulge in some naughtiness. (I’ve got to, I’m not a saint. *winks*)

The changes have made a big difference already. In just two weeks I’m looking trimmer, sleeping better and feeling like i’m firing on all cylinders again. Yep folks, I’m back in the room and feeling pretty bloody good.

Because of this, I wanted to share with you all one of my new favourite baking recipes -that I’ve made twice already! – these slightly weird but delicious Chocolate Chia Cookies from Deliciously Ella’s super cook book.

Packed full of goodness and healthy stuff, they have now become my treat of the day, replacing my mid morning / mid afternoon snack of jammy dodgers and chocolate digestives with ease.

Rich and incredibly satisfying, they not only taste great but also get rid of the hunger for hours. (Must be all the nuts!)

If you fancy a healthier but still sweet snack, seriously, give them a whirl. They take mins to make too, so there’s absolutely no excuse to not give them a try. (Trust me, there’s so much more I have to do and want to do, than spend hours in the kitchen!)

Just bear in mind one thing when you’re making them – they taste much better than they look ;-)

I dunno folks, there’s definitely something in this healthy eating lark…I’m becoming quite a fan.

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Chocolate Chia Cookies from Deliciously Ella

Ingredients:

200g of almonds

190g of hazelnuts

200g of quinoa flour (or buckwheat)

100ml maple syrup

5 dates (you’re supposed to use Medjool dates but I couldn’t find these so used ordinary ones which tasted fine)

6 heaped tablespoons of coca power (or three of raw cacoa powder)

3 tablespoons chia seeds

2 tablespoons coconut oil.

This batch will make between 12-15 cookies, however you might prefer to half the quantity and make a smaller batch which is what I did.

Top tip! – Buying healthy ingredients from your local supermarket such as nuts is not cheap! (I bought my hazelnuts from Tesco and they were so expensive for a small bag.)

Where possible, buy in bulk and from a health food supplier such as Go Nutrition who kindly supplied me with the almond nuts, chia seeds and quinoa flour.

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan 180C)

Put the nuts into a food processor and blend for a minute or two until they turn into a ‘flour’. Then add of all the other remaining ingredients with 75ml water and blend again until a stick dough forms, like below.

Scoop about a tablespoon of mixture into your hand, roll into a ball and then flatten with a spatula on a baking tray so they’re nice and thin. Do this will all of the cookies.

(To get them really flat and even, when on my second batch, I popped a piece of baking paper on top and then squashed down with a spatula. As the dough is so sticky it’s hard to get them flat without doing this and they looked much better!)

Bake for about 20 minutes until they’re nice and firm. Leave to cool and then enjoy! (Preferably with a well deserved cuppa in hand!)

Da- daa!

As I say, they’re not the prettiest cookies you will ever see – this one above was from batch 1, my batch 2 looked much nicer! – but they are really moorish and a super healthy alternative.

(If you’ve got a really sweet tough you might want to add some extra maple syrup or dates as they are a little on the bitter side).

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If you prefer you can find Ella’s recipe and instructions on how to make them here. Many thanks to Go Nutrition for sending me some lovely produce to assist me in my healthy changes!

With love,

Kate