Orange Coconut Squares

 Recipe created by Bethanie Lundgren

Serves 9

Crust and topping:

1 cup of Spelt Flour (or other whole grain flour)

1 cup of old fashioned oats

¼ cup of shredded sweetened coconut

½ cup of organic brown sugar, lightly packed

¼ tsp of sea salt

¼ tsp of ground ginger

5 tbsps of virgin coconut oil, melted

Filling:

1 10 oz jar of fruit juice sweetened orange marmalade (such as Smuckers Simply Fruit)

Juice of half an orange

1/8 tsp of ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8 inch baking dish with parchment paper. Leave enough over the sides so that it can be easily removed from the baking dish. In a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, pulse together all of the crust ingredients except the coconut oil until coarsely chopped. Drizzle in the melted oil and pulse until the ingredients are well combined and the mixture holds together when pinched. Spread three quarters of the mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing down firmly to create the crust layer; really needs to be done firmly and evenly or the end product won’t stay together. The back of a measuring cup works well for this. Bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the filling ingredients. When crust is done, let cool slightly and then spread filling mixture over the crust evenly. Top with the rest of the crust mixture, crumbling it over the surface. Lightly push down into filling to compact ingredients. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until top is brown and filling is bubbling. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories 275, Carbs 44, Fat 10, Protein 3

Did you know?

Coconut Oil has benefits such as:

• Promoting your heart health
• Promoting weight loss when and if you need it
• Supporting your immune system health
• Supporting a healthy metabolism
• Providing you with an immediate energy source
• Helping to keep your skin healthy and youthful looking
• Supporting the proper functioning of your thyroid gland

The best kind of Coconut Oil is Virgin, Expeller Pressed as it retains most of its coconut aroma and taste and has no trans fats. Though higher in saturated fat than any other oil, it is also the lowest in polyunsaturated fats. Most of coconut oils saturated fats are in the form of Lauric acid which is a saturated fat that raises your HDL or good cholesterol which is why it is believed to be a heart healthy alternative to most other oils available on the market.

Info courtesy of: http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/

Deeeeeeeliscious!!

I picked this up at the Hout Bay Market on Saturday. It was actually my first time visiting this new crowd-puller (shock, horror-I know!!) but now that I’ve been…I just want to go back again and again! In my opinion it is one of the best markets we have in Cape Town!

I enjoyed it for so many different reasons but one (and this is a big one!) was that I didn’t feel like I was constantly stepping on people’s toes or squeezing past inert baby strollers. There was actually space to breathe! Unlike some other indoor markets I’ve frequented.

Normally I would do a quick walk-through, grab something to eat, maybe hang around for while to people-watch…but Saturday was totally different, and in a good way. I arrived with my friend Tanya at around 11h00 and when we left it was almost 18h00! There was just so much to see and buy and so many interesting people to talk to. Did I mention the food? Oh, the food!!! I think an hour out of the 7 that we were there- was literally spent deciding what we wanted to eat.

Serious decisions, I tell you. Serious.

I opted for a delicious pesto and veggie oatmeal Panini from a tall, dark Turkish guy with a sweet smile, who quickly and very deftly assembled and handed to me. It cost R30 which I suppose for market food is reasonable, and I will say it was very tasty but I think he could have dropped the price by just a fraction.

After the savoury kick, my taste buds were desperate for some FroYo!!!! I had actually been craving some the whole week and even tweeted that I thought Cape Town needed a good Frozen Yoghurt shop. Dum dum dum…

Enter – YoCulture

They offer plain tart yoghurt and serve it in a rather substantially-sized recyclable cup with a plethora of different fruit, nut, cookie, and chocolate toppings. I was in heaven! Unfortunately the whole thing was gone before I even had a chance to snap a pic:( Oh dear. Next time…

There were just waaaay too many things that I loved about this market, like:

The stunning flowers from Bitter Sweet…

And these gorgeous shoes…

Oh, and the unique pieces of furniture…
Tanya and I both LOVED the swing couch and probably spent about half an hour on it, languidly resting our tired legs , shifting positions every now and then and day-dreaming about how amazing it would look in both of our “future houses”.

We also had fun at the hat stall…

Of course we couldn’t walk away from these babies…

And for the health-conscious among us, there were smoothies that looked deliciously thirst-quenching (although as a side note- personally I don’t believe smoothies are that great if not made to order. But that’s just me)…

On our way out I found this little guy playing. He seemed so absorbed in his own world but happily obliged to smile for a quick pic. Too cute!

xxx