Better with BRITA - Home Made Coconut Milk & Chocolate Iced Lollies

Now that the warm weather is finally with us, the kids may be pestering for ice creams and lollies, just as mine are. I've filled up a freezer drawer with cheap supermarket lollies ready for when the ice cream van plays his music & the kids line up with all their friends.

These chocolate lollies are much healthier than any you would find in the supermarket and don't contain any added sugar (obviously that would be without the chocolate and sprinkles they've been dipped in), and are made from just 3 ingredients, plus BRITA filtered water.

You can use ready made coconut milk, but if you make your own you know exactly what's gone into it. It's really easy to make, as long as you have a high powered blender. You can then use the milk on cereal and in drinks, or of course you can make your own iced lollies.

No Added Sugar Chocolate Lollies - makes 6 

150g shredded coconut (unsweetened)

500ml BRITA filtered water, boiled*

2 small bananas

2 tbsp cocoa powder

• Add the coconut to a bowl and pour over the boiling water
• Allow to cool
• Blend with a powerful blender (I use a Nutribullet), for approx 1 minute
• Strain through a fine sieve until all the milk has come out of the coconut (use the remaining coconut in flapjacks)
• You should have around 200ml of creamy coconut milk - you can repeat the process, however the second batch won't be as creamy
• Blend the coconut milk with the bananas and cocoa powder until fully combined and smooth
• Pour into lolly moulds and place in the freezer until completely solid

Enjoy!

*use BRITA filtered water to ensure that you receive the full flavour from your ingredients, and it's not tainted with limescale and impurities

Better with BRITA - Healthy Green Mojito Smoothie

Smoothies seem to be all the rage at the moment, especially as it's a great way to get your 5 a day without having to spend hours chopping, cooking and chewing. You just throw your favourite ingredients into a blender, whizz it up and there you have your smoothie ready to drink. If you have a fussy eater it's definitely a way to get the fruits and vegetables they dislike into their diets without them knowing - just make sure that you include plenty of the ones they do like, to disguise them.

Everyone has their favourite smoothies, and personally I like a green one, because I find that if I have too much fruit in one hit it makes me tired rather than giving me energy. I love the taste of mint, lime and ginger together so it makes sense to use these in my smoothie, and as I've been growing pea shoots for salads I thought I would throw a few of those in there too, but this can be substituted with baby spinach or kale.

Healthy Green Mojito Smoothie - serves 2

2cm piece of ginger, peeled
fistful of pea shoots
fistful of fresh mint
2 handfuls of roughly chopped cucumber
juice of 1 lime
2 slices of melon
150ml ice cold BRITA filtered water*

• add all the ingredients to a powerful blender (I use a Nutribullet) and blend until smooth
• enjoy!

*use BRITA filtered water to ensure that you receive the full flavour from your ingredients, and it's not tainted with limescale and impurities

I am being compensated to work with BRITA on their Better with BRITA campaign

Better with BRITA - Hot Mocktail Recipe

I've teamed up once again with BRITA on their 'Better with BRITA' campaign, to help inspire my readers to incorporate filtered water into their everyday lives, as part of a healthy lifestyle.

We drink a lot of water in our house, and the fridge is always full of refilled bottles, which does get a bit much when I can no longer fit the weekly shop in as the boys keep loading it up with bottles filled from our BRITA water tap. I could do with drinking a bit more myself, but I'll come to that in a future post when I take on a hydration challenge.

I do manage to keep myself hydrated throughout the day mostly through hot drinks such as coffee and tea (both regular and herbal). I also love a cocktail from time to time so I've combined the two in a hot mocktail, which will warm you from the inside in this cold weather, as well as keeping you hydrated.

Winter Spiced Hot Mocktail - serves 2

2 ginger teabags
400ml BRITA filtered water*
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp pure Canadian Maple syrup
half an unwaxed lemon

• Add the teabags, water, cinnamon sticks & syrup to a pan
• Cut a slice of lemon, cut in half & set aside
• Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon into the pan along with the skin
• Bring everything to the boil and simmer gently for 2 minutes
• Pour into glasses and top each with half a lemon slice and a cinnamon stick
• Drink whilst hot

* use BRITA filtered water to ensure that you receive the full flavour from your ingredients, and it's not tainted with limescale and impurities

I am being compensated to work with BRITA on their Better with BRITA campaign