Ginger Crunch

Waiting for the snow to come, decided to do some baking.

For the base
2 cups nuts I used almonds and cashews
1 cup soft pitted dated
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp ginger

For the icing
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp ginger

Process the nuts in a food processor until they are coarse but flour like. Add the dates, water and ginger and blend until it all comes together.
Press into a baking tin and bake at 160 deg C until golden. Let cool.

Gently melt all the icing ingredients together, take off heat and whisk until thick and caramel like.Spread topping over cooled base. Sprinkle with cut up crystalised ginger.

Set in fridge, cut up and eat. Keep in fridge.

Yum.

Tomatillo Chutney and Sauce

I found some tomatillos at the local farmers market, and had a play around with a sauce and chutney. The chutney is my fav by far.

The sauce is a bit thick for my liking but very tasty all the same, could do with some tweaks.

I used Low GI sugar in the chutney, and some home grown chillies, both mine and my sister in laws too. I use an organic apple cider vinegar with the mother (cloudy) bug in it. It has more potent qualities to it.

We eat a

lot of cheese, pickles and crackers around here as sometimes this is better for Tim to eat small amounts of tasty food, rather than a meal. Particularly if we do not have children around. Also nice to have with wine of an evening with friends. I know what's in my condiments, so I feel relaxed knowing that Tim can eat them without the worry about what maybe hiding in the ingredient list.

High Protein Biscuits. (Cookies)

I made these with breakfast on the run or fuel before rugby training in mind.

Here's the recipe.

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp date puree
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1/4 c agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 egg
1 cup of cranberries


Mix dry ingredients together, then mix wet ingredients together, fold together. Spoon onto oven tray lined with baking paper . Bake at 180 deg C for 10 to 15 mins.

These are yummy and not to sweet.

Makes 20 biscuits.

Everything Free Breakfast Cereal.

I have made some wonderful cereal, even I do say so myself.

I made it with 3 different flours but no wheat, coconut sugar, coconut oil, oats, fruits, nuts and seeds.

I made some little nuggets, baked them til crisp, then made up the cereal part and toasted it lightly, cooled everything, added cranberries and goji berries. Mixed it all very well.

It is very high in protein, anti oxidants and omega 3.

It is Low GI, sugar free, wheat free, dairy free.

It tastes amazing and I did a costing of it and a serve worked out to be cheaper than a lot of fruit and nut muesli on the market, more expensive than plain puffed rice or flake cereals. Similar price to sugar cooked popular cereals. Without naming names.

It costs $1 per serve.

It will serve our family very well, it is filling so our son will get probably the most benefit from this aspect, as it will keep him fuller for longer.

Homemade Jerky.

Both my teenage children love jerky, and given it is protein what better snack for them to eat.

However it is very expensive to buy in packets, and contains all sorts of preservatives too.

Tim thought about and investigated how to make our own. So some time later 2 kgs of flank steak turned into 850g of jerky. We made teriyaki flavoured jerky, which included coconut sugar to keep it Low GI and it tastes amazing.

Got the seal of approval from both of the kids!

It is hard to photograph to even begin to make it look edible, but trust me it is very yummy.

It works out to be about 1/3 of the cost to make our own. We have a ceramic charcoal fueled covered cooker that we used to dry it out. At 70 deg Cel for about 6 hours.
It will keep for up to 6 months, but I think that is a joke in this house!

Beef Tortillas

George and I made Masa tortillas for dinner last night. They were amazingly good. We used the Masa flour to make them, they are so easy.

2 cups Masa flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together to form a dough. Roll into balls. Should be tacky to touch. Roll the balls out thinly between wax paper so they don't stick to the rolling pin or bench.We made them small and got about 18 tortillas.
We fried them on a skillet on top of the gas hobs.Keep warm until you serve or reheat slightly in the microwave.

I used rump steak sliced finely, then marinated in the following mix for about 1/2 an hour or so.

4 cloves of garlic crushed
1 chilli finely sliced
1 tsp cumin
S & P
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp coconut sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil.

You could vary the spices to your taste. Stir fry steak and serve hot.

I sliced lettuce, grated carrot, diced tomato and guacamole and chilli sauce. Add whatever takes your fancy as you make your own tortillas.

These are Wheat free, dairy free and sugar free. Ideal dinner for George. Masa Tortillas are Low GI too. So a win all round for me to cook.They are very fresh and yummy.

Chocolate Macaroon Cake.

George had her 18th Birthday recently,  I decided with her love of chocolate and coconut that I would attempt to make this cake wheat, diary and sugar free.

Here's the recipe I used .....(adapted).

100g olivani and coconut oil (roughly half and half)
1/2 c coconut sugar
3 egg yolks
3/4 c spelt flour
1/2 c coconut flour
1/2 c cocoa
2 t baking powder
2 t vanilla essence
3/4 c oat milk

Topping
3 egg whites
1/4 c agave nectar
1 1/2 c coconut
2 T cocoa
1 t almond essence

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and egg yolks. Mix to combine.
Sift flours, cocoa and baking powder into saucepan. Add vanilla essence and milk.

Spread mixture into a 20cm ring tin. Spread topping over.Bake at 180 deg C for 40 mins until skewer comes out clean.
Cool in tin.

Topping
Beat egg whites until stiff, Gradually beat in the agave and mix until thick and glossy, fold in coconut, cocoa and almond essence.

It was a hit with all, a little dry for my liking but that didn't stop it getting eaten up.
The nice thing is that coconut sugar is Low GI. So everyone happy. :)

Homemade Sauces

I have been busy making Ketchup and BBQ sauce for a school fundraiser.
This I have been doing for a year or so, previously for the College Netball Girls, to enable them to fund raise for a netball trip to Australia, and National tournament. My daughter has been involved in netball for the last five years, and as any parent will know there is always money required to enable them to get the most out of their chosen sport. However George has finished the netball season and soon to be finishing college too.

So this leaves me with who to make the sauce for, well my son Harry plays 1st XI cricket and I have decided to give the fundraising opportunity to the boys for cricket, so as you can guess I now have to make lots of bottles of sauce.

I make two varieties Ketchup and BBQ, the later being a little spicy. There are 20 ingredients in these sauces and it has taken me a few years to develop the recipes. The sauces have become firm family favourites and with hundreds of bottles already sold they are making a real mark in the community.

It is a great fundraiser, as everyone already buys sauce and this way the money goes to the kids rather than the local store.The sauces are a premium product that you would normally pay up to $15 a bottle for, these sell for $8 a bottle, making  them a great deal, so it is a win win for everyone.I take out the costs of making the sauce and the rest goes to my chosen sport, this now being cricket.

My husband had fun designing the labels you see below.

"MEMBERS OWN  First Class Ketchup"

and

"STICKY WICKET  BBQ Sauce"

I make it in batches of 22 - 24. Most people buy at least 2 at a time so as you can imagine, I'm busy keeping up with demand at the moment.

Amazing Tricks With Cauliflower

I was fortunate to be given 2 very large cauliflowers recently and after a few meals everyone was getting very tired of cauli. I went on line and found an amazing recipe to make Cauliflower pizza. This I had to have a go at just to see if it would work and if it would be yummy.

Firstly you blitz up the cauli in a food processor to a fine crumb,until you have about 4 cups, then I microwaved the crumb for 8 mins. There are a few ways to cook the cauli, but you want to maintain a dry crumb. I thought the microwave would be good for this and it was.

You then cool the crumb down and add 1 egg, 1/2 a cup of cheese(I used goat chevre), some finely chopped fresh herb(parsley).Mix this with your hands to get it well blended. At this point it is nothing like pizza dough.

Spread the mixture onto a pizza tray lined with baking paper to about 1-2 cms thick. Bake at 200 degs C for about 35-40 mins, until golden.

Now spread with pizza sauce and your favorite topping. I used red onion, capsicum, Chicken tenders that had been dusted with a spice mix I make and  pan fried, and some cheese (only on 1), so George could enjoy some dairy free too.
Bake for a further 5-10 mins until topping is hot.

I cooked the bases ahead and they cooled and then reheated when we were ready for dinner, this gave my pizzas a soft base. They were very yummy. I would not do this next time. I would have liked the bases to be firmer.
Neither George or Harry could work out what the bases were made of. They were tasty and left you feeling fulfilled. A nice alternative that is gluten free and dairy free if you watch your toppings, and could also be vegetarian.

Whoopie Pie

Wow, I have just got back from my monthly visit to one of the most amazing wholefood shops in Auckland.

Harvest Wholefoods Grey Lynn, it's where I buy things like Rice flour, Coconut flour, Quinoa etc. Today I found Quinoa linguine pasta, I haven't seen it before in New Zealand so thought I would try it for both George and Tim, being that it doesn't have wheat (for George) and it's not made from white processed flour (which tips Tim up). I was very excited to find this. It is imported from USA and therefore more expensive that wheat based pasta. I hope they both like.

I also buy spelt bagels from a bakery next door.

While we were in Grey Lynn we can across a Whoopie Pie shop, again something I haven't seen in New Zealand.
I bought a gluten and dairy free carrot and pinepple whoopie pie for George. It does have sugar in but very exciting all the same.
I had to try a small ginger spice whoppie pie and it was divine. The shop is small with lots of delicious whoopie pies and coffee machine. A nice treat for my girlfriend and I.
What a fantastic find and nice way to finish of our shopping.

Choc Chippie Oat Biscuits

George and I made 2 batches of choc chippie oat biscuits, one was the traditional butter and sugar mixture with white flour, and the other was with coconut sugar, olivani and spelt flour. The pictures are as they turned out.

Interestingly the consistency of the latter mix was quite soft, as the olivani doesn't thicken or bulk up as you mix it.

The spelt flour and coconut sugar gives the biscuits the golden colour.

We happened to have at home that afternoon 3 teenage boys and asked their opinion of the 2 batches of biscuits, they all thought they would rather eat the darker of the 2 as they thought they looked healthier and smelt so divine. You could have knocked me over with a feather as I thought their memory bank would have stayed with what they knew.

The taste test was unanimous we all liked the coconut sugar, olivani and spelt biscuits best. The only problem we did have was that they were very crumbly. Next time I would add some coconut oil to bind them better.

We made 2 batches because George had to do some baking for a fundraising bake sale at school. A good result for all concerned. All biscuits got consumed very quickly.

Proves once again you eat with your eyes.

Custard

I made Edmonds custard using oat milk and coconut sugar, instead of milk and sugar, and let me tell you I will not be doing that again.

It was okay...... but the coconut sugar made it quite caramel in colour and flavour. The oat milk didn't have the creaminess or richness of dairy milk either. Actually it was quite flat. The dairy eaters among us decided it would be good with cream in it.

Edmonds custard powder is a maize cornflour flavoured mix to make into custard for dessert.

I will however try one day to make an oat milk based custard again.

Dairy free pastry.

Last nights pastry, the verdict from the family was:


Taste: was good but not necessarily the best with chicken, it would be alot better with mince filling. Because it was quite savoury and earthy.
Texture: crisp and held together nicely.

Overall a good result, I may add suet or beef lard into it next time in order to enhance the flavour and texture a little.