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.

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!

Sugar free salad dressing sweetener.

I made a yummy lentil,beetroot and kale salad yesterday for a family Easter lunch. I made a balsamic dressing, and to sweeten it slightly I used a date puree.

1 Cup of chopped dates and mixed in 1 cup of boiling water, left it to soften for about 10 mins, then pureed until smooth. The rest will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

I added 2 tsp of this to the dressing, instead of the sugar that the recipe called for. It was very yummy and I know it is better for us than sugar, and it helps George out with her skin.

Dates are high GI but given such a small amount is used over a large salad, it had no effect on Tim.
We had this and many other fresh, last of the summer salads,  with herb and bacon covered  lamb leg. We cooked on the BBQ. Served with my Sister's homemade bread.

What a fabulous Easter lunch. And of course those who can eat chocolate had their fair share of Easter Eggs.

Cupcakes for The Birthday Girl.

One of George's best friends, Riane is Eighteen today, and George made her cupcakes last night, these girls are caring, baking each other treats for their birthdays.

Riane also has some intolerance to some foods, so George made these vanilla cupcakes using spelt flour, coconut sugar and olivani. We have worked out that you need quite a lot of vanilla to overcome the earthiness of the spelt flour.
Riane, however, can eat dairy, so I think the icing may end up having butter in.
At least this way George can help her eat them(without the icing).

The colour of the cupcakes is worth noting as the coconut sugar has a caramel hue, and this is what gives these cupcakes their rich look. It is taking George a little while to get her head around this, as most of us have been bought up baking with all things "White".
This also was noticed when we made the rainbow cake, where the colours had a very autumn look and were not as bright as we would have expected. We are liking the more natural and "good for you" look of this new style of baking.

I will post a photo of the finished iced cupcakes later after George has worked her magic.
We also baked these in environment friendly unbleached Totally Chlorine free (TCF) baking cups. These are non stick, so look like they are falling off, because they are.
Riane is very much into sustainable living. I think she will like this.

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.

Curried Sausage Casserole

The casserole was a huge hit as it always is and the changes went unnoticed. Which is great and just shows you that it is easy with some recipes to change to the new wheat and sugar free diet. George was excited by this, as it is one of her favourite meals, particularly served with mashed potato, on a wet and windy winters night.