Yep, you read right, make flourless brownies in your blender! So easy and quick! Throw all the ingredients and then pour the mix into your baking tray or molds like I do!
My kids love these and they also take them to school as their snack. I love them because they take literally minutes to make, there is minimal washing up, they have great nutrition in them and are sugar-free so continue to build their healthy relationship with food and real chocolate.
They are also great with a cup of tea for me!!
Blender Flourless Brownies
2018-02-08 11:04:53
Yields 25
A simple, delicious and nutritious adjustment of a classic chocolate brownie recipe to make in the blender. Blitz, pour and bake. Sugarless too.
1 cup coconut oil (you could also use butter/ghee)
14 dates (more or less for you own sweet tooth)
1-2 tbsp. coconut sugar (optional)
3/4 cup cacao paste or 1/2 cup 70-80% chocolate bar/chips
4 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup collagen hydrolysate (optional)
pinch of vanilla or tsp vanilla extraxct
Chocolate chips for the top (optional)
Instructions
Add all the ingredients
Blend
(yes it is that simple!)
Pour into greased baking tray or moulds
Bake for 20 mins at 180c (it may be longer if you are baking it in a baking tray)
allow to cool. They may feel fragile but when they cool they will firm up
Notes
These have a rich dark chocolate taste. My kids love them but if you are used to refined sugar brownies, these may taste bitter, adjust and reduce the amount of sugar each time you make them to change your palate. On the flip side if you are used to being sugar free, these may taste really sweet!
If you want to know where I get my ingredients from, have a look at these items. I normally buy from iherb and these links will send you there (I get a bonus if you buy them too with this link). However, you can find the same brands in other shops too.
I absolutely love the combination of parsnip and apple together. I make cashew milk every few days and absolutely love how creamy it is. The combination of the cashews in the soup really make this creamier and also pack it full of healthy fats and protein. I soak my cashews first before I add them to help remove irritating phytic acid and cashews can be soaked for at least 30 minutes.
I make this soup on a regular basis and have it for lunch or dinner. If you love soups have a look at my other soup recipe: Coconut and Ginger Chicken Soup and how I make my own homemade stock.
Parsnip, Apple, Cashew Soup
2018-01-17 04:16:11
A deliciously warming and nutritious soup. Made with broth and cooked with ghee and cashews makes this dish a balanced meal for lunch or dinner.
1 Apple, chopped (preferably organic- I have a high powered blender so I don't need to peel it)
1 sweet potato, cubed
1/2 cup cashews (preferably soaked for 1 hour)
1 onion roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 tbsp. Ghee (you could also use olive or coconut oil)
1-2 tbsp. Collagen (optional- add extra nutrients)
1-2 tbsp. Nutritional Yeast (optional- just adds flavour)
sea salt and pepper to season
Instructions
Add oil to a saucepan and saute onions with garlic. Add parsnips and sweet potato. When a little softer, add apple, drained cashews, collagen and nutritional yeast.
Season with salt and pepper and add broth.
Bring to boil and allow to simmer for 10-15 mins or until parsnips and potatos are soft and cooked through.
Fermented garlic is super simple. Great to use in so many recipes you probably already make, or as a side dish on its own.Fermented garlic can be used in any recipe that calls for raw garlic. It has a softer taste and is milder than raw garlic. Some describe the flavour as tangy and refreshing. I always thinks it adds more vibrancy to our foods.
Sometimes whilst fermenting, your garlic may appear green, blue or even red. This is completely natural and occurs when the acidic environments and the sulphur or amino acids in the garlic react together. It is safe to eat. As with all fermented foods, the fermentation process increases the bioavailability of nutrients, rendering fermented garlic even more nutritious and beneficial than the original starting point. So that means more immune boosting, digestive healing, bacteria balancing, liver supporting and Vampire repelling for us all!
Avoid using fermented garlic in foods you need to fry, boil or heat as it may destroy the bacterial balance and other nutrients. Add to soups, vegetables and salad dressings before serving.
When it comes to using your garlic the only limitations are what you have available!
You can add it to anything, plus you can also play with the flavour of the garlic itself. Try with adding spices or herbs to your ferment like turmeric, cumin seeds, bay leaves, coriander seeds, mustard seeds etc.
I like to add it to my salad dressings, hummus, mayonnaise, ketchup, dips, ghee to toss steamed vegetables in, soups before serving, salsa. I also add it to my raw pet food and eat them whole when I need an immune boost. You can also dehydrate it to make garlic salt.
Fermented Garlic
2016-10-20 10:27:40
A super simple way to get fermented food into every meal.
Kimchi is a traditional Korean ferment. There are hundreds of variations using cabbage, radish, scallion or cucumber as the main ingredient. The paste can contain a variety of ingredients. There may be more than 187 different varieties, all from different regions of Korea. Traditional ingredients will may use garlic, ginger, red pepper, some also add sugar, vinegar, fish sauce or paste to add to their recipe. Families will pass on their different seasonal varieties and they are traditionally buried in the ground to ferment.
Traditionally made by brining the vegetables and then mixing in a paste before packing it into a fermentation vessel to become full of probiotic bacteria and flavour.
Fermented cabbage has a long history of providing benefits for many different health conditions (see my sauerkraut here and a flavoured version here). The fermentation process produces the living probiotic microorganisms that are beneficial to the digestive and immune system, plus making nutrients in the foods being fermented come to life and are more accessible.
The fermentation process increases the bioavailability of nutrients rendering Kimchi even more nutritious than the original starting points.
Salt is one of the most amazing natural products. Hugely beneficial to the body when consumed in the right way. I am often asked which salt to use- these are my salts of choice:
Sea salt – originates from drying the sea water in the sun, salt lakes or other methods. This is what I prefer and generally prefer those from Wales, France or Scotland. Sea salt nutrients can vary and may contain up to 80 or more minerals than table salt (which is refined down to one or two) it will hugely depend on where the sea salt was obtained. In addition to sodium and chlorine, you are likely to find potassium, phosphorus, calcium, sulfur. Trace minerals in sea salt can include iron, iodine, manganese, zinc, bromine, boron, copper.
Pink Himalayan salt – this salt is traditionally harvested in the Pakistan side of the Himalayan mountain range and the pink colour may be due to the salt containing iron oxide. Harvested from caves of ocean salt settled into geological pockets. It is an unrefined, unprocessed raw mineral, mainly mined by hand. The salt can be up to 250 million years old, which is pretty cool! Its nutrient content is similar to sea salt (since they both originated from the sea).
I use these two salts in fermenting, in cooking, in the bath, as a scrub, as salt lamps and also on the carpets to help deep clean them.
Kimchi
2015-12-15 09:34:53
This is a basic Kimchi recipe. There are around 187 different variations of Kimchi, this one uses Chinese cabbage, daikon radish and carrot. I have made this one sugar free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians as it is also seafood free.
Weigh cabbage, radish and carrot to work out how much salt is needed.
Try and retain one of the out side leaves for later. Add the thinly sliced cabbage to a non reactive bowl (plastic or ceramic)..
Weigh and add the salt to the vegetable in water. Mix into the cabbage with your hands to massage and work in the salt. Leave for 1-8 hours.
Make the paste by adding the remaining ingredients to a mini chopper and pulsing until a paste.
Drain the vegetables from the brine, taste to determine saltiness. (note the saltiness will mellow). Rinse if necessary.
Wearing gloves, mix in the paste, massaging the vegetables.
Add to your fido jar pushing the vegetables down with a wooden spoon, potato masher or fingers. You will notice the brine being created and rising up to the top of the cabbage.
When all the vegetables are in the jar then you place the retained cabbage leaf on the top- this will ensure all the stray bits remain under the brine. You may weigh down the cabbage with either ceramic baking beads, marbles, rocks or a shot glass. This step is not compulsory but does help the first few days of fermenting as it makes it easy to continue to push the kraut down to keep the cabbage in the brine.
Leave for 1-2 weeks on the counter and taste, depending on the temperature and humidity levels of your fermenting spot- leave for up to 28 days. Ferment to taste so continue to taste and then refrigerate when you like it!
Notes
It is optional to use 1tsp fish paste, you can also use seaweed in the paste.
By Louise Buckley
Loula Natural https://loulanatural.com/
Here is my video on how to make the paste to add to your vegetables:
When it comes to flavoring your Kimchi the only limitations are what you have available!
You can add anything. Play with other root vegetables, using vinegar, fish sauce and other spices in your paste (like turmeric, cumin or coriander).
Kimchi is added to most foods, soups, noodles, stews, pancakes and so on. It is really nice mixed in to sauces like BBQ, mayo and ketchup. Kimchi is also delicious with cheese and also eggs…
I have played with several grain free pizza bases over the years. We have been using this recipe for a year now and I am ready to share it with you all.
In my experience grain free bases are a faff to make and never taste like pizza most of the time! Traditional pizza base is very simple; flour (gluten and grain rich!), olive oil, yeast, water, sugar and salt. To recreate this without gluten and adding nutrients (which I always have to do!) is a tough thing.
I have really enjoyed my cauliflower crust however it was not nice cold and that is a must for lunchboxes! So I have been searching and playing for the right combination. I tried simply replacing the flour with a gluten free mix, but my need for nutrients was not being met! Then I decided that I actually wanted it grain free for the kids and my digestive needs. Thats when I turned to tapioca flour (see here for a great one to buy). Learning to use tapioca flour is an experience!!
I then went about filling it with nutrition, namely making sure it contained the amount of protein in it necessary to nourish and fill up my kids. Here is the result;
Grain Free, Nutrient Rich, Pizza Base
2016-02-20 05:57:47
Serves 5
A delicious grain free crust which is great for kids and works well for leftovers in their lunchboxes
2/3 cup of olive oil (I have also used coconut oil)
1tsp of dried herbs (I like an italian mix- you can use what you like or sun-dried tomato flakes)
2 tsp garlic or dried onion powder
2 tsp salt
3 cups of tapioca flour
1tbsp collagen hydrolysate (gelatin)
2 beaten eggs
1tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
3tbsp coconut flour
2 tbsp almond flour (optional)
dash of kefir (water or milk) (optional, you can also add a dash of apple cider vinegar)
Instructions
Add the water, oil, herbs and garlic powder to a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Add the tapioca flour and it will instantly become a sticky mess (I mean dough)
Ensure it is all mixed in and allow to cool for 10-15 mins
Heat your oven to 200 centigrade.
Add in remaining ingredients until it is a dough that can be kneaded. You may need to adjust the dry ingredients. Coconut flour expands so be careful if you add more. The gelatin helps to make it more doughy.
I roll the dough out in between two pieces of baking paper. It is then easier to get really thin and then move to a baking sheet or pizza stone.
Roll your dough out to a couple of mm. It is a nice thin and crispy pizza, any thicker and it is a bit too chewy.
I have frozen the bases at this point
Put pizza in the oven to 20-30 mins to pre cook (longer if you have cooked from frozen)
Add toppings. I add passata, and whatever I fancy (the kids eat ham, pineapple and olives!) we like bacon, artichokes, olives and peppers!
Add cheese if you like and put back in the oven for another 10-15 mins.
Enjoy
Notes
The gelatin, almond flour and eggs add a good nutrient content to the pizza base so it is not so starch heavy. The oil adds a good fat content. We always serve with a nice crisp and colourful salad and it is very filling.
