Sweet potato, zucchini and cream cheese fritters

1 sweet potato

1 zucchini

1 leek, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup soy cream cheese

1 T nutritional yeast flakes (not essential, just for nutrition’s sake)

1/2 cup brown rice flour (or your preferred flour)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

sprinkle of salt, pepper and chilli flakes

Mix the brown rice flour through the grated/chopped veggies and spices until spread evenly. Then mix the cream cheese through until evenly coated. Shallow fry little balls/patties for 4ish minutes on each side until sweet potato is cooked through.

Orange and date scones

 

Orange and date scones

Scones are one of those things that I remember as a key thing in childhood. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but remember those tennis club afternoon teas and church morning teas?  Nothing like a good creamy scone lathered in butter or jam and cream at one of those gatherings! I was uber-impressed when I went to a church gathering for a friend last year and the food spread was more in line with fresh, zesty cold rice paper rolls! Unreal! He is a chef, mind you, so I’m not sure if that was my friend’s input or if that church is just exceptionally up with the eating culture of the day. Lol!

In any case, there still is nothing like a good scone – and more so when it is plant based and not going to add to one’s cholesterol rising. I find it dififuclt to take a photo that is anywhere near as good as what these taste so you’ll have to take my word for it: these are the most delicious little things ever. And I like them more than muffins.

Scones…

Now I did think these relied on butter and egg but it turns out, that’s just not the case. You could safely leave out the orange if that doesn’t appeal to you or swap the dates for cranberries or sultanas or something. Do whatever suits! But this recipe is AWESOME.

I didn’t make them gluten free (:( to the GFites) but I will attempt that in the future and see how it holds up. I’m pretty confident that my general GF mix that I like would stand up well with these scones. I’ll let you know! In the mean time…these are fantastic lunch box treats for the kids, or simple to whip up when someone springs a surprise visit and you need something with your cup of tea 🙂 You do, however, need cold coconut cream so perhaps keep some in the fridge incase of emergency unexpected visitors!

Orange and date scones

Ingredients:

2 cups wholemeal Atta flour
1 T coconut palm sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest from 1 orange
1 1/4 cups cold coconut cream
8 chopped fresh dates

makes 8-12 scones

——–

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Toss the date pieces through the flour mix and then pour in coconut milk. Gently mix just until everything’s combined, don’t over mix. Dough will be thick.

Transfer dough onto a floured surface and shape into a disc. Either press out shapes or using a sharp knife, cut disc into 8 or 12 wedges. Place onto prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately or store them in an airtight container after they have completely cooled. Enjoy!

Thanks to Transplanted (who I have just discovered) for the beautiful coconut recipe idea!

Fluffiest wheat pancakes ever

Before we get to the pancakes, how about that gorgeous plate :). Made with love by my 5yo for Mothers Day. So cute – hearts, sun, rain clouds, rain, a flower and our names. Gorgeous plate to serve pancakes on 🙂 We were in a bit of a rush with this one so the photo is blurry~ Argh. But I’ll update it next time I make some.

This is a gluten alert for the non-gluten followers.

But oh my, they are the most delicious fluffiest pancakes ever. I’ve played around with a lot of pancake recipes on here and although the hazelnut pancakes are my favourite, the kids don’t like variations: they just want plain pancakes. Even if you eat animal products, if you’re one to send pikelets in a lunch box with children on any given day, many places are creating no-egg rules these days. And certainly no nuts.
So traditional pikelets are out, and the nut variations are too.

These just got the big ‘thumbs up’ from mr 3, and despite limiting gluten these days, I managed to eat THREE before even offering any. haha! (And now I’m still in recovery…) The original recipe comes from The Healthy Family and Home.

3/4 cups homemade non dairy milk
2 T white vinegar
1 cup wholemeal Atta flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon quality salt
1 T chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup water
2 T coconut oil (melted)
1-2 T agave nectar or rice syrup

Mix the vinegar in with the non dairy milk and set aside for 5 minutes to sour.

Mix the dry ingredients together and stir well.

Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.

Scoop 1/4 cup measurements on a lightly greased pan.

Cook for 2 – 4 minutes on each side – until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Spiced coconut cauliflower

I used to love those cheesy creamy cauliflower bakes as a kid. Mine have never seen it so I didn’t anticipate they would be impressed by this but this is a really yummy, creamy way to do a plant based cauliflower bake. Actually, I threw in some broccoli too because I need to have green…but let’s face it…you can’t beat baked cauliflower!

Ingredients

1/2 cauliflower, cut into florets (plus broccoli if desired)

1 400gm tin coconut cream

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp cumin or garam masala

salt and pepper

cayenne pepper or paprika as per taste.

Whisk together the garlic, coconut cream, cumin/garam massala and salt/pepper. Pour the mixture over cauliflower florets in a casserole dish and sprinkle your choice of paprika or cayenne pepper on top. It gives a nice redish colour to the top – we used cayenne but it is super spicy like this so it’s best to use your judgement on what you like!

You could also top with flaked almonds and coriander.

Bake in an oven 180 degrees C for 45 minutes. Delicious!
Thanks to skinnyms for the idea.

Sunday Soup // Red Lentil Coconut-Curry with Spinach

This looks so simple and delicious. Reblogging from Season simply 🙂

Season Simply

One of my favorite things to do every weekend is cook up a big batch of something delicious to eat for dinner throughout the week. Sometimes it’s tomato sauce, sometimes a pasta or rice bake, but there’s something special about that recipe being soup. Whether it’s French lentil, meaty chili, or something curry-based (like this one!), having my little yellow Dutch oven on the stove top with soup bubbling away makes me feel so cozy.

The best part about soup, though, is its versatility. I never measure — always estimate, and adjust the amounts of spices based on taste (or just what happens to accidentally fall out of the container…).

I got the idea for this coconut red lentil curry soup from this recipe at Sweet Potato Chronicles. For my version, I doubled the ginger and garlic, added a bit more curry, and decided to puree the soup before adding the spinach…

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Plant based non ‘sausage’ rolls

My boys really seem to adore anything that is wrapped in pastry! Before we made the plant-based move, my eldest would have had homemade sausage rolls that were preservative and MSG free. I doubt either of them have ever had a bought one, and they certainly haven’t even had a homemade one in a long time.

So I was interested to stumble across this recipe. It actually does work! I discarded it at first because who would want a tofu-nut roll with oats? But the more I thought about it, the more potential I could see. This is a great option for kids’ parties I think where children are ‘used’ to eating sausage rolls and you can provide them with a much healthier, plant based option and they probably won’t know the difference. I am totally blown away by how good these little rolls (we’re calling them “little rolls”) taste! Despite the fact that we are not into faux-meats, these seriously pass for meat…with the added bonus of the fact that you actually know what you’re eating :). Bring on a kiddy party! Or just make them as a move to healthier eating for quick lunches etc. Whatever your goal, these are seriously delicious and they don’t taste like tofu, nuts OR oats. I promise!

I got this recipe straight from Where’s the Beef? No changes, I know, it’s amazing! I thought I better learn how to do it before changing the recipe at all. Already though I am thinking next time I would like to add in some more nutritional value: brown lentils or chickpeas and grated carrot and nutritional yeast flakes too. You’ll hear about it when I do!

For those who are gluten free, this recipe is not. But I’ll write the substitutes there to help along your way if you’re going to give it a go! Enjoy!

125g pecans
1/2 cup breadcrumbs           (or for gluten free, use crispy corn crumbs, I think Orgrans produce them.)
1 onion
300g pkt silken tofu               (try where possible to get non GMO)
1 cup rolled oats                       (for gluten free, sub 1 cup cooked quinoa)
1 stock cube                                (I forgot this, and they are still delicious)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce (you can use less – the end result will be less salty and brown, and therefore less resemble a ‘real’ sausage roll)
ground pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets
water or non dairy milk for brushing pastry
sesame seeds

My preferred way of prepping this filling makes maximum use of my food processor. If you don’t have one, chopping and mashing will do the job just fine. Start by processing the pecans until they’re thoroughly chopped, but not all gone to powder. Tip them into a large mixing bowl, then toss in the bread crumbs. Chop the onion into 8 chunks and process them briefly until they’ve a ‘finely chopped’ kinda texture. Add them to the mixing bowl, and finally whizz up the tofu until it’s a smooth mush. Add it to the mixing bowl, as well as the rest of the filling ingredients: rolled oats, a crumbled-up stock cube, garlic powder, soy sauce and pepper. Stir everything together well.

Now preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and lightly grease a baking tray. Thaw out your puff pastry, and slice each sheet in half so that it makes two rectangles. Spoon the filling down the centre third of each pastry rectangle; lightly brush another third with water or milk and then roll the pastry, starting from the empty third and tucking it into the brushed third. Slice the roll into halves, thirds or quarters as you wish and place them on the baking tray. Make a couple more diagonal cuts in the top of the roll, brush the top with more water/milk and sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining filling and pastry. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, until they’re golden brown and flaky.

Teaching your kids about food will not cause eating disorders

Today I am promo-ing an excellent article.

I read an article (referenced in todays) going around linking food education to eating disorders a couple of weeks ago and was challenged by it (in a good way). It reminded me to not be fastidious with the kids. Not that I am. By any means. But I took a positive out of it.

Now Spoonfed has written a response and it is brilliant. It is about how to be balanced and educative in your approach to food as a parent. She does not advocate blanket “no sweets” etc but more so teaching children how to eat things that are as close to their original food source as possible – and why. She helps her children see that real food tastes BETTER and helps them feel GOOD.

We had evidence of this recently when, after a long spell of not buying any hot chips, we bought hot chips. My 5 yo says “Mum, these are no where near as good as yours”.

YAY! 🙂 This is our experience. Our kids over time have changed their tastes. Since they are eating real food, they know what real food tastes like. At first they craved sugar and salt (because it’s in everything), and now…not so much. Our 5 yo is now rejecting things because he thinks they are ‘too’ sweet, which is very odd given he has been the biggest imaginable sweet tooth.

They now eat cereal in the morning that has ZERO sugar and they are happy just to put non dairy milk on top or sometimes soy yoghurt (I’m making my own). This story is not about boasting but about how much hard work Dave put in to get them to that point. He persisted, and he modelled. And he persisted. Some days he threw rice bubbles on top to help them get used to a mostly sugar free breakfast and eventually they didn’t look for it anymore. And this is now their preference.

Changing eating habits can and does work. It takes patience, trying over and over again and belief that tastes do change – and reasonably quickly.

And as the kids grow, my hope is that they will have a firm understanding of what is food and what is not. And making healthy choices is not about exciting or boring, but making a choice that helps us feel GOOD so we can enjoy the things we want to do. As we say, “Your body is thanking you for that choice”.

Have a great weekend 😉

 

Caramel pears with chocolate chunks

Baked caramel pears with chocolate chunks

Mmmmm surely have your attention now don’t I!

We bought a delicious box of pears and in my thinking about how best I can use them, this was an inspiration on a ‘dessert night’ with myself and the little boys. It is so remarkably simple. Let me know if there is anyone at all who leaves any on their plate! 😉

(Apologies for the dreadful photo. It’s very difficult to make a baked squishy wrinkly pear look good in night time light, no matter how great it tastes!)

Ingredients (for 2 people):

2 ripe pears, cored

4 medjool dates, soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water

2 tsp almond spread (I use 100% almonds so feel free to just blend almonds until paste-like)

2 little squares of dark chocolate (Dairy free)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Core the pears, and put half a piece of dark chocolate as a wedge in the bottom.

Blend/process/bamix the dates and almond spread until a smooth paste forms (caramel). Fill the cored pear with caramel, and add remaining half of a piece of chocolate in the top of the pear. Repeat with the second pear.

Cover pears in alfoil and bake for 25 minutes.

ENJOY!

Vegetable (Butter Chicken) curry

Butterless Chickenless Butter Chicken

What do you call butter chicken when it has no butter and no chicken? I guess that makes it a vegetable curry. But really, it’s more exciting than that. There are two other curries on this blog: tikka masala and korma. I make those often because they are favourites but some sort of light bulb moment occured the other day when I realised I used to like butter chicken curries! It has a unique flavour (if you’re a discerning curry eater) and is rich. Yum.

I am slowing down my blog posts…1 a day has been fun but as we have grown, I’ve got some great projects on the go (which you’ll hear about soon) and I need to slow the pace down a little. But I can’t not share this one with you. It’s awesome.

So here tis.

1 spanish (purple) onion, finely diced

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp ground ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp Indian curry powder

1/2 tsp chili flakes

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup tomato puree

200g crushed tomatoes (tinned)

1/2 cup plain coconut yogurt or coconut cream

1/2 tsp salt

Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add in the spice mix and stir briefly until spices become fragrant. Add in tomato paste, tomatoes and 1/4 cup water and lemon juice. Stir on heat for 2 minutes, then set aside. This is your curry paste.

Saute whatever vegetables you like (pumpkin/carrot/sweet potato/onion/ spinach added at the end) and add in your curry paste. Add in coconut cream and 1/2 cup water or vegetable stock and simmer until veggies are cooked. So simple, and so, insanely delicious.

Lush chocolate avocado cake

Lush chocolate avocado cake

My beautiful boys wanted to make me a cake for mothers day (any excuse!). Luckily I had a healthy recipe I wanted to play with so we gave it a go! This cake is quite lush and rich. It is amazing to think it has no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, no refined sugar and no nuts. It is the perfect cake if you are concerned about allergies – or to take to a party where you want something that anyone and everyone can eat! Diabetics, vegans, coeliacs, …anyone I’m sure!

The boys chose a love-heart shaped cake tin that was my grandmothers (appropriate for the day!) and we sprinkled the top with naturally coloured sprinkles (Yes, don’t mess such a lovely cake up with artificial colours! 🙂 ) (I’m not sure about the GF nature of the sprinkles – maybe check that if you have an allergy/intolerance before using them).

Once again, this is my GF flour mix that I like and works well for me. I don’t have a desire to change it at this point. If you want to use gluten, just substitute a wholemeal wheat flour (I recommend Atta flour because it is wholemeal but very fine and not ‘bitty’)- or if you don’t have these GF flours, try a GF premix. I’m sure it will still hold up. Whatever you do, if you follow this recipe, don’t leave out the starch. The blend of GF flours needs the starch to function. (You can buy it in health food shops). You can substitute potato starch instead if you prefer but don’t mix this up with potato flour! That one won’t work.

My last little note is to try not to skimp on the chocolate. 70% cocoa minimum, buy Fair trade and don’t buy any chocolate where sugar is the first ingredient :). Loving Earth is my favourite brand at the moment but it’s not easily sourced where we live. Green and Blacks is a good alternative and you can find it in any supermarket.

My 5yo was pretty funny when I got him to mash the avocado. He raised one eyebrow (just like his mother :)) and said in disbelief “We’re going to put THIS in it?”. Yes, sweetness, we are! And it’s good!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

½ cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup coconut palm sugar

1/3 cup cacao powder

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

80 gms 70% dark chocolate (dairy free)

2/3 cup freshly brewed coffee

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup rice syrup

1 small very ripe avocado, mashed (or 1/2 a big one)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup coconut cream

 

For the ganache:

20 gms dark chocolate (dairy free)

1/2 cup coconut milk

 

Instructions

1. Grease and line cake tin. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place a small saucepan over low heat and add in dark chocolate and freshly brewed coffee. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cacao powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl, beat together mashed avocado, oil, rice syrup and vanilla extract until smooth. Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture and coconut cream. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Your cake batter should be pretty thick. If it’s too thick, add in an extra tablespoon or two of milk.
5. Pour batter into prepared tin and smooth top. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out almost clean, with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pan an hour on a wire rack before flipping over and transferring to wire rack to finish cooling completely.
6. To make chocolate ganache: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add in coconut milk and chopped chocolate. Watch carefully and whisk until chocolate is completely melted. If you want a thinner ganache, add in more coconut cream. Let stand for a few minutes then immediately spoon ganache over cake. Top ganache with sprinkles, more chocolate chips, nuts, or another topping of choice. Cut into 12 slices and serve immediately!

 

Thanks ever so much to Ambitious kitchen whose recipe I used and adapted.

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

I had a nice little surprise this morning as Ally nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World bloggers award :). It’s so nice when you hear someone appreciates what you do. You can find Ally at the Hopefullvegan. Thanks Ally!

On that note, it turns out there is a ripple effect going on with the blogging ‘sisterhood’. I’m not sure where the brothers fit into that? At any rate….here are the rules!

The rules for Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award are:

1   Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2   Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and a link back.
3   Answer 10 questions given.
4   Nominate up to 12 bloggers for Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.
5   Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.

The 10 Questions:
What is your favorite color?   — I like that stormy, smokey blue colour. And various shades of pink.
Your favorite animal?   —  Pelicans. And dolphins. And ducks.
Your favorite non-alcoholic drinks?  — Cranberry, soda water and fresh lime
Facebook or Twitter?   — Facebook
Your favorite pattern?   —  hmm. Never thought about this one. I probably like swirly things rather than straight lines.
Do you prefer getting or giving presents?  — Absolutely BOTH.
Your favorite number?    — 13
Your favorite day of the week?    — They all have potential!
Your favorite flower?    — Plumeria (Frangipani) – special mention to the peace lily and oriental lily though 🙂
What is your passion?   —  Gentle parenting, families, nutrition, well being, health/vitality, relationships, mindfulness, non-violence, justice, peace, compassion, living in harmony with oneself and the world…

The Nominees Are…

I happily nominate the following Bloggers for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Congrats to you all!!

Emily at Happy Vegan Mom Emily has a pretty inspiring life story and a will to not just survive life but thrive in it.

Matt at No Meat Athlete– inspiring wealth of information, ‘non-sanctimonious’, and a plant based athlete.

Shannon at Move Eat Create is a runner, foodie and knitter. She’s got a good looking yellow curry burrito recipe up there that I’d like to try soon too!

Sheila at Tea, A Drink with Jam and Bread is a foodie/law student who has some lovely vego/vegan recipes

Dawn at Small Footprint Family SUCH an awesome site: more than recipes, this is about sustainability and reducing consumerism too. Love, love.

Claire at Skinny Vegan Food is a fellow Aussie on a plant based, whole food journey.

Kirstie at Living Healthy Mom has a huge range of info on healthy living as well as recipes. Another mum with young kids juggling everything and inspiring the world into health.

To everyone who has a special woman in their lives or is a special woman, happy ‘mother’s’ day! Thanks to those who inspire the rest of us.

Orange and pomegranate muffins

Orange and pomegranate muffins

Back from our Ironman adventure! I didn’t manage any new cooking in that time but did manage much thinking and many conversations about health and well being…it happens when surrounded by ridiculously fit and well people 🙂 (No, not me. I’m no Ironman for sure).

Despite the fact that I make a lot of muffins, I am not really a muffin eater. I’ve never really loved them. I make them for the kids.

This, however. This muffin is where it’s at. Gluten free, dairy and egg free, and refined sugar free (it has a little coconut palm sugar in it). This is so zesty, sweet, light and delicious – with little pops of the pomegranate seeds.

Yeah, I’m a genius. Patting my back all on my own :). I actually made these for breakfast last week because we were facing having to get to the airport by 7am the next day, yikes. I have a chronic illness and am not operating full speed at the best of times so this…yes. A challenge.

So I figured if i could make something light, healthy, filling and delicious to eat in the taxi on the way to the airport for breakfast – well, that would be a start! Little did I know I’d end up with something …welll… divine! It also helps that the kids love pomegranates. They call the seeds “jelly beans” and we are not, in any way, allowed to call them pomegranates. Well, not within ear shot of Mr 3.

If you don’t have all these GF flours, you can replace them with your own all purpose flour. The rice, millet and tapioca flours are what I have on hand because I like experimenting with these flours. Although I do have to say, I haven’t found an all purpose GF flour that holds up this well! I think this is also nutritionally superior too which is an added plus if you can access these flours.

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 tsp stevia

2 oranges *
½ cup non dairy milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pomegranate (seeds only)
1 T chia seeds (soaked in 3 T water)

* Firstly, put the oranges on to boil/simmer for 45-60 minutes. Cool, and puree in a blender.

Next, mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients together in another. Lightly stir together and spoon into muffin trays.

Bake at 180 deg C for 35 minutes. (Recipe makes 11-12, or 7-8 big ones).

Orange and pomegranate muffins

April favourites

Well oops the month turned over! Here’s my little monthly recap of your favourites for the month.

Far and away, Coconut snow balls was the hit.

Seedy Endurance Crackers

Summer rolls

Layered mousse pots

Lentil san choy bow and

Banana Peanut Butter ice cream were all up there.

 

My favourites… I have to say I loved the Peanut noodle salad , Indian baked veggies and the Plant based way mayonaise. And saying that, I feel like I’m cheating on the yoghurt for not mentioning it :).

Another lovely busy month of great food. I’ll be on a little hiatus this week as we go to watch Dave race an Ironman triathlon. GO DAVE! Will be back on deck in a week or so… happy eating in the mean time!