This book caught my eye when I was wandering through DJs the other day. Its rare for a cook book to entice me as I tend to look online for recipes mostly these days. To begin with I didn't know what half the grains were that were listed on the front so that was enough to make me flick. I found myself saying oh yum yum oh that looks nice oh I'd make that to every second recipe in the book.
I liked the clear explanation at the start of each chapter about the grains and what they do and how they work.
So far we have made a number of the buckwheat recipes and I have a big container of the granola which uses rolled spelt and oats. So delicious.
The girls also made the yummy roasted beetroot, buckwheat and feta salad ( we switched out the goats cheese as I'm allergic). We can also recommend the carrot and quinoa cake.
Here is a peak inside ( images from amazon) ( both of these are on our to try list )
Chickpea Tomato and Quinoa Soup
Banana Honey and Walnut Bread - using quinoa flakes
I was with a friend who liked the look of it too and they were having a
special 25% off if you buy two or more books - so we both bought one and
I got it for $22. It's RRP is $29.95.
If you click the link above it'll take you to booko which does a price comparison if you'd like to nab yourself a copy.
I can HIGHLY recommend it - sorry my paleo loving friends :(
I spotted these on my blog reader and pinned them late one night last week. I am always on the look out for yummy breakfast recipes especially over the holidays. These are perfect because I can make them a little later in the morning and they will tide us over till late lunch. Holidays in our hosue are always filled with two girls asking on the hour what can we eat!
School has been back a week and already I'm at the what on earth do I put in lunch boxes stage. It's the never ending question isn't it? There are a couple of children at our girls school who have tuckshop every day. While I could never afford that and Hello diet of chocolate paddle pops Mumma won't know - the thought is certainly tempting!
However thatw ont work for our family so I juts have to get it sorted. I do find it's far far easier if I have at least done some sort of baking at the start of the week.
So just out of the oven now is my variation on some recipes ( you can see the original at each of the links ). I have cleaned them up a bit :)
Mix it all together and press into a tin. Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into slices. I like this because it's pretty clean ( depending on your cheese) - the girls love it. I can have it myself with salad and so can Richard.
This gets us through two days.
Now for treats.
A quick zip through woolies or coles and you are bombarded with back to school specials on muesli bars LCM bars and a multitude of other advertised "healthy" choices. Have you noticed so many packages now have the word wholegrain whacked on them? Wholegrain seems to be the new "low fat". As always I flip them over and start to read the ingredients - and numbers and I still am yet to find something that makes me happy.
I randomly grabbed a carton of buttermilk for in my trolley and when I got home had a quick search for recipes.
I remembered Tessa Kiros - Berry and Buttermilk Cake from Apples for Jam and wondered if I could clean it up a bit
So the good news is yes you can and it's really good! I just tried a piece (for research purposes of course)
Here is my adapted recipe
Tamar's Berry and Buttermilk Cake
2 cups wholemeal organic SR flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup of honey
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
1 teaspoons grated lemon zest
ground nutmeg
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 teapsoons raw sugar (optional!)
Place all the ingredients into a bowl - (except the berries and raw sugar ). Mix until just combined with a wooden spoon. Spread into a lined tinned. Sprinkle the blueberries on top. I also sprinkled the sugar ( I only had white sugar ) because I like the crucnh of the original recipes which uses 2 1/2 tablespoons - but you can totally leave this off and now I have made it and tried it I will next time.
Cut into chunks for in lunchboxes - not super sweet but a good sweet hit and filling. this is going to be perfect for afternoon tea too!
Finally I had just a smidge under a two cups of buttermilk left and if you are anything like me it tends to sit in the fridge and get forgotten so I thought have to use it up.
I don't know about your family but honestly mine drives me crazy with the what can we have to eat during holidays . I know of some families who pack lunch boxes and say that's it. I have seriously thought about it but to be honest I like a good snackage too!
Now that the umm christmas shortbread ( so not clean even though I made it myself - that makes it kind of clean right?) is gone, it's time to start searching up some new yummy healthy stuff to keep my two munching girls happy. On our to try list is
I am not ashamed to admit that I was slightly worried about my traditional Christmas baking and where it would sit with our clean eating. To be honest I'm sure Richard and the girls were too!
While I intend to adhere 90% of the time to our philosophy of clean I wanted to try to come up with some healthy clean eating Christmas recipes. I was thrilled when a Product Talk by Nuffnang opportunity from Lucky came up as it gave me the chance to start playing with cleaning up some recipes for Christmas.
At Christmas time more than ever you want your recipes to work and what I like about Lucky is that they are the leading cooking nut brand in Australia and have been around for 50 years. Lucky almonds are Australian grown – in our very own almond orchards in the Sunraysia and Riverina districts. Can't really get much cleaner :)
This is a take on my favourite Banana Bread recipe I didn't think it could be improved upon but I love the addition of the Lucky Hazelnut Meal.
Banana Hazelnut Loaf
Makes one loaf
Ingredients
1/2 cup Lucky Almond meal
1/2 cup Lucky Hazelnut meal
1/4 cup shredded organic coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 small ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup Lucky Californian Walnuts
cinnamon
Method
Mix your nut meals, coconut and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. In
another bowl, mix the mashed bananas, eggs, oil, honey with a
fork until combined.
Add your wet to dry and mix until there is no dry - do not over mix.
Pour into a prepared loaf tin - flatten out and press the walnuts
into the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake in a moderate oven about 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn out onto a wire rack and leave cool before slicing.
Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble is a new product that has just been launched and is a mix of Oven Roasted Almond Meal, Flaked and Slivered Almonds and Oats. ( nothing else - yay ) - available at Coles. With peaches being so beautiful at the moment I made this yummy peach crumble - rather than your traditional crumbles laden with butter and brown sugar this one uses no butter and no refined sugar.
So good. Perfect to take to a BBQ or just to have as a mid week treat because it takes literally 5 minutes to prepare.
Peach Crumbles
4 - 6 serves
Ingredients
4 fresh peaches halved with pits removed
100gm Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble
2 tablespoons of Macadamia Nut Oil
Lucky Almond Slivers
Organic Maple Syrup
Method
Place your peaches into a baking dish
Mix the Lucky Easy Chef Almond Crumble and oil together until it forms a crumble consistency. Add a little more oil if needed.
Spoon crumble over the peaches.
Sprinkle some Lucky almond slivers over the top.
Drizzle with maple syrup and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden
Serve with a dollop of yoghurt.
and finally- as I always say dark chocolate is good for you... and it is something we do indudge in - these little Almond clusters are divine. Just one after dinner cuts the I must eat a bar of chocolate craving that I used to get.
Almond Clusters
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate 200 gms
Lucky Slivered Almonds 110 gms
Dried Cranberries 100gms
Method
Melt the dark chocolate either over a double boiler or in the microwave at 70% power for two minutes.
Mix through the Lucky Slivered Almonds and cranberries.
Spoon into small patty tins ( I use the alfoil ones because I find
they retain their shape well and peel off easily- available at coles in the baking section ). Place in the fridge
to set.
Enjoy with your coffee whenever you need to.
Lucky also have a website with a whole slew of recipes - these ones are on my to try list
I'm always on the lookout for good clean eating recipes (no processed stuff and butter sugar free) for in lunch boxes. While there are lots of recipes out there that fit this category there are plenty that are not very appetizing and quite honestly don't work or don't taste great. Not much point in eating a treat that isn't yummy just because it's healthy.
Here are my top 5 favourite cakes and loafs which I have had work and are delicious guilt free goodies at their best.
Welcome to this week's post on Happy lunches. I rejoined the work force this week and so now I get to pack my lunch too - HOORAY - so exciting.
Of course it required me going in search of a cute new lunch box - goes without saying really! Though I found that they are few and far between because it's not lunch box buying season.
I did however find the perfect thing - and currently they are on special at woolworths so I bought some for the girls too.
It's about the size of a sandwich but double and has a sealed section that then folds over - hmm I think that makes no sense ... But it's really good LOL and cost $3.70 YAY ( on special i think normally they are $5.99).
I put a salad in the big section and then bits in the other part.
The loaf is this apricot loaf recipe ( try it if you haven't - really good! ) I also added a tin of salmon for my salad and a little decor container with balsamic vinegar and cold pressed oil. Fruit doesn't fit in well so you either need another container with your fruit if you chop it up or just take some whole pieces and voila - yummy clean eating lunch in just a few minutes.
There is no excuses not to take a yummy salad. I promise that it's just as fast as making a sandwich if you are organised before hand.
Some Simple Salad Making Tips
Keep all your "salad " stuff in on spot in the fridge - in a basket or container so you can just quickly pull it out
Sunday Night Prep
chop up some sweet potato into little cubes and roast it with some macadamia nut oil. Once it's cool keep it in a container in the fridge and you can add it to each salad through the week. ( Thank you to Ben from my gym for this tip - its my favourite! )
prepare some quinoa - pop it in the fridge to use with sweet potato or swap them for variety
roast some chicken tenderloins
boil some eggs and leave in their shells
To Buy
variety of lettuce/ spinach/rocket
"rainbow salad" from woolies - which is beet carrot and zucchini grated - or grate your own and keep in a container in the fridge
cherry or grape tomatoes (no chopping)
any other fruit or vege you like - cucumber, mushrooms, strawberries, celery, snow peas, radish, capsicum
tins - chick peas, salmon or tuna ( oil free flavourings free ones)
walnuts (packed with nutrients and are an excellent source of omega-3
fats. They are also rich in antioxidants, particularly a compound called
ellagic acid, which supports the immune system and has
anti-cancerous properties) or pine nuts
Making your salad
Take out your container - add your lettuce to the bottom then add which ever ingredients you have pulled out. I try to keep the chopping to a minimum so I usually choose two or three things to be chopped and the rest stay whole - strawberries, mushrooms, snowpeas are fine whole. Radish add a peppery flavour and are yummy at the moment.
Add sweet potato or quinoa or chicken or a boiled egg or add your tin of salmon or tuna to your lunch bag.
Handful of nuts - I find mine are still crunchy by lunch but you make like to keep them in a different container.
Make your dressing - you can make something like this in advance and just add it to a little container to pour on when you are ready to eat or else just mix some cold pressed olive oil with some balsamic.
Before you close it up - check you have lots of different colours and you'll know you have
Just back on the lunch box - it would be perfect for leftovers too- stir fry etc - though you would have to pop it into a bowl to heat at work.
Mel is unwell this week so you will have to make do with just my tips for happy lunches :)
A salad is a fast food in our house these days. To be honest though I don't put alot of thought into salads - whether they are just as a side dish or the main attraction. It's really whatever I have on hand.
Through the day for lunch, I'll make a quick salad and then add a tin of tuna or salmon or some chickpeas.
My basic one at the moment is lettuce ( love baby cos ) or spinach or a mix of greens, a tomato chopped up, a handful of strawberries chopped up, some avocado and a handful of walnuts.
While obviously salad is pretty clean eating, it's the dressings that tend to be dodgy...
Take this one fat free Zesty Italian one from Kraft -- Ingredients:WATER, VINEGAR, SUGAR, SALT, CONTAINS LESS
THAN 2% OF SOYBEAN OIL*, DRIED GARLIC, GARLIC, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH,
XANTHAN GUM, DRIED RED BELL PEPPERS, DRIED ONIONS, SPICE, YELLOW 5,
YELLOW 6,POTASSIUM SORBATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (TO PROTECT
FLAVOR).
Next time you are in the store have a look at any bottle they will read quite similarly. So today in our Happy Lunch series I share my favourite super yummy, super fast, Clean Eating Salad dressing.
3 tablespoons Cold Pressed Olive Oil
1 lemon squeezed
1 tablespoon of seeded mustard
1 tablespoon of honey
Whisk together and enjoy:). This keeps well in the fridge too if you want to increase the quantity or if you don't use it all at once.
I'm not sure if you've ever noted but we are pretty partial to sweet treats and baking in our house. Now that we eat clean 80 - 90 % of the time it's no reason for us not to have treats but my rules are simple - no butter, no refined sugar, no sugar replacements other than honey or pure maple syrup ( or agave at a push ), no processed white flours.
At first it was pretty daunting but now I am well into the swing of it and have worked out what will come out well and what end up in the bin. There have been plenty of fails along the way. I began with stalking blogs and today I am going to share my top 5 favourite
"NO FAIL - tastes and looks great wouldn't know they were healthy treat recipes"
with you.
The looks good thing is important - at first when I started sending some stuff to school it kind of looked umm well brown and umm healthy and the girls were not impressed.
These 5 recipes will keep all tummys well and truly happy!
When we embarked upon the clean eating lifestyle I have to admit bread and baking threw me. I just could not get my head around it. Baking is a big deal in our house and I wanted to still be able to bake while maintaining clean eating.
I have read lots of discussions against grains and heard a number of speakers talk on the topic too. For our family we still include grains in moderation and they have to be wholegrains.
So what does that really mean? Does it work to grab any loaf of bread from a bakery or from woolies shelves if it's brown? I had a chat to a number of bakers as well and no not all bread is created equal and neither is all flour. The few things they told me was rather eye opening. I strongly suggest you have a little read of the labels on your breads.
Of course you can get organic bread from a couple of different bakeries and also from farmers markets - they usually cost about $7 a loaf. There is also Ezekial Bread available around the traps as well. I am not a huge fan of it and the girls won't touch it. I mostly was reaching for the Burgen brand breads - they put out a heap of different ones - Wholemeal and seeds - sounded good the ingredient list is okayish -- creeping up there but mostly I can understand what's in it.
I dabbled with the idea of making my own in a bread maker. A friend recommended that I buy a bread mix for a bread maker- I researched those and found that the Laucke brand was readily available and sounded quite good. A look at the ingredient list though and I was back to square one. As soon as I see numbers I have to put it back.
Mel suggested that I try Artisans Bread in 5 minutes a day. I watched the video and bought the book for it on my ipad. It looked easy enough and fitted beautifully with clean eating. My only concern was how difficult would it be - would it really work and my usual I have the dodgiest oven in the world. Then I was still lost in translating the whole flour issue.
I asked a nutritionist at a seminar I was at for gym and they recommended hands down spelt flour.I had been using spelt flour in some other recipes and they had been working.
The master recipe for wholegrain artisan bread is online a quick google will reveal it so its no secret. I'll pop it here so I can show you which products I ended up using as this is in what I call American ingredients and what worked for me.
5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ------ I used Spelt Flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour ----- I used Wholemeal Plain Flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 tablespoon Kosher salt---- I used Himalayan Pink Salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten ------ I used Gluten Flour
4 cups lukewarm water
The recipe and details of what to do is found here but in short you make this up and this is the base for all sorts of wholegrain breads. Watch the artisans at work - honestly it is as simple as they make it look.
I really recommend buying the book after you have mastered this and know that this works for you. As an ebook it's $14.99.
There are so many great recipes in there -including a sandwich one with honey in it that I'll be using for staple bread for the girls. There is also a Gluten Free section for those who need it (obviously this recipe isn't gluten free). While I dont have to deal wth gluten free unless my godson is here the premise is the same. simple 5 minutes a day.
Now a little breakdown of the types of flour I used and where I got them from
Spelt - I choose Organic Spelt flour and i have used it in anumber of different recipes. You can get it from woolies - in their macro range, from a health food store or you can buy it at the markets from a few stall holders - Gold Coast Turf Club Marjets for example have it as do Bangalow.
I personally choose organic for flour but you don't have to. Any spelt will be fine it will also be whole grain. You can read up on what spelt is here.
So far I have substituted spelt for anytime I have needed flour - pancakes, scones, pikelets - it all works. You can read the difference between spelt and wholemeal over here.
Wholemeal Plain Flour - I have been using Wholemeal Atta flour by Arta - say that fast LOL. It's readily available at woolies and is by Masterchef Jimmy - the girls love that he makes flour now. You can read up about it on the Arta website. I don't know for sure that there is anything better about this flour in comparison to say homebrand wholemeal flour but I like what I read about it and I have had successful recipes so that's all that matters to me at the moment.
Gluten Flour is trickier to get but you don't need much - I have had to buy it at Health food stores. I'm yet to see it in the supermarket. There are lots of brands if possible choose an organic one.
I have been using my $14.99 pizza stone to bake my freestanding loaves on. My oven doesn't retain heat very well - sigh one day I'd love a whole new kitchen - ANYHOW one thing they recommend is to get a thermometer to check your oven temp. Its on my to do list. You set it to 450 which in other speak is 230 so it's a hot oven. I didn't preheat mine enough I don't think to start and it still worked.
I just made my first batch of master dough in a HUGE ceramic basin with cling wrap over the top but I have now invested in a plastic tub from BIG W
I bought the 8.5 litre as that was all they had but I think the next size down 5.5 litre would be perfect. The master dough keeps for 14 days and makes 4 loaves.
In terms of making a traditional sandwich loaf style of bread I was on the lookout for a Pullman loaf tin as recommended by Artisans but I'm yet to find it. You can see all about it here.
It's 28 x 13 x7 from Barrel and Crate (though there are very very similar ones in Big W for half the price - don't tell Richard.
There you have it - that culminates in nearly two months of research for me. I know obsessive much? But really I wanted the answers. Using these recipes and this style of baking is really simple it takes no time at all and now that I have the flour thing solved I'm excited to try a few other styles of bread too. I usually just add whatever seeds I have on hand to the top of the master recipe- pepitas, sesame, poppy sunflower. So if you don't want to invest in the book - use their guide from the video and their blog and add some seeds and you are all set too. I should also mention they have an original book which is not using whole grain flours if that is what you would like to try too and a pizza and flat bread book as well.
I'd love to know if you make your own bread and what you use or if you give this a try and have success.
Welcome to my blog, I am so happy you came to visit. I share the stories of my life creating, documenting and loving as a Mumma to twin girls. I am navigating a clean eating lifestyle as I run towards being a breast cancer survivor.
