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
- Honey Almond Toast ( made with my homemade Artisan bread )
- Walnut and Fig Truffles
- Smoked Salmon and Avocado salad with Hazelnut Dressing ( this is on my dinner party entree make list )
- Fruit and nut slice (a totally clean delicious treat)
Bliss. Clean eating recipes that are simple to make. Thanks Lucky and Nuffnang.
