Sweet

wildrice and quinoa breakfast
Breakfast, Brunch, Gluten Free, Lunch, Meal, quick meals, Salad, Savoury, Snack, Sweet

Weekday Black Rice and Quinoa Meals

    Today I am cooking with the intention to multi task a couple of ingredients.   I am working with my friend Ollie on a project to create simple, healthy and affordable meals.  As always, this is part of my food journey (and I am looking forward to the challenge within this) of preparing some basic items to make my weekday meals easier.   My struggle with preparing food in advance is that often when it comes time to eat it, it is not what I want  – brattish  I know!  My thoughts this week were to prepare something that could then transform into the flavours I did want on the day, be it sweet or savoury, breakfast, lunch or dinner.. Starting with this in mind I prepared Wild Rice (which isn’t actually rice at all) and  black quinoa.  Shop around for wild rice (it can vary in price a lot) and it is only recently that some  more affordable home-brand varieties have become available. The idea here is not that you have to use these two grains, you can absolutely substitute your favourite rice or grain, or better still use what you have in the pantry.  This is a great way to finish some of those half used packets.  I love combining grains, pulses and beans, which as I show below,  can form the base of all sorts of different meals.  Using a variety of grains, pulses and beans gives you a broader nutrition profile and more interesting textures to […]

white chocolate fruit muffins
Breakfast, Brunch, Desert, Snack, Sweet

White Chocolate Fruit Muffins for a Picnic

Over the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time and energy coming up with aspirational recipes to share, recipes to channel my best self and to give ideas to maybe help you to do the same.  I love this and still want to continue this journey trying to live and cook for my best life. Moving on and a couple of weeks ago my son George sent a message from the other side of the world requesting a recipe for my muffins – I sent a quick recipe off the top of my head -forgot the sugar – doh….  Probably the best answer would be to think this through and put the recipe properly on the blog.  The stumbling block with this idea comes from a feeling that for my best self no white sugar or flour should appear on this blog, and because of this I have always discounted the idea of recording some of these home favourites here   Then over the last week or so I kept thinking about this and my reluctance to put the muffin recipe here on the blog.  Lots of wondering has bought me back to my original reason for the blog which was principally was to keep in touch and share with friends and family at home and around the world –  for me this means sharing my world as reflected in the kitchen.  So it seems that something I have cooked so often that no recipe is required, […]

chocolate breakfast cereal
Breakfast, Brunch, Gluten Free, Sweet

Chocolate Breakfast Cereal

Todays story is about a chocolate laden, seed, coconut and nut filled – not so sweet –  breakfast cereal. This same cereal might just as easily be an afternoon snack or a sprinkle for ice-cream.  Sometimes in the depth of winter (and possibly even on a bright summer morning) we need the comfort of something that seems richer, brighter and a little naughtier. it maybe brings reminders of childhood coco pops, but just as importantly, something that will sustain us through the morning.  Knowing we all start the day with different food needs and rituals, in recent times I have become a fan of something with loads of seeds and nuts (aka My Daily Bread). This cereal offers a chance for me to change it up but still enjoy that nutty goodness. In the process of experimenting with this, I was excited to finally tried and have success with the crazy concoction called aquafaba.  This is chickpea water beaten to form a foam similar to that of beaten egg whites.  I have seen it using canned chickpeas but as I love to cook my own chickpeas I hadn’t been sure if the technique would transfer, happily it did. My method, as always, was to soak my chickpeas overnight and rinse and drain them. I then cooked the chickpeas in lightly salted water – making sure that by the end of the cooking they were just covered in water.  I drained the chickpeas and cooled the liquid before beating.  I managed to get […]

spring green vegetable soup
Lunch, Meal, Soup, Spring, Sweet

Spring Green Vegetable Soup

Simple, elegant, soothing, green vegetable soup.  This delicious soup is made in minutes and is full of flavour and made complex with the layering of textures – lentils for substance, snow peas for crunch and lemon for zing – just before serving. Spring green vegetable soup follows on the heals of my green vegetable salad.  The weather turned snowy and I still had lots of odds and ends of beautiful green vegetables in the refrigerator and freezer.   As is mostly the case with my home cooking there is quite a lot of ad-libbing and swapping ingredients. Mint was the one ingredient I didn’t have which I think this soup gains from but it was buried under our late snowfall.  Luckily the coriander I did have gave a similar fresh feeling and a slightly Thai twist to the soup.  I think the lesson is that you can mix the herbs up, it might change the feel a bit – but it will still be delicious. This lovely soup is light, yet still manages to feel satisfying without any of the heavier soup staples such as potato, pumpkin and kumara.  I think it relies on the vegetables belonging to the family of sweeter greens, the amounts can be played with as long as you try to include at least some peas, I wouldn’t put stronger greens such as spinach or kale in this gentle brew as their flavours will overpower it.  The lentils add a lovely soft chewiness, the snow peas […]

black rice and coconut breakfast
Breakfast, Brunch, Desert, Gluten Free, Sweet

Easy and Delicious Black Rice and Coconut Breakfast

So easy and so delicious. This is creamy, chewy, sweet, and slightly exotic tasting – this is breakfast heaven.  I realise now that I am very late to the black rice breakfast idea, traditional in some cultures and popular on cafe menus, but now I have tried it I am a convert and I can see no reason why I am not going to eat this for desert as well. The black rice has an amazing flavour and natural perfume as it cooks, it is slightly sweet and even though this particular brand of rice is from Italy it is very reminiscent of Asian flavours.  I have cooked it today with cardamon as this is the flavour I had been wanting, but I love the idea of lemongrass, lime and ginger served with mango, or sweet cinnamon and nutmeg, or vanilla….  Go wild but  please let me know what  flavours you enjoy! The grains of this rice are slightly short and round with a  wonderful chewy quality that you find in brown rice, which makes it feel substantial enough to fuel your morning. I followed the rules as I read them (soaking my rice over night), this makes the rice easier to digest and faster to cook but is not absolutely necessary.  If you don’t soak the rice it will need more water and an extra half an hour or so to cook.  The cooking process is a little like risotto (but without the fuss), adding water and coconut milk […]

cashew cream breakfast jar
Breakfast, Brunch, Canape, Condiments, Desert, Gluten Free, Snack, Sweet

Breakfast to Desert – Cashew Nut, Coconut Chia Cream

I am struggling to decide where I begin telling you about this cashew, chia, coconut cream as I am so taken with everything about it. To start with it is amazing because it tastes soooo delicious, and isn’t that where we should always begin – “healthy” or not! Then it is also amazing in its versatility.  You can keep it as thick as when first made and it is spoonable enough that you could use it as a cream filling in a cake. Or you can thin it with a little of, your choice of milk, coconut water or and a little lemon juice and you  have a great yoghurt substitute. As a totally dairy free alternative it offers all the richness, mouthfeel and satisfaction of its dairy alternatives such as cream, greek yoghurt, marscapone cheese, cream cheese etc…   I love dairy products and happily include them in my diet, but it seems to me that more and more people are telling me they are intolerant to lactose or dairy.  As someone who wants to feed everyone and enjoy the widest variety of foods, I am very excited when I find delicious alternatives.  Especially alternatives that aren’t a lesser product and that taste amazing in their own right.  Anything that expands the variety of foods we eat, offers new options in how we cook and prepare our meals has to be a good thing. Lastly (I am definitely being hasty saying lastly, but for now lastly!),  it is so […]

Breakfast, Brunch, Condiments, Gluten Free, Snack, Sweet

Everyday Nut and Seed Mix and a Clever Quick Biscuit

Here is another delicious mix to make every day better.  A comforting jar of goodness in the pantry gluten grain and processed sugar free.  This began several years ago with a recipe Kim Malcolm shared at Raeward Fresh called “The Simple Goodness Snack” it has been a favourite of mine ever since, and as with all Kim’s recipe ideas is nutritious and delicious.  This is my take on Kim’s recipe two years on. This mix is so versatile,  play around and have fun with it, here are a few of the ways it works for me and my family, an amazing breakfast buddha bowl topping, a handful of energy on your way past the pantry or in your backpack while hiking, 3 pm salvation snack, a topping for a fruity desert bowl, yoghurt and ice cream ?! add some quinoa flakes, puffed cereal and dry fruit to make it into a gluten free  muesli, use it as a crunchy as a topping to your favourite fruit muffins,  a topping for pancakes or waffles, a delicious fast biscuit base for those moments when you need to entertain in a hurry.  (see the recipe at the end of the page) It is amazingly delicious high energy and so very versatile.  I am sure you will love it, I can’t wait for you to try it and let me know what uses and variations you come up with I decided that in order to make this its nutritious best I would go the […]

Carrot Cake Muffins
Gluten Free, Snack, Sweet

A Fresh Take on Carrot Cake

I decided to make these little Carrot Cake Muffins after talking with a friend about the challenges of sugar free icing for cakes.  I had an idea I wanted to try and so here we are, with something not perfect but an idea worth remembering   This cake recipe is based on an old favourite carrot cake recipe that I have slightly adapted to suit a more modern processed sugar free and potentially gluten free approach.  Remembering carrot cakes were the original healthy cakes back in the late seventies and eighties they have always had a leaning to the healthy side, we are just lucky now to have more natural sugar alternatives.  The icing tastes great, I really like the flavour of the orange zest picking out the cardamon spice in the cake, and although it wont set hard it would also make a delicious caramel filling for raw slices.  As you see I decided to split this into muffin tins so it is easy for lunches or picnics, but it cooks just as easily as a cake. It is hard to go wrong with this recipe,( unlike a sponge, but thats another very long and unsuccessful story), I have even subbed in beetroot and cocao and turned it into a chocolate beetroot cake. You will need to think about this the day before if you want to go with this icing recipe, in order to  rinse and soak the cashews in time. Its a show of intention to friends […]

Overnight Oats
Breakfast, Sweet

Milk Kefir

  It has been a year of playing with fermented products, our house has been happily bubbling away with Kombucha, water Kefir,  Kimchi, Saurkraut …….   All of these have had their successes and failures, but they have all been happily consumed.   Recently I was given some milk kefir granules.  These it seems are the simplest of all the fermented things so far.  A simple matter of adding milk,covering, stirring and in a day or two you have beautiful slightly sour, slightly thickened Milk Kefir.  This was all very well until I realised that I needed to start eating all of this quickly accumulating milk kefir and that generally I don’t consume a lot of milk products.  Bring on second fermentation, overnight oats, light and fluffy pancakes or waffles.  At least I now have breakfasts covered. Second fermentation for me simply involves adding flavours. To date this has taken the form of a splash of vanilla essence and a couple of chopped medjool dates. This can then be left covered on the bench or fermentation halted if sour enough and put in the fridge.  This is yummy enough to be a great substitute for all those sweet store bought yoghurts with all the benefits of fermentation.  As it has been winter and fresh fruits are limited I haven’t taken this much further but I know all those summer fruits and berries will be amazing in the Kefir. My next Kefir treat was combining with oats overnight. I don’t really […]

Matcha Green Tea and Coconut Truffles
Sweet

Matcha Green Tea and Coconut Truffles

Motivation for these comes from the lovely and slightly exotic seeming tin of Matcha Green Tea Powder I bought a couple of months ago.  I was very excited as I had seen lots of ideas using it on the internet and had trouble finding it, as is always the way it was instantly everywhere after that point. But, I the end I did have my tin and since then I have been inventing new ways to add it into my recipes These delicious little truffles are filled with goodness, but not the easiest for an amateur photographer to get the best pictures of.  I’d like to add that the slight green colour from the Matcha powder didn’t look the best in all settings! Life is great though and I did have fun and learned some new tricks. In the end it was the colours that mattered and putting them against pastel background colours worked for me. These are so simple with just a few ingredients and taste delicious. I used Coconut Nectar as the sweetener because I felt the flavour reflected and didn’t compete with the ingredients, but you could use rice syrup (I didn’t have any), maple syrup or honey.  You could easily cut back a spoonful of sweetener but I chose to keep these fairly sweet so they would have a wider appeal in my family Ingredients Truffles Coating I added the truffle ingredients to the food processor and blended briefly to bring together, then rolled them in […]