Compelled To Change

Chocolate Banana Brownie I had a chance to use the Green banana flour today.  For those that can't have gluten or just want to give resistant starch a go, its a good one.  Not only are there great health benefits from eating it, the fact that it is not absorbed in the small intestine.  Once in the large intestine it feeds your healthy gut bacteria.  ' They’ve also been found to help reduce blood sugar levels and increase satiety levels – further benefiting weight loss efforts.'   (source:  http://www.naturallivingideas.com/banana-flour/) I followed this recipe from The Pretty Bee, but reduced the amount of the banana flour from 1 1/4 C down to 3/4 C due to the high starch content of it. It was also my first time using coconut sugar and I was pleasantly surprised.  My bananas were super, super ripe and very high i natural sweetness, so I really could have reduced the coconut sugar down to 2/3 C instead of the 1 C. The recip...

Miracle Spray This beauty  Miracle Spray using Lectric Soda  is my main cleaning product around the house. With Miss 4 sick and vomiting I had completely run out. I try to make sure I have all the ingredients in my laundry ready to make a batch or 3. It is made up of Lectric soda, dish liquid, vinegar, water and eucalyptus oil.  That's all. I pretty much use it in all areas including; toilets, showers, kitchen, bins, spills.  I've even been known to insist the other half sprays his stinky work boot feet with it in the shower. It is cleaning and antibacterial all in one and without all the chemicals. At one point I had one of those large glass drink dispensers filled with 6 batches of it but silly me poured the boiling water straight in to the dispenser and it smashed. What ever you put it in to store it make sure you get a couple of good spray bottles to have it on hand ready to go.

Maple Spice Sweet Potato Bread A few people have mentioned my 'sweet tooth' and so I figured I'd give something in between a go. Grab 2 large bowls and in one add: 1 1/4 C Sweet potato (cooked and pureed) 1/4 C Milk 1/2 C 100% Maple syrup 1/4 Almond butter (oven roasted almonds blended for approx. 10 mins until they resemble a thick, non oily peanut butter consistency) 1-2 tsp vanilla extract or the like 1/2 C Coconut oil 2 X/Large Eggs (beaten and at room temp) Mix on low speed until all ingredients are mixed through. In the other bowl: 2 C Wholemeal or unbleached flour 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon salt  2 1/2 tsp Baking powder Now add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on a low speed.  Once mixed, add in: 1/4 C Pepitas 1/2 C Flaked Almonds 1/4 C Sunflower seeds Pour into either lined loaf tin or square cake tin and sprinkle over approx. a Tbs of pepitas, sunflower seeds and flak...

Jazzy Jaffa Cakes from 'I Quit Sugar' Jazzy Jaffa Cakes Recipe Here I wanted to give this recipe a go and so I followed it except for the gelatin in the orange jelly.  The topping is melted dark chocolate so it does have refined sugar in it.  At the end I'll show you what happened when i made up my own cacao chocolate for on top.   It uses 2 oranges including the zest.  Thank you for the mini chopper attachment on the Kenwood. For the orange jelly I reduced the gelatin because it called for 2 Tbs of the I Quit Sugar Gelatin and knowing the Nutra Organics to be hard setting I reduced it to 2 Tbs of gelatin.  I think next time I will add coconut cream to switch up the flavour and look. The biscuit base is very basic and something you could make as a go to 'sweet' biscuit that isn't sweet. I found it fiddly to get cut the biscuits and then fiddly again to cut the orange jelly that sits on top.  I figured the orange ...

Additives are in everything!! Now that the blinkers are off as far as what food my family and I consume I've become shocked at just how many additives are foods that you wouldn't expect there to be.   I'm not becoming fanatical about all of this (some may disagree) but really it's bullshit that we as consumers aren't in control at all.  Personally I started looking in to petro chemicals etc years ago but more exposure is needed to help raise peoples awareness. Life is so busy these days and convenience plays a huge role in the choices we make. Until recently I struggled to work out what to cook for tea and it became a tiresome affair with no help what so ever from my family members.  I'd ask 'What do you want for tea?' and the responses I got went along the lines of; 'I dunno', 'What evers goin' and even 'Don't worry about me'  (that is my hubby to a 'tea').  We even joked about creating frozen meals called ...

Muesli Bars  No refined sugar & packed with protein and goodness Having a well stocked pantry with wholefood options makes it simple to chuck these little beauties together. And in my true style that is exactly what I did. Store bought bars are not only full of sugar with would work out more expensive if you bought brand name. Here is a typical picture of my kitchen when the whim takes me and I have many things on the go.   I literally chucked the ingredients either on to the baking tray, in a saucepan or in to a bowl but will give you some measurements. 1 1/2 C Almonds 1/2 C Pepitas 1/2 C Sunflower seeds Place on baking tray and bake for 10 mins in a moderate oven.  Once cooled, place in bowl with below ingredients. 1/2 C Almond Flakes 1/4 Chia seeds 3/4 C Rolled Oats 1/4 C LSA 2/3 C Dried Cranberries (these do have refined sugar if they are the sweetened type) In a saucepan pour 1/3 C Rice Malt Syrup 2 Tbs 100% ...

Parfaits One failure & one success After my chocolate jelly melt thingys that weren't entirely a success I thought I'd give parfaits a go.  I loved the taste of the melts but found the texture unusual.   Today I intended to do a strawberry and a chocolate layer in my parfaits but the strawberry layer was  too firm. So out they popped and not wanting to give up a created the chocolate part in a glass measuring jug using: 1/2 C Coconut cream ( I use Ayam brand because its real coconut) 1 Tbs Maple Syrup 1 Tbs Rice Malt Syrup 1 tsp Vanilla Extract Then I filled a jug up to the 2 C mark using Lactose free milk (you can use a milk of your choice) Nutra Organics Gelatin.  The packet was a little confusing (I will be following this up with the company), hence the failed strawberry layer.  Even halving the amount as suggested for a panna cotta consistency it was too firm.  I used just under 1/4 C in the chocola...

Lemon Curd or Butter One of my favourite spreads growing up was lemon butter.  On toast it is delicious BUT used in lieu of jam in Bakewell slice is THE bomb. I found a few recipes on pinterest that did not have refined sugar in the ingredients.   This is the one I used from Flavour & Savour But due to not being able to have honey I swapped the 1/3 C honey for 1/3 C Rice Malt syrup. After a few hours in the fridge, it was perfect. For those that would like to try Lemon Bakewell Slice, here a link to what looks like a good recipe. (This is a normal refined sugar recipe)  Lemon Bakewell Slice Once I had strained the lemon curd through a sieve, I was left with around 1/4 C of zesty goodness.  Not wanting to throw this out I Chucked it in a bowl with around 1 1/2 C wholemeal flour, 1/4 C Rice malt syrup, 1/4 maple syrup, approx. 1/2 C melted butter, 1 egg.  Mixed it all up with a wooden spoon, roll into balls and then pushed ...

Lollies!!! My Gelatin and Raspberry Jam Cordial arrived from Sistermixin' last week and I was excited to have a go at making jelly lollies. The Raspberry Jam cordial ingredients are; raw sugar, water, raspberries and lemon juice.  So while I'm in this phase of no refined sugar, I'll give it a pass but thought Miss 4 might like it made in to jelly lollies. For myself I pureed up some defrosted frozen mango, added a little water, rice malt syrup and the gelatin. The easiest recipe I found for these to make that wasn't in huge quantities was: 1/2 C fluid (cordial, fruit juice etc) 1 1/2 Tbs of gelatin I basically chucked the ingredients in to a saucepan and heated until just before a boil, then poured into ice cube trays.  I really think silicone moulds would be better but this is all I had. For the raspberry ones I filled my 1/2 cup 2/3 with the cordial and the rest water for the 1/2 of fluid.  For the mango, I did similar with the puree...