Sugar free....I don't think so

The final straw in the sugar free experiment was not being able to eat an apple. 

Being told an apple was a treat to be eaten sparingly was just ridiculous to me. I'm not a nutritionist but I'm pretty sure there would be few who disagreed with that little statement. Sure you shouldn't eat it in pastry with sugar and icecream everyday but a fresh whole apple...surely not! 

So after six weeks of being sugar free I've come back to what I knew all along moderation and good clean whole foods is best.  I alos know I eat sweet stuff because I like it. Does this mean I'm going to hoover a chocolate bar everyday and never make a healthy choice? Absolutely not! But I will not feel guilty about the occasional treat.

Moderation is the answer not restrictions and ridiculous notions of NEVER eating a particular something ever again. Who could ever stick to that? Not this Kirsty girl. 

But it was worth it because I did learn a thing or two.  I learnt that table sugar makes me sick, like violently ill sick and should be avoided at all costs. 

I also discovered I don't NEED sugar in my coffee and that you can cut the sweetness in many treats by half and they still taste great.

I've learnt that honey and maple syrup in small amounts are my sweeters of choice works well in most of my recipes. 

More importantly I'm done with obsessing over the what and hows and counting every little thing I eat. The blog world is full of mixed opinions, fads, misinterpreted or unreliable research (along with some very reputable important research) but it's overwhelming and often contradictory so I take it all with a grain of salt. No more fads or programs just wholesome healthy foods :-) 

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Coconut quick bread

The original recipe for this post comes from TRTLMT website however I decided to use rapadura and

spelt flour, which gave the cake a golden colour.

To keep the sugar down, I also omitted the icing, and to be honest I didn't miss it as the cake was sweet enough.  This was also a hit with Little Miss.

Coconut Quick Bread 

150g Spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
80g desiccated coconut
90g rapadura
35g coconut oil
220g milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line or grease a small sized loaf tin. Add all bread ingredients into Thermomix bowl. Blitz on speed 5 for 10 seconds. Pour batter into prepared tin.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until slightly golden on top and cooked through.

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Chicken & vegetable soup with spelt bread

Winter definitely hit Melbourne this week with some wild winds and rain, so it's time for warm comfort food.

I decided to make a Chicken and Vegetable soup with a quick bone broth and some steamed veggies. My family like their veggies chunky, so I decided to try something a little different today.

Now I'm sorry, but in this house where there is soup there must be bread.  Given my shift to healthier options I decided to try the Spelt Flour Loaf on the Recipe Community. It worked a treat and I'll definitely make it again.

Both recipes were prepared in my Thermomix, but of course, you could adapt to suit your preferred method.

Chicken & Vegetable Soup

5 Free range chicken lovely legs

1.5 litres water + more if required

3 carrots (1cut in large chunks, 2 diced)

1 brown onion, cut in quarters

2 gloves of garlic

4 small potatoes

1/2 zucchini

200g pumpkin chopped

2 tbs vegetable stock paste (you can get the recipe here)

Place water in Thermomix bowl and add basket.  Place one carrot (in large chunks), onion and garlic gloves into basket. 

Add Thermomix lid and place varoma on top of Thermomix.  Place chicken legs in varoma and put the lid on and cook for 60min on Varoma speed 1. Be sure to keep the top varoma tray aside for the other veggies.

While the chicken and stock is starting to heat up, chop the other veggies into a medium dice and place on varoma top tray.  Add the the tray to the varoma (be careful not to burn yourself with any steam) and replace the lid, allowing the veggies to steam with the chicken and stock continue to cook.

At the end of the 60 minutes, turn machine off and varoma from Thermomix and set aside to cool slightly while you complete the stock.  

Take the basket out of the Thermomix and add the carrot, onion and garlic to the bowl along with the vegetable stock paste.  Place the lid, with the MC, back onto the Thermomix and blitz for 30 seconds slowly increasing the speed up to 9 to puree the vegetables.  

If you need to add some more water to bring it up to 1.5 litres, you can do so at this point. Be sure to cook again for 1-2 mins on 100' at speed 1 to bring the soup back up to temperature.

Remove chicken meat from the bones and place in the bottom of a large serving bowl with the steamed vegetables. Pour the stock over the veggies and meat and stir to combine. 

Serve with the crusty spelt bread. Enjoy

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Zucchini and bacon bites

My little Miss dislikes a lot of foods. She can spot onion at 100 paces and turns her nose up at most cooked vegetables. Don't even mention the word soup!

She does however love quiche or egg and bacon pies so I whipped these up and sneaked in a few goodies along the way. 

She'll eat these hot or cold and enjoys them in her school lunch. They are a quick and tasty treat to have in the fridge and they freeze well too. Enjoy.

Zucchini & Bacon Bites

120g cheddar cheese

150g lean bacon

350g zucchini

170g spelt flour

1tsp baking powder

90g oil (rice bran oil works well)

1 tsp veggie stock paste

Preheat oven to 180'c

1. Grate cheese on speed 9 for 5-10 seconds and set aside

2. Add bacon and zucchini to bowl and chop on speed 6 for 5 seconds and set aside with cheese.

3. Add flour, oil, baking powder, eggs and veggie stock and mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds. 

4. Add zucchini, bacon and cheese and mix in revers speed 4 for 20 seconds. 

5. Scoop mixture into silicone cup cake moulds and bake for 30-35 minutes or until brown and golden and a skewer comes out clean.  These don't rise all that much so don't be afraid to fill the moulds almost to the top. 

Enjoy warm or cold. 

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Coconut and blueberry granola with poached pear and yoghurt

It was time to restock my cereal supply for the week, so before we headed out to watch Dyl play football I made a batch of my favourite granola.

I've tried a few recipes now and I always come back to the recipe in 'Eat Yourself Beautiful' as a base.

I've adapted this recipe to suit my tastes. The grain, sweetener and additions are a little different from the original but you could of course change to suit your preference.

I served this today with a poached pear and vanilla yoghurt.

Start with the granola.  This make about 750g and will keep in an air tight container for up to four weeks.

Coconut and Blueberry Granola

500g crunchy rice bran flakes
150g flaked or slivered almonds
3tbs flaxseed
5tbs sunflower seeds
3tbs pepita seeds
100g dried blueberries
40g coconut flakes
100g coconut oil
100g coconut syrup
1tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg


Preheat oven to 180' and line one or two baking trays with baking paper.

Combine rice flakes, almonds and all seeds in a bowl and mix to combine.  In a small saucepan add coconut oil, coconut syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir over a low heat until coconut oil has melted. Remove from heat.

Pour syrup over flake and seed mix and stir until combined.  Spread mix out onto prepared baking trays and bake for 15 minutes.  Check your granola every few minutes and give it a stir to make sure it doesn't get too brown in spots.

Remove the trays from the oven and sprinkle blueberries and coconut over the top. Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until lightly golden.  Be careful not to overcook here.

Remove the trays from the oven and allow to cool before placing in a air tight container.

Quick poached pear

I had a pear that needed using but didn't feel like poaching it for 20 minutes over the stove top, so I tried poaching it in the microwave and it worked a treat.

Peel a single pear and remove the core from the bottom with  sharp knife or apple corer, leaving the stem intact.

Place the pear in a microwave container with 100ml water, 1 tbs coconut syrup and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Place lid on container and microwave on high for 6 minutes.  Remove and serve with granola, vanilla yoghurt and a drizzle of the poached pear syrup.

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Shredded Chicken with Fried Rice

Firstly apologies for the photo.  I was hungry. I took a quick  snap and ran off with my dinner without giving it another thought.

Turns out the photo was rubbish, but the rice was not.  I can't take another one, because, well, it's all gone!

This is a top week day meal, quick, tasty with minimal fuss. Kid friendly too.

I cook the rice and chicken in my thermomix and then finish it all off in the fry pan

Shredded Chicken with Fried Rice

350-400g jasmine rice*
900g water
1 chicken breast (cut into 5 pieces)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Small piece of ginger (about the size of a $2 coin), grated or finely chopped
1/4 red capsicum finely diced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
3 rashers short cut bacon, finely diced
2tbs soy sauce, or more to taste
2tbs oyster sauce, or more to taste
Oil for frying (rice bran or coconut are my favourites)


Weigh the rice into thermomix basket. Remove basket and rinse rice under cold running water.  Place basket back into the thermomix bowl. Add 900g of hot water. Place lid and MC on thermi and cook for 20 minutes, speed 3 on varoma temperature.

Meanwhile add chicken breast to varoma. When the rice counts down to 15 minutes, remove the MC and add the varoma to top to cook the chicken.

When the rice and chicken are cooked, remove the chicken and set aside.

Remove the rice and basket and set aside.

Discard the water from the thermomix bowl and place the chicken back in the bowl.  Shred the chicken on speed 6 reverse for 10-20 seconds, until finely shredded.

Set aside with rice.

Meanwhile heat a large frypan with a small amount of oil.  Add eggs and scramble, or cook as an omelette and slice. Remove from pan and set aside with chicken and rice.

Add more oil to the pan.  When hot add garlic, ginger, onions, capsicum and bacon (and carrots if using) and fry until soft, around 5 minutes.

Add rice and stir to mix through garlic and ginger mix.  Add the sauces to the pan and mix to combine. (if making the thai variation, add sweet chilli also).

Add chicken and egg and stir to combine.

If making the thai variation, stir through the basil leaves at the last minute, and serve.

Variations

• Vegetarian option - omit chicken and add more vegetables such as carrot. 
• Marinade the chicken in oyster sauce and soy or honey and soy before cooking.
• Add sliced carrot, 1 tbs sweet chilli sauce and fresh thai basil leaves to the rice while frying for a Thai flavoured fried rice.
• To speed up the process cook the rice the night or morning before and keep in the fridge until your ready to fry.

*You could make this even healthier buy using brown rice, increase the cooking time to about 30-35 minutes. I don't because I just don't like it...plain and simple.  It's one healthy alternative I just can't come to grips with but I guess you can't win them all.

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Happy Mother's Day - Spelt flour pancakes

I've got another savoury post ready to go but thought this for more appropriate for mother's day
breakfast.

I've converted my normal pancake recipe to include a few more goodies. According to the kids they're better than the original.

Spelt Pancakes

1  1/2 cups organic spelt white flour

1 tbs baking powder

3 tbs rapadura

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Sift all the dry ingredients together. 

In a separate bowl whisk eggs and milk together.  

Add wet ingredients to the flour mix and whisk until combined. Be careful not to over mix or you will get a tough pancake (although it seems spelt flour is a little more forgiving than normal wheat flour). 

Heat a griddle pan to medium-low and melt a little butter. Pour mix into the griddle pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cool for a further minute or two until cooked. 

Enjoy with your favourite toppings. 

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