Breakfast Balls

Breakfast Balls

Some of the most common things I hear about breakfast are 'I don't have time', 'I don't feel like eating first thing in the morning', 'I'm bored of traditional breakfast foods', and 'an hour or so after brekky I am searching for food again'.
Do any of those sound familiar to you?  Sometimes kids can also be difficult customers when it comes to getting a good breakfast into them before school, and plenty of studies have shown a reduction in concentration with a nutrient poor/missed breakfast.

Raspberry cheesecake ice cream sandwich (with gluten free coconut and almond biscuits)

Hmmm I'm starting to notice a trend with my blog. Ice cream, ice cream, and ice cream!!!  Do you think I like it much?!

Well hopefully you do too. I know these pics would be enough to get me craving ice cream, even on the coldest of days!

Last night I realised I had no cream but in the fridge was a block of cream cheese and some organic yogurt so immediately cheesecake flavoured ice cream came to mind, of course!

So I used my original ice cream recipe but substituted the cream for the cream cheese and yogurt, and when it was almost finished churning, I threw in a couple of handfuls of frozen organic raspberries. Whilst it didn't churn as thick as with the cream, it hasn't frozen icy at all and is actually a lighter, slightly more acidic flavour.  Quite refreshing really.

But what puts it into a league of its own is teaming it up with these little biscuits that quite seriously take seconds to whiz together, thanks, of course to the Thermomix! The recipe is based on the 40 second biscuit recipe found in the EDC Thermomix cookbook but I have made a few changes. Of course any of your favourite bikkies would work just as well - ginger, choc chip, even filling a brandy snap with the ice cream would make an impressive dessert for even the most discerning guest!

Chorizo, chicken and sweet potato baked rice with paprika, mixed veggies and spinach leaves

During the week most of us need dinner suggestions that take little time and effort, but never do we want little flavour!

I think this dish meets the brief!

The recipe requires a little bit of sauteeing in the beginning, but the reward is delicious smokey, garlicy, caramelised flavours in the finished dish, and the oven really gives a lovely texture and flavour to the rice - not to mention it saving you any further effort for 50 minutes!

As with most of my recipes, take ownership and self belief, and make this dish your own.  If your family doesn't like the veggies I used, change them to suit your tastes.  Increase or decrease the garlic, use fresh tomatoes while they are cheap and in abundance in the summer months, add seafood if that's your thing (in the last 15 minutes of cooking), a drained tin of kidney beans instead of chicken, or even a garnish of freshly chopped coriander and a squeeze of lime before serving instead of the spinach leaves.  The important thing to maintain is the liquid to rice ratio and the rest you can play around with!

Black rice, seed and choc chip cookies - gluten and nut free

My eldest son starts school next year and already I think I have heard more about 'lunchbox etiquette' than anything else to do with school!!!

It seems gone are the days when pretty much every lunchbox consisted of a peanut butter or ham sandwich, cheese stick, Prima (Juice Box for many other parts of the country/world!), pack of chips and piece of fruit!  And that's probably a good thing on the whole!

These days you have to be 'nude food' compliant, 'rainbow food' savvy, cold chain compliant, and must have not a trace of nut in sight!  5 days of the week, 38 weeks of the year, 13 years straight! AAAUUUGGGHHHH.  How ever are we going to get out of the door each morning??!!  And will we be accepted by the lunchbox police? ( :

In all seriousness though, the allergy thing is a big one these days, with so many kids administered with an EpiPen in the case of an anaphylactic shock.  So not only do these parents understandably spend so much time and effort keeping their children safe and avoiding nuts, every parent who has school aged kids really needs to be mindful of the products they are sending to school in lunchboxes.  That can be tough for a family not needing a radar for nuts in their life (or any other allergens for that matter).

So given I use nuts a lot, I really wanted to start exploring the nut free world so that next year we can be armed with some yummy homemade snacks that might just win over not only the lunchbox police, but also the nutrition police (me!) and most importantly, the taste police (being my boys!!).

Nutrient wise, when it comes to bikkies, these little guys not only contain a lot less sugar than probably all store bought varieties and many home baked too, but also actually provide goodness, coming from the black rice, sesame seeds and chia seeds!  As I spoke about on Mellymaks Facebook page recently, 'black foods' are a powerhouse of minerals, isoflavones and antioxidants, helping to strengthen the immune system among other benefits.  And milling the whole grain means that not only do you get those immunity benefits, but the fibre and healthy fats from the bran, germ and endosperm!

I spoke a lot about the benefits of seeds in STEP 3 of Mellymaks STEPS program, and the chia seeds and sesame seeds in these bikkies will certainly boost the kids with energy and nutrients galore!

Raw cashew, cacao and coconut oil truffles coated in dark chocolate

This was such a fun recipe to develop!  Apart from the obvious reason that copious amounts of chocolate goodness 'needed' to be consumed for 'testing purposes', it was also fun because my vision (that came to me around midnight one night by the way!) worked first go, which to me can only mean that these are so simple to make that it needn't be a special occasion to whip a batch up!

The smoothness of the truffle is discovered only through the snap of the dark chocolate coating.  And once this delectable little ball melts away in your mouth, unlike conventional truffles, you'll be feeling not one ounce of guilt (well I didn't anyway!!) due to all the nutrients found in the raw cashews, cacao powder and raw organic coconut oil!



I'm already imagining the flavours you could inject into these truffles to make them that little more special..... finely ground coffee beans, finely grated orange/lime rind, a few drops of natural peppermint extract......!

I'm sorry to those of you needing to avoid nuts.  Sunflower seeds come to mind as a possible replacement although I havent tried them.  Perhaps soaking them overnight and then drying them well would soften them enough to achieve that smooth paste consistency.  Let me know if any of you try that.

I obviously made these in the Thermomix which makes it all super super easy but I imagine a good quality food processor could achieve the same result.

Enough talking, lets get making!

Raw cashew, cacao and coconut oil truffles coated in dark chocolate

Raw Cashew, Cacao and Coconut Oil Truffles coated in Dark Chocolate

Ingredients

150g raw cashews
90g raw organic coconut oil
35g (1/3 c) raw cacao powder
100g (1/3 c) rice malt syrup
a splash of vanilla extract
a couple of glugs of cream
a block of good quality dark chocolate

Method - Conventional

1.  Place raw cashews in a good quality food processor and blend until a smooth paste forms.
2.  Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan on a low heat until just melted.
3.  Add coconut oil and remaining ingredients (except chocolate block) to the food processor and blend until a smooth thick paste forms (similar to a ganache).  Taste for sweetness and add a little more rice malt syrup if desired.
4.  Spoon into chocolate moulds or if you dont have them, just scrape it all into a container and once it sets spoon out into balls to coat with the melted chocolate.
5.  Place moulds or container in the fridge and allow to set (this will take at least a couple of hours).
6.  Once set, melt a block of good quality dark chocolate, press out cashew/chocolate ganache from moulds (or scoop from container) and spoon over melted chocolate to coat. Place on a tray and back in the fridge until chocolate sets. 

 

Method - Thermomix

1.  Blend cashews on speed 9 until a paste forms (approx 20 sec)
2.  Add coconut oil and melt at 60 degrees sp2 for 1 minute.
3.  Add cacao powder, rice malt syrup, vanilla extract and cream and mix on speed 4 until it all comes together into a smooth thick paste. (approx 15-20 seconds).  Taste for sweetness and add a little more rice malt syrup if desired.
4.  Spoon into chocolate moulds or if you dont have them, just scrape it all into a container and once it sets spoon out into balls to coat with the melted chocolate.
5.  Place moulds or container in the fridge and allow to set (this will take at least a couple of hours).
6.  Once set, break up block of chocolate into single pieces and place in clean and thoroughly dry TM bowl.  Melt on speed 3, 60 degrees for 2 minutes.
7.  Press out cashew/chocolate ganache from moulds (or scoop from container) and spoon over melted chocolate to coat. Place on a tray and back in the fridge until chocolate sets.

Apple and Raspberry teacake - gluten free

It must have been the cold rainy weather we had this morning that made me crave this kind of cake!
And who doesn't love a teacake?!
Memories of Mum and I making apple teacakes with caramelised sliced apple laying delicately on top flooded my mind today, as my own son and I pieced together this little beauty!  But if I'm to be honest with you, Jake was far more interested in pinching the raspberries from the middle and licking the bowl!  Well, who can blame him really?!
As most of you know me quite well by now, you would be reading this waiting patiently to discover which injections of nutrients I have snuck into the mix!  Weeeellllll, it was almost a case of my hands working independently of my mind!  Before I even knew it, chia seeds were being soaked in a cup of brewed tea, almonds were being ground into a meal, and yogurt was dolloped into the bowl!  How did that happen??!!! ( ;

Gluten Free Garlic Focaccia - soft, tasty, easy!

I can hear all my fellow Coeliacs out there reading the title of this post saying 'yeah right - soft, tasty, easy.  Can't be gluten free!'???!!!

I'm super excited to put this recipe together and be able to say 'YES IT IS!!'.  Not only that, but its not all starchy and processed.  I've put linseeds, chia, buckwheat and chickpeas in this mix which gives it real guts, substance and obviously a swag of nutrients!

I think the secret behind the soft texture is the greek yogurt.  The cultures in yogurt do magical things to grains (meats too while I mention it!) to soften and lighten.  Especially given the shorter proving time, I think the yogurt helped the yeast do its thing!