Berry and Rosewater Smoothie – no fat, but a lot of protein!
If you like Turkish Delight and berry smoothies, you are gonna love this. If you don’t like Turkish Delight, but like berry smoothies, you can leave out the rosewater and have a berry smoothie. Not just any old berry smoothie, but one that is very low carb, very low fat and jam packed with protein! One that doesn’t only taste great, but which keeps you going for hours. And you are gonna love it.
200 g non-dairy yogurt or non-dairy milk or a combination of the two 100 g berries of choice (I used mixed) 1 cup of icecubes 1 scoop rice protein powder stevia to taste (I used approx. 1 tbsp) a few drops of rosewater essence (can use other essence such as peppermint or vanilla or omit)
Blitz all ingredients in a blender or mini food processor and serve.
Next time you see a bundle of overripe bananas in the supermarket marked down to next to nothing, don’t walk on by! There is sooo much you can do with ripe bananas! I just cut them up and chuck them in the freezer where they keep nicely until I want to create a recipe with them – or I just have them as they are! There is truly nothing more divine than frozen bananas, and they are great in smoothies and milkshakes, too!
My hubs asked me for some cakes he could take to work, so I made some banana muffins – some without frosting for on the road, and some with frosting for a little indulgence at home! These are wonderfully moist, packed with fiber from flax, and they are delicious in many ways. Due to the mashed banana inside, there is no need to add heaps of fat, so they are are a healthy cheat treat for those wathing their waste lines! The vegan maple frosting works beautifully with the banana flavour, too. Oh, and they are pretty foolproof, so you better start making them now – your kids will love you for these! (My hubby is a bit like a child in that he loves unhealthy things – he gobbled these up though, so I am secretly snickering behind his back that these are healthier than he thinks. I didn’t tell him about the flax!)
Makes 12 muffins
3 over-ripe bananas, mashed 100 g arrowroot starch 50 g white rice flour 50 g brown rice flour 100 g sugar or other sweetener (you should use at least some “real” sugar to achieve a nice texture and colour) 90 g low-fat vegan spread 50 g honey 30 g flax 3 tbsp almond milk 1 tbsp molasses 2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp vanilla
Frosting 75 g powdered sugar 60 g low-fat vegan spread 5 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp almond milk 1 tsp vanilla
For the muffins, preheat oven to 180 ° C. Melt spread, sugar, honey, molasses and vanilla over low heat until spread is melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the mashed bananas and almond milk (I know it’s tempting, but don’t eat this mix – at least not all of it!). Mix flours, flax, and soda in a different bowl, and slowly add banana-butter-mixture to the flour mixture. Mix until well combined, then scoop into muffin pan and bake for approx. 20 minutes or until muffins pass the skewer test. Turn off heat, let muffins rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn to wire rack and let cool completely.
Only scoop the frosting on top of the muffins once they have cooled down completely, as otherwise it will melt. Whip all ingredients for the frosting until light and fluffy, then store in the fridge until stiffened up and decorate the muffins.
Tip: Mix some walnuts or other nuts or chocolate chips mixed in the muffin batter.
Now that the gluten free bread dilemma is solved, it’s time to think about what to build on that foundation. There is obviously EVOO and coarse sea salt, there is goat’s cheese, nut butters – and then there is jam. The only problem is that in the course of the whole low-carb and paleo movement there is a certain scepticism towards jam. But is there anything nicer than homemade jam? For me, Sunday breakies with my fam evokes memories of warm bread rolls, real butter and loads of fruit jam. And before you send me a blood sugar check device, you might have a look at my low-carb breakfast bread – and my low-carb, completely sugar-free homemade jam!
Unfortunately, as an urbanista, I do not own my own fruit garden, so I use frozen raspberries. You are of course welcome to use any fruit you like, fresh, store-bought, home-grown or frozen. I have only tried this super easy recipe with frozen berries, so cannot vouch for the result of doing it with fresh berries, but I think it would work just as well.
This is the easiest jam you will ever make and it is super duper quick, too! Admittedly, this is not your typical preserve, so you cannot store it in the pantry, but in the fridge, and you should consume it ASAP. But you will never have had soooo much fruit goodness on your bread!
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and let simmer while constantly stirring until jam begins to thicken – it shouldn’t take too long. Turn off the heat and transfer jam to a small mason jar and refrigerate – jam will continue to thicken in the fridge. Use within two weeks.
Due to my newly awakened love for homemade jams and nut butters, another gluten free bread was beckoning. I adapted this one from Elana Amsterdam‘s Bread 2.0, but I replaced the eggs with flax to make it truly vegan. I like eggs scrambled or poached on my breakfast plate, but I don’t want them in my bread! This bread is thus very high in fibre and therefore very satisfying – together with the high protein content from the almond and flax, it is ideal to keep you satisfied for a long time. That’s why I call it a breakfast bread – although it’s delicious any time of the day, it just gives you the power you need to perform until lunchtime!
The bread is soft and fluffy in a good way – not the “Aussie sliced sandwich bread style” type of soft. Its nutty aroma and texture which is faintly reminiscent of banana bread (only that there is no banana in it…duh) also makes it a healthy and satisfying afternoon snack, which is sure to keep the 3-4 PM slump at bay. It is very low carb which should be enough to convince even the die-hardest bread haters. This bread is only very lightly sweet; however, I prefer it with sweet spreads or nut butters rather than savoury spreads. Your choice!
Makes 1 small loaf
150 g almond meal 75 g arrowroot starch 25 g ground flaxseed plus 40 g ground flaxseed dissolved in 4 tbsp filtered water (“flax egg”) 1 teaspoon honey 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar ½ teaspoon baking soda generous pinch of sea salt
As usual, mix the dry ingredients (almond meal, arrowroot, 25 g ground flaxseed, soda, salt) in a large bowl and the wet ingredients (flax egg, honey, ACV) in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well (use a hand mixer or your food processor). Scoop into greased or non-stick 10×20 cm loaf pan and bake at 150 °C for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before serving. Store in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Is your breakfast so delicious that you wish breakfast time would never end? No? Then it might be time for my homemade granola! This divine creation combines the right amount of crunchy with the right amount of chewy and a little bit of sin mixed in! The unique, unusual and super delicious taste stems from a dash of tahini (sesame paste) which also balances any excess sweetness. Hands down, you won’t want to stop sinking into this yummy goodness – if only it wasn’t so filling! This chocolate, sunflower, sesame and date granola doesn’t only taste awesome, it’s also awesome for you! Yummy goodness from healthy wholegrain rolled oats, magnesium and fibres from dates, and healthy fats from tahini and sunbutter – and it is easy, too! You don’t even need to rev up your oven!
200 g (certified gluten free) rolled oats (instant ones would probably work, too) (you can toast the oats before to get a crunchier granola, but it isn’t necessary) 100 g sunflower seed butter (sunbutter) 50 g tahini (sesame paste) 50 g dates, pitted, chopped
optional: chocolate chips, dried fruit, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds 100 g melted honey pinch of salt
Mix all dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a different bowl until well combined. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix (with your hands) until very well combined and a sticky, crumbly mass – this will be veeery sticky, but that’s the fun part – you are officially allowed to lick your fingers!
Delicious Homemade Date and Sesame Granola
Press the granola mass into a 20×20 cm baking dish and freeze for a couple of hours. Tale the “granola cake” out of the dish and break into lumps. Enjoy with cold milk, yogurt or just as a snack.
Dear friends, Christmas is coming around veeeery fast – too fast if you ask me – but here in the Southern Hemisphere, the days are getting hotter, so the time for a big, steaming bowl of hot porridge are over – for now. It’s time t move on to a lighter breakfast snack, so I tried to make some homemade apple cinnamon granola – a light alternative to oatmeal without lacking a xmas-y touch.
Making granola is not as difficult as it sounds, and in fact, this granola is as HEY – healthy, easy, and yummy – as all my other recipes. You can make a big batch and store it in an open-mouth jar, where it will keep fresh for a while. My granola contains no sugar – only natural fruit sugars – and only a tiny pinch of healthy coconut oil, no other oils, especially not palm oil or other scary things! Besides, this one is nut-free (for a nutty granola see here), so even the nut allergy sufferers among you can enjoy their granola!
I love this as a healthy snack by itself, a nourishing breakfast with almond milk or natural yogurt, or to add some pizzazz to fruit salads and compôtes.
Makes 4 servings
200 g rolled oats 50 g dried apple (unsweetened), very finely chopped 2 tbsp raw honey , agave or maple syrup 15 g coconut oil, melted generous pinch of cinnamon generous pinch of sea salt drop of vanilla
Preheat oven to 150 °C. Combine oats, fruit, cinnamon, and salt in a big bowl. Whisk honey, oil and vanilla in a separate bowl until well combined. Now pour the “wet” ingredients into the “dry” ingredients and mix well with your clean hands as if you prepare a shortbread dough. Be warned though, this is veeery sticky – but the good thing about making homemade things is, you get to lick your fingers legitimately! (And you will with this one, you will!)
Now spread (what’s left of) the mix (after finger-licking) onto a prepared baking sheet (i.e. silicon sheet or a lined baking sheet) and bake for 10-15 minutes until very lightly toasted. Let cool and refrigerate.
Gluten free bread sucks. Do you agree to this statement? I used to. No matter where in the world, and no matter whether from a breadmix, or a bakery – gluten free bread just sucked. And even if it tasted anywhere near something you would serve a human being, it was filled with crap. I know, I know what you are going to say – one doesn’t need bread, or any carbohydrates for that matter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with low-carb or paleo, ans, in fact, I believe many of the western world’s problems could be solved if people ate low(er) carb!
But, heck, I am German and married to an Italian – there is just no way I’m gonna give up bread forever, and even though I am gluten intolerant, there must be a way to make gluten free bread that doesn’t suck! Gluten free bread that doesn’t have a whole shelf of creepy ingredients in it. Gluten free bread that doesn’t have a dozen eggs in it (that’s not bread, that’s cake! And If I crave bread, I don’t want cake – sorry, Marie Antoinette!).
This was an experiment. One that turned out well. One that my (gluten eating) hubs couldn’t get enough of. One that reminded me very much of the texture of a good ol’ German sourdough – even though the taste is more in the tradition of the Irish soda bread. I didn’t have any dried yeast, so had to resort to soda. With an old trick I knew (putting a bowl of water in the oven), my bread got a lovely crust. And thanks to all-time favourite flax, this is egg free, but you won’t miss any eggs – the trick with the flax eggs worked! So this is not only gluten free, it is yeast free, gum free, egg free, and dairy free. And it doesn’t suck.
Gluten free? Check. Dairy free? Check. Yeast free? Check. Egg free? Check. Vegan? Check. Gum Free? Check. Soy free? Most naturally. Full of fibre and omega 3? Check. Sugar free? You have the option. Yummy? Check. Easy and quick to make? Check.
You can start now. You should have the ingredients. And it is really really easy. You don’t even need to preheat the oven – you really don’t!
Makes one loaf
150 g potato starch 100 g sorghum flour 50 g arrowroot 2 tbsp baking soda 2 tsp celtic sea salt 2 tsp sugar or honey 250 ml hot water (ca. 40 ° C) 3 tbsp ground flax seed, dissolved in 9 tbsp water (equals 3 flax eggs) 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp olive oil
Mix the dry ingredients (potato starch, sorghum, arrowroot, soda, salt, sugar if using) in food processor with dough blade until one colour. Slowly add oil, flax eggs and honey, if using, with the blender running. Add vinegar and hot water and mix until you get a supple, uniform dough. There should not be any lumps in it whatsoever – it should be the smoothest thing ever. Turn off the processor, and with a silicon spatula, scoop dough into loaf pan. Sprinkle the loaf with sorghum or any other gluten free flour and notch several times with a sharp knife. Place on middle rack in an oven, and place another tray filled with water below the loaf pan. Turn the oven to 230 ° C and let bake for 35 minutes. Turn off the oven, and let the loaf cool on a wire rack.
Delicious Gluten Free bread with Olive Oil and Sea Salt or…
I know I should not be so obsessed with something I thought up and made myself. But this carrot cake is – honestly – a stroke of genius.
I know.
In case you don’t, let me tell you – you can find literally TONS of recipes for “paleo carrot cake” on the net. After all, which cake should be more suitable to adapt to a grain free, sugar free diet than this carroty, nutty yummyness and goodness?
However, what is a carrot cake without frosting? It’s nothing! And what do most “paleo” carrot cake recipes offer you as a frosting? Cream cheese frosting! Dairy cream cheese frosting!!! Hello???!!!! How on earth is it paleo with a cream cheese frosting??? What’s the point making a great, healthy, grain free, paleo carrot cake when you ruin your efforts with a dairy frosting? NOT GOOD!
It’s been a while since my first carrot cake recipe, and as I am continuously trying to improve my recipes, I wanted to come up with a true paleo, grain-free version of my favourite cake – not only gluten free, which is still relatively easy, but totally grain free, gum free, starch free and, of course, refined sugar free. And it is vegan, too! And with a dairy free frosting. Yes. A carrot cake with no worries, basically.
Since I couldn’t find a recipe online which appealed to me, I experimented with my two new favourite ingredients – almond flour and coconut flour. By the way, I ended up making muffins again as they are easier to handle and to give away than a slab of cake – but the amounts stated in this recipe should be enough for a round, 9 inch layer cake. The frosting is as easy and foolproof as the whole recipe – just coconut cream with a bit of maply syrup for sweetness and vegan margarine for firmness. Easy peasy!
These beauties are so yummy you won’t even care how many calories are in them, but just in case you are interested – one of these carrot cake muffins contains 100 kcal. 100! That’s less than two apples! Only that these keep you fuller for much longer than apples do. These muffins have all you need to face the day – brimming with protein, vitamins, minerals, fibers, and with few complex carbs, few healthy fats. You can/should have one carrot cake muffin for breakfast. Have two. Have three, and even after three muffins you will still have ingested fewer calories than with your standard bowl of sugary cereals and milk. Three muffins equal the carb intake of 1 banana.
They stay fresh for a long time (you should store them in a fridge though).
The best thing is – my hubs, who is so not into healthy eating, loved them, and that’s the whole point of healthy baking – that nobody thinks it’s healthy!
P.S.: I take back my statement about frosting. These carrot cakes you can have without frosting, they are that good. But frosting doesn’t hurt anyone. 😉
Makes 18 muffins
50 g rice protein powder 75 g coconut flour 25 g almond flour generous pinch of salt 1,5 tsp. soda 1,5 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 1 tbsp molasses 40 g coconut syrup or date syrup or other liquid sweetener 1 banana, mashed 2 t vanilla 4 flax eggs (1 flax egg = 1 tbsp flaxseed, dissolved in 4 tbsp filtered water) 300 ml almond milk 5 large carrots, grated 60 g chopped walnuts 100 g chopped dates
For the frosting Solidified part of 1 tin full-fat coconut cream, stored in the fridge overnight 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp maple syrup 1 tbsp nuttelex or vegan margarine or coconut oil stevia to taste
Preheat oven to 180 °C and line a muffin mould with paper. Mix the dry ingredients for the batter (protein powder, flours, salt, soda, spices, flax) until one colour. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (molasses, honey, banana, vanilla, eggs, almond mik) until well combined. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and blend well with hand blender. Stir in carrots, nuts, and dates. Scoop batter into 18 muffin moulds and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting – if at all frosting.
Carrot Cake with Maple Frosting
For the frosting, beat coconut cream (only the solidified part at the top of the tin!) with stevia, vanilla and maple syrup until it becomes the texture of whipped cream. Add margarine and whip until it gets to a frosting-y texture. Add more fat if it is not solid enough for your liking. Only use on completely chilled (overnight) muffins and always store in fridge!
I have porridge oats pretty much every day. They are comforting, especially in the colder months, and they keep me going for four to five hours. Something, which eggs have never achieved. Furthermore, oats are cheap! I tolerate oats well, but I know that 20% of celiacs cannot tolerate oats. It definitely worth giving them a shot, however, as there is no breakfast coming anywhere near porridge! There should be certified gluten-free oats in the health aisle of your local supermarket or in health shops, so you might wanna go with them. Oats are indeed a super power breakfast.
I usually just fill a mug with 2/3 cup (approx. 50 g) of oats, top them up with boiling water from the kettle, stir, and then microwave them for 30 seconds – this works fine, even with rolled oats. I normally have them with flax, cinnamon, berries and/or banana. This is a really quick, really healthy, and really satisfying breakfast.
This is a more fancy version of my standard porridge, prepared on the stove top. It is still reasonably quick to make, and it makes a bigger batch of porridge even though you use just as much oats as for the microwave version. As you might have learned, I have kind of a fondness for coconut flour. I am so happy since I got my coconut flour from here, and I use it almost every day to make a quick snack or just to satisfy any carb cravings I might have without using up my carb credits hehe. It tastes so rich and coconutty, but is still virtually free of net carbs, as the carbs in coconut flour are almost all fibre! Isn’t that good? Oh yes, and it is a lot lower in fat than coconut, which is also good! Coconut flour absorbs HEAPS of water, and I just love how you add a little water or almond milk to coconut flour and get the loveliest mousse! But that’s a different story…
Back to my super power breakfast – one word of warning: DON’T have that when you have a lunch meeting on with your hubs/date/bestie/sister/mum/boss/whoever – you will NOT be hungry for lunch if you have this for breakfast! So if you are one of those who are magically drawn to the chocolate bar vending machine in your office at 11 am, have this for breakfast, and spare your wallet and your waistline the disgrace! Honestly, isn’t the prospect of being fully satisfied until the early afternoon worth getting up 2 minutes earlier? I think it definitely is. And that’s why we go straight to the point now:
Super Power Breakfast
Serves one
2/3 cup rolled oats (certified gluten-free) 600 ml (1 pint) boiling water pinch of salt 2 tbsp (14 g) coconut flour 1 tbsp (10 g) flax 1 tsp cinnamon (optional) stevia to taste toppings by choice (e.g. fruit, nuts, honey, maple syrup…)
Boil water in the kettle. While you are waiting, start dry roasting oats and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat while stirring continuously – don’t let them catch! When the water has finished boiling, pour into saucepan (watch out – there will be splashes when the water touches the hot pan), keep stirring while boiling for about one or two minutes. Reduce heat and add flax, whisking thoroughly as to prevent the flax from becoming a “flax egg”, then add the coconut flour and keep stirring. As coco flour absorbs so much moisture, you should soon have a thick and lovely porridge! Now transfer to a bowl (I love how it comes out really clean from the saucepan – must be the coconut flour), top with your favourite toppings and love the feeling of satiety.
Tip: If you want to be even fuller, you could try replacing (part of) the water with your favourite dairy free milk. I haven’t tried that though, as I found that using just water is sufficient for me and saves me money.
Nat's Ladle 