Pineapple & Cinnamon Jam

I was told this jam flavour sounded a bit odd but I don't know.... I thought it sounded summery and exotic and delicious!   And it certainly turned out that way.  I'm still in my study period and exam period starts next week.  Making these preserves and things for Christmas pressies is certainly a welcome distraction from studying!  

Ingredients (makes about 400ml):

- 1 pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into chunks (I had about 650g of chopped pineapple)
- 1 green apple, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
- 1 cinnamon quill
- 200g raw sugar
- Juice of 1/2 lime

Method:

Add all ingredients (except lime juice) to a pot and cook on a low heat, stirring frequently, for about an hour or until the jam sets when tested.  Stir through the lime juice, remove the cinnamon quill and then put the jam into sterilised jars.

If making this in the Thermomix, follow the above method but cook on 100deg/sp1.

Choc, Coconut & Chia Brekky Pudding

My Tuesday mornings are a tad hectic!  Kids have to be at school by 7am and I have to be at uni not long after.  So hectic mornings call for brekkies on the run... and this chia pudding is my new obsession!  With just a couple of minutes of prep time last night, my brekky was all ready and waiting for me in the fridge this morning when I needed to grab it and race out the door!

Ingredients (serves 1):
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 3/4 cup coconut cream (or coconut milk or other milk)
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp cacao powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- Fresh fruit to garnish (I used strawberries, blueberries and a couple of mint leaves)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients (except garnish) together in a small bowl, cover and pop into the fridge overnight.  In the morning, garnish with fresh fruit and an extra sprinkle of cinnamon.

Apple & Cinnamon Brown Rice Waffles

Some lazy weekend mornings I love to put a bit of extra effort into breakfast... and by extra effort I usually mean preparing some of the ingredients the night before.  This is the case with this recipe.  I grind my brown rice down into flour (or you can buy brown rice flour) the night before and I soak it overnight in some liquid with a bit of apple cider vinegar.  Soaking grains in an acidic medium allows the phytic acid in the grain to be neutralised, and this allows our digestive tract to more easily absorb the nutrients from the grain.  It really doesn't take very long to prepare these babies, just a few minutes of prep time the night before!

Ingredients (makes 8 waffles):
- 2 cups brown rice flour (or brown rice, ground in Thermomix for 1min/sp9)
- 400ml can coconut cream
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar
- 2 free range eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 large apple, grated (please peel if not organic)

Method:
1.  Combine the brown rice flour, coconut cream and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl.  Cover and leave overnight to soak (I leave mine on the bench but if you're not comfortable doing this, you can pop it in the fridge).

2.  In the morning, add the remaining ingredients and whisk together.  Preheat a waffle iron and cook the waffles in batches.  I find that cooking them a little longer allows them to hold together a lot better.  Serve with fruit, yoghurt, maple syrup, honey etc.  

Mick's Grain Free Brekky - My Fave Ever!

So those of you with a Thermomix will recognise this recipe as CADA (coconut, apple, dates, almonds) but this is my hubby's take on it to make it just the way I like it!  I came home from my pilates class this morning and this is what he made for me for brekky - the flavours of CADA with just the 4 ingredients are pretty amazing - but the addition of our little tweaks to the recipe takes it to a whole new level!  Best of all, it takes barely any time to prepare this deliciously nutritious brekky!  To make more serves, just increase the ingredients to however many serves you would like to make.

Ingredients (serves 1):

- 1/2 apple or pear, quartered

- 2 Medjool dates, pitted

- 1/4 cup raw almonds (or other nuts)

- 1/4 cup organic desiccated coconut

- 1 tbsp cacao powder

- 1/4 tsp cinnamon

To serve - milk (I used almond milk), fresh fruit (cherries, strawberries and blueberries in mine)

Method:

Pulse all ingredients in food processor or Thermomix until finely chopped and serve with milk and topped with fruit!

Strawberry Jam

I have never made my own jam much because the last time that I made it, I cooked it way too long and it turned into a solid blob!  So now I have plucked up the courage to give it another go and it turned out really good!  I thought I would start with your standard strawberry jam.  It has a bit of a tangy flavour to it because I didn't add anywhere near as much sugar as what most jam recipes tend to use.  Plus using rapadura makes it that bit more healthy.  Next time I want to try making jam with summer fruit so stay tuned for that!

Ingredients (makes about 400ml):
- 500g strawberries, washed, hulled and roughly chopped
- 1 green apple, peeled, cored, roughly chopped
- 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthways
- Juice of half a lemon
- 200g rapadura sugar

Method:

Add all ingredients to a saucepan.  Bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer for around 40 minutes, stirring often.  Check to see if the jam is set (put a small blob of jam onto a cold plate - when set, it will be thick in consistency and not move much when the plate is tilted).  If not set, cook for another 10 minutes at a time and check again.  I cooked mine a total of 60 minutes.  Pour into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge.

If you have a Thermomix, you can cook your jam on 100deg/sp2 (with rice basket on top of the lid instead of the MC) following the instructions above.

Baked Beans

Well I initially intended to make these baked beans in my Thermomix.  But when I saw how much they had expanded during the soaking process, I decided I would cook them the good old fashioned way - on the stove top!  I strongly recommend starting with dried beans (as opposed to canned).  Although it takes a while longer to prepare them this way, you are making them much more digestible by soaking them.  Another added benefit is that when buying tinned beans, they usually come in a BPA lined tin.  And this recipe makes a really nice big batch, so whatever you don't use, you can freeze for later!

Ingredients:
- 3 cups dried navy beans, soaked for 24 hours in water and then drained and rinsed well
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 rasher nitrate free bacon, rind removed, diced
- 2 tbsp cooking fat (I used ghee)
- 4 cups water (or you can do what I did and use homemade chicken broth)
- 1 bay leaf
- 400g can diced tomatoes or tomato puree
-  2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp rapadura sugar
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- Sea salt, pepper, Herbamare to taste

Method:
1.  In a large saucepan on medium heat, cook the onion, garlic, bacon and cooking fat, stirring for a few minutes until beginning to caramelise.

2.  Add the beans, water/broth and bay leaf.  Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to very low.  Simmer for a couple of hours, stirring every now and then.  If the liquid seems to be evaporating quickly, you can top it up with water if required.

3.  When the beans are tender, add the remaining ingredients, cover and cook for another 30 minutes or so, stirring every so often.

Banana & Choc Chip Bread

My kids love banana bread.  It makes a great snack for morning tea or afternoon tea... or even breakfast!  I made this one without nuts so that I could pack it into the kids' lunchboxes for school.  You can also freeze this bread, just be sure to slice it up prior to freezing.

Ingredients:
- 1 large ripe banana, peeled
- 1 cup wholemeal spelt or kamut flour
- 1/2 cup light spelt or kamut flour
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 free range eggs
- 1 tbsp pure honey
- Optional - 1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 160 degrees.  Grease a bread tin and line the base with baking paper.

2.  In a large bowl, add the banana and mash with a fork.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

3.  Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

4.  Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Breakfast Super Smoothie

A lot of people might be surprised to learn that for me, eating fruit doesn't come naturally.  If I want a snack, I very rarely want to grab a piece of fruit to snack on.  So to ensure I do get the fruit my body needs, I make brekky smoothies each weekday morning.... not just to get some fruit into me, but also because I'm always in such a rush in the mornings and smoothies are the ideal quick and nutritious breakfast for me.  The recipe below is my fave, though I do like to mix the recipe up throughout the week for a bit of variety.

Ingredients (serves 1):
- 1/2 cup coconut cream (or other milk of choice - I often use my raw nut milk)
- 1/2 cup filtered water
- A couple of handfuls of leafy greens (today I used rainbow chard)
- 1 Medjool date, pitted
- 3/4 cup of frozen organic mixed berries (or other fruit)
- 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- Optional - 2 tsp superfood powder (today I used 1 tsp maca and 1 tsp lucuma)

Method:
Pop all the ingredients into a blender or Thermomix and blend on high speed for 1 minute (sp9 in Thermomix). Enjoy!

Chocolate Coconut Pikelets

We had these for breakfast this morning and they were delicious.  This recipe makes a decent batch of pikelets too so there are always a few leftover too for brekky the next day.  

Ingredients (makes approximately 15 pikelets)
1 cup whole kamut (or spelt) flour (or can use whole grain and mill in Thermomix for 1min/sp9)
1/2 cup besan (chickpea) flour
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/2 cup rapadura (or raw) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 free range egg
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
400mL coconut milk
1 tbsp Superfoods for Kids Berry Choc Chunk (optional)
Coconut oil, for cooking

Method:
1.  In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix.

2.  Add to the bowl the wet ingredients and mix until the batter is smooth.

3.  Heat a frypan on low-medium heat and add a small amount of coconut oil.  Use around 1/4 cup of batter per pikelet and fry in batches of 2 or 3.  Add extra coconut oil in between batches.

4.  Serve with fresh fruit and pure maple syrup.  We also had a little bit of Coyo coconut yoghurt on ours.

Apple & Oat Fritters

I always know I've made a winner when my kids love what I've cooked!  These fritters were gobbled up with not one complaint.  Soaking the oats overnight not only makes them easier to digest, but it also helps to bind the batter and gives the fritters a moist texture.

Ingredients (makes approx 10 fritters)

1 cup oats, soaked overnight with 1 cup of water (cover and put in the fridge while soaking)

1/2 cup rapadura or raw sugar

1/2 cup spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1 free range egg

1 large apple (no need to peel if organic)

Coconut oil, for pan frying

Method

1. Grate the apple (if using Thermomix, quarter the apple and chop 5sec/sp5, then tip into a large bowl) and combine with all other ingredients in a large bowl (no need to strain the oats).  Mix until combined. 

2. Heat a frypan on low heat and add a small amount of coconut oil.  Cook fritters in batches of 2 or 3, for around 2 minutes on each side or until browned, adding a little more coconut oil in between batches.

3. Serve with honey or pure maple syrup, and fresh fruit.