Gluten Free Overnight Almond Pancakes

It would appear that gluten intolerance is the new black…and our family is no exception. My daughter has some weird reactions to eating gluten, so although not crazily seeking every gluten free option available, I am finding that breakfast is the meal with the most challenges for her…so just like our Instant Chia Hot Cereal Mix, this is pretty quick, we can all eat it without feeling deprived (really!!!) and we don’t need to eat something different. (This mother does not do a different dish per family member in the same meal!)

Again, I am all about convenience, and this couldn’t be simpler…you just have to think about it as you head off to bed…well at least a minute or two before you head off to bed. The sitting overnight just softens up the almond meal and will help with the texture of the pancakes…Bon Appetit…

NEED:

150g almonds (blanched or not!)

130g yoghurt or kefir

2 eggs

Pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

2 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

2 tsp bicarb soda

Additional yoghurt and berries or fruit to serve

Butter for frying

DO:

Just before going to bed;

Place almonds into Thermo bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10.

Add yoghurt, eggs, salt, vanilla and blend 10 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, heat a fry pan on Induction 6 for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile remove Thermo bowl from fridge and add bicarb. Blend 6 sec/speed 6.

Melt a little butter in heated frypan. Pour a small amount of the batter into the centre of the fry pan and allow to cook until bubbles come through…this may take longer than traditional pancakes and if you have used unblanched almonds the pancakes will look a little darker than what you are used to. Carefully flip and cook on both sides. They are a little more delicate than normal pancakes as well, so be gentle.

Serve immediately with hot berry sauce, a little yoghurt or cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

This mixture could easily be doubled and in my house certainly will be next time around…we had these eaten in no time flat.

Chick Pea, Avocado and Lime Salad

I am trying to include more pulses in our diet; They are cheap, easy to cook if you think about it in advance and so good for you!

This salad happened on Mother’s Day, the day that I should not have been cooking, but any hoo, if I wanted to eat something yummola, it was always going to be up to me! SO, cued the BBQ, and husband…made salads, and this was just one of them…all good, well received. Thinking I would add a little char grilled chilli next time, so go ahead and give it a burl with or without the chilli….(How hot are you??)

NEED:

150g chick peas, dried

Water for soaking and steaming

Generous handful coriander leaves and roots

1 small chilli, deseeded

1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

100g baby spinach leaves

3 avocadoes, peeled and cubed

2 Lebanese cucumbers, diced

2 tsp Murray River pink salt flakes

Juice 3 limes, or to taste

EVOO as desired

DO:

Soak chick peas overnight. Drain and place into steam basket. Insert into Thermo bowl, cover with water to 1L mark and cook 45 min/100ºC/speed 3. Drain and cool.

To make salad, place coriander and chilli into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 7.

Toss with all ingredients, including chick peas and allow flavours to marinate for 30 minutes before serving.

The timing for cooking chick peas can vary based on how long you have had them in your pantry. They can easily be replaced with tinned chick peas.

Horchata

Drinkies anyone??? This drink is rumored to be a cure for a hangover and is frequently served at breakfast time. Even though the drink has a milky appearance it is completely dairy-free. It is Mexican in origin and is supposed to be sweet, but if you wish to have it with less sugar, you can add sugar to taste after you have blended it. Served in market places throughout Mexico, it is the perfect answer to a milkshake but of course, being dairy free, has a longer shelf life in the sun! Use lots of ice…and lots of cinnamon…and apparently you can add lime zest to be more traditional as well….us? We LOVED it.

NEED:

350g rice (any variety)

200g raw cashews

700g water for soaking plus some more

100g rapadura sugar

1 cinnamon stick

Ice for serving

DO:

Soak rice and nuts in 700g water overnight or 8 hours.

Place rice mixture, sugar, cinnamon and 1-2 cups extra water into Thermo bowl and blend 2 min/speed 9. Scrape down sides of bowl and lid and repeat for a further 30 sec/speed 9.

Serve over ice sprinkled with ground cinnamon. Add more or less water, sugar, ice to taste. This is meant to be sweet, but refreshing. I actually added it to some brewed Crio Bru instead of milk…it was amazing…if you are really precious about the grainy bits, you can strain it through a fine sieve or piece of muslin….but I personally had no problem. The longer you blend, the smoother the result….now to try is frozen and churned into ice cream. There’s a thought!

Chorizo and Cabbage Soup

We finally had a cool day! And some rain…lots of it actually…so of course my culinary thoughts turned to soup! I had chorizo in my fridge (a stock standard staple at mine…love redundant alliteration as well) and so this was a natural progression. The marriage with steamed cabbage was also fuelled by what was already in my fridge, and so YUMMOLA, we had dinner. In minutes. Can’t be unhappy with that….no matter how rainy it is outside!

NEED:

2 Spanish chorizo sausages (as opposed to Mexican!!)

1 red onion, peeled and halved

2 cloves garlic

1 red paprika, deseeded (or red capsicum)

700g water

2 tbs Chicken Stock Powder (For Foods Sake recipe)

1 tbsp Umami paste

1 tbsp ground paprika

500g potatoes, peeled and cubed into bite sized pieces

1 small cabbage, cut into thin wedges (enough for your family, don’t go overboard!)

400g tin chick peas, or soaked and cooked equivalent

DO:

Place chorizo, onion, garlic and paprika into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 6. Saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add all remaining ingredients other than cabbage and chick peas.

Place cabbage into Varoma dish and set into position. Cook 15 min/Varoma/Reverse/speed 1. Set Varoma aside.

Add chick peas to Thermo bowl and cook 2 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed 1.

Place wedges of cabbage into large soup bowls and ladle soup over. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, parsley or both.

Serve. Don’t burn yourself…in your haste to get it down you….really…yummmmm!

Pink Lime-Ade

Well I am to be a grandmother in just a few weeks…not surprisingly this is both amazing and wonderful! I have decided however to be called ‘Grandy’ not Nanna, not Nan, not Grandma, not Granny. I have been told that this is not up to me, but I figure, a slap or two and the kid will get it down no problems!

(Just in case you don’t know me by now, I jest!!)

For the baby shower (it is a little girl, yay, we are even-ing the score a little in the Holder family!!) I created a few little pink treats and this is one of them. Others may or may not follow depending on their success! But this was certainly on the ‘successful and shall be done again’ list! You need a couple of days up your sleeve for this one remember…to get the fizz happening…so if you are after something for Mother’s Day (or should that be called Grandmother’s Day??) then get squeezing!!

NEED:

300g sugar

40g raspberries

Zest 10 limes, finely grated

Water to 2L mark in Thermo bowl

Juice of 10 limes

2 tsp dried yeast

Sterilised glass bottles as required

DO:

Place sugar, zest and raspberries into Thermo bowl and cook 10 min/100ºC/speed 2. Cool.

Add juice and yeast and stir 5 sec/speed 8. Strain through fine sieve into sterilised bottles and leave out of the fridge for 2 days until bubbles start to accumulate. Refrigerate and serve with more raspberries and lime slices to taste. It can also be diluted with sparkling water if needed.

Dried Chia Seed Cereal

Dried Chia Seed Cereal

As previous posts have mentioned, I am all for convenience and as school starts again (can you believe we are Term 2 with winter looming already??) and as the mornings down under are getting cooler, and as my daughter has developed a gluten intolerance, this was a yummy solution that takes no time  on a busy morning. Filling, nutritious, gluten free, and you can add fresh fruit, berries, honey, dairy free milk, milk, cream, mascarpone to dress it up or down as much as you want. The flavours improve over a few days as the vanilla and cinnamon do their thing, so try and resist at least that long. The beauties of Chia seeds are well discussed here at our friends Honest to Goodness. And the best thing of all? So filling, there has been documented weight loss in this household…not mine of course, but amongst other family  members who care….I either need to eat it more frequently, or stop eating other stuff all together….hmmmn, what to do?

NEED:

70g rapadura or coconut sugar

1/2 stick cinnamon

1 roasted vanilla bean (see the best selling cookbook, For Foods Sake for all the benefits of this little trick!)

100g buckwheat

100g almonds

250g chia seed (any colour)

100g Inca berries (we have discussed these before!)

60g Crio Bru granules of choice

DO:

Place sugar, cinnamon stick and roasted vanilla bean into Thermo bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10. Tip into jar you will use to store cereal mix.

Place buckwheat into Thermo bowl and mill 3 sec/speed 6. Add to jar.

Place almonds into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Add to jar.

Add chia seed, Inca berries and Crio Bru to jar and give it all a good stir.

To prepare mix 3 tbsp mixture with approx 1/4 or 65-70g boiling water, stir and let stand for a few minutes. Stir and add toppings and milk of choice!

YUM…

Powdered Greens….a whole lot of veggie goodness in a jar!

Happiness in a bottle!

I am tired of reading about powdered greens…Healthy people eat un powdered greens right?? But then, there is always the possibility that to munch down an entire bag of spinach in a breakfast smoothie is just a little unreasonable…SO. In the spirit of ease and because they had great bunches of kale at my local green grocer this week, I did it. This is not a recipe so much as a suggestion and may or may not join Malt powder, Umami, and Chicken Stock powder in your pantry. All I know is that 2 enormous bunches of Kale, the tops of a head of celery and a huge bunch of Italian parsley are now in one very small jar in my pantry! Efficient? Perhaps. With merit? I think so. Good for you? Better than purchased powdered greens. Has to be right? The taste is pungent and strong, so I suggest a small tbsp added to a morning shake would do the trick…but you tell me. Great to use on a day when your intake of un-powdered greens is less than desireable…and fantastic to slip into the kids milkshake…{insert evil laugh}. How would you use powdered greens??

NEED:

2 bunches curly kale, stalks and all

Tops of 1 bunch celery

1 huge bunch Italian parlsey

DO:

Wash them all and lay on two trays lined with baking paper.

Dehydrate in cool oven, around 90-100ºC…it may take several hours, but don’t be discouraged. Keep going…and going…and going. When they are fully dry, place into Thermo bowl, handful at a time and blitz, adding more after each amount has been reduced. Finally when all of it is in there, blend for 1 min/speed 10. Place into clean, dry jar and use randomly as desired or when feeling in need of a nutritional boost.

Soy Marinated Pork Fillet with Quinoa Tabbouleh

Well yes, this is delicious…but then delicious is my mantra…why eat it, if it doesn’t blow you away? I love quinoa and have been finding so many ways to use it lately. On this occasion, I used black quinoa, but white would have looked more traditional tabbouleh…but it is so pretty, don’t you think? We do eat with our eyes after all.

I have just finished Dairy Judge Training and in fact have been invited to become the Top Cheese in WA…(in a manner of speaking!) The Internationally Acclaimed (note capitals!) Russell Smith is going to mentor me through some training to get me to the point where I can hold my own in a room full of reknowned, spitting dairy judges…oh the joy! Cheese judging is very complex, as opposed to judging other dairy, but as an eater and a lover of cheese, and a lover/tourist of all cheese producing countries, I say; Bring it on!

But I digress, I was about to tell you, (as discussed in Dairy Judge Training!!) that we eat with our eyes first, so when we get the whole beautiful meal in front of us, we should salivate and be enticed to eat, and then of course, flavour must deliver and never disappoint, as our palate has a long memory and may never recover from disappointment.

No disappointment here I trust…don’t be tempted to overcook the pork, remember this is the other white meat and perfectly fine and safe to eat when medium rare….in most countries anyhoo!

NEED:

2 pork fillets

200-300g soy sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

4 cloves garlic

150g black quinoa

Water for soaking and steaming

Handful Italian parsley

Handful mint

Lemon juice to taste

Finely grated zest 1-2 lemons

1 punnet grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 burpless cucumber, diced

Fini EVOO as needed

Good pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

DO:

Place pork fillets into long flat ceramic dish.

Place soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic into Thermo bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 6.

Pour over pork fillets. Cover and refrigerate.

Meanwhile, soak quinoa in a large quantity of water for at least 30 minutes.

Drain quinoa and place into steamer basket and insert into Thermo bowl.

Pour enough water over to reach the bottom of the steamer basket.

Line Varoma dish with a piece of wet baking paper. Remove pork fillets from marinade and place into Varoma dish. Drizzle a little of the marinade over, but reserve the rest.

Place Varoma into position and steam quinoa and pork 20 min/Varoma/speed 3.

Remove pork and cover.

Drain quinoa and finish tabbouleh.

Place herbs into clean, dry Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 7. Combine this with all remaining ingredients, finally stirring cooled quinoa through. Set aside.

Sear rested pork fillets in a hot fry pan, (Induction 7) drizzling with reserved marinade to taste, being cautious not to burn the marinade. Slice pork and serve over tabbouleh. Reduce the remaining marinade if desired and drizzle a little over the pork prior to serving.

ENJOY!

Aztec Hot Chocolate Shots….go steady!

Store this one away for a cold evening when the wind is howling and you feel as though you need to be warmed right through. Recently featured in all classes since For Food’s Sake was launched, it has been a BIG hit with the whole country, and now here you go…all yours for the asking! Once again starring the chocolatey-est chocolate, because it is pure chocolate, Crio Bru…your friend and mine…choose the dark chocolate you use carefully, try to get a 64% or higher…for the best flavour and highest nutritional value. (And then you can tell yourself it is a health food…really!)

NEED:

1 cinnamon stick

1 dried chilli (or less to taste)

Zest 1 orange, finely grated

100g palm sugar

100g Crio Bru granules

100g dark chocolate, in pieces

500g cream

200g milk

Pinch sea salt

DO:

Place cinnamon, chilli, zest, palm sugar, Crio Bru and chocolate into TM bowl and mill 15 sec/speed 10.

Add cream, milk and salt and cook 10 min/80°C/speed 2.

Strain and drink in small shot glasses. Try adding a vanilla bean in the first step for another flavour advantage…delish!

Crio Bru Easter Eggs with Pistachio Almond Paste Filling

You knew this had to be coming didn’t you? Really…it was only a matter of timing. And wait for it…if you blink you may miss it…Easter is upon us. I know, I know, I was just posting Christmas recipes but a moment ago, but here we are, the big pink bunny is on his way, camping trips, school holidays, over indulgence in all things chocolate…so this recipe is healthy. NOT KIDDING…totally healthy, just don’t eat it all at once. You too may be bouncing all over more than any bunny I’ve ever come across. Full of natural energy, go read about Crio Bru’s amazing benefits HERE and then proceed with confidence. Any flavour of the Bru will Do! Enjoy these Eggcellent eggs…oh and Hoppy Easter! (Sorry…please eggcuse me!)

NEED:

100g Crio Bru dry granules

100g Rapadura sugar

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

65g cacao butter

Pinch Murray River pink salt

Paste Filling;

100g pistachios, shelled

40g almonds

50g Rapdura sugar

10g cacao butter

Pinch Murray River pink salt

Additional almonds and pistachios to garnish

Easter egg mould or other mould of choice

DO:

To make chocolate shells, place Crio Bru granules and sugar into Thermomix bowl and mill 20 sec/speed 10.

Add vanilla bean paste, cacao butter and salt and blend 10-15 sec/speed 6 until a chocolate paste forms. Spread into moulds of choice and place into fridge.

Without cleaning bowl, make paste by placing pistachios, almonds, and sugar into Thermomix bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10. Add cacao butter and salt and blend 20 sec/speed 8, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Fill each shell with the filling, placing a few of the additional nuts into the centres as desired. Finish off with additional nuts, making sure that you press them into the filling so that they will set into the egg.

Refrigerate.

Remove from moulds. Wrap and gift…or slice it to eat, or, well, put it on a plate and do a Seinfeld and get the knife and fork out! (But remember, it is very, very dark and rich and full of antioxidants and energy!)