Savoury Seed Straws

Hello lovelies! Firstly, I want to apologise for not posting anything in so long! Hopefully I should be getting back to that more now that the summer is on its way! :)

This is a recipe that I have done quite a few times but never got right and just how I wanted..until yesterday! Hooray! *Pulls confetti* 

Some people's taste buds are more sweet than savoury, and others' are more savoury than sweet. Personally, I fit better into the savoury category. But I'm sure you can agree with me in the fact that we all have those times when we favour one category over the other. And for those times when you need something more savoury-these straws are the answer.

Firstly, I love how the paprika and cayenne compliment the salt and mustard perfectly-and give it that extra something. And this is a GREAT way to get seeds into you if you're not the biggest fan or just are simply stuck with what things you can do with them. Secondly, they are gluten free (as far as I know) so if you generally try to stay away from gluten, these are a definite thumbs up!

The nutritional yeast is also marvellous if you want to get some extra vitamin B12 into you, although it isn't necessary. Nutritional yeast has a nutty/cheesy taste and is ideal for when you follow a plant based diet.

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Makes around 8-16 straws

Ingredients:

130g GF Plain Flour (I used Doves Farm which I really like)
130g Brown Rice Flour
1/4 tsp Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt
4 tsp GF Baking Powder (I used Doves Farm)
140g Dairy Free Margarine (I like the brand Pure)
A pinch of cayenne pepper and paprika -As much as is desired
1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast (Optional)
1 tbsp Brown Rice Syrup
5 tbsp Ice cold water and 5tbsp Soy Milk

Topping

1 tsp or tbsp Whole grain mustard (depending on taste)
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Paprika
A combination of seeds that you like, I used poppy seeds, pumpkin, sunflower and linseed that I know of. A good idea would also be to buy a bag of mixed seeds from your local health shop or supermarket.

Method:

1. Put the flours, salt, and baking powder in a food processor and pulse to mix. 
2. Add the margarine, cayenne, paprika, brown rice syrup, and nutritional yeast, if using. Pulse again. 
3. Add the water and soy milk and pulse until it begins to form together. Shape into a ball and put into the fridge wrapped in cling film to chill for up to an hour.
4. Grease a baking tray and put the oven on at around 180C. Take the ball you put in earlier out of the fridge and cut into two halves. Roll each half out individually with a rolling pin and cut into 8 rectangular straw like pieces. Top tip: Be very careful at this point as they break up VERY easily. You may need to use something to lift them up onto the baking tray. 
5. In a small bowl, mix your preferred amount of cayenne and paprika with mustard and 1 tsp water. And use a pastry brush to coat and infuse the straws with flavour evenly. Then sprinkle your seeds over.
6. Once thats finished, put the tray in the oven for 10 minutes and it should be pretty easily to tell when they're ready.

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read today's post! 

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Cashew Shortbread Biscuits

These biscuits are nothing fancy, but are something that are lovely if you feel like making something in the kitchen or need a little pick me up. When I made these last week I didn't expect to enjoy them so much! They were one of those gems of a find that happen to really surprise you.

They are great because you can do whatever you want with them. If you have some biscuit cutters you can cut them into pretty shapes of all sorts. Hearts, flowers, stars.. you name it! Be creative. If you didn't want to just have them plain and are desperate for some extra sweetness, another thing you could do is drizzle some dark chocolate over the top. Yummy!

Note: Your biscuits may turn out a little darker than the ones in the picture as I was short on coconut sugar and only used a bit and for the rest used light brown.

For this recipe one thing you will also need is some kind of machine to grind your cashews, I use my Nutribullet. If you have a high speed blender or food processor that would work great too.

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Makes 12-24 biscuits

Ingredients:
4 oz Vegan butter (Pure/Vitalite/Biona)
2 oz Coconut palm sugar
3 oz Raw cashews
4 1/2 oz Self Raising Flour (To make healthier use just under 4oz SR and the rest Spelt Flour)
1/4 tsp GF Baking Powder
Pinch Himalayan Pink Salt

To Make:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees/375F/Gas Mark 5 and grease a baking tray. 
2. Cream the butter and coco sugar with the back of a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Grind the cashews to a fine powder then add to the butter/sugar mixture.
4. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture and mix until combined. This will make quite a sticky dough. 
5. In your bowl, gradually add around two or three tablespoons of flour to the mixture then press in & gather together so that you can roll the mixture into a ball ready to roll.
6. With a rolling pin, roll out your dough to a reasonable thickness and cut into shapes with biscuit cutters and place them on your greased baking tray. You may need to use a knife to help lift them up. 
7. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy! 

Emily X

Valentines Goji Heart Chocolates

Instead of the typical box of chocolates from the shops for Valentines day, why not treat your loved one (or yourself in my case) to some pretty homemade chocolates that you've made yourself? In my opinion the best gifts are always those that have had extra effort and time taken over them. Not only are these delicious and easy but they are also super good for you. One or more of these and you'll be high in the clouds with happiness, not to mention love!

The recipe below is just an estimate of what I used. Adjust the recipe to be as runny, thick, bitter, or sweet as you like. To make make more runny, add coconut oil, to make more thick add some more cacao powder, and to make more sweet if the cacao powder is too bitter add some more maple syrup or vanilla. Keep tasting as you go along so the chocolates will taste just the way you like. Also make sure to do it all quite quickly as the chocolate will begin to set if you make them too slowly. How do I know? My first batch didn't turn out so pretty. Haha :) The thing with this sort of recipe is trial and error-once you've done it a few times you'll get the hang of it.

I get my cacao butter and cacao powder from The Raw Chocolate Co and the coconut oil I use is Lucy Bee that I get from Sainsbury's for £6. To make these you'll need any kind of silicone mould. I used one that I found from M&S but there are some from amazon that are great for this sort of thing that you can get for really cheap and Lakeland do one thats really good too. If you don't have a silicone mould you can also use an ice cube tray or some bun cases. If you use bun cases make sure that they are firm enough so that the mixture won't spill out as soon as you move them. To take extra precautions place them on a mat or something solid to transfer them to the fridge.

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Makes 6 large or 20 small chocolates

Ingredients:

100g Cacao butter
4tbsp Coconut oil
2tsp Vanilla extract
100g Cacao powder
6-8 tbsp Good quality maple syrup (add more or less to your personal preference)
2-3 phandfuls Goji berries or other nuts/dried fruits (raisins would work really well)

You'll also need: Heart or other shaped silicone moulds and a sieve

To Make:

1. Fill up a medium sized saucepan with water and bring to the boil. If you can, try not to let the pan get hotter than 45 degrees Celsius so all the ingredients contain their original nutritional value.
2. Chop the cacao butter very finely (this way it will melt easily) and set in a glass bowl with the coconut oil.
3. Take the boiling water off the heat and place the bowl on top of it. 
4. Let the cacao butter slowly dissolve and melt down to a liquid. When it has all melted, stir in the vanilla.
5. Sieve in the cacao powder and mix until smooth with a wooden spoon. Add the maple syrup and goji berries. 
6. Slowly pour into moulds and leave in the fridge for thirty minutes to an hour or until firm. When they are ready push out of the moulds and put in a plastic container/box. The chocolates will stay fresh for up to three months in the fridge, though I doubt they'll last that long!

Happy chocolate making!

Lots of love,

Emily X

Dairy free dark mint chocolate chunk cookies

Before I had never really thought about vegan/dairy free baking as something that I would seriously be interested in doing, but after making some brownies and and then these cookies on Monday and them turning out so yummy and perfect, now it seems like the perfect way to go. I love how they were so quick & easy to make and are just like cookies should be, a lovely golden colour-hardened around the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.

I'm not sure if I've ever made many traditional cookies before but I don't think I have any need to after discovering these, and the best thing is they are both free of dairy products and refined sugars, which are both things I try to avoid. In this recipe I used coconut palm sugar which is both natural and unrefined with a lovely caramel taste that doesn't leave you feeling yucky afterwards. Brilliant for health freaks like me. So for this recipe and for the majority of recipes I will be doing in the future, I will be using coconut palm sugar. Ahh, just saying the name of it makes my heart flutter. If I could eat the whole jar to myself I probably would because I love it that much. If you don't have or want to use coconut sugar you can just stick with caster as it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the recipe.

If you find yourself craving something sweet and chocolatey on an evening thats also ridiculously good for you, these cookies would be perfect with my warming hot chocolate with 100% natural ingredients.

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Makes 6 large cookies

Ingredients: 

125g vegan butter
125g coconut palm sugar
250g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp peppermint extract
50g dark baking or normal chocolate cut into chunks (I use Green & Blacks)

To Make:

1. Cream the butter and coco sugar with the back of your spoon in a large bowl until fluffy, then add and stir in the peppermint extract to your preferred mintiness. 
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder then add the flour to the creamed butter until a soft dough is formed. 
3. Once you have your dough, make it into a log shape and wrap it in cling film ready to go in the fridge. I would recommend keeping it in the fridge for at least an hour and if you can, overnight. I kept mine in overnight just to be safer! 
4. A few hours later, or the next day, take your dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease a baking tray with butter and cut out some baking parchment to fit. 
5. Then taking a knife, equally divide and mark six lines on the dough before rolling into neat balls and pressing them down on your baking tray. Make sure there is plenty of space between each one as they will expand in the oven. Depending on your personal preference, you can make six large cookies or twelve smaller ones.
6. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes. It will be pretty easy to know when they're ready, just remember to make sure they are all cooked through properly. Also keep in mind that they will cool down and harden quickly when they're out. Once they're all cool, transfer to a wire cooling rack or plate. 

Enjoy!

Emily X

Creamy chocolate coconut oats

In honour of National Porridge Day, I decided to share one of my all time favourite recipes. This is one of the first things that I learned to make and is one of my favourite things to have on a morning for breakfast. Not only is it chocolate, but it is so tasty and fulfilling and always sets me up to have a great day. Oats are brilliant because they are good for your heart and release their energy slowly and keep you fuller for longer, meaning you wont be snacking in between meals.

For this recipe I haven't used normal chocolate/cocoa powder, I used raw cacao powder which is cocoa in its purest/natural form. But normal cocoa will do just fine if you don't have cacao. Find out more about cacao here :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup almond milk or any nut milk of your choice

1/2 cup porridge oats (I like flavahans)

1 tbsp. coconut oil

1 tbsp. ground flaxseed

1 tsp Organic Burst maca powder

1 mashed banana

2-3 tbsp. raw cacao powder

Your favourite toppings

To Make:

1. Pour the almond milk and porridge oats into a small saucepan and add the coconut oil, flaxseed, maca, banana and cacao, mix altogether and leave to soak.
2. Turn the oven on to 160 degrees and heat the pan up on a medium heat and mix with a wooden spoon until the oats are heated through.
3. Pour the oats into your favourite bowl and put in the oven to bake for 5 minutes.
4. After 5 minutes take out of the oven and add your favourite fruits and toppings. I love to add berries, desiccated coconut, almonds, coconut sugar and cocao nibs.

Enjoy!

Emily X 

Banana and almond butter smoothie with Organic Burst maca

This is one of my all time favourite smoothies and I have really enjoyed making this in the past year. Its quick to make and can be enjoyed any time of the day. I love it in the afternoons when I need something to keep me going until tea time. This smoothie is perfect for the days when you need a great natural energy boost, and is something great to fill you until your next meal. The banana is a great source of potassium and the almonds in the almond butter are a highly alkaline food to keep your body's PH balanced. If you want you can also add a few whole almonds which I sometimes like to do, but that bit is optional. :)

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 large Banana
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tbsp Almond butter
1 tsp Organic Burst maca powder (http://www.organicburst.com)
1 tbsp Coconut palm sugar

To Make:

1. Break or slice the banana and place in a blender. I use my Nutribullet to make this smoothie-the Nutribullet is a great option when you're wanting to live a healthier lifestyle on a budget as it does a large amount of things for the price it costs and comes with both an extracter blade to blend and a milling blade to mill nuts etc. Here is the link to the website (https://www.nutribullet.com) 
2. Next, add the almond milk, the 1 cup is just an estimation to what I use but you can use more or less depending on how thick you want your smoothie to be. Then add in the maca, almond butter, coconut sugar and blend! 
3. To finish off, sprinkle a little coconut sugar on top and you're done! This step is optional but I think its that little bit nicer with some on top. Coconut sugar has a lovely mild caramel taste that compliments the maca and banana perfectly and is a brilliant alternative to refined sugar as it has a lower GI and is also rich in minerals. 

Enjoy!

Emily X

Warming hot chocolate with 100% natural ingredients

This week has been incredibly busy, and I think I had forgotten what it was like to have a schedule so full with things to do and remember. So for days like this it's just nice to take the time to sit down in the evening with a cup of hot chocolate and watch a Christmassy film in my cosy new pyjamas and doggy slippers knowing what I'm drinking is going to nourish and warm me from the inside out. 

This hot chocolate is so easy and so much better for you than the tubs of hot chocolate powder from the supermarkets. While they are more convenient, they are usually hidden with lots of sugar and nasty things that you don't want to be putting into your body. And trust me, this one tastes a lot better!

There are lots of different ingredient combinations that you can use to make this hot chocolate, but for now I'll show you the most basic way to do it. 

Ingredients:

Serves 1

-To serve two just double the quantities

1 cup of alpro unsweetened almond milk (or any other good brand)

2 tbsp cocao powder (regular cocoa powder will work too) To find out more about cacao and its nutritional properties click here

Squeeze of agave nectar and/or a sprinkle of coconut sugar (can be found at Holland & Barretts)

Half a cinnamon stick (optional)

To Make:

1. Heat a small saucepan up on a low to medium heat and pour in the almond milk. 
2. Once that is heated through, add the cocao powder and agave or coconut sugar and mix all together until it has all dissolved. 
3. Turn off the heat and pour into your favourite mug. Sprinkle a little coconut sugar on top and add your cinnamon stick. 

Enjoy!

Emily X

Simple Fruit Cake with Apricot Jam and Pecans

To start off my Christmas series this year I thought I'd make something I'd never done before, but something that would fit in nicely and wasn't too fancy either. This cake was the first on my list to blog about as it needs to be made a month or two beforehand to soak up the alcohol and mature ready for Christmas. I decided to bake this cake because although it is a Christmas classic our family have never actually made it and eaten it at Christmas before and I have always liked to give it a try, and I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't like it. There are lots of ways to make a fruit cake but since its my first (surprisingly so) I'm going to stick to the traditional recipe. If you are fond of icing or marzipan on your Christmas cakes then you can make some and decorate the top, and finish it off with a nice Christmassy flower like holly, or add some mini ornaments. Be as creative as you like! But for mine I'll just be using some apricot jam and some pecans, yum!

To Make

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas2 and line a 20cm/8inch round cake tin with baking parchment.

Weigh out your ingredients and cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with the back of a wooden spoon. To do this I used my new favourite blue baking bowl from Lakeland. These kind of bowls are ideal for baking as they are strong and sturdy and able to hold plenty of ingredients. Great for this kind of cake. If it still rocks about a bit, place a damp tea towel underneath.

Once thats done, add the eggs one at a time and mix in. It'll look a bit odd after this step but don't worry as once the flour is in it will all come together as it is supposed to.

Grab a sieve and sift in the flour, spices, and salt. You can adjust the amount of spice according to your personal preference, but remember to keep in mind that cinnamon can be sometimes overpowering if too much is used. Then fold in until fully combined. If your mixture seems to be a bit too floury, add a teaspoon of water.

Next, add in your dried fruit, mixed peel, glace cherries, ground almonds, black treacle, and vanilla essence and stir all together. If you have some marmalade that would go in nicely too.

Take a big spoon and transfer the mixture to the cake tin spreading evenly and making a slight hollow in the centre so the cake stays flat on top.

Bake in the oven for an hour and a half and then keep coming back and checking on it until your instincts tell you its ready. It will all depend on your oven and how powerful it is. Mine is very powerful so I cooked it for about two hours before I took it out. Another way to check if its cooked through properly is to test with a skewer. Poke a hole through the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean you can take it out. Place on a wire rack and let it cool for at least half an hour before decorating.

To feed it with some brandy or sherry, poke some holes in the cake with a knife or skewer and pour a teaspoon into each one then wrap up in tin foil and repeat every week or two in the lead up to Christmas.

To Decorate

Apricot Jam & Pecans
In a small pan, load two tablespoons of your apricot jam and heat it up on a low heat. When the jam has melted, coat a pastry brush with the jam and run over your cake until it is fully covered. Then take your pecans and place them around the outside of your cake, spacing them apart evenly. You can do this just on the outside or continue all the way into the centre.

Ingredients

For the cake:
200g/7oz Unsalted butter, softened
200g/7oz Dark brown sugar
4 Free range eggs
225g/8oz Plain Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Salt
800g/1 3/4lb Mixed dried fruit
100g/3 1/2oz Mixed Peel
150g/5oz Glace cherries
100g/ 3 1/2oz Ground almonds
2 tbsp Black Treacle
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Good quality brandy or sherry
Baking parchment for tin

To decorate:
2 tbsp Apricot jam
Pecans

Enjoy!
Emily X

Apple and Cinnamon Crumble

There's really nothing like the smell of apple and cinnamon baking in the oven is there? I could make this dish a million times and never get tired of it. Okay, maybe I would, but its such a simple thing to make and always a classic that everyone will love. The brilliant thing about crumbles is you can make it so many ways. Apple crumble, plum crumble, rhubarb crumble, and even cherry. The options are endless. And you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you like!

Today I made a basic apple crumble which I'm sure will be the first of many crumbles this season. I found myself making quite a few last year and I think I'll be making even more this year. If you fancy making some too here's the recipe I used today.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the crumble:
10 1/2oz plain flour
6oz brown sugar
7oz butter
For the filling:
2 large cooking apples
1/2oz brown sugar
A pinch of ground cinnamon (I use a little more because I really like cinnamon)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/350F/Gas4
2. Pour the flour and sugar into a large bowl and mix together. Cut the butter into cubes and using a bit of butter at a time, rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture becomes like breadcrumbs. Once done, put aside.
3. Peel the apples with a knife or peeler and cut into 1cm/1/2inch pieces. Place the apples in a baking dish and sprinkle over the brown sugar and cinnamon, finishing off with the breadcrumbs.
4. Place in the oven for 20-35 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine is very powerful so I left it in for 25 minutes and until golden brown. 

To make this recipe a little healthier, you could swap regular butter for vegan butter which works just the same and just reduce the amount of sugar used.

Enjoy! :)

Peach, grape, cashew and chia seed smoothie

 

 

 I've been making this smoothie for a couple of days now and thought it was a great addition to my list of favourite smoothies. This is lovely and refreshing on a morning as it sets you up well for the day. Peaches are a great source of vitamin C which helps fight cancer and is excellent for your skin, as it can help reduce wrinkles and improve texture, as well as fighting back against damage caused by the sun. Grapes are great for hydration and counter-acting free radicals in the body and cashews are an instant mood lifter which is great for the days when you're feeling a little down. You can leave the cashews out if you want but they are a great addition.

 

Chia seeds are one of the many super foods that I try to incorporate into my diet as they are extremely good for you. Although they are very small, they have endless nutritional benefits. A couple of which are that they are high in antioxidants and are full of omega 3 fatty acids which is important for a vegetarian diet. Chia seeds are a little strange to get used to at first but once you do its easy. To prepare them you'll need to soak them in water for a few minutes until they become almost like a jelly consistency. You can get these at your local health store, I get mine from Holland and Barrett and Ocado.

 

To make, you'll need:

 

1 ripe peach

A bunch of grapes

A handful of cashews

2 tbsp. chia seeds, black or white (to soak, use 3-5tbsp water, or until they're all covered)

1 cup unsweetened almond milk (use as much as is preferred)

Optional: 1 tsp. Organic Burst baobab (baobab is an awesome super food that adds extra vitamin C to my smoothies)

 

To blend, I use my trusty Nutribullet and prefer it more thin than thick but you can do it however you like:) Enjoy!

 

 

Mixed berry muffins with yoghurt, lemon and honey

Lately I have been looking for something different yet still fairly healthy to have for/with my breakfast and the other day while staying overnight at a hotel, discovered some chocolate mini muffins that were delicious and thought how great it would be if I made some that weren't as bad for my health but were still as tasty!

They took about half an hour to an hour to make last night and I enjoyed having two this morning with my lemon and ginger tea. These muffins would be perfect to make the night before if you don't have a lot of time in the morning to make yourself some breakfast and need plenty of energy for the day.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

• 50g (1 3/4oz) butter, (I used vegan butter but you can use any butter you like)
• 250g (9oz) self raising flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 75g (2 1/2oz) caster sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• A pinch of salt (Sea or Himalayan pink salt is best)
• 250g (9oz) Alpro soya yoghurt (plain yoghurt will do nicely too)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3oz honey
• 250g (9oz) mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries but you can use any kind of berry)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F/Gas6) and line a bun tray or muffin tin with 12 muffin cases. Melt the butter in a small pan, then leave to cool. Sift the flour into a large bowl, mix in the baking powder, sugar, lemon zest, and salt, then make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
2. Mix the yoghurt, eggs, and cooled melted butter together in a large jug, then pour into the dry ingredients along with the berries (you may have to chop some of the bigger berries in half) Mix lightly with a wooden spoon to make a lumpy batter- don't overmix, or the muffins will be heavy.
3. Spoon evenly into the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden. Cool in a tin for 5 minutes, then serve warm or leave to cool overnight.

Enjoy!

Emily X