Low Carb "Bread"

This is my take on a recipe posted on a LCHF facebook group I'm part of which is run by Telaine and Derek from Low Carb Island. Being part of this facebook group is really helping me stay on track with my goals and say no to sugar and carbs. The original recipe can be found here. While I enjoyed the bread, I found it a bit too eggy for my liking. This is what I've come up with so far, and will probably change as the weeks progress and I experiment and tweak it somewhat more. By leaving out the yolks it really takes away the eggy flavour, and I added the chia and some extra water as egg replacement. The loaf was a little moist, so you could leave out 1 tablespoon of water for a dryer loaf. I added the sesame seeds and sesame oil add a bit of flavour and make sure any remaining egg flavour was hidden. I think it works well, but isn't essential. (I don't have a picture yet, but I'll try get one posted in the next few days)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

1 cup of flax meal

6 tbs water

1 tbs of chia seeds

Half cup of ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

Half tsp salt

2 tbs of sesame seeds (optional)

1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

1 Small loaf tin

In one bowl mix chia seed and water. Sit for 10min. Add egg whites and sesame oil and whisk with a fork. In a second bowl mix together flax meal, ground almonds, sesame seeds, baking powder and salt. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine. 

Bake in a small loaf tin at 200 degrees for 25min.

Back To School Baking.

Today I've been getting ready for the start of the school year making treats for the kid's lunches. First up I made Cheese and Corn Muffins. They're super easy, fast with minimal washing up. All things I love. You use the tin from the corn to measure the other ingredients which makes it easy to change the batch size and cuts down on dirty dishes. 

Cheese and Corn Muffins. 

1 tin creamed corn

1 tin corn kernels

1 tin full of grated cheese

1 tin full of self raising flour

Mix together, spoon into cupcake tin and bake at 180 until golden and cooked through. 

Next I made apricot balls. Another super easy recipe. 

Apricot Balls

200g Dried Apricots

200g Desiccated Coconut

Extra Coconut for rolling

Blitz in a food processor until smooth. Squeeze and roll into balls, roll in coconut and chill. 

After that I made Muesli Bars. These aren't my usual muesli bars, which I based of the Australian Women's Weekly "Healthy Honey Muesli Bars" recipe, which is a no bake muesli bar that is killer, but a bit more time consuming than the ones I made today. This recipe is crazy easy. It uses pre made muesli. I make my own, which cuts down on the cost a lot, but it isn't necessary, store bought muesli would work fine. The nicer the muesli, the nicer the end bar. 

Muesli Bars

3 cups muesli

1 tin of sweetened condensed milk

Mix together, press into a lined slice tin OR you can roll them into balls OR press the mixture into greased mini muffin tins. Bake at 180 until golden.

These will be quite soft when they come out of the oven, but crisp up as they cool.

Lastly I made Peanut Butter Brownie Bliss Balls. They're so delicious. I just used cheap homebrand dates, cocoa powder and honey as I didn't have the other listed ingredients. I rolled them in coconut left over from the Apricot Balls as they're quite sticky. I recommend making at least a double batch as they're so good, and the batch is quite small. 

All these things are stashed in containers in the freezer waiting to be packed into lunches as snacks. I'm also going to make some mini meat balls to freeze and freeze some cheerios packed into small bags to make lunch super easy and fast to make. YAY. So excited for the end of school holidays, this mum needs a break. 

Dumplings/Gyoza/Jiaozi

I enjoy making dumplings a few times a year. Because they are a little fiddly and time consuming (and I'm not fast at making them) when I make them I tend to make a huge bulk lot at once and freeze so it doesn't seem like such an effort just for one meal. Dumplings are pretty versatile and you can fill them with pretty much whatever takes your fancy. I tend to stick to the pretty basic standard pork dumpling, and just mix up what vegies I add. This is the recipe I made tonight. The sauces are just added to taste, I couldn't tell you how much is in there, but just don't go overboard and you can't really go wrong. If you're super unsure, make and cook a single dumpling to test the seasoning, and adjust from there.

Ingredients

• 500g pork mince
• 1/4 wombok cabbage
• a few mushrooms
• 3 spring onions
• a handful of bean shoots
• 1 egg
•  2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely grated
• a small piece of ginger, finely grated (optional)
• dark soy
• sesame oil
• about 60 dumpling skins (I used 2 packs of the Gow Gee Pastry from Woolworths)

Firstly finely shred the leafy parts of the wombok, then finely dice the white stems of the leaves. Put it in a bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients and sprinkle with about a tsp or so of salt (I didn't measure, I just sprinkled until it was fairly well salted). Leave it for about 20min so the salt draws the moisture out. Squeeze the cabbage out in a clean cloth until you've removed as much moisture as possible, give the bowl a quick rinse and then put the cabbage back into it. 

Finely dice the mushrooms, slice the spring onions, and give the bean shoots a quick chop so they're a bit smaller. Add these to the cabbage and add a little drizzle of dark soy, sesame oil, the garlic and ginger, pork and the egg. Mix everything together really well. This is your dumpling filling. 

Get yourself comfortable somewhere, with a tray to put the dumplings on (I like to line an oven tray with baking paper), a small bowl of water for moistening the edges of the dumpling skins, the bowl with the filling and of course, the dumpling skins. 

There are a bunch of ways to shape the dumplings, but this is the way I find easiest. 

Put a rounded teaspoon of the mix into the centre of the wrapper. Using the tip of your finger moisten the edge of the wrapper with water, and then fold the wrapper in half and squish the edges together, being careful to remove air from the dumpling. Once the edges are well stuck together I then fold them in a zig-zag kind of shape to crimp it into a cute little dumpling shape. I high recommend googling a better description for doing this if you're not sure, I'm not exactly great at explaining things. 

Once you've filled your 60 odd dumplings, you can cook them a number of ways. I usually heat a small amount of oil in a non-stick pan that has a lid, and then put the dumplings in and fry them until the bases are golden. Then tip in about 1/4 cup or so of water and put the lid on. Steam them for a few min until cooked. Take the lid off, and continue to cook them until all the water is gone and the bottoms are crispy. This gives to the crispy fried base and the chewy textured steamed top half. You can also steam them, simmer them in broth, or deep fry them. The best way to freeze there are on a tray. Once they're frozen pop them into a bag. If you put them into a bag before freezing them you're likely to end up with an unusable lump. 

I usually serve them with a dipping sauce of black rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, with some sliced garlic and chilli. 

Tasty Banana Muffins

So I've recently come to the realisation that my body doesn't like dairy, like really doesn't like it. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore all things dairy, especially cheese. Fortunately I can still have butter. I've been playing around with some recipes that my body will like. These are definitely a winner. They're healthy enough to have for breakfast, and tasty enough for a treat. I based this recipe off a banana bread recipe I found online, but I changed it around a LOT, it doesn't really resemble the original at all now. I have to make a record of it so I can make it again next time I want some deliciousness. This recipe makes 12 muffins

Cut them in half and smother them in butter!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbs chia seeds mixed with 6tbs of water (mix then leave for about 10min to gel)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
• 2 mashed bananas
• a shake of cinnamon & nutmeg
• 2 tsp baking powder

Mix together oil, butter, honey, eggs, chia, vanilla, and banana. Add coconut flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder. Mix until well combined. 3/4 fill a greased muffin pan and bake at 180 for 20-30 min (I didn't actually take too much notice of this, I just took them out when they were done, or in my case slightly over done).

Cheesy Corn Cups

These are one of the new additions to the tuckshop menu this year. They're super easy, and really tasty. 

You can easily make these with all sorts of fillings. I've done chicken, corn & mayo, as well as savoury 

mince and cheese. They'd even be nice filled with fresh salsa or salad. 

Not the best pic I know, but the only one I have of the things. 

·         Sliced wholemeal bread with crusts removed

·         1 tin of creamed corn

·         1 tin of corn kernels

·         1 tins worth of shredded reduced fat tasty cheese

·         2 tsp corn flour

Flatten bread slices and press into a non-stick muffin tray. Bake these in a moderate oven until dry and crispy. These can be stored at this stage in an air tight container or in the freezer.

Mix the corn kernels, cheese with cornflour until well combined. Stir in creamed corn.

Use the mix to fill the bread cases. Bake in a moderate oven for 10-15min until hot and bubbly.

We serve these in a meal deal with carrot and cucumber sticks, air popped pop corn and a juice. 

Hot Sauce

I have a fairly basic go to recipe for hot sauce, I mix it up by changing up the chilli varieties. So far my favorite batch was with red birds eyes. It is more about ratios than an exact recipe and can be changed for taste. I originally got the recipe from someone on facebook, and it is pretty much the standard "Tabasco Sauce" hack recipe found all over the web. I've added a few things to it which I think makes it a bit more tasty, like plenty of garlic.

The basis of the sauce is equal quantities chilli and vinegar. From there you can change it up however you'd like. Today I used green thai chillies, sometime I'd love to try it with some ginger, lemon grass & fish sauce added to make it taste like a thai flavoured hot sauce. It is however, loaded with garlic. I love garlic, and garlic in my hot sauces is pretty much a must when I'm making them. I always add some sugar and salt. I use about 1tbs of sugar per cup of vinegar used. You can use more or less, depending on how you like it.

Warning: Please be careful with chillies and take appropriate precautions. Splashes from chilli, or touching your face after handling chilli can be extremely painful. Please use gloves and safety goggles if working with hot chillies.

Today's particular recipe was

500g thai green chillies, roughly chopped (I barely choped them, I was feeling lazy)
2 cups of vinegar
8 cloves of garlic, peeled
2tbs white sugar
probably about 1 tsp of salt, I didn't measure

Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer them for about 5min. Let it cool for a while.

After it has cooled, VERY CAREFULLY blend it. I used a stick blender, but a regular blender would also do the job. 

Put the sauce into jars, pop it in the fridge and forget about it for a couple of weeks. 

After it has spent some time in the fridge, strain off all the solids, taste it, and adjust the salt level if required, and add more vinegar if you prefer a thinner sauce. Now you just need to put it into sauce bottles, I've found the best bottles for the job are empty Worcestershire sauce bottles. They've got easily removable plastic stoppers that make them easy to fill with a funnel, and easy to pour once filled. The plastic stoppers help the sauce come out in appropriate sized drops. This sauce is better than any store bought sauce, I hope you like it.

Almond and Flax Crackers

This crackers are tasty, good for you and easy. I love them with peanut butter, or tomato and cheese.

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup flax meal

1 egg white

Combine all 3 ingredients well. Roll until about 2mm thick between two sheets of baking paper. Cut with a round biscuit cutter or with a knife into rectangles for larger sandwich sized crackers. Bake these at 180 degrees until they're crispy,cool on a rack and enjoy!

You can flavour these up in all different ways. I like to add sesame seeds and parmesan cheese. 

You'll have to excuse the dodgy pic. It was the only one I had.