Super Easy Sugar Free Not-Exactly-ANZAC biscuits

Still in sugar free mode - and after taking a day off for my husband's birthday to eat sugary dessert and then getting sick and feeling rubbish for days after, I'm thinking this sugar free thing is going to be permanent. Seriously, refined sugar is basically poison in disguise... but that's a rant for another post!

So I was craving biscuits to go with my cup of tea tonight, and I knew I had a lot of oats in the cupboard so I thought of ANZAC biscuits. Could I do them sugar free?

(Oh, and 'biscuit' is Australian for 'cookie' by the way.)

The result is not strictly an ANZAC. It has honey instead of golden syrup, added sultanas and I used an egg because I wasn't sure if it would bind together without one.

But they turned out well - not very sweet, but nice and biscuity. Satisfied my craving, anyway.

Super Easy Sugar Free Not-Exactly-ANZAC biscuits:

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
150g melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 egg

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees celsius.

Chuck it all in and mix. Too wet? Add a bit more flour. Too dry? You can add a bit of milk, but this will make them crisper. Otherwise a bit more honey or melted butter.

Form in golf ball size balls and place on a lined tray. Flatten the balls down a bit with your fingers or a fork. They don't spread very much.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.


Verdict: Not very sweet - could try more honey if this a problem for you - but will satisfy a biscuit craving, especially if you dip it in your tea!


Happy sugar free baking.

Another sugar free cupcake experiment

Another recipe from The Healthy Chef - this time for Lemon Yoghurt Cupcakes. This one looked yummy and I really wanted to try it, but again, since it called for so much almond meal I was wondering how I could substitute it. This recipe called for 3 cups which would have cost me $25 for almond meal alone!!

This is the picture from the Healthy Chef website,  not my cupcakes.
As you will see below, mine didn't turn out quite so pretty or tasty looking...

Since my last experiment - the chocolate cupcakes - worked with LSA instead of almond meal I thought I'd try that again. But as soon as I started, I realised this was going to be different - maybe you've already worked out how.

Because of the linseed/flaxseed, the result is obviously going to be funny brown colour, not the lightness of pure almond meal.

My substitutions:

- LSA instead of almond meal

- apple puree instead of oil

Cue the yucky look mixture... and when I tasted the batter I realised despite the sweetness of the honey and the tang of the lemon and yoghurt in this, it wasn't going to be enough to mask the stronger flavour and slight bitterness of the LSA.

The downsides?

Made with LSA these cupcakes taste a little bitter and strange. Edible thanks to the large quantity of honey and the lemony flavour, but not like I was hoping them to be.

Quite a bit of honey - if you're going sugar free, honey is an acceptable occasional food, but it's still sugar when you have large quantities.

The upsides?

If there are any, it's that they are nutritious.

However, if made with almond meal, I think these would be amazing!

The Bottom Line?
Made with LSA? Fail.

Made with almond meal - I think they'd be a winner. Soft, moist and sweet.

I think I need to try and source some cheap almonds and grind them myself to try this recipe again.


Serving Suggestion: LSA version - keep them to yourself. Probably no-one else will want to eat them.

Almond version - I imagine these would be great cold with a dollop of yoghurt. Yum.



Happy baking and here's hoping your experiments are more successful than this one!

Road testing healthy chocolate cupcake recipe

I was so excited to come across all the recipes on The Healthy Chef and couldn't wait to try some out. But when I actually went shopping for the ingredients, I realised how expensive this venture could be. Most of the cakes call for almond meal, which in the required quantity was far too much money. The chocolate cupcakes Im testing below would have cost about $12 just for the almond meal alone. The website names coconut flour as an alternative to almond meal for those with nut allergies, but I'm not sure you can even get that in my little town, and I can't imagine it being much cheaper.

So I decided to experiment with some substitutions of my own. I already had LSA at home, which is ground linseed (flaxseed), almond meal and sunflower seeds. Since that already contains almond meal, and I had read about using flaxseed, I thought I'd give it a go.

There were two recipes I wanted to try - a chocolate cupcake and a lemon cupcake - but I thought I'd go with the chocolate first as it looked harder to stuff up.

The recipe for these chocolate cupcakes is here on The Healthy Chef.

My changes:
- I substituted equal measure of LSA for the almond meal.
- I also added an extra tablespoon of honey, after I tasted the mixture and thought it was a bit too lacking in sweetness.
- I was using vanilla essence, not extract or paste, so I added a fair bit of that since essence is not as strong.
- I used unsweetened almond milk.
- I used regular Cadbury cocoa powder.
- I used olive oil - basically because that's what I had.


The mix looked chocolatey... But if you gave a spoonful of this to a child they'd probably make a face...

The mix was a funny, airy, puffy consistency, not smooth like if you were making regular chocolate cupcakes. I think it's because of the flaxseed soaking up moisture and going gluggy. Because of that I wouldn't leave the mixture sitting too long before baking. But even with having to go settle a crying baby twice during this process it was fine, so it's not a big deal.

They took exactly 25 minutes as the recipe said. They definitely smelled like chocolate in the oven.


The downsides?
If you tell someone you're giving them a chocolate cupcake and give them this without warning, they'll probably throw it at you yelling 'liar!'

Ok, maybe not that extreme, but these are definitely not sweet. It's like the difference between really dark chocolate and milk chocolate. If you're used to dark chocolate, or prepare yourself for it, you should like these.

If your new in your sugar free healthy eating journey, then you may struggle to acclimatise your taste buds at first. I would recommend eating them with some puréed or smashed up berries on top to give some sweetness. I think they'd be really yummy like that.

The Upsides?
They are quick and easy.

These are actually healthy - the protein and good fats from the nuts and linseed, and the absence of refined flours and sugars mean that the nutritional values justify the calories. And if you use good quality dark cocoa or raw cacao then you are getting a whack of antioxidants as well.

So if you can retrain your taste buds, then this is a chocolatey fix you can enjoy and know you're not harming your health - in fact our doing yourself some good. (As long as your not eating the whole lot at once obviously.) They are also more substantial - you feel like you've eaten something.

And these are also gluten and lactose free.

Bottom line: Success!!
So you can use LSA in place of almond meal for these cupcakes. They cooked well and have a nice moist consistency.

They aren't super sweet, but you can't expect a healthy sugar free cupcake to be just like a sugar, white flour version. And the point is to retrain your taste buds anyway.

Serving suggestion: Eat warm with smashed berries over the top.


If you try these or any other recipes, please share!
Happy healthy baking.

Great Source for Healthy Recipes

My husband and I are a just over a week in to a 100 day sugar free challenge. He's been challenged by his dad, and gets monetary gain to spur him on. I'm motivated by the promise of a robotic vacuum cleaner at the end of it... :)

Going well so far. I've even been to a birthday party, and stood fast while everyone else hoed into a delicious looking blueberry and white chocolate cake.

Then last night, while everyone else was tucking into pieces of chocolate cake, I realised I was imagining eating that sugar laden packet cake and actually cringing. I didn't want it.

I've been hunting for sugar free recipes, but I didn't just want to replace added sugar with just as much of another sweetener. Even though it might be healthier to use stevia instead of refined sugar, if everything else in the recipe is the same and it still tastes just as sweet then I'm not really retraining myself. I'll still crave sugar and sweetness. Especially if it's made with white flour.

What I really want to do is retrain my taste buds so I no longer need things to be as sweet. And so I no longer want to eat sickly, sugary, refined foods. Who wants to rely on their will power all the time? Mine fails me more often that it helps me. It's a fickle companion at best. But when has anyone ever needed will power to NOT eat brussel sprouts. I mean, that one comes naturally. If you don't like it, it's pretty easy to not want to eat it.

I believe it can be the same with healthy eating. We can train ourselves to like less sugar, less refined, processed food. We have to learn not to cringe at words like 'wholemeal' and 'sugar free', and stop only thinking of health foods as yucky, bland vegetables. The truth is even brussel sprouts can taste amazing if done right. We just have to know how.

So I was thrilled when I came across The Healthy Chef.

I haven't actually tried any of the recipes yet since it's 9pm, but I want to get right on it tomorrow. And I'm hoping they turn out well and satisfy the desire for yummy snacks and baked goods without the sickly sweetness.

A lot of the recipes are already wheat free, or have variations or adaptations to make it gluten free, or suitable for paleo diet etc.

Easter is coming up - I wonder if these wholemeal, gluten free, no sugar Hot Cross Buns will hit the spot?

I'll keep you posted on my experiments.

Happy healthy baking, and if you have tried any of these recipes, or any other sugar free recipes that have turned out well, please share!!

Zucchini & ricotta pita bread pizza

With peas... Weird you say? Don't knock it till you try it!

(Although I did grow up with things like peas, corn and carrot on my pita bread pizzas so maybe my taste buds have grown accustomed.)

But you can put whatever veges and healthy toppings you like on this healthy, low calorie homemade pizza.

The basics of this pizza are a small wholemeal pita, tomato paste and ricotta cheese. Ricotta has significantly fewer calories than many other cheeses.

Then what topping you add is up to you. The trick is to load it up with tasty veges and flavours and go easy on the calorie rich, fatty things like meats and mozzarella cheese.

My pizza was:

- 1 pita pocket

- spread with approx:
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2-3 Tbsp tinned diced tomato
1 Tbsp ricotta cheese (low fat even better.)
1 tsp of Dijon mustard for a bit of bite

- add:
3 thin slices of pepperoni, quartered and spread evenly
4-6 thinish slices of zucchini
1 tbsp frozen peas

- sprinkle with:
Pinch of paprika
A tiny bit of grated cheddar, mozzarella or parmesan if you can't bare to skip it completely.


Works out to about 300-350 calories per pizza and can be low fat depending on your ingredients. Load it up with even more veges for an extra filling low cal meal.

Berry & cream cheese topping for pancakes

I love cream cheese. I could eat cream cheese icing by the bowlful. And berries and cream cheese on pancakes is a delicious classic.

I've seen topping recipes with cream cheese and whipped cream but I didn't have any cream - what I did have was ice cream, so I thought, why not?

This topping is easy and yummy. All you need...

Cream cheese
Vanilla ice cream
Icing sugar
Berries - fresh or frozen



While the pancakes were cooking, I put about 5 heaped tablespoons of cream cheese, a scoop of ice cream and a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of icing sugar. (Super accurate measurements I know... Just taste and rejigger how you like.) This made enough for several people/servings.

Top your pancakes with the berries, cream cheese mix & a squeeze of maple syrup if you want. Yum.

This topping is not as light and fluffy as if you used whipped cream, but its creamy and sweet and tastes like cream cheese... That does it for me!

Now for a what not to do:
I'd just started the dishwasher before realising our one and only fry pan was in there. So to cook the pancakes I thought I'd try using the sandwich press.... Not a disaster by any means, but not really a great success. It works in a pinch, but doesn't really get hot enough to work well.




Update: I froze the leftover cream cheese mix and then just scooped it out still frozen on my pancakes the next day. Mmm mmm.

Easy, Versatile Pumpkin Salad

I sometimes buy pumpkin but then end up not knowing what to do with it, so it goes bad in the bottom of the fridge while I'm still pondering. There's roast pumpkin and pumpkin soup of course, but the former is a little boring and the latter is too much effort when you want tea on the table in 20 minutes. Plus, sometimes it's either too hot for soup, or if it's winter you've already eaten soup 7 times this week and want something different. (In Australia we don't put pumpkin in everything this time of year like I might if I were in the US, and it's coming up to summer, so I'm probably limited in my pumpkin recipe repertoire!)

So here's a super easy pumpkin salad to try out. You can make it as fancy or simple as you like. At a minimum you need:

- pumpkin
- lettuce/rocket/baby spinach - any of these or some combination
- cucumber
- pine nuts/slivered almonds/chopped peanuts/chopped walnuts or pecans - any one of these works
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- salt and pepper

Extras: If you have them, you can also use
- paprika
- sweet chilli sauce and/or powdered/flaked or fresh chopped chilli if you like the heat
- balsamic vinegar
- honey
- feta
- cherry tomatoes
- pasta, if you want to make it more of a pasta salad

Note: I don't really use measurements for things, sorry! I generally just eyeball it based on how many people I want it to serve and taste it as I go.

How to make it:
1. Chop the pumpkin into bite size pieces - You want enough for about a handful of pumpkin pieces per person.
2. In a bowl coat the pumpkin in a little olive oil + salt and pepper. Also add sprinkling of paprika if you're using it, and/or a drizzle of honey or sweet chilli sauce and/or chilli powder/flakes according to taste. (If you don't want to add chilli at this stage, you can add fresh chopped chilli when you assemble the salad at the end. Or you can add chilli at both stages if you want!)
3. Spread the pumpkin on a tray and roast in the oven. About 180 degrees celsius. Only takes about 20 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces.
If you want your pumpkin still warm when you serve your salad, do the next steps now. Otherwise you can wait til the pumpkin is out of the oven and cooling to assemble the rest.
4. Chop cucumber and chop or rip your lettuce/baby spinach etc. into chunky bite size pieces. Put in a salad bowl. (You want a reasonable amount of these fresh salad ingredients - the pumpkin can get too much if you don't have the freshness to cut through it.)
5. Sprinkle over your choice of nuts. You can toast these first if you like, by frying for a couple of minutes in a frypan sprayed with oil. Pine nuts or almonds are especially good toasted.
6. Chop and add a bit of feta and or cherry tomatoes if you're using them. If you're adding fresh chilli you can add it now too.
7. Once the pumpkin is out of the oven and cooled slightly (or completely if you want it cold), add to the salad.
8. Just before serving (so it doesn't go soggy), toss the salad together with a drizzle of olive oil, and a splash of lemon juice. Add a little balsamic vinegar if you're using it, too. (Go easy on all these dressing ingredients - add a little at a time. You can always add more but you can't take it out again.)

Season with salt and pepper and serve.

(If you want to make it a pasta salad, cook your pasta and add it either cold or warm at the end just before serving. You might want to reduce the amount of lettuce/spinach you add.)


If you make this or have your own variation, I'd love to hear how yours turns out and what you put in!

Super Easy Warm Potato Salad

I'm sure there are lots of ways to make your own potato salad from scratch, but when you've got minimal ingredients or you realise you need to whip something up in 20 minutes there are a lot of short cuts you can take too.

For a yummy warm potato salad all you need is:

- potatoes - chopped into bite size pieces (peeled or unpeeled - it's up to how you like it)
- coleslaw dressing - I use Kraft brand
- a squeeze of lemon juice
- a splash of Italian salad dressing
- a smidge of mustard - I used the yellow American stuff because that's what I had. Could use just about any.
- salt and pepper

Basically you cook the potatoes until they are tender, drain and set aside until they've cooled from hot to warm. Add the coleslaw dressing gradually, until the potatoes are coated but not drenched in it. The add a little splash each of the lemon juice, salad dressing and mustard. I add only a little to start, then taste and see if I need more of anything - as they say, adding more is much easier than taking it out again if you add too much. Season with salt and pepper.

Served warm is best I think, but is great cold too.

Extras:
You can add other ingredients too, if you like - e.g.

- hard boiled eggs, chopped
- spring onion or red onion
- peas or corn
- chopped dill


Substitutions:
- don't have coleslaw dressing? You can use mayonnaise and a smidge of vinegar.
- don't have Italian salad dressing? Other dressings might work, or if you have none at all, then a little olive oil & vinegar combined with the lemon juice and S&P you're already adding should do the trick. Add a tiny bit of caster sugar if it tastes too sour or tart.
- no mustard? It can do without it, just make sure you season well with the other stuff.

If you make this, have made something similar before, or do some other variations I'd love to hear about them!