Matcha raspberry oat bake

Ok, last matcha recipe post for now!

Plus this the last time i'll be mentioning my teapigs matcha giveaway... as it ends tomorrow night. Get in there here if you haven't already :-)

This was one of the first non-beverage recipe I created back at the start of May. I love baked oatmeal in all forms and very rarely have a recipe fail so felt this would be a good place start. 

Yes this has veggies in. You knew that would be the case though didn't you! Some green veggies to compliment the green matcha...embrace the greens!  I coarsely grated my courgette (zucchini) and so you can see the strands in the photo above, I loved the chunky texture but you can grate this more finely if you wish.

If the green hue scares you, you could always add some cocoa or carob powder to camouflage it. I haven't tried it like this so you'd want to taste test the batter before you put in in the oven to ensure it suits your tastebuds and add sweetener or maybe vanilla as needed.

This bake serves one but you could easily double it up.  Just make sure that once in the pan its no deeper than about 2cm as it may get a little gummy inside if its too deep.

Go and get your breakfast boost!

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• ½ cup oats
• ½ cup courgette- grated
• 1 tbs chia seeds
• ½ tsp (1 serving) matcha powder
• ¼ cup fruit juice (I used apple as that’s what I had to hand)
• 4 drops stevia (to taste)
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup raspberries (I use frozen so they don’t burn)

Method:

 Mix all ingredients (other than the raspberries) together until well mixed.

Spoon into a small  (single serve size) oven proof dish and press the raspberriws into the top.

Bake for approx 15  minutes until golden brown on top. Serve straight from the dish or carefully serve onto a plate (might stick a little) with a drizzle of yoghurt or extra fruit.

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Pancake crazy.... 'red raspberry and beet'!

Happy Pancake Day!

Will you be eating pancakes today? If so I have one final offering to temp you!

...just in case you need even more ideas, you can find more pancake recipes in the 'bressert' category!

These pancakes were a spin off from some similar recent 'red' experiments such as this raspberry beetroot ice cream which was incredible. I also created a buckwheat bake using very similar ingredients to these pancakes but that needs a few tweaks before I can present it the world.

You can't taste the beetroot in you think pancakes, it's a great complement to the raspberry and just serves to emphasise the great colour. Serve them up with a bit of yoghurt or cream for a really striking dessert. I had actually planned to serve it up with my pink ice cream but then forgot at the last moment and hadn't taken it out of the freezer… opps!

You could also add some chia jam if you wanted to go all out on the pink theme and add an extra boost of sweetness!

Recipe: Red raspberry and beet

(the basic recipe was lightly adapted from this recipe on Oh She Glows)

Makes approx 12 pancakes - (feel free to halve the mix if you prefer)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 heaped cup brown rice flour (or spelt)

• 1/2 heaped cup buckwheat flour (or spelt)

• 1/4 scant cup arrowroot (or other starch)

• 2 heaped tsp baking powder

• 2 scant cups non-dairy milk of choice*

• 2-3 tbs unrefined syrup of choice* (adjust to taste as these are only slightly sweet)

• 2 tbs ground flax or chia

• pinch salt

• 1 heaped cup raspberries

• 1 cooked beet

• vegan yoghurt to serve- optional

• extra raspberries to serve- optional

* liquid quantity may vary slightly depending on mix-ins used. For sweetness you may also use stevia or another form of sweetener, if so increase liquid slightly. 

Method:

Blend all ingredients together to get a thick smooth batter. Add the liquid slowly to ensure the smoothest mixture. 

Heat a non-stick saucepan with a little coconut oil (or other oil of choice) and spoon dollops of batter into the pan. Cook for 2-3 mins on one side, carefully flip and cook for a minute on the other. 

Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven on a low heat until all are ready together. 

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Ridiculously healthy - 3 ingredient - pinktastic ice cream!

Please tell me the title grabbed your attention...?

I had to come up with something suitable fitting for this concoction. Simplicity at it's finest.

I made this recipe on Saturday in the midst of having a rather overwhelming and floopy weekend...and this turned the whole thing around for me. Yep this in indeed a game changer! I posted a sneak preview on my Instagram and one comment received was doubtful of the beetroot.... wooah no...most definitely not! This is some seriously good pink stuff ;-)

Even though the main ingredient in this ice cream is banana, the combo of beet and raspberry is pretty powerful and gives a lovely sweetly sharp hint, and so the result is not an immediately obvious banana flavour. My dad couldn't even guess what was in it at all when I presented him with a bowlful for dessert on Sunday evening... he started reeling off ingredients such a white beans... ha ha, he knows me too well! :-)

This will probably be my last pre-Valentines pink post. I'm not even a lovey duvey kind of girl. I think I've simply liked making pink things. I hope you do too!

However you happen to be celebrating On Friday...if indeed at all, I hope you enjoy your Valentines Day. For all those singletons out there, how about a booking a massage or a bubbly bath with oils and a face mask. I've been trying to find time for a bit of self-love as I know I don't prioritise 'me' time nearly as much as I should. 

Recipe: Banana beet and raspberry ice cream (no ice cream maker needed!)

Serves 3-4 (or two if you are ice cream obsessed!)

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas- chunked and pre-frozen

• 1 cup frozen raspberries

• 1 cooked beetroot (i bought them pre-packed)

• 1 tsp vanilla extra (or other flavouring) optional

• few drops stevia (optional for a touch extra sweetness)

Method:

Blend all ingredients together until smooth- but don't over blend as the ice-cream consistency will begin to soften. I added most of the raspberries into the blend, then added at the last few for decoration.

You can serve this immediately as a soft serve or spread into a tub and freeze for a few hours to serve with a scoop. Because this ice-cream uses a banana base, there is no need for an ice cream maker and the ice cream won't form icy crystals as some ice creams can tend to. Winner!

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Raspberry chia pudding... for a little Valentines love!

The celebration of love is once again nearly upon us!

So I have a few pink foodie recipes to throw your way over the next few just in case you are into all that kind of thing ;-)

Since beginning my health coaching course with Institute of Integrative Nutrition, I have realised the importance of self-love and self-care much more so than I ever gave credit for before. So maybe this year I will be my own Valentine... Ok, yeah that does sound a bit sad really doesn't it. ha ha. 

That said, and joking apart, it is so important to look after yourself, and by that I mean to nourish your soul... with kind words, kind foods and supportive relationships. 

Make that loving start right now....with breakfast, dessert, or anything in between. Self love doesn't come better than a chia pudding!

Recipe: Raspberry chia pudding

Serves 1-2 (depending on size of dish/ramekin)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 heaped cup raspberries (I used frozen)

• 1/4 cup non dairy milk*

• 2-3 tbs chia seeds (depending on desired thickness)

• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder or extract (optional)

• a few drops of pure stevia or 1 tsp syrup for a little boost of sweetness as desired.

Topping: dairy free yoghurt of choice with a pinch of vanilla extract and optional sweetener. Note: I added 1 heaped tsp fine coconut flour to my soy yoghurt to give it extra thickness a bit more like frosting. You could also make a thick cashew cream topping. Add raspberries (or red berries of choice) to decorate.

*or sub 1 tbs cashew butter blended with 1/4 cup beet (or red juice) for extra 'redness'

Method:

Blend all base ingredients together lightly and carefully spoon/pour into the bowl you will use to serve.

Chill for and hour or so to allow the chia seeds to thicken the pudding. Just before serving prepare the topping as desired and spoon over the pudding. Decorate with berries and serve chilled.

I used 2 tbs chia seeds but next time would use 3 tbs for a little extra thickness.

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Raspberry almond cocoa cookie

So many recipes I want to share!

I have an amazing ‘realistic’ burger recipe I tried out last weekend that I am dying to share but before all that we’re still in ‘birthday land’ so first I must share with you my breakfast cookie that was my morning birthday treat.

I love the breakfast cookie! So quick and simple, so filling and also good for you too…obviously if you don’t go overboard with chocolate and other sweeteners but then it wouldn’t really be a breakfast cookie would it!

This little cookie was a little more indulgent than my previous blueberry cookie as I used cacao in the batter and a tiny grating of chocolate over the top.  But I think you’ll agree it’s still pretty virtuous and makes a change from my bowl of oats.

You’ll also see a little green smoothie sneaking in the background. I’m still on my ‘30 day green smoothie challenge’ and its going well so far… I will wait until the end of the challenge in a week or so to round up my thoughts, findings and various recipes.

Well, I think that cookie pretty much speaks for itself… I have nothing left to add! So I’m going to leave it there and be off for my birthday celebrations with my family, a trip down to Reading to visit my sister who is at uni there. The weather is looking good today so hopefully we’ll take a nice walk along the river after lunch…tapas! Tapas is one of my favourites, I love lots of mini portions to dip into and try and there’s always something for everyone. I also get plenty of choice which is great as in most restaurants there is a limited number of dishes I can order from the menu.

I’m hungry already!

Recipe: raspberry almond cocoa cookie

Makes one fat cookie

Ingredients

• ¼ cup oats
• 2 tbs buckwheat flour (other flours  would probably be fine too)
• 1 tbs cacoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground flax/chia
• Ground cinnamon and vanilla or almond extract to taste (approx. ½ tsp each)
• 1 tbs agave syrup
• 2-3 tbs soy yoghurt (or regular yoghurt for non-vegan)
• Handful of frozen raspberries
• Sprinkling of flaked almonds
• A little grated dark chocolate-optional

Method

Mix and mash all ingredients (other than almonds and raspberries) together well to form a thick mixture, add the raspberries last and mix through so they are still chunky. Bring the mixture together as a ball and roughly flatten the ball with your palm and place on a small microwaveable plate. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top and lightly press them in.

Cook on full powder in the microwave for 1 minute (you may need an extra 20 seconds depending on your microwave power). Press with your finger and if it springs back and there are no visibly sticky bits and the berries are fully cooked you’re done.

Grate a little dark chocolate over the top if desired before serving.

Chocolate raspberry cream cake - birthday cake for one!

Hello, I’m all excitable…today is my birthday!

I’m still allowed to get excited on my birthday…even if I am 29, that’s not grown up right?

Who wants to be grown up anyway? ‘Grown up’ often seems to imply being sensible, owning lots of credit cards, not being spontaneous, not giggling uncontrollably and not licking the plate clean when no-one’s watching…that kinda thing.

So I’m certainly not grown up. Well certainly not for a lot of the time.

So back to my birthday! It’s been a random kind of day. A fairly normal start (my Friday Pilates class), with a spot of helping a friend move house in the middle and lots of birthday relating baking goings on in between. So all is good! Tomorrow is where it’s at as I’ll be having a get together with family and going out for a meal to a tapas bar. Last weekend I also went out for a meal with friends to a thai restaurant…so it’s all about food really!  

This is how today shaped up on the food front:

Raspberry and almond breakfast cookie (with green smoothie just peeking in the corner) before my Pilates class, followed by a ridiculously indulgent- it ended up being quite a bit larger than I’d anticipated- chocolate cream cake for a brunchy snack (I was very full after that ooops!), followed by pesto cabbage and chickpea soup for a late lunch before meeting my friend, and then for dinner a carrot craving resulted in these carrot burgers with lemon tahini sauce….

Recipes to come…patience, patience.  But to start, I’ll share my chocolate cream cake as that’s the most birthdayish recipe after all and I like my little candle. Is it a bit silly to make your own birthday cake? Well I wanted a candle to blow out…you can’t be ‘grown up’ if you still blow out candles right?

This chocolate raspberry cream cake is super rich and indulgent. The sponge itself isn’t so much as I cut the oil since I was going for a cashew cream in the middle and so was more than happy to go for an oil-less textured sponge (I couldn’t tell the difference from my usual chocolate mug cake recipe anyway). The jam I used was sugar-free (fruit sugar only) and the cream is simply a thick plain cashew cream …but put all that together and you have a pretty crazy cake!

Perfect for a special occasion.

Recipe: Chocolate raspberry cream cake

Serves 1 (or two!)

Ingredients- sponge

• 3 tbs wholewheat spelt flour (or GF combo)
• 1 tbs agave and a few grains of stevia (or increase agave slightly)
• Tiny pinch salt
• 1 tbs cocoa powder (or cacao or carob)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 2tbs soy yoghurt or apple puree
• Approx. 3 tbs soy milk

Ingredients- filling

• Cashew cream
• (approx. 2 tbs)
• Sugar-free fruit conserve
• A few fresh berries- optional

Method

To make the sponge, mix the dry ingredients together and then add the wet and mix to form a smooth thick batter. Spoon two equal sized dollops on a large greased/lined microwavable plate and microwave for 1 minute. Alternatively bake the sponge in the oven on a baking sheet for approx. 10 minutes (note I have not tested this method.)

Meanwhile make up the cashew cream (or use an alternative cream/yoghurt) and also get the fruit conserve/berries ready to go.

Once cooked, the sponge should form two small flat cakes. Place one, flat side up, on your serving plate and layer up with cream, jam, fruit before placing the top sponge layer on top. Add extra cream/fruit to the top as desired…add a candle if you like!

It all just splodged out the sides as soon as I sank my spoon into it! Yummy.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Red velvet carob cake

This was another one of my carob experiments, and yes it is also another single serving mini cake. It also happens to be an opportunity to test out a few other more unusual ingredients- namely teff flour and red palm oil.  I haven’t had much experience of either, but after reading lots of good stuff about their nutritional value I was keen to give them a try.

I will warn you now, red palm oil is bright orangey-red and it stains if you get in anywhere you don’t want it to be….wear an apron…you have been warned!

Red palm oil is strong in flavour when compared to the coconut oil I more typically use, the natural red pigment is due to the unrefined nature of the oil and the oil itself is full of vitamins and antioxidants, most significantly vitamin E , betacarotenes and co-enzyme Q10.

This recipe uses the dominant flavours of the carob and raspberry to carry the red  palm oil so that it does not dominate the sweet cake with its slightly savoury taste, you won’t notice it in this recipe. I would advise using strong flavours in conjunction with red palm oil, unless you are opting for a savoury dish where you want the natural flavour of the palm oil to come through.

By the way, you can quite easily sub the red palm oil for coconut oil in this recipe, and the teff flour for another GF grain, it should still work just fine! (I was trialling teff for a brand I am working with). 

The ‘red velvet’ title was generated by the use of the red palm oil along with raspberries, however the photos give the impression of a much more ‘brown’ chocolatey cake…oh well the thought was there.  

Either way, I promise you this little light and fruity dessert with a chocolately twang is worth it, and with just a couple of minutes of your time...how could you resist?  I used my silicone egg poach again…I’m having so much fun playing with it, and also added a ‘surprise’ sweet berry centre, but again that’s optional.  

I also got a little bit more carried away and with few small tweaks to the recipe I made red velvet carob pancakes…you can find the recipe for those in my guest post here! P.s I had some help to eat the pancakes…I’m not quite that greedy.

Recipe: Red velvet carob cake 

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 2 tbs teff flour
• 2 tsp carob
• ½ tsp baking powder
• Tiny pinch salt
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs pureed raspberries (I used frozen)
• 1 tbs red palm oil
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• Up to 2 tbs soy milk/juice
• 2 tsp sugar free jam- optional for centre and for glaze

Method

Mix together well in a small bowl. In another greased/lined small microwaveable dish (or use a silicone egg poach!) spoon half of the mixture, add a dollop of jam to the centre and then spoon the remaining batter on the top.

Microwave for 1 minute at full power. Test gently with the tip of your finger and if the sponge springs back you’re done!

Serve with a little extra sugar free jam and vegan cream or yoghurt of desired.

 ...and for the pancake version..... find it here!

This recipe has been linked with Allergy Free Wednesdays.

Coconut cakes…with a twist!

I have so much coconut!!

I ordered a 25kg sack load of organic coconut flakes some months back as it was such a good deal at that size…however I am trying to get through it before it begins to dry out.

I use a lot of desiccated coconut flakes for making coconut butter …it’s so cost effective that way, however there is a limit to how much coconut one person can eat! So recently I’ve been using lots of extra coconut in my granola bars, in my smoosh bars, and of course in this chocolate slice and in this coconut ice too.

You may see a few more coconut inspired treats coming along in the next few weeks!

So, today I thought a coconut cake was in order. This cake also uses coconut flour which I also have in my regular baking supplies (just not in such vast quantities), it’s something I actually don’t use that often, often forgetting it’s there or simply using the coconut flakes instead.

It’s a really great but strange flour. Great because it has a delicate flavour and texture, is gluten free and high in fibre. But strange in that it is very ‘drying’ and absorbs liquid so you’ll find that the proportions of liquid in a recipe and the consistency of the batter are different to the norm. Don’t let that put you off- it’s fun to try new things!

This cake has a really delicate crumb, and is light and moist probably helped by the extra coconut and banana. I kept the sweetness fairly low so that it did not overpower and took on more of a ‘teabread’ type sweetness with the raspberry preserve adding an extra sweet kick. Feel free to increase the agave or add some stevia if you like. The coconut-raspberry combo was inspired by these tarts…oh they were so good and so I just had to get the combo going again. The coconut ‘bombe’ also worked really well with the warm gooey raspberry centre.

 coconut 'bombe'

coconut cake with raspberry drizzle

Recipe: coconut cake with raspberry delight

1 x 21cm loaf tin (or smaller tin plus one small microwave cake see below)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup each coconut flour, tapioca starch, buckwheat flour
• ¼ cup dessicated coconut flakes (plus more for topping)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 small banana- mashed
• 1 tsp ground chia mixed with 2 tbs water
• 1/3 cup orange juice (or pineapple juice/non-dairy milk)
• 3 tbs agave syrup (more to taste)
• 1 tsp rum extract
• Sugar free raspberry jam- for glaze

Method (for loaf)

Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add wet ingredients. Mix together gently but well.

Note the coconut flour is very ‘drying’ so the batter will not be as runny as normal cake batter. It will probably be very light and airy.

Spoon the batter into a loaf tin (or a smaller loaf tin plus small round microwavable bowl-see below). Smooth the top of the batter and cover with a fairly generous layer of desiccated coconut flakes, gently press them into the batter 180C for approx. 30 mins until the top is golden and toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes away clean. Note- I loosely covered the loaf with tin foil after being in the oven for 10 minutes to ensure to coconut flakes did not burn.

Allow to cool slightly in the loaf tin before lifting out. Drizzle with raspberry jam whilst still warm and allow to cool fully before serving.

Method (for mini ‘bombe’)

serves 2

Keep aside approx. ½ cup of cake batter. Lightly oil a small microwavable round bowl (approx. 10 cm diameter rim). Sprinkle 1tbs of desiccated coconut flakes in the bottom and then carefully top this will ¼ cup cake batter. Spread the batter evenly across the bottom of the bowl. Dollop 1 generous tsp of raspberry jam into the centre of the batter before covering with the remaining  ¼ cup of batter. Smooth evenly ensuring all the jam is fully covered.

Cook in the microwave for 90 seconds. Lightly touch centre to check if cooked and if still wet cook for another 30-60 seconds as necessary.