Banana Pancakes

I’m a bit of a topsy turvy cook. Much to the chagrin of my husband! I only use recipes as a guide, with the exception of baking cakes etc.

I’ve been in lockdown for two months and am making an effort to have a solid routine which brings joy. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t. I try to change up the little things where I can.

This morning I woke up and had a case of the mean reds and decided to do something about it.

So I went for a walk at North Wollongong. Usually I would hit the beach but today decided to do something a little different and walked the back streets which are full of art deco high rise apartments. Its quite built up and the apartment blocks are surrounded beautiful leafy streets. Its a sunny day with blue skies so it was a nice morning to explore and see something different.

I chickened out and only dipped my feet into the ocean and splashed my face. I also decided to make myself a good breakfast upon returning home. Sometimes the routine of eggs and toast or cereal, fruit and yogurt gets a bit old.

I had two overripe bananas on their last legs, and some fruit flies starting to swarm. I google’d a few different banana almond meal pancake recipes and came up with this:

Banana Pancakes

2 x ripe bananas

1 cup almond meal

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

Review: Fantastic! I will make again. Served with strawberries and peanut butter. The day is already better.

Pesto and Muffins

The year is 2021. Its been 5 years since we inhabited the blog! I have missed it and missed writing with my friend Rinsky.

One thing that has gone downhill in the last 5 years is my eating habits! A 35 year old woman can often get away with chocolate and chips on a daily basis. At 41, not so much. The processed sugar, the fried foods, the processed meats and icecreams – it all catches up with you. I’m getting some obvious signs that middle age is approaching and I need to get serious about looking after myself better.

So I am on operation get a bit healthier. I don’t plan on completely overhauling my diet but making some tweaks so I can be healthier. Less processed sugars, less fast food. I need to make changes like snack on an apple and cheese vs a bag of chips and cookies.

I realise there is no time like the present so I just started trying to make healthier meals immediately. This morning I made some muffins and pesto. I chopped enough vegetables for meals for a couple of days so I’m prepared. I found a couple of different banana oat recipes on the internet and just adapted them a bit to suit my taste. Here are the recipes:

Banana Oat Muffins

1 cup greek yogurt

2 eggs

2.5 cups rolled oats

1.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 bananas (ripe)

1 tsp cinnamon

3 TBS honey

1/2 cup choc chips or chopped up walnuts

Pre-head oven to 190 degrees celcius (fan force).

In a mixing bowl mix eggs, banana, honey, vanilla essence and yogurt. Once smooth in mix in the oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir in the choc chips or walnuts at the end.

Pour into 12 muffin cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Review: These muffins turned out really great and I’ll be making them again!

For lunch I made pasta with pesto, vegetables and tuna.

Pesto recipe

1/4 cup olive oil

50g grated parmesan

1 clove garlic

1 bunch fresh basil

Wizz it all up in the food processor! I’m not a fan of pine nuts so skipped them in the pesto.

For lunch I stirfried zucchini, cherry tomatoes, capsicum and broccoli and added it to pasta and mixed in some pesto and tuna. A good lunch with the required vegetables!

Review: Next time I’ll bake salmon to add to the pasta as I didn’t love the tuna. Tuna aside, it was really good.

See you when you’re older!

Bone Broth

We’ve been dealing with some sickness in our camp. I’ve had to turn to antibiotics, which I detest. However, when dealing with a chest and sinus infection I don’t want to mess with it.

What I can do is look after myself, along with my husband who is the recipient and now carrier of my germs. Let’s just say I’m not so popular with my husband at the moment. My current nickname: “the infector”. Nice.

In addition to eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, I decided to make bone broth last night. Bone broth is a source of goodness and a well known gut healer.

The method?

First up I roasted a chicken and vegetables for dinner and we had a good old fashioned roast dinner. Very good! Homemade gravy and all. My grandmother would make Sunday roasts and I would watch her as a child. I just did what I remembered and it worked! So easy I don’t know why I haven’t done this before!

Secondly I simmered the chicken carcass in 5.5 litres of water in my dutch oven, along with celery, onion, garlic and carrots. I added 2x TBS of apple cider vinegar to draw out the nutrients from the carcass. Towards the end I added fresh rosemary and thyme. I didn’t salt the stock, this can be done when I use it for cooking.

Bone broth simmering away

4 hours later and I had a great stock. Ideally I would cook this for 8 hours, or up to 24 hours in my slow cooker. Alas, I did it on the stovetop and had to go to bed!

The chicken was $10. Including another couple of chicken breasts, organic vegetables and herbs, for $25 I got 5 liters of bone broth, a batch of soup (6-8 servings) and three nights worth of roast dinner for two people. Not bad at all!

Verdict: I would do this again, although it was a lot of work. I did enjoy it and found the process to be quite therapeutic. Plus now I have homemade bone broth on hand!

My favourite soup

  

 
 

Bone broth ready to go!

 

Paleo Morning Glory Muffins

Lets have a moment for my favourite muffins. Paleo Morning Glory Muffins care of The Roasted Root.

I make these muffins every few weeks and always have a stash in the freezer! I make these muffins using rice malt syrup instead of maple syrup (not as sweet!).

I find that between the raisins, sweet potato, carrot and apple these muffins are sweet enough. I  also use one apple instead of half.

These paleo muffins always turn out well and are perfect to have on hand for a morning snack!

 

 

 

Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

When baking cookies with almond meal, coconut flour or buckwheat flour, my husband often says that while he loves healthy cookies, they always come out a little dry. I’m inclined to agree, despite using ample coconut oil in lieu of butter.

I have found a fix though. I freeze my cookies. This may sound like a strange concept. Freezing freshly made cookies? Who does that? Alas it works. Out of the freezer comes a nice crunchy cookie!

Last night I made these Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies and they came out tasting good, but again a little dry. Froze them and they are fantastic! Sometimes I go into the freezer a week later looking for a cookie and they have mysteriously disappeared!

These cookies look a little different to the original recipe. This is because I used a cacao almond butter I bought from About Life a couple of months back, but didn’t love. I didn’t want it to go to waste, so am using it for baking. The bitterness in the cacao is perfect in a sweet chocolate chip cookie. I used 1/2 cup coconut sugar instead of 3/4 of a cup. Personally I found 1/2 cup sugar to be ample. I only used 100g of 85% dark lindt chocolate. These cookies are paleo, grain and dairy free. This recipe made 27 smaller cookies for me.

One thing I have learnt from cooking with coconut sugar is that it burns easily. Coconut sugar has a caramel’y’ taste which is different, but I quite like it. This was my first attempt at cooking with coconut sugar. Next time I’ll take the cookies out of the oven before they look “done”.

Finally, at the end of the day isn’t coconut sugar just… sugar? It is. I have read that it has a lower glycemic index  and doesn’t spike one’s blood sugar as quickly as regular white sugar. It is also meant to be higher in minerals. However the studies do not seem to be well referenced, so I’m not sure how I feel about coconut sugar, other than…

everyone likes a treat now and & then!

I would recommend this recipe and will be using it again.