A Love Affair with Ginger

I've always had a bit of an underlying love for ginger (please note, I am referring to the spice, not particularly the hair colour or any person associated with such hair colour...though a huge crush on Robert Kazinsky definitely did happen in my teenage years. I clearly remember my state of devastation when he left Eastenders, not to sound overly hopeless/pathetic or anything).

I remember ye olde days of ginger-ale guzzling in my grandparent's bungalow; having recently rekindled my love for ginger-fied drinks (non alcoholic ginger beer being favoured above ginger ale), it's really brought to light how taste can so easily be associated with forgotten memories, the surprising pangs of nostalgia being introduced with every sip (and with that said, this homemade version of my childhood favourite is definitely on the cards this summer).

And my ginger love affair doesn't stop there. My inclination towards the humble ginger spice has inevitably lead me on to researching baking recipes based around the ingredient. I've yet to extend my adventures of ginger towards purchasing actual chunks of ginger, but I thought simple ground ginger would be a good place to start (alongside the fact I already had some stashed away in the kitchen cupboards - seemingly untouched, too).

The original plan was to make this gingerbread protein fudge. However, today all I really wanted was something similarly nostalgic to ginger beer, and ultimately something comforting, tasty and...satisfying. Introducing my super healthy recipe for ginger cookies...they know whatsup.



Ingredients:

50g coconut flour
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1.5 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon manuka honey
6 tablespoons milk of choice
1 tablespoon kefir/buttermilk
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white
2 teaspoons ground ginger spice
Optional additions: ground cinnamon, crushed nuts/dried fruit of choice (as a filler), or vanilla paste (1/2 teaspoon)

Sieve the coconut flour and then add the bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger spice. Add wet ingredients, one by one, until the dough is mixed thoroughly. Form into balls (I made 11 medium-sized cookies with my dough) and place on a lined, greased baking tray. Squash the balls down (so that they resemble something along the lines of cookies) and place in your oven, pre-heated to 180C (gas mark 4) for around 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat when they've reached a golden-brown exterior, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

And there we have it. Unintentionally, while I've called these ginger cookies, I have to say that they have the texture of a cake! So, y'know, I just managed to create a cookie-cake hybrid without prior knowledge...you can just imagine how impressed I am with myself now, haha...

In other, completely non-baking related news, I have a new job!!! I'm now an assistant in the Foreign Exchange Bureau department at Marks & Spencer, and I am so, so pleased to finally have a new job whereby I hope I can acquire lots of fresh skills and confidence in something other than...well, carrying really heavy trays of (very expensive) food. Lolza.

At 53.6 calories a pop, these aren't bad at all. Hell, I'd go as far as saying the complete opposite...not to blow my own trump, or anything...though isn't that what blogging's all about?! Aha (ALSO, those fussy, nitty gritty calculations: 2g protein per cookie, 3.1g fat [2.4g saturated, but don't sweat it - it's the medium-chain kind, so it's all good for ya basically], 4g carbs, of which 3g sugars).

Long Live Ginger! (And Robert Kazinsky...who is probably more yum than a world's worth of these ginger cookies...even so, give this recipe a whirl if you're similarly ginger-inclined).

Cauliflower Soda Bread

My aversion to bread began a fair few months ago, after finally understanding the whole deal with how bad gluten and wheat is for digestion (for mine in particular - obviously everybody is different and has different tolerance levels when it comes to processing foods present with gluten).

Having been brought up following the traditional English rule of having sandwiches for lunch 90% of the time, I guess you could say that cutting bread out of my diet was a drastic decision - and yet one of the best decisions I've ever made. I no longer crave bread* or starchy products like pasta and spaghetti, and actually avoid them like the plague. When I do delve into a bread/pasta based meal, I feel physically dreadful afterwards - which just goes to show how much of a positive difference cutting gluten out of your diet can bring to your digestive system. (*The only exception being the chilli and parmesan soda bread at work, as I've mentioned before - deeelish)

Nevertheless, today I've entered no-Katie's-land and baked my very own bread! I'd have never thought that I'd bother with the rigmarole of baking bread from scratch when it's so easy just to pop to the shops or local bakery and buy some, yet this recipe was just calling my name, and it's been in the back of my head to make it for a good few weeks now. So I took the plunge, bought the cauliflower and parmesan (the only two 'unusual' ingredients, the rest were conveniently the kind of household products that we always have stocked up: brownie point 1!).

I found the recipe here, amongst tons of other amazing looking creations *blogger's envy* and it immediately intrigued me. Alas, chit-chat over, here is my version of Viviane's wonderful recipe.



Ingredients:

1 medium cauliflower, chopped into chunks
5 egg whites
1 whole egg
25g parmesan cheese + extra for topping
50g coconut flour
1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon paprika powder (optional: can omit, or replace with garlic powder, chilli powder, etc)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pepper to season (optional)

Firstly, preheat your oven to gas mark 6/200C. Next, using a food processor, pulverise your cauliflower in sections (my food processor couldn't handle lots of it at one time). Transfer what should resemble cauliflower rice to a bowl, and using a sieve add your coconut flour, followed by the eggs, salt, lemon juice, bicarb of soda, paprika and a crunch or few of pepper.

Grate 25g parmesan cheese into the bowl, and mix well again until all ingredients are evenly blended. Line a baking loaf tin with parchment paper, nicely greased all over with coconut oil, and place the mixture into the tin, smoothing the top to avoid an ugly-looking loaf. Spinkle with a dusting of paprika/powder of choice, plus a pinch of salt and pepper, and some additional parmesan (because you can never go wrong with extra cheesiness).

Lower your oven heat to gas mark 5/190C and place the tin inside. Bake for ten minutes, then lower the temp to gas mark 4 or 180C and bake for another 50 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. The smell is something akin to savoury, cheesey popcorn - not the usual farty cauliflower smell, I can assure you!



High in fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K, omega-3 fatty acids and manganese, cauliflower sure delivers a nutritional punch - along with the coconut flour (a low-carb, high-protein and fibre alternative to other flours, which is also an excellent source of lauric acid, maganese and vitamin C), plus a whole lotta protein* and vitamin D from the eggs, this bread is definitely well up there in the stakes for healthiest breads ever (*Viviane didn't title it Cauliflower Protein Bread for nothing, y'know...try not to feel full after this amount of protein!). The additional paprika/spices is also super for increasing the metabolism...so ultimately, just make this, okay?

One serving is 2 slices/one sixth of the loaf, and contains approximately 110 calories, 15g protein, 2.7g fat, 5.1g carbs (2.7g sugars) and 4.2g fibre. Yep, a bread recipe that contains three times more protein than carbs(!!!). I'm very pleased with the outcome - there's something oh so satisfying about baking homemade bread (I get the hype now, bit late on the uptake). Next test: toasting cauliflower bread, and topping with something delicious (You know what I'm thinking? A classic, homely lunch of beans on toast, being one of my ultimate Childhood comfort meals that I miss tremendously. Decision = made).

Recovery Spinach Super-Smoothie

Hallo!



A serious arm-sculpting and squat session today called for sharpish recovery fuel - in the delectable form of a super-smoothie, to guzzle within 15 minutes of finishing my workout for optimum muscle forgiveness (verdict to come when I wake tomorrow morning and can/can't drag myself out of bed...we'll see).

There's something deeply nourishing and satisfying about drinking smoothies. Perhaps I'm recalling the happy (slash not-so-happy, and not-so-pretty) fat-days; the bogof Frijj milkshake deal from the local Co-op in fresher's year played a likely role in my inevitable university weight-gain. Oh, it's all flooding back now....

But, equally, smoothies just quench the thirst in a way that presents itself as a unique sensory experience; the thickness of the liquid that you could almost chew, the natural sweetness and multi-dimension of flavours to tickle your tastebuds, and the knowledge that you're giving your body the ultimate fuel for energy and/or fast recovery - depending on your chosen contents, of course. Top marks if it's green, too (cos let's face it, it must be healthy if it's green, right?).



Spinach Super-Smoothie ingredients:

2 handfuls of freshly washed spinach
200ml almond milk (can add more if desired)
1 banana
1/2 teaspoon honey
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A few grapes for extra sweetness (optional)

Blend all ingredients in one go, and then devour to your heart's content. Admittedly, this took a bit of trial-and-error to reach drinkable standards, but the sweetness of the lemon and honey soon sorted that one out. Also, some reading matter for any other smoothie-advocates out there: the perfect smoothie formula over at No Meat Athlete will pretty much guarantee your smoothies are fail-safe everytime (or can at least usually be redeemed by some kind of sweetness, or failing that, peanut butter...99% of the time, anyway). Such a good blog! Check it out, I wholly recommend (but not quite enough to see me quitting meat any time soon, I'm afraid to say), so much so that I signed up to the mailing list today too!



In other news, a few days ago I lost my coconut-cracking virginity (after draining the water out first, of course - mmmm) and used a melon-baller to remove the meat from inside - a pretty simple process that followed through without any messy mishaps, surprisingly enough (side note: I smashed the coconut against a large tree branch in my garden - there was no way a knife was getting through that beast!). However, before I knew it the meat had gone all fluffy - despite it being kept in the fridge. I was planning on making a batch of coconut butter to bake something wonderful with; alas, another coconut day will soon come, no worries! I found the coconut on offer at 55p, quite a steal considering how much meat it contained!

Lemon-infused Coconut Flour Cookies

Sunday has quickly become my favourite day of the week. Why? Because (allowing that I'm not at work) it's appeared to have become my zen day, and preferably consists of all those little things that I like to do when I have lots of hours to spare - my Sunday essentials to pass the time of day being baking, exercising, reading, and writing. Yep, you heard right - I count exercise as an antidote to boredom. It's also a massive stress-buster for me, and eases off my ever-increasing mood swings - damn you, hormones/life/work problems...

Moving swifting onwards and upwards, today I had a massive craving to bake something sweet (it's been a while/a fair few days), and preferably something sweet involving coconut flour.

I know there's a bit of baker's controversy when it comes to coconut flour - it's a bit of a tricky one in the flour department, due to its higher absorbency - which usually calls for a lot of eggs as a necessary compensatory recipe agent. Alas, I searched high and low for egg-less coconut flour recipes (props to Google, my saviour alongside Pinterest - a growing favourite in the social networking race) and found one that seemed legit, and BONUS - was easy enough for me to follow without a load of Katie-klutz-y mishaps occurring (because I decided dropping my boyfriend's dinner allll over the kitchen floor was quite enough for the one day). Le sigh.



These cookies/biscuits require a mere few ingredients, so they are a swizz to prepare (and also don't take too long to cook, and sends sensual aromas of coconut and lemon wafting throughout the house - always a massive side bonus of baking on the regs). This makes 6 mini biscuits - go ahead and double the recipe if you wanna.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Tablespoon Honey
1/2 Tablespoon Agave Nectar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Himalayan sea salt
Juice of half a lemon, plus zest (optional)
Raisins for additional sweetness (optional)
(Note: if more liquid is necessary, add a splash of almond milk to get the desired consistency)

Go ahead and mix the dry ingredients before adding the coconut oil, honey, agave, vanilla extract and lemon juice, plus any dried fruit if you're choosing to include it. I have done previously, and it worked well - however, the version I made today were sans-fruit...I'm just using my photos from before due to plain laziness (I'm a bad blogger, don't judge me okay).



Prepare in little cookie-shaped dollops atop a greased, foil-lined baking tray, and bake in the oven at gas mark 4 (350c) for around 10 minutes (or until the cookies are burning crisping slightly on the top. Give them a little poke if you're not sure, but remember they do firm as they cool).

And there we have it - super healthy, low-carb biscuits that are tasty, sweet and ultimately meet that all-important criteria of a biscuit/cookie: crispy on the outside, soft in the middle. Made in the same amount of time it would've taken you to drive to your nearest supermarket and actually buy some cookies - these are seriously impressive.

Check out my Pinterest board of recipes - there are a load on there that I'm desperate to try, and I hope to make the time to do so soon. Perhaps eventually I'll get through them, but we'll take it one Sunday at a time for now...

Tumblr Snippets

Thought I'd start a new weekly feature (inspired by this post by the lovely Gem) that pays homage to ma Tumblr.

I'll throw my hands up and confess now that I'm an avid Tumblr-er...admittedly, I could lose hours on end to the site (home to many authentic hipsters, don't cha know *cough*) if I let myself. It was my (partial) savour when it came to the obligatory 3rd year methods of procrastination, and I do avidly recall months whereby flitting between Tumblr, Facebook, my reading material and my actual dissertation Word document was deemed 'standard practice' (welcome to my life).

Nevertheless, this is my weekly sum-up of Tumblr finds. Be prepared for weekly cats/cute animals, cringe-inducing quotes, fitspiration, and - of course - pretty pictures of coffee (such images provide the skeleton of my Tumblr).

Faux-Reece's Peanut Butter cups (Healthified!)

If I were to relapse against the whole 'eat clean' diet thing (and I do, more or less daily - especially at work. The parmesan and chilli soda bread is to die for, and don't get me started on those blimin' petit fours), I'd rekindle my love for Reece's peanut butter cups. Those, to me, were perfection, and by far the best offering in the entire sweet/chocolate aisle. Quite a statement, huh?

Even so, despite my previous devotion to all things Reece's, I think I might've just found a recipe to replicate that familiar feeling of stomach-fulfilment without the preceding guilt; introducing the wonder that is the all-healthy, all singing-and-dancing, homemade faux-Reece's cups. These are the bomb, and an absolute must-make recipe for all my fellow Reece's fanatics out there (and somehow I'm pretty sure there are a lot of you). Recipe found at Detoxinista, altered/healthified (even more) by me.



Ingredients:

2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter (salted)
2 over-ripe bananas
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons coconut flour
40g dark chocolate (4 squares of Lindt 90%)
1 teaspoon coconut oil

As always, the process is simples: mash the bananas and combine with the peanut butter, agave and coconut flour in a mixing bowl until the consistency is creamy and irresistible. Grab a baking tray and place the mix into scoops onto the tray (I used mini cupcake holders to recreate that 'cup' effect - y'know, with the crinkled edges and all. I love that shit, and it's all part-and-parcel of the whole mind-blown oh-god-these-are--actually-as-good-as-Reece's effect).



Place the tray in the freezer to set whilst melting your chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Stir to combine, before fetching the tray once more to drizzle on the melted chocolate/oil, filling in the little gaps at the edges (or, if you chose to scoop sans-cups, drizzle on as best as you can to cover the balls). If your 'balls' are able to be picked up and dipped into the chocolate (as they should be, according to the original recipe. Doh), by all means do so to cover the entire thing (mine were too 'moist'. Yep, I said it...sorry).

Set in the freezer once more for at least 10 minutes before re-experiencing that chocolate/PB love affair (but with a banana-y, coconutty twist). Oh, yes - those were the glory days (and your taste buds are about to be taken back - hurrah)!

'A Bit of Everything' Cookies! (Best to date?)

These fulfil practically every desirable quality you could possible wish for in a cookie. Chewy? Check. Sweet? Check. Immensely tasty? Check. Moreish? Check. Guilt-inducing and laden with fat and sugar? Uh, hell no!



The 'A Bit of Everything' cookies are true to their name; they contain just a little bit of everything, bringing together all the best and most nutritious ingredients (featuring a few of my favourites, including cinnamon, avocado, PB, oats, among others - this is a match made in healthy heaven!) to form the ultimate tea-break snack.

The ingredients are as follows (makes 12 small cookies):

1 ripe banana (the browner the better)
1/4 avocado
2 tablespoons peanut butter
35g oats
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Bournville)
2 tablespoons almond flour (original recipe suggests quinoa flour. Almond flour was just easier for me)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon manuka honey

As with most of the recipes I post on here, there's not a lot to do here, so the technicality level = super easy. That's ultimately what I look for prior to baking anything, as I just can't cope with fussing in the kitchen. And these were very quick to prepare, even by my standards.

Pre-heat your oven to 350C (gas mark 4) and grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil (I lined a baking tray with foil to minimise washing-up time and optimise laziness). Mash up your avocado with the banana, add the 2T of PB and the rest of the 'wet' ingredients (agave and manuka for sweetness). Add the remaining dry ingredients (oats, almond flour/flour of choice, cinnamon) and mix well.

Spoon the mixture, dollop by dollop, onto the baking tray, and whack in the oven for 20 minutes approximately. Ideally, you should leave them to cool to harden slightly...but that didn't stop by boyfriend from munching his way through the batch! Probably the best healthy cookie recipe found and tried/tested to date*, courtesy of the Queen of Quinoa (link takes you to the original recipe, but there are plenty more on Alyssa's blog worth trying!).

*If you didn't believe me, the proof is in the lack of photos...did you notice? Haha :) PS. that poorly shot single image above doesn't do these cookies any kind of justice, so you'll just have to trust my word when I say you should deffo make these! Hey, at least I accidentally artfully arranged the 3 remaining cookies in a heart shape, riiight?