Churros

I would like you to take a moment to merely enjoy looking at the image and imagine the sheer joy of biting into a warm, crunchy, chewy dough gracefully wrapped in a thin coat of cinammon. Ahhhhh yes the glorious Churro! I don't need to do much talking around this as the taste and flavour of any churro will leave you breathless and wanting more... 

Ofcourse there are a couple different recipes and options out there. However, I decided to go with my gut and try an eggless churro. Previously I have made churros with eggs and they come out great, but I found the eggless one works just as well and to be perfectly honest with you, I just didn't have eggs in my fridge on the day. :) 

The trick with Churros though is getting the oil at the right temperature to fry. Ofcourse if you have an electric fryer you can manage the temperature quite well. Otherwise you can follow my method of dunking a piece of dough into the fryer and if it cooks perfectly through you have the right temperature. if it is too high you will see the outside turn brown super quickly and still doughy in the centre. If it is too low you might not have a crunchy Churro. So make sure you have got this down pat!

Let's get to it!!!

Ingredients: - 

2 cups of sunflower oil for frying

1 cup of boiled water

1 TBLS Olive Oil 

1 Tsp Baking powder

2/3 cups of organic all purpose flour 

1/4 cup of sugar or xylitol 

1/4 cup of cinnamon 

Piping bag

Star nozzle (8mm) 

I use nutella as my dunking sauce for the churro. All I do is take some out into a bowl and heat it up for 10 - 15 seconds and you have a perfect chocolate sauce to use to dunk your churro. :) If you would like to make a vegan version, my suggestion is to use cacao powder, cococnut milk and a sweetner of your choice. I would heat this over a water bath to get the correct texture. 

Method: - 

Mix all the above ingredients (except the sugar and sunflower oil) together in a bowl. You want to end up with a really sticky dough. Prepare your oil and make sure you have the right temperature. While the oil is heating up place the dough into the piping bag. In a seperate plate mix the cinnamon and sugar together. 

Now gently pipe your churro into the oil until you have your desired length and cut using a pair of cooking scissors or knief and fry until golden brown. Remove and roll immediately in the cinnamon and sugar. Serve warm with the nutella sauce. Enjoy! Much love as always CC :) 

A little bit of Indulgence

OK OK so I am only human and I do allow myself a cheat day every now and again... Apart from eating clean most days, particularly staying away from things like dairy and gluten, I sometimes do feel for indulging in things like pasta, with abit of cream ofcourse. :) 

You can cetainly use store bought spiral pasta or you can make your own at home. This recipe is literally put everything together and in 10 minutes and you have a fabulously plated meal ready for you and your loved ones. 

For this recipe you will need: -

(Serves 2) 

200g spiral pasta

1 TBLS olive oil

1 Brown onion finely chopped 

1 punnet of baby spinach 

1 punnet of button mushrooms finely sliced

1 cup of frozen baby peas

3 TBLS of double thick cream (I personally prefer using PURA as it uses vegetable gum instead of gelatine as a thickening agent) 

Crushed garlic (I used quite abit as I love garlic in pasta) 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Method: - 

Bring a pot of water with salt and a splash of olive oil to a boil, to cook the pasta. In a seperate pot (place over a medium heat) add olive oil, onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the spinach, mushrooms and frozen baby peas and let this cook until the peas are almost mushy. Season with salt and pepper and add the cream. Let this just start to simmer and then add the cooked pasta. The aroma that you experience while cooking this dish is unreal and you will liertally want to eat it straight out of the pot....Of course you can add more cream and make the dish more like an alfredo pasta but just remember to adjust with salt and pepper accordingly. You can also add some parmesan cheese when you serve up this dish, but I just wanted to throughly enjoy the cream for the moment..... :) Much love as always CC

 

Zucchini Pizza

I came across this idea the other day when I was trying to prepare a low carb meal for family members. I wanted to make pizza so I decided that a way to do this was through either using portabello mushrooms or zucchini as the "pizza base". I did make the "mushroom pizzas" on a seperate day however I completely forgot to take pics!!!! So apologies for that, but I will make it again soon as it was an absolute hit and really filling as well. 

For this recipe you will need: - 

(Serves 4) 

4 large zucchini (1 per person), cut length wise and the centre stems removed

Tomato paste 

Cherry tomato's 

Mozzarella cheese or cashew cheese (for the vegan option) 

Any veggies that you like, I used onion, olives, peppers 

2 cloves of garlic finely diced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 TBLS balsamic vinegar

2 TBLS olive oil

1 tsp Chilli flakes

Oregano to garnish 

Method: - 

Once you have cleaned your zucchini, place them into a ziploc bag. Add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chilli flakes,1 garlic clove (finely chopped), salt and pepper just to season and marinade this for a couple hours. If you planning ahead let it marinade overnight, it tastes even better. :) 

After you have marinated the zucchini for a couple hours, my suggestion is cook it in a preheated oven (180 degree celsius) for approx 10-15 minutes just until they are slightly soft. You still want it to have the crunch as it still needs to hold whatever else you use as toppings. Remove the zucchini and then top with tomato paste, veggies, chopped garlic clove and cheese. Garnish with a bit of oregano and pop into the oven or on top of the Barbeque until the cheese has melted. Serve hot and enjoy, kids will love this and so will your vegetarian and vegan friends and family. Much love as always CC :) 

Spanish Rice

It is fasting month and sometimes people get alittle, if not entirely bored of the standard curry and rice or rotli that one consumes during the month of Shravan. The other thing I have noticed recently and also now that it is fasting month a lot of people have taken to follow diets like the banting, paleo or diets that are literally low carb and contain no sugar. 

I do agree with some parts of the diet, however I have always been a person who strongly believes in finding a balance and not following a diet but a lifestyle. One needs to find a balance in life and a balance when it comes to choosing food. I certainly do agree that white or refined, high sugar foods is simply a no no for anyone. But I do believe a balance of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and proteins and ofcourse exercise is the fundamentals for achieving a healthy, balanced and complete life. 

SO apart from my preaching and going back onto the topic of Shravan, I decided to share a recipe that is so tasty, satisfying and complete that it is worth every single bite and ounce of energy that is required to make this dish. (Which is not a lot of energy by the way...) :) 

Ingredients: -

1 Cup of Tastic Rice (Brown Rice)

1 Onion Finely Sliced

1 Spring onion stalk finely sliced

1/2 Tomato roughly chopped

1 TBLS Olive Oil 

2 Clove of garlic Finely grated

1 Tsp of Paprika

A Pinch of Saffron 

Salt/pepper  to taste

You can use any veggies you like, I used  button mushrooms and spinach 

You could also add some cannellini beans, red beans or any other lentils to make it a balanced meal of carb, protein and veg 

Method: - 

Place the rice in a pot of boiling water and cook, strain the rice, you can rinse it if you want under cold water, or you could leave the rice starchy.

In a non stick pan place the olive oil, onions, garlic and tomato and cook until tender. Add the veggies, Paprika, salt, saffron and rice. At this point give it a taste and see whether you need to add more salt and pepper. Let it cook until the bottom starts to crisp. Once you see the rice starting to crisp remove it off the stove other wise it will burn really quickly. That is it!!!! You are done, you can generally serve this along side any vegetarian or meat dish. Purely, because it is fasting month I served mine with some roasted veggies. 

Guilt Free: Crunchy Oat Biscuits

I mentioned in my May post that I am on a mission to lose a couple kilos but also just try and improve my overall health. Thus far it has been good, however being me, I do have weak moments where I do feel for something a little sweet and something that still tastes atleast half decent!!!! So in my search for something that tastes like a biscuit, but has no butter, added sugar or flour (OH and it doesn't have egg either) I stumbled across these babies and wow do they pack a punch of flavour.

It literally just tastes five minutes to mix it all together and bake for 20 - 30 minutes. SO WORTH IT!!!!!! 

Ingredients: - 

1 & 1/2 cup organic rolled oats

1/2 cup of flaked coconut

1/2 cup of almonds

2 1/2 teaspoons of cold pressed organic coconut oil

1 TBLS organic agave nectar

1 TBLS organic manuka honey 

1 Tsp vanilla extract 

1 TBLS Water 

Method: - 

Preheat the oven at 150 degrees fan forced. 

Place the rolled oats, coconut and almonds into a kenwood or vitamix and Whizz until you have a mixture that feels similar to flour. Add the remaining ingredients and whizz again to end up with a thick textured dough. It will sort of be the consistency of biscuit dough however, you will not be able to roll this you will have to hand press the dough into cookies. Place onto a lined baking tray and bake the cookies until they are golden brown (20 - 30 minutes). You may think the cookie is underdone, but remove and let it cool to room temperature it will harden and you will end up with the perfect GUILT FREE Crunchy Oat Biscuits. Enjoy! Much love as always CC :) 

Prawn tomato bisque with zucchini & garlic mushrooms

Ok so I guess it is confession time from my end!!!! The reason I am doing it, is because if I share this with you I have to stick to it and I have to achieve it. :) Yes ofcourse I have packed  on a couple pounds, probably from all the food that I have been cooking but also partly from the condition I suffer from called Endometriosis. I am a complete foodie, I love food, I always have and I always will. I am probably at a point in my life where I have never been happier. I love my husband, my baby boy max (he is a beagle by the way), my family, the life that I have but more importantly I love myself more than I ever have before. I have been some what of a yoyo dieter in the past but that clearly never worked out. So cutting out food from my lifestyle at this point in time is simply not an option.

My philosophy at present is about balance, balance on what I put in my mouth and balance on what and how much exercise I do. No more excuses, no more complaining but more about being happy, content, healthy and achieving healthy weight loss goals. 

SO I have decided to challenge myself and put on healthy dinner ideas for the next two weeks. If you follow my instagram feed you will see I have started to put up daily pics. I am starting with 2 weeks as I would like to see what I can accomplish in a short space of time, (ofcourse this is extendable). If you would like to join me please feel free to do so, I always love company.... :) Join me on instagram, facebook or comment in the box below. 

Last night I decided to scratch through my fridge and freezer and see what is available for me to cook but also reduce my calorie intake at the same time. The picture above is what I came up with. Now this is ofcourse the healthier version of bisque but still gives you the texture of a typical bisque. Instead of using rice and cream to thicken the sauce I decided to use julienne zucchini, mushrooms and canned tomatoes to give it texture. You can blend all this together and keep it as a bisque with prawns. However, I decided not to blend and keep the dish as is to give it as much texture and contrast as possible. 

What you will need is the following: - 

500g prawns (deveined) you can use the heads to enhance the biqsue flavour if you like 

250g Mushrooms

3 - 4 Zucchini Julienne

250g canned tomatoes

1 TBLS Tomato paste

2 Garlic Cloves

2 Tsp black pepper

1 Tsp Chilli powder

Basil leaves

Salt to taste 

1/2 onion finely sliced

Olive oil for cooking

Method: - 

Place a pan onto a medium heat with olive oil. Add onions, garlic, basil and fry ingredients until onions are transparent. Add the Zucchini and mushrooms, together with salt and pepper. Allow this to cook slightly until the water has released from both ingredients. Now add the prawns and gently toss this together, let this cook until all the water has literally evaporated.  Add the chilli powder and canned tomatoes. Let this cook until you have somewhat of a thick sauce. Add the tomato paste and season with extra salt and pepper if required. 

The dish is meant to have a seafood flavour, that is what a bisque is about. If you have to have carbs, you can always use lower carb content breads or alternatively use something like brown basmati rice to serve with the bisque. I simply enjoyed it as is, as the zucchini acts as a "rice" substitute. Enjoy. Much love as always CC :) 

And don't forget to join me on the healthy dinner idea 2 week challenge on instagram, facebook, or comment in the box below.  

Pavlova Brownies Dessert

Oh my goodness it feels like forever since the last time I blogged. Well, brace yourself because I do have some special treats coming up for you and one of them being my Pavlova Brownies Dessert!!!!! Pavlova has been a staple dessert in many australian homes, purely because it is light, typically made with fruits and fresh cream and great for the warm weather that we constantly have. However, ofcourse I decided to take things one step further and build a decedant, indulgent dessert for a friends Bridal shower. 

Now sometimes in life, time seems to get the better of me and for the pic above I ended up getting a store bought pavlova base. Nothing wrong with doing this, but if you have the time bake it at home, it is so much fun and completely satisfying when you see the end result!!! :) I will share with you the recipe I tend to use for both my pavlova bases and meringue nests. 

For the Pavlova/meringue nests 

6 eggs seperated

270g castor sugar

Corn flour to sprinkle on foil 

Melted Butter to brush onto the foil 

1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract

1 Tsp White Vinegar 

For the Brownie

250g butter

2 cups caster sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder and alittle extra for dusting

1 1/2 Tsp vanilla essence

100g brown milk chocolate squares (baking chocolate)

100g white chocolate squares (baking chocolate) 

20x30cm baking pan (greased and lined with baking paper) 

500g of whipped cream 

For the chocolate sauce you could use nutella (warm slightly in the microwave to create a "sauce") or 200g of dark chocolate which you can melt over a water bath.

For the White chocolate noodles, use 200g of tempered white chocolate. Take a piping bag and pipe the tempered chocolate into a bowl filled with tap water and ice cubes. You will see the chocolate starting to form noodles straight away. (I will upload images and possibly a video of this demo shortly to show you how to correctly temper chocolate and pipe to create the noodles) 

Extra White chocolate 200g if you are going to make the dessert hours before guests arrive (see how to assemble (below) for more details) 

Method: - 

For the Pavlova 

Line a baking pan with foil, use a 9 or 10 inch pan to draw a circle as a guide for placing  the meringue. Brush the foil with melted butter and dust with cornflour, remove any excees corn flour. Preheat the oven to about 120 degrees. 

Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites till soft peaks are formed and gradually add the sugar. You basically have to whisk until you can feel a smooth texture, if you can feel sugar particles keep whisking. You will know you have the right consistency once you have a smooth glossy texture and if you can hold the bowl over your head and not have anything fall out, you have mastered the art of meringue making!!!! Becareful though because if you havent the mixture might be all over you. :) 

Once you have achieved the right texture, spoon the meringue this into your circle, smooth the sides and the top and place into the oven for approx 2 hours until the pavlova is dry to touch. When it is completely cold then move it to a serving tray and decorate. 

For the Brownies

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted remove from the heat and add the sugar. 

Make sure that your mixture has cooled somewhat before you add the eggs, as you really don't want your eggs to start to scramble in the mix. Add the eggs one at a time until you achieve a thick yet glossy mix. 

Add the vanilla, cocoa powder and plain flour to the egg mix. Add all the white chocolate squares and half of the brown milk chocolate squares and mix. Pour this into your baking pan which has been lined. 

Now, place the rest of the brown milk chocolate squares at random places on the brownie mix. This will start to partially melt when you bake your brownies. Place into the oven for approx 30 minutes. Test using a skewer. Once your brownies have cooked and cooled down you can cut them into squares. 

How to assemble: - 

Place the pavlova onto a serving platter. Place whipped cream onto the base of the pavlova (if you are making this hours before your function, you might want to melt chocolate and pour this over the top of the pavlova, let it set before adding the whipped cream, the reason being is you don't want to have a soggy and collapsed pavlova) The hard chocolate will prevent this from happening. Place the chopped brownies all over the top of the whipped cream, make sure you use the whipped cream as a "glue" to hold the brownies in place. Place the chocolate noodles and then the fun part, drizzle with the melted chocolate sauce. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy!!!! Your Guests will go completely nuts for this dessert!!!! Much love as always CC :) 

Endo Diet: Salmon Soup

This month is dedicated to creating awareness around endometriosis. There are millions of women in the world who suffer from this condition, I am one of them. Diet and lifestyle form an extremely important part in managing and trying to keep symptoms away. So since I have a food blog I thought what better way to help educate people around what an endo diet looks like. This month I am sharing some recipes that I use to help me manage my symptoms of inflammation and pain. 

The recipe that I am about to share is one that I use quite frequently because it is a blend of warming and healing spices and also contains a good amount of protein with the addition of the salmon. It is ofcourse optional and you can leave it out if you are vegetarian and you could substitute with lentils of your choice. 

The most important thing with following an endo diet is that you want to have as much as possible organic ingredients from the spices to the vegetables to the meats that you eat as well.

Here we go, what you will need is the following ingredients: - 

(Serves 4) 

All organic ingredients (most of which are available at a health food store):-

 

1 dry red chilli, soaked in hot water and roughly chopped

1/2 fresh red chilli finely chopped, (keep the other half for garnish) 

1 Garlic Clove finely chopped

1/2 inch of ginger finely chopped

1/2 onion finely sliced

1 medium sized zucchini finely sliced or use a julienne grater

1 handful of kale finely chopped stalks removed

1/2 punnet of button mushrooms finely chopped 

150g of salmon cut into chunks  (or you could use smoked salmon as well this takes it to a whole new level in terms of flavour) 

1 can of organic coconut milk

2-3 kaffir lime leaves

3 stalks of lemon grass, (1 finely crushed into a paste using a mortar and pestle) 

1 Tsp of chilli powder

1 Tsp of Tumeric 

1/2 Tsp of Shrimp paste (optional) 

Salt to taste 

The juice of one lime 

3 Tsp of Fish sauce (make sure the fish sauce is gluten free)  If you are veg you can use Soy Sauce preferably gluten free as well

Method: - 

Place a deep pot onto the stove over a medium heat. Place about a TBLS of olive oil and fry the onions, chillies, ginger, shrimp paste, and lemon grass paste. The combination of aromas will literally have you salivating... Once this has cooked for about 1-2mins add the chopped veggies and cover until the veggies start to release water. You want to add about half a cup of water to the veggies to start forming a stock. I usually add the chilli powder, tumeric and salt now to start cooking with the veggies and also add half a tin of coconut milk. What you want to do is simply bring it to a light boil and add the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass stalks (whole) as you will remove this before serving. 

Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Now add the salmon pieces and let them poach through. If you are using smoked salmon you want to add it only before you are ready to serve otherwise your salmon will become really tough and not as enjoyable. Now is the fun part of trying to balance the flavours, you have to do this with the fish sauce and the lime juice. You want to get a kind of tangy salty flavour happening. Once you have this remove the lemongrass stalks and kaffir lime leaves and serve warm with some chillies to garnish. Enjoy and be amazed at the flavours you will taste. Much Love CC :) 

My Ta Ta Thai Salad

This is not just an explosion of flavours and smells, but has heaps of ingredients that have many health benefits as well. For example lemongrass which is great for digestion and possess anti-cancer properties as well... Garlic which helps in fighting against the common cold and also helps reducing cholesterol levels. Thai Basil!!!! OMG my favourite ingredient, I could crush the leaves and smell them all day, that is how much I love them. :) Thai basil is a natural anti-imflammatory and also has anti bacterial properties. So this meal is a power packed meal with heaps of flavour and healthy stuff too. :) double bonus!!!! 

The reason I made this salad was because I was seriously craving thai food (and no I am not pregnant :) ) and I just didn't have the energy to make a normal thai curry but something interesting.... SO ofcourse I took to the internet in search of a really nice and simple thai salad so I came across this recipe which I have modified slightly, all credit to the author who created this as it is amazing!!!!!! 

What you will need is the following: - 

(Serves 3) 

For the Salad: - 

1 Cup of edamame boiled, shelled and crushed into a paste (almost looks like avocado in the pic above) 

1 handful of kale finely chopped

1/4 chinese cabbage finely chopped

1 Large carrot grated using a Julienne grater

1 Green Pepper finely sliced

1/2 onion finely chopped

1 stalk of green onion finely chopped

1 handful of thai basil finely chopped

As many as you like of the roasted sweet chilli cashews (purchase from any supermarket) I usually take a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them ever so slightly as you still want to have some sort of crunch and texture in the salad 

1 handful of coriander just picked of the stalk (To garnish) 

For the Dressing: - 

1 Garlic Clove 

1 1/2 TBLS Soy sauce preferably gluten free and salt reduced

1 TBLS Water

2 TBLS Sunflower Oil

1 TBLS Vinegar

1 TBLS Manuka Honey

1/2 TBLS Sesame Oil

1/2 TBLS Lemongrass paste (simply chop the lemongrass up really finely and crush using a mortar and pestle, this will require some elbow grease :) and also add alittle water to help crush and create a paste) or if you can buy a ready made paste feel free to do so 

Method: - 

EASY AS PIE!!!! Toss all the salad stuff together, I would leave the edamame and cashews for just before you want to serve otherwise the salad will become really soggy and cashews will end up being soft. To make the dressing simply puree all the ingredients together and refrigerate until you are ready to serve. When you are about to serve this to your guests mix the edamame and salad dressing together and toss through the salad so everything gets coated. Once you are satifised that everything is mixed through add the cashews and garnish with coriander. 

ENJOY and let me know what you think, I personally think you are all going to love this. Much love CC :) 

Treats to share with the Family

Hey guys, I haven't posted for a while and I know many of you are wondering what on earth am I doing!!!!! Seeing that I haven't posted since Christmas I will share some of the stuff that I have been creating and recreating up till today.  

This was something I ofcourse decided to give a go for Christmas, yes my amazing gingerbread house which I was extremely excited about, because it was the first time I made one and it tasted and looked like a million dollars. 

I simply used a template for a gingerbread house that I found online and followed a simple recipe I found online as well. If you would like more information and advice on the gingerbread house, please leave me a message in the box below and I would be more then happy to share this with you. :) 

Another treat that I made for the family was this dessert tower, which was the dessert for our Christmas Day lunch. 

All you need is :-  

Styrofoam cone

baking paper

Cake board

Glue, something like nutella or buttercream to stick the cone to the board. I used nutella for this recipe. 

Toothpicks

Any fruit that you like I used strawberries and cherries

Ferreo Rocher 

I made macarons from scratch, which are really tricky but you could also use Adriano Zumbo ready to bake macarons which tastes amazing and are really easy to make. 

Method: - 

Use the baking paper to cover the cone. You want to make sure that you stick the cone to your cake board before you start to add the fruit. Depending on what fruit and chocolate you are using start to skewer them using the toothpicks. What you want to do is start at the bottom of the cone and work your way up. As you start at the bottom you will see some gaps that form, but dont worry this is something you can fill in later with extra fruit. 

Once you have completed covering your cone, you can stick the extra chocolate you have around on the cake board. Also add the macarons or any other biscuits that you like to give more texture and structure to your amazing dessert tour. I served this with extra nutella as a dipping sauce for the fruit. All you have to do is just heat the nutella up slightly to make it more like a sauce. This really is what entertaining is about. Having everyone sit around and dunk into their own dipping bowls of nutella. Enjoy these special moments with family and friends. :) Ciao Ciao and much love CC :) 

Pearl Barley Nasi Goreng

Nasi Goreng is an Indo Malay cuisine sometimes even referred to as a national dish of Indonesia. I absolutely love nasi goreng because it has a chilli bite to it. The version that you see in this picture looks like a typical nasi goreng dish, but if you look closely I have used the superfood pearl barley instead of rice and I also decided to add another superfood called dulse (seaweed) flakes. 

Now I will be honest I really don't like the taste of seaweed so in order to mask the flavour I braised the dulse flakes with onion and garlic. 

Ingredients: - 

Nasi Goreng Paste

1 Cup of Pearl barley soaked for atleast 3 - 4 hours prior to cooking and par boil for 10 - 15 mins 

Any veggies you like finely chopped

1 Tsp of Dulse flakes

1 Tsp of Garlic

1 Tsp chopped Chilli

1 Tsp crushed ginger

1 Brown Onion finely chopped

1/4 piece of a green pepper finely chopped 

Chopped shallots 

1 TBLS coconut oil 

Method: - 

Place a pan on to a medium heat, add the coconut oil to the pan and add the onions, garlic, chilli, ginger, shallots, dulse leaves and green pepper. Allow this to cook until slightly brown, add the nasi goreng paste, as much as you want, to add the depth and flavour that you like. Once the paste has cooked off add the par cooked pearl barley and allow to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. If you like you could add an egg to complete the traditional nasi goreng dish. Serve with a spinkle of extra shallots and enjoy. Much love CC :) 

Chocolate Cheesecake - healthy style

As you have seen before, I love cheesecake but for some reason lately I have been wanting to try or rather find a cheaters version of cheesecake, just to cut down on some calories I guess. This purely happend through reading and experimenting and finally ending up with a product that is so damn delicious. 

My husband is not a fan of cacao nor does he like chia seeds, I happen to have used both in this recipe and he ate 3 of the 4 cheesecakes that you see in the picture above, so I think it is a winner. :) 

Ingredients: - ( Serves 4) Once again this is a raw recipe so all the products used were certified organic

For the cake 

1/2 Tin coconut cream 

1 TBLS Chia seeds (white or black) 

1 Cup of Coconut Sugar

2 Tsp of cacao powder 

For the base

1 Cup of peanut butter

1 Tsp of cacao powder 

Method: - 

Line a cupcake pan with cupcake tins. Whisk together the coconut cream, chia seeds, coconut sugar and cacao powder until a uniform mixture is formed. Leave it aside and prepare the base. Mix the peanut butter and cacao powder together and take about a tablespoon to press into the cupcake tins to form the base of the "cheesecake". Now pour over the mixture over the base and refrigerate for about 3 hours until the mixture has set. Serve with blueberries and strawberries. A little slice of heaven minus a lot of calories. Enjoy :) 

Chocolate Truffles - healthy, guilt free and completely satisfying

It was 4pm yesterday afternoon, when my sugar fix decided to kick in and all I could think of and feel for was Chocolate!!!!! Yes!!!!!!! Chocolate seems to be my weakness when I need something to pick me up quickly. So instead of giving into the chocolate and candy aisle in woolworths I decided to head back home and make something healthy but still give me that chocolate flavour. I bet many of you will like this recipe, I honestly think that if you gave this to your kid, they would not be able to tell the difference. Ofcourse they would have to like peanut butter and you will see why.... ;)

Ingredients: - 

I like to use certified organic products for when I make anything that is raw. So for this recipe all the ingredients I used were organic. This recipe would make about 10 - 15 small balls, you could freeze this until you are ready to use or keep refrigerated.  

1/2 cup Peanut butter or you could use Tahini preferably the unhulled version 

1 TBLS Coconut oil 

1 TBLS Cacao powder

10 - 15 Dates that have the pitt removed 

Coconut flakes to roll the balls in at the end

Method: - 

Place all the ingredients into a food processor and mix until the ingredients are well combined. Take about a Teaspoon of the mixture and roll into a ball. You could coat the outside using coconut flakes, or if you want to make this really special specifically to gift, my suggestion would be to roll in cacao powder. They look so professional and your friends and family will love this. 

Here is a pic below where I gifted some of the Chocolate Truffles as Christmas gifts. ENJOY Much love CC :) 

Tamari grilled fish with fried rice and alfresco salad

Tamari is probably my new favourite ingredient. I always see it in the supermarkets but never really had the opportunity to try a recipe with it, so I finally decided to give it a go and wow does it have some fantastic flavours. I paired it with the fried rice because I was actually craving rice on the day and I am so glad I fried the rice, because the tamari sauce and all the other ingredients combined together with the fried rice was a firecracker of flavour!!!!! So I am thrilled to share this with you all. 

Ingredients: - (serves 2) 

For the fish 

1 Red Chilli, finely sliced

1 bunch of bok choy

200g of white fish fillets a soft fish like barramundi (per person) 

2 TBLS tamari

2 TBLS coconut Oil

1 Garlic Clove, crushed

1inch of ginger, grated

2 tsp of manuka honey

handful of chopped coriander

lime wedges to serve 

For the rice

1 cup of basmati rice

1 Brown onion, finely chopped

1 cloved of garlic, crushed

1/2 green chilli, crushed

1 TBLS of coconut oil 

1 Tsp Tumeric 

For the afresco salad

 

2 Boiled potato's 

1 Carrot, finely chopped

1 Cup of corn 

Shallots, finely sliced

1 brown onion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste 

Mayonnaise 

Method: - 

For the fish you need to marinate the fillets in all the above listed ingredients and refrigerate for approximately 30 minutes before cooking. My suggestion to cook them is place a piece of baking paper onto a baking tray, place the bok choy first then place the fillet of fish and drizzle over some of the marinade. You want to make parcels with the baking paper like in the picture below. You can keep them ready like this is the fridge until you are ready to bake the parcels. To bake them, ensure your oven is preheated at 200 degrees and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the fish is cooked through. 

For the rice: - 

Boil the rice as per instructions on the rice bag. Place a nonstick pan onto a medium heat, put in the coconut oil, onions and chilli garlic and fry this until the onions are slightly brown. Add the cooked rice and tumeric about a tsp. Let this fry until all the rice is covered in tumeric and slightly starts to stick at the bottom of the pan. Remove and place onto a serving board or platter. 

For the salad, simply mix all the ingredients together and place onto the serving platter. Once the fish fillets have cooked through, place them fillets ontop of the rice and pour the marinade over, you want the mariande to start to soak into the rice. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander and lime wedges. 

Serve and Enjoy!!! Much love CC :) 

 

Chilli Prawn Skewers with Quinoa Pilaf

I absolutely love eating prawns during the summer months. Not only is it a great source of protein but it is really filling and quite healthy to have when you pair it up with something like quinoa or steamed basmati rice. It is a light refreshing meal and I can guarantee that any fussy eaters will love the flavour combination that I have going on the prawns.

Ingredients: -  (Serves 3)

 

For the prawn Skewers 

(Don't forget to soak the skewers in water before you thread the prawns) 

500g prawns 

1/2 red chilli, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsps of lime, finely grated

2 tsps of lime juice 

1 tsp of chopped coriander

1 TBLS of coconut oil

For the Pilaf 

3/4 cup quinoa (I used the mixed bag for this one) 

2 tsps coconut oil 

1 brown onion, finely sliced

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander powder

Any veggies that you would like to add, I used mushroom, asparagus and pumpkin for this dish 

Shallots and fresh coriander to garnish 

Method:  - 

Shell and devein the prawns, keep the tails on, as I find this helps keep the prawn from curling up during the cooking process. Combine the above listed ingredients and toss in the prawns. Let this marinade in the fridge for 30 mins to an hour. 

Once marinated thread the prawn onto the skewers and place onto a hot grill or into a preheated oven at 160 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

To make the pilaf

Wash the quinoa really well and place a pan onto the stove over a medium heat, put the coconut oil, garlic, onion, cumin and coriander powder and let this cook until the room is filled with the aroma of spices. Add the quinoa and 300ml of water and allow the quinoa to cook until soft. You can add the veggies with the quinoa so that they all soak up flavours simultaneously. This needs to cook for about 10 - 15 minutes. 

To serve, place the pilaf onto a serving platter and place the prawn skewers over the pilaf, serve immediately. Your family will love you for this gracious meal. Much love CC :) 

Halloween Party Ideas

Halloween Treats are so much fun to create and this year I have some special treats for all of you. This is a really simple and easy recipe to create and get the kids involved they love doing this sort of stuff. The bloody monster fingers and angry marshi's will complete your halloween party.... 

Now the monster fingers ofcourse are not for any faint hearted individuals who do not like the sight of blood, as they really do look like fingers that have been chopped off. BEWARE!!!!! Don't say I did not warn you..... 

What you will need for the Bloody Monster Fingers: - 

Hotdogs (I used vegetarian hotdogs for this recipe) 

Brown onion, cut into squares 

Tomato sauce

To put it all together you need to cut the hotdog in half. Using a knife create three horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the finger to create a crease like you see on your fingers :). Using the knife cut out a really thin square piece at the top of the nail to create a nail bed for the square cut out of onions. Now place alittle tomato sauce into the nail bed and press the onion square firmly onto it to create a "bleeding" nail. You could also dip the bottom ends into tomato sauce and place onto a platter with a layer of tomato sauce underneath so that it looks very realisitic and also quite scary!!!!!!

What you will need for the angry marshi's: -

Edible food pen to draw the faces

a bag of marshmellows (you could dip these in food colouring to create green or orange marshi's) 

Draw different faces onto the marshmellows and place in platter or scatter over the party table. Enjoy :) 

Diwali boxes 2014

Today I will not be sharing a recipe with you, but I thought I would share some of the pics of some of the tasty treats I created over the diwali season. This is why I have not blogged over the last couple of days, as I have been busy creating these beautiful treats for all the people who ordered diwali boxes from me. 

The Louis Vuitton and Versace cakes were both eggless cakes. The Louis Vuitton was a pink ombre cake covered with a two tone rose buttercream icing. 

The Chanel cupcakes, were actually burfi cupcakes, which is an indian sweetmeat. 

I really do not do very well when it comes to baking biscuits, but I was quite impressed when I made these button biscuits and stringed them together with a hemp cord and pegged a happy diwali tag on the top. 

The lollipops were coconut slice swirled together. Really tasty mind you and very addictive too. 

It truly gives me a lot of pleasure to create such beautiful foods. A lot more designer and customed than a traditional diwali box. Much love CC :) 

Home made Tagliatelle & Pasta Sauce

Mama Mia what do we have here?!?!?! This is a dish that I am still smiling about today. It was a huge achievement for me as I made the pasta from scratch. It was my birthday recently and my dear husband surprised me with some really expensive and gorgeous cooking equipment one of them being a pasta machine. So ofcourse I could not wait to use the machine and I am so glad that I did. I never realised how easy it is once you have a pasta machine, that it takes out all the hard work and effort of rolling and folding the dough. This is my homemade organic tagliatelle pasta and homemade organic sauce, which I am super excited to share with you all. This recipe is dedicated to my amazingly gorgeous and loving husband. 

Ingredients: - 

To make the pasta 

It is all dependent on how many people you are intending on feeding so for each person it is a 100g of wheat flour and one egg. I was feeding 2 on the day so 200g flour and 2 eggs. If you do not want to use eggs you can use a glass of natural mineral water (1 glass of water to replace 1 egg). DO NOT ADD SALT TO THE DOUGH. 

To make the pasta sauce

1 TBLS Olive Oil 

3 tomato's (blitz in a food processor with the skin on)

1 med to large brown onion, finely chopped

1 handful of curly parsley, finely chopped

2 Cloves of garlic (crushed) 

1 Tsp italian herbs 

1/2 red chilli crushed

2 Tsp tomato sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

250ml of thickened cream

1 Can of Tuna (optional) 

Method: - 

To make the pasta dough 

Combine the flour and eggs in a food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Tip the breadcrumbs onto a lightly floured board and combine together until you have a firm dough. I usually add about 1 Tablespoon of water to make the dough a little more pliable. This is the part that takes abit of elbow grease. So knead the dough until you have a silky textured dough, it will still be firm but you will feel it when it is silky. This takes time so be patient and stick with it. The reason for this is you want to get the gluten working in the dough to give you that al dente pasta otherwise you will end up with thick, chunky and not so tasty pasta. 

Cling wrap the dough and place in the fridge for approx 30 minutes (make the sauce during this waiting time). Once you remove the dough, I usually give it a quick knead again to make sure no crusty parts have formed on the outside and then slice into smaller pieces. Now the fun part, use your pasta machine, follow the instructions on the pasta machine manual as they tend to vary in terms of settings.

If you do not have a pasta machine, you will have to roll your dough, dust with flour and fold. You will have to repeat this process quite a few times until you have achieved the correct thickness to make your tagliatelle pasta.  

To make the sauce

During the waiting time while your dough is working hard at getting the gluten going, start with the sauce. Place a pan onto a medium heat. Add the olive oil, onions and parsley to the pan. Allow this to cook until the onions are translucent, add the crushed chilli and garlic and give it a stir. Add the tomato's, italian herbs, salt, pepper and allow to cook until the tomato's are completely cooked through. You will notice the tomato's turn slightly darker.  Add your tomato sauce,(if you want to add tuna add it now. I used tuna for this recipe as I wanted a balance of carbohydrate and protein) and half a tin of the thickened cream. Allow this to simmer for about 5 minutes until your sauce appears to have a thicker consistency. 

Once you have your sauce ready move it aside and get a pot of boiling water onto the stove to add your freshly made pasta. Don't forget to add a splash of olive oil to the boiling water and salt, this seasons your pasta and prevents the pasta from sticking together and becoming gluggy. Cook for approx 7 - 10 minutes until your pasta is al dente. 

Place the pasta into a serving bowl. Top with sauce, grate some pamersan cheese and crack over some black pepper. Garnish with some parsley and serve straight away. :) 

 

Delicious Watermelon Fruit Cake

The warm summer weather is upon us again this year in Australia and sometimes all you need to cool down is a great simple salad. Normally I would serve up a nice big bowl of summer fruit after dinner, but this year I decided I am going to make dessert time a celebration of fruit, with a festive fruit cake. I will be making a couple more over the season so watch this space for more images. 

All you need to make a cake this size is : - 

1/4 watermelon

1 pear

Punnet of strawberries, bluberries or raspberries (can use all 3 if you like) 

A melon baller to make the ball shapes

Cherries 

Grapes 

Lychee/Litchi 

Method: - 

Simply slice the watermelon in half and use the centre of the watermelon to cut out four even sized slices to form the base of the cake. Use the melon baller for the remainder of the watermelon to form balls and place ontop of the slices to create the cake toppings. I did not have berries with me on the day so I used a pear, but my ideal cake would have berries, grapes and any other seasonal fruit ontop as well. I will share more images as soon as I make more festive fruit cakes, just to show you what amazing stuff you can make with fruit. Ciao ciao :)