Mint French Toast Tree

Hello! This post is so late!! I'm sorry I've been lazy. Though no one asked for this recipe I'll just leave it here in case anyone ever wants it later on :) Do you see two angels at the base of my Christmas tree? Let's pretend they have their wings folded in :)  

Had this super cute breakfast on Christmas morning and I had way too much fun dressing my tree up. 

I used a gooseberry as my "star" to top my french toast tree. 

Licked the plate clean. Yup.

Did you guys have a very Merry Christmas? 

What you'll need 

1 egg 

2 tbsp milk 

1/4 cup baby spinach

1/2 tbsp honey 

1/4 tsp peppermint extract 

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

2 slices wholemeal bread

Oil to fry 

Decorations:

Fruit 

Yogurt 

1/2 tbsp honey + 1 tsp cocoa powder = chocolate sauce 

How to

1. Blend egg, milk, baby spinach, honey, peppermint extract and vanilla extract. 

2. Heat oil in a pan. Dip a slice bread into the batter and let both sides absorb a good amount of batter before frying over low heat. Repeat with the next slice. 

3. Now decorate and eat up!

Gingerbread popcorn!

Sorry I haven't been uploading many recipes! They keep failing on me lately haha. Also I uploaded this late because I was lazy. Anyway this popcorn is healthy because it's almost fat free and is sweetened with maple syrup instead of corn syrup etc. I had no idea making popcorn was so simple. Basically just microwaving and mixing. Please note that you need to eat this fresh or it'll get kinda soft from the maple syrup after a while.

Gingerbread popcorn = Christmas movie night?? I don't have those other gingerbread spices like nutmeg, cloves or whatever but you can add them if you do :-)) 

Makes about 4 cups of popcorn 

What you'll need

3 tbsp corn 

3 tbsp - 4 tbsp maple syrup 

1 tsp ground ginger 

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dash of allspice 

How to

1. Put corn in a big bowl and cover. Microwave for 1min 45s. Then remove the popped corn kernals (so they don't burn). Keep microwaving at 1 - 2 min intervals and removing the popped corn until all the corn has been popped. 

2. In a large bowl stir popped corn and maple syrup together. Then add in all the spices and combine well. Done! 

:) 

Microwave Christmas Pudding

Isnt this adorable! Now you can eat an entire Christmas pudding on your own. You can even eat it for breakfast like I did and not feel bad :P It was tricky getting the colour to match the original Christmas pudding colour without using alcohol, brown sugar etc so I used cocoa powder! You can't taste it though hah. If you can then you have really good taste buds :-)

I'm so excited for Christmas. I'm almost completely done with Christmas shopping! 

Side note: Guys it's raining do heavily now and the wind is crazyyyy. Knocked the whole Christmas tree over whaaaat. 

Nice moist inside ❤️ 

What you'll need

1/3 cup oat flour

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cocoa powder

30g raisins (I normal sized box!)

1 tsp water

1 egg 

1 tbsp chopped almonds 

1/4 cup grated apple 

1/4 tsp orange zest

Plain yogurt

Flat leaf parsley

Raspberries 

How to

1. Blend oat flour with spices and cocoa powder. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Blend raisins with water. Now add raisins and egg to the bowl of oat flour. Beat it all together.

3. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Scrape the inner sides of the bowl down so all the batter is together. Smooth the surface of the batter. Cover bowl with cling wrap and microwave 3 min or so until everything is cooked! 

4. Serve with yogurt, parsley and raspberries :)

Cranberry Pistachio Scones (gluten free, egg free)

More cranberry and pistachio things for Christmas! May not be very creative but there IS a reason why this combination is so popular. These scones are gluten and egg free plus they are low fat because we use greek yogurt instead of butter here! 

But to be honest, even though these scones are delicious, the texture is kinda bun-like. It's more like a scone bun than a scone?? I'm not sure if I should reduce the greek yogurt or add more baking soda or flour :/ Anyway, some of you want the recipe so here it is :) 

Drizzled mine with plain non fat no sugar yogurt!

So deeeelicious. 

What you'll need

1 and 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup greek yogurt

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1/4 cup shelled pistachio

How to 

1. Soak your shelled pistachios in hot water for 15-20min. 

2. Meanwhile, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon together. Than add in the honey and greek yogurt. combine everything together well. 

Preheat oven to 190C

3. Rub the skins off the pistachio to reveal the green insides. Now fold cranberries and pistachios into the scone dough. 

4. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop 5 balls of dough out onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. ((They should be bigger than the ice cream scoop size. The scoop just makes it easier to get equal amounts of dough!))

5. Bake the scones for 20 min and then cool before eating. I left mine in the (turned off) oven to brown a bit longer. They taste great on their own but you can eat them with some breakfast spreads too!

Enjoy!

The 2nd Christmas recipe, this time a sweet one! Super clean and healthy (and vegan and dairy free) tahini shortbread cookies with hints of cinnamon. When I tried these cookies I fell in love. If I were the sort who left cookies out for Santa, these are the ones I'd leave. They are so simple which means you don't have to wash so much :D only 7 ingredients! Sorry for saying 5 ingredients on Instagram. In my excitement, I forgot how to count. One cookie is about 68 calories. AKA delicious points. 

Santa wants some.

Usually I'm not very good at cookies but these are just the perfect texture!

Buttery and just perfect. Sigh. I'm gonna make another batch of these for my relatives this Christmas. That's saying something because I almost never remake recipes, I'm too busy creating new ones.

Use measuring spoons or you may use too much of an ingredient! 

Makes 8 cookies

What you'll need

1/2 cup gluten free flour blend (Bob's Red Mill)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp honey (maple syrup would probably work) 

2 tbsp organic hulled tahini (or any nut butter of similar consistency!) 

Juice from 1 wedge of lemon  

1/4 tsp butter extract 

How to 

1. Mix dry ingredients together. Add in wet ingredients and combine well.

Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Make 8 tbsp spoon sized balls of dough and flatten to form cookies, use a fork to make a design on top. 

3. Bake for about 15min on a prepared pan and cool before eating. 

ENJOY! YOU WILL I PROMISE.

P.S the Santa hat is using fage 0% greek yogurt

Pistachio Crusted Salmon with Cranberry Sauce

The first of the two Christmas recipes for today. 

Pistachios and cranberries are a classic Christmas combination. Since I have yet to make a dish with the two, I felt it was only right I made this pistachio crusted baked salmon and cranberry sauce served on a fluffy bed of quinoa. The tartness of the cranberries goes really well with the salmon and adds that wonderfully festive feel. This is so basic anyone can do this :) 

For salmon I used fillets premarinated with a whole bunch of herbs and a little garlic. If you are using plain ones, please add some herbs and garlic to marinate it. 

What you'll need

1 125g salmon fillet (I used premarinated ones, see above)

1/2 a lemon (juice)

15g pistachio nuts

1/4 cup or more cranberries

1 tbsp water

1 tsp honey

Cooked quinoa

Steamed vegetables

How to

1. Chop up pistachio in a small food processor. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Squeeze lemon over salmon fillet and coat the salmon in the chopped pistachio. Bake for 15min.

3. Microwave cranberries for about 40s, depending on your microwave. Mash it up with a fork and mix it together with water and honey. 

4. Serve over salmon with quinoa and steamed vegetables.

P.S To quick steam your vegetables, wash them, don't pay dry and microwave for a 30s or so until cooked. 

Chocochip Gingerbread P-uffins (protein muffins)

This is my favourite kind of recipe. The kind that uses few utensils which makes for easy clean up, and the kind that is so super delicious! Healthy gingerbread protein muffins aka puffins, but with chocolate chips! Super low fat and high protein. 

Moist and delicious interior. 

Another addition to my Christmasy recipes :-) As always, hope you guys try this out!

Please remember to measure with measuring spoons where needed. Oat flour is oats blended into a flour. 

Makes 6 puffins.

What you'll need

30g vanilla protein powder (I used Tera's whey)

30g oats (I used instant quaker oats)

40g oat flour 

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 egg whites

170g non fat greek yoghurt ( tub of fage)

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

1/2 tbsp grated ginger

30g cacao nibs

20g chocolate chips 

How to

1. Mix dry ingredients together. 

2. Beat wet ingredients. 

3. Pour wet into dry and mix together well. 

4. Fold in cacao nibs and chocolate chips. 

Preheat oven to 180C

5. Line your cupcake/muffin pan with paper liners and lightly grease the paper liners. Divide batter equally between paper liners. Bake for about 25min. Cool slightly before removing from pan. 

Ps: when I ate these fresh out of the oven the muffin kind of stuck to the paper, but somehow, after keeping it in the fridge and reheating it later, it didn't stick anymore lol

Best Ever Santa Mousse

This chocolate mousse or as I called it on Instagram, Santa mousse, is so healthy and delicious it will blow your mind. Boom. Light and fluffy but so chocolatey good all at the same time! I wish I made more, but this as always is a single serving recipe (: 

I can't believe I managed to make this. You can't even tell its healthy and less than 200 cals. Whatsmore it's so so simple! Definitely one of my favourite recipes! The Santa also makes it totally Christmas appropriate don't you think? 

I knew it would be delicious when I made it and stored it in the fridge. I poked it, licked my finger, and though "this one's gonna be great." 

Santa ass. 

This is one of those rare posts where my pictures aren't all landscape haha. You have to try this recipe guys. It's like clouds. 

What you'll need

3 tbsp cocoa powder (use a measuring spoon!) 

1 tbsp maple syrup

6 drops liquid stevia 

1 tsp coconut oil 

2 egg whites

1 strawberry 

Greek yogurt

2 tiny dots of cacao nibs/chocolate sprinkles/raisins,chocolate cracker???? 

How to

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients together well. Try to break up any large clump bits.

2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks. Careful not to over beat or your mousse may be runny. Add 1/3 of egg white into the chocolate mix and fold together. Then add the remaining egg white and fold together gently until the entire mixture is one colour throughout. Not streaky. Transfer to a glass, cover and chill in the fridge. I left mine overnight! I guess a few hours would be sufficient? 

3. When ready to serve, cut the round base of a strawberry (and eat it, don't waste!) then cut the strawberry into two parts making the pointy-tip part smaller. Put greek yogurt in between and add a tiny blob on to the pointy-tip part. Give your Santa eyes, sit him on top of the chocolate mousse and serve! 

PS know what would be fun? Add some mint extract in there! 

Spiced Maple Chestnut Cake (Gluten Free) (Paleo)

Tis the season to be jolly! We are approaching the Christmas season friends! And this is the first in the collection of Christmasy recipes I'll be posting! 

This gluten free chestnut cake is so easy it literally took half an hour to get it in to the oven.

Want a piece?

Its gluten free and paleo (apart from the icing)! Totally healthy. I used half boiled chestnuts and half roasted chestnuts. You can easily get preroasted chestnuts from a supermarket. They sell them as snacks in little 100g bags ☺️ 

Do note though, if I were to bake this again for my family (they absolutely loved this) I would add something to hold the cake together better. Such as chia or xantham gum or starch. 

What you'll need

Cake:

300g cooked and peeled chestnuts

3/4 level teaspoon baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 eggs separated 

3 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 cup water

Frosting:

1 tub Greek yogurt (170 g)

1 tbsp Maple syrup

(Not paleo, but can sub with cashew cream or coconut cream!) 

How to

1. Process chesnuts until it's like a clumpy flour. 

2. Mix baking powder and spices into ground chestnut. Beat maple syrup, oil, 2 egg yolks and water together. Pour into ground chesnut and combine well. 

Preheat oven to 160C. 

3. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks and gently fold into chestnut mixture. 

4. Transfer batter to a prepared 6 inch round pan and bake for 40min. Lower temperature to 150C and bake for 10min. Then 140C for 10min. ((Honestly though I think you should just do 150C for 45min or so. I'm sorry I don't feel like rebaking the cake just to tweak the temperature))

5. When cake is cool, flip it out onto a plate. Mix greek yogurt and maple syrup together, spread over the cake. Top with walnuts or anything your heart desires. Orange zest would go nicely I think.