Berry Smoothies (Dairy free)

This is another of my favourite drink in the morning, it's especially good to have after the morning walk.  Coming home with sweat and feeling thirsty, the coldness of the smoothies melt you down with goodness. I enjoy looking at the ingredients blending into thick shake and using the spoon to eat the frozen fruit.  I couldn't ask for a better life to sit down on the sofa and enjoying this!

Berry Smoothies

Ingredients:

1 kale leaf

few lettuce leaves

1 frozen banana

1 handful of frozen organic berries

1 tablespoon goji berries

1 cup organic coconut water

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Serve straight away.

Spiced Chia Seeds Bubble Shake

This is my favourite breakfast drink which is full of goodies. It's liked the Taiwanese bubble tea but I use chai seeds instead of the tapioca balls.  I keep the left over into the fridge and drink it whenever I want it.

In cold weather, you can heat up the milk to serve warm!


Spiced Chia Seeds Bubble Shake

Ingredients:

2 cups almond milk (sweetened)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon chia seeds (soaked with 1/3 cup water until transparent)
1-2 tablespoon maple syrup

Pour all ingredients into a jar, shake well.  Keep in the fridge to keep fresh.
If you're using unsweetened almond milk, add more maple syrup.

Date & Walnuts Loaf

This is an old fashion bread that I've adopted from an ninety years old reader from a woman magazine.  It is a teacake/coffee cake that meant to be eaten freshly made with the accompany of tea or coffee. Because it doesn't use a lot of butter in the recipe, the texture of the bread is a bit dry.  It is usually served with a generous amount of butter to moisten and enhance the flavour of the bread.  Imagine spreading butter to the warm bread and the butter melted and soaked into the bread, Yum! It's also a great idea for kid's lunch box with the goodness of fruit and nuts.

In Australia, banana bread, muffins and brownie are the most popular homebake.  Maybe we have just forgotten about this old fashion bread and I reckon we should bake this bread more often to keep this recipe to last from generation to generation.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Date & Walnuts Loaf

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 cup water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Pre heat oven at 180c.
2. Pour water into a small saucepan, add dates and butter and let it boil. Take away from heat and add the bicarbonate of soda.  Let it cool a bit.
3. Mix the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl, add beaten eggs and then add the dates mixtures. Stir well and finally add the walnuts. Top the bread with 3 extra whole walnuts.
4. Pour the dough into a paper lined loaf tin, bake for 40 minutes.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Red Kidney Beans

The first question my kids asked after seeing this cake is, "Mum, what's that? It's so dark!" I just told them that it was a chocolate cake. I'd probably told them half of the truth and it's only my "not so liked bean's son" had the dare to try it even he knew it wasn't an ordinary chocolate cake. After taking one piece of it, he went straight for something else in the pantry and never touch the cake again!

However, my husband thinks this is a really nice cake, so moist and soft.  He urges me to share it so there you are, a flourless chocolate cake with red kidney beans.  Before I bake it, I don't know what to expect as I rarely bake cake without flour but I am pleased with the texture of the cake, and the taste of beans mixed with the cocoa powder, it's a bit liked those Japanese cake made with aduki beans. Maybe next time, I will ice it with some maccha (green tea) flavoured cream and that may make the cake more presentable!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Red Kidney Beans

Ingredients:

1 can (410g) of Red Kidney Beans
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g butter, soften
150g caster sugar
60g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
4 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 170c. Line a round cake tin with baking paper.
2. Drain and rinse the beans. Process the beans with water, vanilla and 1 egg in a blender until smooth. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, add eggs and bean mixture. Stir well. then finally add the sifted dry ingredients.
4. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the skewer come out clean after inserting into the cake.

Easter treats with Choc-Peanut Tartlets and Salted Caramel Tart

How can you celebrate Easter without chocolate? Here are two very simple and easy tartlets and tart that may make the preparation of Easter much easier for you.  

This year my daughter will be having Easter in France and I'm going to miss her very much. My son may feel happy that he can get all the Easter eggs but she reckons she would get better chocolate eggs in France. My little girl is growing up as a young lady, learning to drive, to be independent, to achieve her best in life.  I'm missing the fun time when the kids believed in Easter Bunny and got so excited on Easter Sunday for the Easter eggs hunt!  However, the big kids still love Easter eggs and chocolate treats for Easter!

Have a happy Easter and enjoy a great time with your family! 

Choc-Peanut Tartlets

Ingredients:
frozen tartlet cases
peanut butter
dark cooking chocolate and white chocolate
100 & 1000 sprinkles and Easter eggs

Methods:
Bake the tartlet cases followed by the instruction of the package.  Spoon in peanut butter into the cases and then toped with melted chocolate, decorated with sprinkles or Easter eggs.

Salted Caramel Tart

Ingredients:
1 frozen tart case
1/4 cup caster sugar
25ml water + extra 2 tablespoons water
25g butter
1/2 can of 397ml condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
almond flakes for decoration
melted chocolate for decoration

Method:

1. Bake the tart case followed by the instruction of the package.
2. Meanwhile, place sugar and 25ml water into a small saucepan, boil till sugar dissolved.
3. Bring to boil till dark golden colour, remove from heat and add the extra 2 tablespoons. The mixture is very hot, watch out for spit!
4. Then add butter to the caramel followed by condensed milk and salt. Return to heat till boil. Let cool before fill into the case.
5. Decoration the cake with melted chocolate and almond.

Good Morning Green Juice

The fun of juicing and blending smoothies is that they are so colourful, the awesome green, red, purple or orange and you know that it provides you with loads of goodies! Having one in the morning helps to cleanse your body and give it a kick start. These days I don't buy bottled juice as making your own is healthier and you can be creative to create your own favourite! This is what I call FRESH!


Green Juice
(make 1 tall glass)

Ingredients:
1 cup alfalfa sprouts
1 cup lettuce
2 celery stalks
1/3 continental cucumber
1 green apple, cored
1 piece ginger

Method:
Process all ingredients in a juicer and drink right away.

Banana & Walnuts Bread (Lactose Free)

Gluten free baking has been popular at cafe these days but there are hardly any lactose free baking available. My son is lactose intolerance so every time when he goes to camp with the school, he has to supply his own milk and request a special diet. He just miss out all the fancy shakes and milk based beverage when we are out dining. Most of the time he can tolerate cheese, ice-cream and chocolate but when his stomach is not well, these special treats are out of the question.

One of my friend's son has very bad reaction to dairy product so all her baking would be dairy free by using lactose free product. You can find lactose free milk, yoghurt and cheese easily these days so it is not a problem if your kids don't like soy or other milk substitution. I come across this recipe from Coles website of Curtis Stone's recipe and decide to making it a lactose free version. Usually my son doesn't like baking contain banana or walnut but he has been eating a few pieces and I guess I can call it a success!


Banana & Walnuts Bread (Lactose Free)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons Lactose Free yoghurt
3 bananas, mashed
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped (leave 3 whole walnuts for garnish)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, add sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. 
2. Add the oil, beaten eggs, vanilla essence, yoghurt and banana to the dry ingredients, then add the toasted walnuts until it is well combined.
3. Pour the mixture into a paper lined loaf pan and top with 3 whole walnuts for garnish.
4. Bake for 1 1/4 hours at 180c or until the skewer comes out clean when insert into the cake.