Tag: paleo

29Jun

Paleo coconut macaroons

There’s a lot of changes in my life. We are leaving the city for the countryside, hoping for better quality of life. Moving houses is like a full time job and it leaves you with very little time. This has had a huge impact on our diet and we have been searching for recipes that include all the ingredients we have leftover on our fridge and cupboards. I was tempted by the abundance of asparagus in the market, made some hollandaise to accompany it and this left me with 3 egg whites in the fridge. Then whilst packing I came across a packet of dessicated coconut.  Obviously I thought macaroons. They are so quick and easy to make, plus they are a great quick fix for sweet cravings. Also a great way to use up egg whites Oh, and did I mention it’s paleo?!?! No refined sugar in these babies! Paleo coconut macaroons 3 egg whites, room temperature 70g coconut sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice Zest of 1/2 lemon 175g dessicated  1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Prepare a baking tray limed with greaseproof paper. 2. Beat the whites to stiff peaks. It’s important to use a bowl that’s throughly
2 mins read
582 Views
31Mar

Banana and dark chocolate chia pudding

I  laid in bed yesterday thinking since when did I become such an angry, inpatient person? I have been snapping at everyone recently and even beeped my horn at a slow driver yesterday – a big no-no in England. The feeling of guilt ate me up afterwards. How must I have made that driver feel? What if it was an old lady or a teenager learning how to drive? I am a strong believer in “owning up”, in the sense that I don’t like using external reasons to blame for my own actions. But this week I am going to have to make an exception and blame my period. The changes are palpable, not only in terms of emotions but also in regards to my stomach. My diet has changed considerably in the last few months, I have been trying to cut down on refined sugar and starchy foods and as a result I have been craving chocolate less and less, or in fact any sweet stuff. Result! But do you ever feel like sometimes food rules your emotions? My period then came and like clockwork, chocolate is all I thought about. Food is an emotional thing, and my body
3 mins read
832 Views
17Aug

Cassava cake {sugar free, dairy free, gluten free}

  I can’t really explain why I have felt so nostalgic of happy childhood days these past few weeks. I have been re-living those moments through food. So this is what this recipe is about. I am sure this recipe has also featured in Mariana’s childhood as it it is typical from where we come from. Cassava has already featured on quite a few of our recipes (pão de queijo, chips, tapioca ice lollies…) and I never tire to use it in recipes, I love the flavour and most importantly, it is an essential ingredient of the Paleo diet! Recipes made with cassava always have an interesting sticky consistency. So when you make this cake don’t expect for it to be airy and soft, it will be dense. Think brownie consistency. The recipe I am sharing is something I developed based on two family recipes, and it does not contain sugar, dairy or gluten. Cassava cake 4 eggs 200ml coconut milk 500g cassava Pinch of salt 150ml maple syrup or honey 2 tbsp of ghee or coconut oil, melted Fennel seeds Method: 1.Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut off the ends of the cassava, peel and grate it. Using a
2 mins read
956 Views
18Jun

Homemade Coconut Milk and Coconut cream with strawberries and rhubarb (no sugar, dairy free, paleo)

I think everyone that is familiar with this blog knows that I have the biggest sweet tooth. And I am going to guess that most people’s first experience in the kitchen is around a sweet recipe. Who here has never helped their mum or grandma growing up by separating eggs or greasing a cake tin? Back home from the moment I was able to use the oven unsupervised I would religiously make a chocolate cake every Saturday, always the same recipe. The only changeable factor was that I would sometimes make marbled cake rather than a chocolate one. With time I grew in confidence and started to experiment with tarts, pies and mousses, but in my early stages of cooking I mostly made sweet recipes. Savoury and mains is a side of cooking that started much later for me. So does that prove my point that I am just a little bit partial to dessert? I am in the middle of a hard core paleo diet and there are a lot of restrictions around sweets which is not always fun but it does motivate me to cook recipes that are healthy and still appease my sweet tooth. We already use
4 mins read
860 Views
07May

Upside down rhubarb and Earl Grey cake {dairy free, sugar free, gluten free – paleo}

A few weeks ago I got a package from Mariana, inside was the latest ingredient to feature in our Anglo-German food exchange. It was Earl Grey tea, is there anything more British than that? The package also contained a note from Mariana saying that she chose said ingredient to make my life easier. I did get a bit nervous because although Mariana wanted to make my culinary journey a little easier all I could think about after I got the tea was cake, which is a hard task for me at the moment as I am following the Paleo diet consequently any cake I eat needs to contain no flour, milk or sugar. So it was now beyond a simple culinary exchange, it was a full on challenge to whip up a paleo cake. Milk is not actually an issue, I haven’t used milk for years in my kitchen and I can now find so many great substitutions. But what about flour and sugar? This challenge entailed a lot of scientific research on Pinterest. I studied and tested a few recipes made by others at first in order to get used to ingredients, before trying one that was 100% mine.
3 mins read
698 Views