Tag: sugar-free

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
18Mar

Honey Chai Easter cookies

The first time I listened to Nirvana was in my cousin’s bedroom. My cousins were quite a few years older and the coolest kids I knew. I got hooked listening to Nevermid and listened to Come As You Are on a loop. I wanted to tell everyone about it. I was a little late to the party though, this was in 98, so my enthusiasm received a lot of eye rolling because Nevermid was so last year, or so the cool kids told me. Eighteen years later I receive somewhat the same reaction when a mere few months ago I expressed my love for Chai lattes. Chai tea, according to snobs around me, was old news. Chai was out, turmeric was in. Although as a teenager I liked to imitate my cousins, these days I no longer feel embarrassed for not having tried all the latest trends. So better late than ever, I have started to experiment with chai spices.  I am no expert, but I played with the spices combination in this recipe at least 10 times now, and it is truly addictive. I am not moving on to turmeric any time soon, I am truly in love with
3 mins read
1012 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