Brownies, all the yum and none of the guilt

A little while ago I discovered the Deliciously Ella blog and was instantly hooked.  I love everything about it, not least the amazing recipes.  Ever since I've been wanting to try out these little babies but couldn't find buckwheat flour anywhere.  Then the other week I just decided to search online and found this website where I found all sorts of whole food goodies and snapped up some buckwheat flour no probs.

But I forgot to make the brownies.

Until this article from MindBodyGreen popped up on my facebook feed yesterday. So, fed up from lying on the sofa all day and in need of a reason to stand up and move about gingerly (still suffering with sciatica), not to mention needing cheering up, I decided what better time to give these a whirl.

My love of Ella quadrupled when I realised I could just download the app and then pull up the recipe there on my phone (excellent) but for everybody else, here's the link to the recipe on her website.


It will take a bit of making sure you've got all the right bits and pieces as the recipe calls for the aforementioned buckwheat flour, raw cacao powder and sweet potatoes amongst other things but the more I cook like this the more I have such things to hand and now, ready armed with the buckwheat flour I had everything I needed.

The only problem I had with the method itself was one I've encountered before with smoothies, and that's that dates don't like being blended.  I decided to use my mini blender rather than my Kitchen Aid upright but that may have been a mistake as the dates just got flung about the bottom of the thing rather than obligingly being chopped up into smithereens.  This meant that rather than the creamy sweet potato/date mixture I should have had, I had a slightly less creamy mixture with random chunks of sweet potato and date here and there.


My next minor issue came when I spread the mixture across the 'lined baking dish' as suggested, I realised it was spread much much thinner than a) a normal brownie would be and b) Ella's example in her photos.  So a note about the size of dish may have helped here. I'm not sure I know what a 'baking dish' actually is but I used my normal oven baking tin.  Next time, I won't! I'll choose something smaller but deeper.

Finally method wise, the recipe says to cook for 20-30 minutes but actually I reckon 30-40 would be better.  I checked at 20 and 25 and then did another 5 minutes before the fork came out clean and actually, would probably have liked them a little crunchier on the top...maybe longer cooking would't have achieved that but think I'll experiment a bit next time.

So, having cooked them and patiently waited the 10 minutes before I was allowed to chop them up and taste them, I greedily gobbled one (ok, 3, mine were only small) up.  YUM.  Decided to do it properly and had another on a plate with some greek yog and some raspberries.

So, the verdict:  they are gooey, moist and delicious.  Chocolatey and sweet but not sickly or heavy like brownies would normally be.  I think maybe next time I'd add a tiny smidgeon more cacao just to make sure I'm really satisfying that deep chocolate hit, but only a little as it was pretty good already.

I was just sitting here thinking about how I could experiment and fiddle about with the recipe to make different versions (maybe banana, coconut, ginger, beetroot?  Beetroot makes a great chocolate cake...) when I've spotted Ella has another brownie recipe on her blog now for chilli and beetroot brownies...definitely trying those and think I'll try a ginger concoction of my own too. Watch this space!

Anyway, overall a definite winner. Thanks Ella!

Fego's Feasting

I may have mentioned previously loving weekend breakfasts.  At least once every weekend we'll say "ooh, shall we go out for breakfast today?" and then spend the next 2 hours trying to think of somewhere to go.  There are loads of places, but only one that quite meets the bill.  There are loads of places we can get a full English.  Several less that also do pancakes.  But only one that actually serves healthful, interesting whole food.  And that is Fego's in Marlow.

It is such a fantastic place with such a brilliant menu - only problem is that everybody else agreed so there's often a queue out the door.

Anyway, if you do get in you're spoilt for choice from a lovely zingy green smoothy, to  spicy eggs  with vegetables and haloumi, to an omelette, pancakes, croissant with avocado and salmon and so the list goes on.
This weekend, I am both incapacitated at home and sans husband so won't be going anywhere at all, let alone the lovely Fegos so I am amusing (or torturing!?) myself looking at these photos I've taken on previous visits.

Drool.

Think I know where I'll be heading next weekend...

Debunking a few myths in one sitting

I don't mean to brag, but I just cooked one of the most yummiests meals ever.  Here it is:

It was indulgent, warming, autumn comfort food at it's best.  And it was healthy. Oh, and super quick.

Honest.

If you ask most people what 'healthy' food looks like they'll probably talk about salads and the like.  Vegetable sticks and humus, fruit salad. That kind of thing.

It probably wouldn't conjure up images of creamy mash, steaming gravy and hunks of stick to your ribs meat.

But that's where they'd be wrong.

Tonight's dinner was all of those things, and consisted of:

Venison steaks - higher in protein, vitamins and iron than beef and very low fat, not to mention incredibly tasty and quick and easy to cook.  I simply heated some butter, browned all over for 2 minutes then turned the heat down and cooked on each side for a further 2-3 minutes for rare steaks.

NB debunking a butter myth - it is not the devil.  We definitely don't need to eat piles of butter all day every day, but using it in moderation where needed is fine.  Our brains do respond to how satisfying our food is as well and there is no way of replacing the depth or richness of flavour or the silky texture of a sauce made with butter.  Years of experience has taught me that scrimping on these things with good intentions is a false economy.  If your food isn't satisfying, all you want to do is stuff your face afterwards.  Just be sensible with it.  Plus, butter is a totally natural product, no manmade nasties or chemicals anywhere.  Moderation and all that.

Anyway, moving on, we also had red cabbage (full of protective phyto-nutrients).  I'd always thought of cabbage as something quite annoying and slow to cook but I was wrong.  All you need do is chop it up into strips, chuck it into a wok with coconut oil (or whatever oil you have), and stir fry for a bit.  It's lovely if you retain a bit of the crunch and even lovelier if you chuck some freshly squeezed orange juice at it.

I also added a few handfuls of kale into the pan after the cabbage was nearly ready.  Kale is like the king of superfoods, the queen of greens and it's health benefits are almost endless.  It cooks up super quick just flash fried.

NB debunking a frying myth - deep fat frying, ok, not great.  But heating up quickly in some coconut oil, or dry frying or adding a splash of water to the frying pan are super quick easy and healthy ways to get stuff cooked quick.

And finally, the piece de resistance, the icing on the cake, the yummiest of yum on this plate.

The mash.

Or, the cauliflower mash to be precise.

I kid ye not it is the most delicious thing ever. EVER.  I seriously don't know why anybody eats mashed potato with this on offer.

Please just try it.

'It' being:

Chop up a head of cauli.  Steam til al dente.  Chuck on about 2 tspoons grated parmesan, 1 tspoon dijon mustard and a sprinkle of sea salt.  Mash up.

Moan with delight as you taste its supreme yuminess.

Bung it all on a plate with some gravy you just rustled up by adding port/whisky/red wine type stuff to the pan you cooked the venison in and enjoy.

Totes delish, totes healthy, super quick and about as warming, comforting and satisfying as you can get without any of the lardiness.

Yum.

Polenta Please

I always like to make a thing of breakfast at the weekends.  During the week Alex and I have breakfast separately and I always just whizz up a green smoothie of some description for mine,  So at the weekends I like to make us both something yummy to have together, or we go out for a brunch somewhere.  I love to experiment with new things and ingredients and recipes as well, whether it be buckwheat pancakes, quinoa granola or today's new find, polenta porridge.

I spotted this recipe yesterday and decided it would work well for a quick but nice warming breakfast this morning so decided to give it a go as I had some polenta languishing in the cupboard from a few months back.

The recipe says to use water and

skimmed milk but I used water and almond milk,  I did consider using coconut milk and think I will try that next time to add a slightly different dimension...maybe with a bit of lime.  Anyway, it was super easy, just boil up the water and milk, slowly whisk in the polenta then leave it to sit for 5 minutes before chucking on whatever you fancy for breakfast.

We added unsweetened greek yogurt (which just tastes like double cream to me it's so yummy), raspberries, honey, and a blob of blueberry jam I found in the cupboard and fancied trying.  I also added walnuts just for a bit of texture as it was all looking a bit mushy and ploppy so far and I thought the extra crunch would  balance it a bit better.

Taste wise, polenta is fairly unassuming so it just sort of tasted warming and comforting and it took on all the flavours of the other bits we topped it with beautifully.

I found the quantities in the recipe ever so slightly generous but that might have been all the toppings I added.

It was defo a really good, interesting, lighter alternative to porridge.  Having eaten it it definitely feels easier on the old tum tum than oats and I'm looking forward to experimenting with different flavours and whatnot with this one.

Smooth Operator

I'm getting quite good at this green smoothie lark now.  Occasionally I do have a bit of a smoothie disaster. Like, for example, earlier this week, when I discovered that if you lose a cherry stone whilst making a cherry cacoa smoothie, it's probably fallen into the blender and will therefore get munched up into very annoying sharp chunks all the way through your smoothie making it nearly impossible to drink. Mega fail.

 However, I made up for it today as I put into practice two, slightly more useful, lessons I also learned this week:

1. Using water as the liquid base sounds boring and revolting but actually produces a really fresh, light smoothie where you can really taste all the other flavours;

2. Whizzing up the greens and liquid first before adding the other stuff gives a much smoother, better finish without random bits of spinach floating around.

With those 2 in mind I decided to cobble a green smoothie together after the gym today.  I had some mango in the fridge so wanted to use that and fancied putting some nut butter in too. Most importantly I wanted it to taste really fresh and vibrant. So after a quick rifle round the kitchen I came up with the following which made 2 generous servings:

2 cups filtered water

2 cups spinach

1 cup mango

1 banana 

1 dessert spoon almond butter

1/2 avocado

1 tble spoon macca powder

I didn't add any hemp protein powder as there was plenty of protein in our lunch. I didn't use almond milk or too much banana/fruit/nut butter as I wanted to keep it quite clean tasting. 

The result was super yummy! It was lovely and smooth and creamy (I hate them too watery), with a delicious fruity taste and a hint of bananary-nutty yumminess without being at all heavy or stodgy. The texture was great given I whizzed up the spinach first. 

Alex agreed it was defo a success! And not a dismembered cherry stone in sight.

Think I'll be making this one again. 

Rainbow bright

We were sposed to have morrocan chicken soup for tea tonight, but I just didn't fancy a bowl of heavy, chickpea laden, brown plop.  I stared into the fridge trying to conjure up some sort of alternative and spotted a nice bunch of asparagus that I suddenly did fancy.

I grabbed a couple of other brightly coloured bits from the veg and salad drawer, unearthed some feta and some chicken slices for a bit of protein, lightly steamed the asparagus and after a quick drizzle with some left over mustard dressing, we had ourselves a meal.

A veg packed, multicoloured, full of nutrients and flavour meal in a jiffy. So much lighter than the soup option which can wait for another night. 

Happiness on a plate!

Chinese fake-away

Some nights are just chicken fried rice nights and there's no getting away from it. 

So whilst what I'm about to share may not be the 'best' nutrition wise, it is certainly a million times 'better' than the Noodle Nation equivalent I could have fallen victim to. 

And it was much quicker and cheaper. 

It helps to have a cupboard full of 2 minute microwave brown rice and a ready roasted chicken - 2 things always to be found in our house for such occasions. 

So, all I did was very quickly stir fry up some broc, kale and spring onion in coconut oil and cook the rice in aforementioned microwave. Chuck one into the other, sprinkle in some chilli flakes and a flash of garlic oil ( because I'm too lazy to chop up fresh garlic tonight and so hungry - the longer it takes for dinner to be ready the more I'll have nibbled on while I wait!), drizzle some low salt soy/tamari and some sesame oil, rip up some chicken and throw that in too. At this point I realise I have no eggs - mega fail. Normally these would get scrambled up and added at this point, as would some frozen peas. Couldn't be bothered with the peas in the aftermath of the egg revelation so hey presto, dinner was served. 

Yum, cheap, quick, healthier than the alternative but still satisfying that chicken fried rice itch.