Oscar turns 5 and a delicious dairy free number 5 cake!

This year Easter Sunday was extra special as it was also my Oscar's 5th birthday! Hard to believe how quickly that chubby little bundle from 5 years ago has turned into the handsome, chatty and all-around awesome 5 year old that he is today.

Oscar had his heart set on a big party this year but after we realised that his birthday fell not only in the school holidays but on Easter Sunday it seemed silly to arrange a party that a lot of our friends would not be able to come to. He will get his party next year but this year was all about family and we had a really lovely day.

One of our birthday traditions for the boys is that they get to choose what we have for lunch. Oscar, bless him, chose to have a simple BBQ lunch at home with sausages, marinated chicken, corn and lots of salad. Yep he really asked specifically for salad!

Our other tradition is that I will make whatever cake they choose from our collection of Woman's Weekly kids' cake books. After much deliberation over the past few months Oscar chose a classic number 5 cake and even wanted the same colours they had used.

I felt a little selfish but I didn't want to make a big cake that I couldn't eat so the cake had to be dairy-free. Well it took a LOT of research to find the perfect dairy-free chocolate cake that would be the right texture to carve into a number 5 shape and taste good and possibly be converted to sugar free as well. Whew.

I eventually found one on The Crafting Foodie and it turned out so well we will definitely be using it again in the future. The original recipe was for a 3 layer 9 inch cake but I converted it into a sheet cake and made it sugar free by using rice malt syrup instead of sugar. I also used decaf coffee so the kids weren't bouncing off the walls!

Dark, Rich, Moist Chocolate Cake - Dairy Free
Recipe slightly adapted from The Crafting Foodie

330g plain flour
1 x 500g jar rice malt syrup (1 1/2 cups)
135g cocoa powder
1 tbs bicarb soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups rice milk
1 1/2 tbs white vinegar
1 1/2 cups strong black coffee, hot
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbs vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 160 degrees fan-forced. Prepare a 23cm x 33cm baking pan by lining it with baking paper then greasing and flouring it.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

Combine the syrup, rice milk, vinegar, coffee, oil and vanilla extract in a medium bowl. Beat in the eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then mix on low speed until well combined. The batter will be very thin.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the cake springs back in the middle and skewer comes out cleanly.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting the pan to release the cake. Allow it to cool completely before icing.

I also did a lot of research on icing, trying to find something healthy that would also work to decorate the cake as I intended. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything quite right and so ended up with a traditional sugar-filled icing made with Nuttelex instead of butter to keep it dairy free. The search will continue for the next birthday cake.

Dairy-free Icing

185g nuttelex
360g icing mixture
1 tbs vanilla extract
food colouring

Place the nuttelex in a food processor or stand mixed and beat until smooth and creamy. Add remaining ingedients and process until smooth and well combined, and the icing is the right consistency to cover your cake. Add a little more icing mixture if it is too runny, or a little non-dairy milk (a few teaspoons at a time) if it is too thick.  This amount made enough to do a crumb coat and a top coat with only about 1/3 cup leftover.

For the stars I bought a pack of white icing and just tinted them to the colours I wanted.

Overall this was a really easy cake which made preparations for the day stress-free and Oscar loved it too which is the most important thing!

I'm actually going to reintroduce dairy in the next few weeks to see how Noah reacts (I've only cut it out while breastfeeding) but until then it's nice to know I can still made a great cake and not feel like I'm missing out.

Peanut Butter Granola (Secret Recipe Club)

Secret Recipe Club time! This month I was assigned Curious Cuisiniere by cute couple Sarah and Tim! Their love of food really comes across on their blog and I had a great time exploring their site and bookmarking lots of recipes.

When I came time to choose I actually couldn't decide and ended up making two and funny thing is, both recipes contain peanut butter. Sarah mentions eating peanut butter straight from the jar and while I haven't done that (yet) I do love my peanut butter!

The first recipe I made was the African Sweet Potato Peanut Soup. Smooth soups always go down better at our place so I added extra stock and blended it. It was absolutely delicious and a real winner but unfortunately I didn't get a decent photo.

The second recipe I chose was the Peanut Butter Granola and it was awesome. I've been making homemade granola for ages and I've done chocolate, gluten free and ginger-spiced granolas among others, but it never occurred to me to use peanut butter.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe like swapping the honey for rice malt syrup to make it fructose free. I also left out the whole peanuts to make it child-friendly and then used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth to give some extra crunchy texture.

3 of the 4 of us absolutely loved it but weirdly, my PB obsessed 3 year old didn't like it. Kids!

My only complaint is that it didn't make enough so next time I will definitely be making a double batch.

Great recipe, thanks Sarah and Tim!

Peanut Butter Granola
Adapted from Curious Cuisiniere

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
3 tbs rice malt syrup
2 tbs water
1/8 ts salt

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C / 325 degrees F. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.

Place the oats in a large bowl. Place the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until smooth and well combined. Pour over the oats and mix well. Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and press down (this will give you lovely clumpy granola which you can break up later).

Bake for 20 minutes then remove from the oven to break up the clumps. Bake for a further 20 minutes breaking up the clumps once during that time.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

An InLinkz Link-up

Choc Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

We love our breakfast smoothies around here. In fact if the boys are being a bit naughty at bedtime the thought of maybe not getting a smoothie the next morning is usually enough to settle them down!

As I am still off dairy I usually make a smoothie just for me while the boys will have the same as my husband. After trying lots of different milk alternatives I am thrilled to say that my tummy is loving rice milk. I really like the Vitasoy one that is enriched with chickpeas and very high in protein. It is quite sweet (although unsweetened) and a perfect base for a smoothie.

This smoothie is rich and sweet but packed with goodness and is a great start to the day. You won't be hungry for a while after drinking this for breakfast.

Have a great weekend!

Choc Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie
Recipe by me

1 cup rice milk

1 small banana
1 ts raw cacao
1/2 ts vanilla extract
1 tbs chia seeds
1 tbs smooth natural peanut butter
handful of ice

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Makes 1 (big) serve.

Breakfast Bars

Lately it's been really hard to fill up my kids. At 3 and almost 5 these boys eat a LOT.  Even my 5 month old who has just started on solids has already eaten kilos of fruit and vegetable purees. Heaven help us when they're teenagers!!!

I spend a lot of time looking for new recipes for snacks and quick meals that will fill them up for longer. My main criteria are high protein, low/no sugar and wholegrain. I've been reading Bianca's Wholefood Simply blog for ages but last week I splurged and bought her gorgeous cookbook of the same name. It is a treasure trove of favourites from the blog and so beautifully photographed and put together. The boys spent a good half an hour last night before bed flicking through and deciding what they would like me to make.

For me these breakfast bars were an immediate winner in terms of both ingredients and being so easy to make. My boys loved them for afternoon tea with a glass of milk and it keeps them going until dinner.

Breakfast Bars
Very slightly adapted from Wholefood Simply

1 cup raw macadamias
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 ts vanilla extract
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a loaf pan with baking paper and set aside.

If you have a high speed blender or food processor simply throw in all the ingredients and blitz until smooth. If you think your blender would struggle (like mine did), use it to process the nuts then simply mix with the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Tip the mix into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for approx 25 minutes or until it is golden around the edges and skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack then slice into bars and enjoy!

Spelt Quick Bread

A quick post about a quick bread! Sorry, bad joke there. Anyway while it has been radio silence on the blog lately I have actually been cooking and baking a lot but never seeming to find the time to post. I do have a lot of things photographed that I will get to when I can.

This morning though I wanted to bake something healthy for a late breakfast and stumbled across this quick bread. Just a handful of basic ingredients, 5 minutes to mix and 30 minutes later I was enjoying a few slices topped with natural peanut butter and a drizzle of rice malt syrup. The perfect Saturday breakfast.

Spelt Quick Bread
Very slightly adapted from Anja's Food 4 Thought

1 1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 ts salt
1 ts bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, divided
1 cup rice milk
2 ts apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line a loaf pan with baking paper and set aside.

Place the vinegar in a 1 cup measure then fill with rice milk then allow to stand.

Add the dry ingredients (but only half the pumpkin seeds) to a large bowl and stir together. Pour in the rice milk and vinegar and mix well to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, sprinkle the remaining seeds over the top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out. Delicious served warm from the oven or you can slice, freeze and toast to enjoy another day.

Mushroom Lasagne

I am a huge fan of lasagne! It's definitely my favourite pasta dish but for some reason we don't tend to make it very often. It just feels much more time consuming than good old spaghetti bolognaise which we eat pretty regularly.

I had my eye on this mushroom lasagne recipe from Delicious Everyday for ages. It was actually part of a series of Christmas posts from 2010 when the blog was called Le Delicieux, so that tells you just how long it's been hanging around!

I know the recipe looks long but I managed to get this in the oven within an hour, which seems amazingly fast considering I made the pasta from scratch! I was also pregnant at the time with 2 other kids to look after so was feeling very chuffed to make making something so fancy :)

And how did it taste? DIVINE. The earthiness of the mushrooms paired with the creamiest bechamel, tender bite of the pasta and the gorgeous salty parmesan on top ... it was just perfect. If I ever need to make something vegetarian for Christmas this will be ideal.

Mushroom Lasagne 
Very slightly adapted from Delicious Everyday 

Fresh Pasta
400g strong 00 flour
4 extra large eggs
1 tbs olive oil
1 ts salt

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Make a well in the centre. In a small bowl whisk the eggs until the yolks are broken up, then pour into the well. Add the oil.

Using your fingertips, slowly start to mix the eggs and oil into the flour. Once combined, tip the dough out onto a floured board and knead for approximately 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cut into 4 pieces, wrap each in cling film and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare your mushroom base and bechemel sauce.

Using your pasta machine, roll out each section of dough. I feed each piece through level 1 x 5 times, then once each on 2 -5. Lay out on a tea towel and cover until you are ready to use it.

Mushroom base
600g mixed mushrooms (portabella, swiss brown, button)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 brown onion, diced
3 ts fresh thyme, chopped
2 ts salt
1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
2 tbs beef/vegetable stock or red wine

In a large frying pan over a medium heat, fry together the olive oil and onion for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the garlic and cook until the onion is translucent.

Add the mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper and cook until the mushrooms are soft. Add the stock/wine and cook until all the liquid is absorbed.

Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Bechemel sauce
500ml full cream milk
1 bay leaf
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
3 ts butter
3 ts flour
1/4 ts salt
1/4 ts freshly cracked pepper
60g of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Pour the milk into saucepan, add the bay leaf and garlic and allow towarm gently over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

In a large saucepan over a medium heat melt the butter before whisking in the flour. Cook for a minute to remove the flour taste. Pour in the warmed milk and whisk constantly until all the butter and flour is incorporated. Switch to a spatula and cook until the sauce is your preferred thickness. Don’t stop stirring! Add the salt, pepper and parmesan and stir until well combined.

Lasagna assembly
Fresh lasagne sheets
60g parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees fan-forced.

Grease your lasagne dish with butter and line the base with a lasagna sheet. Cut them to fit if needed.

Cover with half the mushroom mixture and top the mushrooms with 1/3 of the bechemel sauce. Repeat ending with a final lasagne sheet topped with the remaining bechemel sauce. Sprinkle over the grated parmesan.

Bake for around 40 minutes or until the lasagne sheets are tender and the top is golden brown.

Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins (Secret Recipe Club)

It's Secret Recipe Club time! Each month SRC members are assigned a blog to make a recipe from and then we all post on the same day. Who got who is a secret until reveal day, which happens to be today!

This month I was assigned Flying on Jess Fuel, which has to be one of the best blog names ever. Jess is a navy wife and her blog is a fabulous collection of recipes shared from all over the US. Let me tell you I was really spoilt for choice this month. There were SO many recipes I wanted to make!

Unfortunately I can't have any dairy while feeding my son as it upsets his little tummy, so that cut out a few awesome sounding recipes that I have bookmarked for later on - Jess's Taco Salad, Cheeseburger Pizza and White Chicken Lasagna to name a few.

While browsing through her breakfast recipes I came across Jess's Coconut Flour Cherry Muffins. We happened to have a huge bag of coconut flour in the pantry and as I am trying to bake with less wheat and dairy this looked perfect!

Coconut flour has become a really popular ingredient lately as it allows you to bake grain-free, perfect for anyone following a gluten free or paleo diet. It works very differently from other flours though so you can't just sub it one for one with other flours. For example, for every 1 cup of wheat flour you would use only 1/3 cup coconut flour and lots of extra liquid.

I wasn't lucky enough to have a glut of cherries like Jess had when she made these, but I did have a bag of frozen blueberries so I used those instead. The only other changes I made were to use rice malt syrup as the sweetener instead of sugar, and olive oil instead of butter.

So how did they taste? Delicious! Slightly denser than regular muffins but very moist and with a very subtle coconut flavour. Similar to a friand made with ground almonds. These were a hit with my taste-testers and I've already made a second batch using pineapple and they were just as good.

This one's a winner, thanks Jess! :)

 Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins (Gluten and Dairy Free, Low Fructose)
Adapted from Jess's  Coconut Flour Cherry Muffins

6 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup rice malt syrup
3/4 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Grease a muffin tray and set aside.

Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to combine and remove any lumps. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, syrup and extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until smooth. Gently fold through the blueberries.

Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups.

Bake 16-20 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown and the muffins spring back when touched gently in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin before turning out on to a cooling rack.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes (Wheat, Egg, Dairy, Fructose Free)

For the past 7 weeks my husband and I have been eating incredibly well. We cleaned out the pantry at the start of January so we couldn't snack on junk even if we wanted to! And it's working. I have lost 3 kg and hubby is down over 5. But sometimes you just want a little sweet treat, you want to feel like you aren't missing out. Enter these amazing chocolate cupcakes!

Despite being free from wheat, dairy, eggs and fructose they taste incredible! They have a soft, light crumb and intense chocolate flavour that totally belies the fact that they are pretty good for you. You probably still shouldn't eat more than 1 or 2 but if you, it's not the end of the world.

We each had one for afternoon tea today and the rest are stashed in the freezer for a pick-me-up another day.

If you're looking for something chocolatey and delicious for Valentine's Day but without all the crap, these would be perfect!

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Real Simple

1 cup white spelt flour
3/4 cup dextrose
1/3 cup raw cacao
3/4 ts bicarb soda
1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1 cup rice milk
2 ts apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 ts vanilla extract
2 tbs cacao nibs (optional)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius, fan-forced. Line a muffin tray with wrappers and set aside.

In a small jug mix together the rice milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes until it curdles.

Meanwhile, whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. To the curdled milk add the oil and vanilla and stir together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until just combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and sprinkle each cupcake with cacao nibs.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the tops spring back and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack.

Makes 12.

Starting School and Sultana Oat Biscuits

Today is a big day in our family as our eldest is starting school! While this year is called different things around the country here in Queensland this first year of school is called prep and is for kids who will turn 5 by the 30th of June.

Whatever you call it, it is the end of an era for us and the start of a new exciting chapter for Oscar!

We have been preparing for months getting school uniforms bought, washed and labelled, school books covered and the all-important lunch box chosen. After much deliberation I went with a medium size Fridge to Go lunch bag, a stainless steel lunchbots trio container and a 4 My Earth sandwich wrap and snack pocket. I bought all of these on Lime Tree Kids (my favourite online kids store) but they are available at other places. All of these should last him for years and I'm happy to be moving away from plastic to more environmentally friendly products.

At Oscar's school they eat 3 times in first term then twice a day after that. This means we need to send a piece of fruit for mini munch, lunch and a snack. For this first week I thought a yummy cookie would be perfect for his afternoon snack as it only has to keep him going for the hour or so until he gets home and I can bake and freeze ahead of time.

I came up with these Sultana Oat Biscuits using ingredients I had in the pantry. While I am baking without wheat and dairy most of the time these days, Oscar doesn't have any allergies and these are sugar free, contain wholemeal flour and will give him a good energy hit from the sultanas.

Good luck to all the preppies and their mums/dads today!

Sultana Oat Biscuits
Recipe by me

125g butter, softened
1 tbs stevia (I used Natvia)
1 ts vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 ts baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

Cream the butter and stevia together until pale, add the vanilla and egg and beat until thick and smooth. Fold through the dry ingredients until well combined. Roll spoonfuls of dough into 16 balls and place on 2 trays. Flatten each ball with damp fingers.

Bake for approx 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. They will be soft at first but will firm up when cool.

Pistachio Crumbed Chicken with Raspberry Soy Sauce (Secret Recipe Club)

Happy new year everyone and welcome to my first Secret Recipe Club post of 2014!

So my blogging has been a little sporadic to say the least over the past couple of months. Who would have thought that 3 little boys would keep me so busy! My littlest boy is now 3 months old and sleeping pretty well so I am finally starting to feel more like myself and more motivated to get back into the kitchen.

This month for SRC I was assigned My Judy the Foodie by Shari. I love the idea behind this blog, with Shari cooking her way through her mother Judy's recipes as a way of remembering her and preserving her culinary prowess.

I can really relate to Shari as I lost my mum to cancer in 2008 and actually started this blog within a few weeks of her passing. While she didn't love cooking she certainly encouraged me and loved eating anything I made. I know she would have loved me blogging.

While Shari has some delicious sounding sweets on her blog I am on a healthy-eating kick at the moment to shift some baby weight so decided to stick with a main meal. The one I chose, Pistachio Crusted Chicken with Raspberry Soy Sauce, had me so intrigued I just had to make it!

I sent my husband out to buy the ingredients for this one and we both had mini heart attacks at the price of pistachios - about $60/kg!!! So we got just 1 cup of un-shelled pistachios and made up the rest of the quantity with mixed nuts. The end result was still really tasty with that gorgeous pistachio green colour. I would however recommend blitzing the nuts in a food processor for a smoother crumb. I crushed mine very carefully with a rolling pin so as not to wake the baby!

I was a little dubious about the sauce, I mean who mixes raspberry jam with soy sauce and horseradish? I will admit to having a little taste of the sauce on its own and wondering whether I'd made a huge mistake. But Judy was onto something because when it was poured over the chicken it was delicious! I served it with sweet potato mash and it made a really lovely dinner.

Recipe Pistachio Crusted Chicken with Raspberry Sauce
Adapted from My Judy the Foodie

500g chicken thigh fillets
garlic powder
olive oil for frying
sea salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1.5 cups crushed pistachio nuts
250g jar of raspberry jam (mine was St Dalfour 100% fruit)
90mls low salt soy sauce
2 ts of white horseradish from a jar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Season the chicken with garlic powder and sea salt. Dip the chicken fillets into a bowl filled with flour, then into a bowl full of beaten eggs. After chicken is fully coated with egg wash, place in a bowl with the crushed pistachio nuts and cover completely.

In a large fry pan over medium high heat, fry the chicken pieces in about ¼ cup olive oil until both sides are golden, approximately 2-3 minutes per side.

Remove the pieces from the pan and place on a baking tray and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked through.

To make the sauce, combine the raspberry jam, soy sauce and horseradish in a small bowl and mix completely to desired taste. Heat the sauce if you wish and pour over top baked chicken.

Healthy Lamingtons for Australia Day

{Wheat free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free}

Happy Australia Day everyone! The kids are playing, there's cricket on TV and there are lamingtons ready to eat.

It's become our tradition to make lamingtons on Australia day but this year I wanted something a little healthier but still with great chocolate flavour. Amy from The Holistic Ingredient obviously agrees because she came up with these amazing lamingtons so that no one misses out despite any food allergies or intolerances!

I made her exact recipe which you will find on her blog here . The sponge uses almond meal and tapioca flour and relies on beaten eggs and baking powder for the lift. The icing is packed with superfoods like coconut oil and raw cacao rather than your typical butter and icing sugar. So much better for you and really, really delicious!

Having run out of baking powder I found a recipe online to make my own but unfortunately it wasn't hugely successful this time. Perhaps my ingredients were a bit old? The recipe is 1 part bicarbonate of soda, 1 part corn flour and 2 parts cream of tartar, all of which I happened to have in the cupboard. I ended up with a sponge that was light but flat.

Amy recommended slicing the sponge and layering 2 pieces together, but in order to get a more traditional lamington shape I layered 3 together, sandwiched with 100% fruit raspberry jam. I cut my sponge into 24 squares and made 8 lamingtons.

These lamingtons were absolutely scrumptious! Packed with flavour and without any of the ingredients I am trying to avoid, they were exactly what I was hoping to find. This recipe is definitely a keeper!