Apple Berry Crumble

July 7, 2018June 27, 2024 ~ desertcook ~ 5 Comments

Apple crumble was a regular dessert feature in my house growing up and I have always loved it.

My husband jokes that he knew that he was going to marry me when I brought him a bowl of it as sustenance during exam study time at uni! That was a looong time ago – tomorrow we celebrate 16 years together, so it seemed like a good time to bring this one out again 🙂

Over those many years, I have added to my mum’s recipe, adapted it to suit our diet and boosted its nutritional value. I hope you enjoy it too!

2 tbsp butter/plant based butter
1 cup rolled oats*
1 cup puffed rice OR GF rice bubbles
2/3 cup almond meal OR plain flour of choice (wheat or GF)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup toasted seeds**
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground cinnamon/mixed spice
2 large tins sliced apples (or home made stewed ones if you are more organised!). Pear works well here too.
2 cups frozen blueberries or raspberries

*Need it coeliac friendly? Replace the oats with an extra cup of puffed rice plus 1/4 cup rolled quinoa or shredded coconut

**I like the combination of 1/3 cup each of pumpkin, sunflower and hemp seeds – but use your favourites.

Start by mixing together the seeds and toasting them in a pan under your grill until they are golden brown – watch them carefully as they only take a few minutes. Toss them to make sure you get an even coverage.

Place apples and berries in a large greased baking dish.

Sprinkle fruit with the lemon juice, zest and the cinnamon. Then set aside.

Mix together all of the dry ingredients and then pour over the almost melted butter. Stir until well combined and evenly coated.

Evenly spread the crumble mix on top of the fruit mix and then place in to a preheated moderate oven for about 40 minutes, or until golden brown and the juices are bubbling.

Serve warm, on its own or with the custard or ice cream your diet allows.

This makes quite a large crumble … well, because everyone loves crumble and this often comes to family gatherings – there are a lot of us! If you don’t need quite so much, it’s easily halved. Or better still, just make this size, and gradually eat it for dessert for the next few days 😉 It lasts well in the fridge, but is better reheated in the oven than the microwave as it will keep the crumble topping more crunchy.

Enjoy 🙂

Boosted Breakfast Bars

July 2, 2018February 13, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ 1 Comment

My crew are on school holidays – hooray!!!

Holidays means slower mornings, adventures, time together …. and food. So much food!

I’m always astounded at how much more my kids neeeeed to eat in the holidays, when compared to what they eat from their lunchboxes during the school term. They tell me that it is because at school they stuff in what they can super fast so that the don’t miss out on their precious play time – apparently holiday are then for catch up!

These gorgeous bars are fibre filled, have a good serve of polyunsaturated fats and with a sweetness that comes from whole fruit, they’ll satisfy you and keep you going for ages. They work well as morning tea on the run too.

1 cup GF weetbix
1 1/2 cups rolled oats OR 1 1/2 cups fruit free GF muesli
1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour OR plain GF flour mix plus 1/2 tsp psyllium
1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tbsp each of hemp, flax and pumpkin seeds
8 medjool dates, pitted
1 large overripe banana
1 heaped tbsp seed butter (or nut butter that suits)*
1 medium egg*
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup milk of choice

*To make these vegan, remove the egg and add in a 2nd tbsp of the seed butter. Simple!

Place all of the dry ingredients together in your processor/thermal cooker/bullet and pulse a few times until the ingredients are roughly chopped and well combined. Then set aside.

Place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into your thermal cooker. Cook on 90C, Speed 2 for 3 mins. Add in the banana and cook on speed 3, 90C for a further minute. Then boost up to speed 4 for 8 seconds.

To cook this one without a thermal cooker, place the dates, seed butter, milk and vanilla into a saucepan and cook over a low heat, whilst whisking regularly until the mixture is well melted – the dates will still be quite large. Add in the banana and continue to cook, whilst whisking for a further 2 minutes. Then transfer the whole mix to a blender or processor, then process until fairly smooth.

Now add the dry ingredients back to the wet and process until just combined (Speed 2, about 15 seconds). If you are using an egg, add it in here. The mixture will be quite thick and sticky.

Scrape into a line 20×20 baking tray and use a spatula to smooth out and press down into the tin.

Place into a preheated 180C oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the tray before moving to a cooling rack to finish cooling before slicing in to 8 bars.

These will last several days in an airtight container in the fridge, or freeze them individually to pop into lunchboxes or grab on your way to work.

Enjoy

Vegetable Dhal

June 7, 2018June 15, 2021 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

Lentils are such an amazing food! They are really inexpensive, easy to use is a wide variety of meals and they pack a serious dietary punch when it comes to fibre and protein. They are one of the star foods for improving your gut health! A really valuable and budget friendly addition to your diet.

Like most of my meals that were inspired by other cultures, this is one you’re unlikely to find on the menu of an authentic Indian restaurant – but it is fragrant and delicious!

2 cups red lentil
1/3 cup French (puy) lentil
2 tbsp garlic olive oil
1 large brown onion, diced
1/2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 rounded tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
3 1/2 cups hot veggie stock (I use Massel for a store bought option)
1/3 cup coconut cream
2 large carrots, grated (roughly 1 rounded cup)**
2 large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped

**you can use an equal quantity of grated pumpkin or sweet potato here if you’d prefer

Rinse and drain your dried lentils

Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan and add the onion, cook until soft.

Add in the ginger and mix well to combine.

Add in the dry spices and fry well until fragrant.

Add in the lentils and stir well to coat the mix. Add in the grated carrot and combine again.

Add in the hot stock, stir well and bring to a simmer.

Simmer for approximately 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pan as they are absorbing the stock.

Add in the coconut cream and chopped spinach, stir well and cook until the spinach is wilted, but still bright.

Serve warm with your choice of ‘bready’ accompaniment – we used suitable wraps that we brushed with a little garlic oil, sprinkled with salt and popped under the grill until they were toasty and brown.

Makes about 4 adult serves.

Enjoy 🙂

Pumpkin Meatballs

May 16, 2018July 3, 2025 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

The first time I served this dinner, it was so well received by all of my kids that I was actually a little bit shocked!

The 2 big boys had seconds and asked for thirds, the 2 little ones totally cleaned their plates (including actual licking!). Ellie even asked if she could have them for her birthday dinner 😮 Now, years later they are a very firm family favourite (and Ellie does indeed have them for her birthday dinner choice!)

They are pretty simple to make, they make a lot and it’s easy to have a meat meal but use only a little meat whilst boost it with a good serve of veg to help meet our daily targets and to really increase the fibre content – Good for your health and good for your budget too! I think the key is to make the mixture fairly smooth.

1kg beef mince
1 400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed (kidney beans and black beans are great too)
300g pumpkin
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
1/2 tsp salt flakes
A few grinds of pepper
1 tbsp garlic olive oil
600ml tomato pasata
1/2 cup hot veggie stock
Good pinch salt flakes
Fresh basil
Pasta of choice to serve

Roughly cut the pumpkin and place into your processor, then process until very fine. (Speed 5, 8 seconds, scrape down and repeat).

Now add in the beans, herbs, salt and pepper in your food processor and process until well combined. (Speed 4, 10secs)

Whilst processing (Speed 4), add in the beef mince through the top chute, then continue mixing until well combined and fairly smooth. Blitz for a little longer or at a higher speed if you want less visible ‘bits’.

Place mix into the fridge for at least an hour, but up to overnight.

Using a heaped teaspoon of the mixture, roll the meat balls (or make bigger patties)

20190721_202340 — this version has kidney beans and I have left them a little chunkier in texture

Heat the oil in a fry pan and fry meatballs on each side until golden.

Add in the pasata, stock, pinch of salt and basil and simmer gently for 5-6 minutes before turning balls and simmer for a further 5-6 minutes or entirely cooked through.

Serve on your favourite pasta and top with a little cheese that suits your diet.

20180515_173902-1 — We use a mixture of GF pasta and steamed green beans as our base

*Recently when we’ve been making these I’ve been baking them to avoid the crazy splatter on my stove (No one wants that clean up!). Brown them with the oil in the frying pan then pop them in a big baking dish, pour over the pasata and stock, top with basil and then cover with alfoil. Place in to a preheated 200C for 25 minutes.

If you want cheese on top, remove alfoil and sprinkle with grated cheese then return baking dish to oven for the last 10 minutes

Makes about 24 meatballs

Enjoy 🙂

P.S. These make a great ‘bring and share’ as well as ‘serve yourself’ dinner – I recently made a triple batch to share with our family bible study group and they were demolished by kids and adults alike!

Mushroom and Lentil Bolognese

April 15, 2018August 29, 2020 ~ desertcook ~ 3 Comments

Bolognese has long been a favourite dinner in our house.

We have a pretty non-traditional version, but it works for us – there are always 6 empty plates and 6 happy tummies when it’s on the menu.

Easy to make, a massive serve of veggies, great fibre and it’s a very budget friendly meal, that cooks up in bulk and freezes well too.

More recently as we are reducing the number of meals we eat that contain meat, we’ve moved from making our standard beef mince bolognese, to this vegan version.

The kids haven’t blinked an eye with the transition, in fact, Harry recently requested it as his birthday party dinner – hope you like it too!

1 finely chopped medium brown onion
2 tbsp garlic olive oil
1-2 tsp minced chillies (depending on your heat preference)
2 large carrots
2 large zucchini
2 400g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed (we also use black beans)
2 400g tin lentils, drained and rinsed
3-4 cups mushrooms (a mixture of types is good to give textural variety)
a first sized piece of sweet potato or pumpkin, peeled and diced
3 large handfuls spinach
700 ml tomato pasata or a large tin of peeled tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste OR preserved tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
spaghetti or pasta that suits your diet to serve

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then add the onion and stir until soft.

Add in the chillies, mix well and turn down to low heat.

In your food processor (or with a knife if you have the patience!), pulse the mushrooms until you get a fine chop. Add the mushrooms to the onion mix in the hot saucepan. Stir them in well to coat in onion mixture.

Add in the lentils, tomato paste and red wine then stir well to combine.

Meanwhile, in the food processor blitz or grate the vegetables, spinach and beans. Add in the pasata to help bring the mix all together. Process more or less depending on how smooth you want your sauce.

Add the veggie and pasata mix to the mushroom and lentil mix in the pan and stir well. Bring to a very gentle simmer, then add the fresh herbs. I tend to finely chop the basil before stirring through, but I leave the rosemary on it’s stems, just bruising the leaves before adding it to the pot, just remove the stems when you serve. Simmer for about half an hour, stirring regularly.

20200118_160354 — Adding in the preserved tomatoes to boost the flavour!

Serve on your choice of pasta, zucchini noodles or a bed of steamed green beans – add cheese of choice to top if you like, or even sprinkle with nutritional yeast.

Serves about 10 adults (freeze left over sauce in an airtight container for a couple of months)

Enjoy 🙂

Lemongrass chilli chicken

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

Being able to pick some of the components of our meals from our own garden gives me such great pleasure! One of the things we have in abundance at the moment is lemongrass. Together with our chillies (which are incredibly hot 😮) and garlic, it makes such a delicious marinade and poaching sauce.

5cm lemongrass (just the centre core)
1 clove of garlic
3cm ginger, peeled
1-2 small chillies (depending on your heat preference)
2 tbsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp coconut sugar
2 tbsp neutral tasting oil
approx 700-800g chicken thigh, skinless and boneless
1/2 cup hot chicken stock
120ml coconut cream
2 large carrots
3 large handfuls sugar snap peas
rice to serve

To make the sauce, place the garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, amino, lime juice, sugar and 1 tsbp of oil into a small, powerful blender and blend until quite smooth.

Slice the chicken into strips and place into a bowl.

Add in 1/2 of the sauce to the chicken and mix well to cover evenly. Cover the meat and place in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to a day.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a heavy based frying pan, then add the chicken and allow to brown.

Mix together the remaining half of the sauce with the stock and coconut cream. Pour over the chicken and allow to simmer for another 6-7 minutes, or until the chicken is almost cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking, finely shred the carrot and peas.

Add the shredded veggies to the chicken and the poaching liquid, stir well.

Place the lid on the frying pan and allow to cook for a further 2 minutes, so that the veggies at still crunchy.

Serve with your favourite rice.

Makes about 5 adult serves

Enjoy 🙂

To make a vegan meal with the same flavours, you could replace the chicken with a firm tofu.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

March 24, 2018April 24, 2019 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

As the cooler weather rolls around I am SO looking forward to soups featuring weekly on our dinner menu again.

I love soups for so many reasons; they are inexpensive, fast to make, you can make them in serious bulk for quick and filling lunches during the week, you can absolutely pack them with veggies, they can help you avoid food waste by using up your veg that might be otherwise past its best and they are easy to adapt for food allergies (I have even seen vegan, low FODMAP stock powders recently!)

This is one of our favourites … With a few little tricks it is a creamy, velvety comfort soup …. With none of your normal creamy ingredients 😉 as well as its serve of fabulous dietary fibre, it’s also got some decent fat and protein to keep you going.

1 1/2 large heads cauliflower (approx 1.2kg), chopped
2 tbsp garlic olive oil
1 medium brown onion, diced
6 medium stalks celery, chopped
1 400g tin butter beans, drained
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
Pinch pink salt flakes
few grinds black pepper
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
100g sunflower seed butter
8 cups hot veggie stock (Massel for store bought)
Optional: fist sized piece of sweet potato, peeled and diced

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add in the onion and celery.

Fry, stirring regularly until onion is golden.

Add beans, cauliflower and herbs. Sweat down for about 3-4 mins. Add sweet potato at this point if you’re using it.

Add stock and bring to simmer, roughly 15-20 mins (until you can slide a fork easily into the veg)

Add salt, pepper, yeast and seed butter then use an immersion blender until the soup is perfectly smooth.

Makes about 10 serves. Delicious on its own or serve with fresh crusty bread of choice.

This one tendss to separate a little if you freeze and thaw but comes back together with a good stir.

Enjoy 🙂

Carrot Cake Pikelets

March 7, 2018March 21, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ 2 Comments

You might have already guessed …. but we are quite partial to pikelets here.

Pikelets, hotcakes, mini pancakes – whatever you like to call them, they are very popular with most kids and they are a terrific way to pack in a heap of goodies to make for a nutritious and filling snack – or breakfast! They freeze well, are portable and they are easy for little fingers to hold on to when they are learning to feed themselves.

We are enjoying these ones for afternoon tea today. They are a particularly terrific serve of long lasting fibre, with their mild sweetness coming from whole fruits. Hopefully we’ll have some left for lunchboxes!

1 1/4 cup spelt flour (half wholemeal) OR 1 cup GF flour mix plus 1/2 tsp psyllium
1/4 cup rolled oats OR shredded coconut
1.5 tsp GF baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup milk of choice
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 small over ripe pear (it needs to be soft to the touch) OR 1/4 cup pear puree
1/2 medium overripe banana
4 medjool dates
1 heaped tsp Sunflower seed butter OR other nut butter

In your blender/processor/bullet/thermal cooker blitz the oats or coconut until they are a fine flour (Speed 9, 8 seconds, repeat if required)

In a large bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients, including the blitzed oats, with a whisk then set aside. (Speed 4, 8 seconds)

In your blender/processor/bullet/thermal cooker place; the carrot, banana, pear, dates, seed butter, vanilla and milk and blitz until very smooth (Speed 4 initially, then build up to speed 7 for 8 seconds, scrape down and use speed 9 for a further 8 seconds, scrape and repeat if required.

Add the wet mix and the dry together and whisk or process until well combined and smooth.

Place a tbsp of the mix into a hot, lightly greased frying pan. It is quite a thick mix, so you’ll need to spread it out with the back of the soon a little bit. Flip over when bubbles appear and cook until both sides are golden brown.

Delicious served warm, on their own, with a little butter of choice or even some more seed/nut butter.

These work well sandwiched together with a little butter as a filling lunchbox snack.

Makes about 15

Enjoy 🙂

Strawberry ice dream

February 23, 2018February 25, 2018 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

This delicious dessert is like a cross between ice cream and sorbet.

It’s very refreshing and simple to make, no need for any churning, but you do need to make it several hours in advance.

We used up the last of the strawberries that we had frozen after a very over zealous ‘pick your own’ session at a local farm.

3 cups frozen strawberries
270ml coconut cream (Ayam)
2 tbsp rice malt syrup*
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 over ripe large bananas

*You can of course use honey or maple syrup if you’d prefer – I choose the rice malt here not because of any mythical ‘sugar free’ properties, but because of its more neutral taste.

In your processor or thermal cooker place the strawberries. Blitz them until they are very finely chopped (almost like crushed ice) speed 4, working up to speed 8 for 10 secs, scrape down and repeat.

Add in the coconut cream, followed by the syrup and vanilla whilst processing (on speed 4), then scrape down and process again.

Add in bananas, one at a time and process until very smooth. (Use speed 6).

Pour into a dish, cover and freeze for at least 6 hours, or over night.

Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving so that it is scoopable.

If you’re after an extra special treat you can add some chocolate! We make ours by melting 4 squares of chopped dark chocolate together with 1/2 tsp of tasteless coconut oil, then just drizzle away!

This makes enough for 8-10 serves.

Enjoy 🙂

Carrot and zucchini chocolate cake

February 19, 2018January 4, 2024 ~ desertcook ~ Leave a comment

Chocolate cake is always welcome in our house, and it is especially welcome in muffin form for lunchboxes. I always try to add some extra goodies in to boost their nutritional value.

The carrots and zucchinis were really cheap at the markets so I decided to have a go at something different to my normal beetroot version.

These are quite a bit lighter in texture and they are very happily scoffed by all of the kids and even the biggest sweet tooth.

Small zucchini (approx 200g), chopped
Medium carrot (approx 80g), chopped
Medium banana, very ripe OR 1 large egg
100g light tasting oil (melted coconut oil/nuttelex or butter works too)
100ml milk of choice
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
250g plain flour (half wholemeal)* OR 230g GF flour plus 1tsp psyllium
2 tsp gf baking powder
120g sugar
40g cocoa powder
3/4 tsp mixed spice
Optional: 2 heaped tbsp hemp seeds

*When these ones aren’t going to school, I remove 50g of flour and replace it with 50g of almond meal

In to your bullet/blender/processor/thermal cooker place the veggies, banana, oil, vanilla, vinegar and milk. Then blitz until it is very smooth. (Start on speed 4 then build up to speed 10 for 8 seconds. Scrape down and use speed 10 for 10 seconds).

Add in the dry ingredients and mix gently until evenly combined (speed 4, 8 secs, then scraps down and repeat if required). If you’re mixing this by hand, whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl, pour in the blended wet mix and then fold together.

Spoon into lined muffin tins and place into a pre heated moderate oven for about 16 minutes, or until well risen and the muffins spring back to gentle touch.

Makes about 14-16 and they freeze and defrost well.