Category: sweet-tooth

cakes, desserts and snacks

two ingredients keto pancakes

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Another Summer comfort food recipe. Scotland is not the hottest place in the world and to be honest I don’t feel like there’s a place for typical Summer staples – all the meals and drinks that supposed to cool you down a bit and soothe the warmed by the sun body and mind. I would say that the theme here is: “if not the wind, it would be actually quite warm”. But maybe it’s just my perception of the Scottish weather and natives might feel a bit different about it. Anyway, I don’t feel I need to be cool down more than I already am. That’s why I will provide you today with a mix of hot pancakes with Summer fruits.

I had a pack of curd cheese in my fridge that was getting close to its end date, that I bought God knows why, so one afternoon I decided to try and make pancakes with them. I’ve seen pancakes made with eggs and cream cheese, so I was curious if it will work with curd cheese, that obviously has completely different texture and taste. To be honest I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, it was kind of experiment.

The outcome wasn’t bad at all, it was a little tricky to fry them, as they are quite gentle and bigger ones wasn’t that easy to flip. But when I lowered the heat and let them fry a bit longer it wasn’t so bad. They have a bit peculiar taste and squeaky texture, but with some sort of “sweet” addition of fruits or keto friendly chocolate sauce they are perfect.

I had only strawberries and frozen cherries, but if I would have some honey or maple syrup I would definitely brake the keto rule and drizzle them with some golden sweetness.

To make these pancakes you will need only two ingredients: eggs and curd cheese. Optionally, you can add some sugar replacement to the mix (xylitol, monk fruit sweetener, stevia) but if you decide to put some fruits or sauce on top it’s not necessary. You can use bits of fruits or smash strawberries or raspberries with a fork (or blender) to make some sort of fruit sauce and generously drizzle all over.

Non-stick frying pan will be also very useful as pancakes are quite gentle and might be little tricky to flip if you don’t have enough patience. But it will be a great option for you if you’re on gluten free diet and you can’t eat traditional flour made pancakes. Also all of you who’s on ketogenic diet and crave for pancakes will make a good use out of this recipe.

I think it would also go great in savoury meals with meaty sauces for example. But for the Summer take advantage of fresh fruits that are low in carbs like: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries.

two ingredients keto pancakes

INGREDIENTS for about 8 pancakes:

  • 450 g full fat curd cheese
  • 3 eggs
  • optionally: some sort of sweetener – xlylitol for example
  • some clarified butter or coconut oil for frying
  • additionaly: strawberries, cherries or any other fruits or for non keto options – honey, maple syrup, chocolate sauce

DIRECTIONS

Preparation is extremely simple: whisk the eggs until fluffy. I used blender. Add crumbled curd cheese and blend utlil you get quite thick, fluffy consistency. If you want you can also add a teaspoon or two of xylitol or other sweetener. Pancakes have quite neutral taste on its own.

Heat the non stick frying pan, add some clarified butter (won’t burn while frying) or coconut oil. Pour couple pancakes, trying to keep them quite small – they will be easier to flip. Fry on both sides on medium to small heat until golden. Flip gently. Remember pancakes don’t contain any flour so there’s not a lot of density. They might be more prone to break if you won’t be gentle enough or you try to flip them too early.

Decorate with bits of strawberries or other fruits or fruit sauce, drizzle with honey or maple syrup if you don’t mind some sugar. Anyway some kind of “sweet” addition would be needed, as pancakes itself have quite neutral taste, but they are very fulfilling comparing to regular flour made pancakes. They taste the best freshly made and hot.

Enjoy!

how to summon Spring? cacao crepes with banana and blackberry jelly

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I’m officially sick and tired of this Spring-called weather. Whoever pulls the strings up there is either mentally unstable or simply mean. This so-called Spring is an error, something is broken in matrix, it’s beginning of May and I’m still wearing my high top sheep wool slippers. And I had to switch on the heating (although having a look on my energy bill should heat me up). 9 degrees Celsius (feels like 6°C) doesn’t call for short sleeves and ditsy floral dresses that are abandoned in my wardrobe for months. Spring – you’re urgently called to be present! I understand that North Scotland is not the hottest place on Earth (either in Spring or Summer), but it’s not Alaska for God’s sake.

That’s why, against all odds lets make a very Summery recipe today. Maybe it will cheer me up while I rest my feet on the radiator.

These fruity crepes are just in time for a weekend breakfast or afternoon tea. We have three flavours here – slightly dry cacao pancakes, sweet banana and slightly sour blackberry jelly. This combination makes the dish not overly sweet. Adults should like it, and kids will surely be delighted with this combination. Especially since we have quite a lot of goodness here – cacao is a source of magnesium and gives happiness, bananas are full of vitamins, minerals and natural fiber, blackberries are full of goodness, all without artificial additives. So basically if you don’t mind carbs – just yummy. It’s a great Spring and Summer meal (if your Spring and Summer is warm) when your body calls for something lighter, juicy and fun.

I give approximate amounts of ingredients for crepes – I always guesstimate the amounts and if I want thinner crepes, I make slightly more liquid batter – it’s easier to spread it on the pan. About 10 pancakes came out of this amount of ingredients. But it all depends on your personal preferences and own way of frying crepes and, of course, the size of the pan.

For making blackberry jelly, apart from fruits, you can either use water or blackberry juice (or other fruit juice). You can also swap blackberries with cherries, blueberries or blackcurrants. Choose the one you like the most or the one that are available for you. You can also use frozen fruits if you don’t have fresh on hand.

cacao crepes with banana and blackberry jelly

NOTE: my cup is 250ml regular glass

INGREDIENTS for crepes batter:

  • about 1½ cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp sugar (or sugar replacement)
  • milk of your choice
  • 3 tsp raw organic cacao
  • clarified butter for frying (or coconut oil)

INGREDIENTS for blackberry jelly:

  • 2 handfuls of blackberries
  • some water (or blackberry juice)
  • about 2 tsp potato starch or corn starch
  • sugar to taste (or sugar replacement)

ADDITIONALLY:

  • couple bananas
  • clarified butter for frying (or coconut oil)

DIRECTIONS

Prepare a traditional pancake batter: whisk together flour, baking powder, egg and milk add enough milk to be able to pour batter and spread it over the pan. Additionally add a little sugar (so that the pancakes are not bitter) and cacao. Mix everything thoroughly so there’s no cocoa lumps in it. I also always add a tablespoon of coconut oil or clarified butter to the batter (it helps crepes not getting sticky to the pan).

Heat the pan adding a tablespoon of clarified butter or coconut oil and pour your first crepe. Usually the firs crepe is always imperfect, so don’t you worry an keep frying. When the crepe pan heat up properly you should be able to get beautiful crepes, without even using any fat. Make rather thin crepes so that when the banana is wrapped in them it’s not going to be too thick. When you make a batch of crepes put them aside and cover with a pan or a plate to keep them warm and soften the edges.

Now it’s time for jelly. Place blackberries in a small saucepan and add a little water – just enough that the fruits are in water but not covered with it. Add sugar to taste and heat it up, let it simmer for a minute. In a small cup, combine potato starch or corn starch and 2-3 tsp of cold water. Pour in the starch and stir quickly, but as gently as possible, so as not to crush the fruits. Simmer until you get jelly-like texture and clear colour. If you feel like it’s not thick enough add a little bit more starch (but always combine it first with a little bit of water, never add straight to the fruits because you’ll get lumps). When you get consistency that you like switch off the heat and let it cool down slightly.

Peel bananas and cut them lengthwise in half. Wrap each half with a crepe. Heat the frying pan adding butter or coconut oil, and fry crepes for a few minutes on both sides, over low heat, so that the banana has time to warm up and soften.

Serve warm, right after frying – crepes are then crispy, and banana is sweet and soft – it melts in your mouth. Decorate crepes with warm or cold blackberry jelly and enjoy 🙂

4 ingredients Rafaello (no sugar)

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Another Instagram inspired recipe. I think I need a rehab, because my head gets overloaded with all the Instagram photos and ideas I would like to try. And obviously there’s not enough time in the world I would be able to try them all. I got to the point that I consume more (content) than I can process, and I spend more time on it, that I could actually use for testing these ideas. My procrastination wins with each photo scrolled on IG, and I feel like soon I will need to bury my phone under the tree in front of my house. Some of you might know that feeling – you grab your phone just to check the emails and you wake up an hour later scrolling photos and reels on IG. There’s hardly any benefit from that, but when you catch yourself on that, it’s usually already too late and some of your time gets soaked by a black hole.

This annoys me because I’ve never had this tendency to endlessly scroll FB or watch whole seasons of Netflix series in one night (I hardly ever watch any series). So this time I’ve made a resolution and give myself a ban for Instagram. Before that though, I have this low carb Rafaello recipe for you, inspired by Instagram.

It’s super easy and quick, and if you love coconut I’m sure you’ll like it. I’m not a coconut fan but I like Rafaello, that’s why I was curious how it tastes. And although it doesn’t contain that crunchy wafer inside, that real Rafaello does, it’s actually quite good. I have to admit I didn’t add any sugar replacement to it, which for sure would make it better. So if you prefer sweet sweets add some sort of sugar (icing sugar) or sugar replacement. For sure next time I will add some sweetness to it.

Also if you don’t have a coffee grinder to grind dessicated coconut, you can use either coconut flour (but add teaspoon by teaspoon – not sure how it’s going to work) or coconut cream (very thick, much thicker than coconut milk). Most probably the second one will work much better as coconut flour will soak up all the moisture and might make your Rafaello quite dry.

It will literally take you couple minutes to prepare, plus about 30 minutes in the fridge. And as all low carb high fat snacks – you won’t need more 2-3 when you feel full (comparing to real Rafaello where you can eat whole box and you’ll still feel like it’s not enough).

4 ingredients Rafaello (no sugar)

NOTE: my cup is regular 250ml glass

INGREDIENTS for about 20 fat bombs:

  • 1½ cup dessicated coconut
  • 250g mascarpone
  • handful of almonds
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • optionally: xylitol or other sugar replacement

DIRECTIONS

Finely grind 1 cup of coconut using a coffee grinder. Put away the other ½ cup for sprinkle. Combine grinded coconut with mascarpone and vanilla extract, first using a spoon, then simply use your hand (if you use sugar replacement also add it). Using your hands make small balls a size of a walnut placing an almond in each of them. Coat in the remaining coconut and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Store in the fridge for 2-3 days.

apricot pancakes

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That’s a really old recipe and really old photos, but I have a fondness for these apricot pancakes. Recipe comes from a recipe book from the 80’s. I’ve made them years ago, but still when I look at these photos it reminds me of hot Summer days when life was a bit more gentle. Not that I feel like life would be more harsh than ever, it’s just different than it used to be. But you know that feeling when you come back to some of your old memories – they always look happier and more colourful in your head (than they’ve really been, most probably). I guess everyone has these kind of memories, and mine are often somehow connected with food. Photos are not the best ones, but I still like looking at them, and they always make me smile inside.

That was the days when I was exploring recipe world, there was no one day with the same meal. It’s a really great recipe – 80’s were masters of making something out of nothing. The pancakes came out plump, delicate and I think that even without the addition of apricots (because there are no apricots in the original recipe) they would be delicious. I love apricots. I like all nutty flavours of fruit, and apricot has such a slightly nutty flavour for me. In addition, they have a beautiful colour – probably even peaches are not so pretty.

Pancakes are not the meal I would make often. First of all because I’m not a fan of frying (oil splashing everywhere, smell of frying, lots of cleaning after), second of all I try to avoid high carb foods. Although this recipe requires only couple spoons of flour, so it’s not a crime. These pancakes are going to be amazing as a treat yourself weekend breakfast or Summer dessert.

Being able to cook from scratch and make for yourself (and your loved ones) something you really enjoy eating is a great value. On the other hand eating something you don’t even like or enjoy makes me feel a bit sad. Eating good things it’s such a simple thing that can add value to your life, just try to spend some time and little bit of effort and you can make your life more pleasurable.

That’s why I want to encourage you to start cooking from scratch if you didn’t tried it yet. There’s a whole word of flavours, and I’m sure you’ll find the ones that will bring you instant joy and make your gut happy.

apricot pancakes

INGREDIENTS for about 10 pancakes:

  • 250 g curd cheese
  • 3-4 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp powder sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • few apricots
  • vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS

Separate egg whites and whip them with a pinch of salt. Add sugar and curd cheese to egg yolks and mix it until smooth. Next add flour and baking powder, and combine (it will be very thick) at the end add whipped egg whites. Mix it gently using a spatula or spoon with folding motion. If it’s still to thick add a little bit of water or milk.

Now it’s time for apricots: wash them, separate seeds and chop them. Add them to pancake mix. Heat the pan with some vegetable oil. Using a spoon make small pancakes. Fry on a small heat until golden-brown on both sides. They are pretty gentle and might be tricky to flip, so better wait until one side gets nicely golden brown then flip it.

I made about 10 pancakes from that amount of ingredients – it’s definitely to little, because they were delicious!

🙂 Enjoy!

flourless chocolate and raspberry cupcakes

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As you can probably tell baking is not my best skill 🙂 But it doesn’t bother me, as long as the final effect is tasty. I passionately can spend hours in the kitchen trying to make something pretty, usually inspired by sweet creations made by others – and most often it comes out like this. But as soon as I make a first bite and I can taste chocolate fluffiness, and creamy texture of mascarpone mixed with juicy raspberries it doesn’t matter how it looks like. For sugar eaters it might not be sweet enough, as I didn’t add any sugar or sugar replacement to mascarpone. But for me it’s sweet enough. I prefer to be able to taste slight bitterness of chocolate and gentle sweetness of fruits. I think cherries would be also delicious. Chocolate and cherries and chocolate and raspberries are my favourite combinations.

I used a muffin tray and baking paper cut in squares instead of proper cupcake liners. You can do the same or use fancy, colourful cupcake liners – they will look much prettier that’s for sure. I don’t bake often enough to have them on hand, that’s why I always use bits of baking paper.

It’s a perfect recipe for all of you who cannot tolerate gluten as these cupcakes are free from flour. They are made only with 4 ingredients: eggs, dark chocolate, butter and sugar replacement. With simple mix of mascarpone and fruits on top. These cupcakes are very light and that’s their downside – you won’t even notice when you eat them all, and you will need to make a new batch.


flourless chocolate and raspberry cupcakes

NOTES: my measuring cup is regular 250ml glass

INGREDIENTS for 12 cupcakes:

  • 100g dark chocolate (I’ve used Lindt 90% cocoa)
  • 100g butter
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup xylitol (or any other kind of sugar replacement or regular sugar, if you don’t mind)
  • 250 g mascarpone cheese
  • 1 cup raspberries

DIRECTIONS

Break the chocolate in smaller pieces and place in a large glass bowl and melt over a double-boiler (pot with some boiling water, glass bowl placed inside, the bowl theoretically should not touch the surface of water but my usually touches and I didn’t manage to burn the chocolate yet). Add butter and stir until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the pot and let cool down to room temperature.

Now whip the egg whites. Separate the egg yolks and set them aside, we will use them later. In a bowl or a pot start whipping the egg whites, first on the slower program, after a minute or so you can use faster one (it will make you sure that all the whites are whipped and nothing stays on the bottom). Start adding sugar replacement and mix until you get soft peaks. I don’t like very sweet sweets, but if you feel like it’s not sweet enough for you, add more.

Heat the oven to about 160ºC.

Now go back to melted chocolate, if it’s room temperature add egg yolks and stir to combine. You can first add one spoon of chocolate to the egg yolks to warm them up, then pour them to the rest of chocolate.

Now slowly spoon by spoon start adding egg whites to chocolate, and stir gently using folding motion. You can easily do it using spatula or a big spoon. Always add egg whites to chocolate not the opposite, because whipped whites will deflate. You should get quite fluffy consistency.

Now fill up each cupcake liner, bake for about 25 minutes. After baking let it cool down completely.

Set aside couple raspberries and smash the rest with a fork. Whip mascarpone cheese with mashed raspberries. I used my icing kit to “decorate” cupcakes but mascarpone mixed with raspberries is not thick enough to keep the shape of icing tip, although still looks nicer than if I would use a spoon. Decorate each cupcake with couple raspberries and enjoy.

easy Spring no bake tangerine cake

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Although the weather outside right now doesn’t look like Springtime at all, let’s try to summon it with a light Spring-Summer dessert. Easter is coming soon and I think this kind of light, slightly exotic, no bake dessert will be perfect for this occasion.

Today I would like to introduce you to one of my old recipes for for a small sweet, simple dessert with tangerines. Although from the instructions it may seem complicated it’s very easy to prepare. And if I was able to make it, you will be able too 🙂

Tangerines I had was quite sour – but actually in that cake it was a plus, because they worked great with sweet layer of whipped cream. This made the dessert very refreshing. You can also adjust the ingredients to your needs and liking, swap tangerines with oranges, add icing sugar or sugar replacement, also I used basic tea biscuits, but feel free to use different biscuits that are available to you. Sponge biscuits would work well if you have quite high baking tray. If you don’t have loaf shaped baking tray you can use a high glass container or bowl. Get creative – even if it’s not going to look like from Instagram I can assure you it will be tasty. And that’s the most important. Isn’t it? 🙂


I used my silicone cake loaf shaped baking tray, but in the end, it wasn’t the best way to make it. Jelly stick to the silicone surface and wasn’t easy to remove it from the tray. Perhaps placing the cling film inside would be much better. Also my baking tray has 21cm at its widest point – it did not fit the whole amount of ingredients I had, just a little jelly and some whipped cream was left, but it’s not a problem – they can be alternately arranged in a small bowl and also cooled. Oh, and the top layer of jelly does not really want to stick to biscuits, as you can see in the picture. I guess if I would place biscuits before jelly sets completely they would stick better. But heigh-ho, the final thing was delicious and quite good looking for my cake-making abilities at that time. Not that I would say that right now I’m a great baker 😉

easy Spring no bake tangerine cake

INGREDIENTS for a loaf shaped baking tray:

  • 2 large tangerines
  • orange jelly powder (pack to be dissolved in 500ml of water)
  • 500 ml whipping cream
  • icing sugar or sugar replacement to taste
  • 4 tsp of gelatin
  • classic tea biscuits

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve the jelly in 400 ml of hot water – adding slightly less water than it says on the packaging will make the jelly more stiff and easier to slice. Leave it to cool down. Prepare small loaf shape baking tray, you can cover inside of it with cling film – it will be easier to remove the cake when it’s ready. I used silicon baking tray thinking it should be easy to remove it – placing a layer of cling film would make the process much easier.

Peel tangerines and also peel of the membrane from each segment. It’s more time consuming, but worth making – tangerines will be easier to bite and lot more attractive looking.

Pour a little cooled jelly into a loaf shape baking tray and place the nicest tangerine segments on the bottom. The jelly level should cover tangerines. Place baking tray into the fridge. When it’s almost set place a layer of biscuits.

In the meantime prepare second layer. Dissolve gelatin in approx. 2 tablespoons of hot water and let it cool down slightly. Whip the cream using handheld mixer, add some icing sugar or sugar replacement while whipping. When the whipped cream is ready, add gelatine and mix well. Place the cream layer on top of the biscuits and cover with another layer of biscuits. Then again place it in the fridge. Whipped cream with the addition of gelatin will set very quickly, faster than jelly.

Now again place a layer of jelly and the rest of tangerines. I arranged the mandarin pieces and just poured a little bit of jelly, because I was running out of space in the baking tray, but you can make this layer higher. Put the tray back in the fridge. After the jelly is set, go with another layer of cream and biscuits on to of it. Wrap the tray tightly in cling film (cream likes to catch other flavours from the fridge) and place it in the fridge for a few hours, or for the whole night.

Long story short:

jelly + tangerine segments
↓
biscuits
↓
whipped cream
↓
biscuits
↓
jelly with tangerine pieces
↓
whipped cream
↓
biscuits

Before serving, of course, turn upside down. With cling film it should go quite easy. Store in the fridge, consume within two days.

low carb banana bread

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Spending lots of time on Instagram sometimes ends up making things I usually wouldn’t do. I haven’t been eating bananas for ages, and I’m not a fan of cakes made with coconut flour – I don’t like the the texture and the taste of it. I rather eat a piece of real flour and sugar cake, than it’s keto replacement. I’m not saying that it’s not possible to make keto friendly tasty cake. I don’t fancy the one made with coconut flour, almond flour is a bit to pricey for me (although tastes much better), and I don’t miss cakes that much that I would be looking for replacements. But after several banana bread photos that popped on my screen I decided I will give it a try. I had some leftovers of coconut flour I had to use anyway (and I still have some more, so expect another coconut flour recipe).

I bought three tiny small, baby size bananas. I used two of them to smash and add to the mixture and one to place on top. Lets say one tiny banana has about 19 grams of carbohydrates, so whole loaf has about 57 grams of carbs. But obviously you won’t eat the whole loaf at once. I didn’t add any other sugar or sugar replacement to this bread, so the only sweetness comes from bananas – I used very ripe bananas that already started having brown spots – they are the sweetest. For average person most probably it’s not going to be sweet at all, so keep it in mind that you might want to add some sugar or sugar replacement if you want to keep it low carb recipe.

The other thing is coconut flour. Coconut flour is quite specific – it sucks all the moisture, so more you add the texture will be more dry and crumbly. And this dry and crumbly texture I don’t like. That’s why I added only three tablespoons of coconut flour. This way my banana bread came out quite moisture and even a bit soggy on the bottom. So if you like it on the more dry side, definitely add more (2-3 tablespoons) coconut flour.

With the stated amounts of ingredients you’ll make a small size loaf. My banana bread came out a bit crooked, just because I used silicon loaf shaped tray and it bent while baking.

I’ve used 250 g quark cheese I’ve had in my fridge, but I believe that cream cheese would also work great. Do not afraid to experiment. You can also sprinkle the top with sunflower seeds or walnuts.

LOW CARB BANANA BREAD

INGREDIENTS for small loaf shape baking tray:

  • 3 very small ripe bananas
  • 3 tbsp coconut flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 250 g quark cheese
  • 1/3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • couple drops of vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp melted butter
  • optionally: sunflower seeds

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to about 160-170°C. Prepare loaf shape baking tray – grease it with some butter or place place of baking paper.

Smash 2 small bananas using a fork, leave one banana to place on top of the bread. Beat the eggs using handheld mixer until they’re fluffy and light in colour. Add vanilla extract, smashed bananas, quark cheese, butter, 1/3 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda. At the end add about 3 tablespoons of coconut flour. Add more if you want your bread to be more dry. I would add about 2 more tablespoons for more crumbly and dry texture.

Transfer your mix to a baking tray and place halves of your third banana, if you want sprinkle some sunflower seeds on top. Bake for about 40-45 minutes – depending of your oven – always make a toothpick test: prick the bread with a wooden toothpick, if it’s clean – bread is ready, if not – it needs couple more minutes.

After baking let it cool down on a cooling rack. Consume within 2 days.

lazy oat and carrot bake

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I saw this baked oats dessert idea so many times on Instagram that I could not resist and finally tried it as well. It’s a kind of TikTok recipe, where you put together couple ingredients, that sometimes doesn’t really go together, and prepare in a way you usually wouldn’t choose (like making mash potatoes from potato crisps). And I didn’t even plan to post this recipe (it’s even hard to call this a recipe), especially that I really dislike the photos I’ve made. But came out that this dessert or breakfast idea is actually quite tasty and we’ve ate all in one and a half day.

So if you’d need to choose between buying a pack of oat bars (or pack of doughnuts), and making a little bit more healthy (and definitely cheaper) choice, I think this kind of oat bake is perfect. Especially that you can add whatever you like to this combination: nuts, raisins, peanut butter, fruits, chocolate, you can either use any plant milk you like or cow’s milk if that your choice. And it literally took me couple minutes to mix all ingredients in a baking dish. So even though it’s not my “go to” food choice, as I try to avoid lots of carbs, if I would like to treat myself with some home baked goodies I would choose this one.

I chose a mix of carrot and cinnamon, and all my sweetness comes from carrots, one banana and raisins that were already in my oat mix. For me that was just enough and I didn’t need any addition of any sort of sugar or sugar replacement. For you though it might be different, so don’t feel restricted by that. You can either add more banana or after baking drizzle it with some honey. Seriously this recipe gives you so many options, that each time you can make absolutely new taste with changing only one or two ingredients.

Because this kind of “recipes” usually doesn’t tell you the exact amounts of ingredients, I was just eye-balling the amounts of milk and oats. So feel free to experiment. From the amounts I’ve added my oats were quite dry – more like an soft oat bar, than actual porridge. But it was nice and crispy on top – especially when hot straight from the oven. If you add much more milk, you’ll get more loose and moisture texture.

I’ve popped couple pieces of organic raw chocolate – they’ve melted nicely over the hot oats. Also added some pumpkin and sunflower seeds to make it more nutritious and filling. I had a mix of oats, nuts and raisins, but if you have plain porridge oats they will work as well. Enjoy making your own mix of your favourite flavours.

lazy oat and carrot bake

NOTE: my measuring cup is 250ml regular glass

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 cups of oats (mix of oats, nuts and raisins)
  • 2 cups of plant milk of your choice (I had almond)
  • 1 banana
  • 3 small carrots
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • coconut oil or butter to grease the baking dish
  • optionally: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate (I used 85% organic cacao chocolate)

DIRECTIONS

Grate the carrots, finely chop banana. Smear coconut oil or butter all over your baking dish. Add oats, grated carrots, banana, cinnamon and seeds if you have them. Give it a good stir, so all ingredients will combine and spread evenly in a baking dish. Pour over with plant milk. Texture of my bake was quite dry – like soft oat bar, if you’d like more porridge like consistency add more milk.

Preheat the oven to about 170-180°C, bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, add pieces of chocolate. Serve hot or cold. Although I think tests the best when hot and crunchy on top.

Enjoy!

chocolate chia pudding

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Really low carb themed dessert today, not sweet for most of the people, for me sweet enough to be a dessert 🙂 Obviously you can alter this recipe to your liking and needs. Personally I love combination of chocolate (cacao) and raspberries, and warmth of pudding mixed with frozen fruits, that’s melting over it. Add some chocolate on top and you don’t need anything else.

You can use various types of milk to prepare it, I had almond, but I think hazelnut would taste delicious, kind of nutella flavour. If you don’t mind regular cow’s milk, you can use it as well. The same with sweetener. I use xylitol, but if you have other sugar substitutes you like, feel free to add as much as you like.

I also used raw cacao powder, which in my opinion is much less bitter than regular cocoa powder, so you don’t need to add as much sugar or sweetener to balance the bitterness.

From this amounts of ingredients I got two quite large portions, but you can easily make four smaller ones.

Chia seeds are full of Omega-3 fatty acids, and also other nutrients, so if you’d like to balance your intake of Omega-6 fatty acids, chia is a great source. If chia seeds are not available to you, flaxeeds or linseeds are great substitute. Although I feel like soaked linseeds make slightly different consistency, more gel-like, kind of slimy. If you don’t mind (and I know lots of people do) you can use linseed to make this pudding. It’s also full of Omega-3 fatty acids, and one of the best foods that reduces inflammation in your body according to the researchers.

I would recommend eating your pudding when it’s still warm, with piece of dark chocolate melted on top. Sound good, isn’t it? 🙂

chocolate chia pudding

INGREDIENTS:

  • about 500 ml plant milk of your choice (or cow’s milk if you like)
  • 4 tsp raw cacao
  • 8 tbsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp xylitol or other sugar replacement of your choice
  • handful of raspberries (I had frozen)
  • couple bits of dark chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Heat up the milk in a saucepan adding cacao powder and sweetener. Combine using a whisk. When milk heats up add chia seeds and whisk again until it starts to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes stirring repeatedly. Switch off the heat and set aside to cool down.

Transfer your chia pudding to smaller bowls or other dishes, place some raspberries on top, and couple bits of dark chocolate. You can either eat it warm or cold. I like it warm with chocolate melting on top.

You can store your chia pudding in the fridge for 2 days.

Enjoy! 🙂

peanut butter and sunflower seed fat bombs

Published on by PaulaLeave a comment

Peanut butter is often a “go to” snack when you are on a keto diet. Let those who have not spent the evening with a jar of peanut butter raise their hand.

There are some misconceptions about peanut butter – some people say it’s a healthy snack, other that peanut butter isn’t beneficial for us. And both are right. As with lots of foods the are two key words: source and moderation. Peanuts grow on the ground if not taking care properly they might get mouldy, if this kind of peanuts will be used for peanut butter, it can cause allergies and inflammatory reactions. Also some manufacturers adds some other ingredients to peanut butter that we don’t want. So always keep it in in mind when shopping peanut butter. It’s the best to buy from proven manufacturers or certified brands.

Other thing is moderation: peanut butter contains lots of Omega-6 fatty acids, which your body needs but no too much, because if we eat too much Omega-6 it can cause inflammation in the body. So if we eat Omega-6, we should balance it with lots of Omega-3 – that prevents and heals inflammation. According to this study Western diet is very high in Omega-6 and very low in Omega-3. So actually opposite that our body needs. High amounts of Omega-6 causes plenty of health issues: cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune disease etc. So most probably spending a night with a jar of peanut butter is not the best what you can do for yourself. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t have it at all. Everything is fine in moderation, and my today’s recipe is a great way to have some peanut butter but not too much 😉

Some of the types of peanuts contain monounsaturated fats that lower triglycerides, and they have all nine essential amino acids and the antioxidant resveratrol (antioxidant). They are also full of protein, which is important if you not really fan of meat.

In this case, peanut butter mixed with coconut oil and coated with sunflower seeds is a powerful snack – I can assure you you will eat one or two cubes and you won’t be able to eat more. This way you will eat less peanut butter than you would straight from the jar.

Sunflower seeds also contains lots of Omega-6, therefore keep it in mind as well. Although they contain some Omega-3 but not enough to balance Omega-6. But they have other great benefits: lots of Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorum, Pottasium, Manganese, Selenium, Folate, Vitamin B6, Niacin, Thiamin, and lots of Vitamin E.

To balance these two out we have coconut oil – to reduce inflammation, kill bad bacteria in your stomach and boost your energy levels. According to this study coconut oil, which is the most easily obtained source of MCT (healthy type of saturated fatty acid), improves (in synergy with exercise) the cardiometabolic and physical measures of people with obesity. Coconut oil also contains other compounds such as antioxidant polyphenols, known to improve metabolic profile by lowering LDL and VLDL while increasing HDL.

Coconut oil as health oil was recognized in Ayurvedic medicine almost 4000 years ago. The medium chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found primarily in coconut oil have antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal benefits. Either topically applied or ingested, coconut oil gets broken down to release Lauric Acid and Monolaurin – known anti-microbial agents. So it’s not only good for the inside of our body and our skin and hair.

Isn’t it remarkable that couple simple foods and they contain such a complicated and mysterious effect on our body?

Just in case you started thinking about Omega-3 rich foods a contrary to these peanut butter fat bombs, they are: fat fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies), linseed/flaxeed, chia seed, walnuts, soybeans, hemp seeds, spinach, Brussels sprouts.

Did I mention that these fat bombs are easy and effortless to prepare? 🙂

peanut butter and sunflower seed fat bombs

INGREDIENTS:

  • smooth peanut butter
  • raw extra virgin coconut oil
  • sunflower seeds
  • optional: sea salt flakes

DIRECTIONS

Combine together coconut oil and peanut butter in proportion 1:1. For example 3 tablespoons of peanut butter and 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. If you haven’t tried fat bombs before, it’s better to make smaller portion. Simple melt coconut oil on a very low heat (it just need to melt, don’t heat it up too much) and thoroughly combine with peanut butter.

Line a glass or plastic container with a baking paper or cling film – it will help you to take out and slice fat bombs. Pour in combined peanut butter, level and place in the fridge or freezer until it sets. You have to remember that all fat bombs based on coconut oil will need to be stored in the fridge, because they will melt in the room temperature.

While it’ s setting in a cool place. Toast some sunflower seeds on a clear pan. Low heat and stirring frequently, not to burn them. Toasting will add lots of flavour, so I encourage you not to skip this step. Let it aside to cool down completely.

When the peanut butter is set, take it out of the container and cut in cubes. Coat each cube with toasted seeds (warmth of your fingers will melt slightly each cube so seeds will stick easily). It doesn’t need to be perfect but don’t mess with it for too long. They melt quicker than you might think, especially if you hold them in your fingers for too long 🙂

Optionally you can sprinkle couple uncoated cubes with sea salt flakes.

When all cubes are covered with seeds place them back into the fridge for another 30 minutes or so. If you feel like evening cravings are coming at you, grab one or two cubes. Enjoy chewing! 🙂

https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3076/2

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12442909/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4882694/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32602684/