Dairy Free Tzatziki

Now I feel slightly silly posting this recipe.... because well, I dunno if I can call it a recipe....

It's more a list of ingredients. And then you will just have to do what I did, adjust it to your own taste buds. I did read a recipe I randomly found online, and then I did absolutely nothing of what it said ;-)! So I'm giving you the opportunity to do the same.

This is what worked brilliantly for me :-)!

Dairy Free Tzatziki

-3 dl Natural Soyghurt
-1 clove Garlic
-1 Grated Cucumber (drained in a sieve)
-Salt
-Pepper
-A splash of lemon juice or some grated lemon rind

I used only 1 clove of garlic to it as I felt I wanted to taste the other tastes too. Raw garlic can be so overpowering. stir it all together and let it infuse for at least an hour before you serve it. before you serve it add salt or anything else extra if you feel it needed more. 

 

Good Luck!
-Josefine

OMS Friendly "Chocolate Chips"

While watching shows like "the Great British Bakeoff" I always wondered how it was possible for them to forget an ingredient or use salt instead or sugar and things like that... well I now know. AND i didn't even have the stress of a competition infront of millions!!! 

So I was looking to make some gluten free chocolate chip cookies and thought that I need to find a way to make OMS friendly chocolate chips. so I mashed a banana and added a LOT of cocoa. I then spread it out on a baking sheet and popped it in the freezer. Ready to chop up and use as "chocolate chips" in my cookies. 

Well the cookies FLOPPED.

But it wasn't because of the chips. SO i went for another go. This time I grabbed a recipe from pinterest for banana nut muffins with chocolate chips. I adapted it a little bit and in the process I managed to forget some of the ingredients... so well,  they looooooked good... but let's just say they didn't taste so good ;-).

But once again, it wasn't because of the chocolate chips. SO for today I'm calling it quits on the muffin/cookie making and instead just sharing my idea for OMS friendly chocolate chips.

OMS Friendly Chocolate Chips

- 1 Mashed banana

- 3-4 Tbsp  raw cocoa powder

- a dash of vanilla essence (optional)

Mix all the ingredients properly and spread out on a baking sheet and freeze over night. Chop up and use in any cookie or muffin recipe. Perfect low fat and dairy free chocolate chips for us OMSers!

 

Good Luck!

-Josefine

Cauliflower and Broccoli Rice

So I'm sure plenty of you have discovered cauliflower rice by now. But for me it was new. After one taste the whole family was hooked! Both Nick and Ellie are not too fond of normal rice, so on this journey I am discovering other substitutes, that are better for us and also in many ways taste better! Win win!!

So my daughter Ellie is not a huge fan of cauliflower. She LOVES broccoli however(I know... odd child). So when she saw me shedding it into the cauliflower she was ecstatic. she stood by my side almost the whole time I was making the food wondering every other second whether dinner was ready... yeah... it was ever so slightly annoying ;-)... I don't know who was more excited that dinner was ready!!! She then proceeded to eat the lot! Loved it! 

This is a good way of getting more of your sulfur rich vegetables into your diet as well (according to the Terry Wahls protocol. It is is good in every way! Maybe ever so slightly more expensive than buying rice, but I recon on par with using quinoa for example.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Rice

- 1 Cauliflower head (shredded)
- 1 Broccoli head (shredded)
- splash of Olive oil
- Lemon or Lime juice 
- 1-2 colves of Garlic
- Parsley
- Salt

So if you are not avoiding saturated fat and heated unstable oils then you can heat this on the stove on high heat, browning it slightly before serving it immediately. But if you are like me and all other OMSers out there having to avoid saturated fat and not being allowed to heat our oils to high, I recommend mixing all these ingredients together(making sure they are evenly dispersed) in a baking dish and heating in the oven on 220 Celcius. Cooking times vary, but I had it in for about 20 min. Serve immediately and eat with desired sauce.

I recently got a veeeery nice ceramic frying pan that does not require any fat. So I made this on the stove with no fat and it tasted great! Just do what you would usually do, browning the garlic then adding the "rice" browning that, then adding the lemon/lime, salt, pepper and Parsley.

While making dinner today I wanted something simple so I just added a can of chickpeas, a can of artichoke hearts, zucchini, shrimps and a liiittle bit of sambal oelek. and it tasked great. You can add anything really and get your own version of Paella ;-)! 


 
Good Luck!
-Josefine

Gluten/Dairy Free Carrot and Zucchini Muffins

Yay for amazing days! 

This morning the girls slept in so I called Ellie's daycare and told them today was a home day. with BEAUTIFUL weather it was meant to be.

Out we go!

But before we go I wanted to try making up my first muffin recipe.
I know what needs to be in a cupcake/muffin recipe in general as I have made so many in my days, but I have never made a Gluten/dairy/fat free one!?!? I have read many suggestions on Pinterest about each area (gluten, dairy, vegan, fat free) but never combined them all into one muffin before. so this is a total experiment and I am currently waiting for them to come out of the oven..... 

 

...........And the result is in...... quite AMAZING!!! I can hardly believe it! Super moist, soft and bouncy, sweet but not tooo sweet and with a nice kick of cinnamon. The fact that the kids had one at the park and have been beeeeeeeeegging me for more is good enough of a review for me! Plus my neighbor stopped by and I stuffed one down her throat as well, And she approved big time!!!  

These shall be made again... probably often! And at 0.5 g of saturated fat per muffin I'd say that's a winner! I did decrease the oil I normally would have intended on using, by replacing half of it with Applesauce, and it worked a treat! As you will see later on in the recipe I used a sugar replacer called Eritrytol which can be found in all swedish Health food shops and now also in our grocery shops. It's the natural sugar that comes from pears, melons and mushrooms. And what is so amazing about it is that it doesn't affect your blood sugar at all.  So Yeah, give it a whirl. Here it's called "Sukrin".

Muffins at the play park!!!

Gluten/Dairy free Carrot and Zucchini Muffins

- 3 dl Gluten Free flour of choice (could use a combination of flours)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1 egg (can be replaced with 2 egg whites for less saturated fat)
- 1 egg white
- 1 dl sugar of choice (I used half stevia/eritrytol sugar and half brown sugar)
- 1/2 dl unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 dl extra virgin olive oil

- 1 dl finely grated carrots (slightly heaped)
- 2 dl finely grated zucchini (slightly heaped)


Turn on the oven to 175 Celcius. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift back and forth to another bowl a couple of times to make sure they are all properly incorporated. 

Grate the Carrots and Zucchini finely. I used one small to medium carrot and about a third of  a zucchini to make heaped dl measures of both. 

 
Mix egg whites/egg with the sugar for a long time in a separate bowl till quite fluffy. Add the applesauce, EVOO and sift in half of the dry ingredients. Mix on very slow until it's all just incorprated. Then fold in the carrots and zucchini and the rest of the dry mix. Do not over mix as you want as much of the air in there as possible. 

 

Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 min in the oven. Keep an eye though as all ovens work different! I checked with a toothpick after a while. This will make just about 12, but I would recommend making a double batch as they are delicious and the whole family will eat them, not just you. I guarantee it!!!  

 

UPDATE!
So for all of you who are in Sweden probably can't get a hold of Xanthan Gum (I bought mine in the UK) So I would recommend using psyllium fiber instead. I have tried this recipe again and used 1/2 tsp instead of 1/4 tsp of XG.

The other thing I tried is using just egg whites instead of the egg, and if anything it was better! Soooo high and fluffy. Loved it! And with less saturated fat, that's nothing but win's all round! So in total I ha 3 egg whites instead of 1 egg and 1 egg white.

Good Luck!!!
-Josefine

Healthy Brownie

 So here comes a recipe that has saved me on my journey to figuring all this out. Healthy Brownies. Yes you heard me. HEALTHY! I might go in later and change this recipe further, as I am still figuring out how to best make it. But It is certainly good enough to quench any chocolate craving you might have. The only problem?! you have to limit your intake if you are trying to eat less than 5 g of saturated fat a day. DARN! I figured out that on one batch of these there is a total of 20 g of Saturated fat, so if you divide it into 20 pieces there is 1 g in each piece. Eating one of these now and then to help with that craving is perfect, and it is healthy in many ways.


 You will need a food processor for this one... trust me.. a smoothie maker will not suffice.... not speaking from experience at all... really! Adn since I don't have one, I had to borrow my sister-in-laws (Thank you Linda)! 

You know when you borrow something, something ALWAYS goes wrong?! Well this time was no exception. I was preparing to return it when I realized that a main part was missing. It was gone. Nowhere to be found. spent 2 hours tearing the kitchen apart only to come to the conclusion that it was hopeless. In one of those irrational freakouts I searched online for spare parts and ordered one. Then OF COURSE 5 min later I glance down while packing for our trip to England (yupp this was the night before the flights) and see a white fleck between the couches... and there it was! first thought... those cheeky kids!!!! 

 
Telling my sister-in-law about the incident was probably the best bit though, she laughed her but off as did I. something that was so frustrating and annoying at the time ended up a moment to laugh about :-)!!!

Ok so the recipe...


Healthy Brownies

- 150 g walnuts
- 150 g almonds
- 60 g raw cocoa powder
- Date syrup and agave syrup (will explain further about this in the description)
- Optional instead of the syrups is to use fresh dates this makes them completely raw
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 100 g roughly chopped almonds for texture

Add walnuts and almonds in the food processor to make a fine "flour". Add the cocoa powder, salt and vanilla powder/paste and mix again to incorporate.  At this point I used date syrup instead of dates which many raw brownie recipes ask for. Date syrup is perfect to have in your store cupboard as it is 100% boiled and pressed dates. I also used agave syrup because of it's sweetness. Date syrup is great mainly because of it not being so intensely sweet, but with such strong cocoa taste having a little bit of extra sweetness made it perfect in my taste-buds. So I added enough date syrup for it to just come together in the blender, then I used the rest agave syrup. I wish I had a perfect amount for you, but it is completely up to your own taste-buds. Mine require a bit of extra sweetness :-). Then pour into a bowl and add the roughly chopped nuts. I like mine almost whole, but once again this is to what you yourself prefer. Pour into your prepared tins. I used 2 different sizes as I don't have very many tins. But you could also use cupcake molds or one large tray and then cut them into bars. press down firmly, then chill in the fridge for at least an hour. I then sprinkled them with cinnamon. but you could use cocoa or if you aren't on my strict diet you could roll them into balls and then roll them in coconut flakes... yum!

Some other variations:
- using orange extract as well as the vanilla... yuuuuum!
- or almond extract for that extra almondy taste.
- I have also found chocolate essence that I think I am going to try some time as it would reduce the saturated fat content. 
- Lemon extract
- Mint extract, or making little mint pieces somehow... (going to figure out how for you and get abck to you)
- in sweden we have something called "arrak" which is basically a punch extract. this could also be useful in some way... hm.... 
- If you want to make your bars bigger, so that you can eat more of them, you can add things like puffed rice in them. This gives a bit of a different texture as well. 

 

Well the possibilities are endless. If you want to decrease the saturated fat even more you can replace the walnuts with almonds. Walnuts have a little more sat fat that almonds.

Good luck!
-Josefine