Crazy for the Coconuts

So while the balmy summer weather continues, the coconuts are still flowing in our house.

For today’s coconutty treat, I am making choco blueberry muffins. Sure to please everyone as an afternoon treat, or what the hell, even a breakfast treat, I clearly have no other food in the house!

For today’s batch I have used;

2 cups of self-raising flour

2 eggs

4 tablespoons of raw sugar…. completely up to your own taste as to how sweet you want these babies

half a cup of coconut flour

half a cup of coconut oil

Approximately 6 heaped tablespoons of Greek yogurt, I love Jalna.

I used a couple of handfuls of blueberries, which can be fresh or frozen. However I feel that a good 2 cups of any chopped fruit is really needed for the muffins to stay moist. The more fresh fruit you add, the less sugar you need.

Now for the hero ingredient, a choc-coconut spread by ‘nui’. It is gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan friendly and oh so delicious!

I added a heaped tablespoon of the spread to the mix and then made mouth love to the remnant on the spoon.

Blend together and then get your coconut cup cake on!

Really there is no excuse for not making muffin/cup cake combos, especially if you own any form of electrical mixing device. For 10 minutes of minimal effort and 15-20 minutes of laying on a deck chair time, it is well worth it.

Your children will love you, your friends will love you, your arse will love you… maybe not that last one, but no one can see your arse when it is firmly planted in a deck chair!

Megan Georgoulas

I’ve got a lovely bunch of Coconuts

The golden age of the coconut is upon us.

I had been suspecting this for some time, however now that I have seen that ‘Starbucks’ are offering a variety of coconut flavours with their infamous frappes, I know for sure that coconuts have gone mainstream!

Coconut based products are everywhere, and we seem to be making good use of the whole fruit… or is it a nut… for now let’s call it a ‘Drupe’

We are now commonly using the coconut’s milk, the flesh, the oil, even the juice or water. Perhaps next Summer us ladies will all be donning a coconut shell bikini? Now if this trend was to take off, I know who would start it…

The Victoria’s secret wearing, coconut loving, yummy mummy herself, Miranda Kerr. The rediculously hot supermodel caused quite a stir last year when she was misquoted as saying that her good looks were the result of consuming 4 tablespoons of coconut oil per day.

Shock horror, stop the press… a supermodel who actually eats and coconut oil no less…. why, isn’t coconut oil super high in saturated fats and feared by every ‘fat phobe’ who hasn’t left the 80′s? Could it be that oils are actually good for us? Well who better to listen to, then a chick in a bikini *

So just like the good little plebs we all are, without any further questioning we rushed to the shops to buy the latest and greatest by the truck load. Now at the time of Miranda’s coconut loving admissions, I just so happend to be working in a health food store, and the following is an example of every second conversation I had at said job for the next month…

Me: “Hi, how can I help you today?”

Customer: “I’m lookin’ for that stuff, you know, that stuff that supermodel eats, you know the one I mean?”

Me: “No, sorry”

Customer: “Urg, you know, that stuff she eats, to make her beautiful and skinny and stuff… Don’t you watch Today Tonight?”

me: “Sorry I have no idea what your talking about”

Customer: [Basically says the exact same thing perhaps with a slight variation]

me: “Oh, now I know what you mean… you’re talking about Miranda Kerr and Coconut oil…”

N.B. I did actually know what they were looking for from the get-go, but I was a weekend casual and getting paid by the hour….

Anyway, I digress…

With this sudden surge of coconut products one could become quite sceptical of the actual value of this tropical all-rounder. However, as a dairy-free household, we can’t get enough of it!

So on this balmy Queensland summer’s night, I decided to follow our Quinoa salad with my own take on a traditional Greek dish and crowd pleaser, Rizogalo or good old rice pudding.

I used 2 cupped handfuls of Aborio rice thoroughly rinsed. I then added one can or 400mls of coconut cream with 2 tablespoons of Agave syrup, 2 tablespoons of powdered cinnamon and a sprinkling of desicated coconut to really get in the tropicana vibe.

Stir over medium heat and continue to add extra coconut cream as it is absorbed by the rice. Just like a risotto, this dish requires a bit of attention to make sure it doesn’t dry out and burn… however with minimal ingredients, it is simple and quick to prepare.

Sweetness can be adjusted to taste. I also like to add some lemon rind to give it a bit of a zesty kick. Leave to cool and serve warm like a pudding, or my favourite is to refrigerate and eat like a scoop of coconut ice cream topped with a sprig of fresh mint. Crazy in the coconut!

* Meant with all due respect to Miranda who is actually educated about nutrition.

Megan Georgoulas

Franky’s Carob Cookies

not so pretty, but oh so tasty!

Franky and the boys hit the kitchen yesterday afternoon, while I took some yummy mummy time out at yoga.

I returned home to the beautiful smell of freshly baked cookies, yum! I was so impressed by his tasty treats, I thought I would share…

Ingredients;

• Half a cup of plain flour (you could also use a gluten/wheat free alternative)
• Half a cup of Carob powder
• Half a cup of butter (or a dairy-free butter substitute)
• Half cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 and a quarter cup of raw oats
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Half a cup of raisons

In a blender, mix the raisons and vanilla essence, then put aside.

Then blend all the dry ingredients together to create a smooth flour, including the oats.

Then place the dry and wet ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.

Franky simply spoons out desert spoon quantities onto a baking tray, which gives them a rough look. You could pretty them up if you wanted, however the mix is quite moist, so I don’t think you’d be able to roll out like standard cookie dough.

Place in a pre-heated oven, approximately 170 degrees centigrade and cook for about 20min, or until they are firm to the touch.

The cookies should be nice and moist inside and melt in your mouth… scrumptious!

Fruit Salad Sugar & dairy free Muffins

While on my 30 day no sugar challenge, I have been coming up with all sorts of variaions of all my old ‘sweet’ favourites… this one so far has been the most palatable!

Now I know these are heavy on the fruit, and yes fruit is full of dreaded fructose (see David Gillespie’s book Sweet Poision for more info on that one), so maybe I should re-name these muffins ‘Table sugar’ free…

anyway everyone in our house loves them, so enjoy!

Fruit Salad Sugar & diary Free Muffins

2 cups of wholemeal self-raising flour (next batch I’m going to use gluten-free self-raising flour)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil (or you can use butter)

1 1/2 cups of soy milk (I have been playing around with the amount of milk I add, if the mix seems too dry, I add a little water as I go)

Beat or stir together until smooth… Now for the fruit!

1/2 cup of peeled and chopped pear

1/2 cup of peeled and chopped apple

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

1/2 punnet of fresh strawberries chopped

1 mashed banana

add 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the mix and stir through till combined.

spoon into lightly greased or lined muffin trays and cook on 180 degrees for up to an hour… time in oven will really depend on the size of the muffins. I like them big, so obviously they will take longer to cook.

If everyone in the house is ok with nuts, then sprinkle some chopped or slivered almonds on top before cooking.

just check they’re cooked through before taking them out of the oven.

enjoy hot or cooled.

Hot with a dollop of greek yogurt is a real dessert winner!

Spicy Winter Pumpkin soup recipe

As the nights are getting colder, there’s nothing better than a warm bowl of spicy soup to warm up the evening and to help ward off any coughs or colds… the following recipe is one of my favourites.

1/2 butternut pumkin

1 carrot

1 sweet potato

1 large onion

3 cloves of garlic (or as many as you like)

1 pear

1 tsp tumeric

1tsp cumin

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp groud ginger

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Roughly chop the veges and pear and place in a large saucepan. Fry off the veges and spices for 5min or until aromatic. Cover with vege stock, season, bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and leave to simmer.

If you like your soup extra creamy you can add about a cup of coconut milk.

Once the soup is nice and soft, blend it all together and serve with heated sourdough or rye bread.

If the soup is too spicy for you, or you have bambinos in the house, I add some Greek yogurt to turn down the heat.

This is such an easy, quick and cheap dinner option and should feed a hungry family of 4, with some left over for the next days lunch.

Enjoy!