Nut Free Energy Balls - Great for kids & post workouts

I love protein balls, they seem to be the on-trend thing to eat at the moment, up there with avocado!! My kids adore the balls I make for them, most of the time consisting of dates, almonds, and a nut butter.

 I recieved a healthy eating newsletter from their day care centre today and there was quite a long list of banned foods for safety, and to promote healthy eating. I realised that I couldn't send their normal protein balls in their lunch boxes as nuts are banned in the centre, for understandable allergy reasons. So today I set about making the balls using maple syrup as the core binding ingredient, and milled chia seeds and sesame seeds in place of my usual nuts.

 I'm sure it's easy enough to chop and change ingredients according to availability and preferences. For example tahini paste could be used in place of the usual nut butter. or maple syrup Anyway, these protein balls went down a treat. There was a spoon of cacao powder (which hopefully isn't frowned upon in the centre). This powder was gifted to me my a very dear friend when he came to stay with us during the summer. This is a highly prized powder from a chocolatier, Hazel Mountain Chocolate the Burren in Co Clare, so I use it very sparingly. It's chocolate in it's purest unrefined form.


Ingredients

• 10-12 pitted dates (depending on size)
• 1 tbsp of raw cacao powder Buy Hazel Mountain one here (not an advert, just adore it)
• 3 tbsp of milled chia seeds
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp of desiccated coconut
• 3 tbsp of maple syrup

Method

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and whizz until smooth.
2. Put the mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes to stiffen up.
3. Roll the mixture into bite size balls, and then roll the balls in either extra sesame seeds and/or coconut.
4. These keep great in the freezer and I recommend storing them there, to keep them firm, but not frozen.

Beef & Prune Tagine

This recipe is adapted from my Moroccan Lamb Tagine recipe from the archives. A recipe which I've mentioned before won a place in Rachel Allen's Kerrygold Community E-recipe book. A recipe I am very proud of.  I came up with this recipe as I was planning a dinner party,  and wanted a chilled out casual style party. You know, with mezze and pick n'mix style spread. I immediately thought of my lamb tagine, which is even better when made in advance. However my mother detests lamb. So that ruled lamb out, but not a tagine! There was an epic beef and prune stew on Rick Stein's French Oddessy recently on the UKTV Food channel, so I thought why not substitute the lamb for beef and the apricots for prunes. I did, and it worked beautifully. It was a really fragrant, spicy rich dish, and I added pomegranate seeds for freshness. It was I must say divine. I just added a simply cous cous, flatbreads, and yogurt and it turned into the heartiest meal we have eaten in ages.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs diced beef

• 2 tbsp ground cumin

• 2 tbsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 tbsp turmeric

• 2 tsp ground black pepper

• 1 tsp of maldon sea salt

• 1 tbsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp ground Cinnamon

• 4 minced garlic cloves

• one diced onion

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

• 4 carrots thickly sliced on diagonal

• 4 tbsp of prunes

• 2 tbsp runny honey

• 50g flaked almonds

• 100g cous cous
• 50g raisins
• 1 tin of drained chickpeas
• seeds of 1 pomegranate

• 1 tbsp Kerrygold butter

• Generous handful chopped flat leaf parsley

• 1 tsp of olive oil

• pinch sugar

• 1 tsp tomato paste

• 1 250g tub Greek yogurt (to serve)

• 4 mini pitta breads (to serve)

• lemon wedges (to serve)

Method

1. Combine all the spices, garlic and onion and rub into the meat
2. Leave to marinate, preferably overnight, although an hour should be sufficient.. In a lidded oven proof casserole dish, add the butter and olive oil on a medium heat.
3. Brown the meat, in batches if necessary.
4. Add all the meat back into the casserole dish, adding the carrots, tinned tomatoes, sugar, and tomato paste, salt and pepper.
5. Bring up to the boil and put lid on the dish and put in a preheated oven for 1.5 hours at 180 degrees.
6. Meanwhile, put cous cous in a bowl, add butter, rind of lemon, season with salt and pepper and pour over 150 mls of boiling water and cover for ten mins.
7. Fluff with a fork, adding half the chopped parsley, chickpeas, half the pomegranate seeds and the raisins.
8. Put prunes in a jug of boiling water and leave for 5-10 mins for them to re-hydrate a little and get nice and juicy, then cut in half.
9. Put the flaked almonds on a baking tray and toast in the oven, keeping an eye on them as they can burn in matter of seconds.
10. Remove the casserole dish from the oven and add the prunes and almonds and runny honey.
11. Return the dish (uncovered) to the oven for a final 20 mins to brown.
12. Put the pittas in the oven to warm through.
13. Remove the dish from the oven and present to the table in the dish adding the chopped coriander.

14. Put the cous cous, yogurt and pittas in bowls on the table and let your guests help themselves, Moroccan style! Enjoy. 

(sorry for the poor quality photos, a child feel ill, and we got distracted and never ended up photographing the food/spread. But, shur, another reason to do it all again.)

Quick & Healthier Pineapple Fried Rice

Happy New Year everyone! New year, new resolutions. My new years resolutions is to blog more. Since the arrival of my second baby, I've found myself sometimes a bit swamped with looking after the kids, and running the B&B. The blog was falling further and further down the priority list. I don't want that to happen this year. I hope to blog way more than the last two years. So new year, new promises.

First post of the new year has to be a healthy one. I thought this recipe for pineapple rice would be a tasty choice. I discovered pineapple rice whilst backpacking in Thailand and myself and Alan became absolutely obsessed with it. There was this one place on Koh Samui Island called Eat Sense, that, hands down, has the best pineapple rice I've ever tasted. There is a place here in Killarney called Khao that actually do a nice Pineapple Rice. But my aim with this recipe is to use turkey mince in place of the pork and make this recipe healthier. But not only healthier, faster too, using microwave rice and spice purees. This really is something you can whizz up mid week after a day at the office, and have yummy leftovers for the following days lunch too.

Ingredients

• 1 pineapple
• 1 microwave rice pouch
• 400g turkey mince
• 1/2 a green pepper, diced
• 3 spring onions, diced
• 2 tbsp of chopped coriander
• 2 tbsp of  raw cashew nuts
• 1 egg
• Pinch of salt & pepper
• 2 diced mushrooms
• 1 tsp of thai red curry paste
• 1 tsp of puree garlic
• 1 tsp of puree ginger
• 1 tsp of puree lemongrass
• 1 tsp of chilli paste
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil

Method

1. Firstly half the pineapple and scoop out the flesh using a spoon. Chop up the flesh into cube size pieces.
2. With a wok on a medium heat, add the oil and cook off the turkey mince. 
3. When the mince is browned off, add the garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, curry paste, salt and pepper and mix through.
4. Add the mushrooms, pineapple pieces, and green pepper and stir fry.
5. Break up the rice and add to the wok. Stir fry well to incorporate.
6. Add the cashew nuts, spring onions, and coriander.
7. Tilt the wok to one side, with the rice mixture to the other side
8. Break in the egg and slightly scramble it, before incorporating the egg into the whole rice mixture.
9. Finish with a dash of soy sauce and spoon the rice into the hollowed out pineapple halves.
10. The filling would feed 4 servings, add another pineapple (reserving the flesh of the second pineapple for something else) to feed four people.

Aubergine, Sweet Potato & Chickpea Balti - A Low Fat Balti Hit

So my obsession with sweet potatoes is clearly continuing. I've been trying to maintain a healthy diet lately with the run up to Christmas well and truly here.However last Monday to Friday was a real dieters struggle was a series of dull boring low calorie dinners, and left me longing for the weekend to hurry up for my treats.

This week I decided I couldn't face another week of roast veggies and quinoa for 5 days on the trot. I don't think I can actually face roast veggies and quinoa again for a very long time. I wanted to make a meal I could look forward to, so I set about making this delicious, sweet and spicy vegetable Balti curry. It's gorgeous.
The perfect amount of fiery heat and the long slow stew of the vegetables lent a sweet and delicate flavour to the dish. The addition of spinach was because, 'why not'! It's super healthy, and packed with iron. I had half a tin of chickpeas leftover so decided to bung them into the mix too. They are a great source of protein and help you stay fuller for longer, or so I'm told. I must say they did the trick as I was completely stuffed at the end of my meal and didn't long for the chili con carne I had made the rest of the family.

I have enough for tomorrows dinner also and I'm looking forward to it already. Of course leftover can also be frozen if you are unable to take the same dinner two days in a row. I myself get like that sometimes, but I suppose it depends what the offering is. In this case, I'm certainly not dreading it. I can't wait.

Serves 4ish

Ingredients

• 1 aubergine, cubed
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1/2 can chick peas
• 500g of passata 
• 1 tbsp balti paste
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 ginger piece, diced
• 1 large handful of baby spinach leaves, washed
• 1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil
• 2 tbsp of low fat natural Greek yogurt

To Serve
1 Small portion of brown rice per person

Method

1. Get a heavy based saucepan on a medium heat and add the sliced onions, garlic, ginger and oil.
2. Fry them for a minute or so, then add the balti paste.
3. Fried off the paste for another minute or so and add the aubergines & sweet potatoes.
4. Add the passata and stir well to combine.
5. Partially cover and simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes.
6. Add the chickpeas and one table spoon of yogurt and stir well
7. Simmer for another few minutes.
8. Season well with salt and pepper and add the spinach leaves. Turn the heat off immediately and gently stir the spinach leaves through until wilted. The add the parsley.
9. To serve, top each portion of curry with the second table spoon of yogurt and serve with a small portion of brown rice. (Mine is flecked with a small bit of black quinoa)

Maple Spiced Sweet Potato Muffins

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.....

I've been absent of late from blogging. I had  to take a time out towards the end of our busiest B&B season ever. Things got very hectic and on top of doing Bed & Breakfast 24/7, I also have the two little monsters to look after. So in the end, something had to give and alas I'm afraid it was my blog! Now that we have closed for the season and I had some time to recuperate, I delighted to be back experimenting, photographing, tasting, and blogging all my favourite recipes!

And this is a wonderful recipe to return with!! These muffins, though not intentional, and bursting with Christmas tastes and smells! And with December starting tomorrow, this recipe is a highly appropriate come-back!

Last night I put down too many baked sweet potatoes for the dinner. Here I was thinking one of the kids would finally fall in love with baked sweet potatoes, instead of eating mashed regular potatoes. To no surprise, there was no such luck, leaving me with two spare baked sweet potatoes.

I let them cool fully and put them in the refrigerator over night. I remembered last winter experimenting with butternut squash muffins, and they tasted great. Howerver I totally forgot to write down how I made them, so I thought, with these spare baked sweet potatoes, I should really try to recreate that recipe again, and this time record the ingredients.

The spices used in the recipe and wonderfully Moorish and the use of oil and maple syrup give the muffins a great moistness. My kids adore muffins, and these muffins are a great way of hiding sweet potatoes in their diet. They are going to be the perfect lunchbox snack.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 140g light brown sugar
• 75g raisins
• 175ml milk
• 30ml maple syrup
• 60ml olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 150g of cooled baked sweet potato
• 2 tbsp of mixed seeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl.
4. Add the brown sugar  and raisins and stir to combine.
5. In a jug, add the egg, mashed sweet potato, maple syrup, and milk and whisk thoroughly to combine.
6. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients from the jug.
7. Stir until all is combined and a batter is formed.
8. Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin case. Scatter each muffin with some mixed seeds.
9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. 
11. While the muffins are still hot, brush the tops of the muffins with some maple syrup. This with help make the tops sticky and crunchy and the maple syrup will also soak into the hot muffins.

Smoothie Bowl - On the Bandwagon & Loving it!

So anyone on Instagram will have noticed an increased presence in smoothie bowls in the Instafeed, people are going gaga for them. And sure why not, they are stunning to look at, and could quite possibly be the healthiest meal you will eat.

I adore them and now I'm hooked!! So versatile and pretty, there really is no right or wrong recipe, it's a little bit of what you fancy.

The premise though is, using a basic smoothie recipe as the base for the bowl. I would recommend making the smoothie slightly thicker than you would if you were going to drink from a glass.

Finally the toppings, you can mix anything from seeds, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, chia seeds, quinoa. Whatever you fancy. These couldn't be healthier if you tried.

Here's the recipe for one of the smoothie bowls I make most often

Ingredients

Smoothie

• 1/2 a banana
• 1 tbsp of hemp protein powder
• 2 tbsp of almond milk
• 4 tbsp of frozen mixed berries
• 1 tsp chia seeds

Toppings

• 1 tsp of chia seeds
• 1 tbsp of chopped pineapple
• 1 tbsp of melon
• 1 tbsp of mixed desicated coconut/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds
• 1 tbsp of walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Blitz your smoothie ingredients and pour into a bowl.
2. Top the smoothie with the selected toppings

Rhubarb, Apple & Ginger Jam Muffin Surprise

I call these buns, Muffin Surprise, because you can't tell what type of muffin you are eating until you sink your teeth into one. These are a very simple muffin mixture recipe, with my secret ingredient.....my divine homemade Rhubarb, Apple & Ginger Jam.

I cannot get enough of this jam, I'm literally obsessed. Not content with having this dreamy jam on scones and toast, I love to slather my pancakes with it, my french toast,heat it and top is over vanilla icecream (my fave), and now sneaking a spoonful into my muffin mixture.

Here's how to make the Rhubarb Apple & Ginger Jam

Ingredients

• 500g rhubarb, diced
• 300g of peeled chopped apple
• 1 inch piece of peeled ginger, diced
• 800g of granulated sugar
• 2-3 tbsp of water

Method

1. Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 20 minutes or so until the jam has thickened. It will thicken further when cooled. Pour into sterilized jars (I sterilise the jars in the dishwasher). 

See!!! It's that easy, no excuse not to make your own jam, seriously!!

Rhubarb, Apple & Ginger Jam Muffin Surprise

Ingredients

• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 160g sugar
• 170ml milk
• 1 egg
• 75g melted butter
• Rhubarb Jam

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Sieve the flour and the baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar
3. Whisk the egg, milk and butter in a jug.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir through until incorporated into a muffin batter
5. Put 1 tbsp of batter in each muffin case, followed by half a tsp of jam in each case, then divide the remaining batter into all the cases.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 22 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven once baked and cool on wire rack

(Tip you can use shop bought jam of any description for this recipe to substitute the homemade jam)