Pretty Pansy..

Pressing flowers, it's something I used to enjoy doing as a child, I haven't thought about it for a long while but I used to love my little flower press, I think my mum bought it for me from one of those book catalogues we found in magazines (not sure if those places still exist, but its what we did for book bargains before the internet lol)   I used to press all sorts of flowers, even sour sobs hehe, I made bookmarks and decorate lavender bags and all sorts. The little book that cane with my press had ideas and other information, such a small thing but I used it a lot, I loved and still love my books and stuff...

So, in an effort to keep my spirits at their highest this past week to cope with feeling poorly again, I decided to think back to simple happies, coinciding with our first heat wave arriving and probable crisping of my pansy plants, I decided to get picking and pressing! 

I went out in the beautiful sunny breezy morning -delishious, I love fresh country mornings! Making sure I thanked the flower faeries, (and left some for them too, they are at the height of their clothes making season after all!), I collected quite a pile of beautiful blooms.  

Pansies have the flower meaning "think of me", which is special to me today because it's been one year today that my dog Kira went over the rainbow bridge.  I have been thinking of her a lot.

Place them spaced out on absorbent paper, I used the old fashioned technique, between heavy books, simple, enjoyment, nothing too hard or serious here.

 Pile them up to squish the flat and load up the fat books on top, quite an impressive tower I have hehe

 I can't wait to see them dried out and pressed ready to use in some art journal pages, and perhaps a bookmark or two.

x Sarah

dairy free ice cream perfection!

With our first mini heat wave almost over, I've been in an ice cream making frenzy once again! The most exciting news is that I've perfected my recipe! Yay!

When I first made ice cream I was using the raw egg, or, no egg techniques, the main reason was, I wanted ice cream in an hour, tops, not 5 hours with lots of preparation over a hot stove.  However, I knew the cooked custard way would probably taste better...

So, I decided to stop being a wimp and experiment some more over the hot stove! It really wasn't that bad or long, and if you're ok with using the microwave, even quicker!  I used the recipe I created in my last post, only I cooked the egg through first in the coconut cream, maple syrup, lemon juice and salt, then added the fruit  ingredient.... Chilled, And, ice cream maker or ice mould freezy magic time later....perfection, sooo delishious, it's certainly worth the prep time and wait time.

I also decided to try using silicon single serve cake moulds and kids ice block moulds, they worked fabulously!!!

So here are the photos...

And here is the recipe

Ingredients...

1 can coconut cream
2 eggs
Pinch salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 TSP vanilla essence (one day soon when I can afford it I'll try the real stuff!)
Squeeze lemon juice

For berry ice cream
250 g raspberries or your favourite berry

OR for banana ice cream
one mashed banana

OR for coffee ice cream
1 heaped teaspoon instant coffee, dissolved in one teaspoon hot water

To make...
Whisk together coconut cream, eggs, salt, maple syrup, vanilla, lemon juice.  Stir over low - medium heat until custard thickens.  Add berries or banana or coffee, then chill in your fridge or freezer for a quicker chill!  Then add the mix to your ice cream maker and follow your machines instructions, or, pour directly into your silicone or ice block moulds and freeze a few hours until frozen solid.

Yum!!!!!

Did I say yum?!!! :-)

Can't be without my ice cream!

I looove ice cream, always have!  One of the many reasons it took me so long to abandon dairy!  Gelati too, I remember going to get gelati in the 80's with my sisters when we were young kids. Mum went one way to do the food shopping, we went the other, ah, simple times!  Mine was always strawberry, hehe, Strawberry Shortcake girl, everything was pink or Strawberry, just like my hero, I don't even know if it was my favourite flavour, isn't that silly!  And completely ME lol. - and I think I just called myself silly... Annnyway, when I was older and beyond the doll with the sweet smelling hair's influence, well, sort of, ("smile a sunny mornin'", lol,) I would only eat vanilla, weird!  Anyway, now I have a new way of eating, and an awesome ice cream maker, the weather is finally warming up, it's time to go berserk :-)

I'd made a few recipes, and wasn't completely happy with any of them, so I decided to do what I do best and create my own. I came up with this, my family and I have tried it three times, each time a winner. Yum yum yum!!!!

Ingredients...
1 can coconut cream
Pinch salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 TSP vanilla essence (one day soon I'll try the real stuff!)
Squeeze lemon juice
250 g raspberries or your favourite berry

To make...
Whisk together coconut cream, salt, maple syrup, vanilla, lemon juice.  Add berries, then add the mix to your ice cream maker and follow your machines instructions.  Yum!!!!!

Can't get enough Pumpkin Pie!

I wanted to share my pumpkin pie recipe with you, not because we celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, but after seeing so many pumpkin recipes on the internet at this time of the I was craving one! I've made this recipe twice already and I'm ready to make another!  I do love my pumpkin :-) 

I am always thankful for my loving and supportive family, amazing friends, fur kids, home, and all mother nature has provided me with.  Now I'm at the beginning of a new journey, through healing foods, it's the first time in my life I can begin to feel grateful for my glimpses of health, it's still early days, but I'm truly thankful for the small blessings in daily living.

Yummy and Healthy Pumpkin Pie!

Biscuit Base
Gluten free, dairy free

1/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup cashew meal
Pinch of Himalayan salt
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup

Mix all these ingredients together, and press into 25 cm pie dish

Pre bake base for approximately 20 mins at 180C or until it's just stating to brown up.

Leave to cool

Pumpkin filling
Gluten free, dairy free

1/2 a butternut pumpkin, baked and puréed, approx 2 cups pumpkin.
1 TSP cinnamon
1/2 TSP nutmeg
1/4 TSP ground cloves
2 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup coconut cream
Pinch salt
1tsp vanilla essence

Blend all this together with an electric mixer.  Pour into pie base, and bake at 160C for approx 40 minutes. Make sure filling is cooked through, it will have risen a little and be fully set.

Yum!  Enjoy!

easy to make almond milk

Almond milk, its delicious, and a great alternative to cows milk. It taste great on its own, and I also use it in tea, coffee, cereal, recipes...ice cream, the list goes on.  Considering store bought is quite expensive, it is full of additives, the taste is quite bad in comparison to home made, and the biggie, they usually only use 2% almonds! I weighed this out, and it turned out to be a very very small amount of real almonds in each store bought litre!  In Australia the usual cost is about $4 a litre! Mine costs about $1 a litre and has much more almond in it, is tastier, more nutritious and is so easy to make!

My hands are quite bad from arthritis, so, I can't do the usual cheesecloth squeeze required in many almond milk recipes.  So, I came up with this easy method.

1 cup almonds
Water

Step 1 measure out 1 scant cup of almonds and soak them for 24 hours or so.

Step 2 blend them up with a cup of water for 2 minutes 

Step 3 strain through a sieve and collect milk in a bowl

Step 4 soak out even more milk from almond meal in a separate bowl and pour through sieve again.

You can repeat this several times, depending on how thin you like your milk.  I keep going until I get two and a half litres.

Step 5 squeeze as much liquid out of the meal as you can and let it dry for a couple of days.  You can use your clean hands if you like and squueze, I can't make my hand into a fist, so I use my spatula, then the back of my hand to mix about and press down into the sieve. It still dries up nicely even if its a little wet...just takes a little longer.  I do ask for help with this part generally, to get the meal drier, but I can do it on my own if need be.

Step 6 yummy almond milk!  

Thank you Linda Benson for the original recipe and inspiration to make my own :-) 

Pumpkin is such a cute word...

Isn't it? Well, anyway, I looove pumpkin, and even though it's not techniqually harvest time in Australia, it's still the time of year that the world focuses on pumpkin recipes!

I'm determined to find a great pumpkin pie alternative recipe, but while searching through pinterest, I found this one...

http://www.beautyandthefoodie.com/magical-paleo-pumpkin-crumble-bars/

And then this happened

I substituted the eggs for flax eggs :-)

It's DELISH! Like, we've divided it up so we get equal pieces lol

Yum!

.... Well? What are you waiting for? ;-)

Dairy Free VEGGIE BAKE, Mmmm!

I love veggie bake, any time, its one of my favourite comfort foods. Its even more delishious on a chilly night for dinner, like tonight.  Being dairy free now I can't make it the way I used to, but have found by using coconut milk as a substitute it is still absolutely scrummy, and I wish you could smell it cooking, mmmm!

I pop my peeled vegetables in my bullet express food processor, on slice blade.  More potatos than anything else, I used about 6 medium - small potatoes, a half an onion, a quarter of a butternut pumpkin, and a third of a head of cauliflower.  But carrots, some broccoli, even some mushrooms would work.

Pop everything in your oven dish, then sprinkle with seasoning of your choice, and pour half a 400 ml can of coconut milk over the vegetables, add a teaspoon of crushed garlic to the other half of the can, mix it about and pour that over the vegetables evenly.

Cover with alimunium foil and put it in the oven for an hour at 180 C

Ding, that's the timer....ready :-)  yum, smell that :-)

It isn't as brown as a normal bake, but it still tastes yummy.  I can't taste the coconut milk at all.

Happy baking xx S