Gluten Free Tahini and Chocolate Cookies

For the little monsters, I like to try out super healthy recipes, because let’s face it… who wants to feed children cups of sugar? Well I know I don’t! 

We have got today, a gluten free, vegan and refined sugar free recipe! What? What is left of good? How can I be lots of butter and not give you an indulgent recipe? Well.. there’s always a balance! 

Gluten free tahini and chocolate cookies

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 cup walnuts (ground finely)
• 1 + 1/4 cup gluten free flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup cacao powder 

Firstly, in a bowl, whisk up maple syrup and tahini. When fully combined add in the walnut and whisk the mixture well. 

In a separate bowl, combine sifted flour, cacao powder and the baking soda. Add it to the tahini mixture in three batches. The mixture will be thick and sticky so it’s best to use your hands. Make sure you don’t overmix it otherwise the cookies will be hard. 

Weigh the dough and divide it into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and press the ball down with a rolling pin, or an empty bottle of wine.

Put the cookies into the fridge for about 40 min. When about 30 min in, pre-heat the oven to 175C. 

Bake in a hot oven for about 10-12 mins. Once they are ready, remove from the over and transfer to a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool down before eating! 

I hope you enjoy this little bit of healthy heaven and please do let me know your opinion! 



Penne with Pesto and Black Olives

Happy new year by beautiful people! Sorry I haven’t been very active with my posting, you have to understand that I have been in multiple food and alcohol comas during the holiday season! 

My other excuse is that I can’t take good pictures of the food due to the stupid winter and not having natural sunlight! However I have solved that problem by buying a mini studio set up with lights. 

  
I’ve decided to post quite an easy, healthy and quick meal for you today (also I haven’t done food shopping yet and I was dying to test out the studio set and lights. 

I’ve chosen to use penne, but you can use any pasta you have – if you have fresh pasta that’s even better! 

Ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• 1 cup of pasta
• 1 tablespoon of pesto
•  8 black olives (chopped) 
• 1 fresh chilli (chopped) 
• salt and pepper

Cook the pasta to your liking, I like mine al dente, about 10-11min on boiled water in medium high heat. 

While your pasta is cooking, start prepping your sauce. Cut the fresh chilli in half and remove the seeds by scrapping it with the back of your knife – I love spicy food but I think this pasta benefits with just a bit of heat. Chop up the black olives, or if you want you can mince it, it’s to your preference. 

Once your pasta is cooked, make sure you drain it well and add all the ingredients. Salt and pepper is to your preference, I like to let the pesto speak for itself so I barely add any salt. 

I will be posting  my recipe for the pesto soon, I think everyone should try and make their own pesto st least once! 

Enjoy! 

Ana 

Fluffy Grain-Free Sunflower Bread

a week into my Atkins/Ketogenic diet, I’m trying my best to consume under 25g of net carbohydrates per day..

Growing up in a Portuguese and Chinese household, all my meals involved carbohydrates.. Bread, rice, potatoes, noodles… But unfortunately my metabolism is not fast enough to break down the carbs.. Nor can I control my portions because I love food too much.

I have to admit as much as I love this diet, as it allows me to eat as much protein and fat I want, I miss pasta and bread the most!

Luckily for me, I’ve found a low carb bread recipe!

 
This is not an easy recipe, nor will you have the ingredients at home.. Most stuff I had to order from Amazon.

Your ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• 2tbsp melted butter or coconut oil
• 2tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2/3 cup psyllium husk powder
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/2 cup sunflower seed
•  1tsp caraway seeds
• 1tsp baking soda
• 2tsp cream of tartar
• 1tsp pink Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup water at room temperature

Preheat your oven at gas mark 4 or 175C. Line your loaf pan with some baking paper, this will make it so much easier to remove the bread once it’s baked, or you can use a silicone loaf pan.

Separate the yolks from the whites and save the whites for later… Yes you better have a electrical whisk!

Mix the egg yolks with the sesame oil and the melted butter and the water. In a seperste bowl, mix the dry ingredients, flax meal, psyllium husk powder(don’t ask.. I have no clue what it is!), baking soda, caraway seeds and the salt.

Now with the egg whites, beat until they create soft peaks, you should definitely add cream of tartar to help it stay fluffy. Mix the yolk mixture to the dry ingredients, when everything it’s mixed, fold in the egg whites slowly.. Don’t need to be very gentle, but just gentle enough to not deflate the peaks!

Last but not least, add in sunflower seeds.. I personally think that I could have done with less seeds.. But I guess this is to your personal taste. Put the batter inside the loaf pan and bake for about 65/70 min.

This is an extremely great recipe to help you kick that bread craving!

Make sure you follow the recipe and tell me how it goes!
Ana x