Tag Archives: Home cooking

Guilt free banana, blueberry & peanut butter bread

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I can promise you that the title is not a trick; this really is a guilt free treat.

Thanks to the ‘caveman’ paleo plan there is such a thing as sin free cake. The paleo plan focuses on eating what our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have eaten, steering clear of processed foods. This twist on a classic banana bread is full of completely healthy and wholesome ingredients and provides a healthy sweet treat for breakfast, dessert or an afternoon snack.

I’ll admit that the peanut butter isn’t paelo but I couldn’t resist; the slightly salty & crunchy texture against the sweet moist bread proves an ideal combination.

The recipe is adapted from a pumpkin bread recipe on www.paleoplan.com, which is a great site if you’re a follower of the paleo plan, or even if you want to try new recipes using some alternative ingredients. If you fancy knocking this up from what you’ve got in your cupboard though, simply switch the flour used here for regular plain flour. One of the great things about banana bread is that you can add whatever you want, so if not blueberries why not try walnuts and dates or pumpkin seeds and cranberries.

Ingredients:
– ½ cup almond flour
– 1 tbsp cinnamon
-1/4tsp ground ginger
– ½ tsp baking powder
– 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter (organic Meridian smooth is the BEST)
– 2 large eggs
– 3 ripe mashed bananas
– 3tbsp coconut oil
– 1tbsp vanilla extract (natural)
– 1 cup blueberries

Method:
– Preheat the oven to about 180 and line a baking tin with a little bit of the coconut oil.
– Mix the cinnamon, ginger and baking powder in to a bowl. In a separate bowl add the peanut butter, eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla, mashed bananas, blueberries and flour until well combined.
– Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix well.
– Pour the mixture in to the lined tin and bake for about 40-50 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing. Topping with more peanut butter afterwards is optional but highly recommended.

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Forget the Sunday roast

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After getting home at 4am following a night of dancing, my friend Liana and I decided that we were going to get smoked salmon for lunch the next day, or later that day should I say.
But after a slightly longer than planned lie in (I think all that dancing had worn me out) and a lengthy gym session it was time for dinner rather than lunch – and we were in charge of cooking for the whole family!

Chicken is pretty central to our diets so dinner was of course centred around that.

So here is our take on a classic Sunday dinner: Mediterranean chicken

You will need:
As many chicken breast as you like (we had five)
One can chopped tomatoes
One jar passata
Aubergine
Courgette
Garlic
Onion
Olives
Sundried tomatoes
Peppers
Capers
Sunflower seeds (toasted under the grill for a few mins)
Pumpkin seeds (toasted under the grill for a few mins)
Fresh basil

Whilst the chicken is baking in the oven, prep the veg for roasting.
Leave out the capers, olives, sundried tomatoes and nuts. Add the veg to a roasting tin before adding the chopped tomatoes, passata and some cracked black pepper.
Once the vegetables are cooked, chop the chicken and stir in before adding the olives, sundried tomatoes, toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds and fresh basil.

Another simple yet extremely tasty meal that sticks to the clean eating plan. For those who want to add something exta, throw in some sweet potato to the roasted vegetables.

Homemade Mediterranean chicken

Homemade Mediterranean chicken

My new favourite dish: Teriyaki salmon

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It’s official, teriyaki salmon is my new favourite dish.

I love salmon and probably eat it twice a week but usually it’s just marinated in sweet chilli sauce so I decided to try something new and different to make this evenings dinner that little bit more exciting.

Both salty and sweet, it really was delicious and I was also very surprised at how quick and easy it was to make such a tasty meal.

I will definitely be adding this one to my meal plans.

Here’s the recipe I followed:

You will need:

-Salmon fillet
-1 small piece of fresh ginger, sliced
– 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
– 3tbsp soy sauce
– 2tbsp maple syrup
-salt and pepper to season
-Slash of olive oil
– Dash of rice wine

 

How to do it:

-Add the garlic, ginger, syrup olive oil, rice wine and soy sauce in to a bowl and mix. Season the salmon fillet and then cover it with the marinade.

-Leave the salmon to marinade for at least thirty minutes to allow it to soak up all of those strong flavours. Leaving it for a couple of hours is better but if you don’t have that much time, half an hour is fine.

-Heat a frying pan and add a dash of oil before placing the salmon, skin side down, in to the pan. Fry on each side for about three to four minutes until the salmon is thoroughly cooked. Keep adding more sauce to the pan if it looks as though it is drying out.

-When cooked use the rest of the teriyaki sauce left in the pan as a dressing.

 

I served mine with parsnip chips and stir-fry vegetables. I think it would work really well with savoury brown rice as well.

 

Delicious!