Friday 31 May 2013

Gluten Free Breakfast Series Recipe No.7 Almost Healthy Bacon Sandwich

The bacon sandwich. Its a classic and a Sunday morning regular, just because. Because their so great.

Its not exactly the healthiest of breakfasts, but its so tasty and feels you up for ages, its hard to say no, ever.

I've tried to make it as angelic as it possibly can be...
I think the Hairy Dieters would be proud of me! Maybe.

Either way, just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Bacon Sandwich!

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Gluten Free Breakfast Series Recipe No.6 Juicing


I often have a homemade juice for breakfast, 2-3 times a week in general, sometimes I have a smoothie. Three days a month, I detox which is only drinking specific fruit and vegetable juices for three days.
I have completely bought into the ‘juicing is for life’ concept, which the Juice Master preaches. 

It seems to me to be a good way to get a lot of goodness in one glass and it’s easy to digest. It’s one of those win-win situations.

I have read and used a few of Jason Vale’s (the self-proclaimed Juice Master) books. The first book I used prescribed a 7 day detox every 3 months. It’s a thorough detox but takes a lot of organising and will-power.

If you doing the detox thing ‘properly’ then you a meant to ‘Turbo-charge your life’. These days I use some ‘turbo charge recipes’, but I don't usually do the 14 day programme. 

My latest is the 3 day detox from another book, 'Keeping it simple'. Which is much more manageable. Detoxing definitely helps with any digestion problems but it hasn’t stopped the coffee and chocolate cravings, as other people have claimed.

When I’m retoxing I like to make this juice for breakfast:
  • Apple
  • Pear
  • Broccoli
  • Spinach
  • Ginger
  • Courgette

I have talked about smoothies before. My tastes have evolved since then. At one point I did get into the habit of putting peanut butter in my smoothies for a while, which is excellent (peanut butter is excellent in everything). The 3 day detox programme has a really simple, easy to make and tasty smoothie of:
  • A handful of frozen blackberries
  • A handful of frozen blueberries
  • 200ml of plain yoghurt (bio active, ideally)
  • A little pineapple juice (optional and should be freshly juiced, not required but does add some sweetness)

This is a much need smoothie in the middle of a juice detox. If detoxing sounds too much, a couple of breakfasts a week is doable and is good for those trying to create some kind of healthy balance. 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Gluten Free Breakfast Series Recipe No.5 - Rhubarb Almond Breakfast Muffins




Back to breakfast. I came across this recipe on the Etsy blog, it makes for an interesting read if you like all everything crafty. I only slightly adapted the recipe and they are very easy to make. There are good to eat at anytime of day, but should you want muffins for breakfast (and who doesn't) these are a good bet, when rhubarb is in season. These muffins are so good because the flavours and textured are well balanced. Most of the ingredients are sweet which balances the sharpness of the rhubarb and the sliced almond gives a crunch amongst the softness of the muffin.

Breakfast Muffins, yes please!
The Ingredients for 6 muffins

125g brown rice flour
125g oat flour
93g xylitol
85g sliced almonds
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
60ml buttermilk (I used lactofree milk with a spoonful of vinegar)
60ml olive oil
3/4 cup diced rhubarb

The Method
Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, almonds, baking powder and soda, spices and sea salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and the buttermilk with the olive oil. Add the diced rhubarb and stir thoroughly.

Slowly fold the wet ingredients into the dry.

Put muffin cases in your muffin tin and fill about 3/4 of the way.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (once the knife comes out clean, they are done).

Can be made the night before to enjoy with a cup of tea in the morning. Lovely!

Saturday 4 May 2013

Jar Full of Cookies - Gluten Free Cookies

I thought it was time for a quick of a break from the morning meal series, to tell you about some cookies I have made recently. I have had my eye on getting cookie mix jar for sometime, thinking they're a nice gift idea but I wanted to road test at least one before attempting my own.

I choose the gluten free triple chocolate cookie mix jar from Scarlet Bakes which I got from Not On The High Street:

The jar comes with instructions and all you need to add is some butter and an egg, mix everything together, chuck it in the oven for 12 minutes and you get lovely get lovely cookies that are crunchy on the outside, with a soft chewy center and great flavour:


I can't take credit for these cookies, I got the image from notonthehighest, mine would have looked this good if I had more patience to make food beautiful but I never can muster it. Whether yours are ugly ducklings or beautiful swan cookies they will go down a treat with whoever you decide to share them with, or better still give the cookie mix jar as a gift, get them to make the cookies and share them with you!