Chocolate Mousse

Sugar Free, THM-S, LCHF

For 4 people

Right. The pictures I posted on facebook of this deliciousness in a bowl got such an overwhelming response and beggings for the recipe that I thought I would share it far and wide :-).

This dessert was famous in La Neuveville, my home town in Switzerland, and was often requested. For some unknown reason I stopped making it for several years, but there you go, I made it again on Saturday for movie night at a friend's and fell in love with it all over again.

It comes from the book ("Croqu' Menus") I got for my home education class in Year 7, class otherwise known at the time as "la popotte".

Enjoy, and do try not to dribble or fall off your chair when you eat it!

Also, DO lick the bowl!

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Ingredients:

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp erythritol/xylitol/Natvia - or sugar if you must

100g dark chocolate (I use 85%)

1 tbsp strong coffee (or to taste)

2 egg whites

2 dl cream

Method:

Beat the egg yolks and sweetener of choice until light and frothy. 

Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie.

Add melted chocolate to egg yolk mixture and stir in.

Add coffee and stir in.

Beat egg whites until firm peaks form, and whip cream.

Add egg whites and cream, alternatively and DELICATELY.

Gently pour into a bowl or individual dishes.

Lick the bowl.

Regrigerate for 2 hours.

Decorate with chocolate shavings and/or strawberries and/or extra whipped cream.

Eat and taste a slice of heaven.

Bestest Chocolate and Banana Cake - Processed Sugar Free!

So who wants a moist, decadent, delicious chocolate cake? And, it's processed sugar free!

A few months ago, my sister sent me a recipe saying, "just leave out the sugar, it'll be fine without". I was intrigued as it used fresh bananas and apple sauce. I gave it a go and tweaked it a little and my non-chocolate-cake-eater-of-a-son devoured a piece, then another, and then I had to stop him. My daughter and husband loved it too, and it's been easy to make it THM (Trim Healthy Mama) friendly as well, which is a bonus.

I'm also going to share my scrumptious fructose free chocolate icing with you. I use Organic Brown Rice Syrup (this is made from fermented cooked rice and is a blend of complex carbohydrates, maltose and glucose. It's 100% fructose free) instead of icing sugar. This was inspired by the lovely Angela from The Sugar Trade during one of her workshops.

So here goes and let me warn you - this cake is good! You can also make muffins or mini muffins with this mix.

For my fellow Trim Healthy Mamas or Men, this would be a Crossover.

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Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup apple sauce (no added sugar)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup flour (or ground almonds for LCHF or THM)

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup very dark chocolate chips (I chop 85% chocolate into little pieces)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine the bananas, apple sauce, vanilla extract and egg. 

Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Mix well. 

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes if making a cake, and for 15 minutes if making muffins.

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For the icing:

Ingredients

150g softened butter

3 tbsp organic brown rice syrup

2 tbsp cocoa

Method

Beat all three ingredients together until well combined. Spread over cake or muffins.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think of it.

Kia Kaha! Be Strong! (and don't eat the whole cake in one sitting!)

A Parsley Trick

Don't you just hate chopping parsley? It's one of those ingredients I wished I could just buy ready chopped, until I learned a super neat and quick way to get the job done - presto!

With good kitchen scissors, just chop off the amount you need and place in a mug. Using the same scissors, chop away at your parsley inside the mug until you're happy with it. Ta-dahhhh!

Or, using the same method, chop up the whole bunch of parsley in several goes, and freeze the chopped parsley in a zip-lock bag. Chopped parsley read to go in the freezer!

You're welcome! And let me know if you have another cool kitchen trick :-)!

Oh that sweet sugar!

Well, a few evenings ago, I thought I was at an AA meeting for sugar addicts. Seriously, my guests and I were introducing ourselves like this:

"Hi, I'm Sarah*, and I am so addicted to sugar. I can't stop eating the stuff."

"Hi, I'm Lynn*, and I like sweet things so much. I find it hard to have any self control when it comes to sweet things".

"Hi, I'm Carol*, and my kids eat way too much sugar. I'd love to know how to cut that down".

I was hosting a Sugar Workshop with Angela Humphrey who is the master-head behind The Sugar Trade blog. A couple of weeks ago, I told you how I was eating myself skinny, and how cutting out sugar had been a huge part of that. I think these days, there is a lot of talk about how sugar is bad for you and how you should stop eating the stuff, but no one is really talking about practical tips on how to do it. I thought Angela was a great person to introduce some ideas to friends interested in making a change.

But here I'd like to tell you about my journey and my family's journey. I'm a baker. I love baking, I love making people feel warm and welcomed with my baking, and it's hard to let one day go by without baking something. But, I have two young children and not much time to fluff around. So I had to find an achievable solution. I did! Hopefully you can see that this is not a hard thing and that baby steps in the right direction are totally ok!

We were sugar addicts:

We were all addicted to sugar. My kids were eating a lot of chocolate and all my home baking contained sugar. My husband was putting 2 to 3 tsp of sugar in his tea or coffee, I was putting 1. We were adding sugar to our natural yoghurt, cereals, other hot drinks, sauces, and the list goes on.

Something had to change!

I did a lot of reading and research and realized that the bad stuff that was making us addicted, sick and fat was the fructose part of sugar (which is made of fructose and glucose in equal parts). If you'd like to know more about how sugar is bad for you, head over this way to "21 reasons to eat less sugar". The glucose however, our body needs, uses and burns to give us energy!

Fructose was the meanie and fructose had to go!

Changes I made on the family level:

Two years ago, I ditched all my sugar and bought a 25kg bag of powdered glucose. You can easily find smaller quantities in supermarkets. Glucose was an easy swap because in all my recipes I simply put the same quantity of glucose as what is required of sugar. So 1 cup sugar = 1 cup glucose. EASY. Glucose is a little less sweet, which is a good thing too. A few weeks after this change, my hubby had lost 5kgs! I also use Rice malt syrup, honey and glucose syrup. You can read more on alternatives to sugar on Angela's blog post on sugar alternatives.

One big thing I'm aware of now is food labels. I check the grams of sugar, divide it by 4, and that tells me how many teaspoons of sugar are in one serving. This is very eye-opening, and a helpful guide when I'm shopping. I can make much more informed choices of what I put in my trolley.

That's it! So EASY! Two years on, my kids eat a lot less chocolate (like, a month down the track their Easter baskets were almost untouched) and lollies, my husband puts 2 tsp glucose in his hot drinks and finds cafe baking way too sweet. The 5 kgs he lost was just a silver lining for him, as he's a pretty fit guy anyway.

Changes I made on a personal level:

At the same time as ditching the sugar and switching to glucose, I wanted to lose 20 kgs. I wanted to go hard out, so I ditched sugar, and all its high GI and glucose alternatives. I basically went cold turkey from one day to the next.

I won't lie to you. I suffered from headaches, bad moods, tiredness, grumpiness and bad sugar cravings for about two weeks. But, after that, my energy levels were amazing, I felt amazing, and there was no looking back. I had no baking for about 5 months, while I rapidly lost weight. I knew, however, that this was not sustainable long term because as I've said before, I LOVE BAKING, and I love eating my baking. 

So I did more research and trialled different things, and this is what I now use for myself: whole fruit (not dried), erythritol and stevia. They work for me, and I'm happy to give you some advice on making the switch if you're interested.

Yes, we do make exceptions! When we go to parties, or to see friends, or to a cafe or restaurant, we have sugar. There's no way around it, really, if you want some dessert or baking. But I'm ok with that, because it's not all the time. To be honest with you, my latest sugar loaded exception was at Louis Sergeant Sweet Couture on Featherston St in Wellington. Oh my, oh my... 

(A small note of caution though: when I do make exceptions, I know that I will very likely feel ill for a few hours afterwards - usually nausea and headaches. This does not happen to the rest of the family who eat glucose).

"Mon Tiramisu", Louis Sergeant Sweet Couture

Now before I finish off on this topic, I really want to share with you a recent decadent, delicious and surprising addition to my sugar free sweet treats! The original recipe is on Angela's blog, but here I give you my variation to make it low GI (it's already sugar free):

Green Chocolate Bliss Balls

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Ingredients

1 large avocado

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup powdered erythritol (I use my coffee grinder)

2 tbsp melted coconut oil

1 cup ground nuts (I use almonds)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Instructions

Mash the avocado. Stir in vanilla and coconut oil. 

Mix in all the other ingredients, stirring well as you go.

Scoop up approximately teaspoon size portions, and roll into balls.

Roll in coconut, cocoa powder, ground almonds, etc.

Enjoy!

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That's it. I guess the biggest change we made was in our heads. Once we knew the facts, we decided what was ok and what wasn't for our family, then we forged ahead. I'd love to hear where you're at on your sugar journey or if you have some questions.

Kia Kaha! Be Strong!

*All names in this post are fictional :-).

Eat yourself skinny!

I wanted to write about erotica today, or Mummy porn. But I won't. I'm not ready to put myself out there that much yet. But watch this space because I've been doing a lot of thinking about this.

Instead, I thought I'd share a little more about my weight-loss journey. I empathize strongly with people who are overweight. I know how you feel. I know how you think. 

I know the battle that goes on in your head all the time.

I'm still on the battle field, and I've come to accept that I will be fighting this my whole life. I just like food too much. I'm obsessed with food and recipes even. When I'm eating a meal, I'm already thinking about what I'll be making for the next one! But, I don't like being overweight. Not only do I not like how I look when I'm overweight, but especially, I don't like how I feel. 

Never give up food you like to lose weight. Because you will lose the battle.

So, I've found a strategy that enables me to win so much more easily. I am loosing weight and I'm eating delicious food. I'm eating butter. I'm eating cheese. I'm having cream and ice cream. And cake. And I'm still eating some carbs. The secret is:

I don't mix fats and carbs and I always give my body protein!

I only ever give my body one fuel to burn. Either fats, or carbs.

And I don't eat sugar! That is the one big no no. And yes, it's hard to give up sugar. Your body will go into withdrawal. You will probably get bad headaches. After all, "sugar is more addictive than cocaine"! But after a few days you will feel better, the headaches will disappear, you'll have more energy, you'll have less cravings and you'll be more in touch with your hunger and satiety feelings.

Anyway, back to not mixing fats and carbs to lose weight. A dear friend lent me her Trim Healthy Mama book. I read it. It made sense. I applied it. I lost weight. I'm still losing weight. If I "cheat" too often, my weight loss stalls, or it goes up a bit, but as soon as I'm back on track, off fall the kilos.

I don't like to think of THM as a diet. It's more of a low GI eating plan with three main rules:

1) No sugar

2) Don't mix carbs and fats

3) Have protein at every meal

It's not hard to adapt to it. You just have to tweak some recipes a little. When my family have pasta, I have steamed cabbage or cauliflower. When they have fries, I have pumpkin or kumara (aka sweet potato) wedges. When I make cottage pie, I make a delicious cheesy cauliflower mash instead of potato mash. The kids and hubby didn't even notice it wasn't potato mash until I told them! When they have regular bread, I have my amazingly good low carb bread (my hubby even said it tasted as good as bread bought in Swiss bakeries - that's saying something!). 

My biggest mountain to climb was baking. I love baking. And I love eating my baking. How do you do that without white flour and without sugar? Well, I've found some great baking recipes on the All Day I Dream About Food blog. And I've played around with sugar substitutes:

• xylitol: very low GI, very little calories, tastes like sugar, but very high in fiber so tends to give me tummy issues.
• stevia: very low GI, no calories, but I can only bear the taste of high quality stevia, and only in my yoghurt.
• erythritol: very low GI, no calories, tastes like sugar. This is what I use in all my baking.

That's it really! I'm eating such delicious food and I'm losing weight. Once I've reached my weight goal, I'll be able to mix carbs and fats a little more to stabilize.

The most important thing for me is that I'm still having fun in the kitchen and I'm still enjoying everything I eat. 

Let me know if you have any questions or would like some more details or links.

Kia kaha! Be strong!

PS. Oh by the way, this food plan is really good for diabetics as it's low sugar and low GI. Many people have had amazing health results on this plan.

Fresh Fennel and Chicken Salad

Fresh Fennel and Chicken Salad

Serves 1

I was on my own at home for lunch the other day - a very rare occurrence, I can tell you! I wanted a fresh salad, but I also wanted plenty of protein to keep me going through the afternoon. I let my creativity take over my fridge and voilà, this delicious salad was born!

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small red capsicum/bell pepper, sliced

1/2 - 3/4 cup shredded poached chicken

1/4 cup Italian parsley

1 egg

Reduced Balsamic dressing

Assemble the first 5 ingredients on the plate. Drizzle with Balsamic dressing (or any other dressing). Fry or poach an egg, keeping the yolk beautifully runny. When it's ready, place on top of the salad.

Bon appétit!

The dreaded weigh-in

Well, I'm a little down in the dumps tonight. I had my weekly weigh-in and I had only lost 100g. In case you're a new reader, I'll put you in the picture. From October 2012 to March 2013,

I lost 20kgs. 

And I was down proud of myself. Then started the long road to stabilization and to keeping that weight. It's so much harder than losing weight! So by August I was

up to 74kgs.

I joined Weight Watchers, because I'm the kinda girl who needs accountability. I need to know that I'm gonna get weighed every week. It worked. Late November I was back

down to 71kgs. 

Then came my dear father in law, whom I love dearly, but who takes us out to restaurants all the time. Then came Christmas and New Year celebrations. And - no WW meetings... At the first January weigh-in, I was

back up to 74kgs. 

Argh!!! My heart fell and I was so discouraged. But I'm not the kinda girl who's going to stay down. So I picked myself up and started watching what I was eating again. I still get to eat delicious things. But in moderation.

I've been trying harder the past two weeks. I went to the weekly weigh-in tonight, pretty confident. But I left with my heart in my feet, and looking at my feet.

I hate this love-hate relationship I have with food. I love good food. And I love eating. But I feel so much better now that I'm lighter and I have this huge fear of becoming very overweight again.

If you can relate, that's cool. If you can't, that's cool too. And if you're thinking, "man, what is she complaining about, she's lost all that weight already!", I hear ya, and that's cool. We're all at different stages. Some of us are happy with our body shape, some of us aren't. If we're not, and there's something healthy we can do about it, then we probably should. If we are happy, hallelujah, praise God!

I already feel much better having shared with you all. I love being open and honest. If you're struggling with weight-loss, or weight management, or body image, I'd love to hear from you. We're all in this together and we can support each other.

And now I will leave you for today and go and track what I ate today, because I haven't been doing that since early December, and maybe, maybe, there's the key for me.

Despite this battle with food, I must say that I pretty much like my body these days. Stretch marks and all. In my next post, I will share some of the steps I've worked out to positive body image.

Kia Kaha, Be Strong!

The dreaded weigh-in

Well, I'm a little down in the dumps tonight. I had my weekly weigh-in and I had only lost 100g. In case you're a new reader, I'll put you in the picture. From October 2012 to March 2013,

I lost 20kgs. 

And I was down proud of myself. Then started the long road to stabilization and to keeping that weight. It's so much harder than losing weight! So by August I was

up to 74kgs.

I joined Weight Watchers, because I'm the kinda girl who needs accountability. I need to know that I'm gonna get weighed every week. It worked. Late November I was back

down to 71kgs. 

Then came my dear father in law, whom I love dearly, but who takes us out to restaurants all the time. Then came Christmas and New Year celebrations. And - no WW meetings... At the first January weigh-in, I was

back up to 74kgs. 

Argh!!! My heart fell and I was so discouraged. But I'm not the kinda girl who's going to stay down. So I picked myself up and started watching what I was eating again. I still get to eat delicious things. But in moderation.

I've been trying harder the past two weeks. I went to the weekly weigh-in tonight, pretty confident. But I left with my heart in my feet, and looking at my feet.

I hate this love-hate relationship I have with food. I love good food. And I love eating. But I feel so much better now that I'm lighter and I have this huge fear of becoming very overweight again.

If you can relate, that's cool. If you can't, that's cool too. And if you're thinking, "man, what is she complaining about, she's lost all that weight already!", I hear ya, and that's cool. We're all at different stages. Some of us are happy with our body shape, some of us aren't. If we're not, and there's something healthy we can do about it, then we probably should. If we are happy, hallelujah, praise God!

I already feel much better having shared with you all. I love being open and honest. If you're struggling with weight-loss, or weight management, or body image, I'd love to hear from you. We're all in this together and we can support each other.

And now I will leave you for today and go and track what I ate today, because I haven't been doing that since early December, and maybe, maybe, there's the key for me.

Despite this battle with food, I must say that I pretty much like my body these days. Stretch marks and all. In my next post, I will share some of the steps I've worked out to positive body image.

Kia Kaha, Be Strong!

One dough - Two ways!

Ohhh my dear readers, I luuuuv food and I have some real heart warming yummyness for you today! I make both these savoury and sweet scrolls at the same time, and serve them for lunch. We can all pick and choose what or in what order we eat them. They are at their best when still warm from the oven. Gosh, it's hard to stop then! They are so easy to make, so do give it a go, and let the kids help :-).

Bread Dough:

Choose one large mugs from your cupboard.

In your bread machine, put, in this order:

- 1 mug water
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar or glucose powder (for more on why I use glucose, see this great blog)
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 mug wholemeal flour
- 1.5 mug high grade white flour
- 2.5 generous tsp yeast

Set your machine to the dough making setting and let it do its thing (I am SO addicted to my bread machine!).

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto your workbench and divide into two.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

For Savoury Scrolls:

Roll out into an oval shape.

Spread onto it whatever tickles your fancy. It could be (one or a combination of):
- aioli
- tomato sauce
- mustard
- mayonnaise
- tomato paste
- tapenade (olive paste)
- pesto
- etc.

Then add (one or a combination of):
- grated cheese
- finely chopped fried onions
- finely chopped ham or bacon
- etc.

Roll the dough on itself lengthwise and tightly:

To cut evenly and without squashing your "sausage", here's a trick a dear friend once gave me and it changed my life! (that's only a slight exaggeration) Cut a long piece of sewing thread, and fold it onto itself three times. Slide it under the "sausage" to the desired scroll thickness, cross both ends over, and squeeze. Ta daaaa!

Place scrolls onto a greased baking tray or dish, side by side. Melt 1 tbsp of butter, and brush over scrolls.

For Sweet and Sticky Scrolls:

Roll out into an oval shape.

In a pan, melt together:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp golden syrup (or liquide glucose - for more on why, see this great blog)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Spread 3 or 4 tbsp of mixture onto your oval dough. Pour the rest into a greased round baking dish.

On the dough, add some brown sugar and cinnamon, to taste.

Roll the dough on itself lengthwise and tightly, then cut as above for the savoury scrolls. Place scrolls in baking dish on top of the sweet mix.

Put both baking dishes into the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Lower temperature to 180 degrees Celsius and cook another 10 minutes.

Turn over the sweet scrolls rapidly onto a serving place, before the caramel hardens.

Enjoy warm or cold...And beware! These disappear very fast.

Bon appétit!

Food, Glorious Food!

The other day, I turned my nose to the most exquisite looking chocolate eclair! It looked perfectly puffy, oozing with cream and laced with chocolate sauce... Oh torture! I grabbed my take-away cappuccino and high-tailed it out of the newly opened Titahi Bay Cafe 236. I however highly recommend this new family held cafe as all their food looks scrumptious and their coffees rock.

Ah Food, Glorious Food! On Tuesday the 26th February 2013, my scales indicated without a doubt that I had reached my goal. I had lost 20kgs! I jumped for joy and would have climbed on my roof to shout it to all the neighbours if our roof wasn't so high. I'm onto phase 3 of my diet: stabilisation!

I can now eat a little cheese every day...

I can enjoy one fruit a day... Oh the taste of that mango with my yogurt!!!

I can very slowly chew 2 slices of wholemeal bread a day (bread was my biggest love in life before I met my husband and had kids by the way)...

I can have carbs one meal a week. And... I am allowed one CELEBRATION meal a week! Don't you love that name? Let's just celebrate food! For my first celebration meal I was out at a local pub with some girlfriends and I chose a good ol' burger and fries!

I enjoyed it and battled with guilt at the same time. Ha ha. I only ate about two thirds of what was on my plate though. Then I ordered dessert - because I could and only just managed half. I was so full and it was soooooo sweet (remember I haven't had any sugar since October). But hey, it felt good to be able to order dessert.

Last week, we had pizza for my celebration meal. I love pizza. My bread-maker takes care of the dough, then you can just about put anything on it! So much healthier than bought pizza, and my daughter absolutely loves helping.

I so enjoyed myself that night and we had raspberry ice-cream for dessert. My Grandma's recipe. It is THE MOST DELICIOUS ice cream ever! And I'm not too sure I want to share it. If enough of you beg for it, maybe it will be in my next post ;-p.

So hey, let's celebrate good food. Let's savour every single mouthful. Let's think about all the flavours tickling our taste buds.

Oh and by the way, I'm curious... If you hadn't had cheese, carbs, fruit or sugar for the past 5 months, what would your celebration meal be (you can have 1 entree, 1 main and 1 dessert, all in restaurant proportions)? Looking forward to hearing from ya! x

Tarte à la rhubarbe et aux fraises (Rhubarb and Strawberry Tart)

For the third year, we've got a vegetable garden. And for the first time, it's doing really well! Yesterday my husband excitedly told me that there was plenty of rhubarb and could I make him a rhubarb and strawberry tart. Well of course, as I love cooking, and I love nurturing others, this was an occasion not to be missed!

So I set down to the task, reminiscing about all the rhubarb tarts, rhubarb and strawberry jams, and rhubarb fools my Mum used to make when I was growing up! There's something about smells and food that bring back so many warm and fuzzy memories. I will just say though, that being on a diet (that story will be for another post) does not make my life easy on days like this. The result was a hit, with my darling saying it was the best "tarte" I had ever made. Needless to say that put a big smile on my face!

You will notice that in the recipe, I use glucose powder instead of sugar. In short, I strongly recommend you read What is wrong with sugar, and Glucose as a sugar alternative. I've since started replacing sugar by glucose powder in all my recipes. I made a yummy carrot cake a couple of weeks ago and two lots of ice cream which were a hit!

This recipe is inspired by my cooking "Bible", Croqu' menus, which I received in cooking class when I was 13, as well as my creativity and cooking knowledge.

Preheat oven to 250°C.

For the "Pâte sablée" (pastry):
200g flour
1/2 tsp salt
100g cold butter, cut into small pieces
2-3 tbsp glucose powder
1/2 lemon zest
1 egg, beaten
1-2 tbsp water

Put flour in a bowl or on your work bench. Add salt and mix. Add butter, rub between fingers until you reach a sand-like consistency. Make a fountain in the middle.

Add sugar and lemon zest. Mix beaten egg and water in a small bowl, then pour into fountain. Mix everything together quickly.
My Gran tought me that the secret to perfect home made pastry is cold hands!
Form a ball, wrap in cellophane, and leave in fridge for about 30 minutes.

To assemble the "Tarte":
Wash and cut into quarters roughly one punnet of strawberries. Wash and cut the rhubarb into small cubes. The quantities here may vary according to how many strawberries you want with your rhubarb, or visa versa.

Roll out the pastry, lay out in baking dish, then prick the base with a fork.

Arrange the fruit on the pastry - follow your creativity! Sprinkle with 3-4 tbsp glucose powder.

Put your "tarte" into the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the "liaison":
1-2 dl milk or cream
1 egg
2-3 tbsp glucose powder

Mix all ingredients together.

Take the "tarte" out of the oven, pour the mixture over evenly, and put back in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes until pastry is nice and golden.

Serve with yoghurt, whipped cream or ice cream.

Et voilà! Bon appétit!