Category: Gluten Free

Chocolate and spiced granola

Juhuuu, it is granola time again! I love love love this crunchy goodness for breakfast or as a snack. Every few weeks I make a new batch and I always try to variate with ingredients. My last two batches were made with nut butter and mashed banana as a base. The first version included spices and cacao and the second one without any cacao but with a lot more spices instead. For the spicy version I have been using Pernzey Spices Baking spice mix, I brought from Pittsburgh. It is a delicious mix perfect also for oat meal or banana bread. Yumm!

Here are the recipes:

Two types of granola
Author: Kristina
Ingredients
  • For the chocolate granola:
  • 1 medium banana
  • 30g peanut butter
  • 20g grated coconut
  • 50g chopped brasil nuts
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 cup buckwheat groats
  • 1 1/2 cup oat flakes
  • 2 tsp cacao powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • For the spiced granola:
  • 1 medium banana
  • 60g cashew butter
  • 20g grated coconut
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 cup buckwheat groats
  • 1 1/2 cup oat flakes
  • 1 1/2 tsp Penzey Spices Baking spice mix (mix of ceylon cinnamon, china cassia cinnamon, anise seeds, allspice, mace and cardamom)
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder
Instructions
  1. Mash banana mix with nut butter, coconut oil and spices.
  2. Mix the banana mixture together with remaining ingredients.
  3. Bake for about 20-30 minutes at 180C, turning from time to time.
  4. Enjoy with every kind of milk, yoghurt or just as a crunchy topping on fruit salad.

 

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Sugar free breakfast topping

For me an ideal breakfast meal has to be either really quickly made in the morning or can be made in advance. And of course it has to be sugar free 🙂 Almost every morning I am having a quick workout before work, therefore quick breakfast is essential. To start the day with a lot of energy I need my morning workout as much as a nutritious breakfast.

Nothing can beat yoghurt with delicious topping on early morning. As I love to have many different super seeds and other delicious ingredients in my yoghurt I decided to mix all my favourite ingredients into one beautiful yoghurt topping. To avoid mixing it up every single morning again and again.

Here is how I do my topping:

Breakfast topping
Author: Kristina
Ingredients
  • 100g almonds chopped (I used
  • 40g chia seeds
  • 40g ground line seeds
  • 40g hemp seeds
  • 40 g cacao nibs
  • 15g maca powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C and roast almonds together with hemp seeds until it has a nice brown color.
  2. Let it completely cool down and mix with other ingredient.
  3. Mix thoroughly and enjoy with some yoghurt!
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Sugar free cookies

I am a huge cookie fan, especially in the Christmas time. There is Kristina’s bakery open at least for few week, before Christmas. This is how I get into the festive mood. With cookies in the oven and the Christmas music running in the kitchen. I usually bake cookies loaded with huge amounts of sugar. But this year I decided to give sugar free cookies a try.

I found two amazing sugar free cookie recipes on I Quit Sugar website. I first tried to bake Gingerbread cookies, these are not only sugar free, but also gluten free! I topped it with some creamed coconut, rice syrup mix and ground pistachios. You can find the recipe here:

I Quit Sugar Gingerbread Christmas Cookies

Furthermore, I tried the Sugar free Christmas Cake recipe, I found in the I Quit Sugar Simplicious book. As I wanted to make something  I can give away as a Christmas gift, I changed the appearance of this cake a little bit. I baked it in a cone baking dish and created tiny Christmas cakes topped with 99% chocolate and some pistachios.

The recipe you can find here:

Sugar Free Christmas Cake

These recipes are great not only for the Christmas time. I am sure you have some sweet tooth for cookies all year round. You just need to change the shape of these beauties and you have a yummy birthday gift or just something as a weekend treat.

Happy Christmas everyone!

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SPICED, SUGAR FREE COCONUT PORRIDGE

Recently I am totally in love with spiced porridge for breakfast. As I am on I quit sugar program for the 6th week, I have learned through the time, that there are many other ways to add taste and sweetness to your meals than putting sugar in. I am a big porridge lover, even in Summer, usually with some berries on the top. During I quit sugar program you are not allowed to eat anything with added sugar or even fruit, as it contains fructose, for 4 weeks. It was therefore a big challenge for me to somehow make my porridge taste yummy, without adding fruits or dates, for sweetness.

With help of different great tips during this program, I worked out a super tasty porridge recipe without any sugar added. For sweetness I just added different spices and some coconut. You wouldn’t believe, but it indeed gave enough sweetness, you won’t miss the sweetness in this recipe at all. Your sense of taste will be busy with all the spiciness.

And here is the recipe:

 

SPICED, SUGAR FREE COCONUT PORRIDGE
Author: Kristina
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Spicy, sugar free porridge with coconut and spices.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup oats
  • 20 g shredded coconut or coconut flakes
  • 1 cup hazelnut milk (or any other milk)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/4 all spices
  • 1tsp flax seeds
Instructions
  1. Combine oats with with 1 cup water, hazelnut milk, coconut and spices.
  2. Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat to very low and cook for about 10 minutes or until oats are ready.
  3. Serve with some more milk, yoghurt, lemon juice, shredded coconut, flax seeds or berries if you wish.

 

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GLUTEN FREE SPICED PUMPKIN PANCAKES

Everyone loves pancakes, am I right? But what about fluffy pancakes, full of flavour!? Yummy! I want to share with you a recipe of gluten and sugar free pancakes with beautiful texture and so yummy. This recipe was inspired by I quit sugar coconut fluffs recipe, I changed just few things, such as adding oat pulp and reducing egg amount. As you might already know, I hate throwing food away and try to incorporate all leftovers into my meals, and the pulp leftovers were just perfect for this recipe. You will love these pancakes if you are making your dairy free milk quite often and always have some pulp remaining. It can be a grain or nut pulp, what ever your have.

There is nothing worse than pancakes without any taste or flavour. So this time I decided to add some pumpkin pie spices and mashed pumpkin leftovers. Pumpkin gave such a nice, sweet taste and the different spices made these pancakes even more flavourful. So what are you waiting for? Head over to your kitchen! 🙂

 

 

GLUTEN FREE SPICED PUMPKIN PANCAKES
Author: Kristina
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 20-24
Ingredients
  • 1 egg
  • 75g oat pulps (if you don’t have it, just put the same amount of nut flour and if needed add some water if the batter is not creamy enough)
  • 30g coconut flour
  • 100g buckwheat flour
  • 400 ml oat milk
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil plus some for frying
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup cooked pumpkin
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 allspice
  • 1/4 ginger
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together.
  2. Heat the pan with some coconut oil over medium heat.
  3. Spoon in the pancake batter and fry for about 2-3 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface, then flip over and fry for another few minutes.
  4. Serve with berries and some almond, vanilla milk.
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SUGAR FREE SPICED TURMERIC GRANOLA

Experimenting with spices is so much fun. Due to such an experiment, this gluten free, sugar free turmeric granola was born. My wish was to develop another sugar free granola recipe with lots of flavour so you don’t miss the sugar at all. From my point of view, cardamon, cinnamon or anise are the best spices to use if you have sweet cravings. If I make sugar free granola, these spices are a must, as these spices give some kind of sweet taste. But not to get bored of same spices in every granola, I thought I could add some turmeric. It does not only give a beautiful yellow colour, it also gives a unique warm flavour.

TurmericGranola1

I made this granola from puffed rice and buckwheat, with different seeds and nuts. Puffed rice and buckwheat become so nicely crisp when baked in the oven, so it is just perfect if you wish to have a crispy granola.

SUGAR FREE SPICED TURMERIC GRANOLA
Author: Kristina
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 30 g puffed rice
  • 30 g puffed buckwheat
  • 30 g line seeds
  • 30 g sprouted sunflower seeds
  • 40 g chopped hazelnuts
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 120C.
  2. Mix everything together and spread on the baking tray lined with baking paper.
  3. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until nicely crisp.
  4. Let is cool and enjoy with yoghurt, berries or as a snack.

 

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SPICY COCONUT FLAKES

There is such a huge variety of different porridge or yoghurt toppings on the market. But if you start reading all the ingredients in it, you get scared. Almost everything is sweetened and has thousand ingredients, you don’t even have an idea for what purpose. As I recently became a fan of “I Quit Sugar” idea and want to go, for another 5 weeks, sugar free, I thought I would make my own topping. In this period you shouldn’t use any sweetener nor eat fruits and berries. So that I don’t have to waive my morning yoghurt intake, I decided to make my own coconut topping. You would be surprised how much sweetness you can achieve with help of spices.

This coconut topping is made from many different spices. I put some cardamom and cinnamon for sweetness and some allspice together with ginger for nice spiciness. These spices go so well together with coconut, you would not want to miss it, once you have tried it.

This topping is delicious with yoghurt or porridge. But it is so tasty that you might not avoid wanting it to eat as a snack as well.

 

SPICY COCONUT FLAKES
Author: Kristina
Ingredients
  • 100g coconut flakes
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 2/3 tsp ginger
  • 1/3 tsp cardamom
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 120C.
  2. Mix everything together and spread on the baking tray lined with baking paper.
  3. Bake for 10 minutes or until nicely brown.
  4. Let is cool and enjoy with yoghurt or porridge.

 

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REFINED SUGAR FREE, VEGAN, CHOCOLATE BALLS

It is already a tradition to bring some vegan, sugar free and gluten free goodies, when I go to visit my sister. My sister loves Vegan Chocolate Salami, I usual bring when I come for a visit. But this time I thought I would experiment with this recipe a little bit and make Vegan Chocolate balls instead. The idea was, to make two different flavours, one with a bit of sourness and the other one just in a classic way.

 

For the sourness of the balls I chose dried strawberries. Strawberries, together with pistachios and chocolate, taste heavenly. Into the classic chocolate balls, I put dried banana and tigers nuts, this time. Tiger nut has a special crunchiness, which even remains, after resting in the fridge, that is why I wanted to try this newly discovered ingredient. If you don’t like the texture of the tiger nut, you can substitute with any other nut of your preference.

Here is the recipe:

 

REFINED SUGAR FREE, VEGAN, CHOCOLATE BALLS
Author: Kristina
Ingredients
  • 200g creamed coconut
  • 150g medjool dates
  • 4 tsp cocoa powder
  • 80g chopped tiger nuts
  • 30g chopped dried banana chips
  • 50g chopped pistachio
  • 15 g dried strawberry chips
Instructions
  1. Melt the creamed coconut in the pot.
  2. Add the dates and cook few minutes together with creamed coconut.
  3. Put the mixture into the blender, add the cocoa powder and blitz everything until it has a creamy consistency.
  4. Divide the mixture into two bowls.
  5. Into one bowl, add tiger nuts and banana chips, and mix thoroughly.
  6. Into the other bowl, add 10g of chopped strawberry chips and pistachios, and mix thoroughly.
  7. Cover the bowls and leave for few hours in the fridge or for 20 minutes in the freezer, until the mixture is firm enough, to form the balls.
  8. Form the balls and cover the strawberry balls with strawberry meal (I grounded the strawberry chips in the coffee grinder) and the tiger nut balls in some cocoa powder.
  9. Leave balls in the fridge over night.

 

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BASIL TAHINI DRESSING

You would not believe, but I am the most creative when my fridge and pantry are almost empty. This is what happened to me few days ago. After coming back home from holiday, I had many leftover is the freezer. As you might already know, I love freezing leftovers and having healthy meals ready in case I have no time for cooking or nothing left in the fridge. I had some Quinoa Salad with Vegetables and Kidney Beans in the freezer, but I needed a dressing for this goodness. After checking my pantry I decided that Tahini, Lemon and Basil should be a great match, hence mixed everything in a blender! And indeed, it turned out to be a delicious, creamy and citrusy, perfect for Quinoa Salad, dressing.

 

Here is the recipe for Tahini, Basil dressing. Perfect also as a sauce for vegetables, fish or meat.

 

BASIL TAHINI DRESSING
Author: Kristina
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
The easiest and creamiest, vegan dressing. Perfect for salad, fish or meat.
Ingredients
  • 70 g tahini
  • 5 tbsp water
  • 4 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 handful of basil
  • salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Put everything into the blender and blitz until it has nice creamy texture. If you like it runnier, just put some more water or lemon juice.

 

 

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QUINOA SALAD WITH VEGETABLES AND KIDNEY BEANS

As you may have noticed, I really love quick recipes. Warm salads with some kind of grains and vegetables are the best choice, if you want a quick and deliciouse meal. I love that I can throw whatever I wish or just what I have in the fridge and as a result I enjoy a salad which tastes different every time. Sometimes I am surprised how well some products go together. In this recipe I added a stick of cinnamon into quinoa pot and it gave a wonderful flavour. Also za’atar spice mix was a perfect match. Za’atar is a mixture of thyme, sesame seeds and other spices, it tasted wonderfully mixed together with cinnamon. Here is the recipe, you can of course make it with other vegetables and substitute beans with chickpeas or lentil.

 

QUINOA SALAD WITH VEGETABLES AND KIDNEY BEANS
Author: Kristina
Ingredients
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1/2 butternut pumpkin
  • 3 medium turnips
  • 1 head of romanesco broccoli
  • 150 g kidney beans
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 tsp za’atar
  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
  1. Place the quinoa in a pot with double the amount of water, some salt and the stick of cinnamon. Cook for 20 minutes or see the package instructions. Shortly before quinoa is ready, add cooked or canned beans.
  2. Cut pumpkin and turnip into small cubes and place on an oven tray. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with some salt.
  3. Put romanesco into the pot and once the water came to the boil, turn the heat off and drain romanesco.
  4. Once vegetables and quinoa mixture is ready, mix everything together, season with za’atar spice mixture and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Enjoy!

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