Training for a pilgrimage

Well it's not long now before myself and six friends head off for St Jean Pied de Port to start the Camino de Santiago - a very long walk across the top of Spain.  We are only going to do a quarter of it - with the intention of returning each year for the next three years to complete the 791km pilgrimage!
Needless to say we've had a strict training programme in place (?!) - stomping over the Chilterns most weekends, trying to find the steepest hill we could, to acclimatise ourselves to the accrued ascent of 990 metres on day one!
And obviously to compensate (and reward) us for each training session, there has to be cake (to be honest, I'm not sure anybody would have turned up for the training had cake not been made available!).
On one of our walks we were lucky enough to find a church that not only provided tea and coffee, with a kettle and fridge with milk, there was also cake in the fridge - what a welcome treat that was.  If you are walking the Ridgeway, take time to wander off the trail to Nuffield church for a bit of sustenance.
One of the group can't tolerate dairy, so each week I had the fun task of coming up with a different delicious dairy-free cake - another challenge I really relish!  Baking without dairy is actually pretty straight forward, and most of you who follow me regularly will know that I am a great lover of coconut oil (and the brand I think is the best for flavour and quality is Coconoil), so this is used for fat instead of butter and works really well.
Up until now though I'd never attempted pastry, so gave myself a new challenge!  And I'm pleased to say the result is pretty tasty.

Fig Tarts

Makes approx 10-12

For the pastry –

60 g wholemeal plain flour

100 g plain flour

1 tbsp caster sugar

60 g Coconoil

6-7 tbsp iced water

For the filling –

225 g dried figs, chopped

2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

pinch nutmeg

·        -To make the pastry, mix the flours and sugar in a bowl and then place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

·        -Melt the Coconoil in a microwave and leave to cool.

·        -Slowly spoon the coconoil into the flours, rubbing it into the flour as you would if you were using butter.  Return the bowl to the freezer for 15 minutes.

·        -Meanwhile, cook the figs in a pan over a medium heat with 300 ml water, until most of the water has been absorbed.  Stir in the sugar and nutmeg until the sugar has dissolved then remove from the heat.  Place in a food processor and blend until nearly smooth.  Leave to cool.

·        -Remove the pastry mix from the freezer and break up any large lumps with your fingers.

·        -Spoon in the water, using a knife to mix it in, then use your hands to finally bring the dough together.  Roll into a ball then wrap in cling film and leave to stand for 20 minutes to rest.

·        -Roll out on a floored work surface, then use a pastry cutter to cut 10-12 circles and place these in a cake tin.  Spoon the fig mixture into the pastry cases.

     Bake for 20-22 minutes at 180°C (450°F) Gas mark 4.

      Eat warm or cold with a dollop of creme fraiche (if you can tolerate dairy!).

       Happy Eating 

J     Joy xx

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Cooking from scratch

I am constantly telling clients that the only true way of knowing what is going into your body is to make everything from scratch, preferably using the best ingredients you can find.
Not only will you know what is going into your body, you can also be in total control of how balanced your diet is - tweaking things in recipes to increase your protein intake or reduce carbs for example, depending on what you are trying to achieve.
You may think it's easy for me to preach this, as it's my job and I do it all the time, but really it's just common sense, not only for your health but also for your budget - buying prepared food costs more too!
And even though it's my job, it doesn't always go according to plan!  This gorgeous looking vegan chocolate ice-cream tasted very odd (I was trying to be clever by using delicious coconut oil in ice-cream), so instead I melted it down and used it as a rich chocolate sauce.  So playing with food and experimenting is a great way of learning.
And cooking from scratch doesn't just apply to healthy main meals - these amazing coconut bars (Bounty lookalikes!) are very easy to make and taste one hundred times better that the shop bought ones - plus they are much lower in sugar and salt and higher in protein and fibre - a great reason to eat a few more!

Coconut Bars

Makes 18

175 g coconut oil

200g block creamed coconut, roughly chopped

2 tbsp honey

1 lime (or lemon)

175g desiccated coconut

200 g dark chocolate (85% cocoa), roughly chopped

·          - Base line a 20cm square tin.

·          - Place the coconut oil, creamed coconut and honey in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until fully melted.

·          - Finely grate the rind of the lime and stir this into the bowl along with a tbsp of lime-juice and the desiccated coconut.  Mix together well.

·          - Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.

·          - Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

·          - Remove the tin from the fridge and turn out the coconut block.  Cut into 18 bars, place these on a sheet of baking paper on a cooling rack and place in the freezer while you melt the chocolate.

·          -Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, until completely melted.

      - Using two forks, toss the bars in the melted chocolate and then leave on the greaseproof paper to set.

-    - Place in an air-tight container to store.

  

Enough cake already?!

To satisfy the request for more cake, my healthy blog is turning into a cake blog, so this has to be the last, for a while at least!  
This recipe idea came purely from having some great products delivered to my kitchen - firstly a box arrived from Naturya, with their great superfood ingredients, and then more personally, my lovely friend Gail (founder of Kandula Tea) arrived fresh off the plane from Sri Lanka, with her latest blend of delicious teas.
Obviously the first thing we did was to have a cup of tea and catch up with all the gossip, but then I felt the need to use the tea for something more.......so cake it was!  
If you are a lover of mint tea I have tasted none better than Kandula - it tastes really fresh and tangy - as if there were fresh mint leaves dropped into the cup, with no tannin aftertaste that you find with a lot of other teas.
In December I will be visiting Sri Lanka, so will hopefully find out more about not only the tea, but also the wonderful food - lots of great vegetarian dishes and delicious fresh fish - watch this space!

Kandula Maca Tea Bread

Makes 1 loaf

200 g mixed dried fruit
250 ml Kandula Moroccan Mint tea (made with one bag)
125 g wholemeal self-raising flour
100 g self-raising flour
1 tbsp Naturya Maca powder
100 g golden caster sugar
25 g pecans, roughly chopped
50 g Coconoil, melted
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Grease and base line a 2 lb loaf tin.
Place the dried fruit into a bowl and pour over the hot tea.  Leave to stand for at least 4 hours.
Place the flours, maca powder, sugar and pecans into a large bowl.
Beat together the Coconoil and egg.
Add the dried fruit, tea and egg and Coconoil mixture to the dry ingredients and gently mix together - do not overmix.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack (if you can wait that long - I couldn't!)

Happy cake-eating!

J xx

Autumn Colours

No doubt you will have heard of the expression 'eating a rainbow', but how much of this advice do you really follow?
There is a good reason why you should, especially at this time of year.  If people around you are starting to get the sniffles and coughs, then you need to be doubly sure your immune system is in the peak of condition, and that comes from supporting it with great foods that are rich in antioxidants, which are easy to spot as they are the colourful ones!
Firstly you need to know that your body is going to absorb these wonderful nutrients, so if you have any bloating, flatulence or stomach pain issue, you may need to see a health professional to ensure your digestive system is working at the optimum level.
Ensuring you are including colourful foods into your diet is easy - just look at your plate before each meal!  If it's all brown and beige you're doing it wrong!  And that may be because you are buying readymade foods.  For example, the pot of houmous shown here is homemade, but not only do I include all the normal ingredients - chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, I also add Brazil nuts and parsley - added essential fats, fibre, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin E, plus much more.  There is no comparison on nutrition or price to the shop-bought product.  And served with roasted sweet potatoes and carrots that have been tossed in olive oil, cumin seeds and pumpkin seeds, you have yourself a colourful, nutritious snack.
For those that have a sweet tooth and need a bit of a treat, even this can be healthy and takes little effort -

Mango and Apricot Crumble

Serves 4

175 g dried apricots, roughly chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 large mango, peeled, stoned and chopped
100 g raspberries
50 g ground almonds
15 g coconut oil, melted

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas mark 6.
Place the chopped apricots into a bowl and add the orange zest and juice.  Cover and leave to stand for 1 hour.
Place the mango in an ovenproof dish then add the raspberries and finally spoon over the soaked apricots and all the juice.
Sprinkle over the ground almonds followed by the coconut oil and bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden on top.

Definitely time to bake a cake!

Is there really a time when you shouldn't bake a cake?  Not that I can think of.
But today I felt like celebrating, just a little (hence the little cakes!). In my madness a few days ago I signed up to join a crazy expedition to attempt (the very first attempt I may add) to row 1000km of the Zambezi River in Zambia (http://rowzambezi.com).  Why crazy I hear you ask, you train all the time so should be a doddle?  But what I have not trained for, in my little sculling boat on the Thames, is crocs, hippos and rapids.  That's before we even think about  elephants, snakes and scorpions.....sounds like a fun trip eh?
Needless to say I have been put in charge of making sure we all remain fit and healthy (I can do nothing about being a croc's lunch) before and throughout the trip, so have been asking a few favours with regards to products and ingredients that I swear by for my own fitness.
Today I have had a great response from both Cherry Active (which will help our sore muscles each day), and Coconoil (which may help us against bugs and also tastes great!), who have both offered to give us their product to take along.
These delicious little cakes contain Coconoil, but I'm not sure we will be carrying bun tins on the Zambezi, so I have to enjoy as many of them as possible before we leave!

Coconut & Peach Fairy Cakes


Makes 12


140g Coconoil
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
small can peaches in juice, drained
35g unsalted butter
100g cream cheese
80g icing sugar
25g dessicated coconut




1.  Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 6. Place 12 paper cases into a bun tin.
2.  Grate the Coconoil into a bowl and add the sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder.  Mix well with a wooden spoon.
3.  Dice one peach and slice the other.  Add the diced peach to the cake mixture and mix well.
4.  Spoon into the paper cases then bake for 12-13 minutes, until they are just springy to touch.
5.  Leave the cakes to cool on a cooling rack.
6.  For the icing, beat together the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and coconut.
7.  Top each cake with a little of the creamy icing and a slice of peach.