Mmmm…this is the best chocolate cake ever. This is the one that we grew up on, the quick dessert when we were having people for dinner or on Sunday evening. It is moist as can be and feeds a crowd. Fuss-free to make (you don’t even need to get the beaters out) and any left-overs can cut into pieces and frozen for school lunches. It is always a winner and gets gobbled up though so left-overs aren’t likely. I’ve tried making this one in the thermomix, but it was a flop so if you’re thinking of giving it a go, try at your own risk!
Texas Sheet Cake
225g butter 1 cup water 4 Tbs cocoa 2 cup SR flour 2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1 Tbs vinegar 1 tsp bicarb 1 Tbs vanilla
Place butter, water and cocoa in a saucepan. Mix over heat until melted and boiling. Place flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, bicarb and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk well. Mix all ingredients together in the large bowl. Pour mixture into greased cake pan and cook in a 200 degree celsius oven for 30-40 minutes.
For the icing, I put a bit of softened butter (maybe 4 Tbs?) into a bowl then add icing sugar and cocoa and milk to make enough. Mix with a spoon and spread over cooled cake.
If you follow me on Instagram (make_it_perfect), I did promise awhile ago that I would share some recipes for some healthier snacks that I’ve been cooking lately.
About a month ago I got all hard core and decided that I was going to quit sugar…I was awesome for about 2 weeks and then school holidays kicked in and Harvey stopped sleeping and I lost motivation. I felt great while I was doing it though and it really wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I read “I Quit Sugar” by Sarah Wilson, it is a quick, interesting and motivating read and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to make some healthier changes to their eating habits. Although her approach is extreme, even if you aren’t wanting to totally get rid of sugar there are a lot of good tips to take away and make little changes for good in your diet. She uses rice malt syrup a lot as a sweetner – you can get it at health food stores or the health food section in Coles. It is a little midler in sweetness than honey but really yummy especially drizzled over some greek yoghurt.
Another recommendation is “Sweet Poison” by David Wilson. I bought his cookbook and it has a whole heap of yummy sweet recipes that are all fructose free. David is an advocate for using dextrose (a form of pure glucose) in replacement of sugar in cooking, I managed to track some down in Coles but you won’t find it in the baking aisle – this stuff is used for brewing beer so look in the home brew section! In my experimenting I think that dextrose is best for cakes and muffins, not so good fro anything you want to stay nice and crisp like biscuits. Here’s a picture so you know what you are looking for:
So, if you are like me and a total sugar/sweet/chocolate addict, these two books and websites are great to help get you educated and make some changes…I’m trying to get motivated to get back on track before the silly season rolls in!
When it comes to eating well, I don’t have a problem with breakfast, lunch and dinner…it’s the snacking in between that kills me. Particularly if I’m really hungry, I always find myself reaching for a quick sugar hit to keep me going. I’m sure that there are lots of people out there just like me, so here are a few recipes that I’ve been using that are much healthier than the originals and taste just as good too!
BLISS BALLS
If you do a google/pinterest search for bliss balls, you will come up with HEAPS of great recipe ideas. Basically they are made with a combination of nuts and dried fruit, plus other good things to give extra flavour.
The ones on the left are chocolate bliss balls made with: 1 cup cashews 2 Tbs raw honey or rice malt syrup 1 tsp vanilla 8 mejool dates 2 Tbs cacao or cocoa powder 2 Tbs coconut oil Place all ingredients into the thermomix or or processer/blender and process until smooth. Roll into balls and roll in coconut. Chill and store in fridge.
The ones on the right are apple and apricot bliss balls. I didn’t write down the exact measurements but I used dried apricots, dried apples, almonds, brazil nuts, coconut oil and rice malt syrup, then rolled balls in coconut.
CARAMEL POPCORN
This caramel popcorn has become one of our all-time favourites. I love that it is good for us and still just as yummy as a sugar-laden homemade caramel popcorn recipe.
1/2 cup popcorn kernels, popped 3 Tbs coconut oil 1/3 cup rice malt syrup 1/4 tsp salt pinch baking soda
Heat coconut oil, rice malt syrup and salt in saucepan until bubbly. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until it becomes golden and a bit thick. Add baking soda and mix quickly. Place popcorn in a large, greased baking dish. Pour caramel over popcorn, mix to coat. Bake in 140 degree celsius oven for 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes.
RASPBERRY & APPLE MUFFINS
This muffin base can be used for any fruit muffins – try replacing white sugar in cakes or muffins with dextrose. It isn’t as sweet as white sugar so the taste won’t be exactly the same. Also, dextrose soaks up liquid in a recipe so you might have to add a bit of extra liquid to get the mixture to the usual consistency.
2 cups SR flour
1 cup dextrose
2 eggs
3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup buttermilk (or milk mixed with a Tbs vinegar)
250g frozen raspberries
1 apple, grated
Place flour and dextrose into large bowl.
Whisk eggs, oil and buttermilk together in a sepearate bowl.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.
Stir thorough fruit.
Divide between 12 muffin holes and cook in moderate oven for about 20 minutes until cooked through.
The one thing that has been an absolute lifesaver, especially when I get to that 3pm slump (and could easily devour a block of chocolate if I had one around!) is green smoothies. I tried making green smoothies ages ago and they were always yucky, I can’t remember what I did at the time to know why they were so gross, but I was really turned off! A friend shared some recipes and samples with us at a recent Relief Society activity and they were so good – I am hooked now and can’t do without my afternoon green smoothie! They are also great if I can’t be bothered cooking dinner (the kids have them with a piece of toast!) or I’ve been too busy to eat properly throughout the day.
You can add pretty much anything you want to a green smoothie, the key is to blend them like crazy because if you are left with any lumpy bits from the greens it can be a real turn-off! I blend mine for 1 minute on speed 10 in the thermomix, and sometimes a little longer if it needs it.
My favourite combination is: handful baby spinach handful baby kale 1 orange 1 lemon 1 cup frozen mango 1 banana coconut water (or water or almond milk)
YUM! There are heaps of recipes and ideas on this website, Simple Green Smoothies. I’ve played around with lots of different combinations, but I can’t beat the one above.
Hopefully these recipes and ideas help you out with some healthier snack options. I’m already feeling motivated to get back on track!
Here’s a favourite meal of ours. It’s quick and super easy to make and (most importantly) delicious. Even the kids will eat it which pretty much makes any healthy meal a winner in our house.
First, take a couple of pieces of good quality white fish. I used pink ling here. Place a big piece of baking paper (enough to wrap around the fish a few of times) in a baking dish and put the fish in the middle. Top the fish with lots of different seasonings and sauces – this always changes for me depending on what I’ve got around, but usually includes ginger, garlic, parsley, dill, tumeric, salt, pepper, soy sauce and honey. Then slice up a lemon and pop that over the top.
Next, chop up heaps of veggies into thin strips. Once again, depends what I’ve got in the fridge but usually includes red and green capsicum, zucchini, celery, carrots, spring onions, etc.
Pile the veggies on top of your fish.
Using the baking paper, wrap everything up and fold the edges over making sure that there are no gaps in the baking paper.
Bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
Remove from oven and serve fish and veggies with some couscous or rice. We like couscous that has been cooked in stock with some sultanas, pistachios and pepitas mixed through. Enjoy!
The original recipe for this tasty granola comes from this great blog. I have changed things up a bit and modified the instructions to make the granola in the thermomix before cooking it in the oven.
The end result was less chunky oats and more crunchy clusters – my kids will often screw their noses up at whole oats, but made and cooked this way, they think this granola is a tasty snack! We haven’t had it for breakfast, but it is nice to grab a small handful of when you are having a craving for chocolate during the day – fills you up, satisfies the craving, and it’s good for you!
Choc Peanut Granola
2 apples, peeled
130g peanut butter (I used homemade peanut butter)
100g maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs milk
300g rolled oats
20g chia seeds
3 Tbs cacao (or cocoa) powder
Place apples in thermomix. Chop on speed 4 for 10 seconds.
Scrape apple from sides of the bowl. Cook on 100 degrees, speed 2 for 5 minutes until soft.
Puree on speed 9 for 10 seconds.
Add peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla and milk to pureed apples. Cook on 80 degrees, speed 1 for 2 minutes.
Add rolled oats, chia seeds and cacao to wet mixture, mix together on speed 4 for 20 seconds. Mixture will be quite wet.
Spread granola onto lined baking trays.
Bake in 160 degree oven for up to 1 hour, stirring to break granola up into little clusters every 10-15 minutes.
Granola will not become hard and crunchy in the oven, it will get crunchy as it cools. To test if granola is ready, take a little bit from the tray and sit on a plate to cool. Test for crunchiness when cool and cook for longer if required.
Using the baking paper, wrap everything up and fold the edges over making sure that there are no gaps in the baking paper.
