Healthy Wheat Free Turkey Burger Recipe

Last week I came up with an idea for a healthy, wheat free, turkey burger. And it was pretty yummy! So here's the recipe...

Ingredients;

Burger

• 400g Lean Turkey Mince
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1 or 2 tsp Ground Cumin
• Chopped coriander

Crust

• 2 Slices Wheat Free Bread
• Pepper and Salt to taste
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil

Toppings

• Avocado
• Tomato
• Crushed Garlic (probably not a whole one! Just a little bit)
• Coriander
• Lettuce
• Small amount of finely chopped onion

Start off by getting your hands dirty. Crush your garlic cloves into your mince and add the cumin and finely chopped corriander. Mix it all together with your (clean) hands until you think it is even throughout the mixture.  Ball up the mixture then flatten to make the burgers. I made 4 regular sized burgers and 2 mini ones out of this mixture.  Then put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so.

Meanwhile you can make the crust. Get your wheat free bread, preferably a bit stale, but if not just pop them in the toaster for a bit. Then put them in the blender until it has turned into breadcrumbs. Add a little salt and pepper and put this mixture in a shallow bowl. Take another bowl and break 2 eggs in it, then mix together.

Take your burgers out of the fridge. Heat some olive oil in a pan. Dip your burgers in the egg, and then in the breadcrumbs. Now pop on your pan and turn over when nicely browned on one side.

While these are cooking you can make your topping. Take your avocado, chopped tomato, onion, garlic and coriander and mix together in a bowl.

When the burgers are cooked assemble in your bun with a lettuce leaf and your avocado mixture. I also made some sweet potato chips by covering them in oil and baking them in the oven.

This meal felt really satisfying and like I was eating something naughty, but really it is pretty super healthy!  Plus the breadcrumbs were delicious and I don't think you would have been able to tell they were wheat free at all!

This would have been great without the bun too to be honest, and that would have been even healthier!

What are your favourite wheat free meals?

Laura xXx

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Healthy Pina Colada Ice lollies

I've got a bit of an obsession with pineapple and coconut at the moment, and I have been making delicious ice lollies with the simplest recipe.

Ingredients;

1 tin sliced pineapple in juice - 425g

1 sachet of coconut milk - 200ml

Simply pop it all in a blender then pour into icelolly moulds. I have been drinking any leftovers as a yummy pina colada flavoured smoothie just by adding a little water. Simple huh!? And healthy too!

I also tried a little experiment. I wanted to see which was better, tinned pineapple and packet coconut milk, or fresh pineapple and coconut. The fresh version turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Looks harmless enough right...

Well, it was pretty inedible. For starters it was nearly impossible to get the coconut open. Once I did, I realised there wasn't a lot of water in the coconut, so I decided I would try to blend in some of the coconut flesh. Big mistake! Perhaps if you had a super duper blender this would work better, but I was left with lots of little chunks of coconut, which was not a nice texture. Especially in the drink version, not good!

Packet coconut wins hands down, although I am tempted to try packet coconut with fresh pineapple, that could be a winning combination!

Have you got your ice lolly recipes out yet?

Laura xXx

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Cinnamon Chocolates

I just wanted to share a very quick bit of deliciousness with you today.

After I had finished making my chocolate grapes the other day, I had some of the cocoa, vanilla sugar and cinnamon mixture left over. I also had some melted dark chocolate left, so in an effort to make sure nothing was wasted, I decided to mix it all together and see what happened! I poured the mix into some little heart shaped chocolate moulds and left them in the fridge to cool.

I wasn't sure how they would turn out, after all, you probably don't need to add more cocoa to chocolate... but they were quite yummy!  I liked the cinnamon kick, they did have a grainy texture but I liked that too. They melted pretty quickly, but they also got eaten quickly so it didn't really matter! Terrible for you of course!

Ok, back to the spinach and watercress smoothies...

Laura xXx

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Grape Expectations - Grape Covered Chocolate Truffles

These might look like chocolate eggs, but in actual fact they are chocolate covered grapes! You know me, I like a healthy snack, and although the coatings of these might not be all that great for you, the centre certainly is!

I had a bit of a brainwave when I heard about people freezing grapes and eating them as icy snacks. I tried them and they were great! So I thought I would try to devise a recipe that turned them into mini chocolate ice lollys (without the stick). I had grape expectations for this experiment (grape, hah, see what I did there!?)

In actual fact I think these were much nicer when they had just been refrigerated rather than frozen. To get the best flavour you have to chew them quite quickly, rather than suck them. As you can imagine this is pretty difficult when they are frozen!

I started off the experiment by sending Chris to the shops to get me a bunch of grapes, and a packet of dark chocolate. Whilst that was being taken care of, I raided the cupboards to see what I had that would work as a coating.

I re-emerged with the following ingredients

• Hundreds and Thousands
• Sesame Seeds (my healthy option)
• Cocoa Powder
• Vanilla Sugar
• Cinnamon

The hundreds and thousands and the sesame seeds were ready to roll, but I mixed the cocoa powder, cinnamon and vanilla sugar together. I'm not quite sure how much I used of each, it was mostly cocoa powder, a bit less sugar, and then a fair sprinkling of cinnamon. 

Then I found some little dishes to put each topping in. A small deep bowl is preferable to a large shallow one. I also got out a large piece of baking foil to lay my finished grapes on.

Next I got on with melting my chocolate. The usual way of boiling a pan of water and sitting a pyrex dish on top, I popped in my broken chocolate and stirred until completely melted.

Now for the fun bit! I took my washed grapes, one by one, dipped them completely in the melted chocolate, then put them straight into my coating dish. I used a spoon to pour the coating onto the top. Then I rolled it around a bit until I was sure it was covered. You want the toppings to completely cover the chocolate, otherwise the melted chocolate will just stick to the bottom of the dish and make a mess. The cocoa powder one was easiest, I just had to shake the dish and the grape would roll around on its own.

I found it best to leave them in the dish to set for a moment, so I had a little production line going on where I would do one in each coat then remove it when I got back to the first one again. At this point I carefully removed the coated grape from the dish and placed it on my tin foil, and popped them in the fridge to cool for a little while.

I have to admit, these were a bit strange to get used to, but after I'd had a few ... yum! Chris and I devoured all of these during one episode of Game Of Thrones.

My favourites were the hundreds and thousands, weirdly they tasted a lot like a toffee apple! I loved the cinnamon kick in the cocoa ones, but you definitely had to chew them, if you sucked it you would just end up with a mouth full of powder. And the sesame seed ones are great too, they will be a perfect healthy treat. They say dark chocolate is good for you right!?

Ok, they were a little bit fiddley to make, but well worth it!

I think these would be really fun at a party. I would like to see peoples expressions as they eat them and  don't get what they are expecting! A good way to trick children into eating fruit also, no?  Although I never understand children who don't like fruit, particularly grapes, I loved them as a child!

I'm trying to think of some more topping ideas now. Can you think of any that would be good?

Laura xXx

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Wheat free, Sugar Free, Super Healthy Banana Bread!

Now that I am working from home, I am feeling the need for something to snack on. And I like cake, but I also like to eat healthily. Actually, one of the benefits of working from home is that there isn't a constant supply of doughnuts and cookies being brought in, which I then feel is my duty to eat!

Anywho, my solution to this snacking problem? Banana bread! A super healthy banana bread at that!  I have found recently that the foods we go through quickest are bananas and eggs. They can be used in pretty much anything can't they!? Chris has even been known to throw a banana in a curry! (I did not approve.) You may remember my Banana pancakes post which used solely bananas and eggs! Well here I have another recipe combining our two favourite ingredients.

I adapted the recipe from this blog. I really loved the idea it uses of adding cacao nibs, but I discovered that the pack I bought over a year ago had been polished off by Chris (how dare he!). So I opted for raisins instead.  

This recipe uses no sugar, is wheat free, and requires almost no butter! It can actually be completely butter free if you desire! So it's pretty darn healthy, and it tastes great too. You can find the full recipe here, but below are the ingredients I used for my version.

Ingredients;

1 cup wheat free flour blend
1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil (I used half and half to get the best of both worlds!)
3 mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
A good handful of raisins.

What is your favourite healthy snack?

Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothies - Raw Chocolate and Avocado

This is the last in my series of healthy smoothies, and it is a bit of a wild card. You may remember a little while ago I made a healthy chocolate mousse using raw cacao and avocado as the main ingredients. Well it was so delicious I thought I would modify the recipe for a smoothie. There are some fab health benefits with the ingredients too!

Raw Cacao enhances physical and mental well being, lowers blood pressure, improves circulation, helps prevent against cancer and improves digestion! Please note this is RAW chocolate, I don't think your average bar of dairy milk would have the same effect.

Avocado's are one of my favourite foods. I add them as a side to lots of meals we have. They make me feel healthy! They are a fantastic source of healthy fats, they lower your cholesterol, they protect your eyes, they reduce blood pressure and on top of that they are great for your skin too!

Coconut Oil can reduce bad cholesterol and can be a cure for arthritis and joint pains. It is good for your heart and keeps your blood sugar level under check. It is also great for your skin!

Rice Milk is healthier for your heart than cows milk, and obviously is much better for those who are lactose intolerant!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablebspoons raw cacao
• 1 avocado
• 3 cups rice milk
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

As usual, just whizz it all together in a blender.

Ok, I must admit, this one did not go down with everyone as well as the others have done. I think it is probably because the taste is so unusual, and if you are expecting to get a chocolate smoothie then you would be in for a shock! However, it is definitely still drinkable and considering the health benefits I would have this again. Maybe it could do with a few tweaks. Please let me know if you can make one that actually tastes as good as chocolate!

I hope you enjoyed my little smoothie series. Have you made any healthy smoothies that have turned out delicious recently?  If you missed any of my previous smoothie recipes, you can follow the links to them below.

Avocado and Banana

Watercress, Blueberry and Pineapple

Watermelon and Strawberry

Pina Colada (Pineapple, coconut and banana)

Mango, Banana and Goji Berries

Laura xXx

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Vanilla seeds and berries

A little while ago I decided to try my hand at making a healthy snack, after being inspired by my Graze box which included vanilla pumpkin and sunflower seeds! I think these would be great added to cereal or yoghurt in the morning as well.

Ingredients:

• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Goji Berries
• Vanilla pod
• Honey

Pour out some honey into a bowl, then scrape out the seeds of the vanilla pod and mix in.  Now mix in your seeds and goji berries. Cover a pan in baking paper and spread out your seeds evenly as above. As I used an Aga rather than a conventional oven I can't really tell you what temperature to set the oven to.  Just make sure you keep an eye on them, they probably won't take much longer than 10 minutes. Be careful the goji berries don't burn, mine were getting very close!  

One mistake which i made was to leave them out to cool on the baking paper. When I came back they were completely stuck to the paper and I couldn't get them off! Luckily, after popping them back in the Aga for a minute the honey eased up and I was able to scrape them off easily into a bowl. This time I made sure I stirred and broke them up while they cooled. It didn't take long! And I found this to be the best way of separating them.

They were pretty tasty! Next time I think I will use a milder honey to let the vanilla flavour come through more. Also, perhaps I will add the goji berries later, as they took the least time to cook.

PS. Don't put them in the fridge! The honey's consistency will change and you will end up with a bit of a gloopy sticky mess.

Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothies - Mango, Banana and Goji Berries

Todays smoothie is mango, banana and goji berry! Here are some of the health benefits of these ingredients:

Mango has been proven to help protect against cancer as well as strokes and  is great for your eyes!

Bananas are fantastic, they can help with depression, morning sickness, heartburn, increase brain power and calm the nervous system.

Goji Berries have compounds rich in vitamin A, that may have anti-aging benefits. In Asia they have been eaten for generations in the hopes of living longer. They also boost immunity, protect your vision and help prevent heart disease.

Ingredients:

• 1 mango
• 1 banana
• 3 tbsp goji berries
• 1 cup water

This one turned out delicious and refreshing! I love the colour too! You can check out some of my previous smoothie recipes here, here, here and here.

Laura xXx

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Wheat Free Rocky Road Recipe

I seem to have developed a bit of a weakness for Rocky Road in the last few weeks.  The sandwich lady at work has been bringing it on her little sandwich wagon, and unfortunately I have been unable to resist it on quite a few occasions!

So, I decided to give in completely and make some myself.  If you don't already know, my other half is wheat intolerant, so this version is made using wheat free digestives!

Ingredients:

• 300g chocolate (I used dark cooking chocolate)
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp Golden Syrup
• 200g digestive biscuits (mine were wheat free)
• Glacier Cherries
• Marshmallows

Start by putting the biscuits in a freezer bag and bashing them up with a rolling pin so that there are still chunks of biscuit but also some crumbs. Distribute the biscuits into a pan.  I couldn't find any mini marshmallows so I just cut up big ones, distribute these evenly around the pan and do the same with your cherries. I cut some of these in half.  It should now look something like the above picture.

Next break up the chocolate into a pyrex dish, then add the butter and golden syrup. Heat a saucepan half full with water and place the pyrex dish on top (obviously pick a dish that will fit well in the saucepan), then stir while they all melt together.  Once melted pour on top of the other ingredients. You may need to give it all a little stir just to make sure the chocolate is evenly spread around.

Pop in the fridge to cool for a couple of hours and it's done! And it was scrummy too!

Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothies - Pina Colada

Todays healthy smoothie is a delicious Pina Colada! Pineapple, coconut, banana and a little bit of coconut oil. Here are some of the health benefits;

Coconut milk and coconut oil reduce your bad cholesterol and can be a cure for arthritis and joint pains. They are good for your heart and keep your blood sugar level under check. They are also great for your skin!

Pineapple is packed with fibre and vitamin C, it's also known for it's anti-inflammatory benefits.

Bananas are pretty awesome, they can help with depression, morning sickness, heartburn, increase brain power and calm the nervous system.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin sliced pineapple
• 1/2 cup Coconut milk (or half a can)
• 1 Banana
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

This one was delicious and really easy to make. Just stick it all in the blender! I'll definitely be making this one again but I think I will try it with fresh pineapple next time.

Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothie - Watermelon and Strawberry

As you may know I have started a little series on some healthy smoothie recipes. Last week I shared my recipe for a watercress, blueberry and pineapple. Today's smoothie is watermelon and strawberry. Here are some of the benefits of these ingredients---

Watermelon is great for your heart, its a great source of potassium and helps muscle and nerve function and it can ease inflammation among other things!

Strawberries can help lower blood pressure, they are great for your bones and eyes, and generally contribute to a healthy immune system.

 Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped watermelon
• 2 cups strawberries
• 1/2 cup water
• Agave Syrup or honey to taste

This recipe makes just enough for 3 large glasses. Chop it all up, throw it in the blender and serve chilled. This would have been a really easy one to make had it not been for all those pesky seeds in the watermelon. It did take a little while to get them all out, but once they were it was quick as a flash. I actually used frozen strawberries for this one, which made it even quicker!  I imagine this one would be great for after a workout, especially in the summer as it was really refreshing!

Laura xXx

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How to Make Your Own Fruit Crisps

I've always wanted to try making my own fruit crisps, so while I'm on my week off I decided it would be a perfect activity. We are lucky enough to be living in a house with an Aga at the moment so I thought I would take full advantage. The coolest area in the Aga is perfect for drying fruit. 

I decided to start easy with just apples and Bananas. I chopped them up, cored the apples and spread them on one of those reuseable baking sheets. 

I left them in for nearly 7 hours in total. When I took them out I was a bit worried I had left them too long, but actually I think they were just right. I'm excited to try some other fruits now. Mango, pineapple and papaya are all on my list!

Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothies - Watercress, Blueberry and Pineapple

As an excuse to show off my lovely new Poppy and Pearl glasses, I thought I would start a little mini series of healthy smoothie recipes! Today we have watercress, blueberry and pineapple. Here's a little overview of the benefits of each ingredient;

Watercress has been proven in many studies to aid the prevention of cancer. And if that wasn't a good enough reason to eat it, it also boasts 15 vital nutrients and minerals!

Blueberries are well known for being a 'superfood'. They are packed with antioxidants and can lower your risk of heart disease and cancer!

Pineapple is packed with fibre and vitamin C, it's also known for it's anti-inflammitory benefits.

 Ingredients:

• 1 tin of sliced pineapple (approx 430g)
• 1 Cup of Blueberries
• 1 large handful of watercress
• 1/4 cup water

I used frozen blueberries and tinned pineapple, but by all means you can use fresh fruit instead. I blitzed it all in the blender, including the juice from the pineapple. I actually added the water last of all, testing a bit at a time to see how much it needed. Add more or less depending on how thick you want the smoothie to be.  This recipe made the amount pictured, plus another half a glass.

I was pretty impressed with this. I thought that the watercress would be overpowering, but I can actually say it was a tasty smoothie!  I did find that as I got further towards the bottom it became a bit more peppery, but that was probably because I left it sitting too long taking all of these photos!  I also really love the colour it came out, isn't it pretty? Definitely one to try again!

Laura xXx

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Avocado and Banana Smoothie

Todays post is really about two things. First off, an awesomely healthy avocado and banana smoothie (as the title would suggest.) But also my flippin amazing new glasses. Aren't they beautiful? Ok, we'll do the recipe first then I'll talk some more about the glasses.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 banana
• 200ml milk (I used hemp milk but any kind will do)
• 200ml water
• Agave syrup to taste (or you can use honey)

Simply mash the avocados and banana with a fork. Then pop them into a blender, along with the milk and water, then blend. Give it a taste and add agave syrup or honey to your liking. Pretty simple huh!?

But what did it taste like? You might think avocado and banana a strange mixture, but they actually worked quite well together. A little unusual I must admit, but it was very similar to a banana smoothie. I don't think the recipe is perfect yet, but it is certainly well on its way to being one of my favourites. The texture was good, although perhaps I will try it with a bit more liquid next time. Perhaps we didn't need quite as much as pictured, but it  was definitely a good, healthy start to the day! I'd like to try it with some oats next time, to make it even more substantial. I think avocados are the best, what with them being a superfood and all, so I am generally happy with anything that has avocado in it!

Now, the glasses! Well, actually they are 'Mason Jar Tumblers'. This is quite an american thing I think, and I bought them from an American shop on etsy called Poppy and Pearl. I bought 5 all together and they all came with different coloured straws and little washable chalkboard labels on the front! You can use them with the straws or without the top at all. I absolutely love them!

Cheers!

Laura xXx

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Healthy Banana Pancakes

Over the last few days Chris and I have been hearing a lot about banana pancakes. That is, pancakes with banana actually in the batter rather than banana with the pancakes.  So we decided to try our own version! The great thing about these pancakes is, they have no flour in them! So Chris can eat them too (he is wheat intolerant) and it is healthier all around! The even better thing about these pancakes is, they taste great!

Ingredients

• 3 small bananas
• 4 eggs
• Ground Flaxseed (optional)
• Maple Syrup

These couldn't be easier to make. Just mash up your bananas, then in a separate bowl whisk your eggs. Mix them both together and then add any other ingredients you fancy. We decided to put some ground flaxseed in but you might like to try cinnamon, raisins or perhaps some other fruit.

When you are making the batter it feels like you are just making scrambled eggs with banana's in. But once it is cooking they look just like normal pancakes. They really are yummy and I think we will be making these pretty often now!

Laura xXx

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Easy Canapes - Salmon, Cucumber and Cream Cheese

Here I am, back with another easy canape.  I know the holiday season is pretty much over now, but I thought that this was such a good one, I couldn't resist! It is perfect if you are catering to people who are wheat or gluten intolerant, and ideal if you have 'last minute' guests, as it only takes a few minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Cucumber
• Smoked Samlon
• Cream Cheese (I used Philadelphia Light with Chives)

Chop up your cucumber into nice chunky pieces. Add a blob of cream cheese on top. Seperate your salmon into nice bitesize chunks, then pop them on top of the cream cheese. Hey presto, your done! This has got to be the easiest one yet and they went down really well at a party we had recently. 

Laura xXx

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Easy Canapes - Tomato, Basil and Goats Cheese

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! I thought I would share with you another of my favourite canapes while we are still in the party season.

One of my University friends introduced me to the idea of this canape, and ever since then it has been my most used canape recipe. We were put in charge of the food at our University Degree show one year, and of course we wanted to impress, and these certainly did the trick. Although perhaps I wouldn't suggest making them for quite as many people as we did!

Ingredients:

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Basil
• Goats Cheese

The only troublesome bit about making these is scooping out the middles of the tomatoes. It is more messy than difficult, and it doesn't take much time at all if you are only feeding a small group of people.  Just make sure you are prepared with a bowl to put the middles and tops of the tomatoes in and a little spoon to scoop them out. You will probably want to use a knife to free the middle from the edges before you try scooping it out. Then its just a case of popping in a basil leaf, and on top of that a small piece of the goats cheese, yummy!

Top Tip! - Don't waste the middles and tops of your tomatoes, you can use them in a meal like pasta or chilli con carne.  Waste not want not and all that.

Laura xXx

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