Banana, Honey & Granola Crunch Muffins

I’m pretty sure I only bake in a bid to try and bribe people into liking me. In fact, I frequently turn up to work with sweet goods to keep on my managers good side, and seeing as I haven’t been fired (yet), I’ll assume it works. Now nothing says “please don’t lock me in the stock room or force me to deal with the horrible customers that make me cry” quite like a big batch of these Banana, Honey & Granola Crunch muffins. And if I really want to get on her good side, I’ll give these to her with a cup of tea and my butter-wouldn’t-melt smile 

Ingredients

Makes 12 Muffins

2 Cups Ground Almonds

1/2 Cup Plain Gluten-Free Flour

1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch Of Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons Honey

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

3 Eggs

3 Ripe Bananas

1 Tablespoon Dairy-Free Milk

Topping: Granola And Banana Slices.

Method

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celsius. Grease your muffin tin with coconut oil and leave to one side.

In a large bowl, combine your ground almonds, flour, baking powder and sea salt. 

In a separate bowl, cream together your coconut oil and honey with an electric whisk until pale. Add in your vanilla extract and your eggs and continue to whisk until combined.

Slowly add in your dry ingredients to your honey and coconut oil mix and stir in well.

Mash your 3 ripe bananas and fold into your wet mixture with your dairy-free milk.

Using a 1/4 cup measurement, or a large ice cream scoop, fill each well with your mixture until about 3/4 full. Top with a banana slice and a sprinkling of granola. 

Bake in your oven for about 15 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown. They should spring back when touched.

Leave to cool.

Serve with a hot cup of tea to seriously impress your manager.

K

Chocolate Chai Banana Bread

If I could choose how to spend my perfect Sundays, I would be in great company, exploring picturesque neighbourhoods and sampling plenty of overindulgent foods. Of course the majority of my Sundays are spent rising at 6 to cram in a 10 mile run, catching up with work from the previous week ready for the next, and just trying to find a few spare minutes to shave my legs and collapse on a heap on the sofa. What remains in both my expectations and realities of a Sunday however, is plenty of tea and sweet treats to see me through.

This a perfect bake to use up all those sad, bruised looking bananas long forgotten in the dark corners of your kitchen. And as well as being gluten and dairy-free, this subtly sweet Chocolate Chai Banana Bread is refined sugar-free, and when kept in an airtight container will see you through the week as a delicious, healthy snack.

Ingredients

Dry

1/2 Cup Buckwheat Flour

1/2 Cup Ground Almonds

1 1/2 TSP Baking Powder

1/2 TSP Baking Soda

2 TSP Cinnamon

1 TSP Ginger

1/2 TSP Allspice

1/2 TSP Nutmeg

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

1/2 TSP Salt

Dark Chocolate Chopped

Wet

2 Large Eggs

1/4 Cup Melted Coconut Oil

1/4 Cup Milk or Milk Alternative

1 TSP Apple Cider Vinegar

3 Medium Ripe Bananas Mashed

Topping

1 Cup Pecans

1 TBSP Coconut Oil

1/4 TSP Cinnamon

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius or gas mark 6 and line a loaf tin.

In a large bowl, mix together all your dry ingredients and set to one side. 

On a chopping board, roughly mash your bananas with a fork leaving some larger chunks of banana. In another bowl, whisk together your eggs, coconut oil, milk and apple cider vinegar. Add in your mashed banana and mix together.

Begin to fold in the wet mixture to the dry ingredients until only just combined.

Transfer the bread mixture to your loaf tin. Sprinkle on your pecans and drizzle with the remaining coconut oil and put in the oven to bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out of the bread clean. If you find your pecans are beginning to burn on top, cover with foil and resume baking. 

So slather up a slice with jam and peanut butter and thank me later.

K

Almond Butter Blueberry Cookies

Now I wanted to start this post tastefully. I'm currently "surfing the crimson wave". Some might say, "birthing a blood diamond". Or I'm attending "arts and craft week at Pantry Camp", if you get what I mean.

Yes, I totally googled: polite things to call your period. 

Too much information, I know. But the point was that this week I’ve been craving sweets, cakes and biscuits like crazy, and this is where these Almond Butter Blueberry Cookies come in.

Not only are they free-from dairy, eggs and gluten, but they are also free from refined sugars. I try and avoid processed sugars around this time of the month because my skin is usually already suffering with the unbalanced hormones and I don’t want to make it any worse. These cookies are sweetened naturally with maple syrup and vanilla extract, but still smell and taste delicious warm out of the oven to keep my cravings at bay.

 

Makes 20 Cookies

Ingredients

150g Oats

100g Buckwheat Flour

1 TSP Bicarbonate Of Soda

90ml Olive Oil

90g Tahini

250g Almond Butter

120ml Maple Syrup

75g Blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius/Gas Mark 4 and line and grease a large baking tray.

In a blender or food processor, blend the oats down into a fine powder and then stir together with the buckwheat flour and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.

Over a low heat, melt the olive oil, tahini, almond butter and maple syrup and stir until  smooth and combined.

Pour the warm liquid mixture over the dry ingredients, along with the blueberries, and fold until all the ingredients are combined.

Roll the cookie dough into 20 golf-sized balls and flatten down with the palm of your hand on the baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes (don’t overcook them or they will become dry). The cookies will still be a little soft, but they will start to firm up as they cool down. After a couple minutes transfer to a wire rack to cool completely - or just eat the whole batch before then!

If you too are “riding the cotton pony” so to speak, make a big batch of these and put your feet up with a cup of tea. 

K

Chocolate Chip Courgette Muffins

So she awoke in a sugary daze January 1st, left to wonder if December ever really happened at all...

The month of December seems to be a black hole for all good and healthy intentions. A place where one too many mince pies are consumed and where morning workouts are this mythological idea - especially those early morning ones. Where opening one door of an advent calendar accidentally turned into opening them all, and one Christmas film on a lazy afternoon suddenly turned into 5. Where you’re left learning, the hard way, you’ll always love wine more than it loves you.

But it did happen. Decembers officially over, and with the New Year in full swing, it’s time to kick off that sugary daze.

These muffins are the perfect healthy snack to help hit the reset button and start nourishing our bodies again. A deliciously sweet treat to satisfy anyones post-Christmas sweet tooth, but entirely free from refined sugars, oils and gluten. So that extra roast potato you probably shouldn’t have eaten? Forget about it. Start the year fresh with these Courgette Chocolate Chip Muffins.

This recipe is adapted from the OhSheGlows Cookbook, and this is her method. I have used buckwheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour in order to make these gluten free. 

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 1/4 cups non-dairy milk 

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

2 cups buckwheat flour

1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup 

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (preferably over 85%)

1 1/4 cups lightly packed grated courgette

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly grease a muffin tin (I know this is an oil free recipe, but I like to grease with coconut oil).
2. In a small bowl, stir together the ground flaxseed and 3 tablespoons water. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the milk and vinegar. Set aside. It will curdle a bit, but that’s the point - we’re making vegan buttermilk.
4. In a large bowl, combine the buckwheat flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. To the bowl with the milk and vinegar mixture, stir in the flaxseed mixture, the maple syrup, and the vanilla. Pour the milk mixture over the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the chopped dark chocolate and courgette, being careful not to over-mix.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each well three-quarters full. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until the muffins slowly spring back when touched. A toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out clean. Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes.
7. Run a knife around the edges of the muffins to release them from the pan and transfer them to a rack to cool completely. 

K

The Almighty Moringa Miracle Chocolate Shake

Now if we were to play a game of Superfoods Top Trumps, Moringa Powder is the card we’re all going to want, and here’s why…

This world of superfoods in which we live can seem like a baffling, all very extravagant marketing ploy to make money out of an increasingly health-concerned (and apparently cynical) population. We have mulberries, goji berries and whats that? You’ve never tried any enchantedmagentaunicornforest-berries? You haven’t lived. And apparently, the less you're able to pronounce the word, the better it is for you, so don’t worry because no one pronounced quinoa right the first time. But, there is a reason why these mysterious people - who actually have the time to make fancy schmancy, instagram worthy breakfasts every morning - swear by them, and it’s probably why they have such fantastic skin…

For the past few months, and now for the foreseeable future, I've been supplementing for an iron deficiency anaemia and a B12 deficiency, which is a pretty common and very treatable problem. Coming off the tablets would inevitably cause my levels to drop but I totally feel like that prescription money could be better spent on a new pair of shoes (am I right?) The only further advice offered to me was to 'make sure you eat plenty of dark leafy greens' - really? If I possibly ate anymore broccoli than I already do, I'm gonna' turn into one myself. So I took research into my hands, and discovered that the tub of green powder gathering dust in my pantry (along with the other products I had picked up on a trolley dash through Holland & Barrett), was actually used to prevent and treat 300 illness worldwide, including anaemia. 

Having previously doubted Moringa, questioning "what could this superfood promise me that others couldn't?", I would like to retract that statement and admit that I could not have been more wrong.

So meet the heavyweight and powerhouse of nutrition, 

Moringa: Native to India, used to treat and prevent 300 illnesses worldwide. 25 times more iron than spinach, 17 times more calcium than milk and 15 times more potassium than bananas. Neutralises and reduces the damage of free radicals (the nasty molecules that speed up ageing and can cause heart diseases and cancers).

Nutrients: 92

Antioxidants: 46

Amino Acids: 18, with the 9 essential ones our bodies cannot produce.

Vitamins: A - Z

Omegas: 3, 6 and 9.

And whats even better, Moringa Powder is so easy to add into any meal. I made this Almighty Moringa Mircale Chocolate Shake as my post-run protein shake. Even with the slight green tint, the taste was undetectable. Naturally high in iron, protein and all those over heavyweight stats, it's great for your skin and your whole well-being. Super creamy, all naturally sweetened and great for muscle repair, it makes for a fab, guilt-free treat. And if it's going to help up my iron levels, I'd consider in a daily necessity, at least for the foreseeable future...

Ingredients

Serves 1 

1 Frozen Banana

1 Medjool Date (pitted)

1 1/2 tbsp Raw Cacao Powder

1/2 cup Water/Ice

1/2 cup dairy-free milk alternative, I use Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk

1 tbsp Moringa Powder.

Optional:

1 tbsp Nut Butter.

1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method

Simply blend all ingredients together in a blender and serve pinterest-style in Kilner jars with paper straws*. Enjoy…

*Instagramming the hell of out this is not required, but highly recommended.

Kay's Kitchen Playlist:

Catfish and the Bottlemen - Kathleen, Cocoon and Pacifier

Macaroni Cheeze

Macaroni Cheeze

I’ll admit, I used to proclaim a strong love for cheese in all it’s forms of glory. Who wouldn’t? Salty halloumi grilled on the barbecue, warm slices of freshly baked bread dipped into oven baked camembert, those extensive cheese boards that get brought out on occasions with juicy grapes and crackers. So you know, it came as a surprise to me how easily I gave it all up without so much as a craving for a brie and bacon sandwich.

There is, however, just a small exception. Whilst I never miss the mozzarella on my pizzas, I can’t help but feel a little bit jealous whenever my Mum makes the dish I grew up devouring loving (and I’m convinced she only makes it to tease and taunt me). Macaroni Cheese. 

I call this dish Macaroni “Cheeze” because it simply isn’t cheese. 

I’m not going to lie to you, or fool you into thinking it’s going to taste like what it isn’t. 

This is wonderfully creamy, packed full of flavours, cashew nut sauce. (Not cheese). 

It’s pan-licking worthy with an aroma that sends those tastebuds into overdrive. (But not cheese). 

It resembles and tastes similar to a cheese sauce, but let’s just get this clear, it’s not cheese.  

Great. 

This recipe is dairy free and easy to make gluten free if you swap the pasta for a gluten free version. It’s nutritionally dense, delicious and boasts incredible flavour from the chilli, cumin and garlic.

| Serves 2 |

Diary Free - Gluten Free

140g Pasta/Gluten-free Pasta

1/2 Red Onion Diced

2 Gloves Garlic Minced

1/2 Cup Cashews (soaked over-night, or for 6-8 hours)

1 1/2 Cups Vegetable Broth

1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch

1/4 Tsp Cumin

1/2 Tsp Chilli Powder

1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

Red Chilli’s 

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4

Begin by preparing your pasta according to instructions on the package. Drain and leave to the side once cooked.

Whilst the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a pan and fry the onions and the garlic with salt and black pepper until soft. 

Then blend down your onions and garlic with the rest of the ingredients until creamy and smooth. Depending on your blender you may have to stop a few times to scrap down the sides and add a tiny bit of water. 

Now heat your cashew cream mixture in a pan to allow it to thicken up. If you find your mixture particularly watery then add a little bit more cornflour. Once it is hot throughout, mix in the pasta and transfer into an oven-proof dish and place it in the oven until piping hot.

Serve and enjoy your Macaroni Cheese Cheeze. 

Kay's Kitchen Playlist

Homesick - Catfish and the Bottlemen

Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High - Arctic Monkeys

Vegan Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

“Normal” people bake cakes with eggs and sugar. Where’s the fun in that? I like to play the fun game where I disguise odd fruits and vegetables in sweet treats, in an attempt to create guilt-free cakes/brownies. But when you can reach in for a second round without feeling too indulgent, can you really complain about my quirky habit?

These chocolate chip oat cookies are no exception, bursting with nutrients that love and fuel your body. They are sweetened naturally with maple syrup and have a rich chocolate taste from the raw cacao powder and a crunch from the cocoa nibs. But the hidden secret? Barlotti beans. 

Yeah, even I was a bit sceptical about this one too…

But these beans are sweet and creamy, binding the cookie together and adding a great source of plant-based protein. Packed full of fibre with a low GI, these cookies make a perfect afternoon snack with a cup of tea when those 4 o’clock munchies awaken to keep you full until dinner. They also make a perfect pre/post-workout snack.

vegan - refined sugar-free - gluten-free - nut-free 

Ingredients

Makes roughly 12 - 16 cookies

- 2 Cups Barlotti Beans (about two cans)

- 1 1/2 Cup Oats/Gluten Free Oats

- 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup (1/2 cup for those with real sweet teeth)

- 2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

- 2 Tablespoons Raw Cacao Powder

- Large Handful Of Cocoa Nibs/Dark Chocolate Chips

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 and grease a baking tray with coconut oil.

Drain and rinse your beans before placing them into your blender along with the coconut oil, maple syrup and cacao powder. Blend until creamy and smooth, adding a small amount of water as you go if you're finding it difficult.

Once smooth, stir together your bean mix, oats and cocoa nibs in a bowl. 

Using about an ice cream scoop size per cookie, use your hands to mould the mix into small balls and push them down into thin circles on your baking tray.

Bake for twenty minutes and then eat the whole batch without regrets  allow to cool and enjoy.

Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.