One of the things I have missed the most since I went gluten-free is Victoria Sponge cake. I’m talking the lightness of the vanilla sponge, the deliciousness of the jam and the lashings of cream…

But sugar turns me into a grumpy witch, and wheat makes me balloon at least two dress sizes, so saying no to the delicacies in the cake shops and kids’ parties is fairly easy, as soon as I consider the consequences.

My ‘bubba’ turned 10 recently and I ended up baking 3 cakes in one week – one for school, one for home and one for his party. All of them were sugar-free and gluten-free, and with this much experimenting going on in my kitchen, I decided it was time to try out the Victoria sponge cake. I chose to make it as the ‘home cake’, in case it was a disaster (then I could feed it to the dog and cats!) and because it’s secretly my favourite.

And I was over the moon when, not only did the gluten-free Victoria sponge cake recipe idea work, but my kids voted it the “best cake ever”.

So I’m sharing it with you in the hope it might inspire you to try it out – and hopefully fall in love with it.

Ingredients for Gluten-Free Victoria Sponge Cake

Makes enough for 10 ‘polite’ people
P.S. I apologise that it’s not vegan and dairy-free, too. I guess I had to draw the line somewhere for my experimenting. And, of course, this much butter, honey and cream means this is an occasional treat, rather than a daily splurge. But then I know I don’t really need to tell you that, do I? xx Clare

• 8 oz butter (yes, butter, not margarine – unless you know of a healthy margarine) – at room temperature – i.e. softened but not liquid
• 6 oz runny honey
• 8 oz gluten-free flour – you can either use a sugar-free blend (DO check the ingredients!) or I used a mix of buckwheat, rice & quinoa flour plus 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum – or you can use Doves Farm Gluten-Free flour plus 1 level teaspoon baking powder.
• 5 medium eggs – separated into separate bowls for the yolk from white
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder (check it’s gluten-free)
• seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod – or equivalent of vanilla essence (again look out for sugar on the ingredients)
• 5-6 tablespoons sugar-free jam – I used Meridian organic blackcurrant spread
• 250 ml double cream for whipping (we’re blessed to have raw cream from our local farm shop!)

Instructions For #BestCakeEver Victoria Sponge

• Line the base two 8 inch sandwich cake tins (i.e. round and about 1 inch high) with greaseproof paper & pre-heat your oven to 180C or equivalent
• Whisk the egg whites until forming soft peaks – not as much as meringues but still white and fluffy.
• If you need to de-seed the vanilla pod, make a light score along the length of the pod, so you are only opening one side, then use a teaspoon to scrape along the open inside of the pod. You’ll get a good collection of seeds. There’s no need to throw away the pod – keep it safe to make a vanilla pudding or other recipe another time.
• Beat the butter, honey, xanthan gum, baking powder and vanilla together until they go a lighter colour and look fluffy. I use my Grannie’s geriatric electric whisk and it takes about 1 minute. By hand it’s more of a labour of love. This stage is important, because it really helps with the lightness. I add the vanilla, xanthan gum and baking powder at this stage so that I know they’re well-blended.
  You might want to test for sweetness at this stage, especially if your family has a sweet-sugar-tooth. If it’s not sweet enough, you can add a little more honey or a level teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
• Add the egg yolks and half the flour and beat well until combined.
• Gently beat in the rest of the flour with half of the egg white, until well mixed.
• Stir in the remaining whisked egg white – this really helps to make the final sponge fluffier.
• Divide the mixture equally between two cake tins and gently smooth / flatten the top. It may be runnier than you are used to, but it should still be a thick cake mixture.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven until well-risen, golden brown on top and gently separating from the edges of the tin. Use a sharp knife to test the middle of the cake – it will come out clean if it is cooked. Depending on your oven, this will take between 25 and 35 minutes.
• Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them to cool completely in their tins.
• To assemble the final cake, remove the halves from the tins and take off the greaseproof paper. Place one half on a plate and cover the top with the jam. Whip the cream and spoon roughly on top of this. Then use the final half of the cake to squidge it all together. Serve immediately with a slightly smug smile and watch it disappear.

• So how did you get on? Did your family enjoy this delicious gluten-free Victoria sponge recipe? Did they notice it is also sugar-free? If you want to make it, will it be for a special occasion? Or ‘just because’?

  Did you tweak it? Are you a habitual-recipe-experimenter? Or do you follow them to the letter?

  I’d love to hear from you via the comments!

  Until next time, with love, Namaste,
  

The post Gluten-Free Victoria Sponge – It’s Sugar-Free, Too – Voted Best Cake Ever By The Kids appeared first on Happy Mamas.

Late summer sees the start of blackberry season! I have trained my boys to be expert pickers – they have far more patience than I do and, even allowing for the purple faces that return to my kitchen, it’s easy to have plenty of berries left after harvest munching to make delicious blackberry puddings. One of my favourites is blackberry ice cream. And this one is sugar free – as well as delicious. Want to know how?
Freshly-picked blackberries are juicy and sweet. They have ripened in the sunshine (rather than in a supermarket’s store room) and you can TASTE summer all through them. And if you have picked them yourself, the ice cream feels like a well-deserved reward.

Sweet berries don’t need sugar. Their flavour is incredible and, if you need a little sweetness, consider some honey instead. It’s much more gentle on your body.

PLUS because the blackberries are used raw (not cooked into a puree), you get all of those incredible enzymes and other nutrient goodies that blackberries have to offer, rather than killing them off with over-cooking. It turns sugar free blackberry ice cream into a super food!

And who can resist the incredible pairing of blackberries and apples? Instead of using them to make jam, how about enjoying apple crumble with blackberry ice cream, instead?

That’s it! Easy, wasn’t it?!

Variations:

In summer, how about trying raspberry ice cream? Or blackcurrant ice cream? Or blueberry ice cream? Got a glut – strawberry ice cream works brilliantly too – you might want to mush some of the strawberries with a potato masher first, to make it easier. Any soft fruit will work well for this ice cream recipe.

Let me know how you get on with this recipe – how did the ‘salty topping’ bring out the sweetness of the apples?

What are your favourite tweaks?

I’d love to hear from you via the comments.

Thank you!
With love, Namaste,

P.S. Please feel free to share this recipe with your friends via Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest etc! xx C.

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It always makes me chuckle how my sugar-free recipes get loads of attention on Facebook – much more than the deeper-and-perhaps(?)-more-meaningful ‘how to change your life’ stuff. But the fact is that what we eat impacts our mood (see ‘Are You Eating Yourself Miserable?‘). So I’m happy to share my insider-secret recipes with you – and here’s one of my favourites.

The thing is that sugar messes with your body, your mind and your emotions.

In fact, if I eat it these days (I’ve been ‘clean’ for about 2 years), I find that after a couple of days of it, say on holiday, I turn into a depressed witch. I feel miserable for no reason, I feel sluggish, I get grumpy and irritable. And I go up at least 2 dress sizes. It’s incredible. And then when I come off it again, it takes 3-4 days of detoxing and feeling like I have ‘flu before I feel human again.

It’s an enormous price to pay for a little bit of sugar.

And many people are reacting badly to sugar, but because they have it so regularly, it masks the symptoms.

So at home we avoid refined sugar in all its forms – be it traditional ‘sugar’ or even stuff like white flour and white pasta. It took us a while to retrain our taste buds, but it’s well worth the effort.

But the kids LOVE apple crumble and ice cream, so here’s a way you can still love it – and it’s super-easy to make. It’s time for wheat-free apple crumble:

Insider Secrets: Sugar-Free, Wheat-Free Apple Crumble

To start with, I go ‘French’ with my apple crumble – dessert apples only – no cookers. That means that, if the apples are fresh and haven’t been stored in cold storage for 18 months, they’ll be juicy and sweet and won’t need any extra sugar. Much as I love the flavour of Bramleys, I want to avoid the bucket of sugar they would need. So use eating apples.

I also avoid wheat as far as we can (‘Wheat Belly’ by William Davis MD was the final straw for me on this). For this recipe I’m using wholegrain spelt flour, which is deliciously nutty and is much better tolerated by most people’s tummies than refined white wheat flour. Obviously spelt is NOT gluten free. If you need truly gluten free you can substitute 50:50 buckwheat & rice flour or your own favourite gluten free flour (though watch out – many of the GF pre-packaged flours have sugar beet in them and have a higher GI than wheat!)

There’s no sugar in the crumble topping. Instead you get natural sweetness from the cinnamon AND a twist – the slight saltiness of the topping brings out the gorgeous sweetness of the apples – let me know how you enjoy it!

And I’m a lazy chef – though people rave about my food – and I avoid extra work wherever possible. So you won’t catch me peeling where I don’t need to or sieving purees. Sorry if that offends you

This crumble recipe serves 6 polite guests or 4 if you have my kids and hubs round to nosh.

There you go – that’s all there is to it. Get the kids chopping the apples while you do the crumble topping and the whole thing is ready to go almost before your oven is heated up!

Let me know how you get on with this recipe – how did the ‘salty topping’ bring out the sweetness of the apples?

What are your favourite tweaks?

I’d love to hear from you via the comments. And if you enjoyed this recipe, make sure you’re getting my newsletter – sign up in the box below. You’ll get regular updates with Soul-Food recipes, as well as insider secrets about how to change your life.

PLUS you can join in the discussion by posting photos of your own versions of this recipe in the comments at this link on my Facebook page.

Thank you!
With love, Namaste,

P.S. Please feel free to share this recipe with your friends via Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest etc! xx C.

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They’re simple to do and sprouting them – technically soaking the almonds – makes it much easier for your body to absorb their many nutrients.

Here’s how to make the most of sprouted almonds and some great ideas for sprouted almond recipes – including sprouted almond milk recipes.

Soaked almonds, ready for sprouting. Photo copyright: David Morley ~ my fabulously talented cousin!

Why bother sprouting or soaking almonds?

Almonds, like other nuts and seeds, contain enzyme inhibitors. These stop the seed from sprouting too early, out in nature, and hence being wasted by trying to grow before the conditions are right.

These enzyme inhibitors also mean that the enzymes in the seed or nut are blocked, so that when you or I eat one, we can’t make use of nature’s special helpers – the enzymes – to aid our digestion of it. Our body’s own enzymes can help, but it basically means you have to ‘work’ much harder to digest the food than you would if the enzyme inhibitors weren’t there – and you’re likely to be missing out on some of the goodness.

The good news

The good news is that enzyme inhibitors are naturally released when you soak the seed or nut. The soaking time varies on the food (I always try to remember to tell you what it should be in the recipes and on the ingredients pages!).

For almonds, it’s ‘about’ (it’s not an exact science) overnight.

• Simply take your almonds and cover them with water – filtered if possible, to remove chlorine etc – and soak them overnight. They absorb the water and swell up, even while they’re releasing the enzymes, so make sure your bowl is big enough and have the water level a couple of inches (about 5cm) above the almonds.
• Drain – discarding the enzyme-inhibitor-rich soak water.
• They’ll keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or you can use them right away in your favourite raw almond recipes.

If you taste one, you’ll notice it’s not as bitter as a ‘dry’ almond and it’s incredibly creamy.

Just imagine the difference that will make to your raw almond creams and other recipes!

It also makes almond milk much smoother, as it’s easier for your food processor or liquidiser to break up the whole almonds.

And it makes almond butter easier and creamier too. The shorter processing time means you’re much less likely to accidentally heat your raw almonds above the crucial 41 C. So here’s how to sprout raw almonds:

How to sprout raw almonds

Sprouting raw almonds, once you have soaked them and removed the enzyme inhibitors, helps to release more of the nutrients, just as with sprouting other seeds, nuts and legumes.

This only works with raw (not heat-treated) almonds.

Unfortunately, in many places it can be difficult to source raw almonds. However, in the UK we’re fortunate that they’re still readily available.

• To sprout your almonds, soak them first, as above. Do 2-3 handfuls – depending on how big your hands are
• When you have drained them, spread them out on a large plate. It doesn’t have to be a single layer, you just want to give them a bit of space.
• In cooler weather, cover them with a light cloth and leave them on the side, rinsing morning and evening, for about 2 days. In warmer weather you might need to do this in the fridge.
• You’ll see the almonds starting to ‘sprout’ when a tiny white tail appears from the narrow end.
• At this stage, they’ll keep for a day or two in the fridge in a jar or you can use them immediately.

How to make the most of your soaked or sprouted almonds

Some of my favourite sprouted almond recipe ideas are:

Sprouted almond milk

Take your soaked or sprouted almonds and blitz them in a good liquidiser or a Vitamix with enough water to give the consistency of milk you like. When they have been soaked and sprouted, the almonds are sweeter, so you’re less likely to want a sweetener.

If you want some variety, add a chunk of vanilla pod for vanilla almond milk.

Fabulous Purple Smoothie

Almond smoothie

Add a small handful of these almonds to your favourite smoothie recipes for a super-creamy result.

Soaking / sprouting the almonds first mean they don’t taste ‘bitty’ in the final smoothie.

Here’s one of my favourite almond smoothie recipes – Fabulous Purple Smoothie.

Almond cream

This is – again – simple and delicious. Take a couple of handfuls of sprouted / soaked almonds and blitz them with as little water as you can – just enough to make a smooth paste.

Add a few dates or a drop of raw honey, for extra sweetness. I love to add a level teaspoon of cinnamon, too.

For variety, add a heaped tablespoon of soaked pumpkin seeds (about 4 hours then drain).

Serve instead of ‘whipped cream’ for fruit salads or any other dessert.

Have you experimented with sprouting almonds?

Do you have a favourite sprouted almond recipe?

Did you find this info on how to sprout raw almonds useful?

We’d love to hear from you – please share via the comments box!

Namaste,

The post How To Sprout Raw Almonds To Make Almond Milk Or Just To Munch appeared first on Happy Mamas.

Fabulous Beetroot Smoothie Recipe

The beetroot in this smoothie – hence the deep purple colour – is a wonderful ingredient when you’re detoxing. Just don’t overdo it, or it will change the colour of your pee

When you’re giving up wheat or gluten, you will sometimes experience cravings for sugar-rich or carbohydrate rich foods, as your system adjusts. The secret ingredient in this beetroot smoothie helps stabilise your blood sugar, reducing the cravings and helping your body start to shift from relying on transient carbohydrates for energy to burning up stubborn fat stores. What is it? Cinnamon!

Fancy giving it a go?

Ingredients – Per Person

1 small / medium beetroot (not too woody)

About 7-10 kale leaves – any type

100ml apple juice

Handful sprouted almonds

1/2 tablespoon flax oil

1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground cinnamon

Beetroot Smoothie

How To Make A Beetroot Smoothie

• Scrub the beetroot – no need to peel. Chop it into small enough pieces for your blender. If you have a Vitamix, that can be quite large chunks. If your blender is more gentle, you might want to grate the beetroot.
• Blend the beetroot and almonds with the apple juice.
• Add all the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. You’ll need to add more water, to reach the consistency you want.

Time from Cupboard To Table?

About 5 minutes.

Variations: how about adding seasonal berries like blackberries or blueberries? In the autumn, you can use a large fresh apple, instead of the apple juice, to make it even healthier.

The flax oil gives you a wonderful boost of omega oils. But don’t use too much – especially to start with – or it can give you the trots!

If you give this one a try, how about sharing what you thought of it via the comments box?

The post Beetroot Smoothie Recipe – So Yummy Even The Kids Will Eat It appeared first on Happy Mamas.

Time:

2 hours’ soaking (cashews), which can happen during the dehydration time ~ 15 minutes for chopping & preparation ~ 2-3 hours in dehydrator, to warm through

Ingredients:

Sauce

1/2 cup cashews – soaked for 2 hours & rinsed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon tamari
generous teaspoon dark miso paste
1/2 cup water
1 level teaspoon dried zatar seasoning or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves & a sprinkle of sesame seeds
1 level teaspoon paprika powder
Small pinch of sea salt

The rest!
1 large Portobello-style mushroom
5 or 6 chestnut mushrooms
2 spring onions (scallions)
1 small clove garlic

Served with:
4-5 cabbage leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
sprinkling of your favourite sprouted seeds

Optional: a handful of coriander leaves

How To Make It

1. Chop the Portobello mushroom into bite-sized pieces. Slice the chestnut mushrooms finely.
2. To make the mushroom marinade: mix the water, zatar (or equivalent), miso, tamari, paprika, salt and crushed garlic.
3. Put the mushrooms in a dish and mix well with the marinade sauce. Leave for a couple of hours – this will allow the mushrooms to absorb the flavours and also soften them, so they taste “cooked”! If you prefer your food “warm” (like me!) then let it marinade for those 2 or so hours in the dehydrator – set to 105 F or about 41C.
4. Whilst the mushrooms are marinading, you can soak your cashews for an hour or 2. Drain & rinse well.
5. While your cashews / mushrooms are doing their thing, shred the cabbage leaves finely and mix well with the olive oil. Sprinkle with your favourite sprouted seeds and leave to soften for a couple of hours – they’ll do it on their own. You don’t need to do anything. This really is laissez-faire “cookery”!
6. Put the cashews into a high speed blender with the lemon juice. You’ll probably need to add 3 or 4 tablespoons of water. Blitz to a smooth puree.
7. When you’re ready to eat, mix the cashew / lemon paste into the mushrooms. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, if you happen to have any around. Add some ground black pepper, if you like.
8. Serve with the shredded cabbage leaves.

I have just eaten this recipe this evening and both of us really, really, really licked the plates clean. We ate a fraction of the food we would have eaten, had it been cooked stroganoff with a mound of rice, yet we feel full, nourished and light – vibrant!

Variation: You could add strips of red pepper to the mushroom mix, prior to their 2 hours of marinading, to intensify the flavours even further.

If you get the chance to give this recipe a go, please let us know how you get on, via the comments box below.

With love, Namaste,




P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please make sure you’re getting my free fortnightly Soul-Sized Living newsletter – it brings you the latest in ‘eating to feed your soul’ with raw food recipes and superfood ingredient advice, plus bite-sized inspiration on how to change your life. And you even get free membership of our gorgeous Soul-Sized Living private Facebook group. Here’s where to join:

The post Raw Food Recipe – Mushroom Stroganoff appeared first on Happy Mamas.

Time:

6 hours soaking (almonds – if using) ~ 15-20 minutes for chopping veggies & preparing sauce ~ 2 hours in dehydrator, to warm through
Sprouted quinoa takes about 24 hours – or 2 days, if you have time – or you could serve this with cooked quinoa or rice – or a green leaf salad

Ingredients:

For 2 people

Sauce

4 tablespoons (level) almond butter or a handful of almonds – soaked for 6 hours & rinsed well
1/4  inch piece of fresh ginger – peeled and roughly chopped
1 small clove garlic – it’s mighty powerful when it’s raw!
1 tablespoon raw tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/4 – 1/2 small chilli – they’re HOT raw!
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Juice of 1/2 lemon (0ptional)

Vegetables – winter suggestions

Vegetables ready to go - just add the sauce!

1 leek
1 parsnip – scrubbed, cut into chunk
1 -2 carrots
1 very small red onion – they’re strong when raw!
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves (optional)
1 cup sprouted quinoa

How To Make It

1. Put all the sauce ingredients into a high speed blender and blitz until smooth – being careful not to let them get hot. You may need to add a tablespoon or two of water, if the paste gets too thick.
2. Leek: cut off the tough tops of the leaves (darkest green bits) and the roots. Chop the leek in half lengthways and run it under water, “fanning it”, to make sure all mud and grit is gone. Chop the  into 2 inch long chunks, then shred it lengthways, to make fine “sticks”
3. Carrots – scrub (peel if not organic or if looking maky). Grate on a normal cheese grater.
4. Parsnip – this gets “hidden” in with the sauce. I usually scrub the parsnip, chop it into chunks and then blitz it in a food processor, until it looks like rice. Alternatively, if you’re “parsnip proud” and not dealing with fussy eaters, you could just grate it, like the carrot!
5. Peel the onion. Cut it in half. Slice it very finely and separate out the pieces.
6. Mix the vegetables in a bowl. Add the sauce. Combine well and top with chopped coriander leaves, if using.
7. Serve with the sprouted quinoa. Enjoy!

If you like the sound of this recipe, please feel free to comment. If you get a chance to make it, we’d love to hear what you think of it.

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please make sure you’re getting my free fortnightly Soul-Sized Living newsletter – it brings you the latest in ‘eating to feed your soul’ with raw food recipes and superfood ingredient advice, plus bite-sized inspiration on how to change your life. And you even get free membership of our gorgeous Soul-Sized Living private Facebook group. Here’s where to join:

The post Raw Food Recipe – Chilli-Almond Veggies With Sprouted Quinoa appeared first on Happy Mamas.

Once you have soaked / sprouted the various ingredients, the actual preparation time is only 10-15 minutes. Then you pretty much forget about it in the dehydrator for a day or so. It couldn’t be much easier!

Time:

24 hours’ soaking & sprouting time (oat groats, almonds, quinoa, cashews) ~ 15 minutes for chopping & preparation ~ 24 hours in the dehydrator

Ingredients:

Sprouted oat groats

3 cups oat groats
2 cups raw almonds
1 cup quinoa
1 cup cashew nuts (optional)
1/2 -1 cup pumpkin seeds (hulled – i.e. shell removed)
1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
2 fresh apples
8 dates
6 figs (dried or fresh -whichever is available)
OPTIONAL – for sweet-tooth-munchers – 3 tablespoons honey / agave syrup / maple syrup

How To Make It

1. 

   Sprouted pumpkin seeds - roughly chopped

   For the oat groats, almonds and quinoa (all separately!):
   Soak them overnight and then rinse & drain well. Spread on a baking tray and cover with a tea towel, leaving for 12 hours to “sprout”.

2. If using the cashews, soak them for 2 hours, then rinse and drain well.
3. Do the same for the pumpkin seeds.
4. Soak the figs & dates together for 2 hours. Drain, but keep the soak water for step 7.
5. In a food processor, blitz the pumpkin seeds to chop them quite finely – see picture.
6. Do the same for the almonds and cashews.
7. Peel and core the apples. Chop them roughly. Put them in a good liquidiser with the dates and figs and about 1/2 cup of the soak water. Blitz until smooth.
8. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix the apple / date / fig puree with the dried ingredients (see picture).
9. 

   Mix in the apple puree with the dried ingredients

   Place on dehydrator trays (with non-stick sheets under) and dehydrate at 105 F / 41 C for about 24 hours, until dry. If you break up the clumps and move the mix around a couple of times during the 24 hours, it dries more quickly.

10. Allow to cool to room temperature (doesn’t take long – prevents condensation & mould)) before storing in an airtight container for up to a month.
11. Enjoy on its own or with rice milk / fresh almond milk for an incredibly nutritious meal!

Variation: You could add ground cinnamon or some fresh lemon zest (grated) to the apple mixture, if you wish.

If you try this recipe, please pop back to the comments box, below, to let us know how you got on!

You could also share your thoughts and other raw food breakfast recipe ideas over at our Soul-Sized Living private Facebook group.

Not a member yet? It’s part of our Soul-Sized Living online community and joining is free – simply register below.

 



P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please make sure you’re getting my free fortnightly Soul-Sized Living newsletter – it brings you the latest in ‘eating to feed your soul’ with raw food recipes and superfood ingredient advice, plus bite-sized inspiration on how to change your life. And you even get free membership of our gorgeous Soul-Sized Living private Facebook group. Here’s where to join:

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