FIG & COCONUT CEREAL BARS

Fig and Coconut Ceral Bars before cutting

The quest for healthy homemade cereal bars continues! I have heavily adapted this recipe from this one at Smitten Kitchen. I have experimented with it, using different ingredients and I am happy now with this combination. The wonderful books The Guilt Free Gourmet and My Goodness have me experimenting with agave syrup and Xylitol (a healthier alternative to sugar).

This recipe makes 16 small square bars. Each one has 131 calories and 5g of fat. Not bad at all!

INGREDIENTS

150g porridge oats

125g Xylitol

50g rice flour

half teaspoon salt

125g dried figs (topped, tailed and chopped small)

25g pumpkin seeds

40g dessicated coconut

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 tablespoons melted butter or marg (I used Vitalite dairy free)

60ml agave syrup

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon water

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ tin in one direction with baking paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the paper and the exposed pan
• Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and seeds
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted marg, liquid sweeteners and water
• Toss the wet ingredients with the dry until evenly crumbly
• Spread in the prepared pan, pressing firmly with a spoon
• Bake for 35 minutes, until golden brown
• They’ll still seem soft when you press
• Cool the bars in their tin completely on a cooling rack
• Once cool, use a serrated knife to cut the bars into squares. If bars seem crumbly, chill further in the fridge for 30 minutes to set them, then cut cold

CARROT & WALNUT MEMORY MUFFINS

Muffins, buns. Buns muffins. These are really buns, but buns generally are not stuffed with carrots and walnuts so I am calling them muffins. Whatever you want to call them, use a bun tray and normal bun cases for baking.

These are dense and spicy. Very tasty.

And I have handily worked out the calorie content of each muffin: 137 calories and 7 grams of fat. So, not bad compared to your average shop bought bun or cereal bar. And walnuts combat memory loss. What's not to love??!!

INGREDIENTS

150g spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g light muscovado sugar
40g chopped walnuts
1 large carrot finely grated
50g sultanas
½ tsp vanilla essence
45ml (3 tblsps) rapeseed oil
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsps cinnamon
60ml soya milk

METHOD

• Pre heat oven to 200°C
• Line the bun tin with bun cases
• Grate the carrot
• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
• Add the sultanas and walnuts
• Beat the egg in a bowl, with the milk and vanilla essence
• Mix in the grated carrots to the eggy mixture
• Mix in the oil
• Add this mix to the dry ingredients and combine well
• Divide the mix into the 12 bun cases (using two teaspoons!)
• Bake for 25 minutes

LURVE - NEW VEGAN CAFÉ - DUBLIN

I was so sad to find Café Fresh was no more on New Year's Eve in Dublin. Sob. But I am now SO happy to hear of the new vegan café Lurve, on Mary Street. Yay! I'll be trying it out ASAP and will report back. The northside of the inner city has long needed such a place.

MUESLI ENERGY BARS

Muesli Energy Bars

It's very hard to get decent cereal bars in the supermarket, though Kelkin, Nak'd and Jordans do a great job with their bars and lots of places stock them. Still, they are expensive. So, frustrated in both Aldi and Tesco today with the generally rubbishy cereal bars on offer (high sugar, coated in yogurt/chocolate), I decided to make my own. I found a couple of good recipes on the RTÉ website and I have adapted one of them, basically to use what was in my press. These came out quite crumbly but are totally delicious. (They might have stayed together better if I hadn't prised them out of the tin for testing before they were cold...)

Muesli Energy Bar 

Ingredients

• 50g butter or marg.
• 50ml rapeseed oil
• 1 large egg
• 50g light brown sugar
• 150g porridge oats
• 25g mixed nuts (chopped)     
• 25g dessicated coconut
• 50g dates (chopped)
• 25g pumpkin seeds
• 25g ground almonds
• 25 g raisins
• 1 tsp vanilla essence (or any other flavour you like)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Line a shallow baking tin with baking paper
3. Put butter, sugar and oil into a biggish pot, over a low heat, and stir until butter melts
4. Remove from heat and stir in all the dry ingredients
5. Whisk egg in a cup with vanilla essence and add to other ingredients
6. Spread evenly into the tin using a spatula to flatten
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into bar shapes.
9. Leave until completely cold before removing from the tin.

NEW YEAR, NEW YORK AVOCADO BAGEL

Happy New Year!!

I got gorgeous foodie goodies for Christmas (birdie apron, ceramic measuring spoons and book pictured), thanks to my lovely sister, friend and husband. I sat today reading Jordan and Jessica Bourke's The Guilt-free Gourmet, absolutely salivating. So I ran to the supermarket for supplies and made/adapted their delicious New York Avocado Toast.

Oh. My. God. Just delicious. And it's packed with goodness: avocado, lemon, parsley, tomatoes. OK, bagels are calorific but in my defence a) I totally WANTED one and, b) it was wholegrain. Anyway, here's how to make this gorgeous meal - it's your choice whether to use rye toast (like the Bourkes) or a bagel. I added minced garlic to one half of the mix (just to see) and that made it guacamole-like and delicious. (It depends how garlic obsessed you are whether you bother with that.) Serve with a green salad.

INGREDIENTS
2 small avocados
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon
1 tblsp chopped parsley
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
8 vine cherry tomatoes
2 slices rye bread (or 2 wholegrain bagels)
1 clove garlic minced (optional)

METHOD
Zest the lemon
Juice the lemon
De-stone the avocados and mash them in a bowl
Season with half the zest and lemon juice
Mix in the parsley, a  pinch of salt and the garlic (if using)
Halve the tomatoes and season with the remaining lemon juice, zest, a little olive oil and salt
Toast the bread/bagels
Pile the avocado mix on top and serve with the tomatoes. Mmm-mmm-mmm!!!

VEGAN SPELT XMAS CAKE

It's vegan Christmas cake time - woo! I love this boozy, fruity cake which I adapted from a recipe of Rose Elliott's. I made it yesterday with help from the two youngest. Each year I feel like trying a new recipe but I've been making this cake for years and it is utterly delish. It's a 'work' cake but if you can't put the work in for Christmas, when can you? I always get comments from people who've made this cake and loved it, so please comment!

It's a good idea to get all your ingredients weighed and ready in advance - it makes it all go smoothly.

Juno mixing, Finn waiting his turn

This recipe makes a lovely moist cake; we used it as our wedding cake in 2010. We eat it plain but you can buy vegan marzipan and icing to decorate it if you like.

Nollaig shona! Happy Christmas!

Leaving a collar of paper above the tin stops the top of the cake burning

INGREDIENTS

350 gr wholegrain spelt flour (I use Doves Farm Organic)
175gr vegan marg
175gr light muscovado sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
150gr sultanas
200gr raisins
150gr dates
50 gr flaked almonds
1 tblsp treacle
100gr glacé cherries, halved
grated zest of an orange
2 tblsps ground almonds
120ml soya milk
2 tblsps red wine vinegar
¾ tsp of bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)
6 tblsps (90ml) brandy

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 150˚C
• Grease an 8" cake tin and line with a layer of greased greaseproof; leave a ridge of paper at the top
• Sieve the flour and spice
• Rub in the marg until the mix is like breadcrumbs
• Stir in the flaked almonds and treacle
• Add the sugar, dried fruit, cherries, orange zest and ground almonds and mix
• Warm half the soya milk in a small pot and add the vinegar
• Dissolve the bread soda in the rest of the soya milk, then add
this to the milk and vinegar mix (it will puff up nicely!)
• Stir this into flour and fruit mix until well combined
• Spoon mix into greased tin and smooth the top
• Bake for 2 hours, until a skewer/cocktail stick comes out clean
• Leave cake in tin to cool, then turn out and peel off greaseproof
• Prick cake with a cocktail stick and feed with a third of the brandy
• Wrap cake in greaseproof and store in a tin
• Feed with the rest of the brandy at weekly intervals (if the cake lasts that long!)

The cake fresh from the oven

The finished cake

LIZ NOLAN CLASS

 
This sounds wonderful, a Christmassy cookery class with the lovely Liz Nolan - I would so be there if I weren't going to be in Lisbon. Liz is the author of My Goodness, a stunning book. Great Xmas prezzie - class or book! From Liz:

Next vegetarian cookery class - Saturday 8th December with a hint of Christmas!
For those of you interested in coming to my next vegetarian cookery class with a 'hint of Christmas' about it, please see the recipes I'll be cooking under the 'classes' section on my website and contact me if you'd like to put your name down.