Chocolate Nut Balls

In an attempt to have something sweet and chocolatey without blowing my current eating programs, I made these delicious ball. They are a combination of nuts, dates, coconut and cocoa. Yummo. Needless to say they did not last very long at all. There are a few different recipes around for these so you have a few options depending on your preferences.

Apple Coconut Muffins

Another experiment with coconut flour and decreasing/ substituting sugar. I took these out of the oven to cool and the next time I checked 3 were missing. Joel loved them which is a satisfying cooking triumph for my book!

Gluten Free Carrot Muffins that our family devoured!

Gluten Free Carrot Muffins

Makes 12

160g carrot

140g grapeseed oil

75g organic raw honey

40g organic coconut flour

2 free range eggs

1 teaspoon organic gluten free bi-carb soda

1 teaspoon TMX gluten free baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon organic vanilla essence

30g sunflower seeds

100g organic sultanas

1. Put carrots in TMX bowl and chop for 6 seconds on speed 8.

2. Scrape down the bowl. Add all remaining ingredients except seeds and sultanas. Combine for 15 seconds on speed 7. Add seeds and sultanas and soft stir for 3 seconds to combine.

3. Preheat oven to 180'. Line muffin tin with papers. Place mixture into papers. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through when tested.

Lunch time- Pumpkin Curry

Pumpkin Curry

1 teaspoon korma paste

1 cup organic milk

1 teaspoon coconut essence

Corn flour, to thicken, if needed

1/4 jap pumpkin, peeled & diced

6 broccoli florets

Handfull of baby spinach leaves

S & P to taste

1. Place curry paste and milk in TMX. Cook for 10 minutes at 80' speed 2-3. At the same time place pumpkin and broccoli in varoma to steam.

2. After 10 minutes, place pumpkin in TMX bowl and cook for a further 10 minutes at 80' reverse speed 1. Add cornflour at end if the sauce needs thickening (best to make this a paste with water before adding).

3. Place broccoli and spinach leaves in Thermoserver. Pour curry over and serve.

Gluten Free Choc Macadamia Shortbread

225g gluten free flour (or equal parts rice, tapioca and corn flour)
60g organic icing sugar
120g butter
1 teaspoon organic vanilla essence
20g organic cocoa
40g chopped macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line square tin with baking paper.
2. Place flour, sugar, butter, cocoa and vanilla in TMX bowl. Mix for 10 seconds on speed 5.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then knead for 20 seconds on interval speed. Add macadamia nuts and knead for 5 seconds on interval speed.
4. Press dough (it will seem very crumbly but that is ok) into tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before cutting into pieces. Allow to cool completely in the tin (if you can resist) before enjoying!

Quinoa Stuffed Capsicums

Quinoa Stuffed Capsicum

1 red capsicum, halved, deseeded

85g organic quinoa

750g water

2 tablespoons TMX vegetable concentrate

Handful of baby spinach leaves

1 onion, finely diced

2 carrots, finely diced

Oil

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley leaves

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Dash cayene pepper

Salt and Pepper to taste

Balsamic vinegar to serve

1. Place water and stock in TMX jug. Place quinoa in basket in TMX jug. Cook 100 degrees, 16 minutes, speed 3-4. After 8 minutes, place varoma on TMX with capsicum in. Allow to steam.

2. Preheat oven to 220 degrees.

3. Heat oil in frying pan. Cook onion and carrot until tender. Add seeds, herbs, spices and seasoning and cook for 2 minutes. Add spinach leaves and cooked quinoa and stir well.

4. Place steamed capsicum halves on oven tray. Fill with quinoa stuffing.

5. Bake for 10 minutes or until browned on top.

6. Serve with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

God is so good!

Last week I spent a lot of time and energy in researching different Private Health Insurers with the aim of increasing our extras cover. This was prompted because Kaleb has to get some dental work done and the amount we were going to get back from our current insurer amounted to very little compared to the bill. We were all set to swap to a different insurer when we found out that Kaleb was going to have his dental work done 5 days after we were swapping insurers. This made us a little nervous and the new insurer could not guarantee that everything would be transfered over and covered for this.

With no peace at all about swapping we rang our current insurer who waived our 2 and 6 month waiting periods for our increased cover, giving us a much higher level of extras cover immediately. Our benefit back after Kaleb's dental work almost doubled!

The even more amazing thing is that we received our rates notice in the mail yesterday and the amount we are now going to get back after Kaleb's surgery is the same amount, to the dollar, of our rates bill.

The ever caring, wide stretched arms of God never cease to amaze me!