Cheese and Bacon Muffins

I AM SOOOOOO SICK OF EGGS!!!

Poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, baked eggs, hard boiled eggs, omelettes... I can't handle them any more! So I wanted an alternative SAVOURY breakfast recipe that I could grab and run, and that would not make me GAG!

I also had a craving for savoury muffins. Mmmmm... cheesy ones...

So I made these!

Cheese & Bacon Muffins

Ingredients:

3 Rashers of bacon

1 Medium Zucchini, grated

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1 and a 1/2 cups of Grated Cheddar Cheese, loosely packed

2 cups Almond Flour/Meal

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Garlic Powder 

100mls Milk

3 eggs

Paprika to sprinkle

Substitutions - 

Vegetarian - leave out the bacon and add more zucchini, or spinach

Cheese - Due to the bacon and the cheese, these babies have the potential to be quite salty. If you are concerned, substitute half, or even all, of your cheddar for mozzarella. Also if you are using pre-grated cheese from the supermarket, you may want to use a bit less.

Nut Free - use 1 and a 1/2 cups of GF flour or wheat flour, or coconut flour. If you use coconut flour you will need to increase the wet ingredients as it is much more absorbent. Try adding extra milk and some oil, preferably coconut oil. I will try and make a nut free version soon and post the recipe, as it will be a bit different!

NB: I make my own baking powder to avoid the aluminium and additives in the commercial stuff. It's basically just 1 part Baking SODA to 2 parts Cream of Tartar.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Remove the rind (or not, if you particularly like it) from your bacon and dice. Fry over medium-high heat until it starts to brown. Squeeze the moisture our of your grated zucchini. I spread mine out between two paper towels, then between two folded tea-towels and press down firmly until the paper towels are soaked through and the tea-towels are a bit wet.

In a mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients well. Mix together eggs and milk, and then stir into almond flour mixture until well combined. Add bacon, zucchini, cheese and chives, and mix gently but well. Drop heaped dessert-spoon-fulls into a prepared muffin tin or paper muffin liners, sprinkle the top with paprika (trust me on the paprika), and bake for about 40 minutes. My oven is quite slow so please check yours earlier than this though as I don't want the responsibility of yours burning! :). I use a slicon tray which pretty much nothing sticks to. If you're using a metal one I would suggest lining with paper muffin/cupcake liners just to be safe, as almond meal muffins won't come away from the edges like wheat flour ones do.

Makes 12 medium sized muffins.

Enjoy WARM! You can freeze these individually so you can grab one when you want it and zap it in the microwave or pop it in the oven for a few minutes to warm and crisp up!

Jas xo

Banana Bread

Ahoyhoy! (I always hated that greeting simply because it reminded me of someone who I didn't want to be reminded of, but it is cheerful, and I am in need of some cheer today, so I have decided to attempt to make friends with it...)

Soooo... I went to the gym last night. Great hey? Except that I made it as far as the car park and couldn't bring myself to get out of the car. I sat there in the drivers seat, with a view to the inside of the gym, watching all the better looking, better bodied fit people doing their thang, and I just couldn't bring myself to face their judgement. I do realise they probably wouldn't have judged me at all. Maybe some of them started out where I am, but it's just one of those joys of being overweight and hating it. It's a catch 22 really. To get to a place where I like my body and feel healthy, I have to get active. Diet alone just isn't going to cut it. But to get active, I have to face my fears of being silently judged and show my jiggly bits off to the world. Yay! Not.

I also lost my job last week. Technically I resigned, but you know, I wasn't really left with much choice. A (big) part of me is actually relishing the time off. I mean after all, now I have the time to do all the things that I have been putting off due to lack of time, like sorting my house out, crafting, cooking, GOING TO THE GYM. It's amazing how quickly a whole day can go by before you realise you haven't really done anything and it's over! But I will get motivated tomorrow. Really I will.

In the meantime, I needed some comfort food, STAT! But I reeeeeally didn't want to feel guiltier than I already did about not going to the gym. Entrer (that's french for "enter", not a typo ;) Banana Bread!

After researching a lot of "paleo" style banana bread recipes online, I came to the conclusion that I needed to develop my own. I am really surprised with what some people are calling "paleo"! Buckwheat? I don't think so lady! Coconut flour based recipes... well yeah, but I always find coconut flour based recipes to be dry and banana bread should be moist... (apologies to those of you who hate that word, but there really is no other that conveys the same meaning when talking about banana bread). And I know what I like in a banana bread, and none of these recipes had it. So I kind of wung it (that's the past tense of winging it in case you missed the link...). Here we go!

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 mediums sized ripe bananas

1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or melted grass fed butter)

1/3 cup of nut butter

3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup

3 eggs

1 and 2/3 cup of almond meal

1/3 cup of coconut flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup of chopped and toasted walnuts or pecans

NB: The following substitutions can be made...

Sweeteners - You can sub the maple syrup for honey if you like, just keep in mind that honey is a tad sweeter. If you would like to omit the extra sweetener completely, or you like a stronger banana flavour, you can add another banana.

Nut butter - I used Woolworth's Macro brand Almond, Brazil and Cashew nut butter. They also have a DELICIOUS plain cashew nut butter, but I like to save this one for eating straight our of the jar...

Toasted nuts - I actually used a mixture of pine nuts, sunflower seeds and pepitas that you can get in a little tub in the fruit and veg section of woolies. These toast up beautifully and add a really nice texture, but walnuts are a bit more traditional and not as strongly flavoured as pine nuts. Basically just add whatever you like!

Method

Preheat Oven to 180°C.

Combine bananas and the rest of the wet ingredients in a food processor. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients well (except for toasted nuts), then add to food processor and process until smooth. It shouldn't be runny, but should be more the consistency of.... mashed potato? You know, like you need to spoon it instead of pour it. If it seems too runny, add 1/2 a tablespoon of coconut flour at a time until it looks right. Too firm, just add some more oil, or banana, or even some water.

Mix in the toasted nuts/seeds and spread into a loaf pan (I use silicon which is non-stick but if you are using metal or glass make sure you grease and maybe even line the tin). Mine was quite a small loaf pan so it ended up rather deep, and as a result took about an hour to bake. But basically, if you spread it thinner, it will take less time. Best to just keep an eye on it the first time and it will be finished when it is brown and firm when you poke it lightly but firmly it in the middle. Make sure the oven isn't on too high or it will be cooked on the outside but doughy on the inside. If in doubt, lower temp and longer cooking time is better. You can put it in a slice tin or even a muffin tin if you like.

Let it cool a little and set properly before you take it out of the loaf pan. Remember there's no gluten so it's a little bit more fragile than a traditional banana bread, especially when it's still hot.

Slice and enjoy warm as is, with a dob of butter, or wrap it up cold and take it to work for morning tea! It's a great breakfast full of protein and healthy fats. You can wrap the pieces individually and freeze, so you don't need to eat it in a hurry either. My absolute FAVORITE way to eat it though is fried with bacon and maple syrup ;). That's tomorrow's brekky for me. I'll take a photo! oh I can't wait... :)

Jas xx

Kid's Snacks Minus the Sugar - Part 2

Hey y'all!

If you haven't read my last post on avoiding sugary snacks for your kids (and in general), you can find it here. This post will talk about the alternatives to snacks containing high amounts of processed sugar.

It's not all bad news... I promise! While avoiding sugar as much as possible in any form is the ideal, let's face it, not that many of us are going to give it up entirely unless we have particular reason to, or the strength and willpower of a bull. So what do you do when you want a healthier snack? What do you put in your kids lunch boxes?

One of the most common go-to, healthy snacks is fruit. Fruit is seen as a good snack option as it's natural, and generally nutrient rich. A common misconception however is that because it is natural, it's ok to eat as much as you like. While it's true that fruit contains vital nutrients, it is important to keep in mind that it also contains a whole lot of sugar, and the nutrients found in fruit can also be obtained from other, less sugary foods, such as vegetables. As long as you are not diabetic or pre-diabetic, fruit should be fine, though I certainly wouldn't recommend eating it for every snack.There are also other factors to take into consideration such as activity levels. For example, if you or your family members play a lot of sports or are expecially active, more fruit is probably ok as your body will use the excess sugar (fructose) for energy. And kids are generally pretty active by default. If however, you or your children are primarily sedentary (for example, if you have an office job which doesn't allow you to be active, and you don't go to the gym every day), then you might want to consider keeping your fruit intake to a moderate to low level. If you would like more information on fruit and fructose (the sugar found in fruit), have a look at Dr Mercola's articles on why large amounts of fruit may not be healthy and at the extreme end, the health hazards of an all fruit diet.

If you do decide to give your kids fruit as snacks, there are options that are lower in sugar, such as rasberries, cranberries, strawberries, blackberries, passionfruit, prunes, cantaloupe (rockmelon), blueberries, pineapple, and nectarines. Fruits such as oranges, bananas, grapes, mangoes and cherries are very high in sugar, and honestly (sorry guys), if you are going to give your kids dried fruits, you may just as well give them lollies. A) If a fruit is dried, you are likely to eat more of it than you would it's hydrated equivalent because it doesn't fill the belly with it's water content. B) The sugar in dried fruit is condensed, and it is EXTREMELY sticky. It adheres to teeth like glue (I'm sure you can remember eating dried fruit and picking at your teeth for hours afterwards with your tongue), creating the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive. This bacteria is what causes cavities, as it increases acidity in the mouth. I read a very simplistic explanation of this phenomenon which made me giggle. It said that the bacteria "poops" acid. Haha yeah that's right. Sugar increases bacteria poop in your mouth ;P. If you want your kids to eat less sugar, maybe just tell them that? ;) Seriously though, it is as bad for your kids teeth (and blood sugar levels) as lollies and soft drinks. Just ask your dentist next time you go! If you're going to give them fruit, pleeeease give them real, fresh fruit. It's just as easy, and far better for them.

Anyhoooo! Enough about fruit. In essence, if you are trying to lower your kids sugar intake (which is what prompted this blog series in the first place), don't JUST look at processed sugars, but consider limiting thier fruit if you think you might be giving them a bit too much. You can also try giving them lower sugar fruits instead of higher sugar fruits and dried fruits.

Some other ideas for snacks or lunches you can give your children (or yourself) which are low in sugar are: -

• Hard boiled eggs
• Devilled eggs
• Curried eggs
• Pigs in blankets (prunes wrapped in bacon)
• Carrot sticks
• Celery sticks
• Cucumber sticks
• Zucchini slice
• Vegetable Frittata
• Quiche
• Chicken and salad rice paper wraps (if you eat grains, rice paper wraps are gluten free and pretty healthy), or nori wraps
• Crispy Chicken Strips
• Salmon Cakes
• Salami Sticks
• Cheese
• Celery (or carrot) sticks with Cashew Nut butter (instead of peanut butter which is highly inflamatory and a common allergen).
• Apples with nut butter such as almond or cashew
• Almonds, cashews, macadamias... (any nuts bar peanuts)
• Pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
• Salads
• Cream cheese wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber (YUM!)
• Roasted pumpkin or sweet potato wrapped in caramelised zucchini (YUM!)
• Vegetable chips such as kale, zucchini, sweet potato or beetroot, done in a dehydrator or oven on low temp. (you can easily google recipes for vege chips - unfortunately I don't have one of my own)
   

If you or your kidlets are partial to baked goodies, there are some ways you can reduce the total and/or processed sugar content, if you choose to bake at home. Fruit is a good sweetener, and goes a long way. For example, my Banana Apple Muffin recipe has no added sugar, and only 1 banana will sweeten about 10 muffins. Banana is a great sweetener, and even though it is a high sugar fruit, when you use it for sweetening desserts and baked goods, one ripe banana will go a long way! Natural apple sauce would work similarly, though you may need to use more as it is not quite as sweet. Fruits also make for really moist baked goods.

Honey is a good alternative to processed sugar, but must be raw (unprocessed/unpasteurised) for you to really reap it's benefits. It contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and C, along with minerals such as magnesium, potassium, and calcium. It is also an antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral and has traditionally been used in the treatment of gut and digestive issues like ulcers and diarrhea. In addition to it's health benefits, of which processed sugar has NONE, it is about twice as sweet as white sugar, which means you only need to use about half as much (or less). Like fruit though, beware of over-using it, and keep in mind that the supermarket stuff has been pasteurised (heated to a high temp. and then cooled rapidly), which destroys alot of the beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients.

Pure organic maple syrup is also a good swap, as it is natural and full of nutrients. More research needs to be done I believe, but it seems to have similar benefits to raw honey. You can find some more information on the health benefits of pure maple syrup here or here, though I can not vouch for the validity of the information on these websites.

The best sweetener by far is stevia, as it is completely natural and approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is derived from the stevia plant (if you ever come across one and take a bite of one of it's leaves, you will understand!), and if you have a green thumb, you can actually grow it yourself and grind up the leaves. If you use the liquid, 2-3 drops equals the sweetness of a teaspoon of sugar. It has virtually no calories, and does basically nothing to affect blood sugar. Beware of the supermarket varieties though as they are generally full of additives or mixed with other sugars. You're best getting stevia from a health food or organic store and checking the ingredients to make sure it is pure. Xylitol is another good one that many mistake for an aritficial sweetener, which it is not quite. It is a sugar alcohol sweetener which has about 33% fewer calories than sucrose (table sugar), and much less of an effect on blood sugar. It does occur naturally but the kind that you can buy is very processed, however it is far less damaging that sucrose (table sugar) and unlike other sweeteners, it is actively beneficial for dental health, and is commonly known to reduce the occurence of cavities. (I actively seek toothpaste, or tooth soap to be precise, with xylitol because it is so good for teeth).

Just a quick comment on Agave Nectar - it is sold in health food stores and touted to be a "natural" and "raw" and therefore "healthy" sweetener, but, well, it's not. It is actually highly processed (raw agave is not sweet AT ALL), and has about the same sugar content and effect on blood sugar as table sugar. I would not recommend it as a sweetener option at all.   So anyway, I hope this helps you figure out some lower sugar snacky options for you and your family. If I have forgotten anything, if you have any questions (or suggestions), or want me to expand on anything, please comment below or on my Facebook Page.

In the coming weeks I'll be posting some recipes for low sugar snack options, like quiche, fritatta, muffins, and slices, and I'll also talk about how you can make the sugar content even lower by reducing the carbohydrates from ingredients like grains and white flours, so keep an eye out!

Jas xo

Kid's Snacks Minus the Sugar - Part 1 - Why Dodge the Sugar?

Yesterday I went with my bestie Jules of Sconnie and Jam to pick up her son from school. He's a little tyke and is only in prep (the grade before first grade).

While we were getting the kids stuff together, one of the other mums asked Jules if she had any ideas about sugar free snacks for the kids, and Jules handballed the question over to me (little bit chuffed I am about that actually, she's one of my biggest supporters and I couldn't be more thankful for her ;). So anyway, we had a little chat about natural sweeteners and the best ones to use, but it got me thinking that perhaps I should do a post and expand on my recommendations a little bit. Then I got thinking some more and realised that there is so much to say on the subject, that I will need to do a series of posts... Maybe just 2. We will see ;).

First of all, sugar, in any form (eg. sugar that comes from sweets and/or high carbohydrate savory foods such as breads, pasta and other grains), is just not really necessary. If you are an athlete, or simply have a healthy metabolism and are not diabetic or insulin resistant (aka pre-diabetic), then it's ok in moderation and will probably not do you any significant harm (in the short term at least). However, unlike other debatable sources of nourishment, it's potential (/non-existant) benefits simply do not negate or outweigh it's risks. The fact is that the other nutrients and substances found in high carb foods (even "Low-GI" ones), can easily be obtained from other, less "carby" sources.  Even if you have a healthy metabolism now, if you eat too much sugar, it will most likely not always be the case. For example, I used to metabolise sugar ok when I was younger, but years of eating too much have caused insulin resistance, which, if I do not get under control, will lead to Type 2 Diabetes in a few years at most. Unless you are born with Type 1 Diabetes, we all start out metabolising sugar well, but after years of over exposure to glucose in the blood, our bodies become "deaf" to it (like your ears become deaf if you listen to loud music for too long). Once the body is incapable of metabolising it properly, in comes Type 2 Diabetes. Of course this doesn't happen to everyone,  but it is happening in increasing, if not epidemic proportions compared to generations past, and you have to decide if you really want to take the risk, or put your kids at risk.

Some will argue that we need dietary sugar to provide us with glucose for energy. However, this is not the whole truth. There is a whole lot of scientific research (and first hand experiences), that suggest that our bodies run equally well, if not BETTER, using ketones as a fuel. Without getting into too much detail and giving you a biology lesson, ketone bodies are a byproduct of fat burning, and they are what your body uses as fuel when glucose is unavailable. So actually, your body does not need to use glucose as fuel. Despite everything that you have been told by the mainstream health and diet industries, IT. JUST. DOESN'T. Scientific fact. If you doubt me, just google it. I know google doesn't know everything but it will take you to the information you need if you care to forage for it. "But the brain needs glucose to run!" I hear the doubters doubting.... ;). Well, your body is an amazing machine that is actually quite capable of producing enough glucose for the little energy that the brain needs which it doesn't get from ketones. This phenomenon is called gluconeogenesis. Shock horror, they actually taught me about this little gem in nursing school! And if you know anything about latin, you can easily break the word down and get the drift. Gluco = glucose. Neo = new. Genesis - the start. The brain is actually quite happy to get 50-75% of it's energy from ketones, and the remaining energy that it needs from glucose, the liver can produce it in an of itself. And there are a HECK of a lot of people who have experienced the massive power of the human brain running primarily on ketones. Pretty much every one of them will tell you that they experience greater clarity and brain function when cutting out the glucose, not to mention more energy overall. If you would like more information on this particular topic of the brains energy requirements, there is a great article by Mark Sisson here at Mark's Daily Apple.

Anyhoo, if you are eating anything, the above may be a moot point anyway, because you will likely get plenty of carbs (and therefore glucose) just from veges, nuts, and fruit. Fruit I will talk about in my next post. Being that it is quite high in sugar, it deserves some exploring...

Now, I would like to point out that I am not getting all judgey on people who eat sugar. I eat sugar in various forms. I shouldn't, because my body can't metabolise it properly, but I do. I am simply presenting you with some information, pointing out that it is not an essential nutrient, and that it has many risks. What you do with that is entirely up to you and will not make you a better or worse person or parent. Also keep in mind that my rant on sugar does not mean I won't be giving you all some delicious, sweet and indulgent recipes ;). We'll just be exploring ways to do it healthily, and in the next few posts I'll give you the best natural alternatives to processed sugar, which will satisfy the taste buds of the most discerning sugar addicts, without raising the blood sugar to ridiculous levels and resulting in sugar crashes and mood swings and brain fog. I'll also attempt to source some good savoury recipes for those of you (and your families) who don't have a sweet tooth!

Until then!

Jas xo

A Name Change is a Game Changer!

HELLO THERE!

Just a quickie post to tell you all that I have changed the name, URL and contact email address of my blog from "Made by April Born" to something a little more appropriate for the topics presented here.

"Made by April Born" will still be used for my arty crafty exploits, but right now I am focussing on my health and nutrition interests, so it was time for a bit of an update.

I will also be doing more posts on nutrition and health in general, rather than just recipes, so I hope you will stick around and be inspired! I would love your comments and questions, as I believe we all have something to learn from each other and would love this to be a community of like minded people where all can find support and understanding. So please feel free to contribute by commenting on posts or flicking me an email!

Cheers!
Jas xo