Mini Lemon Cheesecake

But there is no cheese~!

 

My first ever virgin gluten and dairy free cheesecake. Tastes pretty good but I think the lemon does hide alot of the bigger flavours...

 

   

The only thing different I did was to use cranberries instead of dates for the base so it looks abit more redder than usual.

Tastes pretty amazing but there is a strong coconut flavour in general. I was trying to get my kid to try it but it's not his thing. Either that I gave it to him when he is too full. Oh well, it's for me to have heh.


Courtesy from Chloe Moir Nutrition. I love her website.


 Makes 7-8 mini cheesecakes

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Feijoa Jam

And so there were a huge amount of Feijoas given to us from many friends. There was toss between feijoa jam or muffin. I suggested jam so that it lasts.

 

For about 2 kgs worth, look at how much jam we could make.

I had to be cautious when I peeled them out as some had worms (one of those, sigh)

Feijoas~

The inside of Feijoas

My MIL suggested adding apples so that it encourages 'pectin' so that it sets more too.

Mom's tree

I used this blog as reference, but the other things added were suggested by MIL

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Vegetarian Nuggets round 2

This time with a little more structure and prediction hahaha.

 

Well, I got carried away by trying to add one more vege to the mince but the bowl was too full and I didn't want to go beyond the tray, and squares were easier to semi circle.

Exactly the same process as my previous post but I change the veges instead.

 

This time I used:

• 2 x Carrots (for sweetness)
• 2 x Sweet potatoes (for sweetness)
• 1 x Broccoli
• A bag of Long Beans (About 350 grams)
• A bag of Brussel Sprouts
• Spinach steamed by my MIL
• A spoonful of LSA

Made 90 nuggets

Grain Free Apple Muffins

Beside it sticking to the paper, it does taste quite crumbly nicer off the oven. Probably needing butter or olive oil with salt to add moisture and it doesn't have a crumbly top.

The pain about gluten and dairy free food is retaining the added moisture, which drives me to dig further into recipes and the science behind things. Of course my little kid doesn't mind it for now, but my aim is to get everyone liking it and be proud to say that there wasn't any dairy involved.

Anyway, I loved how the apple stew turned out! Should have made apple crumble instead lol.

The journey continues~!

Till then, it makes 6 

Original recipe here.

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Vegetarian Nuggets

It's alot of work, but it's so worth it making it delicious, especially with superfood.

 I pretty much followed the process in the video but changed the ingredients instead, taking the chance to use chicken peas as a form of sticky ingredient to avoid too much carbs and made sure the wet ingredients are dried out (which it did since I blend it while it's hot)




The longest process was probably blending, coz I had to use a tiny coffee grinder

Chickpeas and spinach

With broccoli and Cauliflower

 

Rolling them out before dipping

Option to put it in the freezer or bake them

Add coconut oil coat when bake

This ingredient made about 50 pieces easily I think depending on the size but its about half an ice cream scoop per piece

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Red Bean Paste (for pau)

Feeling rather discouraged without an oven, I have perhaps now moved into a new phase of dessert making: Steaming!

And thanks to the lovely flatmates of mine, they have all the utensils and pots available for steaming. Wee!!

And I am attempting to make bread for the first time....voila!

 

It's not exactly Tau Sar Pau (I don't think) as I think it was meant to be black beans instead (either that, we're suppose to use black colouring or something) and the 'paste' doesn't look as smooth coz I did not have a blender. So it was back to the good ole spoon against the pot mash tactic.

Anyway, taste: YUM. As well as I can make lots of fillings in the pau (bun)! I'm not really happy with the ingredients for the pau so I'll post up the recipe later when I get the portions right ;)

 Yield's about 2 cups

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Want to eat more and lose weight?

C'mon, I know that deep down inside of us, we all tend to want to eat something healthy for a change or there is a slight guilt when we 'over' feed ourselves with either sweet indulgence or lovely greasy fastfood.

Anyhoo, I found a remedy (one of many billion remedies out there) that helps me out in 'cleansing' my body up. I find that us ladies (or perhaps just me) tend to move towards less carbs and more salads when we diet or want to stay healthy. But dieting means restricting the amount of food.

In the world of vegan and vegetarians, one of the biggest advantages is the joy of eating plenty and not putting on a single stone (don't quote me on that though!). That is perhaps my way of understanding things.However, I was told by a friend that food tastes horrible when it comes to eating the vegan way. That is perhaps the most challenging part in healthy eating.

And that is where I fill that challenge with this! I found a rustic gourmet food stall smack in Spitalfield market called Rainforest Creations.

Can't miss this stall for it's uniqueness and food display

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First Cupcake competition

What: Ironcupcake Competition
Where: Cuban City, Citypoint, 1 Ropemaker Street (Tube: Moorgate)
When: Every 1st Monday of the Month
This month's theme: Spice
BIG THANK YOU to the organisers (the Cake Crusader) who really made a HUGE effort to make the competition popular and wonderful!

Personal challenge: Making it Vegetarian 
Original recipe: Chai Latte Cupcake with Cinammon honey cream cheese frosting (Thanks to Couture's Cupcakes blog)
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Ready for my version?
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Behold, the alternative vegan recipe...

Chai Latte Cupake with Cinnamon Syrup Yogurt frosting with a hint of peppermint

What a long winded title...I made some gingerbread shortbread to go with it

It was my first ever entry and boy it was the first time that the whole table was filled with over 30 entries! Very tough competition indeed. And my biggest mistake was not making enough =(. I made 12 and wished I made more to accomodate for the 100 over tasters that night. It is always the 1% that I missed out on that differentiate the winners from the rest (Talk about being competitive LOL). I was glad that the cupcakes turned out spongy and moist as I didn't manage to taste them (only made 12). I did bake my first batch but it sunk (and so my heart sunk 10x more) so I pretty much used that batch to make my icing.

Anyhoo, was very very appreciative to have friends there to support me and I was even more so happier that they enjoyed the event in which was more important than anything. Thank you for being there for me!

Note: I am no vegan person...I admit I am health concious, but I purposely made them as a challenge for myself and to understand more about the alternatives for food and what they do. Yes, I am such wanderer. I just love exploring the 'what if's' and I can't just hide this immense curiousity in me!

The amount of cupcake entries that night o.O. All over to the other side

To view more pictures, head to my album =)

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Almond Milk

Stumbled across something interesting in which I am attempted to try for fun. One of the interesting websites I keep up to date is lifehacker.com, where it posts mainly articles on tips and tricks for getting anything done such as useful softwares for the computer, nice desktop backgrounds, latest gadgets, even 14 ways of keeping warm without using electricity and it has the odd 'food' section of how to make a quick salad decoration and this.

Taken from this article. I've broken down the steps down further...

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Chocolate Eggless Cupcakes

There is a debate to the word 'Vegan', so I decided to change the title to the cupcakes. I made them just to practice my double colour icing technique. Most of the amount of ingredients were an estimation as I wanted to know how a vegan cupcake would look and taste like with another egg alternative. There are a few egg alternatives and I've tried it with mayonnaise and baking powder and vinegar so far. Couple of useful websites below about ingredients replacement. Check them out:

911's tips to replacing eggs
Vegan Baking by the Post Punk Kitchen

Will try tofu as an alternative next. My double icing didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be since textures of both icings were different. One was harder, thicker and more dense than the other. But it turned out nice in a different way.

Only made 6...it was quite tough to distribute them at work (and I ate 2, yuummm)

 

My favourite. Honey buttercream icing mix with chocolate ganache.