Posts Tagged ‘Low Sugar’

Sage and Garlic Stuffed Pumpkin

Posted 4 Jan, 2011 in Main Course [ 1 Comment ]

Sometimes you need a break to recharge and recalibrate. I’ve been on hiatus from this website as I’ve just been mad busy. Really, Christmas and New Years comes around once a year and they are only two days out of the year. But the lead up to it is always so long and so hectic, it’s like the world is going to end.

My work and personal life has been pretty full with parties, meetings and lunches. For New Years, I went to Raglan for 4 days with a group of friends. I even jumped off the Raglan footbridge straight into the water. So much fun. I’m back at work tomorrow but well rested and ready for new challenges.

Now onto the food. I have been cooking and making lots of food. I just haven’t been blogging about it. I can’t say that I have been very strict with the Paleo diet but I have no regrets. For the most part, I have been sticking to the basics of meat and veggies. This recipe for Sage and Garlic Stuffed Pumpkin is super easy to make and also super filling. The pumpkin goes all gooey inside as it cooks with the meat.

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Sage and Garlic stuffed Pumpkin

1 buttercup pumpkin
400 grams beef mince
8 sage leaves finely chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 white onion chopped
1 tbs butter
salt and pepper

  1. Preheat oven to 175°C
  2. Cut the top of the pumpkin using a knife.
  3. Scoop out the seeds and the inside.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix the mince meat, sage, garlic and onion.
  5. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Stuff the pumpkin with the meat mixture.
  7. Take the butter and rub around the outside and the top of the pumpkin.
  8. Bake in the oven for 1 hour.
  9. Remove and drain the juices from the mince.
  10. Continue baking in the oven for another 1/2 an hour until done.

Serves 4.

Cinnamon Blondies

Posted 9 Oct, 2010 in Dessert [ 3 Comments ]

I felt like baking this weekend for some reason. It’s an amazing day outside which is so refreshing given that it has been a pretty awful Winter with lots of rain. My house is definitely a Summer house as we have French doors that open out to the courtyard which means a great indoor/outdoor flow. I love sitting in my lounge as it feels like I’m sitting outside without getting fried from the sun. Don’t get me wrong- I love the sunshine. But here in the southern hemisphere, the sun really burns.

So I made these Cinnamon Blondies with the intention of baking cookies. But once I mixed everything through, the batter was way too runny for cookies. I just put the whole batter into a square cake tin and this is the end result. As usual, this is completely grain-free, gluten-free, and low-carb. I really like this recipe as it doesn’t contain any eggs.  A lot of baking with coconut flour or even almond flour often turns out with a strong egg-y taste which a lot of people don’t like. This just tastes like a lot of cinnamon with a hint of almonds.

I had a couple of slices with coconut milk. Canned coconut milk is too rich to drink but when you water it down as per this recipe with a little bit of honey, it makes a great drinking milk.

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Cinnamon Blondies

Recipe adapted from here

1/3 cup coconut flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs cinnamon
45 grams honey (about 3 tablespoons)
250 grams almond butter (about 1 cup)
100 ml coconut milk (full fat)
150 ml water

  1. Preheat oven to 175ºC.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients- coconut flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients- honey, almond butter, coconut milk and water.
  4. Mix the dry into the wet ingredients.
  5. Stir with a wooden spoons until there are no lumps
  6. Grease a square cake tin with butter or coconut oil.
  7. Pour batter into the greased cake tin and spread evenly.
  8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
  9. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 24 slices.

Vegetable Hash

Posted 19 Sep, 2010 in Vegetables [ 1 Comment ]

I’ve been away for work in Wellington all of last week. I loved the break from my normal job but by the end of the week, I was definitely ready to come home. I stayed in a reasonably nice hotel and had all my meals taken care of which was really nice. But again, after 5 days of eating hotel breakfasts and catered lunches, I was so ready for a big dose of meat and vegetables with a good helping of fat.

I’m a fussy eater by nature so I don’t like to dine out too often. I found the catered lunches especially difficult at it mostly consisted of sandwiches or meat pies. It was so hard to get a decent serving of vegetables of any sort. There must be an art to eating well while traveling. I don’t travel often for work so I will have to take this trip as a learning experience. I have to admit that I was completely unprepared in that I didn’t prepare any Paleo type snacks. And I could have requested special catering that is grain-free or low-carb. I guess I will know better for next time.

When I came home, all I wanted was vegetables. I didn’t know what to call this dish as it is just a big medley of vegetables cooked in lots of butter and seasoned with various herbs. It was just what I felt like having after a week of traveling.

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Vegetable Hash

1 onion chopped in half moon shapes
2 tbs butter
1/2 head cauliflower grated
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 sweet potato grated
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
goat feta to serve

  1. Saute the onion in butter until trunslucent.
  2. Add in the remaining vegetables with the oregano, garlic powder, and salt.
  3. Stir until cooked through.
  4. Serve on a bed of salad greens and top with sunflower seeds and goat feta.

Makes 4 servings.

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