I’m £10 up after a fabulous day at Epsom! Thanks queenie! (Taken with instagram)
All dressed up and ready for Epsom Derby. See you soon, your majesty! (Taken with instagram)
I met with a client a few days ago who I’ve advised to avoid gluten for health reasons. The problem is: she loves baking! Luckily, I know quite a few recipes that taste great yet are completely gluten-free. It sounds a lot scarier than it is, going gluten-free. You’re told not to have any bread, pasta, crackers, cookies… so what else is there? You might wonder this if you’re currently eating a standard American or British diet. I like to argue that you’ve been given a blessing in disguise. Not only will avoiding gluten help with any inflammatory issues you may have, it will pretty much force you to pay attention to your food. And when you pay attention to what you eat, healthy habits form.
Take this sweet little muffin, for example. It’s completely gluten-free, contains fresh raspberries, and won’t give you a blood sugar crash. You can be sure I’ve emailed my client this recipe!
So, how do you manage a gluten-free diet while still keeping up your baking habit? I wouldn’t want you to give that up! The answer is simple. Adapt! There are whole food wheat flour alternatives available everywhere that you can use to make some seriously tasty treats. For the purposes of this post, I’m not including ready-made gluten-free flour mixes here - these are usually made up of a combination of refined, white flours, and contain additives like xantham gum (which can be a problem in itself). Instead, here are my suggestions on whole food flour alternatives for baking…
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15-20 mins
Keywords: bake dessert breakfast snack gluten-free soy-free vegetarian wheat free summer
Ingredients (18 muffins)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F. Place cupcake/muffin paper cups in your trays.
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, whisking to thoroughly incorporate.
In a separate bowl, stir together the egg, milk, and coconut oil. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing slowly. Do not overmix - clumpy is ok!
Fold through the raspberries. A few swirls of red through the batter look pretty!
Scoop the batter into your muffin cups 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through.
Keeps in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Gluten-free raspberry almond muffins! (Taken with instagram)
The family dog at wedding reception - what a charmer! (Taken with instagram)
Super sweet mint green Cadillac at beautiful wedding this weekend (Taken with instagram)
Sitting in the sunshine watching cricket #britishsummer (Taken with instagram)
Everyone needs a meal they know they can make in no time at all and with minimal clean-up. Even better if it’s packed full of healthy ingredients! Now that I am eating eggs again, as long as they’re organic free-range, we’ve been making a frittata for dinner each week. It’s so simple, takes little time or fuss to prepare, and involves whatever you happen to have in your fridge as a filling.
We gathered some beautiful asparagus at the Saturday farmer’s market, along with some fennel, parsley, and fresh soft goat cheese, which all went into this springtime frittata. If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, any metal-handled pan will do - one that can be used both on the stove and in the oven. And that’s the real beauty of this dish - it involves one pan from start to finish. I do love a recipe that is light on the clean-up.
Frittatas aren’t just for dinner. They are great for pretty much any meal of the day - breakfast, brunch, lunch - and they’re delicious when served cold, straight from the fridge, on top of a bed of something green and leafy.
When I give talks or meet with clients, I recommend they have at least 5 servings of vegetables each day. So what does that mean and how can they do it? I define a serving as 1/2 cup of crunchy vegetables (such as carrots, broccoli or celery) and 1 cup of leafy vegetables (such as spinach, kale, and parsley). That’s a lot of veggies! However, dishes such as a frittata provide a nice and easy way to get 3 or 4 servings into just one meal. Finding recipes where you can add in extra vegetables is essential to getting them in each day.
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Keywords: saute grill entree breakfast gluten-free wheat free vegetarian nut-free soy-free spring
Ingredients (serves 4)
Instructions
In a cast-iron skillet, heat the butter or oil and saute the onion until just softened. Add the garlic and fennel; cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the asparagus and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have reduced in size by half. Turn up the heat to evaporate excess liquid.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and season well.
Pour the eggs over the veggies and stir through the sundried tomatoes and parsley. Season again. Leave to cook over a medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400F.
Place the crumbled goat cheese over the top of the egg & vegetable mixture and transfer the skillet to the top rack of the oven. Leave to cook for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned on top and cooked through the middle.
Serve warm with a simple salad. Also is great when served cold for brunch or lunch.
Most beautiful day on Barnes green (Taken with instagram)
-Ernestine Ulmer
Anyone who feels overwhelmed by the prospect of making dessert probably hasn’t made a raw one. This is reason number 158 why they’re so wonderful. Of course, reason number one is the fact that they’re made with real ingredients, unlike their processed and baked counterparts. When we break most raw treats down to their bare essentials, we’re talking about a handful of ingredients; usually nuts, seeds, dried fruit, fresh fruit, and spices. Occasionally, a splash of raw honey or maple syrup will make its way in there, but usually the sweetness comes from dates or other dried fruits.
Now that the weather is getting warmer, who can be bothered to bake? While there is certainly a place for a raw dessert in wintertime, like my raw pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, this is the prime time of the year for it. But if you’ve never tried making one before, it can be a little daunting - what equipment will you need? What will it taste like? What will it look like?
First of all, relax - the beauty of a raw dessert is its simplicity. There is no over- or under-baking. There is no sinking in the middle. And with the exception of nuts, they’re naturally suitable for anyone with food allergies or intolerances. Serve a slice of raw vegan pie to a girl with a gluten intolerance and she’ll love you forever.
The equipment is perhaps the only tricky aspect of making a raw dessert. It’s essential. Since the crust of a pie in this case is made out of grinding up nuts and dates together in a food processor, you’ll definitely be needing one in your kitchen. I’m not quite sure what I’d do without mine - it’s used at least once a week in our household (sometimes multiple times a day).
Other machinery you might find useful, but not essential: a blender (Vitamix being the most amazing), a coffee grinder (for smaller quantities of nuts and seeds), a dehydrator (I don’t have one, but if you’re seriously into making raw snacks and treats, it may be a handy, albeit expensive, addition to your kitchen).
What will it taste like? Delicious, mostly because you made it yourself with all those yummy fresh ingredients! Raw desserts aren’t overly sweet usually - although that’s up to you and how much sweetener you add. As a nutrition advisor, I’m a big fan of making raw treats since they aren’t loaded with sugar and still taste great. Add an extra date or two if the sweetness really isn’t up to your palate’s tastes.
What will it look like? Raw desserts are as beautiful as you can make them. There are some raw vegan restaurants doing incredible things with sweets. Check out this sampler plate from Pure Food & Wine in NYC:
While there are all sorts of chocolate goodies you can create in a raw environment, I enjoy using the season’s best fruit. Right now, in England, rhubarb is on my mind. The stalks seem to look bigger and bigger each week I go to the farmer’s market and I end up trying to shove them in our tiny fridge when I get home. And strawberries have surfaced too - despite the terrible weather we’ve been having. So here’s my raw take on a quite classic springtime dessert…
Prep Time: 15 mins + 1 hour chilling time
Cook Time: 0 mins
Keywords: raw dessert gluten-free soy-free sugar-free vegan vegetarian wheat free pie spring summer
Ingredients (serves 8)
For the Crust
For the Filling
Instructions
For the Crust
In a pie dish or cake tin with a removable base, sprinkle the shredded coconut to evenly coat. Set aside.
Combine all the other ingredients in a food processor and blend until sticky and dough-like.
Pour on top of the coconut and press into the dish and up the sides evenly. Place in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
For the Filling
Blitz the rhubarb and strawberries in a food processor until smooth (but save 6 of the strawbs for garnish). Strain the fruit mixture, lightly pressing with a wooden spoon to get rid of any excess mixture - save the liquid and drink as a juice!
Return the fruit to the food processor and add the rest of the ingredients. Blitz for a few seconds to combine, then pour into the prepared crust.
Decorate with slices of strawberries.
Refrigerate or freeze the pie for at least an hour to solidify - depending on the consistency of the filling, it may be better kept in the freezer. Simply defrost for 10 minutes before eating!