Pistachio Cake...

Believe it or not, some people don't like chocolate cake (I fondly refer to them as freaks)... So as much as I'd love to constantly post recipes for various chocolate treats, I think it's important that GLBTK caters for everyone. With that in mind, if you haven't already would you please wander over to Facebook to 'Like' and 'Share' the page... the more people following, the more people who will realise that eating clean, unprocessed food doesn't have to be boring, bland, time consuming or expensive...

I've baked pistachio cakes before, usually with chocolate ganache (which is awesome!), but in my opinion this cake is fantastic because of its simplicity. Sometimes even I lack the patience for carefully decorating a cake once it's cooled!

For the cake: 

• 5 eggs, separated 
• zest of 1 large orange
• 3 tbsp Irish honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 125ml walnut oil
• 125g ground almonds
• 200g unsalted pistachio nuts, ground to fine powder
• 2 tsp GF baking powder

Line an 8" round cake tin with baking parchment & preheat oven to 150d (fan). 

Start by whisking the egg yolks, zest, honey & vanilla together until pale, frothy & doubled in volume. Stir in the walnut oil gently. 

Fold in ground almonds, ground pistachios & baking powder gently. 

Whisk egg whites to form stiff, opaque peaks. 

Fold egg whites into the egg yolk mixture gently. Do this in stages to prevent over-mixing. 

Pour into prepared cake tin & bake for 20 minutes until well risen, golden & firm to touch. 

Remove from tin. 

For the topping: 

• 1 tbsp Irish honey
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 50g pistachio nuts, chopped

Warm the honey & orange zest together. Brush over the top of the warm cake. 

Sprinkle generously with chopped pistachio nuts. 

Set the cake aside to cool before serving. 

Banoffi Pancakes

Every Tuesday lately has been Pancake Tuesday on GLBTK, but with Shrove Tuesday coming up this week, I've been making pancakes for everyone and trying out lots of different flavours...

If you're a fan of Banoffi Pie, you will absolutely LOVE these... What's even more exciting is the ice cream... You can actually make homemade ice-cream that tastes incredible, is pretty much instant and leaves out the huge amount of sugar that is contained in most commercial brands of ice cream...

If you have bananas that are almost overripe, this is a perfect way to use them up...Simply slice them and freeze in tin foil until needed.. 

For the ice-cream:

• 1 banana, sliced and frozen 
• 2 tbsp coconut cream
• 2 dried dates, soaked for 2 minutes in boiling water to soften
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to bowl of food processor and pulse until you have a smooth creamy consistency. 

The frozen bananas will freeze the coconut cream & the addition of the dates will add a caramel flavour to your banoffi ice cream.. 

For the pancakes:

• 3 eggs 
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milled flax seed
• 1 tbsp ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder

Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl.

Whisk well until pale, frothy and well combined. 

Pour the pancakes onto a pan, heated with coconut oil. I made mini pancakes (probably cos I've unbelievable patience for cooking), but you can of course make larger pancakes to reduce the cooking time. 

The pancakes are ready to flip when tiny air bubbles form on the surface.

For the chocolate sauce:

• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt all the ingredients together in a microwave proof bowl. Heat for 10 seconds at a time, stirring well after each 10 seconds. Once melted (should take about 30 seconds in total), mix well until you have a rich, glossy chocolate sauce. 

Serve the pancakes with ice-cream and chocolate sauce immediately. Honestly, these are unbelievable! I've made them for a few different people, and they've all come really close to licking the bowl...

Beef Pad Thai.. but better!

Pad Thai is a friend's favourite meal ever, without exception... I cooked her this healthier version and for a someone who is a self confessed 'grain junkie', she didn't miss the noodles or the peanut butter. I know I keep saying this, but this really is the tastiest dinner I've had lately (til I cook dinner tonight I'm sure...)

For the sauce: 

• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 a lime
• 1/4 tsp chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Mix all the ingredients together & set aside. 

For the 'noodles':

• 1 carrot 
• 1/2 courgette

Using a wide vegetable peeler, scrape large noodle-like pieces of each vegetable. 

Place in a heat proof dish, drizzle with melted coconut oil, season with sea salt and place in preheated oven (170d fan) for 15 minutes. 

Next prep your meat: 

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 150g steak, sliced 
• 50g sliced mushrooms

Start by frying onion, garlic & ginger together in coconut oil over a high heat. 

Once softened & almost cooked, add steak pieces seasoned with salt & pepper along with sliced mushrooms.

Next add in sauce, and cooked vegetable 'noodles'. 

Toss until well coated.

Cook for a further 5 minutes until warmed through. 

This is another super quick meal, that is really simple to put together.... Let me know what you think on the GLBTK Facebook page :) 

Sweet Potato Pancakes

The word "diet" has all sorts of negative connotations for lots of people. It screams 'restrictive', 'deprivation' and 'hunger'.... 

This is why eating real food works so well.... NOTHING is off limits....there are always real food substitutes for common processed ingredients.. Obviously you've still to eat at a caloric deficit if you're aiming for fat loss, but once you're eating real, clean food it's pretty hard to overeat. Nobody ends up obese because they ate too many vegetables... 

So... it's almost Shrove Tuesday, which only means one thing in my book (and no... it's nothing to do with Lent!)... PANCAKES!!! 

These Sweet Potato Pancakes are light and fluffy like American Style Pancakes, without any of the nastiness... Who wouldn't want to eat amazing healthy food, that tastes like you're having a really bold treat?... Anyone??? Naah.. didn't think so! 

For the pancakes:

• 100g cooked & peeled sweet potato (you can pop it in the microwave for a couple of mins until cooked & softened)
• 2 eggs
• 50ml full fat milk (or coconut milk to make a DF version)
• 1 tbsp almond flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
• coconut oil

Yeah... that's right, there's no sugar or sweeteners! Excellent!!

Using a food processor or hand blender, blend  all the ingredients together until you have a smooth, frothy pancake batter. 

Melt a little coconut oil in a pan & place large spoonfuls of batter on the pan. 

Don't flip the pancake until there are little bubbles on the surface (this is how you know the underside is cooked). 

I served these pancakes with pecans, Greek Yoghurt & a little more random... some crispy bacon... hey bacon goes with everything!! 

The sweet potato makes them just sweet enough, with the spices making them super tasty...

Try them.... you won't regret it! You'll be thrilled that on pancake Tuesday, you'll be eating pancakes with the rest.... and you'll feel fantastic afterwards :) 

Chicken & Chorizo Risotto

It's no exaggeration to say around a dozen people have messaged me in the past week asking me for more recipes with chicken. There's a common theme it seems... a lot of us fall into the habit of eating the same thing every night until we get bored of it, and then we move on... Someone even said to me in the last couple of days "I'd rather skip dinner than have to eat chicken again".... and this is someone who trains really hard and loves their food. 

So what's the problem? Is it the chicken? Naaaah...we'd all get bored of steak if we ate it every single day for lunch & dinner.... Ok maybe I wouldn't get bored of steak, but you see where I'm going with this right?? 

Over the next while, I'm going to make a conscious effort to post lots of chicken recipes here... like I said before, I want to use GLBTK to inspire people to get cooking & show that real food tastes incredible & doesn't have to be bland to be healthy...

This risotto tastes so good, you'll barely even realise that it's made using cauliflower rice! 

• 1 chicken leg
• 100g cauliflower, pulsed in food processor to a rice-like consistency
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 50g chorizo, chopped
• 1 piece of streaky bacon, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 50g broccoli
• cumin 
• garlic powder

Start by seasoning the chicken with salt & pepper. Place in a heat proof dish in the oven at 170d. 

Prepare all the vegetables at once, as you'll add them quickly after each other. 

Add bacon, chorizo, garlic & celery to a wok, and cook quickly. 

Once the bacon is cooked, add the sliced mushrooms, broccoli & cauliflower rice. 

Add 100ml boiling water, 1 tsp cumin & 1 tsp garlic powder to the risotto. 

Allow to simmer over a medium heat for 15/20 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed & the cauliflower rice is softened. 

At this stage, the chicken should be cooked through & the skin has browned. 

Serve the chicken on a bed of risotto. 

Coconut & Lime Chicken

I posted a photo of my dinner of Coconut & Lime Chicken with Sweet Potato Wedges on the Facebook  page last night, not because it was a gourmet masterpiece... but because it was super tasty, quick to put together, healthy & inexpensive... That's what this blog is all about... showing you that you don't need to be an incredible cook, have lots of kitchen gadgets or cash to eat well...

It cost me about €1.35 to make this.... that's far less than a frozen ready meal or pizza etc. It does not cost less to eat processed food. Oh... and just in case you were about to use the excuse that you don't have time... well you're wrong there too... only 25 minutes to make this....

Stop making excuses...

• 1 large chicken leg (you can use breast/drumsticks/wings for this) 
• 1/2 fresh lime, zest & juice
• 2 tbsp unsweetened dessicated coconut
• 1 tbsp almond flour (or 1 extra tbsp coconut)
• 1 egg beaten
• salt
• coriander

Preheat the oven to 170d (fan).

Start by pulling the skin off the chicken leg. (No fat isn't bad for you, but the skin really wouldn't add anything to this dish). 

Remove the zest of 1/2 a lime using the fine side of a grater. 

Mix coconut, almond flour & seasoning of choice together on a plate (or in a plastic freezer bag... this way you can just shake the chicken in the coating... no washing up!!)

Pierce the chicken a couple of times with a skewer/fork & squeeze the juice of 1/2 the lime over the top. 

Next dip the chicken into the beaten egg. 

Toss the chicken in coconut mixture. 

Place the coated chicken back in the egg & coat again in the remaining coconut. Repeating this step gives a thick crust that will go crispy in the oven. 

Place in a heat proof dish & bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked & crispy. 

I served this chicken with sweet potato wedges.... Read on for a great cheat method for making crispy wedges in a hurry... 

Cut the potato into wedges, place in the microwave for 3 minutes to soften them slightly (this just speeds up the cooking process). 

Toss in ground cinnamon, drizzle with melted coconut oil & bake alongside the chicken. They'll be wonderfully crispy & the cinnamon really compliments the sweet flavour of the sweet potato... 

See? It's not difficult to eat well. Oh and if you have kids... they will absolutely LOVE this! Let them eat it with their fingers... :)