CANE SUGAR FREE BANANA BREAD AND APRICOT PRESERVE

A couple of days  ago I posted my recipe for sugar free fruit bread.  

A few posts behind that, I wrote about my sugar free and salt free breakfasts, including my bread and cream cheese recipes.

Now, today, yet another secret recipe is leaving my den ... my super easy, sugar free banana bread recipe.

Shhhh .... don't let everyone know it.  Just enjoy it yourself with cream cheese, tahini, peanut butter, whatever! 

Or, you can spread it with my sugar free dried apricot preserve........ my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Enjoy.

Cane-Sugar Free Banana Bread 

• 3 big bananas, ripe (you can freeze peeled bananas if you have a bunch of over ripe ones.  When you defrost them they they are super mushy!)
• 1 3/4 cup of wholemeal self raising flour
• 2/3 cup of raisins (you can puree the raisins to distribute the sweetness using a blending stick or food processor, or leave them whole) 
• 90 ml of grape seed oil (I use grape seed because it has a higher heat point tolerance than olive oil!)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp heaped cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup of almond meal (this is basically just ground almonds)

Heat oven to 190 - 210 degrees C.  
Line a loaf tin with baking paper.  
Put all ingredients into a bowl, use a potato masher or blending stick or anything else you want to use to mix it all together.

Bung it in the loaf tin
Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.  (After 30 minutes test it with a skewer! Leave it a bit longer if it is not quite ready).

Apricot Preserve

1 packet (about 300g) of dried apricots (I use the brown coloured, un-sulfured type) 
2 apples, roughly chopped
zest and juice of one lemon

Put apricots and apples in a saucepan and cover with water.  
Simmer on low for about 15-20 minutes until the apricots are mushy.  Add the lemon zest and juice, stir,  and simmer for another 5 minutes or so until it is thick.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. 

I kept some in the fridge for a week in a jar, froze some in another container and froze some in ice cube trays for individual portions.  

It is also yummy for dessert on yoghurt,  sprinkled with toasted nuts!

CANE SUGAR FREE, FAT FREE FRUIT BREAD: GUARANTEED YUMMY!

Shhhhhhhh ...... As promised in an earlier post, this is the first of my secret recipes. 

This is for the easiest fruit bread recipe in the world, and also as promised, guaranteed yummy.

There is a vegan and a vegetarian version that I have written below.  I adapted it from a recipe I found online and it has worked every time, no matter how I experiment with it.

It is quite a heavy and dense loaf; the vegetarian version is a bit lighter in texture, but both are awesome.

You can use any dried fruit you like; use only one type or mix and match.

My favourites are raisins, dates, figs and apricots.  I have also tried prunes, apples and currents.  The fruit is up to you.

After the loaf is cool, I slice it up, wrap the slices in kitchen paper, pop them in a big snap lock bag and freeze them.  Then when I want a slice I just toast it, spread it with either peanut butter or tahini, and gobble it up with a nice cuppa tea.

Decide whether you are going to chop the fruit into smaller bits or leave whole.  I am lazy, I leave them whole. 

VEGETARIAN SUGAR FREE FRUIT LOAF: (the 'less dense' version)

The day before:

Soak ½ kg (1 lb) of dried fruit in 1 cup fresh orange juice overnight

Next day:

lightly grease a loaf tin

set the oven for 180 degrees C.

Ingredients:

Stir into the ½ kg fruit/OJ mix

1 cup whey (I use whey from making cream cheese, but you can use butter milk or extra orange juice)

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1 heaped tsp mixed spice powder  

2 cups wholemeal (or white) self raising flour

Mix together, place in the loaf tin, and cook for 1 hour on 180 degrees C.  Then lower oven to 160 degrees C for an extra half hour, or until cooked.  Stick a skewer in after the first extra 15 minutes, as cooking time will depend on your oven.  If it starts to get a bit too brown, place a brown paper bag over the top of the cake to protect it.

VEGAN SUPER DENSE SUGAR FREE FRUIT LOAF:(the 'more dense' version)

The day before:

Soak 1kg (2 lbs) of fruit in 2 cups of fresh orange juice overnight

Next day:

lightly grease a loaf tin

set the oven for 180 degrees C.

Ingredients:

Stir into the 1 kg fruit/OJ mix

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1 heaped tsp mixed spice powder  

2 cups wholemeal (or white) self raising flour

Mix together, place in the loaf tin, and cook for 1 hour on 180 degrees C.  Then lower oven to 160 degrees C for an extra half hour, or until cooked.  Stick a skewer in after the first extra 15 minutes, as cooking time will depend on your oven.  If it starts to get a bit too brown, place a brown paper bag over the top of the cake to protect it (ha, a bit of deja vu!)

CANE SUGAR FREE CHRISTMAS CAKE:

If you want to make a Christmas-type cake, substitute ½ cup of brandy for ½ cup of the liquid and add ½ cup of nuts instead of ½ a cup of the fruit.

That is all there is to it.  Hope you like it.

SUGAR AND SALT FREE BREAKFAST IDEAS/RECIPES

I love to eat, and I endeavour to eat slowly and mindfully (enjoying the taste and texture of the food), usually on the couch looking outside, quietly, with no tv or music. I love food and I am fussy; if it isn't good to eat I wont eat it.  

The breakfast ideas below are tried and true.

I try to mix them up.  I am not on a grain or gluten free diet, and I realise that fruit is fructose (a form of sugar), but I am only cane sugar and salt free at this stage. Even the small changes I have made have had a big impact on my well being.  

My breakfast standards/pleasures ... every morning:

Brewed coffee (never instant) with organic milk.

A large green tea with mint and a squeeze of  lemon juice that I sip on while I make breakfast and wait for the coffee to brew. (I sometimes shave some fresh ginger into the tea too).

I also have vitamin supplements: 1x magnesium/calcium, 1x multivit, 2x fish oils, 1x ‘skin/hair/nails’ targeted mix.

Breakfasts:

(All of these meals can also be dinner/lunch/brunch whatever!)

- One lightly cooked egg with mushrooms and spinach (I use grapeseed oil or ghee to cook with as they have a high heat tolerance) on home made bread*.  Slather with lime-infused olive oil and zatar** herb mix for taste.

- Hot oat porridge (or cold as a muesli) with nuts and seeds, cinnamon, frozen berries, chia, some shredded coconut, home made full fat Greek yoghurt*** and honey. 

- Baked pearl barley milk porridge**** with apple and berries, yoghurt and honey/maple syrup.

- Home made, no sugar banana bread or my own fruit bread with either home made cream cheese,*****  tahini or peanut butter and honey or sugar free jam****** 

- Chopped fresh fruit and yoghurt sprinkled with toasted nuts and seeds

- Almond meal and wholemeal flour pancakes.  Top with frozen berries melted in warm maple syrup. 

- Home made bread with avocado, olive oil and zatar

*       Home made bread:  I use a bread maker.  4 cups bread flour, 1 1/2 tsp dry yeast, 410 ml liquid (usually whey or whey and water), 1 tblsp grape seed oil, 1 tblsp rice malt syrup. 

You can add an extra 40ml of liquid and a couple of spoons of chia seeds too.  

**     Zatar: a dry herb mix of thyme, oregano, sumac and sesame seeds:  sprinkle on everything 

***   Greek yogurt: I use the New Zealand Eziyo 'make your own at home' full fat Greek base, and use some of the yogurt for making cream cheese and whey

****  Baked pearl barley porridge: I modified a version I sourced from the blog 'Scandi food'.  Soak overnight 1 cup pearl barley in 3 cups of organic milk. Next day chop in two apples, a tsp of cinnamon and a big handful of frozen berries.  Mix and put in the oven with a lid or aluminum foil on top for 1 1/2 hours on 160-180C until all milk is soaked in.  Yum hot or cold with yogurt and maple syrup.  (Pearl barley is an acquired taste.  I love it!) 

***** Home made cream cheese: Simple, simple, simple.  Use a muslin cloth, put in as much yogurt as you want (I put in half a litre at a time) twist the top of the cloth and put it in a sieve over a bowl with a weight like a saucer on top.  Leave for 2-3 hours (the longer you leave it the firmer it gets).  The liquid that drains out is the whey and I use it for cooking.  Whey freezes well.  

****** In Australia Dick Smith makes a lovely sugar free marmalade; the strawberry and the apricot jams are nice too (forget the fig!), but the jars are dumb! You can’t get everything out and they are too long for a normal tea spoon!

I will get the recipes for the fruit bread, pancakes and banana bread to you next time.

Enjoy your breakfasts.  :)

Oh......... S......... UGAR

On 60 minutes last night Sarah Wilson talked about the 'evils of sugar'.  

Don’t get me wrong, I love sugar ... chocolate, lollies, cakes, alcohol etc. But there is so much evidence on how sugar is a mood changer, and can act like a drug. 

Sugar is addictive.  Put a bowl of lollies on the table and stop yourself from eating more than one. 

Sugar is addictive to rats. Sugar binges changed the levels of the rats' brain chemicals that control how much they want and like something. When their sugar was taken away, the rats did pretty much whatever they could to get sugar again.  That is why sugar addicts get grumpy if they don’t get their sugar.

(If you want me to be all scientific and reference my sources for this information, I will, but I thought I would ‘lighten up’ when writing this!)

When you are stressed and tired sugar is even more appealing, because it seems like a quick pick me up and a feel good reward, the immediate hit makes you feel better. However, it is also a downer and can put you to sleep (and rot your teeth!).

I love sugar, but I try to control it to a reasonable amount: I have dark chocolate a lot – I love the Whittakers 65% with almonds,  Lindt 85% Excellence,  Oxfam fair trade organic dark Belgian (70%). All fair trade and have a good policy on palm oil and limited additives.

So; what does sugar do to you that is so bad?????....

©       It ages you

^©        It depresses the immune system

©       It depletes your nutrient store

©       It contributes to high cholesterol

©       It acidifies the body

^©        It stresses the liver and increases liver fat

^©        It can trigger autoimmune responses like asthma, arthritis, headaches, yeast infections

©       It can contribute to anxiety and depression and thus aggression and moodiness

©       Makes PMS worse (Gawd- worse!!!!)

^©        Causes mineral deficiencies

What Sarah pointed out on the program (http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2012/06/i-quit-sugar-on-60-minutes/) is how sugar is in so many foods that we take for granted; put in as an added product.   And it has a multitude of names to make you think it is not sugar:

Corn syrup, Dextrose, Fructose, Galactose, Glucose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Honey, Invert Sugar, Lactose, Malt, Maltodextrin, Maltose, Molasses, Panocha, Rice Syrup, Sucrose, Treacle.

And that is not even considering the other stuff that goes into processing food, rather than just the food itself.

From today I am going to try and be mindful of what I am buying and making.  I will let you know what the best stuff is that I have found, not just food but other things as well.

P.S. To start with; I can recommend  Jalna's Vanilla and Cafe Latte yoghurts.  Yes, they have added fruit juice (fructose) and milk sugar (lactose), but they are a better alternative than the cane sugar (and added chemical) varieties.