Tease Those Tastebuds
There are fewer things more pleasurable in life than a fine tasting meal. Once again, we’re grabbing our aprons, pulling out the inner chef and cooking up a storm. Here are 7 totally awesome recipes that’ll have you cooking like a boss in no time!
———————————————————————————————–
Banoffee French Toast
Servings: 1
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
3 eggs
½ tsp salt
1 tsp caramel essence
1 tsp raw cacao powder (optional)
2 slices of bread of your choice (we prefer 100% rye)
salted caramel and date sauce
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
10oz (300g) fresh pitted Medjool dates
1 cup of water
2 tsp caramel essence
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 heaped tsp almond butter
Toppings
almond butter
sliced banana
raw honey
toasted flaked almonds
ground cinnamon
Instructions
First, make the sauce.
Spray a large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray.
Add the almond milk, dates, water, caramel essence, vanilla essence, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the dates are soft and most of the water has evaporated.
Remove from the heat and mash the dates to a smooth consistency. Stir in the almond butter and allow to cool slightly.
While the sauce cools, spray a frying pan with nonstick cooking spray and heat the olive oil.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, salt, and caramel essence until fluffy.
If you want to make chocolate French toast, add the cacao powder to the egg mixture now.
Soak the bread in the egg mixture, transfer to the frying pan and cook on both sides until toasted and almost crispy.
Butter each French toast slice with almond butter and top with banana, followed by honey, toasted flaked almonds and a dusting of cinnamon.
Smother in the salted caramel and date sauce.
Store any leftover sauce in the fridge for up to 10 days.
Note: To ensure the almond milk in the sauce doesn’t curdle, always heat it up with the other ingredients simultaneously.
“Perfect for Sunday-morning breakfast, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, of course, oh, and a birthday breakfast in bed – remember to leave the recipe on the fridge door.”
———————————————————————————————–
Soy and Sesame Beef Strips
Servings: 4
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
3 spring onions, chopped
1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
1 medium red, orange or yellow bell pepper, cut into strips (keep the seeds)
20oz (600g) beef strips
5 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup raw honey
½ tsp salt
a handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the spring onions, garlic, bell pepper, and reserved seeds for about 5 minutes to release their flavor, then add the beef strips and fry until the meat is golden brown.
In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce or tamari, sesame seeds, black pepper, honey and salt.
Add this to the pan once the meat is cooked, and simmer for about 15 minutes or until most of the moisture has evaporated.
Add the chopped fresh parsley, remove from heat and allow to cool completely before placing in an airtight container and storing it in the fridge to use when needed.
Note: Be on the lookout for tamari, a more mature gluten-free alternative to soy sauce.
“A winner served with rice and green beans!”
———————————————————————————————————–
——————————————————————
Sweet Basil BBQ Chicken Traybake
Servings: 10
Ingredients
3.5lbs (1.5kg) Chicken Fillets
brine – 3 tbsp salt dissolved in 40fl.oz (1.2L) water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp dried sweet basil
1 tbsp onion flakes
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp salt
Instructions
Soak the chicken fillets overnight in the brine.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 360F (180C).
Line a roasting tray with baking paper or foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with a paper towel.
Arrange the chicken fillets on the tray and drizzle first with the olive oil and then with the honey.
Sprinkle with the paprika, sweet basil and onion flakes respectively, in this order.
Finish off with the black pepper.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and drain the juices (if you would like to make a sauce, pour these juices into a saucepan with some of the ingredients used in the recipe and simmer until thickened).
Sprinkle the salt over the chicken and allow it to cool properly before placing it in an airtight container and storing it in the fridge to use when needed.
—————————————————————————————–
Honey-mustard and Rosemary Chicken Traybake
Servings: 10
Ingredients
3.5lbs (1.5kg) chicken fillets
brine – 3 tbsp salt dissolved in 40fl.oz (1.2L) water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp raw honey
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp dried rosemary
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp salt
Instructions
Soak the chicken fillets overnight in the brine.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 360F (180C).
Line a roasting tray with baking paper or foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray if you want to make your life easier and skip the scrubbing afterward.
Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with a paper towel.
Arrange the chicken fillets on the tray and drizzle first with the olive oil and then with the honey.
Sprinkle over the onion powder, followed by the mustard powder, mustard seeds and dried rosemary respectively, in this order.
Finish off with the black pepper.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and drain the juices (if you would like to make a sauce, pour these juices into a saucepan with some of the ingredients used in the recipe and simmer until thickened).
Sprinkle the salt over the chicken and allow it to cool properly before placing it in an airtight container and storing it in the fridge to use when needed.
Note: The trick for the most tender oven-baked chicken is to soak the fillets overnight in brine before baking and to only season with salt once the chicken is cooked.
“Both of these chicken traybakes are great with salad, sweet potato, butternut, roast vegetables, and even brown or basmati rice.”
———————————————————
Oven-roasted Sweet Potatoes
Servings: 4–5
Ingredients
2.2lbs (1kg) sweet potatoes, washed not scrubbed, otherwise, you’ll remove the skin which contains most of the fiber
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 390F (200C).
Line a baking tray with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Soak whole sweet potatoes in water for 5 to 10 minutes.
Cut off the ends and roughly cut the sweet potatoes into chunks.
Place the sweet potato chunks on the lined baking tray and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Allow to cool before placing in an airtight container and storing in the fridge to use when needed. They will last up to 5 days refrigerated. If serving on the same day as roasting, drizzle with olive oil and raw honey and season with salt.
“Here’s a good idea; freeze some of the baked sweet potatoes to add to smoothies later.”
—————————————————————————————————–
Baked Raisin and Date Brownie Biscuits
Serving: 20 biscuits
Ingredients
10oz (300g) pitted dates, chopped
10oz (300g) raisins
5oz (150g) almond flour, plus ½ cup extra for rolling
1 tbsp caramel essence
¼ cup raw cacao powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra for dusting
a pinch of salt
2oz (60g) whole almonds, roasted
2 tsp raw honey
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).
Line a baking tray with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Soak the dates and raisins in enough hot water to cover for 10 to 15 minutes.
Drain and mash in a mixing bowl.
Add the almond flour, caramel essence, cacao powder, cinnamon and salt and mix well to form a soft dough.
Using your hands, roll a heaped tablespoon of the dough into a ball, flatten it out and place a roasted almond in the middle.
Roll it back into a ball and then roll it in the extra almond flour.
To prevent the dough sticking to your hands, spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray.
Once they start to get sticky, wash your hands and spray again.
Place the dough ball on the prepared baking tray, flatten slightly and place another roasted almond on top.
Repeat with the remainder of the dough.
Drizzle the biscuits with honey, dust with cinnamon and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
They are meant to be soft and chewy.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.
“Want to try something different? Then swap out the almonds for pecan nuts.”
——————————————————————————————————-
For more awesome recipes that are as tasty as they are healthy be sure to purchase Izelle Hoffman’s book Mindful Eating now available on Amazon.com