homemade apple pie tea

Happy Friday! One of the best days of the week. Work is over and there is a full weekend of exciting activities to do.

After a lovely afternoon walk with my sister, I sat down and brewed up a cup of this herbal tea.

Tea something that I have been wanting to make for a while now.

When it comes to what I would put in it, well, there were some apples and pears in the refrigerator and what goes better with apples than cinnamon. Then finally from some recent baking, I had a few left over vanilla beans that I had put aside for this very purpose.

When I first gave it to Joel to try, he said 'wow, it takes just like a McDonalds apple pie'. I just laughed and told him this is as close as he'll get.

Ingredients

1 apple, finely diced

1 pear, finely diced

2 tsp cinnamon sugar

2 vanilla bean skins

optional: brown rice syrup

Optional: Dip vanilla beans in brown rice syrup and drain of any excess liquid.

Finely slice the vanilla beans and toss with the remainder of the ingredients.

Spread out on a dehydrator tray and set to 40C.

Run the dehydrator for 12 hours or until there is no more moisture in the apple bits.

Store in an airtight container and use as you would herbal tea.

vegan fudge brownies - low-gi

Joel absolutely loves brownies – if made well and gooey.

I attempted build some for him a while back, but they didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped.

Round two and OH MY GOODNESS – amazing.

Not too sweet, rich and gooey, low-gi, grain-free, packed with healthy oils and best of all vegan!

Ordinarily I would have used eggs to bind the mixture together, but a few weeks back I picked up ‘No-Egg’, a gluten and dairy free egg replacer. Unopened and wanting to keep these brownies vegan, I decided to incorporate the egg replacement into the recipe. I was skeptical at first, but was pleasantly surprised with the result.

I love hiding vegetables and fruit in baked goods, it keeps the meal healthier, lower in fat and higher in fibre.

Not to mention, Joel does not like beetroot - like, at all. I’ve tried everything for him to eat this vegetable, but he is no fan. So, I hid a large beetroot in the mixture and he didn’t seem to notice! Score one for my sneaky beetroot endeavours.

I’ve also used Lucuma powder in this recipe to keep it nice and low-gi as this Peruvian health food has a super low gi index of 25.

Lucuma also contains 14 essential trace elements, including a considerable amount of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, beta-carotene, niacin and phosphorus. Phosphorus is important for bone and protein formation, digestion and hormone balance.

There are also studies to indicate that lucuma may have anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and skin-repair effects on human skin.

Ingredients

(makes 12+)

1 large beetroot, roughly chopped

1 large red apple, roughly chopped

¼ c water

Dry

2 c shredded coconut, pulsed in blender/processor until powdered

½ - ¾ c raw cocoa powder (depending on how rich you like your chocolate)

½ c mesquite powder

½ c lucuma powder

½ c coconut sugar

2 tsp bi-carb soda

40g vegan dark chocolate

pinch of vanilla salt

Wet

3 tblsp No-Egg, mixed in ¼ c water

½ - 1 tsp stevia (depending on sweetness)

1 tblsp vanilla extract

¼ c coconut oil

¼ c cocoa butter, melted

Heat oven to 180 C and line a 6” x 12” porcelain dish or brownie tin, with baking paper.

Place apple and beetroot along with water in a large pot – cook through until soft.

Cool, then empty contents into a food processor/blender and whiz until pureed.

Separately combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and create a well in the middle.

In the well, pour in the wet ingredients along with the puree.

Stir in a rotational movement until well combined.

Scoop batter into the baking dish and place in oven for 40 mins – or until skewer is inserted and comes out clean.

Cool (if you can wait) and enjoy.

With just the two of us at home, we won’t get through these brownies in a couple of days, so I will be storing them in the freezer. Just pull them out to thaw about 1 hour before you’re ready to eat, good as new.

Sometimes, when that chocolate craving comes around, it’s good to have something on hand.

fresh mint and stinging nettle tea

As a result of a lengthy lead-up, I have been over complicating the whole 'first post' issue. This blog really should have started a few months ago, but I have been putting it off waiting for that perfect recipe that incorporates all that I am trying to achieve. 

After too long of over thinking and filling my head with options, I just wanted to relax - what better way than with a cup of tea! Yes, tea!

I ventured out into the garden and foraged up some stinging nettle leaves and picked some fresh mint leaves from my herb garden. There's nothing better than a fresh 'free' tea.

Stinging nettle is such an overlooked ingredient. Here in the bush it can be considered a very annoying weed that seems to grow all too fast and has a nasty bite (just ask our dog) when touched.

Nettle tea is high in Vitamin A and K along with high concentrations of calcium, potassium and iron.

So here we have it, my first post - stinging nettle and mint tea.

Stinging nettle

Mint 

Ingredients

6-8 fresh nettle & mint leaves per cup

Hot water

Combine leaves in a large tea pot with hot water and steep for approximately 5 minutes. Longer or shorter for desired strength (I like a strong flavoured tea).

Strain and enjoy.

NB: It is so important to wear thick gloves when handling nettles, I use kitchen washing-up gloves.