Gluten Free Pear & Almond Cake (my version of Valentines Day!)

Happy Valentines Day to everyone out there who celebrates it! With my Birthday in February and our anniversary in March, we have more than enough Lovin' happening at this time of the year so are happy to sit this day out and leave Feb 14th to you!! 

Even though I don't officially celebrate the Feast of Saint Valentine on this one particular day each year, doesn't mean I that I don't express my love for my loves in my way, with food (and I don't miss out on all things heart-shaped either (glittery gold heart elbow pads and heart plasters)). 

I have always expressed love through food. It is how I care, comfort, celebrate and love.

It is kind of like a book of Maddie's (Hug Time, I've mentioned it before), in which the little cat tries to go around the whole world hugging everyone, and finishes with this...

"The world is so big...And yet so small, It's time that we embrace it all. That's something that we all can do. Start with the one who's closest to you"

And so I bake. And cook. And embrace the one's who are closest to me, by cooking and baking with all of my heart.

I wanted to share this recipe today because it is how I am loving on you for reading meg-made, commenting, emailing and supporting me. I express my appreciation and love with food, so this particular Valentines Day I share with you a new favourite and delicious sweet treat!

I have started really experimenting with my Gluten Free cakes lately, mostly using almond meal/flour as the base flour. The tried and tested Orange & Almond was always a winner, so next I tried a Carrot & Almond cake, and that too was a winner. So when I found a recipe for a GF Pear & Almond cake I knew I had to give that a try too. And it too, did not disappoint. 

The first clear sign that I was onto something good was the titled of the blog where I found it, Momma's Gotta Bake! I love it! The number of times I've said this to my husband in the past two years when I've been stressed out of my whits and needed to relax, "can you watch Maddie for a bit honey, Mama's gotta bake!!". It was where I went to when I needed my happy, quiet and therapeutic space. 

This recipe is directly from Mamma's Gotta Bake  the only change I made was that I only made half the recipe (big mistake that turned out to be!!). 

Ingredients

4 pears, any kind, 3 for batter 1 for topping

1 3/4 cups sugar plus additional 3 teaspoons

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3 1/4 cups ground almond meal

8 large eggs, room temp

1 teaspoon, plus additional 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon neutral tasting oil (like canola or grape seed)

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and place the rack in the center position. Spray a 10″ spring form pan with cooking spray. PAM original cooking spray is gluten free, however PAM Spray for Baking is not.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit on the bottom of the spring form pan.
2. For my cake, I used  Bartlett, Anjou and Bosc pears, but any firm ripe pear will work.  Peel and core the three pears and then roughly chop them. Place the chopped pears into a small saucepan and add the lemon juice and 3 teaspoons of sugar. Cook the pears over medium heat in the covered pan for 10 minutes. Let cool. When cooled, mash the pears with a fork into a coarse puree.
3. Place the almond meal and 1 3/4 cups sugar in the bowl of a large food processor, and give it 5-6 long pulses. (This makes a large quantity of batter, so you’ll need a large food processor, not the mini kind). Add the eggs one at a time, along with 1 teaspoon of vanilla and the pear puree. Pulse until all ingredients are incorporated. Alternately, if you don’t have a food processor, you can use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Pour the batter into the spring form pan.
4. Next, peel and core the fourth pear and slice it into 1/4″ slices. In a medium skillet, heat the oil and the honey stirring until the mixture begins to bubble. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. Add the pear slices and toss gently to coat.
5. Sprinkle the almonds over the top of the cake, and add the pear slices in a pinwheel shape. Spoon the remaining sauce in the pan over the top of the cake. Bake for 55-65 minutes until the cake begins to brown and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. As my cake was starting to brown too much, I placed some foil over the top for the last 10 minutes of baking. Keep in mind that all ovens are different so the baking time is an estimate. 

(Here's my little foil creation that I put around and on top of my cake to continue cooking the middle, without overcooking the outsides....)

  6. Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes and then you can remove the sides. 

PMI

Plus = No GF floury taste, moist yet light, love the honey'd pear on top!

Minus = Only that I made 1/2 batch

Interesting = It's like an apple tea cake, but with pear!!

I wish you a happy Valentines Day today and hope you are embracing the one who's closest to you!

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Back to the real world and to the blog world!!

It's Wednesday night, a usual non-posting day for me, and as I sat down to log in to blogger for the first time in 7 days... I realised, crap, I forgot to do my regular Fast Diet post yesterday AND haven't even told you if I achieved my 30 to 30 Plank Challenge!!!

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you'll know without a doubt that I had a gloriously spectacular reason for not posting, as we had to sadly wave farewell to my beloved Matterhorn yesterday!! We had the most amazing weekend in Zermatt and I completely and utterly forgot all about diets, calories, exercise and just enjoyed being out in the fresh (and cold) air and drinking lots of tea (and champagne) to toast my 30th!! 

Rather than scramble together a post I thought instead to just have my regular Fast Days tomorrow and Monday and resume "regular programming" next week. I feel like the amount of incidental exercise I got by dragging my baby in her sled around Zermatt should have hopefully zero'd the fondue and rosti's....but lets be real, there was a lot of potato consumed!!

So, apologies if you were looking forward to an inspiring tale of self-restraint and will power, you have come to the wrong girl! I did however reach day 30 (of my plank challenge) so will let you know the results of that soon I promise!

As London welcomed us home with cold and unfriendly arms it's a good thing I have some fairly wicked plans this weekend to look forward to! I'm going to keep my Saturday plans a secret incase I fail miserably (and then I may remove my food blog from the blogosphere and never cook again) but Sunday is going to be a lovely afternoon tea with a lovely group of Kiwi's, and me, their token Aussie to poke fun at for stealing their Pavlova!! 

And just because it still makes me giggle...here's Madeleine sleeping for an hour on the main streets of Zermatt! 

Thanks for your patience and tolerance, I realise my photos were often and many!!!!



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Easy Lamb & Qunioa Tabbouleh wraps (GF)

Some weeknights I feel the need to create elaborate and exhausting dinners, for some reason it just soothes my weary soul to create and savour.

And then other nights I want something simple like an omelette or toasted sandwich.

This dinner kind of fits in the middle, but closer to the "less is more" end!

Tabbouleh is typically made with bulgar wheat, making it not suitable for people allergic to gluten, but I decided to give it a go with quinoa instead and was pleasantly surprised with how it worked out! 

For the Tabbouleh (regular recipe BBC Food)
1oz cooked quinoa
2 large ripe vine tomatoes, or a handful of baby toms
Large bunch fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
Small bunch fresh mint leave, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2-3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Chop all ingredients finely and combine in a large bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Lamb Kofta's
Lamb mince
1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
1-2 t Harissa paste
1/2 t ground cumin

Combine all ingredients and form into small balls and cook for about 15 minutes until well cooked on the outside, but still a tiny bit pink on the inside.

For the wraps
GF corn tortillas

For the sauce
Tomato paste/ketchup/puree
Harissa paste

Combine the tomato and harissa to taste, it should be a little sweet but a little spicy.

Slightly cook the corn tortillas so they are soft and arrange a little tomato sauce, lamb kofta's and tabbouleh.

Wrap and Eat!

PMI

Plus = Fresh, tastes like Morocco in a wrap!

Minus = The wraps are fine with this, but I can imagine flour tortillas would be a bit softer

Interesting = I made my husband these but in pita pockets, which would keep the tabbouleh contained better!

What meals are your favourite go-to meals for midweek dinners?? Or Friday night dinners as this may be?!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend! As you read this we are probably somewhere South of Zurich starting our accent up into the Alps!!! I'm sorry but I am beyond excited, we've always dreamed of going to the Swiss Alps and so my Husband is making (another) dream come true and that is where I will be seeing out my 20's and welcoming my 30's in with style!!! 

What have you got planned?! If you want to see lots of snow, I'm likely to bombard Instagram with way too many photos this weekend!! Did I mention I am excited!!!! 

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Fast Diet - Week 15 - #LoseDayTuesday

Week 15 of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here. 

Okay finally, I've had some good health. And not to be too demanding, but now all we need is some good weather! I think there were a total of 3 days in the entire month of January that it didn't rain! It was purely miserable. I am all for making the most of whatever weather you have and all, (last year I pushed the pram through the Heath in the snow), but really, day after day, bundling a toddler up and heading out in the pouring rain just gets depressing!! But enough whinging about the weather already!

I think I have hit my resting weight (more about that later) and so I want to know whether anyone has had any success with Fast Exercise? I am definitely considering adding Fast Exercise into my Fast Diet but just want to hear some success stories first.

This weekend is my 30th Birthday, which technically was going to be the end of my Fast Diet experience. However, as I am still a few kilo's off my target and am actually enjoying this lifestyle, so I am definitely going to keep going for a while longer, until I can drop down to 6:1.

Lunch - Tuna & Pepper Hummus Crispbread

This lunch snack was based on a flat bread recipe that I used to love at Le Pain Quotidien.

The Fast Diet The Fast Diet The Fast Diet

Ingredients
2 GF crispbread (54 calories)
1/5 cup spring onions/eshallots (17 calories)
Low fat red pepper hummus, 2 tablespoons (70 calories)
Tuna in spring water, 37g (42 calories)
Butter beans (5 calories)

Whilst it seems like the hummus is a waste of calories, it really does add so much flavour that I would definitely recommend including it. I love the butter beans on top, they go so well with tuna!

Snack - Green Olives

I am just craving so much salt these days! So green olives is definitely my way forward! I had 15 olives throughout the day, which is 60 calories.

Dinner -  Shakshuka

I have posted about Shakshuka in the Fast Diet before, and it reminded me about how good it is, so I decided to make it again, recipe HERE.

The original Fast Day Recipe has only 178 calories, but I added an extra egg because I had the allowance and so that's why it is now 228 cals.

Total calories for the day = 478

Exercise

I managed to do two high-intensity walks in the rain this week, in addition to my Reformer Pilates class and continuing on with my 30 to 30 Plank Challenge. 

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 3.5kg (7.7lbs)

It seems I have hit another plateau, but this time, my plateau is my resting weight. This is the weight I have been for most of my adult life. I used to diet on and off and would sometimes manage to lose one kilo here or there, but it would come back and I always seem to be about this size. I am more healthy and fit than I have been in a long time, so whilst I am still fitting into the same jeans that I used to have, I feel differently about myself now. Maybe it is because I have been 16kgs heavier (when I was 40 weeks pregnant) and so I've seen my body go through some difficult times and appreciate it a lot more these days!! The thing is, I would now like to break through this resting weight and find a new (and lower) resting weight to carry forward through my 30's. So when I get back from our little holiday this weekend I am going to work really hard to get over this next hurdle and see where that takes me!

Goals for the coming week

My goals for this coming week are:

• A home pilates session as I won't be making my regular class this week
• Complete a 16:8 Fast for an additional mini-fast
• Enjoy the heck out of our weekend trip away and not worry about calories/weight/fasting

We are heading away for the long weekend so if you are on the Fast Diet, you may want to look away if you follow me on Instagram! But if you are a foodie who loves the snow, stay tuned!!

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

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Shakshuka Recipe for the Fast Diet

Goodness me I feel like I have been hiding stuck under a rock somewhere because I only just "discovered" Shakshuka. Have you had Shakshuka? Do you love Shakshuka? Have you trekked from miles around to have Shakshuka at NOPI? Or am I speaking an entirely foreign language to you too and Shakshuka sounds more like something you wrap around your hair to keep it neat in the wind?! 

Well, whether you know and love Shakshuka (and scroll straight past this highly irrelevant post) or have never heard of it before, I can't sing its' praises enough. 

Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka Shakshuka 

When I first stumbled across a recipe for it in the Fast Diet Recipe Book I thought it sounded great! I then included it briefly in a Lose Day Tuesday post and have had friends/readers very casually mention that it was nice to see that I tried Shakshuka, as though its something everyone secretly goes home and makes every weekend but never mentions it to a soul. Oh yes and I think if I type it more, I will be able to stumble less when saying it! Shakshuka shakshuka shakshuka. 

Yotam Ottolenghi's restaurant NOPI is apparently famous for their Shakshuka, which I can't wait to go and sample for myself, and being so low calorie, it makes for an awesome Fast Day dinner (or breakfast if you structure your calories to be top-heavy).

Ingredients (for two)

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 medium red pepper, chopped

1 tbsp tomato puree

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

pinch of cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

2 eggs (I did three, one for Husband and two for me)

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Method:

1. Heat oil and sauté onion for a few minutes until they have softened slightly. 

2. Add garlic and red pepper and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato puree, along with the spices and simmer for another 5 minutes. 

4. Season and then crack the eggs directly over the tomato mix and cover with foil. 

5. Cook for about 7 minutes (I did mine for the suggested 10 and one egg was far too overcooked. All you need is for the whites to be solid, so check it a few times, you really want the yolks runny!

6. Garnish with chopped parsley and enjoy hot! 

PMI

Plus = Healthy, low calorie, spicy, filling, delicious
Minus = Overcooking the eggs is very easy to do!
Interesting = the egg tastes almost sweet in this dish (which I happen to love)

I will definitely report back when I find my way to NOPI and let you know how their Shakshuka compares!!



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Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese is always such a winner! The carrot cake on it's own is great, but cover it in thick cream cheese icing and it is elevated to a whole new level of deliciousness! 

meg-made: Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting/Icing

I've always loved carrot cakes but it wasn't until this past weekend that I decided to try making a gluten free one, because I've always been a bit iffy on the GF flours. Until finding this recipe from Delicious Everyday that solved that problem but not using any! 

I've made my Orange & Almond cake so many times and love the consistency and flavour of this, and so when I found this carrot cake recipe, I thought it sounded similar, so I gave it a go. 

Ingredients

350g of carrots, peeled and tops removed (approx 5)

½ cup of pecans (I used walnuts)

5 large eggs

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

250g (8.8 ounces) of ground almonds (almond meal)

220g (1/2 pound or 7.75 ounces) of brown sugar

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

¼ tsp of ground nutmeg

1 tsp of ground ginger

Cream Cheese Icing

250g (1/2 pound) of cream cheese, at room temperature

50g (1¾ ounces) of butter, at room temperature

100g (3.5 ounces) of icing sugar, sifted

zest and juice of half a lemon, or to taste

Instructions:

1. Grease two 20 cm (8-Inch) nonstick springform cake tins and preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F.

2. Grate the carrots and chop the nuts and set aside. I squeezed out a little of the water just to make sure my cake wasn't too wet. 

3. In a food processor, combine the almond meal, sugar, eggs, vanilla and apices and process to combine. 

4. Finally add the carrot and pecans and pulse to combine with the cake batter.

5. Divide the batter between the prepared springform pans and bake for 15 to 25 minutes. Mine took more like 35-40 minutes to cook, so be sure to test yours and if it still needs more, return it to the oven in 5 minute segments.

6. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely in the tin before removing.

To make the frosting combine the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and zest and beat for another 5 minutes, or until pale and fluffy. Spread the frosting between the cake layers and over the top of the cooled cake.

PMI

Plus = Delicious, moist, no floury taste, cream cheese icing is divine!

Minus = A lot of sugar!

Interesting = It's not a light and fluffy cake, but more like a mud cake



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