Fitness, Leftovers and some Energy Bars

As we already established the last time, I'm not really going away but I will pop up time and again with something new on this tiny blog. Whether anyone cares or not, that doesn't really matter. I care and this is sufficient for me.

So what have I been up to lately? These last few month I have been doing a lot of fitness at home and this way I have bit by bit turned our living room into a gym, much to the nuisance of my wife. However, she humbly endures it. On my way I have discovered quite a few workout videos on YouTube. I started out with some Spanish videos but they seemed to be rather for women. Well, if the instructor keeps on saying 'Vamos chicas! Con alegria!' then it really seems to me like this. 

So I switched over to some guys. I did quite a lot HIIT workouts with Joe Wicks' videos and some with Alex Crockford. Finally, I ended up with the crockfit app from the latter when since he had a good offer I couldn't resist and, that is if you really stick to it, the results are quite impressive and I can only recommend it ... Well, now as it is, I just keep on going ...

While being into fitness doesn't mean, I am not going to eat a lot ... well, I kind of do it in a more controlled way now, so it isn't really clashing with my fitness goals, although I am getting braver now.

Along this line then, I got a recipe for some energy bars today. I increased the amount of protein they have by adding some leftover protein powder I had sitting there in the kitchen. Mainly, though, it's good fats and carbs.

I would say I whipped them up using leftovers as I didn't buy any additional ingredients apart from what I had already in the house. I wanted to have some honey or sugar syrup in it to bring the ingredients together. For that purpose there was a jar of sugar syrup lingering in the fridge. It was a gift from some friends. They meant well, but normally I am not so much in eating this syrup on bread as many others around here would do. This way this jar would occupy space forever in the fridge or it would turn blue or green eventually. However, for this recipe the syrup was just fine.

Ingredients

200 g porridge (or just oats)

78 g protein powder (whatever you have)

44 g peanut butter

64 g mixed nuts, chopped up

55 g ground almonds (they were really leftovers)

105 g dates, chopped up

320 g sugar syrup (or honey or whatever you have in this direction) 

250 ml water (if it's not really coming together otherwise)

Method

Well, you have seen the list of the ingredients. There is not really much telling of what you have to do with all of them. Just throw all the ingredients into a sufficiently large bowl and mix it well together. As the list says, use water if you need so to bring it all together.

Heat up your oven to 180°C (you maybe remember that this is my favourite temperature).

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and spread the energy bar dough on it. Do it as neatly as your personality requires.

Once the oven has reached the heat, the energy bars go into the oven for ... have a guess ... no, not 30 minutes, as would be my favourite baking time, but rather only 20 minutes this time. This is completely sufficient.

After that time, let them cool down and then you can cut them into pieces of your desired seize and eat them, gift them, guard them or even freeze them. I cut my mass into 16 pieces and according to my calculations one energy bar has about 169 kcal, that is, if you need to know.

Now let's get back to my exercises and my gym. Have a slight peek of what's there.

I guess there is still missing a little bit. I could really use some more weights, but then again I need to be careful and not upset my wife. After all, it still is the living room. As we don't have so many visitors these days it might be fine like that, but that's not going to last forever.

Now you can have an energy bar right before training or afterwards to fill up your storage again or, as I often do, just use them as a snack at work.

How are you with fitness? Have you been doing some exercise lately? As I was just sitting around most of the time, at work and a lot at home as well, I had to do something. Have you ever thought about it? Do you have some more ideas for fitness food? Just let me know below in the comments.

Thank you once more for bearing with me right to the end of this blog entry. It has been a pleasure writing for you and I hope you liked reading it and will come back in the future or in the meantime you just check out what else there is on this blog.

See ya!

Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart

Finally I managed to buy a loose bottom tart tin. I was looking for it every ... I went to and thought they might have one. Now I managed. Therefore I can go for it and bake madly as ... eh ... I want to.
The first thing on my list of things I wanted to bake was a frangipane tart. This almond filling taste so gorgeous, at least in my mind. Here we go then. Over enthusiastically as I am at times I had stocked myself with lemons that I didn't actually have a plan for. Apart from that there was some basil growing on the windowsill, which wasn't too sure about whether to die or still live on happy ever after ... or rather until dying a natural basil's death of being used up in cooking.
To cut a long story short, before I go overboard here, the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart was about to rise from the ashes of the basil ... no, the basil wasn't that bad, in fact it wasn't looking bad at all, but that could have changed any day now, kind of unstable that herb is.
Anyway, top talking, start baking ... Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
150 g butter
100 g sugar
Pinch of salt
250 g flour
Zest of 1 lemon
Handful of chopped up basil leaves (use more, if you need more basil in your life)
1 egg
For the frangipane filling:
1 egg
100 g ground almonds
100 g butter
90 g sugar
Juice of one lemon (how would that lemon have looked otherwise)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
100 g icing sugar
Apart from that:
100 g raspberry jam
Icing sugar
Melted chocolate

Method:
We like to start with the pastry for the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart. First of all we cream the butter and the sugar so that you don't see any loose sugar grains anymore, but instead everything should have been assimilated by the butter. While you are at it sneak the salt in, too.
Next goes in the flour. Sometimes I like to massage it in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. At other days I simply go for it and add the remaining ingredients as well. In this case, the lemon zest, basil and the egg.
Carefully bring all the ingredients together into a fine lump of dough. Wrap it into clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
After that it's time to get your loose bottom tart tin (I love it now) ready. Rub some butter all over the tin and push the dough into the tin. Well, you could roll out the dough first and then go for it. The good thing with this kind of pastry is, you can still push it everywhere you want, even if the rolled out dough tears.
Whatever, that same pastry now needs some serious blind baking for about 15 minutes at 180 ºC.
Meanwhile, we can make the frangipane filling. Honestly, I don't want to make any fuss about it. Get a sufficiently sized bowl and mix all the ingredients for the frangipane filling thoroughly.
The 15 minutes of the blind baking should be over at one point ... about 15 minutes after they started, I reckon, unless you prove me wrong here.
Here a little picture, I tried to put together, showing the different steps of the tart until the product is finished.

To follow those steps, spread the raspberry jam on the blind baked pastry and after that try to top it with the frangipane filling. At least that was the idea originally. During that process the jam and the frangipane filling rather might mix a bit. No worries, though, it's part of the package.
Having now an empty bowl, where the frangipane filling used to be and a filled pastry case, I'd say it's a rather good time to put the tart into the oven, which is now at 190 ºC.
Further 18 minutes will bake things right.
Sadly, as some might see it, you have to cool down the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.
At this point it doesn't look too gorgeous as would everyone agree on, I suppose.
Have some icing sugar on it. Oh, that's better, but ... we can do even better. We need something that'll always do: CHOCOLATE. No, not that much, just sprinkle a few fine lines on top of the tart ... blob. Great, no fine lines! We can attempt a few fine lines and put here and there some occasional blobs to make it appear to the beholder it was on purpose. Said and done ...

... I am rather pleased with the outcome. While being at it, I just simulated the case I would have a guest for tea time enjoying this delicious tart together with me. I even put on a candle. At other times it might give the impression of being romantic, but ...
I simply wanted a yummy frangipane tart. 
Now have a closer look at the tart in the next picture and have a guess of what it reminded my malfunctioning brain! 

Anyway, the taste of the frangipane tart was so temptingly dangerously good I even could here the tart calling from the kitchen: "Come and get me, get another slice ...!" Great!
Then it wasn't even a shame that it didn't taste that much of basil. You get more taste from the raspberry jam and the frangipane filling. However, there is a slight hint of basil. Therefore, if you have the feeling, there hasn't been enough basil in your life, feel free to increase the amount until the dough has the colour of your lawn, reminds you of Ireland or until you are well pleased with it.

Things were fine with me. Right, apart from the fact of what I had to do with the tart in the course of days that followed ... it wasn't my fault, was it? Yes,I could have, but I didn't.
However, have an even closer look and tell me ... right to my face ... how you could possibly resist a piece of that tart. 

So, once more, totally heart-broken and shattered I have to admit, it was all my fault entirely, for who has created this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart ...

While still being in grief ...over various things, I can't change now anymore anyway, I like to move on and submit this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart to a cleverly devised selection of blog challenges, due to various reasons ...

Let's do it in alphabetical order then. I might not have used mint in this tart, although I could have, based on the behaviour of the mint on my windowsill, but I didn't want to have an ill-behaved Mint and Lemon Frangipane Tart. Karen from Lavender and Lovage said, it would be alright, if I use any kind of herb to join the Cooking with Herbs challenge, which I from the bottom of my heart want to do.

That brings us already to the letter 'M' and Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. Just to make sure you can use homemade quick raspberry jam with raspberries and sugar, but since I couldn't get that many raspberries I had to go with the nearly as good as homemade raspberry jam to have a from scratch recipe for the Made with Love Mondays.

Then I like to talk again about the lemon and the basil. I didn't want any of those two go to waste, that is let them die before I get the chance to use them. Therefore, I like to add this to the No Waste Food Challenge, which is brought to us by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. However, this month, the challenge is hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK.

So, if you want to count in, that I ate the whole cake as well to the not wasting food, then ... oops. Now it's out!

Quickly, on with the fourth and final challenge. We go back to Karen, although it is a joined challenge by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers. However, this month it's Karen's turn and the chosen theme is: Jams, Curds and Preserves. Hopefully, at this point you don't have to guess for too long which of the three I used in my recipe.

Having reached this point of the post, I wish to say thank you to all those, who have continued reading this far into the post. You are wonderful people, thank you for being out there!!! Really, I mean it, it's not just a phrase. I hope to see you again. You can bring friends, too.

Now I have some work to do. Whatever that may be ...

Beef and Fennel Tagine without a Tagine

I think I haven't got any more space left in my kitchen to put things. Well, maybe a few small things could fit in somewhere. However, if I wanted to have any possible special cooking gear, I would be in real trouble. After all my raclette grill and my wok are already in the cellar. Ah, my barbie is there as well, of course. Yes, a bamboo steamer basket would be lovely or something that could be used more regularly, a food processor, a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, or a pasta machine or a quiche tin. Wait, I definitely have to work on the last one tomorrow.
But something else, a tagine. That would look lovely and it would be another good experience to cook with. Nevertheless, I haven't got one. Still I wanted to cook a Beef and Fennel Tagine. Let's see whether we can cook a Beef and Fennel Tagine without a Tagine ...

2nd Blogiversary and Cake

A long long time ago ...

... eh ...

... about two years ago I started blogging with Cooking Around the World. Who would have thought I would be still doing it today!? What has happened in those two years? Where have I gotten myself to and where will this be going?
Questions and still more questions. I think what we need right now is not answers, but cake ...

Without a cake we cannot celebrate properly. That is a Sachertorte, originating from a recipe that was created in Austria ... quite some time ago. It's named after Austrian Franz Sacher, who lived in the 1830s. Whatsoever, it's one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. In other words, a worthy cake for my 2nd Blogiversary.
I reckon we just need some flowers then ...

Good, now we are ready. So, come along and have a piece of cake ...

Indy's Mysterious Daim Chocolate Apple Cake

It's about time again I get out my hat. Indeed, that might be useful in this kind f weather we have at this time of the year. However, it's not just the hat, I'm getting out and it's for a totally different reason ...

... it's for baking! There are still so many baking adventures out there, I better get going for it and get in the right frame of mind for it. So, I take my bullwhip and whip up some kind of mysterious cake ... with Daim chocolate and apples ...

Are you ready for the adventure?

South African Dinner: Bobotie with Yellow Rice and Tomato & Onion Sambal

Finally I safe one hour travelling time for every day I go to  work. That is even the case when I use my bike to go to work. So I get some exercise, although up to know it's quite exhausting to get back home after work, and I get more time at home.
One thing I can do with that, is concentrate more on cooking and baking. I even might have the chance to work some of the puddings and cakes off with my exercises. Then maybe not, but I should do more sweet stuff anyway.
Today, though, I am not focusing on the sweet side ... although ... hm ... there might be a slightly sweet touch in the dish for today. It's for Bloggers Around the World: South Africa.

So I am having some Bobotie with Yellow Rice and Tomato & Onion Sambal. I did a little bit of research for that, so I reckon, that's the way to have it ...

Now we have to see how to do it ...

Christine & Christian - Episode 6: Dal, Naan and beyond

I need a plan ... again. Or I simply need to be careful. There is no way I am going to buy new clothing just to have it comfortably fitting. Loosening the belt from time to time isn't what I want to imagine.
Since I've started Christine & Christian, I had quite some Indian food not meaning I didn't have anything else as you can see from my previous posts. After 17 days of cooking from Tasting India I managed 22 recipes so far. I didn't have so much help with eating things up, but still I cope.
What did we have on the menu then last week? Maybe you remember the white dal from the last post. The leftovers were taking some time to be dealt with. Therefore I just made some naan bread to go with it and got any idea as well.
The dough for naan bread is quite easy to make, similar like your familiar yeast dough you might use for pizza. For the naan there was just some yogurt added, roughly spoken.
I made dough that would go for four average sized naan breads. they tasted quite good. I was satisfied. The dough for one bread, though, I decided to turn into something else ...

White dal stuff! Hm, let's rather say naan bread stuffed with white dal, almost like an Indian calzone, if there would be something like that. Samosas are prepared slightly differently. You most probably will read something about that at another time on this blog.
What else was on the menu?

There was this spiced eggplant (aubergine) salad served at room temperature. It was spicy, so it was fine.

Potatoes in curd, also a rather colder dish. That doesn't mean, though, there wasn't any chilli in there in some way.

Another quick one, sweet and sour tomatoes. While they were sweet, I couldn't detect so much the sour part in it. There was, however, something else apart from the sweetness. Oh, sure, the recipe mentioned to use chilli powder in it. Sweet and spicy would be fine.

I go on with eating more fish after I just had this Italian-style tuna, poached in tomato sauce, this time it's Indian-style fish fry. Very nicely you get the taste of ginger with a hint of lime beneath that breadcrust. Besides that the marinade included mustard and garlic. That doesn't sound too bad, does it? Yes, it tasted lovely and ... there was no chilli included.
There also was no chilli in the last dish for today ...

Do you know how long it takes to cook 1 litre milk so that it thickens? Well, it was okay in the end, although the rice pudding was a bit sweet. I guess 150 g sugar would do as well. Maybe one or to pistachio and almond more wouldn't hurt, either. At least it wouldn't hurt me. I know others, who cannot even eat a single piece of almond.
Anyway, I like to take this rice pudding along on our food trip around the world for Bloggers Around the World for as you might know, our current stop is India.

 

 
Do you notice another ingredient from the rice pudding picture? Have a guess and tell me. It shouldn't be so difficult.
In the meantime hang on and keep cooking!

Christine & Christian - Episode 3: Use your Imagination

Just imagine: You are sitting relaxed at a beach in the shades of a palm tree. There is even a cool breeze, as well as a cold drink in your hand. You take a sip. The sound of the water of the ocean hitting the beach makes you feel even more relaxed. The sky is shining brightly and everything is perfect.
Did it work? Did you see yourself there at this beach with this pure fine white sand? No? Maybe you need to close your eyes in order for it to work or the description wasn't vivid enough.
Anyway, that is not going to happen!
But since you trained your imagination a bit now, we can go on with step 2. Let's get Tasting India ready and have some Curd-cheese Balls in Rose Syrup. How does that sound? Use your imagination ... for that is not going to happen either.
Let me show you a picture and you might get a faint idea ... or simply faint.

While looking for some easy going recipes to start things off with, I selected to make these Curd-cheese Balls in Rose Syrup. They looked lovely in the book and I imagined them to taste that way as well ... with a nice almond surprise in the center.
However, as you have seen from the picture ... eh ... there was a different surprise and ... eh ... well, you haven't seen any balls.
What happened?
Hm ... good question!
Maybe at first it was the syrup going into a wrong direction ... turning into candy rather. Nevertheless I got things simmering again and was ready for the balls to be poached.
Carefully placed and resting in the simmering syrup-like water they decided to do something else ... falling apart.
In the end it was just a gooey semolina curd-cheese something. I added another splash of rose water, stirred until everything was smooth and spooned it into a bowl. Tasting! Well, it has a nice rose water taste. Now it was rather a semolina pudding. I thought, a few fruits on top would be nice. Then there where these coloured chocolate sprinkles. The least I could do. Make it colourful. That gives it an Indian touch probably.

If I get chance, I have to try it again and get some real Curd-cheese Balls. Could it be, the semolina wasn't coarse enough? Just use your imagination ... I'll be off to the beach ...

Catching up ... Tray Bake Plum Cake

There are still a few things to catch up with. I already planned some posts ... and that already for quite some times. For sure, I mentioned it before. In fact a few things I already cooked/baked, photographed and ... eh ... well, have also eaten up completely.
In an effort to catch up with a few things of those, I present you today the tray bake plum cake I had.

As I was checking up on my pantry what needed using up I came across this glass of plums and so things were set in motion.

Ingredients:

Cake dough:
125 g butter
125 g sugar
2 tbs vanilla sugar
4 eggs
250 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
 
1 large jar of plums (more wouldn't hurt)
A few splashes of plum liqueur (if you have)

Crumble to cover:
125 g butter
125 g sugar
2 tbs vanilla sugar
200 g sliced and ground almonds mixed
1 tbs milk

Method:
For the dough, cream the butter, the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the eggs.
Then add the flour and the baking powder. I used whole-wheat flour. Turn it all into a dough
Give the dough onto a lightly oiled or covered with baking parchment or both baking tray.
Place the plums on it ... without the juice. You have to get other ideas with that.
Sprinkle a bit of plum liqueur on the plums, if you like and/or if you have it.
Now, we don't want to forget the crumble.
You can already heat up your oven to 180 °C.
Melt the butter and then mix together all the ingredients for the crumble and then cover the plums on the cake with it.
Bake it for about 30 minutes, depending on the reliability of your oven.
Enjoy the cake!

Now the plums are gone and so is the whole-wheat flour. That were some of the things that needed to be used up. Well, I didn't need to buy any additional ingredients for everything was either leftover (the liqueur as well and I'm still working on using it up) or standard ingredients.
I guess that cake does well for the April Credit Crunch Munch pages on Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All. This month Camilla from Fab Food 4 All is hosting. So, have a look.

Tea Time: Tipsy Blueberry Mini Bakewell Tart

What come to your mind, when you think about tea time? Simply having a cup of tea? Or will there definitely some lovely tea time treats? Sweet of Savoury?
Then there is also the question, what kind of teat you will have. At my place it can be quite a challenge. I think I have about 1,000,000 types of different tea ... or maybe a little less. It's simply a lot: tea bags, loose tea, green tea, black tea, red tea, fruit tea, herbal tea, flavoured black tea with, orange, cherry, marzipan, toffee or spices like cinnamon or cardamom, and so on. Here is a small part of my tea tin collection ...

Look to the front, I also found something else: sugar sticks. They are a nice way to sweeten your tea and are looking good. In case of emergency you can have them as a treat as well. 

Anything else? Is there any tea grown in your area. Sorry to say, English tea is not grown in England, but, hey, no worries. 
No matter how you like your tea time, a good cuppa is always appreciated and can be helpful to wind down or simply let your worries slip back into the shadows.

I don't know about you, but I like my tea time treats sweet. I still have fond memories of the last bakewell tart I had. That's why I decided to mess a bit with the recipe and adjust it minimally to my needs ... make it smaller, make it a Tipsy Blueberry Mini Bakewell Tart. 
Oh ... what a shame ... now I wrote what I didn't want to, because I don't want you to get me wrong. The 'Tipsy' part is not the adjustment to my needs, it's the 'Mini' part. Puh, I hope you believe me.

Well, from the amount of ingredients you still could do a normal sized one, but that way we are having four small ones.

Ingredients:
250 g puff pastry
4 tbs blueberry preserve or ...
3 eggs
120 g sugar
120 g butter, melted
50 ground almonds
2 tbs almonds schnaps of amaretto
Vanilla icing sugar for dusting

Method:
The first task is to get the puff pastry divided among four pastry cases. Try to make it fit nicely and remove any protruding pastry at the edges. I wish I would be a bit more skillful at those things.
Prick the pastry at the bottom with a fork and then get a tablespoon of blueberry preserve on each of the four corresponding bottoms.
Get yourself a bowl an crack in the eggs. Did it ever happen to you when cracking an egg that just the shell breaks easily, but the thin membrane beneath it remains intact? Strange!
Whatever, pour in the sugar and whisk it together whisk the eggs until it looks not too orange anymore.
Then add the ground almonds, almond schnaps (or amaretto), and the melted butter. Whisk through to mix well. Divide the frangipane mixture among the four pastry cases by pouring it over the blueberry preserve. Fine! So far we managed quite good and easily.
Now transfer it to the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes.
When ready and the almond-egg mixture has set properly get it out. Serve them with icing sugar sprinkled on top. You may wait with that until they have cooled down ... or you may just go for it.

I have a another cuppa!!! 

Oh, I enjoyed that very much, I think after a year it's time to use it again and link it up to Bloggers Around the World: Great Britain.

Am I lazy or crazy? Ginger-Marzipan-Chocolate-Pralines

Sometimes I have to ask myself, am I lazy? I just hang around and do nothing in particular, although there would be plenty to do. However, I simply don't want to.
Then again, I could be crazy - kind of - that is if you want to use such harsh words. On the other hand (apart from four fingers and a thump) it could be quite helpful at times to be lazy and crazy. Not only once that has led to new inventions in the past.
While I don't want to suggest that the now following would be a great invention, you still could have a go at these Ginger-Marzipan-Chocolate-Pralines ...

Please, have one ... 

What you need:
100 g marzipan
About 40 g candied ginger
A few tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
Some almond slices

How you do it:
Get a small piece of marzipan and wrap an about 1 cm long piece of candied ginger in it. Make sure the ginger is surrounded by marzipan on all sides. Repeat this until all the marzipan is gone and ... it might look like this.

Put the cocoa powder (I still got some chocolate orange one from Sugar and Crumbs) in a small bowl and roll the marzipan ... eh ... rolls in it, so that it gets all nicely coated with cocoa powder. How does that look (be careful with your imagination)?

Well, I would have said now, that's all, folks! But somehow we need to distract a bit from that look. So I decided to stick a sliced almond piece into each one.

That already makes a difference. Now ... that's all, folks! We only need to transfer them to another plate for looks.

Just last week while visiting a friend, I got a surprise gift. He is an artist and 'paints' pictures with metal pieces. He goes all over and collects all kind of metal objects to use them in his pictures. Some pictures he sells and others just stay in his place. Maybe he will do an exhibition with them one day. 
Anyway, he also got some old silverware, which you can see now in my picture. I was going to destroy those pieces to use them for painting, but he thought I might appreciate them more.
How do you like them?
Now the question still remains, whether I'm lazy or crazy.
While hanging around - at the computer - I noticed that I didn't take part in We  Should Cocoa for a while. In fact the last post I could find on my blog was from June 2012: Galway Irish Coffee Tiramisu.

 

I thought it would be about time to have a go again. Here, though comes the lazy problem again. The person who invented the We Should Cocoa challenge had me already kept busy with one of her last posts: Chocolate Log Blog: Chocolate Walnut Pastries. I tried to bake some from memory after reading this post once.
So I didn't want to do baking of any kind again this time. Therefore I went for the Ginger-Marzipan-Chocolate-Pralines. This month theme of We Should Cocoa is 'Ginger' and it is hosted by Jen from Blue Kitchen Bakes.
Now bit by bit a bit more about being crazy ...
This recipe was kind of a low cost one. I didn't use any further energy apart what came from my body. So it could work for ...

... this month. Camilla from Fab Food 4 All wanted to see something for dessert this month. Hey, you could use the pralines as well for that. Camilla is doing this challenge together with Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.
In order to further demonstrate that this recipe is frugal, I'm going to enter this post as well to Recipe of the week from A Mummy Too.

And finally, I add this as well to Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays and, hey, this time it's really Monday.

If that's not crazy, orinally I just wanted to take part in one challenge and I was lazy and now ... I end up with entering in multiple challenges.
Above that, ff you know any further challenges these pralines would fit into this month, let me know! Then we got a nice collection of challenges other can take part in as well.

'Indulge: 70 Grain Free Desserts' e-book review

There are quite to many sicknesses and the like in these days, even despite the advances of science and medicine. I'm not quite sure whether I know anyone who can say he is totally healthy. I would say everyone has to carry his load, may it be an illness you have yourself or it's someone in the family. A lot of sicknesses you don't quite recognize when talking to people. Also clinical depression is on the rise - something that can't be quite understood.
Why am I telling you all this? If you are healthy, you may take things for granted. We never know when things strike us. However, it isn't my intention to get all gloomy here. I also don't want to tell you about the things I am fighting ...
... however, there are some diseases that are food related or have to do with food. Once I was thinking about getting a diet that would decrease inflammation, but somehow I managed things differently.
I only thought by myself, I really couldn't stand having any food intolerance or having to forgo any kind of foods for health reasons. Sadly, some have to. Finally that brings us to our today's subject.
On the food sector we can be quite happy that there are a lot of good people out there, thinking and trying things and working hard. Among those are Carol Lovett. She wrote an e-book in connection with a grain free diet: Indulge: 70 Grain Free Desserts.

Carol was so kind to provide me with a copy of her e-book to write a review. Well, I don't know whether I'm any good at it, because this is my first real book review.
However, I know what I like. As I already brought out, if you have to stick to a grain free diet, that can be quite shocking to you, but as the title of this book brings out, it doesn't mean you don't have the opportunity to indulge in some delicious desserts.
By just scanning through the pages I started drooling. So many scrumptious looking pictures are in the book. Due to this, a thought came to my mind - and forgive me, if I say this - had I been 20 years younger, I would say: 'I marry that woman!' - because those dessert are really mouthwatering and someone, who could do such lovely things, well ...
Let's get a bit more detailed, or rather let you share in what the book has to offer. As the title suggests there are 70 grain free dessert recipes in it. I selected one that right away connected to my brain ...

Taken from Indulge: 70 Grain Free Desserts

... I had to had a go. Technically I'm not so well equipped, so I find it easier to work with books made from real paper, but I managed to work with the electronic version ...

I got Carol's permission to give you the recipe. Here we go ...

Reese’s Bars
 
Crust:
1 cup almond flour/meal, (250 mL)
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, (30 mL)
2 tbsp raw honey, (30 mL)
1/8 tsp salt, (0.5 mL)

Filling:
1 cup almond butter or cashew butter, (240 mL)
3 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, (45 mL)
3 tbsp raw honey, (15 mL)
1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, (22.5 mL)
1/2 tbsp raw honey or more, (7.5 mL)
 
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line the bottom of a 4x8 inch rectangular loaf pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl combine the ingredients for the crust. Evenly press the dough into the bottom of the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 10-15 minutes. The crust is done when it is lightly brown and firm to the touch. Let the crust cool before spreading the filling.

In a bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, raw honey. Mix and reserve about ¼ of the mixture for the chocolate topping. Spread the almond butter filling onto the cooled crust. Place the bars in the freezer to firm up before spreading the chocolate mixture on top of the almond filling.

To make the chocolate topping add unsweetened cocoa powder to the reserved almond butter filling and sweeten to taste.

Spread on top of the semi-frozen bars. Place in the fridge to firm. Store the bars in the refrigerator. Makes 8 servings



Those were really, really delicious and I am totally glad I still have some left to enjoy today.
I also want to show you, how they looked in my case.

I didn't think about it properly. So I didn't have any extra almonds at hand for decoration, but I also tried to bring a closer look.

Back to the book itself now. There are for sure many more lovely recipes to try from that book. After all it has 70 grain free dessert recipes in it. 
If you have to rely on a grain free diet, that book will give you a fairly good share of indulgence. The book is divided into 10 sections: Basics / Icing, Sauces & How-To's / Cake / Treats / Bars / Pie & Tarts / Cold Treats / Cookies / Fair Treats / Cupcake & Muffins. That gives you a brief overview.
You get for example also a good overview on the ingredients to use for a grain free diet. So you know what to look for. There is also a table that shows you what ingredient to substitute with which one. Very useful! That way you can also convert other recipes to grain free versions.
Should it be the case, you are not in need for a grain free diet the book helps you also to convert things back, if you want to.
Carol really put a lot of work into this book and it really paid of. The recipe bring you some good food joy and indulgence, even when you have to be careful what to eat.
If you are interested in having an even closer look at the book or you want a copy for yourself, then ... Click here to view more details ... at Ditch the Wheat.
I hope my introduction at the beginning didn't put you off, but at times I just have to say it as it is. Life isn't always smooth sailing and smiling ...

Clearance sale ... orange rice pudding

Here comes another one. Yes, this title again is totally misleading. I'm not going to sell anything, but ...
As I hinted to in my last post there are a few things I want to get rid of. Things are really weird in society. You always feel you have to buy buy buy ... I'm going to refuse. 6 days ago was the last time I bought something. Now I'm going on to do this or rather not to do this and keep living from the things I still have at home.
I found an awful lot of things in my pantry that need using up, so I'm going to improvise some thing over the coming days or, who knows, even longer.
We have so much, when it is so little we need - applies to other things as well.
At the same time I feel I have a lot to write about. I already have three other posts waiting to be written. For today a quick one: orange rice pudding.

The list of ingredients is ... manageable ...

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice (those kind you would use for risotto as well)
8 cups of orange juice
Poppy seeds
Sliced almonds

... and so are the steps of what you have to do ...

Preparation:
Well, simmer the rice on low heat with the orange juice for about 30 minutes.
In between roast the almonds a bit.
Serve the cooked orange rice pudding with some poppy seeds and the roasted sliced almonds. 
I didn't feel you need any extra sugar. That way you have the natural taste.
There are really a lot of things in my pantry that need using up. So, what are you going to expect? Something with pasta, cake and ... whatever else I come up with ...