Whole30 is finished....

Remember I was doing The Whole30?

Strict paleo diet and all that?

Well I finished it, a couple of weeks ago actually and the results are in.

In short...

I lost 2 kg.

My fingernails grew really strong.

I don't crave chocolate like a mad woman any more.

And a couple of other things that I'm not going to get into here.

If you want, you can read all the gory details here.

I do like eating this way though, it's nice to feel in control of your food, rather than the other way round.

And over Easter, I did not ingest one bit of chocolate.

Although I did make my best flourless gluten free chocolate mud cake for everyone else though.

And check out these chocolate fudge brownies...

Try not to drool, it makes your keyboard kinda gross after a while...

Recipe here....

Go on, make them, you will not regret it.

Well, maybe if you're doing the whole30 you will, but hey, you'll impress your nearest and dearest!

Have you tried coconut butter?

I have recently discovered coconut butter, and it is a food of the Gods. Truly really.

If you like coconut that is, like I do. If not then meh, maybe not so much.

Ha, doesn't look like much, does it? 

This is freshly made in my thermomix, which of course is good for 101 things. And probably more.
Coconut butter can be made in a food processor or blender too.

The 'butter' firms up after a while, here it is still quite liquid.

Once it's firm, scoop it out with a spoon and eat it. Just like that. Apparently you can use it to bake and cook with but this is the second lot I've made and I don't get round to cooking with it before I've eaten the lot.

And all you have to do to make it is throw some coconut in your blender, food processor or thermomix and let it whiz round for long enough to turn it into a liquid. Done.

Long enough in a food processor is purported to be anywhere from 15-20 minutes but in a thermomix or high powered blender it takes less than half that time.

AND you can make CHOCOLATE coconut butter by mixing in some cocoa. 

See? Food of the Gods I tell ya!

Now, that really is all it takes to make it, but if you want a step by step with accompanying visuals, I've written it up here.

My most favourite-ist gingerbread cookie recipe

My favourite gingerbread cookie recipe came out again recently and the kids got busy making a variety of shapes. 

An update from the original recipe, I now use rapadura instead of plain ol' sugar and I'll either use spelt flour or a gluten free flour mix, both available at my local supermarket these days.

The aim of the game though was to make Captain Cookie, from The Gingerbread Pirates.
I've put a link to the book over in the sidebar if you want to have a look, my two love this book, something about pirates, Santa and food, I suspect.

This little guy was cut with a regular gingerbread man cutter, had one leg amputated and a half toothpick substituted for said leg, his hat was half a round cookie that was mutilated into shape and his classy sword another toothpick. Gotta use what's to hand, right?

Luckily for me, the boys usually get tired of the whole exercise before the decorative icing bit has to be done and are happy to admire their creations sans 'clothes'.

While they're putting on eyes and buttons and trying to create swords, I hurriedly press out the rest of the dough into convenient 'school snack' size cookies.

Did you know you can even make Sponge Bob cookies with this fabulous recipe?

We did ice these guys, I suspect he wouldn't be very recognisable as Sponge Bob if we didn't...

Not sure who this is though...

And I think we even have some ninja shaped cookies lurking in the freezer now.

Best gingerbread cookie recipe ever.


PS. That rapadura link is where I actually buy a few things, rapadura being just one of them.
Honest to Goodness.