Tag: pumpkin

Spiced Pumpkin Muffin recipe

Today I’m going to share a muffin recipe.

This morning I was looking through my recipe collection and writing the week’s menu list when I came across this Spiced Pumpkin Muffin recipe.

Every so often, when I am researching something on line, I come across some interesting recipes. There are many gluten free recipes on the Internet and we have found many are lacking in taste or texture.

I had printed this one out ages ago and forgotten about it. The recipe is easy and I had all the ingredients, so I made a batch.

This recipe made 12 small muffins. They are very light in texture, quite yummy and are gluten free. I think you could make a few variations by swapping out the pumpkin for cooked apple or maybe even mashed banana.

 Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

(makes 12 small muffins)

Ingredients

5 eggs

4 tbsp. melted butter or coconut oil

½ cup mashed butternut pumpkin

½ cup Maple syrup or honey

½ cup dextrose or coconut sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground allspice

Pinch sea salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract or paste

½ cup sifted coconut flour

½ tsp. baking powder

 

Method

Preheat your oven to 200’ C and lightly grease a muffin tin.

– Mix the eggs, butter (or oil), pumpkin, maple syrup, dextrose, cinnamon, allspice, salt and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl. I used a stick blender.

– In a separate bowl, mix the baking powder and coconut flour together then add to the batter. Mix well ensuring there are no lumps and the batter is smooth.

– Ladle the batter into the muffin cups.

– Bake for approximately 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

We ate a couple while they were still a bit warm with a little bit of butter, delicious.

I will definitely be making these again. I hope you enjoy them also.

 

Till the next post,

 

Live Clean n Prosper.

Our Home Grown Vegetables

Today I decided to write about vegetables, to be specific, our home-grown vegetables.

A couple of years ago Scott created a vegetable garden in a neglected garden bed along our fence line. Once the plants got established, we have enjoyed lovely home-grown, chemical free, vegetables.

How successfully….

Scott has tried growing several different things, some with success, some not so successful.

We have had success with Heirloom Carrots. The first time we harvested some we were quite surprised at the variety or colours that we had. Apart from the common orange, we had yellow, red, white & purple carrots, they really add colour to the plate. We continue to plant these seeds so that we always have some carrots.

Sweet potatoes have been a challenge. We planted 2 varieties, the common ‘Gold’ and the less common ‘Hawaiian’ sweet potato. The plants were quite large and healthy, but the crop was small. Hopefully next time around the results will be better.

Scott has had some great success with growing zucchini. We have had some large enough to stuff and roast.

We have not had success with growing cauliflower. As we don’t use any chemicals on our garden, our cauliflower plants were attacked by bugs and died.

At the beginning of winter Scott planted Purple Sprouting Broccoli seedlings and this week we harvested the last head of broccoli. It was quite large and really purple. It is also quite good for us.

A bit about the Broccoli,

There are differences in the nutritional values of green and purple broccoli.

The purple broccoli has higher levels of vitamin C, folate, iron, calcium, isotonic, glucolin, and anthocyanins.

Purple sprouting broccoli also contains the phyto chemicals ulphoraphane (thought to help prevent cancer) and may provide resistance against heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes. Overall, purple sprouting broccoli was found to contain higher contents of antioxidant compounds than green broccoli.

After cooking, the purple sprouting broccoli retains higher levels of antioxidant. (Sources; https://academic.oup.com/biohorizons/article/ ; https://drizzleazure.wordpress.com)

We have also had a pumpkin vine growing in our garden. It is growing quite well, taking up lots of space, and we have been looking forward to harvesting some pumpkins. However, we are not having much success.

The pumpkins are forming but don’t mature.

Scott was ready to pull up the plant. He spoke to one of his Uni lecturers who advised that the little immature pumpkins were quite good steamed.

We have since tried steaming them and they taste like button squash. So, I guess the pumpkin vine isn’t a complete failure. We are continuing to harvest the tiny pumpkins and are also going to try roasting them.

All in all, our garden is providing us with some lovely, chemical free, whole foods. By trying to grow different varieties, we eat a more varied diet.

Till the next post,

 

Live Clean n Prosper

A Crunchy Brown Rice Salad recipe

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Hi. This weekend I was able to spend time with treasured friends up at beautiful Peregian Beach on the Queensland Sunshine Coast. The weather was lovely and we had a fabulous couple of days.

It was really great to spend some quality time, relaxing. Life is short and I think that it is essential to take the time to de-stress. It’s even better when you do it by spending time with people who are important to you.

With no research to share this week, I thought I would share another recipe.

I came across this Rice Salad recipe some time ago and adapted it to suit our tastes. I have made it several times for barbeques and parties and it always gets rave reviews.

It is really simple, quite tasty and nutritious.

 Crunchy Rice Salad – serves 4 to 6

3 cups cooked rice, cooled – I like to use a Mountain Blend as it has a nice tasty mix of rice

300 grams of Pumpkin or Sweet Potato (cooked and cut into small pieces)

½ cup chopped Parsley

2 green shallots finely sliced

½ cup finely sliced Snow Peas

½ cup Bean Shoots

1/3 cup toasted Pepitas/Pumpkin seeds

3 tbsp toasted Sunflower seeds

Dressing

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lime juice

Method

I like to cut my sweet potato or pumpkin into thick slices and cook them under the grill so it gets a bit of dark caramelisation for added flavour.

While the potato or pumpkin is cooking – put the rice into a large salad and mix the dressing ingredients together in a jug.

Chop the cooked slices into small cubes and put it into the bowl with the rice and other ingredients.

Combine the ingredients gently with a large spoon.

Pour the dressing over the salad and give the salad another mix to incorporate the dressing.

 

This is great as a side dish or you could even have it as a main meal.

Enjoy.

Till the next post,

Live Clean n Prosper

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