It’s our eldest son’s 17^th birthday today so I had to bake a few treats for him. He has asked for pork belly for dinner (like mother like son) and brownies. There are many great paleo brownie recipes floating around but they are all high in carbs, and we are a low carb family (not for weight loss but for gut health and healing) so I had to come up with my own. A friend had posted photos of her Incaberry Chocolate and I love Incaberries (sweet and sour all in one…more sweet then sour but kind of like the lollies) so I added some into the brownies, just enough to give it some flavour but not enough to blow out the carbs (30g total for the whole brownie batch). Don’t have incaberries, then use goji

Low Carb Paleo Brownie

 

Print

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

Author: Jess Rath

Recipe type: Paleo Sweets

Cuisine: Paleo

Serves: 12 squares

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup of coconut oil
• ⅓ cup of nut/seed butter (I used walnut)
• 5 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons of Stevia Leaf Powder (or you could use ¾ cup of honey)
• 3 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
• ½ cup cacao (this will be a rich brownie, if you prefer it less chocolatey then use ⅓ cup)
• ½ cup Incaberries (soaking in a bowl with boiling water for 30 minutes to soften)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Pour boiled water over the incaberries and set aside, just enough water to cover the berries is enough.
3. In a large saucepan combine the coconut oil and nut/seed butter and let it combine over a low heat, about 5 minutes should do it (can use the microwave if you’re a microwave user).
4. Let the oil cool to room temperature and whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Add the sweetener, coconut flour, cacao, salt and baking powder and beat well.
6. Drain the water from the berries and dice them finely before adding them to the mixture, I diced mine super fine because my guys don’t like bits of fruit in cooking.
7. Pour the mixture into a lined baking tray and place in the oven.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

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I took a break from blogging and creating new recipes, it was needed. Life was getting very busy with studying and running the four boys around, not to mention the Primal Life Marketplace stall…I was flat out brushing my hair let alone cooking presentable food

But I’m back! Everything has been sorted and I have found some cooking balance again.

Everything in this custard was chosen for its nutrition value and health boosting properties. Enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Caramel Custard

 

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Superfood goodness in a bowl!

Author: Jess

Recipe type: Paleo Sweets

Cuisine: Paleo

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 400ml coconut cream
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 1 tablespoon cacao powder
• 1 tablespoon mesquite powder
• 10 drops of stevia (sweetener of your choice, 1 tablespoon honey/maple)
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 1 tablespoon Great Lakes gelatine
• ¼ cup of hot water
• 1 tablespoon flax powder
• 1 tablespoon chia powder
• 1 large handful of baby spinach

Instructions

1. Heat the pan on high and melt the ghee in a pan and let it bubble, it helps to caramelize slightly.
2. Add coconut cream, cacao, mesquite, and stevia. Whisk until well combined, reduce the heat to low and let the custard simmer.
3. Whisk in the beaten eggs, keep whisking while the egg cooks (and slightly thickens the custard). This will take about 3 minutes.
4. Remove from the hotplate and set aside.
5. Dissolve the gelatine in the hot water and whisk into the custard.
6. Let the custard cool to room temperature and add the chia and flax powders. Mix well and set aside until completely cooled.
7. Pour the custard into a blender or food processor and add the spinach. Puree until smooth and creamy.
8. Pour into a glass bowl and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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Yours in health and happiness

Jess xx

I just love market morning. I love the fellow stall holders, they are such lovely people who are so passionate about whatever it is they are selling, and we look after each other. I love my weekly customers…see them every week is such a joy for me!

When I got home and unpacked I whipped up this Thai inspired banana blossom salad, I was starving (hence the not so flash photo today). This recipe serves one person.

Thai Banana Blossom Chicken Salad

• 1 banana blossom
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 shallots
• 120g cooked shredded chicken (or pork or prawns)
• ¼ cup of coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon of coconut cream (let the can sit so you can scoop the concentrate off the top)
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes

How to:

1. Prepare the banana blossom (there are a few great youtube clips).
2. Slice the shallots finely and place in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Add the shredded chicken to the bowl along with the banana blossom and remaining ingredients.
4. Get your hands into the bowl and work the ingredients until well combined.
5. Serve…and eat…and say oh yum!

The Mackay Marina Run is on tomorrow, I’m almost sad that I’m not doing the half marathon this year. I’ve been so busy with getting my ‘secret’ plans happening and studying that I just haven’t had the time to fit the training in. Plenty more half marathons left in me yet so I’m not too disappointed, I’m doing the 5k corporate run with my CrossFit Mackay family instead

Yours in Health and Happiness

Jess xx

Let’s talk about meal prepping…it’s vital in our household…and I’m sure you can benefit from doing it too (if you don’t already). We’re all busy right? Big family or small family, single person or partnered people, we are busy. I don’t know about your family needs or commitments, let me share a week in our household with you.

We get super busy, and most afternoons I need to be in two places at the same time. Our family are gluten-free, dairy-free, preservative and additive-free, legume-free and in my case, grain-free. To make it easy, we are a paleo family and this comes with some big challenges. We are not this way purely by choice, we have food allergies and sensitivities (and an autoimmune disease). I don’t rely on take-out or convenience food! This means I must set aside at least one day a week (usually a Saturday or Sunday) to prep up our meals/lunches. Now that I am in the swing of it, it’s really not that hard. So let me take you through what I do.

I start off by planning out our week in meals. This doesn’t have to be hard, just use an A4 piece of paper and divide it into seven columns. Then decided what you’d like for dinner each night of the week. I plan our dinners around the kids’ work/school/sport commitments (eg. Football training on Tuesday and Thursday means slower cooker dinners).

Then I clear the kitchen benches of any clutter (when hubs is home I have a collection of newspapers on the bench) and I take out my trays and food processor. I also get all of the food items I need out and open up the pantry (this helps keep flours, spices off the bench and saves cleaning up time).

I wash the dishes as I go, it saves time!

I make and cook the proteins first. While they are cooking I mix and cut (cookies and crackers) the muffins etc. I cut and juice the vegetables last. I find that this works well, it usually takes me three hours from start to finish…remember I am prepping for a family of six (with three teenage boys).

Prepped this week:

• Turkey, garlic and rosemary meatballs
• Chicken thighs
• kangaroo burgers
• boiled eggs
• activated almonds
• broccoli florets (fresh and blanched for freezing)
• carrots
• baked, cooled and sliced beetroots
• blanched kale for freezing
• sliced cabbage
• Macqui Berry Coconut cupcakes
• AAG sweet biscuits
• Flaxseed crackers

Do you prep or plan out your family meals?

Yours in health and happiness

Jess xx

Tuna and Broccoli Fritters

• 145g can of tuna, drained
• 1 egg
• 3 broccoli florets
• Seasonings of your choice

How to:

1. Heat a large frying pan with oil of your choice, I love ghee.
2. Dice the broccoli florets finely and place in a bowl along with the tuna and egg.
3. Add seasonings and mix well.
4. Reduce the heat of the pan to a medium heat.
5. Using a dessert spoon, place a spoonful of the mixture in the pan. Let it cook on one side for 2-3 minutes and then flip, cooking the other side for 2-3 minutes.

You could add any vegetable into these versatile little fritters, I made them with zucchini and carrot yesterday…yummmm…and yes, the kids had these too

So a quick update: life in the Rath household is starting to finally settle down, it’s amazing what cleaning up diets can do for a family. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still incredibly busy, but now we are far more organised and all on the same page.

I set Sunday and Thursday afternoons as my cook up days, on these days I make lunchbox treats, meatballs, cook chicken thighs (because my 13 year-old doesn’t like chicken breast), dice carrots, prep veggies and package everything up for the week.

Bible College started this week!! Our first study group is tonight, I am beyond excited!!

Yours in health and happiness

Jess xx

Quick history of the ANZAC biscuit: During the first world war, mothers/wives/daughters of Australian soldiers wanted to send food from home in care packages to their men, but they faced the problem of transporting over the ocean on ships (so many many weeks of travel without refrigeration). Some of these very clever women came up with a solution, instead of making the biscuits with egg they would use other ingredients as binding agents and, therefore, make the journey across the ocean to their brave sons/husbands/fathers.

ANZAC Day is tomorrow and I had to whip up a batch of Paleo ANZAC biscuits…because these are my favourite biscuits in the whole wide world, and my Nana makes the best ones! Except they’re not ones that we can eat anymore, so I came up with these ones…not crunchy like hers but just as tasty.

Paleo ANZAC Biscuits

•  1 cup fresh, pitted dates (about 12-15 dates)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon of bicarb soda
• ¼ cup melted ghee, or coconut oil
• ½ cup nut/seed meal (I used pepitas and sesame meal)
• ¾ cup coconut flour
• ¼ cup maca powder (or ¼ cup nut/seed meal)
• ¼ cup mesquite powder (or ¼ cup nut/seed meal)
• ½ cup shredded coconut

1. Pre-heat the oven to a moderate heat, 180 degrees Celsius and prepare 2 baking trays lined with baking paper.
2. Place the dates, boiling water and bicarb soda in the food processor and mix until smooth.
3. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and combine.
4. Pour the date mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. The biscuit mixture shouldn’t be too wet and it shouldn’t be too dry. You should be able to roll the dough in your hands without it sticking or crumbling.
5. Take a large teaspoon full of the mixture and roll it into a ball, place it on the prepared tray and press down flat, do this for the remaining dough and then place in the oven.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: I used mesquite powder and maca powder to just pack a bit more nutrition into the biscuit for my kids, feel free to leave it out and replace with extra nut/seed meal, the mesquite powder has a nice soft caramel flavour and works so perfectly with the caramel fudginess of the dates.

Yours in Health

Jess xx

Oh.  My. Goodness! I am on a roll You know how I love Great Lakes Gelatin right?! How I have it every single day in my smoothie or mixed straight up in water? Well I’ve been making jellies for the kids so they get the awesomeness of gelatin too, they need it as much as I do. I make my GL jellies with a tried and true:

• 2 Tablespoons Great Lakes gelatin
• 1 ½ cups boiling water (make a herbal fruit flavoured tea)
• 1 cup cold water (or Kombucha or fruit juice (not pineapple))
• Sweetener to taste

1. Whisk the gelatin and cold water until there are no clumps.
2. Add the boiling water (flavoured tea) and sweetener, whisk.
3. Pour into moulds or a shallow dish to set.  When set you can cut them into cubes, if you wish.

Well today I made…..chocolate mousse jelly! Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh yes!

•  Chocolate Mousse Jelly
• 3 Tablespoon Great Lakes Gelatin
• 1 cup cold water
• Half an avocado
• 1 big handful of baby spinach
• ½ cup raw cacao (as much as 1 cup if you want a really rich dark choc flavour for adults)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Place all the ingredients, minus the boiling water, into the blend/food processor/thermomix and blend until smooth.
2. Whisk the boiling water into the mixture.
3. Pour the mixture into moulds or a large tray and place in the refrigerator to set, about 2 hours tops.

This will be our Easter Egg substitute this year…I have some great Easter moulds and I can’t wait to get them setting the night before Easter.   Yours in Health Jess xx

Our household has been so busy! The kids all at school, W not in day care anymore, me not ‘working’ but studying, D back at football and me running him to training and games, Husband doing a 7 on 7 off roster….and me starting Primal Life Marketplace….phew!!

So with all of the stress/busyness of our household came some convenience foods….now our type of convenience foods are totally different to other people’s convenience foods.  We had packets of gluten free popcorn, organic plain rice cakes, gluten free muesli bars, pre-flavoured and roasted nuts…all the things that I could quickly give the kids without me having to make them on Sundays.

I’m happy to report that they have now left the Rath house and will not return, why? Because there is a very big need to focus on our health/nutrition/wellness/healing.  We have children who need us to pay special attention to this, for their sake I had to pull up my Mummy Socks (whatever they are…and what the?) and get back into the kitchen, get my head space right again and focus more on them.

Anywho…so today I got back into the kitchen, got my nut milking/flour making game on…cranked up some tunes and cooked up a storm.  I even created a new recipe for you all :-) I have trouble getting my kids to eat vegetables (2 of them I don’t have any trouble with, but the eldest and the youngest are so hard to get veggies into).  I wanted to make a ‘bread’ that I could spread things on and send to school, or make up as snacks at home….helllllooooo Zucchini Broccoli Bread! And it worked first time!! And second time! Double bonus :-)  You are going to love it! As always you can substitute some of the items (I’ll tell you which ones) and make it to suit the needs of your family.

 Paleo Zucchini Broccoli Bread

• 1 large zucchini
• ¼ head of broccoli (or cauliflower/carrots/veg)
• 5 eggs (or 5 Tablespoons of chia seeds soaked in 1 cup of water for about 10 minutes to form a gel)
• 1 ½ cup of nut/seed flour (almond, cashew, brazil whatever your choice is here…not coconut)
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the veggies and the eggs in the blender and puree until smooth.
2. Pour the mixture into a bowl and fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.  Make sure it’s well mixed.
3. Pour the bread mixture into a lined loaf tin and place in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until cooked.
4. Let the bread sit in the tin for about 5 minutes then turn it out and let it completely cool on the bench.  Leaving it in the tin will make it stay soft and wont crust up like a bread loaf should.

Yours in Health and Wellness

Jess xx

The weather at the moment is so unpredictable.  One minute it’s pouring down with rain and the next minute it’s sunny, then you blink and its overcast again.  Aaahhh summer in North Queensland.

I love summer! For so many reasons.  I love the sun, the beach, the beautiful summer fruits and air conditioning (sometimes the humidity is just way too much).  This brings me to…bananas.

We have so many bananas! They are so cheap at the moment and the kids aren’t eating them as quick as they usually do so I’ve been freezing some and baking with some.  Remember the banana bread? Well yesterday I wanted to cook something for the kids after school but I didn’t have an hour to spare….hmmmm the dilemma.  Ah-huh I know, banana bread cookies!  Genius, I know

I made them again today, just to road test the recipe to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke the first time…nope it wasn’t…they are GOOD! I made them 3 different ways…ready?? Ginger Banana Bread Cookies…Chocolate Banana Bread Cookies….and Banana Bread Cookies.  Go try them…you’ll love them. The recipe makes 35 cookies.

Paleo Banana Bread Cookies

• ½ cup macadamia nuts
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Paleo Ginger Banana Bread Cookies

• ½ cup macadamia nuts
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon powdered ginger

Paleo Chocolate Banana Bread Cookies

• ½ cup macadamia nuts
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon Cacao

1. Preheat the oven to a moderately heat, 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Place the macadamia nuts in the food processor and turn it on.  Let it process the nuts until it turns into butter, about 2-3 minutes is all it takes.
3. Add the bananas and egg and let it process again until it makes a nice smooth batter.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth and well mixed.
5. Line a cookie tray with baking paper. Take heaped tablespoon amounts of the mixture and place them on the cookie tray, and place it in the oven.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
7. Let them cool on the tray before removing them.

You can eat them as they are, or sandwich them together with some nut butter.

Yours in health

Jess xx

This week was a bit mixed up and not my usual week, we had a ‘cyclone’ Friday and that made some things a bit tricky (see the thing about cyclones is you just don’t know when to take them super seriously or when to be a bit slack about it…I err on the side of caution and also make sure we are prepared).

I had a gym buddy this week too, how awesome is it to train with a friend?! Makes the time just fly by.

Monday: Legs day and I had planned a run with my girlfriends, which fell through with last minute babysitting falling through for one of the girls.  I added PBs to my leg weights this week J

Tuesday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps and 20 minute HIIT on the Rowing Machine (1 minute sprint and 1 minute steady).

Wednesday: Back/Biceps/Abs and 20 minute HIIT on the Elliptical Trainer (30 seconds fast as I could and 1 minute recovery).

Thursday: Unscheduled rest day.

Friday: Modified my training so I could complete my workout at home, couldn’t get to the gym.  Legs in the morning and Shoulders in the afternoon.  No cardio because I did the 2 sets of training.

Saturday: Walk in the morning before breakfast (with my girlfriends) and then Back session.

Sunday: Hill run/walk with my girlfriends and my running stroller (with my toddler inside…because running with an empty stroller would be totally weird).

My goals are not primarily to lose weight. I want to lose body fat and lean out while building muscle and this type of training and eating will get me the results I am after.

I did 7 weeks of Jamie Eason’s LiveFit program and wasn’t seeing results (sometimes a one size fits all program just doesn’t work).  So I sort the help of a trainer, she wrote a meal plan for me (specific to me and my goals) and a training program.  I have just finished my second week with her, I feel fantastic and I am SEEING results!!

My food was spot on apart from some banana bread on Thursday.  I post my food everyday on IG, so if you’re interested in that then head over to InstaGram and check it out.  High carb day tomorrow…that makes a sweet potato loving gal really happy!

How was your week? What kind of training do you do?

Yours in health

Jess xx