Dinosaur Biscuits. Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Nut Free, Egg Free.

Dinosaur Biscuits

Gluten free, Refined Sugar Free, Egg Free


My little miss 4 is a funny little thing. While she belts out Frozen songs as much at the next girl and does ballet and loves barbie dolls she also absolutely LOVES dinosaurs, dragons, bugs, crocodiles, sharks and trucks and motorbikes.
Myself and my miss 9 often just look at each other mystified as we are both very much girly girls.
Violet's bedroom greets you with dinosaurs and dragons. her favourite colour is green and when she grows up, she wants to be a DRAGON.
Yep.

For her fourth birthday of course it was a Dinosaur Party - you can see the food and party ideas for that one HERE 

These biscuits both my 4 and 9 year olds can make and they both love! Though my 9 year old often makes hers with a love heart instead.

Ingredients

100 grams butter

½ cup coconut sugar or Natvia stevia

1 & ¼ cups gluten free plain flour or spelt flour plain – note spelt is not gluten free only low gluten)

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or essence

¼ teaspoon baking powder (gluten free)

3 tablespoons almond, coconut, soy or dairy milk

¼ cup jam with no sugar added. You will find many of these at supermarkets and health food stores or better yet, make your own yummy jam!

2 tablespoons water

1 potato (or very clean dinosaur)

Method

Pre heat oven to 180’c or 160 if it is fan forced.

Line a baking tray with baking paper, I use non bleached If You Care brand.

Heat jam in a saucepan with the water, stir and set aside.

Cut a large potato in half. Then take one half and score/cut a dinosaur shaped foot print into one side so that it sticks out.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until it looks fluffy and well together.

Gently fold in the flour and baking powder with a wooden spoon.

Once mixed well roll into small balls and place on the baking tray.

Flatten down slightly.

Use the potato (or dinosaur) to put a footprint indent into each biscuit.

Fill indents about ½ to ¾ with the jam.

Bake for around 12 minutes or until nice and golden looking and firm.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Notes

You can of course swap the dinosaur foot print for a love heart, star, circle etc have fun with it! 

The Sunshine Coast Show

I am such a huge fan of the Sunshine Coast Show, it is by far one of my favourite events on the coast and such an incredible day out for the whole family.

I was back again doing a cooking presentation this year

and this time it was marigold biscuits and bliss balls

Get the super simple 4 ingredient only recipe HERE 

A home-made deliciously healthy box of chocolates!
Not only do I enjoy being a part of such a huge community event but I love to make a whole day of it too with my kids. I love an agricultural show and the Sunshine Coast pulls out all stops to put on a massive one! We were dazzled by dancing troupes, fashion parades, fabulous food, local produce displays, cooking entries, art entries, hibiscus flowers the size of dinner plates, face painting, animals, petting zoo and pony rides, hands on snake shows, snake cuddles, star chickens, horse jumping, wood chopping, motor bike stunts, car parades, fireworks and hours of fun on rides and sideshow alley.

 

If your anywhere from Brisbane to Bundaberg, and especially if you are on the Sunshine Coast like me put the dates 12  14 th June 2015 in your diary for this event next year! Honestly it is wonderful.

 My favourite part!

 BLACK raw honey!!

 Sunshine Coast Beekeepers

We went to the Ekka and the Sunshine Coast Show one year and compared the two big events and the result was the kids loved the Sunshine Coast Show better!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Sunshine Coast Show and their publicist Sandra Conte and my ingredient sponsors Jeffers Market and Nutworks.

Bek xx

Marigold Biscuits - Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Easy and Delicious

Marigold Biscuits

As a child my mother use to make calendula biscuits and there was something so enchanting about them, like they had come straight out of my favourite book, The Lord of The Rings.

As a horticulturalist I love combining gardening with cooking and these biscuits are so incredibly easy to make and marigolds are such a delight to grow, so I just love these biscuits. We always have marigolds on hand, of all different kinds, I just love their vibrant beauty and they are an important inclusion in our organic plantings for their ability to repel nematodes in the soil and many other garden pests.
Companion planting partners include eggplant, strawberry, leafy greens, tomatoes, potato, pumpkin, squash, chili's, capsicums but not too close to legume crops.
Marigolds grow easily with a nice compost rich soil, good drainage, plenty of sunshine and some regular liquid fertilizer like seasol. They grow very easy from seed and most nurseries have seedlings in punnets.

Ingredients

• 125 g butter
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar if you have sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 & 3/4 cup cup almond meal
• marigold petals, removed from flower, trim ends if needed, washed and let dry (about 4 flower heads)

Method

• Preheat oven to 160ç
• In a bowl combine the butter and sugar together, add in vanilla
• Mix in the almond meal and about half the marigold petals
• Roll the mixture into small balls - note - it should be fairly dry not too moist or the biscuits wil spread when you bake them, if it feels to moist add a little more almond meal
• Place the balls on a tray lined with baking paper, press each one down slightly and then press a few petals on top for a decorative look
• Bake the biscuits gently, they do not take that long so stay close by.
• Once they are gently browned on top and have a golden hue, around 12 minutes in my own take them out and let them cool on the tray or on a wire rack
• Enjoy!

Happy Cooking!
Bek XX

Eat beautiful - Live Well.
Recipe and photography (c) Rebecca Mugridge 2014

Chocolate Love - Sour Cherry Spelt Chocolate Biscuits

I love chocolate.
The trouble is it doesn't always love my waistline me back!
So while I keep my store bought chocolate to occasional treats I love to make home-made choccy goodies for me and my children, especially for my kids as I try to keep the chemicals in their life to a minimum.
These are our latest love...

Sour Cherry, Spelt Chocolate Biscuits

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup coconut oil ( I use Jt's Coconut Essence )
• 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup ( or raw honey or stevia - you can increase the amount to suit your personal sweet tastes, this worked well for our family, if you do increase it will change the mixture as it is a liquid so you will need to tweak accordingly )
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla paste
• 1 &1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour ( I got mine from coles )
• 1 & 1/2 cups of macadamia meal ( I use Nutworks ) 
• 1/4 cup sour cherries ( I used the Morello brand in a jar - but if you can find dried sour cherries ( I seem to have a lot of trouble on the Sunny Coast!) they would be lovely in this - just tweak the mixture if needed so it is not too dry)
• 2 tablespoon cacao ( if you want them super chocolately increase this)
• Tiny pinch Pink Himalayan Salt
• Optional > 1 tablespoon SuperFoodsForKids Choc Berry Chunk (because why not and it's yummy and organic!)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180'c
• Your coconut oil should be really soft or lightly melted, if it's not gently and on a low heat melt it to a pliable consistency.
• Combine coconut oil and rice malt syrup in a large bowl.
• Blend in the vanilla paste, cacao and salt.
• Mix through the spelt flour and macadamia meal mixing until it looks like a biscuit dough. (I would recommend tasting at this point to make sure it is sweet enough for your liking - if not add some more sweetener and then tweak the dry ingredients as needed.
• Drain well and then stir through the sour cherries. 
• Line baking trays with baking paper - (I use if you care - chemical free, ethical baking paper ) 
• Roll mixture into balls and arrange on baking trays.
• Press down the balls with a fork and if desired press in some sour cherry pieces and loose macadamia meal for decoration purposes.
• Bake for approximately 10 minutes depending on your oven. I would stay close and keep and eye on them.
• Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Toddler Tips

• I like to make really tiny ones for little hands.
• You can mix in some choc chips or cacao nibs if desired.

Notes

• To make these even more decadent, we dipped the bottoms of ours in homemade cacao chocolate. There are so many gorgeous home-made choccy recipe getting around on the internet, we have tried and tweaked many, some we liked, some we really didn't. We finally came up with this and love to use it:

Easy Cacao Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup cacao butter ( I got mine in a large container from Maleny IGA)
• 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup
• 3 tablespoon cacao
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• tiny pinch pink Himalayan salt

Method:

• Melt the cacao butter very gently on a low heat or as you would chocolate with double saucepans over boiling water. 
• Remove from heat and in a bowl mix the cacao butter and rice malt syrup, stir in the vanilla paste, cacao and salt, make sure it is well blended.
• Allow to cool a little but so it is still runny.
• Dip the bottoms of cooled biscuits into the chocolate, you may want to spread a little on as well. 
• Place the biscuits chocolate side up on a tray and place in the fridge to set.
• Keep the chocolate biscuits in a really air tight container in the fridge - if they last that long!

If your finding yourself in choccy love right about now - let me tempt you further into the wonderful world of healthier, alternative chocolate.

The absolutely incredible Natural New Age Mum - aka Sonia who is one of my absolute favourite bloggers and healthy lifestyle advocates of all time on all things living natural and healthy put together the most incredible post Healthy Home-Made Chocolate Bars

Yes many of your favourite chocolate bar indulgences in healthier, preservative free taste bud loving yum!
Isn't she gorgeous doing that!

And another of my favourite healthy living and food bloggers, who takes food pictures that literally make you drool, made these......

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites

To me I see these and a organic wine pot of herbal tea and Mr Darcy on TV would be a rather lovely night in .Visit her foodliscious blog HERE and check her out on Facebook too and say HI!

And of course I have lots of  chocclisciousness for you like:

Chocolate zucchini and chia seed cake

Beetroot and Yoghurt Chocolate Muffins (no added sugar)

No added sugar, fudgey, gluten free choccy cake

Raw energy date, pecan and macadamia slice
(no cook slice)

Chocolate macadamia ice-cream (easy)

You can also enter the word CHOCOLATE in the search this blog feature on the top right hand side of this blog and then scroll through, you will find LOTS, yes, I do have a bit of chocolate love going on!

Happy Cooking
Bek XXX

Kids in the Kitchen making Ginger Bread Men

Gingerbread Men!

To me the smell of gingerbread men cooking takes me back to my childhood and it is something I now love to do with my own kids too.

I love  GINGER and enjoy the smell of it in the kitchen so much. This is such a fun Kids in the Kitchen recipe, perfect for an indoor activity like on a rainy day or as a cooking learning activity, letting them measure and follow the recipe list, mix and time the cooking. You would be surprised at how much can be learnt during cooking and it is wrapped up in this fun thing to do together with delicious results!

These can be made treat like or healthy, it really is up to you and things like what you want to decorate them with.

Big fan of GINGER? 

Check out our family visit to the amazing Buderim Ginger Factory

And my GLUTEN FREE moorish, macadamia and ginger biscuits

Ingredients

• 125gms of butter, (soft)
• 1 free range egg separated
• 1/2 cup of fine organic brown sugar
• 2 &1/2 cups of organic plain flour ( can use whole meal but makes them a different consistency )
• 1 teaspoon bi carbonate of soda
• 3 teaspoons of fine ground ginger
• tiny pinch cinnamon
• tiny pinch nutmeg ( a little goes a long way! )
• 1/2 cup of golden syrup
• icing mixture
• Gingerbread people shape cutters
• Piping bag

Method:

• Pre heat oven to approximately 160`c fan forced
• Line flat baking trays with sheets of baking paper
• Mix butter, egg yolk, sugar together really well
• Add in the golden syrup and flour, ginger, bi carb, nutmeg, cinnamon and mix together into a soft dough, kneading well until its pliable and has changed in colour.
• Put covered in the fridge for 10 minutes to ‘rest’
• Roll out with a rolling pin on a well floured flat bench, if it’s too sticky you may need to add a little flour to the mixture.
• Cut out shapes and arrange on baking trays
• Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until just browned and remove and gently place on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled mix some egg white with some icing mixture until it is a thick consistency. Separate and add some food colouring to different amounts if desired.
• Decorate the gingerbread people with the firm icing.
• Allow a couple of minutes to set.

Notes:

• Add smiles, buttons and decorations by attaching choc chips, sultanas, cranberries, smarties, dried apple, dried apricot, carob nibs, organic cacao nibs, stevia chocolate chopped, dairy free chocolate chips, mini m&m’s, sprinkles etc with the icing - whatever you personally would like to use.
• You can make these using hard coconut sugar in place of golden syrup if desired (comes in a log) which you finely grate and I would dissolve in hot water which is a healthy alternative that still gives a caramel like flavour, it is not as sweet so you will need to taste test the mixture and also adjust liquids to get the right consistency, alternatively you could use dark, raw agave or even honey but the flavour will be different.
• Be very careful not to leave them in the oven too long as they will become hard. Remember biscuits continue cooking after they come out of the oven. If your not sure you can always try cooking one or two first before baking the whole batch to get the timing right as all ovens are a little different but 10 minutes is usually just right.
• Be creative with cutters and shapes. You can make people, houses, dogs and cats, shapes, numbers, stars. Great fun to make with kids.

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca xx

Recipes by Rebecca
This recipe and photograph is copyright to Rebecca Mugridge (c)2011 

If you want to use or share this or any of Rebecca's recipes - contact her for written permission first or share using the share features from this blog post to avoid copyright violation and to respect the author work and creative rights - thank you!

RECIPE - Moorish Macadamia Biscuits - Gluten Free

Moorish Macadamia Biscuits – Gluten Free

Using gorgeous local Nutworks Macadamia Paste these biscuits will be a hit in the school lunch box. They also have no added sugar and are high in protein.

Ingredients

·         ½ cup Nutworks Macadamia Paste

·         ½ cup butter

·         ½ cup sour cream

·         ¼ cup Natvia stevia powder (find me in the sugar aisle)

·         8 drops liquid vanilla stevia

·         1 cup unsalted macadamias, chopped

·         1 &1/2 cups Maleny IGA almond meal

·         1 &1/2 cups Maleny IGA brown rice flour

·         2 Rawganix free range eggs

·         ¼ cup Buderim Naked Ginger, chopped (optional)

·         ¼ cup white choc chips (optional see notes for alternative)

·         ¼ cup extra macadamias, and mixed choc chips and ginger (if using)  to top biscuits

Method

·         Preheat oven to 180`c.

·         In a bowl combine butter, stevia’s, and eggs with a hand mixer.

·         Mix in the sour cream.

·         Add in the almond meal, rice flour, baking powder; combine well before adding in macadamias and also choc chips and ginger if including them.

·         Roll mixture into balls in your hands and place on grease proof paper lined trays.

·         Top each biscuit with some extra macadamias and ginger and chocolate if using for a decorative finish.

·         Bake for around 8-10 minutes or until golden, keep an eye on them.

·         Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire racks.

·         Store in air tight containers.

Notes

·         Make a chocolate version by adding a tablespoon of Planet Organic cocoa powder and an extra tablespoon stevia (or to taste).

·         Make these completely sugar free by leaving out ginger and white choc chips and using 1 x 50g bar of sugar free chocolate like Sweet William, chopped up, available in store.

·         If you are gluten intolerant check the chocolate you use for gluten free.

·         Make them extra ginger flavoured by using the Nutworks Macadamia Paste with Ginger.

·         Use honey instead of stevia, to taste.

Toddler Tips

·         These are great for kids as they are high protein and no added refined sugar other than the chocolate and glace ginger which can be left out.

·         Make small ones for little hands.

·         A great recipe to bake together!

This recipe is from the Local Product Local Recipe - recipe cards, promoting local products and producers from the Sunshine Coast region. Collect the free recipe cards in store at the Maleny IGA.

Maleny IGA makes it easy for you to support locals.
*Maleny IGA has in-store local supplier & gluten free shelf labelling. 
*Online shopping  & home delivery across the sunshine coast with easy local supplier tags.
*Weekly local recipe card using local ingredients by local author Rebecca Mugridge available in-store & on our website.
*Regular local product demos & tastings.
*CBC Program - 2012 raised $144,000 for local  charities.

Maleny Supa IGA  •  26 Maple St, Maleny  •  Ph: 5494 2257  

Recipe & Food Image Photography ©RebeccaMugridge 2013

Allergy Free Snacking with Orgran Bears

Thanks to technology and a very forward thinking company you can now, not only buy delicious gluten and allergy free foods and snacks but you can even easily work out cooking gluten free with a new easy App!
My family recently trialled the Orgran gluten-free Itsy Bitsy Bears.
They are in a super cute bear shape (but the faces were a little unusual!Not that kids are really bothered by this sort of thing anyway - it's all about the taste right?)
 BUT what impressed my family about them was how safe they were. You would be able to offer these at pretty much any kids party, play group or playdate. With confidence...

My girls loved the Berry flavour the best, the biscuits have a really pleasant flavour due to the rice flour not dissimilar to short bread and at only 70 calories a serve are even a nice little treat for mum with a cup of tea too! ;)

"With food allergy cases increasing in numbers, children need not miss out on yummy and fun snacks thanks to Orgran Itsy Bitsy Bears.  These delicious sweet treats are free from gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, yeast, nuts and soy, making them a great lunchbox addition for kids who are vegan or suffer from allergies."

 “A child’s diet plays an important role in their development and is key to their well-being in later years,” says Matthew Alessi, the Orgran Marketing Manager.  “In today’s schools, it is especially important that food is pure from specific allergens and safe enough for children to share with their friends.”

Orgran Itsy Bitsy Bears are available in the health-food aisle of Coles, Woolworths/ Safeway, IGA, Foodworks, Franklins stores and at leading health-food stores.

RRP $3.75 for a 175g box in either Choc Berry or Choc Chip flavours.

For more information, please visit www.orgran.com

 Now how exciting is this! An App for Gluten Free!
I thought this was a wonderful idea and just had to share.

Make gluten-free cooking a breeze with Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App

People tired of buying pre-made gluten-free snacks, or looking for a change from their regular morning tea can now have a world of recipes at their fingertips for free, with the new Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App.

With over 300 recipes from Almond Biscotti to Zucchini Loaf, the free Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App allows for convenient searching of meals and snacks anytime, anywhere.  Simply select an Orgran ingredient (or two!) and whether the dish is to be sweet or savoury, and the recipes using that ingredient will be shown.

Gone are the days where hosts stress over catering for their friends with gluten intolerance's. With the Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App, hundreds of possible meal and snack recipes are at their disposal.

“The app is handy when shopping in the supermarket or even online,” says Matthew Alessi, the Orgran Marketing Manager. “Best of all, shoppers can save their preferred recipes in the ‘favourites’ section of the app, for easy access next time.”

 “The Orgran Gluten Free Foods App is compatible with iPhones and iPads,” says Matthew.  “We like to recommend cooks set up their iPad and the app on their recipe book stand, making cooking with the app incredibly easy.”

 All recipes are able to be viewed in both metric and imperial measurements, with each recipe structured into ‘Details’, ‘Ingredients’, ‘Method’, and ‘Tips’.  The sleek design of the Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App allows for easy use with tantalising images of the final product, which can be shared with family and friends on social media.

The Orgran Gluten Free Foods Recipe App is free to download from iTunes.

For more information, please visit www.orgran.com