Christmas Berry Trifles with Orange Custard (Sugar-free and Paleo)

I love Christmas, and my enthusiasm has been further invigorated by having a three-year old who wakes up every morning and asks; ‘Is Santa coming TODAY?’ For me, Christmas is mostly all about the food. In the past this has meant indulging in a lot of over-processed sweets, so I’m genuinely excited about my first sugar-free, real food Christmas. A Christmas about good food with lots of flavour.

This Christmas is all the more exciting because my husband will be home – as a shift-worker in emergency services he’s worked every Christmas since we had our first son. Mr 3 is right at that age where he is very caught up in the magic of it all, and it’s our littlest baby’s first Christmas too – so I’m very happy that their dad will be home to enjoy it!

I made these individual trifles to have when my Mum came over for lunch, on the day we put up the Christmas tree. I always have a very romantic notion of ‘putting up the Christmas tree’, and the reality is always far more chaotic, with this year being no exception. But these trifles are fructose-friendly, and by happy coincidence also grain, gluten and dairy-free, so they are also suitable for those living a paleo lifestyle. They are also very adaptable, so take or leave or change whichever layers you want to! 🙂 For vegetarians, the jelly could possibly be substituted with a berry chia pudding – noting that I haven’t tried this. Continue reading →

A Cherry Berry Ripe Smoothie

Market research in 2013 found that Cadbury’s Cherry Ripe, Australia’s oldest chocolate bar, was also the country’s most popular choice, even ahead of the classic dairy-milk bar. Although my chocolate bars of choice tended towards Snickers and Twix, I’d always been a bit partial to Cherry Ripe too, as a fan of dark chocolate. But it tastes too sweet for me now. And the sugar content? More than six teaspoons of sugar in one bar.

This smoothie takes the core flavours of the popular treat – berries, coconut and chocolate – and smoothifies it to be much more fructose-friendly. It is also dairy-free. Continue reading →

Gelatinous Gut Goodness – Dinosaur Chews

I’ve always shied away from using powdered gelatin in recipes, possibly due to years of watching Masterchef competitors screw up panna cottas. If they couldn’t get it right, surely I wouldn’t be able to!

I am aware of the health benefits of gelatin, and have been making my own chicken bone broth for some months, which is much cheaper than buying packaged chicken stock. I take a particular pride in achieving a golden ‘gel’ on the top of my ten-hour broth. Georgia at Well Nourished has provided an excellent overview of the benefits of bone broth and a recipe. She also provides ideas on how to use bone broth every day. In my experience, you don’t need to use a freshly cooked chicken carcass and bones. When we roast a whole organic chicken, or bake a batch of chicken wings, I save and freeze all the bones in giant ziplock bags. First thing on stock day, I simply dump the frozen bones into my massive stock pot, along with the frozen vegetable odds and ends that I’ve saved along the way (carrot peel, celery ends, onion and garlic peel, herbs). Georgia suggests using apple cider vinegar, which helps to extract the gelatin from the bones.

Powdered gelatin, however, has never been on the menu, until I came across this recent article by Sarah Wilson and her recipe for coffee almond gummy squares. I have been wanting to make a healthy ‘lolly’ for my kids, so I used Sarah’s easy method to make gelatin chews in chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours. In dinosaur moulds, of course. Continue reading →