bookshoplaura

Before I begin, here's a quick disclaimer. The bread is not magic and the recipe is probably not a secret. For all I know it or some version of it has been shared multiple times on healthy eating blogs and I just haven't seen it but it's new to me and I for one am very very excited by it. I like bread, I like it a whole lot but bread unfortunately doesn't appear to like me a lot. This is something I've wrestled with a lot since discovering I'm gluten intolerant. By wrestled with I mean I have resisted the lure of regular bread but occasionally indulged in spelt and sourdough, over the years, and then suffered the consequences. I've also tried many a gluten free bread but they are usually over processed and some what tasteless.  I have also tried to plan my meals without bread but I do end up missing it after a few days.  Then recently in work someone was passing around this lovely brown bread that I just had to try for myself. So here goes. The ingred...

The weird thing about healthier eating is some of the recipes people pass on to you. They sound implausible at best and disgusting at worst. The trouble is that even though I want to eat better and look better as a result I hate the feeling that I can't have any treats. I don't know why that concept is fundamentally so important to me but it is and so I spend much of my free time looking for better ways to treat myself. Then I usually follow that up by eating way too much of the healthier treat and being forced to take a break for a while. I recently learned how to make my own protein fudge and since discovered its a lot more calorific (mostly good calories but still) that I had thought, mostly because I was too busy scoffing it and feeling good about myself for eating so healthily. Its made up of almond butter, coconut oil, vanilla rice protein, cacao powder, rice syrup and pecan nuts so it shouldn't be too surprising that combining lots of good fats makes for fairly fa...

Some people only eat pancakes on special occasions like pancake Tuesday and it wasn't that long ago that I was one of those people . When I had to give up wheat I put pancakes on the long list of yummy things Laura can no longer eat until last year when I started baking and experimenting and I decided enough was enough, I was going to learn to make some pancakes.  my first attempt was an epic disaster. I used almond flour on its own ( it's essentially ground almonds so a flour in name only) and far too much coconut sugar and ended up with this sickly sweet brown gloop that refused to fry and wasn't recognizable as any sort of pancake I've ever seen and then I found a recipe that worked but was later forced to abandon it when I realised I was inadvertently using a flour that contained gluten( Silly Laura). For a good while then I just gave them up and lived a miserable pancake free existence.  This was probably set to go on forever but then I started making spelt ( ...

I'm pretty clever so I adapted one of the few recipes I can use into a birthday cake. Okay , well admittedly I had the idea but a friend of mine had done this recently ( after I had suggested it ) and I based the changes upon her very sucessful cake .  So to make this you will need grease proof paper , large mixing bowl , wooden spoon , two 8" cake tins and a hand mixer . Ingredients  Cake :  9oz butter 8 tbl coconut sugar  8 eggs  6 oz almond flour  6 oz gluten free flour ( I used buckwheat)  1 heaped tbl baking powder  Topping  6-7 tbl coconut oil 6-7 tbl cocoa powder  A good dollop of rice syrup  Rock salt  Chopped pecan nuts  1. Leave butter out to soften and then beat With hand mixer until creamy and then add sugar and beat some more. 2. When sugar and butter are well mixed, add eggs one by one and beat With hand mixer. 3. In a separate bowl mix the two flours with t...

Anyone who has read even two random blog posts of mine is probably well aware of my dilemma. The well established fact that sugar is not my friend and the also well known reality that I continue to return to it like some shitty ex boyfriend I can't quite let go of. The current situation is that I'm off sugar almost a week now and I'm doing okay, I haven't eaten a sneaky bit so far. I did have a dream last night where I accidentally ate some (as you do) and I did feel bad upon waking but I don't believe that really counts. For the most part I am doing okay but that is probably because I chose to forget that coconut sugar is still sugar and was baking away to my hearts content until I was forced to acknowledge the undeniable truth that I was both putting up weight and feeling sick from the coconut sugar. The main thing is that I get myself to the two week mark without breaking and I'll be back on the straight and narrow and can work on not eating all the food a...

Last night I went to the afters of a christening With the boyfriend. It was a good night and I behaved in a very grown up fashion, having 4 glasses of wine over a number of hours. Pacing myself , if you will. My mother would almost have approved. Anyway despite my good behaviour I woke this morning with a mouth that tasted like sock, a nauseous feeling in my stomach, my head was pounding and I was in terrible form. Not to mention the fact that I had an atrocious case of the dumb, a complete inability to form coherent sentences and an overwhelming urge to eat all the food.  So I lazed about and snacked a lot including crackers , buns and pancakes yum. I also managed to make two types of cookies for my friends birthday tomorrow and in an even more impressive feat, managed to not eat them all.  Probably not my most productive day ever but considering how I felt all day, I didn't do too badly. I promised a friend of mine I'd help her bake a cake . it turned out smaller...

Today I actually baked myself into a good mood. Yes, I know that's not the normal reaction to feeling blue particularly given that I will have to give away  most of the stuff I've baked. Yup I can't eat the absolutely delicious looking cookies I've made because of how the coconut sugar does bad things to my stomach. Not that I'd normally let that stop me but new leaf and sugar free diet and all that malarky. I'm really trying to be good this time so instead of nomming all the noms I give them away quickly (the quicker the better) and try to live vicariously through the people eating them or all the praise they lavish me with for giving them free yummy things. In case you are wondering today's offerings include Oat cookies plain and covered in melted chocolate and gluten free buns. I shall include the recipes at the end because I'm sound like that. Fortunately I can actually eat the buns so you wont find me crying to myself as a I nibble on cu...

I do believe I said I would be baking this weekend and I guess when I commit to an idea I really commit because since last night I have made pancakes, French toast, bacon and egg muffins, baby cheese scones, almond brittle, almond chocolate sweets and I'm making buns later. Yea I know, I'm like a 1950's housewife or so I told myself as I brought food into himself and the house-mate as they watched a match and I returned to the kitchen to finish baking. Not that I would have voluntarily watched a match given half the chance. I like baking and preparing food especially when I get to play around a bit with a recipe and I get a great sense of satisfaction whenever I pull it off but unfortunately not every recipe is the success I am hoping for. As it happens I am reasonably competent cook and when I can follow the recipe to the letter ( yes, I like my recipes precise) then I am usually fine. It turns out pretty much like it looked in the picture and everyone agrees that...

Say what you want about my dietary restrictions because I think they are turning out to be a great thing for me. Previously I was fat (two or three years ago) and unbelievably picky about what I ate whereas as now I'm a lot slimmer, feel much better and I'm actually starting to experiment with food. Mostly because necessity has forced me to. Clearly someone doesn't want me to starve. Who would have thought I would have been trying new foods just like a regular person, not me that's for damn sure. Anyway in the spirit of experimenting, I made some changes to an omelette recipe and it turned out so damn good I have renamed it a nomelette. I may have also called it legendary but that's just conjecture at this point in time. I used to only make omelettes with just eggs and cheddar until I had to give up cheese and then I was forced to improvise. Now cheese is so very delicious that I am seeing how I get on only eating small bits of it and so far my tummy hasn't ...

As someone who is back eating healthy for all of a day and a bit (the first half of yesterday was not my biggest success), I feel well equipped on how to advise others to do the same. Okay well maybe I don't but you're going to hear what I like about it all the same.  Obviously I like bad food because its forbidden and often delicious. That's all well and good but sadly the fact that most of it is very fattening is actually the least of my worries. All of the things I really want but can't have also make me feel really ill but yes I still struggle to kick it out of my diet because that's the sort of crazy fool I am.  Yesterday, after regretfully purchasing and consuming a coconut slice ( a healthfood store confectionary item made from vast amounts of agave syrup, raw cocoa, desiccated coconut and coconut oil) and oh boy did I suffer for it later so I did some dietary penance by going home and making a weeks worth of soup. No more making salads every evening bef...

I don't know if these are a thing that anyone outside my family eats these but I used to eat them as a kid and in a bid to reintroduce more protein in my diet ( I'm non fish eating vegetarian ) I've given them another go. I've recently discovered the joys of rice pasta but if you're not wheat intolerant you can also just use regular pasta. What you need - makes two burgers -2 eggs - half a cup ( dry) rice pasta - low fat grated cheese ( about 1/4 block) - pinch of salt Add a pinch of salt to a saucepan 1/2 filled With water and bring to the boil. Add the rice pasta to boiling water and then reduce to a low heat. Cook until pasta is soft ( should take less than 5 mins) then drain pasta. Break two eggs and beat them until mixed throughly. Grate the cheese and mix with the egg and then add pasta to the mixture . Stir with a fork to ensure Its fully blended Turn on a hob to a medium heat and put a frying Pan with a small amount of oil on it. Allow to heat ...

Since I went off sugar I've become borderline addicted to Natasha's coconut slices (see below In tin foil) but at €4 a pop it's a pricey habit to have so I'm finally after getting a recipe to Make them. see Photo below. I know they don't look like much but they smell good -wont get to taste test until later. To make them you will need Coconut oil Cocoa powder ( green and blacks do a nice organic one ) Dark agave syrup Salt Desiccated coconut this recipe should make around 8 coconut slices. add 6 table spoons of coconut oil to a saucepan on a low heat Then add roughly the same amount of cocoa powder ( I went with 5 table spoons) and mix that With the melted coconut oil. Add a pinch of salt and a good squirt of Agave syrup Then slowly add the desiccated coconut to the saucepan until the mixture starts to look a little crumbly. Or as my sister says stop before it gets too white :) Then spread the mixture into a baking tray and let it cool, leave it in t...