Healthy Food favourites!

For those of you that don't already know i am coeliac and this means that finding alternatives for yummy food can be hard sometimes, and always more expensive(but that's not changing) and therefore although these are gluten free i thought i would share them with you as they are very healthy and also extremely tasty, in my opinion!

Firstly, ever since i have been diagnosed with being coeliac i have loved the 'Nakd' range- these are fruit/nut bars that use different natural ingredients to recreate classic favourites such as Chocolate orange and Strawberry shortbread using things such as dates and cocoa! My most recent favourite is the Bake well tart flavoured bar- it's made with Dates, Cashews and Raisins and to me it tastes just like a Bake well tart!

Something that i have been loving the last week or so is Quinoa crisps, they're such a good, healthy alternative to normal potato crisps as they have a much lower fat and salt content! I think that they are such a good, tasty snack and they come in some really nice flavours such as Sour cream and onion and Sun dried tomato and roasted garlic!

Another snack by 'Nakd', these Cocoa and Orange bites are so yummy and are great to turn to if you feel like something sweet but don't want to indulge in some Chocolate! I was very impressed with the flavours and texture of these and will definitely be picking up some more for my lunches at school!

Finally although it can't really be categorised as a food itself i have really been enjoying using flax seed in my smoothies and also mixed in to my breakfast cereals, it isn't really great for its flavours; it doesn't really have any, however it is very beneficial to your health and also a great thickener.

I have mentioned it before but i really do love it- it's a great source of Magnesium, Iron, Protein and Zinc!

That's all for today's post- I hope you have all had a good weekend and spoilt your mothers in some way this weekend!

Pumpkin and cinnamon squares!

I know it's a tad late as halloweens more or less been and gone, however I used this recipe tonight and I had to share it!

Firstly we need pumpkin so I scooped out the insides of the pumpkin and whilst I did that I couldn't resist to carve a face in the pumpkin! 

I then got all my other ingredients ready, weighing them out accordingly, for this recipe you will need:

4 eggs, beaten

15 ounces of pumpkin, or an alternative fruit such as oranges

1 1/3 cups of sugar 

1 cup of vegetable oil 

2 cups of flour/ gluten free flower in my case 

2 teaspoons of baking powder 

1 teaspoon of baking soda 

2 teaspoons of cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg/ ginger 

1 teaspoon of salt

For the cream cheese icing:

300g of icing sugar 

50g of unsalted butter 

125g cream cheese 

To start with i blitzed the pumpkin in the nutribullet creating a purée suitable for the cake mixture.

Then I preheated the oven to 200 degrees, find a tin and put it aside.

After I beat the eggs with the pumpkin, sugar and oil until it was well blended.

To follow I sived and added the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl.

I then added these two mixtures together and poured it into a brownie tin, placing it in the oven for roughly 30 minutes, or until you can stab it with a fork without mixture coming out on it. 

After it was ready I left it to cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes. Before icing it with the previously made cream cheese icing. 

These were appreciated by everyone  in my house and I personally liked them! Although I made these for Halloween I would definitely make them again and I recommend the recipe! 

I hope everyone has had a nice Halloween and also half term.

That's all for today, Lauryn x