30 days doing an auto immune protocol diet

I'm on day 4 of a 30 day auto immune protocol diet to help improve my thyroid and I thought I would do this post as I wont be baking any sugary treats for a while, or eating grains, dairy, nuts, beans or nightshades. Instead i'm eating lots of vegetables and have adapted quite well to the intake of grass fed meats. I'm also getting in a fair amount of sauerkraut and kombucha which i'm loving. The cookbook that i'm taking direction from is written by Mickey Trescott and you can buy the ebook here it has a great description on what foods to eat and which ones to avoid.
I also thought I would share where I have been getting the Kombucha from, I stumbled across it in olive health foods and Im totally hooked and seriously impressed with this Melbourne based company Remedy Kombucha

Chocolate Sticky date cake

3¾ cups (600g) coarsely chopped dates
3 cups (750ml) water
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
180g butter, softened
2¼ cups (450g) firmly packed brown sugar
6 eggs, beaten lightly
3 cups (450g) self-raising flour
½ cup (60g) coarsely chopped walnuts
½ cup (60g) coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup cocoa powder 

Butterscotch sauce
2 cups (400g) firmly packed brown sugar
600ml thickened cream
375g butter, chopped coarsely

NOTE: This recipe can be made two days ahead. Close to serving, wrap cake in foil and warm through in a moderately slow oven for approximately 20 minutes, or microwave individual servings.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C/160°C fan-forced). Grease a 25cm x 35cm rectangular baking dish. Line base and sides with baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above edges of dish.

Combine dates and water in a medium saucepan; bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add soda; stand for 5 minutes. Blend or process until smooth.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined between each addition. Stir in the sifted flour and date mixture spread into prepared pan; sprinkle evenly with the nuts. Bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hour or until cooked when tested. Stand cake for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.

For the butterscotch sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Simmer, stirring, for 3 minutes.

Brush surface of hot cake with ¼ cup of butterscotch sauce, then serve with remaining sauce.

Suitable to freeze. Butterscotch sauce suitable to microwave.

Enjoy 

Lemon Syrup Cake

Its been ages since I have baked and today was such a lovely day in my kitchen. The sun was beaming through the window and it reminded me how much I do really enjoy being in the kitchen baking. The lemons are in season and I had a few to use up, you will use about 5 small lemons for this recipe. For the buttermilk I used 1 cup of soy milk with a tbs of lemon juice. You can use other milks to create buttermilk such as Almond etc.  For this cake you will need the following. 

Ingredients

250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

2 cups self-raising flour

Lemon Syrup
1/3 cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
¾ cup caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to moderate (180C). Cream the butter and sugar, add lemon rind and then beat in eggs one at a time.

2. Gently fold in buttermilk and flour.

3. Bake for 45 mins, or until cooked. You may want to cover cake with foil if it starts to brown too much on top. 

4. To make lemon syrup, combine lemon juice, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 mins and pour over the warm cooked cake.

Juices & Smoothies

I've been drinking a lot of juices and smoothies lately. I find it's the easiest and quickest way to get a high volume of nutrients. I start my day with either a green juice or fruit smoothie, I add superfood powders and sometimes natural sugars. Most of these can be found in a health food store or chemist warehouse. Below is a bunch of photos of my morning smoothies. The ingredients are listed and adjust amounts according to taste and size of blender. 

Banana & Raspberry muffins

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of plain flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup raspberries fresh or frozen


Pre heat oven to 160.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl add milk and coconut oil. Mix wet ingredients into the dry. Then mix through mashed banana and raspberries. Spoon into greased muffin tin and bake for approx 20 minutes.
Enjoy.

Breakfast Smoothie

This smoothie recipe contains just 3 simple ingredients, almond milk, dates and banana. 

2 cups of Almond Milk 

15 Dates chopped

2 Bananas 

I just put all ingredients in the blender and blended for approx 2 minutes. I had some frozen banana in freezer so added one fresh and one frozen to get the smoothie chilled. Otherwise you could use ice to chill it a bit. I put oats/nuts on top when serving. 

Green Smoothie

I was beyond excited when Tracy bought a Vitamix this week and she was happy to have me bring a bag full of fruit and vegetables to her house to play with this high powered blender. I did a bit of reading to try and find the best recipes as this surely could taste very bad if done wrong. Most people encourage 2cups green such as Kale, spinach etc, 2cups liquid such as water, coconut water or milk and 3cups fruit. You can also put powdered super foods in for that extra boost of nutrients. At the moment if been researching foods for fertility and have come across Maca. Maca supports hormonal balance and contains 31 different minerals including being a great source of iron. It also helps with mood regulation by improving serotonin levels. I'm keen to give it a go. 

 I hope to post other smoothie recipes here in the future. 

Green smoothie recipe

1 cup Spinach 

2cups water 

1 banana 

2 oranges 

2 pears

Slice of lime

1 teaspoon Maca 

Ice 

Put all ingredients in blender in this order blend on high for approx 1 minute or until smooth. Pour into glass and sprinkle with Chia seeds. Enjoy x

Auction time

I've only just started to get into auctions and now I'm totally obsessed. The thrill of the biding can be quite overwhelming as you make a quick decision to bid higher or stop. This auction was huge it was one persons life collection and they had great taste. It was a pleasure to be amongst it and hear the regulars talk about this man and what he was like. These are the pieces that Melissa and I liked and the pieces we won. 

Quinoa double chocolate & cashew cookies

Makes approx 12 

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

3/4 cup brown sugar 

2 eggs 

1 1/4 cup quinoa flour 

1/3 cup cocao powder 

1 tsp baking soda 

1/4 tsp salt 

1 cup chocolate chips 

1/2 cup raw cashews, chopped 

Preheat oven to 190c 

Cream the butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg one at a time beat till well combined. In another bowl add dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined. Stir in choc chips and cashews. Roll dough into small balls and press flat on greased baking tray. Bake for approx 8-10 minutes. Then allow to cool on rack. 

-you can add any nuts that you like or take them out 

Enjoy 

Peanut butter chia cookies

I just bought a new cookbook The Quinoa Revolution and I'm totally hooked on Quinoa. I'm sure the girls at work are totally over hearing about which Quinoa salad I have for lunch. This recipe uses Quinoa flour. It's the first time that I have used this flour and it works very well, the cookies are light and fluffy.

You will need 

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 egg 

1tsp vanilla extract 

1 cup quinoa flour 

3/4 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp baking powder 

2tsp chia seeds 

1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts 

Preheat oven 190c put baking paper on tray. 

In mixing bowl add peanut butter, sugar, egg, butter and vanilla mix till combined. 

In medium bowl add flour, baking powder& soda, stir in chia seeds and peanuts. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix well. Scoop dough into balls and place on tray making sure they are 5cms apart. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Allow to sit on tray for 4 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool 

Enjoy 

The Belling 900

The new oven is finally installed and it looks amazing. Our old oven was original to the house and that was lovely too. The only issues were it was too small and the grill didnt work, neither did the door, we used a wooden spoon to keep the door closed. After many trips to electrical stores and many conversations with different staff. We decided on the Belling 900, the Smeg was just way out of our price range. The Belling has gas cook tops and electric oven, it is very large and came in an assortment of bright colours, we chose cream. I am looking forward to baking many loafs of bread and lots of sugary treats.