Category: Recipies

Apple Sauce

18/4/2015

I looooove apple sauce. It's delicious by itself, on breakfasts, with yogurt, served beside cakes slices, on pork chops and for babies. I used it as a tomato sauce substitute and my kids are happy to have it on their porridge instead of table sugar. Best of all, if you know someone with a cooking apple tree, it's virtually free. It really is easy to make. I'll show you how.

Get a bucket of cooking apples - you can use eating varieties but the sourness of cooking apples turns into a rich, sweet yumminess when cooked. Eating apples will do but the taste is more bland when cooked. Give the apples a quick wash and cut the core and any icky bits out. Don't skin them - your apple sauce will have more than twice the fibre with skins included than without. And who can be bothered peeling apples anyway?

Pop the apple pieces in a big pot with enough water so that the bits on the bottom don't burn. Cook over medium heat. Stir occasionally, if they are starting to stick and burn add a little more water, turn the heat down and stir more often.

Cook until they get to this consistency - mushy all the way through with no hard bits.

Use a stick blender to puree the whole lot in the pot. Add a little salt and a little cinnamon. In this case with a big pot full I used about half a teaspoon of salt and maybe a teaspoon of cinnamon. Keep tasting it to figure out how much - we want just enough salt and cinnamon to enhance the apple flavour, not to make it taste salty or cinnamony.

Bottling the apple sauce is the nicest way to store and serve it. Use ordinary glass jars with metal lids. Sterilise the jars by filling 1/4 full with water and cook them in the microwave until the water boils, about 10 mins for 10 or so jars. Boil the metal lids in a pot in shallow water. Just ladle the hot apple sauce into the hot jars (tip the water out first!) and screw the tops on tight. They'll keep in the pantry for months, probably years, but I haven't had any last that long without being eaten! The Moccona jar at the front is an experiment to see if it seals properly, it appears that it has.

A lazier way of storing it is to spoon the apple sauce into zip-lock bags and keep in the freezer. Either way, it's delicious.

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The Perfect Protein Pancake

25/2/2015

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After months of trial, error, success and documentation, I bring you my very own Perfect Protein Pancake recipe. This pancake has a light and fluffy texture, holds together like a traditional pancake and tastes yumm-o.

The texture is the tricky bit with high-protein pancakes. My Perfect Protein Pancakes don't have that rubbery texture and cardboard taste you may have experienced when trying to make protein pancakes. (Believe me, I've had a few like that while working this one out!) If you choose your protein powder, baking powder and oil accordingly, it can be gluten-free and paleo too.

One serve has 29 grams of protein, 11 grams of fat and only 5 grams of carbohydrates, so you can put all sorts of delicious toppings on and still have a balanced, nutritious breakfast, ready for whatever badass mission you're on today.

Ingredients:
2 whole eggs
1 egg white
1/2 large scoop (about 15g) protein powder of your choice
1 tsp psyllium husk*
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp water
Oil for cooking

*Psyllium husk is available from supermarkets in the baking section. It's full on fibre so you may want to start with 1/2 tsp if you're not used to it. It's useful in this recipe as a binder to hold the pancake together, as well as being more valuable fibre in your diet. If you would rather not use psyllium husk, substitute 2tsp of wheat flour or rice flour. The Wikipedia on psyllium husk here.

Method:

1. Break eggs into a jug and whisk. I use two whole eggs plus one white, you can use more or less yolks according to your fat/protein requirements without affecting the perfectness of the pancake.

2. Measure the protein powder, psyllium husk, baking powder and salt into a separate container. A coffee mug works great. Add just enough water (2-3tbls) to mix it into a sloppy texture. Small lumps are ok. Don't leave it standing as the psyllium husk will form a gel.

3. Add the protein powder mixture into the egg and whisk briefly. Apply tiny bit of oil to your frying pan (I do a very short spray of cooking oil) and set it on medium heat. Pour in all the pancake mixture, no need to wait for the pan to heat up.

4. Turn the pancake when the top surface is almost no longer runny. The bottom should be a toasty brown. Remove from pan and straight to your plate about 30 seconds after turning.

5. Enjoy! I love my Perfect Protein Pancakes with a generous dollop of unsweetended yogurt, blueberries and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bonus Tips:
• Time saver: measure multiple amounts of the dry ingredients into a lidded container and keep in the pantry with a spare scoop (pictured right), then you can just measure out a half scoop each time.
• Be sure to rinse out the mugs/bowls used for mixing straight afterwards, because if the mixture dries on you'll have some scrubbing to do!

Other Topping Ideas:
Chopped fresh fruit: apricots, cherries, pear, melon, pineapple, peach, mango etc
banana with cinnamon
cottage cheese
apple sauce
heated and mashed frozen berries
bacon
sweet potato
cream
mashed pumpkin
peanut or other nut butter

Nutritional Info:
This is as made using ingredients list above, without toppings. The protein powder used here is MusclePharm's Combat protein powder, banana cream.

Energy: 1004kj / 240cal
Protein: 29g
Fat: 11g
Total carbohydrates: 5g
Dietary fibre 3g
Sugars 2g

Have you got a go-to recipe for pancakes, high-protein or otherwise? What are your favourite toppings?
Have you tired this recipe out? What do you think?
Leave a comment, I'd love to know how it went for you!

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Apple Sauce

The Perfect Protein Pancake

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