This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in Auckland...and I did absolutely nothing. Sunday was the greatest. We decided to stay in and I tried my hand at baking some gluten free, dairy free, vegan muffins. My guy was a little skeptical at first, what with my declarations of "no eggs or milk are needed!" he even got himself a greasy french croissant from the french creperie as a back up plan while out getting me some hot chocolate, just in case the muffins turned out to, as he said, "taste gluten-free." What does that even mean? Gluten-free food gets a bad rap. It can actually be quite good and even if you dont have a celiac disease or a gluten/wheat intolerance, you should try to limit the amount of gluten in your diet. Don't believe me? Cut out gluten from your diet for one month and see how you feel. After one month, re-introduce gluten in to your diet, even just by having a beer, and take note of the effects gluten has on your body. To read about the negative effects gluten has on the human body and why you should re-consider its presence in your life please take a look at this article:
http://home.earthlink.net/~loveguru/grainbad.htm
Also, feel free to do some of your own research as well as experiment with a gluten-free diet for a couple of weeks. Everyone's body is different, but in terms of gluten, I would highly recommend cutting back. That being said, although my guy doesn't have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance (that he is aware of at least) I am trying to help him down the road to a gluten free lifestyle, if only because it also makes my life easier since we live together and share a kitchen. Since moving in with each other I make soups with gluten free noodles, I buy gluten free bread, and I make gluten free muffins. The other day while we were eating some delish chicken noodle soup, he had no idea the noodles were even gluten free and absolutely loved them! They were a blend of corn and rice, which have a really great taste and perfect texture. The muffins turned out to be equally as yummy! As you can see from the photos, documentation proves delicious and nutritious!
The muffins are Vegan Morning Glory muffins and I used a recipe I found online, but I tweaked it a little bit; I gave it some Jax power! I find there are a lot of recipes online, especially for muffins, but they are not necessarily so great. You really have to experiment in the kitchen to find out what your taste buds will appreciate. After this batch of muffins I tried to make a chocolate banana vegan muffin and it was SO bad, we had to throw them all out :(
So, practice makes perfect! For dinner, we were going to make polenta pizza but I was so tired from baking so many muffins that we decided to go easier and make a big salad. My guy, being as sweet as he is, also decided to make Kumara fries. They were AMAZING. As you can see in the photo, Kumara is another word for sweet potato fries. His recipe is so easy to follow too! Anyone can do it :) These were perfect and crispy and went great with the salad!
My man's Kumara fries...
What you need:
3 large Kumaras (sweet potatoes)
4 TBS olive oil/sunflower oil (TIP!: sunflower oil has a higher cooking point than olive oil, so to avoid nasty carcinogens I recommend using either sunflower, coconut, canola, or sesame oil for cooking)
2 tsp cinammon (to bring out the flavor)
as much salt and pepper as you like (I love using Himalayan salt, it gives the best flavor to all foods and is the best salt for you!)
1 tsp paprika
Wash and peel the kumaras. Slice from the top to make "fries." Put these pieces in to a ziplock bag or large bowl. Toss with oil, salt, pepper paprika, and cinnamon.
Bake these at 220C/425F for about 20 mins. Flip at 10 mins. Grill another 5-10 minutes to make them crispy on the top! This will give them blackened edges and make it soooo good! Everyone's oven is different so cooking times and temperatures may vary, it also depends on the vegetable itself.
I will be talking about my muffin recipe(s) very soon! Until then here is the original link I used to make the muffins, but like I said, I changed some things and I added some things and etc. etc.
http://thejuma.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/vegan-morning-glory-muffins/
Overall, its a great recipe!
This weekend I also got to FINALLY see (its been a long time coming) the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It was SO great and I really loved the music, the story, the characters, and the dancing! I really don't know very much about Indian culture or how life is in the cities of India like Bombay or Mumbai. That being said, I would love to learn more and I was really interested in the parts of the movie that showed how people really live there. The movie was bittersweet and so it was also really sad in some parts. It's true that all over the world, people are struggling every day and doing anything they can to just simply survive. It really makes you think a lot about what is truly important in your life, what you can and can't live without, and what you take for granted.
I am off to grill some fish! I got snapper from the market and I am trying a simple recipe. Also, learning about the importance of Beetroot in ones diet! Its VERY exciting and I will tell you all about it very soon :) xJ
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