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I've changed my life around and now I am enjoying The Lighter Life. I love cooking and especially baking lovely desserts, but I wanna stay away from little no-no's like too much sugar and fat. I live in Belgium where the 'low-carb and low-fat movement' is just starting to begin so I found myself looking for recipes with easy to find ingredients and metric cooking measurements. Since they were hard to find, I decided to make my own! My desserts may never win beauty contests, for baking with bio ingredients will mostly give you flat cakes and pies. But lord will they win over your taste buds and still have you fitting into your skinny jeans. I invite you all to try out some recipes, adapt a couple where you see fit and above all, learn to enjoy the lovely taste of freshly baked, healthy goods.
Posts tonen met het label sweetner. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label sweetner. Alle posts tonen

zaterdag 22 juni 2013

Straw- and blueberry buckwheat muffins

No muss, no fuss, just easily made stuff! I bring you a healthy muffin you can whip up in about 20 minutes...and that's counting baking time.

This will be my second recipe with buckwheat after the first one went down so great. My scones were great, and these muffins might even be better!

Browsing through the ingredients, you might notice I didn't use any...let me repeat, ANY butter. I wanted to make a muffin very low in fat so I wouldn't have to feel bad when I wanted a second one...or third...or basically finish the entire batch in 1 day. Yes...I can't control myself from time to time.

Because these babies hold no fat, they are dense and won't come out of paper muffin cups very easily. Therefor I would suggest you make these in silicone cups which you can lightly coat in vegetable oil.

Eat it with a dollop of Greek yogurt or with some agave sirup drizzles over it or just be lazy and eat it like it is, you won't be disappointed either way.

Ingredients:

200gr buckwheat flour
2 eggs
150 ml low fat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp liquid sweetner
3 tbsp flax seeds 60 gr strawberries
60 gr blueberries

Way to do it:

  1. In a bowl, mix all ingredients apart from the fruit. Mix until everything is combined. It will be a thick, glue like batter.
  2. To easily remove the crown of a strawberry, use a straw, it's such a great trick. Cut up the strawberry in pieces and add, with the blueberry, to the mix. Be careful not to smash the fruit as you mix the batter. I would suggest folding them in with a spoon.
  3. Divide over your cups. It's okay to fill them up. The batter doesn't rise much.
  4. Bake for 15minutes in a 200degrees oven.
  5.  
    I love how the strawberry and blueberry make for different colors. So cute and colorful and full of flavour!

    Enjoy
    xx

zaterdag 15 juni 2013

My version of a classical French Yogurt cake

Hello everyone, summer has arrived...oh yes it has! Pretty soon I'll be using this season's best fruit to make light and healthy desserts, but first a twist on the classical French Yogurt cake.

What's the twist you ask? Well, alcohol and soy yogurt. I like yogurt...but there's something about the plain yogurt Alpro soya makes that's just amazing. It has a gentle taste, very few fat and low sugar so all in all, it's pretty great. Healthy and tasty, that's what we're going for here.


Just like all my other recipes, this is so easy, a child could do it. The cake itself might look boring and simple, but trust me, this lovely thing will delight both your and your family's taste buds.

As I'm typing this, I'm starting to smell the batter turning into something amazing in the oven...so let's get on with the recipe.

 

Ingredients:

2 portions of 125ml plain yogurt (I used alpro soya)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp Amaretto
2 cups op 125ml almond flour
liquid sweetner

About 10 crushed cookies (I used speculoos)

Way to do it:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180degrees C and line the bottom of a round, spring-form cake tin with bakingpaper. Grease the sides with vegetable oil.
  2. In a bowl mix yogurt with eggs, vanilla essence, amaretto and the sweetner. The sweetner is, as always, to your liking. I used about 2 tablespoons. Bear in mind that the ameretto is pretty sweet too so you might eveb omit the sweetner if you prefer.
  3. Use your 125ml cups to measure the almond flour. Top both of them off with flour and add to the mix.
  4. Mix till everything is well combined and allow yourself a little taste. Taste good doesn't it. Would it be wrong to just eat this as a sauce....
  5. Enough daydreaming. Pour the batter into the baking tin and lightly sprinkle your crushed cookies over the top.

  6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

    Let cool for about 5 minutes before you take it out the tin. The cookies will have been baked into the top, making for a lovely, crunchy, topping.

    This doesn't make a very big cake, so feel free to double the portions to make a bigger cake.

    For extra yumminess, you could slice the cake in two and add a thin layer of strawberry jelly. However, I don't really feel like it needs it. This cake a light, slightly boozy version of a classic French yogurt cake. And remember, no added sugar, no butter but bursting with flavor!

    Enjoy
    xx

zondag 26 mei 2013

Apple buckwheat breakfast scones

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing fine. Summer is just around the corner and that means that the bikini season is ready for kick-off. With it, our bodies need to be in top shape so we can enjoy a summer freed of worries.
I've been experimenting with some new ingredients so watch out, unlike my other posts, this recipe is not really low carb. However it's very healthy due to it's low fat and the addition of buckwheat flour. Buckwheat flour is gluten-free and so amazingly good for you! It has high quality protein, it's rich in iron, very high in antioxidants, it's filled with many minerals and vitamins such as zinc, copper, and niacin and it contains a high level of rutin, which is an anti-cancer agent. Can this get any better?
So for this recipe, I felt like making something a bit less sweet and these apple buckwheat scones are a great way to start of your day. They fill you up, they are delicious and they are also easy to take with you if you don't have time in the mornings for a sit down breakfast. You can keep them for up to three days.

 

Ingredients:

250 gr buckwheat flour
2 tbsp stevia
3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
100 gr soft butter (not melted)
120 ml low-fat yogurt or cream cheese
2 eggs
1 big apple



Way to do it:


  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. In a bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and turn over with a spoon so they are combined.
  3. Add small chunks of butter. You don't want to melt the butter, otherwise your dough will not be 'crumbly' enough. It's okay if chunks of butter remain in the batter.
  4. Mix in the eggs and cream and turn around with the spoon. Gently add in the apple with your hands. I cut my apple in small cubes. The apple will add a gently touch of sweetness to the scone.
  5. Put the dough on your baking tray, lined with baking paper and press down into a circle of about 5cm height. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 200 degrees or until golden.

  6. They are so yummy! The buckwheat gives them a more nutty flavor than regular flour so that's why I didn't add macadamia nuts but of course, feel free to play around with the recipe as much as you like. Try adding blueberries or other kind of fruits to the mix. You won't be disappointed!

    You can eat them without anything extra with just a nice mug of coffee or tea, or, I smeared one with jam. Delicious!

    Enjoy
    xx