banana cake

i took this to mothers group one day as it was nice to have a cake that wasn't a chocolaty sweet adults only cake. the babies could enjoy this too if they wanted without the sugar and the trans fats found most cakes.

Cake:
1/2 C coconut butter
substitute for 2 eggs (2 T chia seed blended with a bit of water or follow egg substitute package instructions)
3 ripe bananas, mashed
50 mls soy milk
1 1/2 C SR wholemeal flour (if you want you could use quinoa flour with some bicarb soda)
handful of blueberries (optional)
Icing:
macadamia butter - as much as you like (i use whole macadamias blended rather than a pre-made jar from the health food store but that is fine too)
pinch of ground cinnamon

preheat oven to 180deg C. grease and flour a cake tin. mix all cake ingredients with a fork or a blender, add blueberries at the end. pour into cake tin and bake for 20=25 mins. mix macadamia butter and cinnamon and spread on cooled cake.

tomato based pasta sauce

1/4 cup soaked (and sprouted if you can) adzuki beans or other small legumes
1/2 cup chopped zucchini, broccoli, kale, pumpkin and onion
1 T chopped tomatoes
1 T tomato paste
pinch of garlic
herbs to taste (i like basil, marjoram, or oregano)
30g ground cashews (or whole cashews if you plan to blend the whole thing at the end)
1/2 tsp of golden kelp


cook adzuki beans by boiling until soft - about 20mins. strain and put aside. cook vegies and tomato in a covered pot with a bit of water to steam. once vegies are soft, but still brightly coloured, stir in the tomato paste and garlic and herbs. keep on the heat until tomato paste heats through but don't over cook the vegies. take off the heat. mash beans with a fork and stir through. add ground cashew and golden kelp. this sauce can be blended for smaller babies.
serve with the pasta of your choice (or your baby's choice!)

avocado hummus and aloo palak lunch wrap!

avocado coriander and walnut spread (see previous post)
aloo palak (see yesterday's post)
hummus
mountain bread

spread the avocado and the hummus onto the bread, top with aloo palak, roll and serve!

Zac absolutely loved this for lunch yesterday and so did i!

avocado, walnuts and coriander

blend the following ingredients:

1 avocado
100g walnuts
i bunch of coriander

feed with a spoon or use as a spread.

zac loves this mix. i thought about mixing these ingredients after a comment from my Natropath Robyn Chuter on my pesto post talking about the benefits of coriander and the use of avocado in pestos rather than oil. there is a link to Robyn's website on the right column of this blog. she has been really helpful in guiding me as a vegan for preconception health, pregnancy, breastfeeding and providing the best solids for Zac.

aloo palak

1/8 C diced sweet potato
1/8 C red quinoa
1/8 C red lentils
1/4 C kale or spinach finely chopped
pinch of cumin
pinch of tumeric
pinch of mustard seeds
pinch of fresh garlic and ginger
1/2 tsp golden kelp

cook all ingredients with 1 1/3 C water, cover and simmer for 20mins or until potato is soft. turn off heat, leave covered to cool and further soften. blend for younger babies.

if you like stir through a small bit of avocado and almond meal to when serving.

coconut berry not-yoghurt

blend until smooth the following ingredients:

flesh and juice of 1 young coconut
1/3 C mixed berries (frozen or fresh)
100g soaked almonds
1/4 C chia seeds
1 banana

this obviously is a large amount for one baby. it can be shared with the rest of the family or just reduce the ingredients quantities.

i'm sure you could shake some baby probiotics in there if you wanted... i'm going to try that next time. i suppose i'll add water to the probiotics first then stir it through the coconut mix.

birthday biscuits

Zac had his first birthday today and to mark the occasion we had family round for the weekend. my mum has a tradition of making sweet cookies for birthdays and christmas and this year i asked her to change her recipe to suit Zac's diet rather than give him dairy or sugar in his birthday treat. the following recipe is the one i worked out with her and the cookies turned out well. Zac loved them and so did his 2 yr old cousin. however they were not loved by most of the adults who were used to mum's sugary buttery biscuits and didn't care for a healthier alternative! i quite enjoyed them but i'm used to these types of ingredients!

125g coconut butter
1 C medjool dates
egg substitute equivalent to 2 eggs (follow packet instructions or 2 T ground chia)
1 tsp vanilla essence or ground pods
2 1/2 C plain flour (eg quinoa flour, wholmeal wheat flour, barley flour, or a mix of these)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (optional)

deseed and blend dates. use as many dates that can be squashed into the Cup measure. if your blender needs water added to the dates for blending then use the water you would've used for the egg substitute. mix coconut butter and dates. add egg substitute and vanilla. add flour, baking powder and salt. mix well. chill for 1 hour. roll and cut with a number shape cookie cutter. bake on a greased tray for 10 mins at 200deg C.