SUNFLOWER SEED BUTTER

Sunflower seed butter Recipe www.bettybake.co.za

This is one of those things that gets made in my house and gets divided out EQUALLY! As to not cause world war 3. Yes i know- crazy but true! We each get a jar labeled with our name so that we can't blame each other for finishing the jar and then act like children blaming each other!

I think one of the reasons we value this yummy spread so much is because my husband is allergic to peanuts and some other nuts so we can't just go to the shop and buy whatever nut butter we want and use it.
It is very yummy and we have the added benefit of knowing exactly what is in the spread that we are eating plus we can buy the best quality ingredients to make it- eg, organic and pesticide free.

Himalayan Crystal Salt also known as "pink salt"

This is one of those recipes where you can make as little or as much as you like. I simply buy a few bags of organic sunflower seeds and place them in the oven to roast and then blend them in my electric blender.

INGREDIENTS
750grams (+/-) its up to you
Sunflower oil
Salt - 1-2 teaspoons (or to taste)
Honey - 1- 4 teaspoons (or to taste)


METHOD
Turn the oven on to bake/roast at 160- 180 degrees celcius. Place your sunflower seeds in an oven roasting dish and place in the center of the oven.
Watch CAREFULLY and stir often as the seeds burn easily - especially near the end!
Roast them till nice and golden brown in colour then remove from the oven and allow to cool. (at this stage you can place all of it in an air tight jar for a few days if you don't have the time to finish the recipe)
Place the seeds in the blender about a cup at a time and follow the directions below.
Turn the blender on and blend until a course ground flour like state.
Add sunflower oil a table spoon at a time and some salt and honey. blend and then taste.
Keep adding things according to taste and also the thickness you desire.
I sometimes add more oil depending on how spreadable i want it to be

Enjoy on toast or add to your biscuit recipes or have with cheese or fruit :)

Im enjoying Instagram on my phone and photographing my lunch is just part of the fun.



 

Disclaimer: I have been making this recipe for months. I make it often and this is just the way I make it. I have seen various recipes all over the internet to make all sorts of seed and nut butters so by no means is this an original idea but this recipe is my own as this is how I make it. 

BANANA AND YOGHURT MUFFINS {HEALTHY & GLUTEN-FREE}

So I have been trying different alternatives for the kids lunch box (from baking all sorts of Gluten free bread to baking muffins) And I am finding the bread to be SUPER hard by day 2, and by day 5 it is worth using as a rock and you could actually hurt someone! So in my search for a bready alternative for the school week I decided to look at muffins.

Last week I made the batch on Sunday night - baked them ALL and put them in a sealed container (much the same as the bread) and by day 2 they were also quite hard. Then I read a recipe somewhere for a batch of muffins that you could keep the batter in the fridge and bake fresh every day!!! Why hadn't I thought of that?

But the recipe i was looking at contained WAY to much sugar and didn't seem healthy at all! It was more like eating a cupcake for breakfast minus the icing (and it wasn't gluten-free either). So I set about trying to make my own recipe. So the recipe I threw together last week was very sticky and chewy so yesterday I set about swopping ingredients and changing quantities and it seems to have come out quite nicely (if I do say so myself) I made 3 muffins immediately after whipping up the batter last night (Sunday) to test and taste - YUMMY. They took roughly 15 minutes to bake. Then I placed the entire batch of batter in the fridge in a large bowl with a lid.

This morning (day 1) I woke up half an hour early, stumbled through to the kitchen turned on the oven to preheat and placed the large bowl of batter on the counter and then went back to bed to doze. Once the alram went off I got out of bed at the usual time went through to the kitchen placed batter in 6 cupcake cases in a muffin tray and put them in the preheated oven. I carried on making lunches as usual , slicing up cucumber. peppers etc... Since the batter was cold I noticed the muffins took 20-25 minutes to bake but rose just as nicely and tasted yummy and fresh! Yay hard rock-like lunch for the week sorted! - AS LONG AS I GET UP AND PREHEAT OVEN otherwise I will run out of time before The Kid and Husband run out the door.

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup Coconut oil (or a neutral oil like sunflower oil)
2 rounded Tablespoons Honey
4 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Butter
3 Eggs
1/2 cup yoghurt
2 cups Gluten-free flour mix
1 cup Buckwheat flour 
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Bicard
2 Bananas
1/3 cup Water
1 cup Raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
3 Tablespoons Agave syrup (or use honey)
1/3 cup Sunflower seeds 
a small handful extra dried fruit (optional) I used dried peaches

METHOD
In a large bowl mix (on low if using a mixer) together the coconut oil, honey, sugar and butter until smooth and pale.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Mix in the yoghurt, mix may seem likes it going to curdle (don't over mix - just stir in)
Mix in the flours, baking powder and bicarb adding a bit at a time until all is incorporated - The dough will be thick.
Mash up the bananas with a fork and mix into the batter
Add the water and mix until nice smooth consistency
Add the raisins (if using)
Then add the cinnamon, agave syrup, sunflower seeds and any dried fruit (optional) you like.
Mix until everything is evenly distributed.
If you are baking immediately place batter in cup cake liners and in muffin trays, Sprinkle with a tiny bit of brown sugar and bake for roughly 15 minutes until well risen and brown.
If keeping in the fridge place in a seal-able container until needed. I am gauging that the batter should be ok for 5-6 days.
 
Enjoy in your lunch box or with a morning cup of coffee

UPDATE BELOW PIC (scroll down)

UPDATE:
SUNDAY: I manage to make 3 muffins on Sunday night when I whipped up the batter.
MONDAY: baked 6 in the morning
TUESDAY: baked 6
WEDNESDAY: baked 6
THURSDAY:baked 6
FRIDAY: baked 6 (2 of them were very small)


TOTAL so far: 33 (cupcake size) Muffins

NOTES:
Thick Mixture: If you find your mixture is getting very think after sitting in the fridge over night (dried fruit seems to suck up the liquid) add a little water in the morning when you take the bowl out the fridge and stir in. keep adding water until you get to a nice thick cake batter dropping consistency.

Cupcake cases sticking to my muffins: I find that when I eat the muffins hot that some of it stay on the cupcake cases. I simply brush the inside bottoms of the paper cases with coconut oil before filling them up.


Oven Temp and Time: I have been baking my muffins at a lower temp of late. at about 160 degrees celcius for about 18 mins. I have a thermo fan oven.

DOUBLE HONEY ALMOND TRUFFLES

INGREDIENTS
100grams Raw Almonds
6 Tablespoons Honey
2 Tablespoons water
pinch of salt
125ml cream
100grams 85% Dark Chocolate (eg Lindt or other good quality chocolate)
2 tablespoons cocoa for dusting

METHOD
Grill/ roast the almonds in the oven until light golden brown (watch it or they will burn). You can store them in an airtight container for a day or 2 or carry on with the recipe.
Transfer the almonds to a frying pan with 3 - 4 tablespoons of honey, water and a tiny pinch of salt. Simmer and stir and leave on low till nice and thick and darker golden brown. Make sure that you don't burn the honey!
Have a tray ready with buttered foil or  buttered wax paper!
Spoon the honey almond mix onto the buttered foil/paper and allow to cool and go brittle.
In a Bain Marie (eg glass bowl over a pot of simmering water) place cream and chocolate.
Stir until melted and smooth.
Stir in 2 Tablespoons honey
Cut/crush the brittle honeyed almonds with a sharp knife until you have course crumbs and stir into the melted chocolate mixture.

Place in the fridge for a few hours to firm up.
Once firm (I left mine over night but think 2 hours should be fine) scoop out a rounded teaspoon at a time and roll very lightly in your hands and the place in sifted cocoa.
Shake off lightly and place on tray or place and place back in the fridge to firm up
I managed to make 20 small truffles

They were moreish!
Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY SORBET - COOL & HEALTHY

It is beach weather in Cape Town at the moment. REALLY HOT! Get-a-tan-and-burnt-in-20-minutes-flat-kinda-weather. You know the kind where the sea glistens and the beach babes play volley ball and your skin smells of coconut sunblock.
Well I'm not falling for it! I may live 2 minutes walk from the beach but I am opting to sit in the shade of my garden and watch my daughter play in the sprinkler (under the shade of a tree).
Im going to kick back my shoes and eat some sorbet. It maybe less fashionable but I'll have just as much fun with out the sand being in my shoes and every piece of clothing I wore to the beach ;)
BONUS: This Sorbet will be even more delicious (and healthy) than ice cream bought from the kiosk at the beach.

This recipe is so much easier than you think and is filled with fresh fruit (vitamins) :) Its a win-win summer treat!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup fresh apple juice
1 generous cups strawberries (trimmed and cut up)
4 tablespoons honey
1 small lemon
2 x eggs whites beaten (soft to medium peaks)


METHOD
Dissolve the honey in the apple juice by heating it slightly in a small saucepan on the stove.
Puree your strawberries in a blender and then pass through a sieve into the apple juice. This is to get rid of the tiny little seeds.
Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the mixture - tasting as you go. Don't make it to sour.
Freeze and mix in your ice cream machine or in a low dish in your freezer.
Add the all ready beaten egg whites.
Stir and freeze or serve immediately
Freezes well in a sealed container (I use CONSOL glass jars - preserving/ Mason jars) for roughly 6 weeks.

*if you don't have an ice cream machine and are freezing it in a dish = then beat the mixture and return to the freezer twice before adding egg whites

ORANGE AND HONEY CREME BRULEE

You know when you mean to make something but you end up making something else? Do you? I keep having one of those moments where I go to make my regular vanilla creme brulee (which is very delicious) but every time while making it I think awww just add the honey and orange juice, you can make plain vanilla next time. I have been doing this so much lately I've come to realise that

HONEY - MANUKA HONEY :)

regular honey on breakfast, bananas and milk

This all starts with Miss Emma Jude Jackson who asked me if I would be interested in trying out some Manuka honey. After saying yes :) I receiving it, opened it and proceeded to eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar - Because it tastes Fabulous!

But wait!!! Manuka honey is special and has these amazing properties that have made it quite an extraordinary honey. I had read about this particular honey before on natural health sites on the internet and really wanted to purchase some for myself because it has some amazing healing properties. And when the opportunity arose for me to try some from Manuka honey via Miss Emma I jumped at the opportunity - I now didn't have to pay R150 for a small jar of honey :) AND I could try it out for myself and see if I it really worked or not.

After a few weeks I had tried it on my muesli and I was contemplating how to use it next. But Manuka honey has amazing anti-bacterial properties and cooking it just seemed wrong! after all would heating it up kill the anti-bacterial properties?  But then last week I was sick last with a killer sore throat and achey body (I felt sooo aweful)... I now had the PERFECT opportunity to try out the MANUKA honey.


Well I can say it worked fantastically - REAL homemade Lemon in boiling water with a spoon of honey stirred in for my super sore throat. It tasted amazing and actually worked. Like sore throat gone after 24 hours. Next I want to try it out on a scrape or cut if I hurt myself (on the skin) but no opportunities have arisen as yet and I'm not that crazy to actually cut myself.

FYI: You can buy this honey in different strength ratings from 5 - 20. I had rating 15 which has a high antibacterial activity e.g. it worked on my sore throat! but you can get it in a 5 rating if you just want a regular table grade honey.

Manuka honey all brown and caramel

Manuka honey has a smooth caramel taste and is fluffy and thick - like its been beaten to a mousse consistency. I really enjoyed just eating it off the spoon! I think it would be really great in a smoothy with bananas and milk. It would make a great energy booster and breakfast on the run. I'm going to  definitely try this in the warmer months when the weather warms up :)