Festive apple and cinnamon hot drink!

Merry Christmas guys!

I hope you've all had an amazing festive season and day yesterday! Today I've made up an apple and cinnamon hot drink recipe, this is perfect if you are a child or don't drink to have when everyone else is sipping on mulled wine! It has loads of vitamin C which is great for boosting your immunity, perfect for the cold winter months. 

You will need:

• One litre of apple juice
• Half a lemon
• 1 tbsp local honey or date syrup
• 2 tbsp cinnamon powder

First add your cloves to your lemon half. Secondly, add all ingredients to a pan and mix together. Squeeze the juice of your lemon into the pan and add the empty skin too. Which everything together to encorporate the cinnamon and heat on low for 20 minutes, or until it's as hot as you want it! 

Then enjoy! I love drinking mine in a jam jar with a straw. 

I hope you enjoyed this recipe. Sorry I haven't posted in a while but hopefully I will be back on it in 2016! Remember to tag me @moosfood on Instagram if you make any of my recipes. 

Love moo x

Festive Gingerbread people

Hey Guys

It's my favourite time of the year... Christmas!!!! (and also my birthday).  I have been making these gingerbread people non stop.  They are really good for lunch boxes or snacks ( every time me & my mum go past the plate we pick one up!) & they are the best dipped in hot chocolate.

The gingerbread is gluten free and refined sugar free.  I used traditional icing powder and water to pipe on to my gingerbread people, but you could easily replace that with adding raisins or small nuts to make the features.  Just be sure to press them firmly into the gingerbread people before they are baked.

Did you know that black strap Molasses is traditional in making gingerbread, it's high in iron, calcium, magnesium, B6 and selenium, as well as being delicious

For the gingerbread you will need:

3/4 cup oats ( check they are labelled gluten free if you have a gluten allergy)
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp GF baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 vegan margarine or coconut oil
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
3 tbsp date syrup or your favourite unrefined sweetener
1 flax 'egg' ( 1 tbsp flax add 3 tbsp water)
Gingerbread people cutters
icing sugar if you are using this to pipe or 
small nuts or raisins

Method

Mix up the flax egg and leave to stand for a few minutes.  Place the oats into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth flour.  Add in to the food processor ( or bowl) the rest of the dry ingredients , mix well.  Add the butter, molasses, date syrup and finally the flax egg.  I pulse the food processor until I have a fairly sticky dough. Now have a taste, you may want to add more sweetener, or if the dough is really 'wet' add a small amount of rice flour. 

Tip out the dough on to a piece of clingfilm, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 180C.  

Roll out the gingerbread between 2 pieces of baking parchment.  You may need to sprinkle them with a little rice flour if the dough is too sticky.  Use cutters to make your people and carefully lift ( I use a pallet knife) on to a lined baking tray. If you are using raisins or nuts for the features, press them firmly into place now.

Bake for around 18 minutes until golden brown.  The gingerbread may still feel soft as you get it out of the oven but don't worry as it hardens up as it cools.  You can experiment with the cooking time to get them exactly how you like them ( I like them crisp on the out side but still soft in the middle!)

I hope you enjoyed this recipe.  If you make any thing off my blog don't forget to tag me @moosfood on instagram.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

Love from Moo x

Christmas chocolate orange truffles

Hey guys!

Happy December!

This year I'm going to be making lots of my Christmas presents.  These truffles are a really great gift idea to give to someone for Christmas or just as a treat.  The truffles are not only delicious but packed full of nutritious ingredients and I promise you that they taste even better than traditional truffles which contain dairy ( and often lots of sugar too).

I have put my truffles in a glass jar tied with ribbon, but you could use a box or dish too.
Just remember to store the truffles in the fridge until they are eaten.

So, here is my recipe..

Christmas chocolate orange truffles

You will need:

1/2 cup ground almonds ( you could substitute more oats if you are making them for someone with a nut allergy)
1 cup  ground oats*
3 tbsp coconut sugar or your favourite unrefined sugar
The juice from 1/2 orange
1 chia or flax seed 'egg'
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp of raw cacao powder
1 tbsp hemp protein powder ( or your favourite superfood powder)
1 tbsp maca powder
for rolling truffles choose from raw cacao, chia seeds, coconut

Method

Put oats in to a food processor or similar and pulse for a minute until the oats have turned into flour.
Mix the chia egg together and allow to stand for a few minutes.  Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl & mix together.  Add in to the bowl the orange juice, orange zest & chia egg.  Mix together until you have a sticky dough.  Place the bowl into the fridge for around 15 minutes.  Once chilled take a desert spoon of the mixture and get rolling! roll the truffle around in one of your coatings, place on a lined baking tray.
When all the truffles are rolled chill for another 15 minutes ( re shape if necessary) before you put them in to your gift box or jar.

*The base is a mix of almonds and oats.  If you are making the truffles for someone who is Coeliac you will need to ensure that the oats are certified gluten free.


I hope that you enjoy making them!


Love from Moo x


don't forget to tag me @moosfood