Carrot coconut and strawberry breakfast biscuits

These biscuits were not what I intended to make on Sunday afternoon. I had planned to make carrot and strawberry pikelets (pancakes), but in the end, I didn't feel motivated to stand at the stovetop flipping pikelet batter. When thinking about something easy and quick to make instead, I pulled out my food processor to make no bake carrot and strawberry oat balls. However, the mixture didn't seem right unbaked and so I turned the oven on and created these instead.

Given their origins, it is perhaps unsurprising that these biscuits are average rather than excellent. They are not very sweet and I can't clearly detect the strawberry. However, as a breakfast or low sugar snack (especially with a cup of tea) they are enjoyable, and the ingredient list is pleasingly free of refined ingredients. They seem worth documenting and sharing for these reasons

To make these more like a traditional biscuit / cookie, do feel free to add some sugar or even to use these as the exterior to a (vegan) buttercream cookie sandwich.

Carrot coconut and strawberry breakfast biscuits

Minimally sweet biscuits suited to breakfast or a low-sugar snack

Makes 30 or so small biscuits

Vegan and refined sugar free

Food processor required

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 cup grated carrot

1-1/2 cups hulled strawberries

1-1/3 cup whole rolled oats

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup plain flour

2 tbsp cashew butter

Method

Preheat your oven to 160'C (320'F) and line two baking trays with non-stick paper.

Combine the grated carrot, strawberries and oats in your food processor and process until fully combined. Add the remaining ingredients and process until incorporated and the mixture clumps together.

Roll dessertspoons of mixture into balls and place on your prepared baking trays. Press the tops down slightly with the back of a fork.

Bake for 8 or so minutes, until golden and firm to the touch but still soft within.

Have you made anything unexpected recently?!

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Carob coconut avocado breakfast pudding

It is a bank holiday weekend here in England, and it comes at a perfect time for the Bite-Sized household. After the excitement of my sister's visit and Mini Bite's first birthday, we were fortunate to see family from Canada last weekend. Around that, we had our first two weeks of "real" work routines. In other words, Mr Bite and I are both back working and Mini Bite is in nursery three days per week. (Mr Bite had July off under shared parental leave, to ease the transition of my return to work.) Those routines are going better than I could have hoped, but it has still felt like a busy time. All in all, an extra day at home is welcome!

The weather for this weekend is also beautifully summery, to the extent that we may visit the coast on Monday. Today we took advantage of the sunshine to fit in a scenic bike ride, something that is still relatively novel since we bought a child bike seat three months ago.

Today's recipe is perfect for long weekends and summer days, but it would suit weekdays and clouds equally well. It's easy to make and jam-packed full of nutrition whilst also tasting delicious. I know many of you dislike carob - just swap cocoa powder in if that applies to you.

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Coconut rough chocolates

Easter is on the horizon and with my love of chocolate, that provides a good excuse to indulge in chocolate making. I got in early with sharing my vegan creme bunnies / creme eggs and today's recipe provides an alternative Easter treat that would also go down well at other times of the year.

These chocolates were inspired by my recent discovery of the Waitrose dairy free Indian Ocean Dark Chocolate with Coconut. I mentioned in my March In My Kitchen post that the chocolate reminds me of a Golden Rough, but without the crunchy texture. (For non-Australians, a Golden Rough is a round milk chocolate disk studded with desiccated coconut.) Today's chocolates blend the crunchy texture of a Golden Rough with the dark chocolate tones I favour as an adult. The use of coconut oil adds an extra coconut tone and means that these are very easy to make.

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No bake, gluten free, vegan coconut cream brownies

My last post preempted a dessert featuring coconut cream. These brownies are the dessert in question, and they make use of coconut in three forms: coconut cream, coconut sugar and coconut flour. They are rich and chewy, chocolatey to their core, and incredibly satisfying. You can make them in under 15 minutes too!

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Slightly creamy lentil potato curry

Later this week I will be sharing a dessert recipe featuring coconut cream. As many of you know, the solid half of a tin of coconut cream is perfect for making vegan and raw desserts. But what does one do with the remaining half of the tin, the coconut liquid? One option is to make this curry.

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Yoghurt and goji berry baked oat bars

Sometimes I imagine a dish, make it, and it matches my imagination exactly. Other times, I imagine a dish, make it, and it is nothing like what I expected to make. These oat bars are somewhere in between. When hot, they were too soft and crumbly and I was disappointed not to have achieved the texture I wanted. When allowed to chill in the fridge, they firmed up beautifully and came into their own. A lesson in patience - and trusting ingredients even if initial impressions aren't quite right!

The bars feature oats, puffed cereal, yoghurt, goji berries, coconut oil, rice syrup and vanilla. You can taste each of the flavours and they come together harmoniously. It is the coconut oil that allows for the firm texture when chilled. I used soya almond yoghurt, but coconut yoghurt might be a nice way of continuing the coconut theme.

I can only describe the chilled texture as a cross between baked oat bars and raw no-bake slices. If that sounds odd, it wasn't. I found it very pleasing and a nice way to enjoy a bit of both styles of slice.

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Vegan pineapple-coconut French toast with caramelized banana

There will come a time when I hit saturation point with vegan French toast recipes. After all, there are only so many variations one can share for a dish based around bread. At the moment, though, I'd like to think that day is some way off. Vegan French toast has become my standard Saturday morning breakfast and I love it just as much now as when I first discovered it. It might not be as nutritious as porridge or oat-based breakfasts, but it is a delicious way to start the weekend. Saturday is my long run day and French toast also follows running perfectly!

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Sweet potato breakfast pudding {vegan + gluten free}

Regular readers will know that I love to use sweet potato in non-savoury dishes. My caramel sweet potato fudge and chocolate sweet potato ice cream are two prime examples. This sweet potato pudding is made in the same theme, although it's a much simpler affair.

This is so simple, in fact, that I hesitate to call it a recipe. Basically, it is mashed sweet potato with vanilla and desiccated coconut, topped with cacao nibs and blueberries. If you have children, I suspect they could make it. I suspect they would enjoy it too, but you may not want to share it with them.

This tastes clearly of sweet potato, but the natural sweetness of the vegetable is enhanced beautifully by vanilla and coconut. The tart sweetness of blueberries provides a flavour contrast and the rich crunch of cacao nibs provides a texture contrast. It all comes together to taste delicious whilst also being jam-packed full of nutrition. Getting a serve of vegetables in at breakfast is always a bonus!

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Peanut butter cacao energy balls, with berries and coconut {vegan, no bake + no food processor}

I know I say this every time I share a new treat ball recipe, but this latest version really is very good! The ingredient list alone makes me swoon, with cacao nibs as well as cocoa powder, goji berries, dried cranberries, and coconut - as well as the all important peanut butter. When mixed together, the result is just as delicious as it sounds. I particularly like the contrasting texture of cacaco nibs and goji berries against a creamy peanut butter base.

Another advantage of this recipe is that you don't require a food processor. By starting with peanut butter instead of whole nuts, you can make these in a single mixing bowl. They don't need refrigeration to set either. It doesn't get any easier!

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Tropical mango cake with an orange-coconut sugar glaze - vegan and refined sugar free {London marathon fundraising}

In a re-run of the air mile apricots that I turned into apricot-almond cake, I have used my Peruvian mangoes to make a tropical mango cake. It was so good that it may be my favourite baked product of 2015. This doesn't help curb my impromptu imported fruit purchases, but it is a delicious outcome!

I love this cake for lots of reasons, but one of the big ones is the minimal ingredient list. The cake itself is sweetened entirely from the mango and banana, with no added sugar at all. By pureeing the fruit, the cake is also very moist without oil or butter: the only source of fat within the cake is desiccated coconut. This means that if you serve it without icing, this could easily be a breakfast-worthy fruit bread. It also uses spelt flour, which I am a big fan of.

If you do add the orange and coconut sugar glaze - and I recommend that you do! - this turns into something altogether more dessert-like, whilst still featuring basic whole food ingredients. The glaze has nothing more than coconut oil, coconut sugar and orange juice. I sprinkled some extra desiccated coconut over the top, but that is optional.

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Vegan Cheerio chocolate crackles with coconut

It's nearly Easter! I don't quite know how it got to be (almost) April, but I am enjoying my first spring Easter season. It's funny that I grew up to learn that winter pairs with Christmas, and spring pairs with Easter, but I never actually experienced those associations in Australia.

Easter is, of course, not only associated with Spring. Chocolate also features rather heavily, and these easy Cheerio chocolate crackles fit the chocolate theme with minimal fuss. They are a fun twist on traditional chocolate crackles made with rice puffs. They also swap coconut oil for the traditional copha, and use rice malt syrup for sweetness. The coconut topping is optional, but highly recommended.

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London Marathon plans and swoon-worthy, vegan, refined sugar free, orange coconut ice

When I posted my recap of 2014, I didn't share goals for 2015. The reason is that I have relatively few, but those I do have are relatively large. We want to look into moving somewhere bigger than our current 1-bedroom apartment, most likely in the commuter zone just outside of London. We may get a car to accompany that move. And...I have a charity place in the London Marathon.

Orange coconut ice

Running the London Marathon has been a goal for a while, but I didn't really think it would happen this year. I completely missed the ballot (it opens and shuts almost a year before the run) and when I applied for a charity place, I did so knowing there were more applicants than positions available. When I heard that I had a place, my reaction was equal parts amazement, excitement and apprehension. I am acutely aware that a marathon is twice as long as my longest runs to date.

Of course, the apprehension doesn't detract from my overall excitement at being able to participate in the race. My charity place is with Beat, which is the UK eating disorder charity. I'm usually quite cagey about personal information, but have previously mentioned my PhD in psychology and my work in the health and medical arena. To open up a little more, most of my work centres around eating disorders. It is an area where the statistics can be quite depressing: one in seven women are likely to experience an eating disorder in their life (and one in 35 men) and around 30% of those affected will never recover. Up to 10% will die. We need to do much more to help those affected by the conditions, and Beat works hard to do that.

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Strawberry coconut almond spread, for autumn

I know that for many of you, grey skies and rain are not that exciting. If I was at the end of winter, they probably wouldn't be that exciting to me either. If Perth was the sort of city to turn off sunshine for the next 6 months and give me only grey skies and rain, I might also be a little apprehensive.

However, for me, in this part of the world, at this time of year - grey skies and rain are delightful. Exhilarating, wonderful, and delightful.

Yesterday I had soup. Last night I slept under a quilt. This morning I ran in long sleeves in the rain. Today I wore a scarf and took an umbrella to work. I wrapped my hands around my cups of tea and soaked up their warmth. I am thinking about porridge.

Hello, autumn.

I am very happy.

If I'm honest, our grey skies and rain have still been accompanied by temperatures around 20'C (68'F), and at least some sunshine each day. Autumn in Perth is pretty mild. If we had weather like this all year round, I might want to live here forever instead of moving to a country that has more grey skies and rain than sun.

Today's post isn't only about weather. I know not all of you share my (extreme) interest in that topic, and those of you at the end of Northern Hemisphere winter might deservedly be annoyed with me for rejoicing in weather that, to you, probably sounds like summer.

No, today's post is also about food. It is about all the things I am suddenly wanting to make now that cooler weather is upon us. I am dreaming of plum muffins. I am thinking about oats. I want to bake with spices. This upcoming Easter weekend should be a lot of fun.

I don't have baking for us today - time is still a teeny bit lacking - but I do have something that you could spread on baking, or hot cross buns, or just plain toast. It is an easy twist on Hannah's chocolate coconut hazelnut butter of 2011, which has the magical quality of also turning into fudge, and which I have made many a time.

This strawberry coconut almond spread is not much like the chocolate hazelnut version, but it has an ingredient list that was inspired by it. It is easy. It turns a punnet of strawberries into something quite different. I think it would be perfect for any season, or any time.

If you're ahead of me and have some plum muffins lying about...it would probably go quite well with them too.

Strawberry coconut almond spread

Easy to make, and easy to use.

Inspired by Hannah's chocolate coconut hazelnut butter at Wayfaring Chocolate. 

Vegan.

Food processor required.

Print recipe

Ingredients

250g punnet of strawberries, washed and stems cut off

90g almond meal (1 cup)

50g desiccated coconut (2/3 cup)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 - 2 tbsp water

Method

Process the strawberries in a food processor until puree-like; about 1 minute. 

Add the almond meal, coconut, salt and vanilla and continue processing until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the water as needed to reach a spread-like consistency and process for another 1 - 2 minutes.

Store in the fridge (not recommended for freezing).

I like rather than love this recipe, on account of liking strawberries a lot when they're fresh but only a moderate amount when they're turned into desserts or sweet dishes. What I do love, however, is the novelty of this spread and how easy it is to make. You can use it as you would jam, or as you would nut butter, which means it is a very versatile product to have around the place.

If only raspberries were cheaper, I might try a raspberry chocolate hazelnut variety next...

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday #36.

What are you spreading on things this week?

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