Home comforts of GF bread on the road

I have been craving a bit of carbs lately and so have been digging up a few of my favourite recipes. This bread is so easy and delicious I thought I would share it again. Rather than inventing the wheel though I’m taking the easy way out and re-blogging my original post 🙂 The Gluten free flours can be changed up as you like too … I now use quinoa instead of chickpea flour in this recipe and it still tastes just as good. From August 2017, when we were still living on the bus rather than just holidaying in it ……

So, I know … it has been a while since I posted, longer than I planned anyway.  It seems that one down side to bus life in Winter is the reduced solar power we have.  My old laptop is the one thing on the bus that needs to be plugged into a regular (i.e. not solar) plug and sucks up the power fast which means that I either have to duck into the library to use it for any length of time or wait until a sunny day! Well here it is a sunny Sunday afternoon and I thought I would get onto a blog post at last.

Themselves in the bus … looking south to Oaro

We are just back from a quick overnighter down the coast.  It was only 30 mins away and yet with SH1 closed it was such an awesome break.  Parked up right on the beach without the hum of traffic made us all feel very spoilt and themselves spent hours on the rocky shore exploring and playing.  It is wonderful having our home with us where ever we travel and being able to have those home comforts too.  One home comfort I have been enjoying lately is some homemade Gluten Free bread (and toast).  The shop stuff is good but it usually comes a quite a price and invariably gives me a bad case of wind …. enough said!!

Slices so well and I even got an ‘It looks just like shop bread’ seal of approval comment.

Anyway … this recipe is one that I shared last year but if you are like me and completely forgot about it while basking in the Summer sun then here it is again.  Actually I have a lovely mum from one of Infant Massage Courses to thank for the reminder and I’m so glad she did.  This loaf recipe is super easy!!  It is my favourite kind of recipe in fact … the chuck it all in and bake kind ;).  I have changed it only a little since last time so as to accommodate my vegan child however you can’t really tell anything is different and it makes a fantastic loaf.  This GF loaf will last quite a few days in an airtight container, slices really well and can be frozen for toasting later.  I have to say, with many other recipes tried and tested, that this really is my favourite Gluten Free bread recipe. Hope you enjoy it too.

Gluten Free Bread

Makes 1 loaf

• 1 Tbsp Dried Yeast
• 2 Cups Warm Water
• 1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1 Cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1 Cup Chickpea Flour
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
• 8 tsp black chia seeds
• 8 tsp boiling water
• Sprinkle of Salt
• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil

– In a large bowl whisk the water and yeast and leave for 10 minutes to activate.

– Add all dry ingredients apart from chia seeds and mix well

– Mix chia seeds and boiling water then add to bread mixture with the oil.

– Mix well and pour into a lined bread tin.

– Leave to rise for 10-15 mins.  It doesn’t rise much on baking so if you want a bigger loaf then leave it to rise longer before cooking.

– Bake at 170 C for 45 minutes.

-Enjoy!!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy and warm,  possibly enjoying some yummy GF toast 😉

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Ginger-Nut Bites

It is the final week of my Infant Massage course tomorrow and the final week of baking for all those wonderful mamas.  It has been such a lovely group and I always love seeing just how much the bubas enjoy the massage (or not some days) and grow over that time.  Themselves have also loved catching up with friends each week while I teach especially with all the amazing weather we have been having ….. well that was until Summer officially arrived on and the rain started. 🙂

Themselves enjoying the local river.

So with the weather feeling a bit cooler I thought I would warm the insides of everyone a bit with some good old ginger-nuts.  This recipe is delicious, easy and able to be eaten raw or cooked so win/wins all round I say.  The original recipe says that it makes 8 biscuits however we usually get at least 16 and sometimes 20 out of it so obviously it is all about size.  I tend to double up the recipe to get a decent batch and because themselves love these yummy morsels it also means I have a chance to get some too!  The fact that they don’t expand on cooking does mean that you can pack them pretty close together on your tray which for us means one batch rather than two … always a bonus when your oven is a tiny bus one.

Ready to go in the oven – with a bit of ground almond to help with the flattening part.

Gingernuts

1 C ground almonds

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 Tb black strap molasses

3 Tb maple syrup

• Mix the almonds and ginger
• Add the molasses and maple syrup then mix until the mixture forms a dough
• Roll into small balls and place on tray
• Flatten each ball with a fork (you may need to dip the fork in rice flour or ground almonds so it doesn’t stick)
• Bake for 10-15 mins at 180C
• Cool on the rack before devouring

Hope this finds you warm, happy and content regardless of the weather outside.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Sometimes life takes over

What a  time we have had of it this past week and a bit …. all our plans have been turned on their heads and I am more than a little discombobulated by it all!  I actually had  started a whole rant blog about everything then after some sleep (two days of 4am mornings can really alter your perspective on life) and a few days to process all the changes to our plans ahead I decided I wouldn’t bore you with it 🙂

Let’s just say that 3 breakdowns, 2 mechanics and 1 tow truck later our bus home has decided it has had enough of travel for a while.  Thankfully we were able to get her back to our base in the North Island (after she overheated at 6am on our way to the ferry) and sadly there she sits for the next few months …. until we can solve the root issue and get her back on the road.

So here, as promised 2 weeks ago, is another recipe rather than a mad rant about our first world problems 🙂  This week is a super easy vegan sausage recipe that I found when our boy decided that being Vegan wasn’t enough and he wanted to be gluten free and sugar free also.  That meant that the quick and easy tea option we had of store bought veggie sausages and salad was out the window; so began my search for something just as easy.  Thanks very much to Vie de la Vegan (click on the link to see the original recipe) for her awesome, quick and easy ideas ….. of course I have altered it to fit our cupboard contents, and when I was trying to cook it from memory, but hopefully that justs shows how easy, awesome and adaptable the recipe is.

Quick and Easy Bean Sausages

• 400gm can of beans
• 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour (or other gluten free flour)
• 1 Tb tomato paste
• 1 Tb tamari (this is the GF version of soy)
• Dried herbs to flavour

-Mash the beans up and then add the other ingredients until it forms a ball.

-Divide the mixture up, into 4 for large sausages or 8 for smaller ones.

-Roll into sausage shapes and put into the fridge of a little bit before frying.

-Add some oil to a frying pan and heat before popping the sausages in.

-Fry until golden brown.

See it is that easy and very delicious.  You can easily double the recipe for bigger families.  We have also experimented with different beans and herbs which has been great though we are yet to reach a consensus so I hope you have better luck with that one 🙂

Ready to munch

Hope this finds you just where you planned to be and enjoying life.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Vegan Banana Bread

Well hello again!! I know it has been a while since I’ve been on here and in that time I have really enjoyed the time off the computer and trying out a few new recipes. There is a lot to be said for down-time from the screen and sampling baking 😉

Parked up at Cass

After being parked up in Kaikōura for nearly 9 months last year we are now back on the road in our bus enjoying life on the road. This summer has been an absolute scorcher and on the days when we have struggled for shade our little tin can has nearly baked us alive! Thank goodness for cool winds, big trees, clear rivers to splash in and the ability to get to them with our home.

Swimming at Wai-iti Domain

We have made our way up to Kāpiti again for me to teach some Infant Massage which is always a highlight for me.  It also means that there is weekly baking to do in order to keep those parents sustained as well as extra baking for all the catching up with family and friends we are doing.  With himself still being Vegan I have been signing up to a few more cooking blogs in order to get a good range of things to offer, some with success and some which I’d rather not discuss 😉

I’m always on the look out for good Vegan recipes that can replace our old favourites … baking two cakes at a time is a bit too much of a mission for me.  This recipe I found in a free magazine which a local health shop issues and came up a treat even with my adaptions.  It comes from a book by Daisy Dagg and Amber Vito called Kai for Kids eBook and while the original recipe had honey in it we have just replaced this with Maple Syrup without much change to the flavour.  Likewise we have used GF flour instead of the regular wheat flour they had listed and as with so many of the recipes I enjoy enough to share it is pretty much a one pot wonder 😉

Ready for morning tea.

1 3/4 Cup GF self-raising flour

1/3 C melted coconut oil

1/2 C pure maple syrup

4 mashed bananas (large)

1/2 C shredded / desiccated coconut

2 Tb chia seeds

1/2 C rice milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

sprinkle of salt

1/2 tsp mixed spice

• Melt coconut oil in a pot and stir in the maple syrup, rice milk, vanilla essence and mashed banana
• Add in the chia seeds and stir well
• Add in all the other dry ingredients and mix until blended well
• Pour into a baking paper lined tin and bake at 180 Celsius for around 35-40 mins or until a cake-tester (skewer) comes out clean.
• Cool and Enjoy

Hope this finds you enjoying the new year, trusting in yourself and loving the life you’re in.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

 

Back in the Hood

Funny that just over 2 weeks ago I was thinking we were losing our sense of community and yet since then (and my ‘wake-up’ call from a friend) I have been seeing it, feeling it and touching it everywhere.

I think though that this weekend was the highlight of that.  We had gone down to Christchurch to drop off herself at a Guide camp, so decided to park up the bus outside our friend’s place to have a good catch up….. and eat some delicious GF and vegan hand-crafted Canadian perogies (sorry, a secret recipe so no sharing that today) .  We haven’t had the bus at their place since the beginning of the year and yet as himself was letting the dog stretch his legs a neighbourhood boy came up to him, smiling and saying ‘Hey, it’s YOU …. I know YOU!  You’re back!’.

Parked up in Suburbia

I love the idea that we (or maybe more correctly our big green bus) are part of his community.  I love the idea that he was excited to see that we had returned.  I love the idea that to him it seemed completely normal that a 1956 Bedford bus would be parked up in his street.  Clearly, community is everywhere when you’re looking and open to it …. I for one am very grateful that I have begun to open my eyes to that fact.

I hope this finds you embracing your own community in whatever shape it takes.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Back home again

Well after 3 weeks of staying in foundation-ed accommodation rather than our wheeled one, due to a right royal break down, I for one am very happy to be back home on the bus, happy to have my home comfits and happy to be in my kitchen again …. God I never thought I would utter those words!

As it was an unexpected, side of the road (thank goodness in cell phone coverage), night time break down it was a bit of a mad rush to collect everything we needed and get out of our tilting bus before the tow truck came to collect.  Our little Honda Jazz doesn’t have that much room in it either after a big dog, mouse in a cage, 2 children and 2 adults are within so it was a bit of a haphazard pack to say the least.  As it was the tow truck didn’t come until the next morning … All Blacks seemed to have priority there and little did we know at the time it was going to be three weeks before our beloved would be with us again.

On her way to the mechanic the next morning.

Had I known I probably would have packed differently.  I would have packed better with a lot more thought involved.  I didn’t though and we still survived 😉  It is strange though when you have to stay/live in other people’s homes especially when they have been set up for holiday makers.  They don’t have the same ‘essential’ items you have, pantry basics aren’t there, ovens function differently – if at all, things are ‘missing’ that you would normally use.   So you have to make do, you improvise, you shop a little differently knowing that soon you’ll be re-united with your kitchen and you take a lot of deep breathes ….. ok, maybe that was just me using the blunt knives! 😉

As we thought it would be only a week we began with the ‘it’s only a few days’ attitude … the shop bread would do (after a lot of reading to ensure it was vegan), baked beans became a staple food and cereal was more sugary than normal, much to the kids delight.  Then we realised it was going to be more than a week so the veggies started to appear more frequently and the bags of food we had grew from 1 to 3. That is until we got the call that it was going to be longer still at which point the pantry staples began to be brought, flour and yeast for making bread again … we had all tied of the shop stuff by this point, and I even ventured to make some bread in a rice maker when our oven wouldn’t work in the holiday home ….. our food store was beyond the bag point now and I was stocking cupboards instead.

Rice Cooker bread … yes it can be done with a lot of patience for the long slow bake.

Now though, we’ve been home for 3 days and it is awesome!  Sure the cupboards here are bulging a little with double ups as I tried to fit everything in but it is so nice to have everything we need (not what anyone else needs clearly) to cook and eat smoothly.  I’m guessing themselves are feeling the same as they are back into cooking tea mode with a flourish ….. tonight was himself with pineapple rings (egg free batter of course for the vegan), homemade beans (yes, beans are an obvious favourite now) and chips.

We are still on the homemade ‘take away’ menu many nights however their range is expanding and tomorrow herself has planned a 3 course Vegan meal.  I think the ‘Masterchef Australia’ watching with Nan has been a bit of a help too as I heard her explain that there would be a side of lettuce boats with carrot, peas and dressing ;). So I’m loving being back home, loving being able to create healthy food and most of all loving that someone else is cooking evening meals! There is a lot to be said for being home and having those home comfits.

Hope this finds you all enjoying your own dwellings where ever and whatever they are.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz