Late Easter treat

Well I had intended posting this in time for you to try for Easter however then my youngest broke his wrist and we were out of coverage for three days as we travelled along the Forgotten Highway. I figure that it is better late than never and since these are yum anytime it is worth sharing still 😉 In fact they have been made quite a few times since as an afternoon tea snack for the walking wounded among us.

Driving from Taumarunui to The Republic of Whangamomona

With Good Friday comes Hot Cross buns of course however since this is the first Easter we have Vegans in the house (bus) we had to put a bit of thought into the whole process. Thankfully themselves had a simple, yet effective, solution of adding some spices and raisins to our damper recipe to create our own Hot Cross buns. I have to say that the cross side of things didn’t work out so well though as I was trying to be tricky and do icing sugar crosses – on the recommendation of a lovely Canuk I know 😉 – rather than my usual flour ones which ended in a sticky bun soaked mess rather than looking like a cross …. so I guess it is a case of less of the cross buns and more hot spiced buns really 😉

Good to go with a huge dollop of jam!

We have tried both Gluten and Gluten free versions, topped with jam and some vegan Dark Chocolate peanut butter we found, and both have been enjoyed. The GF version did need a flax egg (1 Tb ground linseed and 1.5 Tb cold water) along with bit of extra moisture, depending on which GF flour you use, to get the correct consistency however it is not too much more hassle.

Hot Spiced Buns – Vegan

1 3/4 Cup of plain flour ( or GF flour and see notes above)

1 tsp baking powder

1 Tb oil

3/4 cup of cold water

2 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup raisins (or other dried fruit if you like)

Mix all ingredients until they form a dough, add more flour and/or liquid as required.
Split the dough into 8 pieces and roll into bun shapes
Flour a tin and place the bun shapes in so that they are touching.
Bake at 200 C for 20 mins.
Remove from the oven and enjoy with jam 😉

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and all in one piece 😉

Arohanui

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

One year sugar free!

Well Easter is now done and dusted! The second for me without chocolate as I have now gone a year with out it. I would love to say a year without sugar however that little devil is everywhere – especially in condiments and restaurant food 🙂

Themselves Easter present and eggs.

It has however been a year without buying baking, without shop hot chocolates (I now make my own rice milk and cacao ones at home though that are just as yum), without fizzy drinks (kombucha aside), without lollies and as I mentioned a year without chocolate! Honestly I never thought I would be writing this, let alone be happy about it.

Who would of thought I’d make a whole year??!!

Sometimes it does make me feel a bit deprived of treats and other times glad that I am not bombarding my body the way I used to with that much sugar.

So as a way of celebrating I thought I’d put on a ‘1 year without sugar’ special on my products and services. Obviously those of you further a field won’t be able to take advantage of the reflexology – everything else though can be sorted online 🙂

Check it out!

Just go to Becoming Healthy , see what I have and get 30% off!

Arohanui

A new kind of Easter

Well it is Easter Monday night here and I have had my first chocolate free Easter! I can’t really believe I have achieved it myself yet I have and I’m very happy. There wasn’t any real longing for chocolate treats despite themselves nibbling away around me which was the best bit. Hopefully this means that my sugar addictive is starting to wane.

Our Easter began with Good Friday, which is the day for Hot cross buns, and traditionally I would make some using a sugar laden recipe that I was never very happy with, it has to be said. I decided that this year I would re-think things and amazingly I worked out a great recipe that contained no sugar (the crystalized stuff I mean) and only had dried currents added for sweetness. The results? YUMMY Hot Cross buns that tasted a lot like the shop ones 😉 So as you can imagine there was a bit of munching and crunching going on and a few batches made! I’ve put the recipe on my recipe page to check it our here for next year or even if you just want a good current bun.

The last batch of buns minus their crosses in a rush to feed everyone.

The aim was to make the Easter Sunday (the traditional day for gift giving) more about hunting for wee gifts than eating chocolate however the kids were given so much chocolate by others that it became a mixture of the two. I say so much though when I looked at their stash it was far less than previous years! We, as parents, didn’t buy any and it really is starting to amaze me just how much other people give children, outside of their family, chocolate and lollies (sweets). I had never paid that much attention to it in the past and in fact I was just as guilty of ‘treating’ others children rather than letting them ‘treat’ their children how they saw fit. I guess what goes around comes around and I have definitely been learning a few lessons in this adjusted way of eating. Apologies to all that I have annoyed, upset and given a little thoughtlessly to.

After much waiting and excitement Saturday night finally arrived and themselves carefully put all their ‘goodies’ into a bag for us to hide before having their final sleep before Easter Treats on Sunday. To this stash we added a few homemade gifts like crocheted bunnies, chicks and eggs along with a washi egg each hidden inside some plastic chicks. We then wrote out clues for each child so that they could have their ‘treat’ hunt in the morning. Then everything was hidden around the house, due to lots of rain here on the West Coast, along with $1 in a gumboot from the Easter Bunny (I have no idea how that tradition began!) waiting for the morning.

Easter treats

4.15 saw the first of our brood awake which meant a long wriggly wait till at least 6pm when they could go and search. They found and loved everything, getting into playing and munching straight away. I think chocolate will always be a part, a small part hopefully, of their Easter Sundays as it is very hard to get away from it however hopefully with a bit of balance it can be a special treat for Easter which is all the more special because it is not what they have regularly. An Easter Sunday walk has also become a bit of a tradition in our family too and luckily the rain did clear for us a little so we managed to have our walk which was great. It was good to have a mixture of food and family time over Easter, the kids loved having Himself around and I loved having everyone here enjoying Easter in a new way – well kind of 😉

Hope this finds you all having a great Easter with family and/or friends too.

Arohanui