Noah turns 2! and a Frozen Raspberry Cheesecake

You know what they say about best laid plans? Well that was us this week. I had planned the most delicious carrot, orange and ginger layer cake for Noah's birthday and guess what happened. Our oven died. Right in the middle of cooking pizza for dinner 2 days before his birthday. We saved the pizza by cutting it into pieces and cooking them individually in our sandwich press. Bit hard to make a cake like that though!

After a bit of panic and a lot of searching I decided it would be easiest to make a frozen cake of some sort and Wholefood Simply came to the recipe. If you haven't visited this gorgeous blog then you are really missing out.

The recipe I chose was a raspberry cheesecake with chocolate crust which I tweaked a little and decorated to suit a birthday. On that note, a huge happy birthday to our beautiful boy who has filled our lives with such joy these past 2 years. We love you Noah!!

Frozen Raspberry Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust
Slightly Adapted from Wholefood Simply

Crust:
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup raw almonds
10 dates, seeds removed
1 tablespoons raw cacao

Line the base of a 20cm springform pan with baking paper. Place all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender and blend until sticky and well combined. Press firmly into the base of the prepared pan and place in the freezer until required.

Cheesecake – Step 1
2 cups frozen mixed berries
8 dates, seeds removed

Blend all ingredients until well combined, spoon into a bowl and set aside.

Cheescake – Step 2
2.5 cups raw cashews (preferably soaked for a few hours first then drained well)
3 heaped tbs coconut oil
2 ts vanilla extract
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup coconut milk (you may need a little more or less liquid than this so don't add it all at once)

Blend all ingredients until smooth and very well combined. Scrape down the sides of the blender and keep blending until you are happy with the consistency. Add the berry mixture and mix until well combined.  Spread the cheesecake mixture over the base, smooth the top and place in the freezer.

Topping:
1 1/2 cups cold coconut cream
2 tbs maple syrup
2 ts vanilla extract
1 tbs gelatin

Blend all ingredients until thick and smooth. Pour over the cheesecake mixture and return to the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

Remove from the freezer at least 20-30 minutes before serving.

To make the number 2 on top I simply printed a big number 2 and cut it out to form a stencil. Lay the stencil over the cake and dust on some cocoa. Make sure you remove the stencil very carefully (you might need an extra pair of hands for this). Very simple but very effective!

Changes are coming and I need your help!

You may have noticed things have been a little quiet around here lately. Well that is partly just life becoming very busy but also because things have been happening behind the scenes at this little blog and there are changes coming!

I've been realising that I actually have a lot to say and that the blog in it's current state doesn't really allow me to say it. I'm passionate about whole foods, kids health and eating well on a budget so that is the direction I will be going in.

To do that I would really, really, REALLY appreciate some feedback from you, my lovely readers. I want to know who you are, why you are here and what your challenges with food are.

The direction I'm going in is very different from where I first started when it was all about baking and lots of sugar! Perhaps if you've been reading for awhile you have also been taking steps to change the way you eat.

So if you have a couple of minutes to spare could you please complete this short survey for me? It will be completely anonymous and won't take much of your time. If you have any problems with it or would like to share anything else with that I haven't asked please email me at food.baby.food.baby AT gmail DOT com.

Thank you so much and stay tuned!

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Smoky BBQ Pork Ribs

These smoky pork ribs were a seriously delicious dinner! I actually made these for Fathers' Day way back at the start of September and then with the move forgot to post them. Now there are probably thousands of rib recipes out there and I must have looked at dozens before deciding to just wing it and make something up myself. I didn't want anything too spicy and I didn't want to buy weird ingredients like liquid smoke.

While I'm all for making things from scratch I did use bought sauces for this, namely the Fountain Good Choice tomato and barbecue sauces which I reviewed earlier this year.

I wasn't able to find the American style ribs anywhere (admittedly I left it until the last minute!) so used these Aussie pork spare ribs instead and they worked just as well.

The cooking is done in three stages. First they are left to marinate in the fridge overnight which starts to tenderise the meat, then they are baked in the oven and lastly they are grilled and basted with marinade which makes them charred, sticky and luscious. So good!

I served the ribs with coleslaw, avocado, homemade potato wedges and corn on the cob. Hubby and kids all loved it and there lots of sticky smiles and licked fingers.

Remember to start this recipe a day ahead!

Smoky BBQ Pork Ribs

1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coconut sugar
4 cloves garlic
2 ts smoked paprika
2 ts mustard powder
salt and pepper to taste

1.5 kg pork spare ribs

Combine all marinade ingredients in a large dish and combine well. Add the pork and mix well, massaging the sauce into the meat. Cover the dish with 2 layers of plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius, Line a large baking dish with foil and place a rack on top. Lay out the ribs on the rack, reserving the marinade, season with salt and pepper and cover with foil.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours, turning and basting with marinade every 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile tip the remaining marinade into a small pot and bring to the boil for a few minutes, until it has reduced and thickened.

Increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees. Remove the cover from the ribs, brush with extra marinade and bake for another half an hour, turning and basting again halfway OR cook the ribs on a barbecue grill over a flame, turning and basting every 5 minutes or so (this will give best results!).

Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves 4

Back to school baking

The last 2 weeks have flown by and here we are on the official last day of the holidays. Which means there are only 10 weeks until Oscar has finished grade 1 and Charlie has finished kindy and then it will be Christmas! Wow. So much to do before then though which is why I made a kickstart today with a marathon of baking.

Today I made:
1 x big batch Chocolate Granola
1 x Banana Bread
1 x Grain free Banana Cupcakes
1 x Almond and Chia Protein Bliss Balls
2 x Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I find having a stash like this in the freezer makes life so much easier. I can quickly grab something sweet to pop in lunchboxes for a treat, there is always something for afternoon tea even if we are home late and I can take a snack for myself if I am going to be out and about (saves buying something!).

Only half the banana bread actually made it to the freezer though as it smelt so good while it was baking and the kids needed morning tea so lucky things enjoyed it still warm with lots of butter (delicious!).

Then later I also prepped some savoury meals to help with lunch and dinners. The back to school routine is always a bit of a shock to our systems and I find dinner ends up getting pushed back later and later which then affects bedtime. So I love having dinners either completely prepared ahead of time, in the slow cooker or half-prepped because it just saves so much time.

For lunch today I cooked some chipolata sausages and saved 6 for Oscar's school lunches. My tip is to always separate out the leftovers you want to keep first before you dish up the meal because that way it's there ready to go and doesn't mysteriously get eaten!

Next I made a huge double batch of meatballs using 1 kg of beef mince, a tin of mixed beans and loads of veggies and herbs. Shape them into balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper and then pop them straight into the freezer (seal them in a bag once they are frozen). We will have some for dinner tonight, have leftovers for hubby and the boys lunches tomorrow and then still have another full dinner's worth in the freezer for another night. I like to bake my meatballs as it lets me cook the whole batch at once and saves on the mess.

Anyone else doing some back to school baking? Do you have any tips for make-ahead cooking and baking?

Apple Pie Cookies (SRC)

What a month it's been! We moved into our new house exactly 2 weeks ago and while we still have a few boxes around, it's feeling more and more like home. I love our new oven and induction cooktop but as we don't have an induction suitable frypan it has made cooking dinner a little challenging.

But today of course is all about the Secret Recipe Club, a dedicated band of bloggers who are assigned a blog each month to secretly peruse and cook from, with everyone posting their recipes on the same day. Today is reveal day for group D.

This month I was assigned The Spiffy Cookie by Erin. In a funny coincidence she had my blog just last month! Erin has a PhD in microbiology (just like my husband), loves the combination of peanut butter and chocolate and her favourite meal is dessert.  I know I say it every time but I was really spoilt for choice when it came to recipes.

Erin recently did a round-up of her top 10 peanut butter and chocolate recipes which included a Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake that had me drooling over the computer!

Her Steel Cut Oatmeal with Bananas and Cobbler Topping looks like just the thing to pimp up our regular porridge and her Spiced Pear Smoothie sounds delicious. To round out breakfast how about baked eggs with a crispy hash brown crust?

We had most of a box of apples to use up though so I started searching for apple recipes and came up with some beauties like Homemade Apple Jelly, Apple Walnut Pancakes and just last week this Apple Pecan Praline Bread. One that really jumped out at me though were these Apple Pie Cookies which were just so cute! All the best bits of apple pie but in cookie form which I knew my kids would love. Genius right?!

I played around with a few ingredients to suit our dietary requirements but I think these are pretty close to the original and they were AMAZING. Apple pie is one of my favourite things but I don't tend to make it very often. These little cookies had all the same flavours and were exactly like mini apple pies. The recipe made 24 and they were gone in a day. As you can tell it was very hard to stop at just one!

Apple Pie Cookies
Adapted from Dorothy Kern's Dessert Mashups via The Spiffy Cookie

Base:
100 g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 cup spelt flour
1 egg
2 tbs coconut sugar
1 ts vanilla extract

Filling:
5 granny smith apples (peeled, cored and finely diced)
1/3 cup water
1 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts ground cloves
1 tbs coconut sugar
1 tbs spelt flour

In a large bowl cream together the butter and coconut sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Fold through the flour and almond meal until incorporated into a thick dough. Spoon the mixture onto plastic wrap, wrap well and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the apples. Peel, core and finely dice the apples. Place in a medium pan with 1/3 cup water and the spices and cook over low-medium heat until just tender. Drain and place into a heat proof bowl. Sprinkle over the coconut sugar and flour and mix well.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 2 x 12 hole mini muffin pans.

Place a tablespoon of dough into each muffin hole and press over the base and sides creating an indent for the filling. Spoon a teaspoon of apple filling into each cookie.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out and dusting with icing sugar. Delicious warm from the oven.

Makes 24 cookies

Thanks for a great month Erin! :)

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