Tag: healthy recipes

recipes

Best Healthy American Style Cookies

Quirkalicous

Addictive and indulgent! These soft and chewy cookies, loaded with chocolate chips, will just make your day!

You’ll find that you won’t be able to stop on only one bite…

As these cookies contain no eggs and no sugar, they won’t spread. So depending on your preference, you can make them as thick or thin as you like. I tried them both ways and must say I prefer them slightly thinner as it gave them a nice crunch before reaching the soft and chewy inner.

These cookies can be stored in a sealable container for up to 1 week, if they manage to last that long, as in my house they tend to go within the first hour. You can also store them in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Best Healthy American Style Cookies

  • Servings: 12-15
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Rating: ★★★★★
  • Print

No butter, no white flour, no sugar and no eggs needed - These vegan cookies can easily be made paleo or keto too!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups oat flour
  • ¼ cup arrowroot starch
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
  • 6 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/356F and line a large tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients and mix well.
  3. In a saucepan over the stove, or a microwave-safe bowl, gently heat your honey, add your oil and whisk together until combined.
  4. Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the vanilla extract and milk, and mix until thoroughly combined.
  5. Fold in your chocolate chips.
  6. Place small spoonfuls of dough on the lined tray and press each one lightly, into a cookie shape.
    7. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until lightly brown. Make sure not to overcook. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.
    Substitutions
  • Substitute Oat flour for almond flour for a more paleo cookie
  • Cornflour or tapioca flour can be used instead of arrowroot starch, also, flaxseed is a good alternative if you’re looking to make them keto
  • You can replace honey with maple syrup, agave nectar or sugar-free syrup to make it keto
  • Instead of olive oil, you can use coconut oil
  • coconut milk can be used instead, or any milk of your choice.

Nutrition

Per Serving: 163 calories; 5.5 g fat; 26.2 g carbohydrates; 2.8 g protein; 2 mg cholesterol; 9 mg sodium.

As an update, I substituted 1/2 a cup of oat flour with coconut flour and the results were very nice. It added a different flavour to mix.

recipes

Healthy Chocolate Cake

Quirkalicous

An absolutely scrumptious, moist, fat-free healthy chocolate cake! Did I mention it’s foolproof, too?

This cake is perfect for those with high cholesterol as it doesn’t contain any butter, and is ideal for diabetics if made with monk fruit sugar or a suitable sweetener.

You will notice that in many of my recipes I tend to omit butter and replace it with a combination of yogurt and oil. This is because I find that using this particular combination results in a moist, fluffy cake whereas, as most of you know, sponge or Madeira cakes can come out slightly dry.

Healthy Chocolate Cake

  • Servings: 15
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Rating: ★★★★★
  • Print

A scrumptiouss, light and moist healthy chocolate cake recipe loved by kids and adults alike!

*Substitutes for certain ingredients can be found in the #notes section below*

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ½ cup espresso (cooled)
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips (to sprinkle on top)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 10-Inch pan, or loaf pan with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, toss together the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, yogurt, olive oil, cooled espresso and vanilla essence, making sure to mix well.
  4. Add the bowl with the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.
  5. Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips.
  6. Bake for 30-35 minutes until set around the edges and a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs (don’t over bake or the cake will dry). Serve warm or at room temperature.

    Notes
  • Cocoa powder substitutes include carob powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, or a mixture of both depending on the taste you want to achieve.
  • Gluten intolerance; substitute with a gluten-free flour
  • Diabetics; substitute with, monk fruit sugar, stevia, canderel (1:1 ratio)
    • otherwise you can make with half-half, cane sugar, coconut sugar or molasses
  • If you don’t like the flavour of olive oil, as it can be potent in cakes, you can substitute it with: coconut oil, ghee, or vegetable shortening (1:1 ratio)

Nutrition

Per Serving: 227 calories; 11.1 g fat; 29 g carbohydrates; 4.4 g protein; 14 mg cholesterol; 112 mg sodium.

Nutrition

**Note that the calorific value reflects the calories using regular sugar. If you’ve used zero calorie sugar or sweetener, make sure to make the appropriate adjustments (i.e. remove 50 calories) and the same applies to all other substitutions.
recipes

An Amazing, Healthy Beetroot Cake

Quirkalicous

This healthy beetroot cake is just unbelievable!

The beetroot powder packs it with nutrients and provides a unique flavour, whilst the sweetener omits calories and makes it suitable for diabetics (depending on your choice of sweetener, of course).

*To read all about the health benefits of beetroot, head over to our ‘Let’s BEET This Cold‘ page.*

Before we take a look at the recipe, if you’re anything like me, you may have experimented with natural colourings, opting to use powders instead of dyes, and have noticed that the end product didn’t contain the desired colour. And you’re wondering why… in the case of beets, why after baking is there no distinct red colour? Well, here is a funny fact about beetroots and their distinct red colour;

Beetroots are red due to their anthocyanins. And according to the International Conference on Food Science & Engineering;

Anthocyanins can be used as pH indicators as their colour is influenced by several factors such as pH, temperature, light, oxygen, and sugar; they are pink in acidic solutions (pH < 7), purple in neutral solutions (pH ~ 7), greenish-yellow in alkaline solutions (pH > 7), and colourless in very alkaline solutions, where the pigment is completely reduced.

Therefore, if your dough is a lovely red prior to baking but comes out a neutral yellow post baking, then it is most likely that something in your recipe alkalised your dough. This can be combatted by mixing a small amount of ascorbic or citric acid to your dough when mixing.

Please bear in mind though, that the concentration of and fruit powder is seldom high enough to get a noticeable colour without using large amounts of the fruit, which would change the recipe texture if simply added.

Bottom line: if you want a rich colour, you’ll simply have to colour it with a gel dye.

The colour prior to baking, and after, thus showing the alkalising of the Anthocyanins.

Healthy Beetroot Marble Cake

  • Servings: 15
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Rating: ★★★★
  • Print

A fluffy, nutrient-packed cake recipe perfect for a winters day.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour*
  • 1 ½ cups (318 g) sugar/sweetener**
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 â…“ cups (302 g) yogurt
  • 10 tablespoons (141 g) olive oil***
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons beetroot powder
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13-Inch pan with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another (excluding the beetroot powder and chocolate chips).
    3. Bowl 1: Flour, sweetener, baking powder, baking soda and salt Bowl 2: yogurt, olive oil, eggs, vanilla
  3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until well-combined.
  4. Separate the mixture into two equal portions. Leave one as is, and in the other add the beetroot powder mixing well.
  5. Once these are ready, use a spoon to dollop portions of both mixtures into the base of the pan randomly.
    6. Then use a toothpick to make a swirl pattern.
  6. sprinkle half the chocolate chips on top.
  7. Spoon the remaining cake batter on top in large dollops and swirl. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips.
    8. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden on top and set around the edges and a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs (don’t over bake or the cake will dry). Serve warm or at room temperature.
    Notes
  • Gluten intolerance; substitute with a gluten-free flour
  • Diabetics; substitute with, monk fruit sugar, stevia, canderel (1:1 ratio)
    • otherwise you can make with half-half, cane sugar, coconut sugar or molasses
  • If you don’t like the flavour of olive oil, as it can be potent in cakes, you can substitute it with: coconut oil, ghee, or vegetable shortening (1:1 ratio)

Nutrition

Per Serving: 232 calories; 14.1 g fat; 21.4 g carbohydrates;
5.1 g protein; 41 mg cholesterol; 158 mg sodium; 4mcg Vitamin D;
98mg Calcium; 1mg Iron; 192mg Potassium.

Nutrition

**Note that the calorific value reflects the calories using regular sugar. If you’ve used zero calorie sugar or sweetener, make sure to make the appropriate adjustments (i.e. remove 50 calories) and the same applies to all other substitutions.