Kitchen Trails - Healthier Carrot Cake

I was looking for a healthier option for carrot cake, and after some research, I came up with this version. Using half all purpose flour and half whole grain flour, low fat yoghurt instead of butter for the cream cheese, using coconut palm sugar syrup instead of refined sugar for the cake.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole meal flour

2 tsp baking soda 

Cinnamon powder

Pinch of cardamom powder

Pinch of salt

Gula melaka 300g, melted in 1/4 cup water

3 eggs

Yoghurt 1/4 cup

Vegetable Oil 1cup (I used olive oil)

Vanilla extract 

Zest of 1/2 orange 

Carrots, finely grated, 3 cups

Frosting 

200g Low fat cream cheese

2 tbsp Yoghurt

2 tbsp Honey

1/2 cup Pecans, toasted, chopped and mixed in 2 tbsp maple syrup/gula Melaka (optional)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 175 C. Prepare two 8-inch baking pans, butter the bottom and sides, and line the bottom with baking paper, butter the top of the paper, and then flour the pans

Whisk the 2 flours, baking soda, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs thoroughly with a whisk or hand held or stand mixer. 

Add the gula melaka syrup and beat thoroughly to incorporate with the eggs. Then beat in the yoghurt, vanilla extract, and orange zest. Slowly drizzle in the oil as you beat the wet ingredients.

Fold in half of the dry ingredients, mix with a rubber spatula until just incorporated, and fold in the other half and do the safe. Do not over mix.

Lastly, add in the carrots and stir until just mixed.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, checking at 35 mins. Poke a skewer or toothpick in the middle of the cake and it should come out clean once it's done. If there's wet batter sticking to the skewer, bung back into the oven for another 10 minutes and check again.

Once the cake is done, let it cook in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and let cool completely.

Frosting: 

Whisk/beat/mix cream cheese, yoghurt and honey until it's well mixed. Set in the fridge for 30 mins to let it set a little. Spread the cream cheese frosting in between the two layers of cake and the top, spreading to the sides if there's enough. Top with toasted pecan bits if preferred.

Note: if the cream cheese topping is too thick, then add a little milk of choice to thin it out

Kitchen Trails - Banana Butter

This is so simple to make. And it's healthy and super yumms

2 ripe bananas, blitzed or thoroughly mashed

Juice of 1/4 lemon

Coconut palm sugar syrup 2 tbsp


Add all the ingredients in a small pot, and cook over small flame, stirring constantly. Cook for about 5 mins, and then turn off the flame and let cool.

Can be kept in the fridge for up to 1 week (if it even doesn't finish in that time, hehehe)

Kitchen Trails - Coconut Palm Sugar Syrup

This is syrup made with pure gula melaka (coconut palm sugar). You can find coconut palm sugar in the supermarket, though most of those has added fillers and cane sugar. I was lucky enough to get my supply of gula melaka in its pure form, with no adder filler, sugar, and whatnots. 

Gula Melaka has a much lower glycemic index, and is suitable even for some diabetics (please do talk to your doctor if you are diabetic and would like to try the gula melaka). It's not lower in calories than other sugars tho, diet watchers, do take note.

It has a smokey caramelised aroma, and it goes really well with coffee. I take my tea with it as well. And I use it in a lot of my baking.

In its solid form, it's not too hard, and will crumble if you pinch some of it between your fingers. I normally store mine in a air-tight container in the fridge. 

I buy my gula melaka by the kg, and it comes in about 3-4 cylindrical blocks per kg. 

To make the gula melaka syrup, I put one cylinder block into a small pot and add about 1/4 cup of water. Using a low flame, let the gula melaka melt, stirring occasionally with a spoon. Be careful, because it can bubble up and splatter, and boiling sugar can burn you!

Once all the gula melaka has melted, I use a fine metal strainer and strain it into a glass bottle and let cool on the counter. It will thicken further as it cools. Once it's cool, store in the fridge.

On how much water to add, it can be from a few tablespoons to 1/2 cup, depending on what the syrup is used for. If only very little water is added, do keep a constant eye when melting down the gula melaka, as it can get burnt when all the moisture evaporates.

Happy Well - A Good Cry Does Wonders

A Simple Reminder from Buddha Doodles

Sometimes a good, ugly cry does wonders for the soul. People can be mean not only by saying or doing nasty things. Callous attitude, or just by exclusion can be as toxic and hurtful as sticks, stones, and words. This happen to me this morning. And it always hurts more if it's done to me by someone I care about. The more I care about that person, the worse it affects me. I had always made excuses when this kind of callousness and exclusion happens to me and mine. Today's incident was a lesson long time coming. Lesson of letting go.

I had a good cry just now. The kind of ugly sobbing with the scrunched up face, snot bubbling out of the nostrils and running down into the mouth, the kind where it can actually cause a headache and leaves me looking puffy. I have not had a good sob in a long, long time. Too long. And it was therapeutic and cleansing.

I find it very hard to not let people, words, actions, and just about anything, affect me. I am learning to let go. It's almost impossible for me. I have to be mindful that I have to let go, and in being mindful of that, makes me think and ponder about it, and hence it becomes a cycle. I am learning to box that toxicity up, and STEP AWAY from it, and leave it behind in my mind. Know that it happened, not ignoring it, but leaving it behind in my life path. Something like, mentally picturing putting it in a box, closing it up, and putting it at the side of the road, and walking away, moving forward in my journey. This kinda works for me at the moment. I am still learning.

Happy Well - My journey continues

I was just having a WhatsApp convo with my doc ( Doc Sue from Klinik Genesis in SS19 Subang is such a darling. She's a great listener, she's got great intuition, she's caring and she's so funny.. I call her my angel and she cheekily said that she can be secretly devilish - how not to love a cheeky funny doctor like that!!), oh yeah, I have now been diagnosed with Costochondritis, Hypothyroid and low progesterone. Yup yup, new conditions, meh. Even my 7 year old asked me why I have so many conditions 😳😳

I have started taking natural thyroid (you can also Google Armour Thyroid), and Natural Progesterone for my newly diagnosed conditions. As for the Costo, I now know my own physical limits, and not push it, especially when I am having a flare up. Gentle yoga and stretches during those times for me.

Anyways, back to our WhatsApp convo.. she said something that hit me with twanging and resounding clarity. She said she hopes that I will be my old self soon, and that I will embrace my new journey. Embrace. I do look forward to being my old self, more carefree, less anxious, and happier. And I am excited to embrace my journey to a better self as well.

Kitchen Trails - Bananas, peanut butter pancakes

Who doesn't like pancakes? err.... actually, me. I don't don't like pancakes, but just prefer waffles much more. But this one? I lurrrrrve....

The kids love it too, especially when I add in some chocolate chips.

This is a much more healthier pancake as it uses oat flour instead of flour.

2 bananas, mashed up

Peanut butter,  if you eyeball it like me: about 4 heaped tablespoons

2 eggs

1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk of choice. Add to get the consistency needed. For me, it's the the consistency of thick cream.

About 2 tbsp of honey

a pinch of salt

2 cups Oat flour - I just blitz some organic rolled oats to make oat flour. You can use oats as well instead of oat flour

Mix everything together until it's thoroughly combined. Dollop a couple of tablespoonfuls into a pan or skillet on low heat and cook on one side for about 2 mins and then turn over and cook the other side. I used a small 10cm non stick pan to cook the pancakes one by one. I normally do not use non stick pans for cooking, I prefer stainless steel ones. But because I don't use any oil or butter to coat the pan for the pancakes, cooking this on my stainless steel pan would be a pain in the butt. 

You can top it with fruits, jam/preserves, nuts, honey or maple syrup, etc, etc. Pretty much whatever tickles your fancy. Here I only used pure maple syrup

Enjoy!!

Kitchen Trails - Hummus

Hummus. Mmmmyumyum. I eat it as a dip, with pita or wraps, part of a salad dressing, as a spread. There's so many ways to enjoy the delicious and healthy Hummus

Hummus is super easy to prepare. I did mine with dried chickpeas instead of canned ones. Just 2 extra steps, soaking overnight and boiling them.

I prefer dried chickpeas to canned because I would rather not have any preservatives of any kind, and I can adjust the salt content. Canned chickpeas can always be used to save of these 2 extra steps, or if you want to eat it NOW, as soaking takes at least 8 hours for me.

For Hummus, you'll need:

250g dried chickpeas, rinsed and soaked for 8 hours or overnight in salted (about 1 tsp) water that covers and at least 2 inches above the level of the chick peas. You'll need enough water as the chickpeas expand A LOT. After soaking, rinse the chickpeas well and put in a pot and add 2 tsp of salt and enough water to cover at least 2 inches above the chick peas. Bring to a boil and turn down the flame to a simmer and let cook for about 40 minutes. Once done, drain the chickpeas and keep about 1 cup of the liquid. If you are using canned chickpeas, keep the liquid from the can

2 - 4 cloves of garlic, depending on preference

Olive oil, about 1/3 cup, depending on preference

Juice of 1 lemon

Paprika powder for a bit of heat. I used about 1 tsp. Can be omitted

Cumin powder, about 1 tsp, depending of preference. Cumin is pretty aromatic and pungent, so use according to your own taste

Liquid from the chickpes, add to loosen the consistency of the Hummus, add a little by a little during blitzing until it comes to a consistency that you prefer. Some like it very thick, and some like it to be more runnier

Salt to taste. Add at the end as the liquid from the chickpeas will be salty as well.

Blitz everything together. Done :) Keep chilled in the fridge.

Notes:
- you can add different things to the Hummus to make variations of the basic recipe. Bell peppers, celery, chillies instead of paprika powder, different spices or herbs. Or even veggies like spinach and kale, to make it a Hummus-Pesto