Category Archives: Baking

One of my New Year’s resolutions is healthy eating – eat more legumes and beans for extra carbohydrates!

My diet was not that great a few years back. Poor body image and not fully understanding what balanced diet is resulted me in having very low carb and no fat diet, avoiding grains, nuts and seeds, and dairy products completely. Years of mistreating my body caused more damage than I thought. I consider myself healthy, but not real healthy. I’m still in the progress of recovery inside out and try to respect my body more. Anyways I will try to eat more carbs and good fat this year to put on healthy weight 🙂

I’m a huge fan of chickpeas. Not only are they cute and yummy but also have so much goodness in them. They are totally wheat/ gluten free, high in protein, zinc, folate and fibre. They are super versatile in both cooking and baking. Healthy dip, hummus, is one of my favorite snacks on crunch veggie sticks. Socca, flattened bread made of chickpea flour, is great alternative for tortilla. They are also great for salads, casseroles and soups. Chickpea flour can be added to make muffins and cakes in gluten free baking.

I made roasted chickpeas for snack this morning. If you need a great snack on the go, it is quick and easy to make, healthy and flavoursome. I soaked half cup of chickpeas overnight, cooked them in boiling water for 15 minutes until they soften up. I massaged them with a teaspoon of coconut oil, sprinkle of cinnamon powder, cayenne powder and sea salt, then baked them in 180 degrees oven for about 20 minutes (agitate them every 5 minutes). You can be creative when adding spices depending on your taste buds, such as chilli flakes, curry powder, cumin, smoked paprika, lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, etc. Keep them in airtight container once cooled down and eat within a few days.

I’m not really into sweet foods and never order cakes or cookies at the cafe. Having said that, I do have a morning/ afternoon slump when I don’t eat snacks. So I tend to make some muffins and bars and keep them in the freezer so that I can easily grab when I feel like one.

These cookies are gluten free and sugar free. I used…

4 eggs
75g coconut flour
one heap spoon of cinnamon powder
one teaspoon of ground nutmeg
one teaspoon of fennel seeds
one teaspoon of coconut oil
pinch of salt
pinch of chai tea ground
You can add honey or coconut sugar or maple syrup or whatever you have in your pantry for sweetness (optional)

I mixed all ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding a teaspoon of brewed chai tea a little at a time until I get a right consistency to make a cookie dough. Roll them up and bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven (180). It turned out to be perfect 10 lovely balls.

Cinnamon is one of my favourite spices. I sprinkle ground cinnamon pretty much everywhere both in savoury and sweets. I mix cinnamon, ginger and honey to make a nice warm tea. Definitely love using cinnamon when making home-made muffins and bars. For savoury use, it is also great in curries, sauté vegetables, tagines, braising meat and so on. You can create Moroccan/ Middle Eastern inspired dishes at home. Apparently you can use as a room spray as well, which I haven’t tried yet. Ah, we have a cool cinnamon drink in Korea, too. Boil water, cinnamon sticks, slices of ginger and brown sugar in a pot until all flavours come together for about 30 minutes. Cool it down and keep it in the fridge. It is so refreshing and hydrating when drunk cool.

Cinnamon has been used since Ancient Egypt as a medical source. Amazing health benefits of cinnamon include regulating blood sugar (thus good for diabetes), reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, fighting against fungal infection, boosting brain function, effective for menstrual pain and infertility and warming effect (good for a cold and flu). It is by far one of the super foods and I swear by it. I just had two of those balls with cinnamon tea for morning snack and it is hard to resist to go for another one. Delicious!