Mint Jelly

I don't know about you, but I can never find gluten free mint sauce or mint jelly for Christmas. In the last few years I've made my own, which has been quite successful.

Ingredients:

375ml white wine vinegar
One gelatin sachet
125 ml boiling water
3/4 cup fresh mint about 3-4 sprigs from the garden
2 tsp caster sugar*

1 large sterile jar (big enough to hold 2.5 cups)

*If you are diabetic you can leave the sugar out.

Method

Assemble your items. Once you pour the boiling water you will need to move quickly.
Chop your mint finely. Once you are happy with the size I put the kettle on to boil with the minimum amount of water allowed, as you will be only using 1/2 a cup.
Have your gelatin sachet and caster sugar ready to go straight in!!!
Pour your boiling water into the heat proof mixing bowl and add the gelatin, stirring with a whisk until it is dissolved.
Add the caster sugar and mix in well.
Once that is dissolved add the finely chopped mint and and white wine vinegar.
Mix thoroughly and then pour into your glass jar.
Seal it and leave it to set in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

I hope you enjoy that. I find it very quick and easy to make. :)

Quinoa Porridge

This recipe is great for a Gluten Free porridge that is warming and yum and very healthy.

Ingredients:
150g Almonds (alternatively you could make a combination of other nuts such as walnuts, pecans or Brazil nuts*)
30g Flax seeds
80g sunflower seeds
100g pepitas
60g chia seeds

1 cup of quinoa flakes
Optional: 1 tablespoon of soy protein powder (this makes it more filling)

685g of fruit e.g. peeled banana (works out to about 1.1kg of unpeeled bananas), stewed or steamed apple and/or pear**, or tinned peaches (drained)

500mls of a non-dairy milk such as soy, almond or coconut milk.

Method:
Weigh in the nut and seed mix to your Bellini/Smith and Nobel/Kogan/Thermomix/Cheapomix/Povomix/Thermofake machine and blend for 30 seconds on speed 8. (For those without in-built scales put your jug on the scales, calibrate it then weigh your seeds and nuts.)

Scrape down the edges with a spatula.

Blend again for 30 seconds on speed 2.

Take 1 cup of the nut and seed mix to cook in this batch and set the rest aside.  Put that 1 cup back into the jug.

Add your cup of quinoa flakes to the thermo jug. Also add soy protein powder here if you are including it.

Peel and add your banana.

Blend on speed 7 for 20 seconds.

Add 2 cups of milk of choice (I currently use So good lite Soy milk because it is low FODMAP).

Cook on speed 2 at 100° for 20 minutes.

Once it's done it's ready to be eaten.

This can be stored in the fridge for a week and reheated in single serves. It's best eaten hot, with cold (soy) milk poured over it.

The left over seed and nut mix keeps well in the fridge for weeks, so next week you can skip the first few steps, or just eat it with yoghurt if the weather has warmed up again.

Special thanks to Kyra who was the master mind behind this recipe. I just tweaked it a little and measured it out.

*If you are on a low FODMAP diet remember that there are restrictions on the amounts of some nuts you can eat, so don't eat a lot if you are making it solely with Almonds. Walnuts, pecans and brazil nuts are the lower FODMAP nuts, but half size serves i.e. 10 almonds or 10 hazel nuts are okay.

**Careful on the fruit too if you are trying to make it low FODMAP as only banana is low FODMAP of the fruits suggested.