Banana Coconut Cake and CookBlogShare Week 18

If you are a regular reader you will know how I love to experiment with baking. I love trying out new ingredients, especially healthier options and super foods.

So when Indigo Herbs asked me if I would like to try some of their organic, gluten free baking ingredients I could not wait to get experimenting and baking. When the products arrived I was delighted to see that it included some of my favourite ingredients, coconut products! I have recently discovered both coconut flour and coconut oil and have enjoyed baking with them both. I was excited to see that they had also sent me some coconut sugar which is an ingredient which I have not used before but have wanted to try out. If you are using coconut flour for the first time it is important to remember that coconut flour has a completely different consistency to regular flour. It is much more absorbent so requires more liquid and/or extra eggs. It is great to use as an addition to other flours. In this recipe I have combined it with gluten free rice flour and it has worked perfectly.

Indigo Herbs are an online shop where you can find any health food supplements that you may need. It is full of foods and tips to help you have a healthier lifestyle and include more superfoods in your everyday diet. I can see this being an online shop that we will continue to order from for the supplements that we love to add to our foods.

I really did enjoy baking with the coconut products and will admit that this was my second attempt at the cake. As I mentioned before, coconut flour behaves differently to regular flour and my first cake was too dense so after a few adjustments I found the perfect recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do and I look forward to sharing more coconut recipes with you!

This is what I did...

Organic Carrot and Lentil Soup - Aldi Organic Range

September has been Organic month and I have trying to swap some of our everyday foods for organic alternative. During the month I have found that some ingredients have been expensive to swap and we simply cannot make a permanent change, especially when, like us and most families, money is tight and you need to budget. So when I was contacted and asked if I would like to try some organic products from Aldi I was curious and could not wait to see what they had to offer.

I will admit that I have never done a weekly shopping trip at Aldi before so this was going to be a completely new experience. I have, of course, seen the television adverts about their prices and have heard many people talk about how much money they saved. But for me, saving money is not everything, the quality of food is much more important. As a mum, wife and food blogger I am passionate about good food and good quality is everything.

When I heard that Aldi were starting to introduce their own affordable organic range this certainly sparked my interest. If I was able to buy organic, all of the time, at affordable prices I definitely would.

Organic Mince Beef Pie

This month is Organic September!

I have been challenged to create a meal using just organic ingredients and to show you that not all organic ingredients are expensive.

Eating organic can be done cheaper than you may think.

Now that the weather is turning more autumnal I am steering more towards some good old comfort meals of pies and slow cooker meals. 

So I have decided to make an organic meat pie.

Every single ingredient is organic and when I was shopping I was amazed by how it was not as expensive as I thought it would be. I even discovered that there were some organic products that were actually cheaper than the regular ones!

Organic foods are not just fresh foods. In this recipe I have also used organic flour, frozen peas and stock.

This is what I did...

Fresh, Organic Air Fresher

This year we have planted so many Sweet Peas. They really are beautiful little flowers with a fragrant aroma.
What I did not realise was that the more you cut the flowers, the more you get and was mortified when hubby told me to cut the flowers.
As soon as the sun graced us with its presence they bloomed, it was a much awaited sight to see some colour in the garden. But I did as the hubby said, I got out my scissors and went cutting, the first time I did it was begrudgingly I must admit. I took them in and put them in a glass of water in the lounge. Over the course of the day I was amazed at the beautiful aroma that they gave the room and I soon had the idea of using the abundance of flowers that we are getting and putting them in various rooms around the house and using them as fresh, organic, chemical free air freshners.
I will definitely be suggesting we grow more again next year.