Almond chickpea cookies with chia seeds and dark choc buttons

My girlfriend Stella is going on a hectic trip around Asia, leaving today so when we met up on the weekend i just had to make her some going away treats to enjoy for her last weekend in Sydney.

She can't eat anything gluten so lately i have been saving lots of gluten free baking recipes in Evernote (i strongly recommend using Evernote its just a neat little program that lets you save pages or sections on the internet for viewing later on). This is one of the recipes i had in mind for her, these are gluten free and vegan (except i didnt use vegan chocolate)

I recently switched to almond butter instead of peanut butter but i didn't take a liking to it .. so I'm back to KRAFT's crunchy PB :) So i had exactly half a cup of almond chia seed spread enough for this recipe!

These are incredibly simple to make. In comparison to other flours, chickpea flour has a higher protein count, and also i just found out that when you mix equal parts with water - it becomes an egg replacer in vegan cooking!

I love the sprinkle of almond meal and sea salt on top before baking, this really gives it another dimension of yummy. But ofcourse you can keep them plain and simple and omit the chocolate chips as well.

Recipe from familyfreshcooking.com

Almond Chickpea Cookies

Makes about 14 cookies

NOTES:

If you do not have garbanzo flour you could also try using oat flour or corn flour. Here is how to make roasted or unroasted chickpea flour at home.

I used smooth natural salted almond butter. Crunchy would be tasty too. Be sure to stir in all the oil that has risen to the top of the jar so you can easily combine the nut butter into the batter.

Add some chocolate chips for a slightly more indulgent cookie.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Garbanzo (Chickpea) Flour

1 cup Brown Rice Flour (i used rice flour)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 teaspoon fine Sea Salt

1/2 cup Almond Butter (i used almond chia seed butter)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

4 full droppers Plain Stevia Drops or an equivalent of 4 teaspoons sugar

3/4 cup light unsweetened Coconut Milk

OPTIONAL GARNISH

1/4 cup Almond Flour

a few pinches of fine Sea Salt

a sprinkle of Sucanat or Stevia Powder

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350˚F with the rack in the middle.

Prepare cookie sheet with Silpat or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients.

In another bowl mix together wet ingredients.

Combine wet and dry ingredients to form a batter.

Taste the batter and add more sweetener if desired.

Make cookie shapes with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter per cookie.

Flatten with your hands and press almond meal into the tops.

Sprinkle on some salt.

Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.

Let the cookies cool for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

Enjoy!

Stella i hope you have an awesome trip around Asia, lots of eating sight seeing and back packing around, see you when you get back xx


And also, you might have heard of a new frozen yogurt joint in Strathfield (maybe not new, but it was new to me!) it's called MOOCHI and its a small shop with limited tables but always has a line but its totally worth the wait!

On the night that i went they had yogurt flavours plain, green tea, pomegranate, and ?, but we were told they change the flavours around and have also had mango at one point (yum!)

They have mini, small, medium and large sizes i think, the large one is pretty big i noticed a few people got them in take away. There are lots of different topping options (all 50 cents each topping) they had lots of fruits, marshmallows, chocolate chips, biscuits, cereal toppings, very very exciting but for indecisive people like me it can be a bit of a head ache haha.

(left cup) berry and pomegranate yogurt with strawberries

Shop 1, 7-9 Churchill Ave Strathfield NSW 2135 info@iheartmoochi.com.au

(front cup) green tea yogurt with strawberries and lychee

Armchair Collective (Monavale)

My bestfriend friend took me to a local cafe in her area called "Armchair Collective" for brunch a few months ago - i absolutely loved it! Inside the cafe there are lots of things on display for purchase like kitchen accessories, homewares, flowers, everything interior. They also had an assortment of cakes, breads & muffins to choose from take away or eat-in (with a coffee would be perfect!)

It was about 11am on a saturday morning and the shop was bustling with families, couples, a few people looked like they had just finished a jog or came from the gym, a very positive vibe in the air everyone was chirpy with smiles on their faces, a really great atmosphere for catching up.

I really loved all the flowers that were around, its such a smart way to brighten up the cafe/shop, and to have them available for purchase too, we had this white lily(?) on our table which was sooo pretty.

It took about 15 minutes before we got a table, after a lot of eye hawking people to finish their meals, standing close by looking at things so we didn't look suspicious of stealing their table as soon as they stood up to leave (haha, it felt a bit wierd doing this but it was the only way to get a table!)

soy mocha

A really lovely mocha which i wish was served in a bigger cup! hehe.

pot of chai tea $4.50

This was served in a very stylish set up: on a wooden board with a funny tea pot (that yielded 3-4 cups of tea) with two mini dishes of honey and cinnamon. I didn't try any but Ann is a huge lover of chai and she gave this a thumbs up.

spicy scrambled eggs on soy linseed toast w spinach avocado + roasted tomatoes $16

My eggs were scrambled nicely but i saw no hint of spice at all! The spinach was bland (some kind of dressing would be nice) and my avocado half had the little hard head of pip still attached on it (i find this annoying, do you?). Also, my toast was plain i would've liked some butter but at that point i was just too hungry and just dug in.

the collective baked breakfast of eggs, spinach, beans + sausages $18

Ann's meal was quite substantial and at this price i think its reasonable, she couldn't finish the beans or the sausages though, a very big serving indeed.

I'd love to go back one day and try the "brioche french toast w berries, mascarpone + maple syrup $16" as that sounds delicious! And i'd like to have a look at the pots and teapots again, i just love exploring homeware shops i can't wait to have my own home i'll decorate it so nicely!

On a completely different topic (still food though) here are a few different bento boxes i found online- they are sooo adorable!

Healthy toasted coconut muesli

Has it been almost a month? I apologise for disappearing, life has just been a bit crazy, although i won't go into detail.. i will try harder to post more often :)

Inspired by Maria's sugar-free coconut granola, i went out to buy some coconut flakes and made my own version.

What i love about Maria's food blog is not only her photo's (which are always gorgeous) but all her recipes are healthy and good for you, i know she is a bit of a health nut so i have courage in trying her recipes and sharing with my friends who are also health conscious.

What i found about this recipe was that with my oven, it required about 4 times of turning before it got to the colour that i wanted, so you could even turn it once every 15 minutes and you would be safe, it won't burn!

I made 2 batches, one for my lovely couple friend Ann & Chris, (Chris i know likes granola/toasted muesli) and Stella, my girlfriend who cannot eat gluten and so i omitted the quickoats, and so i hope they all like this!

Healthy toasted coconut muesli

1 cup quick oats

125grams coconut flakes

50grams almonds (unroasted)

30grams chia seeds

30grams pepitas

30grams sunflower seeds

35grams coconut oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

(serve with any type of milk that you like)

1. pre-heat oven to 140 C (lower to 120 C if you have a fan forced oven)

2. mix everything together and spread onto a baking tray lined with paper

3. bake and watch it at either 10 or 15 mins and turn batch over with a spatula, and put back into the oven, keep doing this until you get the colour that you want.

* * *

I was a bit bored, so i calculated the kilojoule count and ended up with:

including quick oats 1870kj/100gram serving

without quickoats 1570kj/100gram serving

So even though it is quite high, and a bit higher when you add milk, you will know that your mix has no preservatives, extra sugars, or anything nasty as you have made it all yourself :)