I know, most of us are still in our first few weeks of our New Year’s Resolutions and even so, enthusiasm is waning. Eating healthily shouldn’t be a burden but it sometimes is, especially when confronted with delicious food. A friend asked me to make her some muffins, low in fat and high in fibre for she was absolutely gung ho about her NY resolution to lose some kgs.  I humoured her for a while thinking that it would pass but when she kept asking me I realised that she was serious. This New Year’s Resolution was going to stay, however unwelcome it was.

I had made low-fat items before and I knew the best way to reduce oils was with apples or apple sauce. With the fibre I could have added some All Bran but I never have any in the cupboard as I think it tastes only marginally better than the cardboard box it comes in. Then I remembered I was sent a bottle of Fibresure along with a Donna Hay Cupcake kit and a baking tray. Aha by George I think I had my recipe! This recipe is adapted from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious book in which she suggests ways of incorporating vegetables into dishes. This one has pureed carrot in it although you could substitute it for pureed squash or leave it out altogether as the Fibresure ensures that there’s plenty of fibre adding 20 grams of fibre.

I won’t lie, these aren’t exactly like regular muffins, I don’t think it’s possible to make them with that crumbly, buttery texture without a lot of butter and oil but they’re not bad, especially with the buttery, sweet streusel topping. It all depends on your expectation too. I had friends baulk at the Jessica Seinfeld Spinach brownies only because they had expected a chocolatey, gooey brownie which of course you’ll never get unless you add a lot of butter, sugar and eggs. But if you want something healthy that taste good and wholesome these will definitely satisfy a sugar craving.

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Each year for Christmas, we go to the Blue Mountains and rent a house to stay in. And every year I’ve brought a batch of my own Home Made Muesli or Granola so that the healthy eaters can have it for breakfast. Don’t worry, there’s also sky high stacks of french toast and pancakes made, we’re not all virtuous at this time of year. Last year I made a cranberry, macadamia and yogurt coated berry version of this but this year I thought I’d make it a bit more tropical, a toasted muesli studded with dried mango, macadamia and coconut.

Most toasted mueslis or granolas spray the oats with oil so that they crisp up nicely but this also means that the healthy breakfast you were seeking is effectively negated by the generous spraying of oil. Not this one, it gets its crunchy texture via apple juice.I don’t want to give any claims or low fat since the nuts and seeds have fat in them(but the healthy kind) but the fact is that this is free of all added fat. It’s not exactly low in sugar with the amount of honey and sugar in it but I’ll take what I can at this point. It’s fabulously filling and low GI which means that a small bowl will sustain you easily until lunch. If I have a medium sized bowl I sometimes find I don’t even get the urge to have lunch but of course my eyes take over and I see something that I just must eat.

This also makes the most delicious Bircher Muesli, that lovely juice and yogurt soused breakfast. The apple juice and yogurt also plumps up the fruit and gives it a gorgeously cooling quality in the hot weather. A quick way to Bircher-ify your muesli is to take a cup of the muesli, mix in  1 1/2 tablespoons of yogurt (I used a Hastings Valley honey yogurt my friend Lou gave me but plain unsweetened yogurt is also fine) and 1/4 cup of apple juice. Cover and refrigerate overnight and in the morning, it’s absolutely delicious. I make this when I feel like something sweet and dessert like and save the regular crunchy muesli for when I yearn for some crunch. And I find that this coffee cup always makes me smile in the morning. It has the famous Oscar Wilde quote “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast”. As someone that loves their sleep a bit too much, I wholeheartedly agree.

Bircher Muesli

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My husband is what I affectionately refer to as a “fruit bat”. He is simply mad for the stuff, in dried or fresh form, his request for Christmas every year is a fruit basket and a fruit cake. And forget eating a dainty slice with tea, the whole cake can and has been consumed in less than a day. We recently went to a lunch after friend’s baby’s baptism and they brought out a lovely home made fruit cake. I placed a firm hand on his arm and said “NO honey, leave some for everyone else” and like a puppy chastised he looked sheepish and sank back down in his chair. I’m sure he had dreams of taking that cake and running away with it.

I had originally bought him the jar of mincemeat for him to eat with a spoon and a grin on his face but I forgot about it in the cupboard. And lucky I did as I needed it to whip up a quick fruit cake. Nigella’s recipe is a ludicrously easy fruit cake at that that you could possibly whip up with what you have in the cupboard plus a jar of mincemeat (I’m not assuming everyone has mincemeat in their cupboard). I looked at another of Nigella’s recipes and it required 2 weeks of soaking that I didn’t have so this was an easy decision. The cake itself is not exactly like a fruit cake in look although a bite into it and it does taste very fruit cakey. I didn’t find that there wasn’t quite enough fruit so I’d suggest adding either more mincemeat or soaking some fruit briefly to plump it up and then adding it in. Still, for the amount of effort, it’s a pretty good cake. I loved the look of Nigella’s Jewelled cupcakes so I used her cues for decorating it.

It was also a good choice to take with us on the long 6 hour drive to the snow for his birthday as it transports easily and is a “hardy” choice (i.e. no delicate layers, no cream). Other fantastic goodies that were cooked up to stave off the Winter chills were Swedish Mulled Wine by my Sister in Law and Finnish Split pea soup by my Mother in Law. I couldn’t have asked for better or more delicious ways to warm up after a day in the snow.

I intersperse the recipes with some photos of the snowfall-apparently, this years snowfall was the best in five years!

Ribena Snow Cone using fresh powdery snow!

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