Paleo Pumpkin Soup

My husband is trialing a new diet so tonight I jumped on board and we all ate the same thing - Pumpkin Soup.  It is the same as the recipe from my cookbook except that I left out adding the milk at the end of cooking time.  The beauty of the recipe is that is tastes delicious and only uses 4 ingredients.

Quick, easy, cheap & very healthy - what more could you want!!

I hope your family love it!
Amanda

Paleo Pumpkin Soup

• 1.4 kg Jap or Kent pumpkin (peeled & chopped)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 large onion, diced
• 150g bacon pieces

1) In a large saucepan over high heat, add pumpkin & chicken stock. Bring to the boil then reduce to medium heat and let the pumpkin boil away.

2) In a large microwave bowl, add onion & bacon.  Cover with plastic wrap &              microwave on high for 2 mins.  Stir, then microwave for a further 2 mins.

3) Add onion & bacon mixture to the boiling pumpkin & stir through.  When pumpkin is soft, use a stick mixer and blend up the contents of the saucepan until smooth.  If too thick, add more water. 

5) Serve immediately or cover & refrigerate until required.  Reheat in                           microwave or on stove top.

FREEZING - pumpkin soup can be stored in airtight container & frozen for up to 6 months.   Thaw in fridge & reheat in microwave or over stove top. 

Homemade Vanilla Custard

I love homemade vanilla custard and yes... I have a thermomix to do it for me but I wanted to show you that it is so easy to make at home without a thermomix.  With minimal ingredients and only 15 mins, the end result is a beautiful custard that you can eat warm or cold poured over your favourite treat.  My favourite would have to be vanilla custard poured over sliced banana - YUM!!

Enjoy,
Amanda

HOMEMADE VANILLA CUSTARD
15 mins from start to finish

• 2 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 3 Tbspn cornflour
• 3 Tbspn raw sugar (or any sugar you prefer)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, add eggs, milk and cornflour.  Whisk together until smooth.

2. Over high heat, whisk the mixture until it starts to heat up.  Once the temp of the milk increases and the mixture starts to thicken, reduce to low/med heat and whisk until thick & creamy. This will take approx 7 mins. 

3. Remove from heat & whisk in sugar and vanilla.  Add extra sugar if you like it sweeter. 

4. Eat warm or place into a bowl & refrigerate until cold. To stop a skin from forming over the top, cover with cling wrap & let the cling wrap sit on the surface of the custard as show in the picture below.  When you remove from the fridge, it will be thick so you will need to give it a good whisk to remove any lumps & make it smooth & creamy.

Sugar free chocolate cupcakes

This is a new one for me that I have adapted from a Paleo recipe. They turned out fantastic which is great considering they have no butter and sugar - my main staples for a cupcake recipe. 

I substituted some ingredients for those that are readily available to everyone to make a simple recipe with ingredients in your pantry. 

I hope you enjoy them as much as my children did today.  I did drizzled them with chocolate icing though...

Enjoy,

Amanda

Sugar free chocolate cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups self raising flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup hot water

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Line a 12 capacity cupcake tin with cases.

Step 2 - In a large bowl, sift flour, cocoa & baking powder.  Add coconut oil, egg, honey and hot water.  Beat with an electric mixer until very well combined.  The mixture will appear quite runny.

Step 3 - Pour the mixture into a jug.  This makes it easier to pour into the cupcakes.  Fill each case to ¾ full.  

Step 4 - Bake in preheated oven for 16 - 18 mins or until cooked through.