When Life Takes Over | Lemony Coconut & Cranberry Macaroons

Wow! Its been about a minute since my last post. Hard to believe how times flies, but sometimes it just can't be helped - especially when life takes over. And in the time I have been AWOL, this blog marked its first anniversary.
In my last blog post, in what seems to feel like a lifetime ago - I confessed how the lovely change in season seems to be an undoing of my self-discipline.
Never mind though, my time away wasn't all about lazing about, but also working on some things that will be shared to all in due course. Watch this space ☺.
The fun part of every changing season, for any foodie, is the thrill of playing on the creativity with seasonal ingredients. So I have returned with a recipe for a quick and easy treat - Macaroons.
This is my version which I have fine tuned from different variations, so feel free to also make something else out of this, if you will.

Ingredients

• 130g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs (Whites only)
• 75g Dried Cranberries (roughly chopped)
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 225g Desiccated Coconut
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Zest of 1 Lemon (finely grated)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
• Line baking tray with baking sheet
• In a large mixing bowl add sugar, egg whites, cranberries, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and salt, and them mix together
• Add in desiccated coconut and mix together until well coated
• Using your finger tips heap a table spoon size of the mixture
• Mould it into a pointed triangular/pyramid mounds
• Arrange the mounds on the lined baking tray - leaving enough space between each 
• Place in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown
• Remove from oven and transfer on to a cooling rack

Makes 44 macaroons

Tip: Can be stored in air tight container for up to a week

Ramblings in Covent Garden

Ok. So I haven't been feeling my kitchen lately, and I have a niggling suspicion that it might have to do with the longer daylight hours gradually creeping in. This now brings to fore my love for rambling through markets - particularly food markets.

Fridge Clearout Recipe | Spicy Prawns Rice Mix

There were two reasons to how I came about with this recipe:

1. It was time for my fridge clearout. I sometimes refer to this as a cleanse
2. I needed something hot and spicy to shift a head cold that suspiciously also feels like hay fever. #Springishere. 

Baking|| Banana Walnut Coconut Chocolate Bread

Banana Walnut Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread

Well its officially now Spring and yep; you read it right and the title says it all. It's another version of Banana Bread folks. The third I have made by my count, which probably makes me bonkers for Banana Bread. One thing they all have in common though is that they have been well received by my privileged circle of critical tasters.
This version however turned out more moist and stickier in comparison with the previous ones I have made. So I recommend allowing it to stand for about an hour before slicing to avoid crumbling.

Tastes of Nostalgia:: Akara/Kosai (Fried Bean Cake)

Akara (Fried Bean Cake)

Referred to as "akara" in southwestern and southeastern parts of Nigeria, and "kosai" in the northern parts. No matter what it is called, it is a very popular breakfast meal which is served alongside corn, millet or sorghum porridge called "ogi"

Baking:: Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Cookies have been a while in coming back on this blog. Simple reason being that, everything just seemed "samey samey" to me. I find that now 6 months into blogging, I have somehow evolved into a form of snack snob - so hard to please!

Now oatmeal cookies have never been a favourite of mine; not sure why, but I think it has always seemed just so boring in flavour.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Whenever I have come across foods that waver within the precipice of not appealing to me, I always feel left out because I seem to be the only one in the universe who ever owns up to not liking the such foods. I mean there has to be someone else out there who finds oatmeal cookies a tad boring!

Ingredients :: Rooibos Tea (Aspalathus Linearis)

Rooibos Tea Leaves

Jams have now featured twice on my blog within the last one month; the latest being the Raspberry & Rooibos Tea Jam. One thing both jam recipes did have in common was the mix of the usual jam ingredients with the unusual. As with my first jam recipe of Strawberry & Roselle Jam, whereby I later touched upon the benefits of the Roselle, I am now highlighting the benefits of the Rooibos tea from the Raspberry & Rooibos tea jam I made recently.

Rooibos tea, otherwise known as Redbush tea, is local South Africa - which was precisely where a dear friend sourced the one used for my jam making from. 

Originally frowned upon as "the poor man's tea", the world has now wisened up to the numerous and proven health benefits of the Rooibos tea, with the lack of caffeine increasing the benefits considerably. 

Cancer: 

Experiments conducted on laboratory rats have shown inhibitions in the growth of oesophageal cancer as well as significant reduction of pre-cancerous lesions

Cardiovascular Health:

Tests conducted on humans showed an increase in anti-oxidant levels in subjects' blood who consumed about 400ml/day; which inhibited the angiotensin converting enzyme associated with cardiovascular diseases

Cholesterol:

It's been proven to reduce the level of "bad cholesterol" while increasing the levels of "good cholesterol"

Mental Well-being:

The high mineral content and lack of caffeine helps to reduce anxiety and sleeplessness

Weight Loss:

It reduces the number and size of fat cells as well as lowering the serum cholesterol (fat in the blood)

Intestinal Inflammation:

The antioxidants soothes gut intestinal inflammation such as Colitis (Inflamed Colon)

In addition to the mentioned benefits, researches have also shown promising and exciting results so far in relation to diabetes - although this is more relatable to the Green Rooibos Tea which is unfermented. 

Sources

Komatsu K, Katro K, Mitsuda Y et al. Inhibitory effects of Rooibos Tea, Asphalathus Linearis, on X- ray induced C3H1OT1/2 cell transformation. Cancer Lett. 1994;77:33-8

Bramati L, Aquilano F, Pietta P. Unfermented Rooibos tea: quantitative characterization of flavonoids. J. Agric. Food Chemistry 2003;51:7472-4

Joubet E, Winterton P, Britz T J et al. Anti-oxidant and pro-oxidant activities of aqueous extracts and crude poly phenolic fraction of Rooibos (Aspathalus Linearis. J. Agric. Food Chemistry 2005;53:10260-7