Fruit & Seed Bites

I've been trying to find new ways of getting plant based protein into the kids, particularly my daughter who struggles with meat and point blank refuses fish. (Let's face it, fish refluxed back up afterwards is not pleasant....!) I have made coconut protein bites in the past but they contain egg, which doesn't suit everyone - and are quite sugar heavy.

So these came about after baking with seeds, dried fruit etc in the style of "Deliciously Ella" but using ingredients I had in the cupboard. I've made these a variety of ways, listed below.

Prune, Seed and Cashew Bites

120g prunes - make sure they are juicy ones, not too dry

1 tbsp chia seeds - these help bind the mixture as they swell in water

120g cashew nuts

handful of seeds - I used pumpkin and sunflower

1 tbsp nut butter or tahini (I used cashew butter, if you can have soya but not nuts try Wowbutter)

2 tsp honey

Whizz the seeds and nuts in a food processor until crushed. Add all the other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Date, Almond and Seed Bites

120g plump dates 

Handful of seeds - I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp almond butter or tahini

120g ground almonds

2 tsp honey

Whizz the seeds and chia seeds together in the blender until crushed. Add the ground almonds and all other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Fig, Oat and Seed Bites

100g rolled oats - NB not porridge oats

120g plump dried figs with stalks removed

Handful of seeds - I used sunflower and pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds 

1 tbsp tahini or similar butter

Whizz the oats, seeds and chia seeds in the blender until crushed but not quite a flour consistency. Add all other ingredients and blend until the mixture becomes sticky, then form into balls and chill.

Tip - You can pretty much add whatever you like to these, just ensure the mixture is sticky enough to combine. Macadamia nuts, almonds, pine nuts..... all possibly and can be combined with various "butters" and syrups. Just try and keep the ratios fairly constant. You could even roll them in icing sugar or cocoa for a special treat and can substitute some of the dry ingredients for protein powders if desired.

Coconut Almond "Protein Power" Bites

Actually the title should say "Coconut, Almond and Cranberry "Protein Power" Bites" but they are optional and interchangeable with other fried fruit you might prefer. (Cranberries are really good with coconut though!)

These are NOT egg free, but I have challenged myself to try new protein powders as my daughter's dietician is concerned that her restrictive diet and difficulty swallowing meat in combination have produced some mildly concerning blood test results.

So we are "on a mission" to boost her protein intake. There are a couple of options which suit those with food allergies and sensitive stomachs. Pea Protein or Rice Protein powder. (It is important to try as pure a protein powder as possible, our dietician is an expert and recommended that brown rice protein powder to us.)

My daughter can tolerate egg, which again adds to the protein content so I revisited my Tiana coconut flour recipes and decided to alter this one. I swapped a few things around and this is what I came up with:-

Tip - I really recommend getting hold of some cup measures as it makes life a lot easier! All Tiana recipes are in cups.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sifted Tiana flour
• 1/2 cup of chopped almonds (I used flaked today as I was out of chopped)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup pea protein powder
• 2 tablespoons almond milk
• 1/2 cup cranberries

Method

• Nothing very scientific here, I have a Kenwood mixer and I just chucked it all....... and blitzed it!
• BUT - and it's a big BUT, Tiana flour takes a little while to soak up the liquid and start working. Leave it for 10 minutes before the next step. Really.

You might need to add a little more almond milk, if you want "bites" it needs 

to still be relatively stiff, like these 

You could make them more moist and then let them bake as cookies - they will be less soft.

• Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes.

My suspicious little monkey agreed to tentatively try one.....

Let me know how your little ones get on with this recipe - and big apologies to those who cannot eat eggs....

Chocolate Nutty Crunchies

This recipe is from the "Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook" by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger. It's a book I have more recently got to grips with, the breakthrough moment was buying myself a set of cook's measuring cups so I wasn't trying to convert all the time..... genius lol.

This recipe is MEWS free, but DOES CONTAIN NUTS. If you tolerate coconut I'm pretty sure you could swap the nuts for desiccated coconut. I didn't have whole nuts to blitz in the food processor in any case, so I substituted ground almonds.

My biggest problem was stopping myself eating the dough, it's DELICIOUS. Seriously more-ish!

Ingredients

1 cup (175 grams) safe chocolate chips. (Dark chocolate would be less sweet)
1 3/4 cups (250g) almonds (I used ground almonds, desiccated coconut would work fine)
1/3 cup (70g) sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 teaspoon powdered vanilla or vanilla essence
2 egg whites, or 2 eggs' worth of egg replacer.  I made the egg free version.

Method

Weight and place the chocolate into the food processor.
TIP: If you use a block, break into squares first and be prepared for a lot of noise, but it works fine.

Weigh and add the sugar, almonds and vanilla essence, then mix.

Add the egg whites or egg replacer and mix to form a smooth dough.

Form the dough into balls approx 2cm across according to the recipe, although mine were a little larger. It says to leave plenty of room between them on the tray - which i did, but they didn't spread much.

Bake at 180C for 8 minutes (recipe says) but mine took a few mins longer. I also used a metal spatula to flatten them a little as the balls didn't melt down on their own - probably because I used the ground almonds.

Leave to cool. Try and resist eating and they *might* keep in an air tight box for a fortnight. but I doubt it...... Truly scrummy!

Nutty Biscuits CONTAIN NUTS & EGG WHITE

These are really nice, and don't taste like the usual free from biscuits, more like regular nut biscuits. The method is quite different as you cut into fingers/shapes once baked. I don't usually post recipes which cannot be made MEWS free, and I doubt these could be egg free, but many people struggle to get adequate protein in their little ones, many of whom struggle with meat. So IF you are OK with egg white and nuts, these are great!

Ingredients

125g ground almonds
125g ground hazelnuts
100g sugar
1 egg white

Method

Mix together, spread thinly on a baking tray, bake for 12 minutes at 200.
Cut into shapes when warm.