Guest Blog "The Whimsical Wife"

Hi everyone – thank you to Collette for allowing me to write a guest post here at Cut out the Crap.

I came across Collette’s first book Cut out the Crap a few years ago and have followed her journey from her first book Cut out the Crap to her current book she is writing. It has been wonderful to watch her readership grow and also see all the gorgeous healthy recipes she posts here.

Who am I you may ask? My name is Melissa and I write a blog called The Whimsical Wife. I am a wife and mummy to a cute 5 ½ month old baby whom I refer to as J.D.  He is our miracle baby and I can only describe the 4 ½ year long journey to conceive him as the hardest thing I have ever experienced!  You can read about my fertility journey here. We live in Toowoomba, Queensland on an acre block with a dog called Abby and five chooks, two of which like to fly to coup everyday – must get their wings clipped! My passions in life are baking, creating and decorating – and food photography! On my blog I write about furniture and house renovations, craft and decorating ideas and my favourite subject of all cooking!

I am dairy intolerant which is why I love Collette’s blog so much. I was diagnosed with dairy intolerance at the age of 23 so I knew what I was missing out on when I had to stop eating all those good things that contain dairy – ice-cream, chocolate, yoghurt, cheesecake just to name a few. After slowly learning different dairy alternatives I started creating dishes that I could eat again although lasagne and pizza will never be the same.

I try to eat as healthy as possible and my approach to eating is a wholefoods, unprocessed, natural way. We have a large vegetable patch and mini orchard which we love to grow a lot of our own fruit and vegetables in. This saves us a lot of money on our grocery bill and we also know that it is home grown, organic and freshly picked that afternoon when it lands on our plates. I love growing heirloom varieties of vegetables such as purple carrots or golden beetroot. I try to create recipes from this fresh seasonal produce to feature on my blog. I include a variety of recipes on my blog ranging from super dooper healthy to downright naughty. Not all are allergy friendly though.

That being said I still LOVE my treats on occasions and I try to “healthify” the naughtiest ones in my own way. The recipe I am sharing with you today is my “No Ordinary Brownie”. This dazzling chocolate brownie contains no refined sugars and is dairy and gluten free. It has all the qualities that a good brownie should have – fudgy and chocolaty with a smattering of nuts throughout it, without the nasties!

No Ordinary Chocolate Brownie

By The Whimsical Wife

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients (15 pieces)

Wet ingredients:

1 cups dates, roughly chopped

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp Bicarb soda

2 cup pumpkin puree (approx 600g pumpkin boiled, cooled, mashed)

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2/3 cup almond milk (or normal milk)

1/2 cup agave syrup (or honey, melted)

2 tsp vanilla extract

125g sugar free, dairy free chocolate, melted – optional if you can find it I didn’t use it in my second batch and it tasted fine. Just less chocolaty!

Dry ingredients

2/3 cup coconut flour

3/4 cup baking cocoa (I use nestle)

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped (or macadamias could be used instead)

1/2 cup stevia powder (or any other sweetener alternative)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175 degrees

Grease and line a lamington slice tray.

In an electric blender place the chopped dates, boiling water and Bicarb soda. Let this sit for 5 minutes to soften. Blend into a puree and place into a small bowl.

In the same small bowl place in the remaining wet ingredients and mix to combine. Set aside.

In a large bowl sift the cocoa, coconut flour, salt and baking powder. Place the stevia and walnuts into the bowl along with the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Place mixture into the slice tin and smooth down the surface.

Place in oven for 30 minutes and remove. Cool completely before slicing.

Serve with a sprinkling of cocoa and a dollop of natural yoghurt (or ice cream if you feel naughty)

For a really quick healthy chocolate sauce recipe see below:

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil, melted
2 ½ – 3Tbsp Cocoa powder, unsweetened
2 Tbsp Agave syrup

Mix it all together in a bowl and spoon over warmed brownie! Delicious!

I hope you brownie lovers out there will give it a go and claim back your favourite dessert! Thanks again to Collette for allowing me to post here and I hope that you all will pop in and say Hi at The Whimsical Wife.

https://www.facebook.com/thewhimsicalwife

Love, Melissa x

Guest Blog "The Whimsical Wife"