Recipe: Easy Mummified Bananas for Halloween!

A special thanks to ALDI for sponsoring this recipe!

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Growing up, Halloween wasn't really a thing in Australia - but each year, friends would gather at my house in costume ready for a night of trick or treating. 

A few kids in the neighbourhood went out trick or treating so we joined in on the fun, knocking on the doors of our neighbours, hoping they'd know what Halloween was (because so often we'd be met with confused faces and have to explain why there was a bunch of kids at their door in weird costumes wielding pumpkin shaped buckets on a Tuesday evening) and checking out everyone's costumes as we walked around. 

But the best part of Halloween? Dinner! Each year my Mum would turn ordinary food into something spooky for Halloween. Spaghetti Bolognese became blood and guts, Garlic Bread became Green Ant Bread, Soda Spiders became Witches' Brew - there wasn't anything Pinteresty about it, just a few silly names and a whole lot of imagination. 

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So that's what inspired this recipe. Sure, you can spend hours whipping up elaborate Halloween concoctions, but I thought I'd put together some simple no fuss Halloween treats you can make in minutes - and that the whole family will love. 

These Mummified Bananas are seriously delicious - and healthy too. They're gluten free, egg free, nut free and refined sugar free and you can make them even simpler by using storebought pastry. The pastry recipe I used (and shared below) is super simple too - it's just a matter of adding everything to your food processor or blender and pulsing it until combined before rolling it out, cutting into strips and wrapping your "bandages" around your "mummies". 

A few minutes in the oven and you'll have a delicious Halloween treat that smells incredible and tastes even better.

So let me share the recipe with you! >> 

Recipe: Healthy Chicken Pot Pies (Gluten Free!)

Since we're friends (are we friends? I consider you a friend.... you probably consider me as some kind of weirdo who essentially talks to herself through the internet.... moving on), I think there's something you need to know. 

You see, people ask me all the time how I come up with recipe and post ideas for the blog. 

They look at me expecting some big secret, some fancy formula, some detailed plan of creativity.... but they get the polar opposite. 

You see, friend (I'm calling you my friend, you just play along).... there's no secret. 

9/10 when it comes to creating recipes... I wing it. 

In fact, I wing it so much that I just googled the definition of wing it to ensure that was indeed an accurate description of my throw-everything-together-and-hope-it's-a-success kind of cooking. 

In case you were wondering; to wing it means to improvise. To do something without proper preparation or time to rehearse. That pretty much sums up the scene in our kitchen most days. 

When I decided to make these Healthy Chicken Pot Pies for the first time, I was doing exactly that. You see, I'd never in my life eaten a chicken pot pie, I'd never cooked a chicken pot pie and I'd never actually seen a chicken pot pie in person... but that's what I told Jesse we were having for dinner.

In these situations, there's two end results; I either succeed with no idea how it happened - or I fail miserably. This time I succeeded and seeing as I've made them many many many times since, I thought I'd share this delicious success with you!

So let me share the recipe with you! >> 

Recipe: Healthier Mini Pecan Pies

Hooray! It's November 1st! Do you know what that means? I can now post holiday recipes without looking like a loony ;)

When  I was younger, we were never allowed to do anything Christmas-sy until after November 20th (Katrina's birthday) was over  - but as I got older I stretched that a little bit and began my Christmas baking on November 1st (because I needed to "practice", you see!). 

Christmas is my absolute favourite time and Christmas food is my absolute favourite thing to eat. All year long I wait for Christmas to come around so that I can fill my house with the smell of gingerbread, freshly baked shortbread, Christmas pudding and all those delicious Christmas-sy smells.

I'm not one of those people that complains when they see Christmas items in store in February - in fact, I'm the one who hurriedly pulled her Mum into Myer in September when they just started setting up the Christmas display because "CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTTTTTTTTTTMASSSSSS IS COMINGGGGGGGGGGGG!" 

Some people say that when they get older, Christmas loses its fun - but that's definitely not the case. In fact, I probably love Christmas more now than I ever did as a child. For me it's not about presents (like it was when I was little), it's about Jesus, friends, family and special traditions that bring people together. 

It's about making a gingerbread house with Jesse and Katrina and watching them devour it like Godzilla on Christmas Night (see here for proof), it's about setting up Christmas lights on the front of our house and hearing the neighbourhood kids gasp and gawk at how pretty they are from our bedroom window, it's about smelling my Mum's Christmas pudding everytime I walk past where it's hanging - drying out and maturing in preparation for Christmas day, it's about singing Christmas carols and decorating the Christmas tree and most importantly, remembering what Christmas is really all about.

But now that I have my husband here to celebrate with me (as I have done for the past three years!), it's also about creating new traditions - and incorporating his Christmas traditions into ours. 

This year, as Jesse and I were brainstorming recipes to create for the blog this Christmas, he jotted down "Pecan Pie". I'd never connected pecan pie with Christmas - but then I realised that so many of our US friends and family have a pecan pie every year - so I knew I had to create the perfect healthier pecan pie recipe to add to our holiday table...

And I did just that! To the point where Jesse told me they were perfect - and that's exactly what you want to hear!

So let me share this Healthier Pecan Pie Recipe with you!

Recipe: Healthy Salted Caramel & Banana Tartlets

I think one thing people often forget when it comes to making desserts is that they don't have to be complicated! 

You don't have to spend hours in the kitchen - and you don't have to follow a million and one complicated steps in a recipe! Some of the most delicious desserts are those that are incredibly simple - and to make them even better, we've made this one healthy too ;) 

These tarts are the perfect quick and easy dessert for when friends come over unannounced or you just want to treat yourself to something delicious - and no one would ever know they're healthy!

They combine two of our ultimate favourite recipes - our Easy to Make Healthy Pastry Recipe and our Healthy Three Ingredient Caramel Sauce (but you can also use our Coconut Caramel Sauce!)

But let me tell you how to make them!

Recipe: Super Simple Healthy Pastry Shells

When I first started cooking, I started with desserts. Creating simple little yummy things to share with my family. I would often choose short cuts to keep things simple and easy for myself - premade pastry, mini tart shells - bits and pieces you can buy that cut out hours of work.

But when you're allergic to gluten and a million other things - those short cuts no longer work for you. And who knows what half of the ingredients you find listed on those packs actually are.

I needed to create my own - but I hateeeeeeeeee making pastry. To the point where I avoided making any kind of pastry dessert (that I could eat) for three years until I finally gave in and decided that I needed to create a pastry recipe that was simple, easy and healthy. 

This pastry had to be super simple to make. I'm not patient when it comes to pastry - so it couldn't involve hours of work and please do not make me rub butter into flour because it gets in my fingernails and drives me nuts.

This pastry needed to be healthy too. I didn't want it laden with fat and sugar and it couldn't contain anything artificial. 

But most importantly, this pastry had to taste really really good. 

It took me a little while, but I finally came up with the ultimate Healthy Shortcrust Pastry Recipe - and to make it even better, it's vegan too!

The hardest part about this recipe is probably not eating all of the pastry shells in one go - or waiting for the dough to chill for an hour. You better believe I watched the clock for that hour to pass. 

But the brilliance doesn't end there. Because I'm kinda sorta super lazy - I decided that this recipe needed to work for both sweet and savoury options - so I created a recipe that needs just one simple tweak to turn a savoury pastry crust into one that's perfect for dessert. 

We've filled them with everything from quiche mixes to chocolate mousse and used them as an edible bowl for ice cream. You can be sure you'll be seeing plenty of recipes featuring this pastry on the blog very soon - so keep an eye out!

But first, I need to share the recipes with you! >>