I’ve been asked a few times about coconut flour. Is it a grain? Is it starchy? Good for kids quitting sugar? I could’ve mouthed off based on a vague knowledge. But I dug around a bit…

Erstwhile, my conclusions:

There are six reasons to give coconut flour a crack.

1. It’s sweet tasting, but contains no fructose (as with all coconut products).

2. It’s great for baking – it gives things a dense texture.

3. But it’s grainless, thus containing no sugary starch nor toxins (phytic acid etc). Which is why it’s the paleo’s “flour” of choice.

4. It’s efficient. It’s the natural byproduct from making coconut milk – the dried coconut meat that’s left over. I like this. It’s using up stuff that would otherwise be chucked.

5. It curbs cravings. It’s rich in protein, fiber and good fat. As well as manganese, which is craving-curber.

This week in Sunday Life I eat like a caveman

Of all the self-imposed guinea pig antics I’ve subjected myself to for this column, this week’s might be regarded as my bravest. For it entailed eating, oh-glory-be-yes, fat.

In a fat-fearful world, my no holds barred consumption of chicken skin, the crackling and the 3cm of subcutaneous tissue on my pork belly, several teaspoons of butter on my veggies, whole cups of full cream milk, chunks of ghee and avocado each day has freaked the innards out of most in my culinary orbit. And yet (boldly! fearlessly!) I’ve persevered with this particular experiment for three whole months.

Turn to the person to your left, and the one to your right. I’m betting one of you is making friends with your egg yolks right now, having picked up on what’s been dubbed the “paleo” or “caveman” diet. Images of loin clothes and bone gnawing aside, the diet boils down to something pretty innocuous: not eating anything fiddled with.

So, no grains, no additives, no sugar, no grain-fed meat, no mucked-around-with fat-reduced dairy.

And instead the unadulterated foods of our ice-age forebears. The subsequent claim is that doing so makes us healthier, thinner and live longer, a claim I had to test for myself.

Since last week’s guide went down like brandy with Grandma after Christmas lunch, I thought I’d do another.

photo via Shannon Martin

Again, not a definitive list. Just some stuff I thought you’d like and that supports supporters of this blog and/or have a snappy, ethical slant. Enjoy!

merfins by Oceanika

For your mer-obsessed daughter, from $115. Kazzie’s a Byron chick who dreamt up this idea – eco mermaid fins for kids – a number of years ago. They’re made from recycled rubber, in a factory that uses environmentally sensitive practises and machines. I’ve seen kids swim in these things – they actually swim like dolphins. Check it out in this YouTube clip

The MerFin Package, which includes MerFins, swim tights and bikini, is priced from $174.00, or the MerFin alone starting from $115.00. Get em here.

A few months back I connected with Lee Holmes who told me she was writing a cookbook. She asked if I’d “endorse it”. For some niggly, gut-based reason I had a very sound feeling about what she was doing…Lee has an autoimmune disease and has healed herself through diet. She sent me some recipes from her book…and I thought, This Is The Book We All Need.

Cut to today. Supercharged Food – 90 recipes that don’t contain gluten, wheat, sugar, yeast or dairy – is out now. It’s rare that I’d want to cook every recipe in a book (I’ve already played with several, including lavender tea with almond milk!!), so choosing a few to share with you here was an indecisive’s conundrum. But I thought it might be nice to share two that are perfectly geared for toting on the annual schlepp to the stodge-fest that is family Christmas…so you don’t have to be tempted by bloody mince pies.

butternut cookies

• 150g coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons stevia powder, plus extra to dust
• a pinch of sea salt
• 200g cashew butter
• 4 organic eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk (try Lee’s homemade version, recipe in her book)

Preheat the oven to 175 C and grease a baking tray.

In a bowl, mix together the coconut flour, baking powder, stevia and salt.

Oh goodness, it’s a month to Christmas. I have the smell of pine needles in my nose, the taste of prawns and cherries in my being (both staples at our Christmas lunch), and I’m priming myself for the after-lunch delirious wrestle with my brothers. 

I’m not a big fan of mass present-buying. Consumerism is something I actively avoid. All that said, gift giving is lovely, especially if it’s mindful. So I’ve decided to share some ideas I’ve accumulated over the year: products that grabbed me, or are mindfully made and have a touch of quirky expression to them, or are made by friends of this blog. I’ve even secured a few special offers for readers on this blog. Happy Crazy Season!

1. exfoliating cleansing bar by Miessence

Something for your brother: $9.95. I love this exfoliating Cleansing Bar ( in both geranium + tea tree). Soap-on-a-rope that’s good enough to eat, making a simple, all-round gift. Miessence products are possibly the most legitimately toxin-free products on the planet. EWG’s cosmetic database rates it in their top 5 brands and it’s a local (Queensland) company run by one very passionate Narelle.

As a lovely Noel gesture, Narelle is offering readers here 30% off any Miessence purchase over $100 (buy a few soaps for friends and family!). Details here, and make sure you use the code SWB, from December 01 – 25.

I’m starting an occasional series where I share a couple of my favourite books. First up, cookbooks and nutrition guides I live by. I’ve put nifty links to Amazon if you’re busting to get your hands on them….

photo via trendsters

Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions

Sally is the co-founder and president of the Weston A Price Foundation, and this cookbook is a comfy, organic bible for anyone wanting to live a truly nourished, mostly paleo, sugar-free life. It’s the real deal. The lovely Jo Foster got me my copy and I pore over it regularly.

I love the sub title (“The Cookbook that Challenges Politcally Correct Nutrition and The Diet Dictocrats”. Right on, Sally!), the detailed nutrition tips all the way through and the fermented vegetables, sprouting and “how to make your own yoghurt, whey and kefir” sections. You can buy the book here.

Deepak Chopra’s Perfect Health

The best introduction to Ayervedic healing, hand’s down. I mostly live by the Ayervedic approach – which is to say I eat according to my dosha. This style of living is about healing through food. I’ve written on this here. Chopra weaves the Indian traditions with our western thinking, showing what types need to eat more root vegetables, more oil, less salad, more bitter foods etc. You can buy the book here.

Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion

This is the cookbook I keep going back to. Why? It orders recipes by the ingredient. Which is the logical way of going about things when you eat according to what’s in season. I buy fennel when I see it in season at the

I’m a girl firmly against the idea of tofu sausages. And the like. Bastardising food is somehow naff, no? But sugar free cheesecake is a mighty fine exception to that rule. I’ve ranted on Twitter about this cake – which I made with my beautiful friend Claire – and promised to share the recipe. So, here she is (and, yes, Jo, I’ll make it for your birthday!).

photo by Johnny Abegg

Now, once again, our measurements are VERY imprecise. Claire and I literally “added a bit of this, added a bit of that”. And it simply worked. So have faith! Feel it with your fingers!

Sarah + Claire’s sugar-free nut cheesecake

First make the base (meals and nuts can be substituted for any others you have lurking in the cupboard):

• 100g of dessicated coconut
• 110g of shelled pistachios
• 150g of almond meal
• 4 “generous” tbls of butter…which is to say, keep adding more butter till you get a nice gooby consistency

Preheat the oven to about 160 C. Stab-mix or blend pistachios until they are semi-fine chunks, add to a mixing bowl with the coconut, almond meal, and room temperature butter and rub until the mixture is an even, thick consistency. Then press into a baking paper lined spring form pan. cover the base and sides with your mixture to an even thickness  - you may need more or less of the mixture depending on the size of your pan. Try to keep it an even thickness – about 1/2-1cm.

You know I quit sugar, right? And you know I’ve stuck to it? And you know I’ve written an ebook on how to do it?

photo via pinterest

For those of you who haven’t read it yet, the main thrust of my 8-week program is replacing sugar with fat. It’s an approach I really find worked for me, and for many others. But I keep getting asked:

“is it really ok to eat fat?”

“how can you say saturated fat is OK?”

“how much fat do YOU eat?”

Alright. Let’s clear a few things up, then…

1. This short video sums up a fair bit of the misconception around saturated fat:

The gist is this: in the 1950s, a random scientist called Ancel Keys published a dodgy study that told us saturated fats were bad. The study was a total furphy. But we latched on to it. It’s important to realise that at that time the edible oil industry in the US seized the opportunity to promote its polyunsaturates. The industry did this by developing a health issue focusing on Key’s anti-saturated fat bias. With the help of the edible oil industry lobbying in the United States, federal government dietary goals and guidelines were adopted incorporating this mistaken idea that consumption of saturated fat was causing heart disease. This anti-saturated fat issue became the agenda of government and food industry groups around the world.

I discovered a wonderful world out there the other day. A world I had been oblivious to (I’ve been oblivious to a lot of things recently). A world where some beautifully talented and curious and dedicated food bloggers have quit sugar and taken to experimenting with sugar-free recipes. I’ll be profiling a few here going forwards, so stay tuned.

photo via scandi foodie

• 100g quinoa flakes
• 50g coconut flakes (no sugar added)
• 50g rolled oats*
• 1 tablespoon raw pure cacao nibs (total sugars 3.6g/100g)
• 80g virgin coconut oil
• 2 large egg whites (free-range,organic)

Filling

• 200g rhubarb, cut into 1 cm slices
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Top

• 3 large egg whites (free-range, organic)
• 50g fine desiccated coconut (no sugar added)

* You could make this totally gluten-free by using uncontaminated oats, or simply replacing the 50 grams of oats with more quinoa flakes.

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 25cm x 15cm baking tray with baking paper.

For the filling, place the rhubarb and ground cinnamon, along with a dash of water (a couple of tablespoons) into a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to boil, then let simmer while you make the base and the filling. Stir the mixture every now and then and just let it cook until quite thick. Set aside to cool.

For the base, place the quinoa flakes, coconut flakes, oats and cacao nibs into a food processor. Grind the ingredients into a fine-ish mixture, then add the coconut oil and grind until the mixture comes together. Beat in the egg whites. Spoon the dough in the baking dish and, using your hands, spread on the baking sheet into a 1-2 cm thick base.

For the topping, beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until thick. Carefully fold in the coconut.

I get asked rather often what therapies, of all the ones I’ve tried – and I’ve tried a few -  I personally use and recommend. So I thought I’d post on it.

I’ve tried just about every therapy in Christendom. It’s an occupational hazard. From the noise of it all I’ve distilled things down to a bunch of smooth routines and approaches.

Photo by Steven Klein

As a general approach, I keep to a morning routines. Routines are good.  They create a firm launch pad and determine the tone of the day.

I also do some regular maintenance stuff. Sometimes I think to myself, “my parents would never do this kind of thing…they’d just get on with it”. Also, it can get expensive, all this “maintenance”.

But I justify it thus:

I do a lot, am engaged in a lot, and I need help to ensure I can keep doing what I love to do.

An athlete gets regular physio. TV stars get blowdries. A rally car driver gets their car serviced. I get regular treatments to keep me well and open and energised.

I rotate the various therapies, according to what continues to keep me open and intimate with life. I’m also a little challenged by the idea of taking good care of myself (I forget and burn out very easily) and so some of these healings are about getting into that space. Being intimate. This is important. I don’t buy nail polish or magazines or shoes or throw cushions. I prefer to do this kind of thing.

My daily practice:

Meditation. I practice the vedic style (with a mantra, 20 minutes  twice a day). I’ve blogged about it here. My teacher Tim can be found here.

Exercise. I move every morning – a mixture of walking, jogging (I’ve taken to barefoot running), yoga, ocean swimming and home weights. I also ride a singlespeed bike. My thing is this: I set out to move every day for 20 minutes minimum. It’s the “every day” bit that matters to me, and my aim is to simply get blood flowing and to feel fresh and to get into the outdoors. I don’t focus on “getting fit” or losing weight. It’s also about flow and agility and feeling vibrant.