Last Minute Homemade Gift.

Hello there lovely people.

With Christmas just around the corner (4 more sleeps!!), I thought I would share a little last minute gift that you can whip together in just a few minutes that is pretty inexpensive too.

Vegan & Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies!!

Hello there lovely people.

I recently made these amazing vegan, gluten free peanut butter cookies for a bring and share lunch at work. They are honestly so bloody delicious that I just have to share the recipe with you!! The recipe itself is from the 'Ms Cupcake - The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town' book, which has some amazing and delicious looking recipes in it!!

DIY Candles - Super Simple Homemade Gift.

Hello there lovely people.

I love the idea of homemade xmas gifts, that fact that someone has put precious time and effort into making something speaks volumes. I'd love to be able to make homemade gifts for everyone on my Christmas list this year, but unfortunately I'm not organised enough (I probably should have started in June). But one thing that I have been able to make myself is candles.

I'm a huge lover of candles and I know that some of my lovely family are too, so I thought why not try and make my own. It's relatively inexpensive, really easy and will hopefully make for a lovely little gift.

Banana and Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies.

Hello there lovely people.

Recently the lovely folk at Natvia sent me some of their products to try out, and asked that I try to incorporate them into a yummy recipe. I had lots of ideas floating about of what I might like to attempt (I say attempt as I'm pretty new to 'healthier' baking so it was a bit of an experiment!) but I decided that I wanted my first forray to be some sort of banana and peanut butter brownie. 

After doing a little research into what quantities of ingredients I might use (like I said, it was an experiment!) I decided to throw caution to the wind and just have a go. And surprisingly, it worked!! I was genuinely astounded that my first attempt had turned out so delicious. Naturally, I had to do a second attempt just to make sure it wasn't a fluke...and it wasn't!!

Ingredients:

50g Butter (melted, you could probably use coconut oil too, although I haven't tried this!)

50g Rice Flour

150g Baking Natvia

30g Cocoa

2 Bananas (mashed)

2 Eggs

Splash of Almond Milk

30g Peanut Butter

Recipe:

1. Mix together the melted butter, cocoa and Natvia.

2. Add the eggs, beating well between each one.

3. Add the rice flour giving them a good mix.

4. Mix in the mashed banana and a splash of almond milk just to loosen the batter slightly.

5. Pour into a lined baking tin, melt the peanut butter and swirl this on the top, mixing in slightly.

6. Cook at 180°C for about 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

This photo was taken a day after I made the cake so it had dried out slightly, I promise it's lovely and moist!

And there we have it, pretty simple really and oh so delicious!! This mix should serve about 8 people, making it approximately 150 calories a slice (or less if you can stretch it out further, or more if you're a bit greedy like me!)

I'm so pleased with how this has turned out, I was worried that it would be dry with it being gluten free, but I think that the banana adds a lovely moistness and the combo of banana, chocolate and peanut butter is just a dream. And it got the seal of approval from my man as well!

Let me know what your favourite 'healthy' bakes are, I'm hoping this will be the first of many tasty, healthier treats! Please share your recipes and baking successes/fails either in the comments below, on Twitter @mygenerallife or Instagram @generallifeblog

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