Treats for everyone!

Afternoon :), such a busy cooking day! Granola, muffins, energy balls, Lemon meringue pie, healthy pizza, roast chicken, roasted butternut and sweet potato...... zzz I'm ready for a nap!

Slowly getting mum back to exercise after fracturing her rib, so we did 20 minutes of weights today. Therefore, I think she deserves a lovely yummy treat! Her fav, LEMON MERINGUE PIE- made healthy!

And for dad, well dad always deserves a treat :), he adores any sweet Indian cakes such as laddoos or burfis, so I thought I'd make him some DATE AND ALMOND ENERGY BALLS without added sugar  or the need for deep frying.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE
Base:
Mum kept going on about walnuts so I tried to make a crunchy walnut base, simply by crushing up walnuts with a pinch of salt and baking soda, mixing in half a teaspoon of melted coconut oil and finally pressing now the mix into ramekins and baking for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
I found the final cooked base a bit too strong tasting and crumbly, although Mrs Law didn't seem to mind it as a contrast to the light lemon curd. I think next time I'll either mix the crushed walnuts with almond meal or make a stack of Lemon Meringue pancakes instead for a lighter yummy dessert!

Lemon curd:

OMG! This is to die for! If you love lemony tasting things, you HAVE to make this!!! Lemon curd without tons of sugar or butter. Definitely going to have this in the fridge ready in a big jar, ready to top toast, pancakes or whatever really. All you need is for about 3 tablespoons of curd:

• juice and zest of 1 lemon (separate)
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1 egg

1. In a small saucepan, squeeze the lemon and leave it to simmer with the honey until warm.
2. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg. Slowly stream in the warm syrup onto the egg whilst continuously whisking the egg so that it doesn't curdle.
3. Pour the mixture back into the pan and stir on low heat for hardly any time at all until it all thickens up nicely.
4. Stir in the zest et voila!!!

Meringue topping:
Just beat up an egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff, once done slowly fold in a tablespoon on honey.

Assemble it all together and use a blow torch to brown off the meringue or quickly put under the grill.

ENERGY BALLS
These are really yummy whenever you need a little nibble! Urghh i really need to start measuring out my quantities, I usually do everything by eyesight.

• Handful of Almond
• about 8 dates
• couple of spoons of instant quick cooking oats or almond meal
• optional seeds (I use chia) and desiccated coconut

1. Soak the almond and pitted dates in a large bowl or jug ,with water just covering the contents, you can leave this overnight or for a couple of hours till the almonds soften.
2. Pour away all excess water and using a hand blender, blend the nuts and dates together till it forms a smooth paste. I sometimes do not blend it completely, leaving a few chunks of almonds for a bit of texture.
3. Now add a spoon or so of oats or almond meal to absorb any excess wetness. Mix in any additions.
4. Leave the mix in the fridge for a while to harden, form balls and roll into desiccated coconut or cocoa powder.

These can be kept for a couple of days in the fridge as an 'on the go' snack.

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