https://www.facebook.com/155212304491196/

Giselle's Umbrian Kitchen, Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, Aventino, Rome (2026)

Q: Qual'è l'indirizzo?

Piazza Dei Cavalieri Di Malta, Aventino

12/12/2025

Just 3 days in Rome, but wonderful days.
So good to catch up with Blaine@theblainebrown, (sorry to have missed Ben and the babe.)
Meredith & Luca and the almost teenager (and Sofia)
& Letizia & Ruurd
We walked a lot, saw new-to-us areas of Rome, ate spectacularly well and stayed in the awesome Hotel San Anselmo - delightful!

09/12/2025

Had to wait a while, but it’s steps away from where we are staying - rude not to take a peek!

29/11/2025

Sourdough discard crackers - these are da bomb!
Topped with Oregano, Thyme and Rosemary with roasted garlic and crushed Cornish sea salt. It was a struggle to put them in the jar - I wanted to eat them ALLLLLL!!

25/11/2025

Haven’t made one of these in a while! A very seeded multigrain sourdough loaf!
Looking forward to a slice or two for lunch today!

17/11/2025

Little snippets from Spello’s Sagra di Bruschetta on Sunday 16th Nov!
Love local festas!

06/10/2025

Chocolate Brownies - very low fat.

I wanted to try something very low fat, but chocolatey - I had heard that beetroot could be used in brownies, but was sceptical!

I'm not sceptical anymore!

Next time, I will cook them a tiny bit longer, they are gooey - which is the aim, but some of the middle ones are VERY gooey - so a bit difficult to pick up!

Taste - really, surprisingly, good!

I think next time I will up the chocolate as well as cooking for probably 5 more minutes - there is a really slight retro taste of the beetroot - not a lot and I couldn't taste it when I first tried one.
(If you really REALLY hate beetroot, these are not for you - but if you are just not very keen, try these, they will def surprise you!) Beetroot is the veg version of Marmite, you love it or hate it!

I cut these into 25 little bites - more than enough as they are really rich tasting!

Again, I asked ChatGPT to put a recipe together after giving it a list of ingredients - this is what it came up with.

I used a 21 x 21 square tin for this recipe.

I have rough macros which I will post at the bottom. Not exact as I added the chocolate drops as a last min decision! There's only about 20g of the drops for the whole thing, so not too much of a difference.

🌱 Low-Fat Beetroot Brownies (21 × 21 cm pan)

Ingredients
• 340 g cooked beetroot (drained and pureed until smooth)
• 3 eggs
• 65 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 85 g almond flour
• 65 g plain flour
• 135 g sugar (or a mix of sugar and honey/maple syrup/sweetener) (100g dense brown sugar and 35g honey.)
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

⸻

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan). Line your 21 × 21 cm dish with baking paper.
2. Blend beetroot, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
3. In another bowl, combine cocoa, almond flour, plain flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Fold together until just combined — don’t overmix.
5. Pour into the dish and smooth the top.
6. Bake 22–26 minutes, until a skewer comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
7. Cool completely before slicing — they firm up as they cool.

If you want completely gluten-free, replace the plain flour with more almond flour or oat flour.
To make them sugar-free, use a granulated sweetener like erythritol or stevia blend.

Here are the approximate macros per bite:
• Calories: ≈ 71 kcal
• Protein: ≈ 2.4 g
• Fat: ≈ 2.8 g
• Carbohydrates: ≈ 10.9 g

06/10/2025

Carrot Cake (virtually fat free)

I put this together as I had some carrots to use up! I asked ChatGPT for a recipe and it came up with the following. (It gave some alternatives originally, but I'll post what I did.)
Nice with a cuppa tea!

Ingredients
2 eggs
¾ cup (180 ml) non-fat plain Greek yogurt
½ cup (100 g) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups (180 g) finely grated carrots
1 cup (120 g) 80g plain flour, 40g wholemeal)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ginger
Pinch of salt
Optional: raisins, grated orange zest, or crushed pineapple (drained) for sweetness.
I used raisins, about 1/2 cup.
Optional - flaked almonds to sprinkle on top of the cake.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 175 °C / 350 °F.
Whisk eggs, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Stir in carrots (and pineapple or raisins, if using).
In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda, and spices.
Combine wet and dry gently — don’t overmix.
Pour into a lined loaf tin or 20 cm round tin.
Bake 35–45 min, until a skewer comes out clean. (My oven did well with the 45 minutes.)
Cool completely before slicing (it’s moist when warm).
Optional topping: whisk fat-free yogurt + honey + a bit of vanilla for a light “frosting.”
(I haven't done that yet, but I might!)

02/10/2025

Fab ‘fakeaway’ crispy chilli chicken Chinese dinner last night with an equally great retro pineapple upside down cake!
Both virtually fat-free.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17UKxbXmUq/.
*Meals with Max* for the crispy chicken. (Updated (with my notes)ingredients and method under the photo.)
Served with brown rice cooked in chicken stock.

I used ChatGPT for the pineapple upside down cake.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Yoghurt Sponge

For the base
• Pineapple rings (fresh or canned, drained)
• A few glacé cherries (optional)
• 2–3 tbsp light brown sugar (or white if you want to keep it lighter)

For the sponge (20–23 cm / 8–9-inch round tin) I used a square Pyrex dish.)
• 2 medium eggs
• 100 g (½ cup) caster sugar
• 120 g (1 cup) plain flour (I had self raising flour, still put a bit of baking powder in!)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 g (about ½ cup) fat-free Greek yoghurt (plain, vanilla, or coconut — all work) I used a virtually FF coconut Greek yoghurt for a nod at a pina colada!
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (if not using vanilla yoghurt)
• Pinch of salt

⸻

Method
1. Prepare the tin: Line the base with baking paper. Scatter sugar, then arrange pineapple rings and cherries.
2. Whisk wet ingredients: Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and thick (an electric whisk helps). Add yoghurt and vanilla, whisk until smooth.
3. Add dry ingredients: Sift flour, baking powder, and salt over. Fold gently until just combined.
4. Bake: Pour batter over the pineapple. Smooth the top.
• Temperature: 170 °C (fan 160 °C) / 340 °F (I did 170° on fan)
• Time: 30–35 minutes, until golden, risen, and a skewer comes out clean. (Mine was good at 30 mins)
Brush pineapple juice over the sponge while hot to give extra flavour and moisture.
5. Invert: Rest 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and flip onto a plate. Again, brush pineapple juice over the cake, it gives it a pretty shine.

*Don’t forget to run the knife around! I forgot and a bit stayed on the side of the dish. 🫣*

25/09/2025

Can't break away from yearning for something sweet and comforting - although, the sweetness now needs to be turned down to about a 2 rather than a full on 10!
I made a fat free rhubarb crumble as there's still a few sticks of rhubarb in the garden!

6 sticks of sliced rhubarb (about 5 cm pieces - ish, not exact.)
1 small chopped apple (as I had one that needed using up)
Sprinkle of erythritol - a sweetener like stevia. About a tbsp
Tsp cinnamon

For the crumble topping
About a cup of oats
about 1/2 cup almond flour
About a tablespoon of erythritol or sugar.
Another tsp cinnamon
tsp ginger powder
Apple or pear sauce (I had a ton of pears fall off the tree in a storm, so I made lots of pear sauce and froze it in portions.)

Heat the oven to 180°C

Put the rhubarb, apple, sweetener (or brown sugar if you don't mind sugar) and cinnamon in an oven proof dish and stir it all up.

In a bowl add the dry topping ingredients and mix, then add just enough apple or pear sauce to make clumps and gently put this mix on top of the rhubarb.
Cover as best you can, it doesn't matter if there are gaps. But you can always make more topping and add it.

Bake for about 30 minutes or so - I may have added 5 or 10 mins - a knife should meet zero resistance going through the apple.

I had it with a dollop of Greek yogurt (After the pic!)

It was very tasty and hit the 'sweet' spot! 🤩

I might do the same with the end of season figs next.

23/09/2025

Continuing my virtually fat free theme ... (Also low salt.)

I found this recipe online somewhere - it's a real store cupboard soup! Maybe I'm a bit strange, but I took a look and had all the ingredients sitting in the cupboard!

Taco Soup

Tin of chopped tomatoes, swirl out the tin with some water (maybe half the tin?) and add that too.
About a tablespoon tomato puree
Tin of black beans (drained)
Tin of sweetcorn (drained)
Tin of cannellini beans (drained)
Packet of taco seasoning
Chilli flakes abd seasoning to taste.
Chopped parsley (or coriander if you have it!)

Heat it all up together until bubbling hot and serve.

Garnish with lime wedges to squeeze over and maybe a dollop of Greek Yogurt or sour cream and a couple of slices of avocado.

A slice of bruschetta or garlicky toast, or, I guess, some crunchy tortilla chips would be a nice addition.

This was incredibly tasty, considering the zero effort put in to make it! 😄

07/09/2025

Little virtually fat free biscotti for a guilt free (and for me, pain free) treat!

Fat-Free Crunchy Cookies (This made 21 little cookies.)

Ingredients
60g plain flour
60g wholemeal flour
50g granulated sugar substitute (like erythritol or stevia blend – adjust to taste)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
2–3 tbsp mashed banana
1 tsp almond extract
Optional: spices (cinnamon/ginger), lemon/orange zest, or a handful of chopped dried fruit (keep small pieces so they don’t soften the texture).

For these, I added the cinnamon, ginger, lemon zest and a few chopped raisins.

Method
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a tray with baking paper.
In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar substitute.
In another bowl, beat egg with banana and essence.
Mix wet into dry until just combined – the dough will be sticky but firm.
Scoop teaspoons of dough, roll into small balls, and flatten slightly with damp fingers.
Bake 12–15 minutes until golden and firm around the edges.
For extra crunch: turn off oven, leave cookies inside with the door ajar for 10–15 minutes to dry out further.
✨ Tips for maximum crunch:
Use erythritol (it recrystallises, giving more “snap”).
Avoid too much banana – just enough to bind.
A second bake (like biscotti) makes them even crunchier: slice thicker cookies and return to oven at 140°C for 10 mins each side. (Haven't tried that yet - but might do!)

These are several tests along - still not perfect, but better than the cakey ones I made before!
Still a bit tough rather than crunchy, but will try the second bake and see if that helps.
They are tasty!

07/09/2025

Delicious Chicken Liver Pate - virtually fat free! I will be having this on my toast at lunch today!

I'm particularly happy with this!

Chicken livers inherently have some fat in them - so for the whole recipe there's about 12 grams fat. Considering there are at least 8-10 servings here - it makes it very low fat - especially knowing how much butter and oil usually goes into it I think about 1- 1.5g fat per serving! 😄

300g chicken livers - all visible fat removed.
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
Healthy glug of either sherry or brandy
Salt flakes and fresh ground black pepper
Juice of half a lemon (more to taste)
Either half a teaspoon English mustard powder or a heaped teaspoon of dijon mustard.

Dry fry a finely chopped white onion and after a few minutes add the minced garlic (you can do this with either some spray oil or a glug of water in a non-stick pan)
When the onion & garlic are a bit softened, add the chopped up chicken livers.
Saute until the liver is just cooked through.
Add the mustard and stir.
Add the sherry or brandy and stir to cook off the alcohol and create a bit of a 'sauce'.
Season and then add the lemon juice.
Taste and adjust to your taste.
Transfer to a blender and whizz until smooth.

Fab on hot toast with a little more lemon juice squeezed over.

Giselle's Umbrian Kitchen

12/12/2025

09/12/2025

29/11/2025

25/11/2025

17/11/2025

06/10/2025

06/10/2025

02/10/2025

25/09/2025

23/09/2025

07/09/2025

07/09/2025

Indirizzo

Sito Web

Notifiche

Contatta L'azienda

Scelte rapide

Condividi

Digitare