Healthy and Easy Breakfast Options

Breakfast recipes:

Pancakes & Bakes

I made Not Quite Nigella's Blueberry Chia Pancakes, recipe is from here. They are probably going to be my go to recipe from now. I always have problems with pancakes, probably because I mix the batter too much but even though I mixed the wet with the dry ingredients a lot, they still turned out great! Not chewy at all or too wet/dry and had a cake like texture.

I reduced the chia seeds to 1 tablespoon and used frozen blueberries. I think it's pretty important to use a good quality vanilla essence though because that's the predominant flavour, if you omit the syrup.

I had it with maple syrup and would normally spread some kind of nut butter but we ran out.

This pancake recipe is super easy, just mash a ripe banana (the riper the better) and mix with a beaten egg. This is your batter which makes around 6-8 small pancakes. You just need a non stick pan on a low heat and a lot of patience. 

It tastes like banana and has quite a wet texture. I'm quite amazed it worked though, I would make it again if I wanted a healthy alternative to pancakes.

My Favourite Breakfast Muffins are from here. I've made them twice already - easy, portable, healthy and delicious (especially when heated up for 30s in the microwave). 

Baked Oatmeal

Blueberry and Banana, slightly adapted from here

Just combined 1 cup of oats and top with boiling water until just covered. In another bowl, mix 1 cup of blueberries (I used frozen and it worked), 1 chopped banana (with a little reserved to decorate), handful of walnuts broken up into smaller pieces, half a cut up pitted dates (the woolworths brand one seems very similar to medjool dates, just slightly less sticky), 2 tablespoons of cinnamon.

Once oats are soft, add 1/4 cup almond and coconut milk (or any milk). Mix dry ingredients with wet ones. Pour into baking dish and top with left over sliced banana. Put oven on 190 degrees celcius for 20 minutes and you are done. 

Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal from here
This looked great but it was a little disappointing, I preferred the deliciouslyella one. It was very wholesome and made a great breakfast but it wasn't sweet enough (something I rarely say). The only sweetness in the base came from the raisins and the maple syrup from the top was hardly noticeable. I also found the top to be too unnecessarily oily, next time I would reduce the oil.

& Other Oaty goodness

Overnight oats:
combine a cup of oats with 1.5 cups of almond milk, grate an apple, add a tablespoon of chia seeds, tea spoon of cinnamon, pinch of salt and a teaspoon vanilla extract. Then pop it in the fridge, excellent cold or warm. It reminds me of my go to porridge

My Go-To Granola

3 cups oats
1 cup almonds (or any nuts)
1 cup pumpkin seeds (or any seed)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup dates and 1/2 cup cranberries (or any dried fruit)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 1 tbsp virgin coconut oil
3 tbsp maple syrup and 1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt

Put in oven on 180 degrees celcius and bake until oats/coconut are golden brown. Be careful as it burns quickly.

Interesting Food

Here's some of the interesting snacks I've been consuming lately

Chia seed pudding:

I put about 5 teaspoons of white chia seeds with one 160mL can of the TLC light coconut milk (which is the brand I usually go for) and leave it overnight. The chia seeds absorb the liquid and it coagulates and forms a gel-like consistency. It's a really easy and delicious snack! 5 teaspoons makes it relatively thick but if you like it thinner, just put less chia seeds and you'll still get some liquid remaining.

I've been putting in blueberries too and I'm sure it would be great with other toppings like chopped nuts, desiccated coconut, obviously mango (pureed), maybe some kind of sweetener too. 

True to my blog name, I've been consuming a lot of coconut related things lately. I saw a carton coconut milk the other day at Coles, I think it was the So Good brand but it had way too many additives so looked online and saw Vitasoy had released one too. They've got a bunch of new alternative milks, like coconut and almond/soy etc. and it's only at Woolies at the moment. It's really expensive though, $4 for one. Like all alternative milks, it's got some thickeners and only a mild coconut after taste flavour. It tastes quite artificial, like coconut essence in some thickened water. Not bad but not worth it and would be disappointing if you're after a genuine, strong coconut flavour.

This on the other hand was surprisingly really good. It's got a really strong roasted almond flavour, which I think the coconut must have something to do with it because the regular so good almond milk also has 2.5% almonds but is nowhere near as intense an almond flavour. Again, it has some body to it from the thickener. Smells great too, when I use it in my porridge. I've repurchased this when it was on special at woolies for $3 (usually $3.80 I think). Coconut flavour is very, very subtle. 

Went to the Asian groceries and found some of my favourite childhood drinks, which I was quite excited by.

The black coconut drink is quite popular, in fact many of my co-workers who don't frequent asian groceries have even tried this. It's very sweet though, even though it only has around 3g of sugar, I believe. Quite a genuine coconut flavour and minimal ingredients. It like to have it chilled with cubes of grass jelly (I'll save that for another post). One thing I noticed is these are sold in cartons of 6 for $5 but some had one or two missing. I believe you just need to take one out from the plastic that contains all 6 and you can purchase them individually that way. I'd probably ask the sales assistant first though.

The blue can is called lulu almond drink. It has a very strong and delicious almond flavour, nothing at all like the long life almond milk here. Much stronger almond flavour, again minimal ingredients with  most of being almond I believe. It's not as sweet as the black can and tastes pretty good heated up. It's very popular in China and it's served in their restaurants too.

I'd also mentioned I'd never fried jackfruit to a friend before and she got me this can. I believe it was around $2.50 from the asian grocery. Jackfruit is delicious. It has a very nice tropical smell when you open the can, tastes very tropical and sweet too. It tastes similar to lychee and has a very similar texture. It's quite sweet, even after draining the sugary syrup and washing it but not overly so. It's thicker than lychee and has some substance to it. It's actually stringy too, you can peel it straight down (like the beta stringer cheese). 

I went to Naruone the other day with some friends. I know they're known for their fried chicken but we opted for other dishes. Sorry about the pictures below, I know they're a little hard to make out. They have quite a lot of soup dishes here! It wasn't the best korean I've had though. Quite a few korean customers given the time we went (2pm on a Wednesday), service was decent too. When I entered, I'd noticed they sold some kimchi in the fridge as well. Very reasonable prices.

One of my friends got the bibimbap, it looks a little disappointing but from what I could see, there looked to be a decent rice to vegetable ratio. She got a little pot of chill sauce too.

2 of my friends got the spicy pork rib hangover stew. 

One friend got the grilled eel with rice, she said it was quite good and didn't have that frozen texture some do.

I got the soybean paste soup with seafood. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great, Seoul Ria does a better version of this. It had very small (frozen) prawns, one of two oysters and one of two calamari rings. It was probably from a marinara mix. The soup wasn't too salty though, which I appreciated and had a miso-like tasting broth. Large blocks of tofu though. 

The banchan (side dishes) were very different though compared to the other Korean places I've been to. The tofu skin didn't have the same oiliness, it just seemed to have been marinated in some clear liquid. It still had that great texture and sweetness, but none of the other flavours to it and not oily at all. The bean sprouts were exactly that, no additional flavours. The kimchi was very tame, tasting mainly like cabbage. Quite disappointing in fact and not as many side dishes as you might normally get.

My favourite Korean place would probably be Bibim to mix in darlinghurst. Really friendly service, great food at excellent prices and it was the first Korean place I went to that started my slight obsession with Sundubu jjigae (tofu, egg and seafood stew).

Eats Of The Week #5

Here's some of my latest yummy eats:

I'm still loving the Carman's fruit and seed porridge for breakfast. 

As a snack, I've been loving the new chobani coconut yogurt. It's the same as their old ones in that the top is just their plain 2% yogurt and the bottom has the coconut flavouring. It's essentially coconut flavour with desiccated coconut. The coconut doesn't taste too artificial and it's not too sweet as well, love!

I've been to a few food/drink places this week:

Went to Uncle Ming's on York St and luckily I was with people who knew where it was because it would've been pretty hard to find. There was a small sign outside but you have to go down some stairs to get there. The interior was beautiful, there was a wall of asian posters, lanterns and smelled pretty strongly of incense (which I didn't mind at all!). The lighting was extremely dim though and we all had to get our phones out to see the menu. The service was very friendly. They also made my friend a delicious mocktail, even though it's not on their menu.

Very cool place, cocktails were yum and all around the $18-20 mark. 

This was the Jackie Chan, it was really nice and the flavours masked the vodka.

 I got the Mao Tai, very strong but delicious and quite tropical. Tasted like there was almond essence or something in there. Love me a marischino cherry. This is our waitress's favourite as well.

Another friend got the Cookie Kwan but I didn't try it. 

Also went to the Malaya at 39 Lime St. Sorry about the bad pictures though! It was pretty dimly lit. We also got the Barbequed fish fillet with chili sambal but didn't take a picture. I chose it but it wasn't that great especially for sharing. It was a very small piece of fish that cost $35 and it tasted a little dry to me. I thought most of the dishes were quite expensive for what you get but the view was nice, it was right by the harbour and service was great.

Salt and pepper prawns. Everyone LOVED these, gone in minutes. Very light batter, delicious seasoning and not too oily. YUM

Sayor Masak Lemak, vegetarian curry. Really liked this, had some decent sized well cooked pieces of vegetable that still had some crunch to them. 

Sorry, I'm not too sure which dish this was but it was a chicken one

Kwai Du, flat skir fried noodles with chicken, prawns, bean sprout and egg. It tasted like Char Kway Teow.

This was another meat dish, maybe beef rendang?

We had an intern from Ohio finishing her last week with us so we took her to one of my favourite places, Menya Mappen.

If you haven't been here before, you basically line up and say your order (what you want, if you want it hot/cold, regular/large and if you want soba/udon noodles). Then you get a tray and wait until they've finished and they put your dish on the tray. You move along the line and get any of the tempura you want and put it on your tray. They have a little chilled cabinet as well of some side dishes (seaweed salad, potato salad etc.).  They you can add tempura flakes and green onion and pay. That's it!

She loved it and found the ordering experience a little stressful but exciting. The manager was so nice, as it's extremely busy there (communal seating as well) he helped us clear 3 seats so we could sit next to each other and gave us the name of the chili powder they use. He said they get theirs from Japan but you can get it from any asian/japanese food store. It's called Schichimi and it's a 7 spice powder. They put it on the tables and I go nuts with it.

I got the Ontama Bukkake Soba:

I recommended the Ontama Bukkake Mentaiko Soba to her, the only difference is the mentaiko which is a cod roe butter. Adds a richness to the dish. 

My friend went to Menya Oiden, which is next door and got the vegetarian one, which she always gets when it's her vegetarian day. Really nicely flavoured. I think this is their take on a korean bibimbap.

Eats Of The Week #4

This week I had:

Banana oatmeal made with chopped banana. I also tried adding cocoa powder to it and it reminded me of brownie batter. I prefer making it with oats though as I found it was a little too thick for my liking

I also had the Carman's Honey Roasted Nut oatmeal with the Vitasoy High Calcium soy milk and it was delicious! I microwave it for 90 seconds, stirring at 45 seconds and then at the end of the 90 seconds. I then put it in for another 30 seconds and stir quite vigorously. The stirring is really important for it to get really creamy. Really nice, not too sweet and has decent pieces of nuts as well. I've also had the Fruit and Seed one and I think I like the fruit one a little more as there is a nice contrast between the fruit and seeds and you can always add chopped nuts in.

I was also pretty obsessed with making vegan desserts this week. I made Not Quite Nigella's bliss balls and they were revolutionary. They are quick, no bake, healthy and super easy and fun. The only change I made was I didn't add any extra honey/agave as I knew the dates and sultanas would be sweet enough for my palate. I would also try rolling them in almond meal as a reader suggested.

I also made some raw vegan chocolate brownies from here. They were so more-ish and addictive, everyone in the family loved them. The icing was incredibly rich and creamy using just avocado and the date & walnut combination was the perfect pairing. I used 2 tablespoons of honey but in the future I think I will use 1.5. 

I also tried making coconut butter by putting dessicated coconut into a food processor. I knew it would be hard but after 25 minutes of trying, the coconut still hadn't turned into a buttery texture and simply looked like flour. I tried to salvage it by adding 2 handfuls of walnuts to provide some oil to help it bind and it was essentially walnut butter with very fine coconut bits throughout. I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you had a high speed blender. 

I also made a chicken green curry this week. I heated a pan with a tablespoon of oil, added 2 tablespoons of Mae Ploy's green curry paste. Then added 2 cut up chicken breasts and about 2.5 cups of frozen vegetables, 1.5 cups of salt reduced chicken stock. Then brought it to a boil and after reduced the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Towards the end I took out some of the liquid, added light coconut milk to combine the 2 and poured that into the bowl so the coconut milk wouldn't separate. Next time, I would add the vegetables in later as I found they softened too much. I would also use less stock (only 1 cup) as I had to add corn flour after to thicken it. 

Also went to Seoul Ria this week for a quick feed. Free Banchan! My favourite is the tofu skin but the raw onion was delicious. I didn't care much for Nokdumuk, Korean mung bean jelly. The 'Fruit Salad' was also surprising as it had a combination of fruits and vegetables in a sweet sauce.

I normally order the sundubu jjigae, a soup made with tofu, egg and seafood but decided to try the soybean paste stew with seafood and tofu. It was delicious but a little too salty. It tasted a little like miso soup. 

We also got the chicken bulgogi, which I preferred out of the two. The sauce was very flavoursome and coated the rice wonderfully, the chicken wasn't tough at all and the vegetables still had some crunch to them. Would recommend!