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.

New Years Eve Party

For New Years eve I decided to throw a little get together with some of my closest friends.

I've never gone wrong with Not Quite Nigella's recipes, so most of these are from her wonderful site.

This dessert was a last minute decision, I had all the ingredients already and just needed coconut and it just looked so darn good. It was incredible. If it wasn't for the tedious nature of making coconut butter, I'd be making this all. the. time. I've actually made coconut butter before and it took even longer than this, mainly because 1) I was using shredded coconut and 2) I wasn't adding much water to help it along. The water really is so necessary.

I did the same thing as NQN except for a few modifications, click here for the recipe. I blended 2.5 cups of desiccated coconut as last time in making coconut butter I didn't think I used enough. It starts as a flour consistency, then it lumps together and finally forms a butter like texture. Hallelujah. It only takes forever though considering you need to scrape down the sides and stop the processor ever so often to prevent overheating. Mine actually overheated awhile ago and once it gets too hot it just stops on its own. It's one from target and cost $20, I love it.

Then I added about 4 tablespoons of water, used a ripe banana, 2 tablespoons of raw honey, 1 tsp of a good quality vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Then after that was done, I added in a cup of frozen blueberries (cut in half). I also then lined a takeaway container and put it in the freezer overnight.

It has a mild coconut flavour and slightly sweet with a bit of texture from the coconut

Another dessert I made was a mango and blueberry vegan cheesecake inspired by this that is a fair bit cheaper.

The last time I made a vegan cheesecake I used a cake tin that was 8 inches in diameter that was far too big, resulting in a very thin cake. This time, I made the base and saw that a 6 inch cake tin would be better, even though the original recipe uses an 8inch.

Fo the base: I just got a packet of raw mixed nuts and separated them
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup hazlenuts (not enough almonds in the original packet).
3 cups of cut up pitted dates (woolworths brand, only $2 and tastes like medjool dates but slightly less sticky and sweet). I poured hot water over them, removed the hard skin and cut them up.

For the middle:
I used 2 cups of soaked cashew nuts (soaked overnight).
2 frozen overripe bananas (sliced)
1/3 cup of maple syrup
1/3 cup lite coconut milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the top:
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup mango
1 frozen sliced banana
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

To make:
1. Blend almonds and hazelnuts until chopped then add in chopped dates until sticky. Press into cake tin and put in freezer.
2. Blend all the ingredients in the middle layer until smooth. Pour 3/4 into cake tin (use 1/4 for top layer) Put back in freezer. One thing I did wrong was I put all my bananas in one bowl to freeze. Then put them all in the middle layer instead of reserving one for the top layer.
3. For the top layer, I blended the 1/4 left from the middle, mango, banana, blueberries and cinnamon. I left out the maple syrup and dates as it was already quite sweet from the mango. I put this back in the fridge and then blended it again. Poured it into the cake tin and I put it back in the freezer.

I think this would work if you switched up the fruits too, so maybe use a berry and another fruit that's in season. Pitted dates and frozen fruits do work though.

I found the base was way too sweet for me but I enjoyed the other layers, it has quite an overwhelming banana taste though. Next time I would reduce the number of dates in the base to 2 cups and also reduce the amount of maple syrup in the middle to 1/4 cup.

Some other desserts present included: coconut and pandan cake and rocky road. The coconut and pandan cake was extremely light and moist, not oily at all, not overly sweet and had a very mild coconut and pandan flavour. Similar texture to an airier sponge cake.

For snacks:
I also made 2 dips, both served with toasted lebanese bread.

One was NQN's tuna dip which I followed exactly. The flavours marry well together, it's perfectly balanced and reminds me of a pate (but with tuna). It has a vinegary taste which is offset by the creaminess from the residual oil (from the tuna) and the mayo. It was a huge hit

I also made this hummus recipe with some additions.

Basically blended a can of chickpeas (skin removed), save 1/4 liquid, a crushed clove of garlic and 2 tablespoons of hulled tahini. Then added 3/4 juice of a lemon, cumin, tiniest bit of chill powder, salt, 1/4 reserved liquid. I like that it doesn't have a ton of olive oil like a lot of other recipes and it's quick.

I removed the skin beforehand to make it creamier, crushed the garlic clove. My favourite hummus is still the Aldi one and an Obela brand pine nut one.

For main:

I made NQN's Singaporean noodles which was really good. I also added in quite a lot of water towards the end because I prefer wetter noodles and stirred it quite a bit to break up the noodles. I also reduced the curry powder to 3 tablespoons

I also made a watermelon, feta and mint salad. I used 1/4 of a watermelon, 50g of feta and a few torn up mint leaves. I didn't mind it but I wouldn't make it again, it was refreshing though.

Some other mains included potato puffs and these chicken bites (which had garlic butter inside)

I hope you all have a very happy new year!

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! 

My 21st!

I had a little party for my 21st with 8 of my closest friends. Here's what I made:

Appetisers

Spinach dip in a cob loaf:

You need a packet (250g) frozen spinach thawed and get as much of the liquid out as possible, 1 500g tub of lite sour cream and a continental spring vegetable soup sachet (I think some people use french onion too).

Mix these together and I left this mix in the fridge for a few hours.

When guests arrive, Slice off the top of the loaf, pull out the bread from the inside so it's only the case. Put the dip mixture into the hole you've made. I added some pizza mix cheese on top.

Then put it in the oven at 150 degrees celcius for 15 minutes, then put the torn bread (from the cob loaf) into the oven too for another 5 minutes.

You can also serve this cold too.

Chunky Guacamole inspired by this:

4 ripe avocados diced and slightly smushed up, 1 tomato, 1/2 spanish onion, 3/4 cup of toasted pine nuts, handful of corriander, some chopped sundried tomatoes and juice from 1 lemon. Served with corn chips but it didn't taste as good as it looked, I didn't like the lemon juice in it.

Red rock deli dips - the red capsicum dip is my absolute favourite and the thai pumpkin one was alright. Served with corn chips like the guacamole

 Roasted red capsicum, pecorino, cashews and basil dip 

 Thai curry pumpkin and cashews, tastes like pumpkin with thai spices

Main:

DIY pizza: I had everyone make their own pizza, I had a lot of toppings (way too much for 8 people), 1 bottle of tomato paste, 1 packet of pizza mix cheese and I used the mission pizza bases (my favourite but you can also use 2 sheets of mountain bread or lebanese bread ).

Toppings:

- 1 small butternut pumpkin

- 3 capcicum

- 500g button mushrooms

- 600g marinara mix

- 12 slices or so of salami

- ham

- 1 whole roast chicken from Coles which I shredded

- 1 tin of olives

- 1 can of pineapple pieces

- sundried tomato

- pinenuts, walnuts and cashews

- rocket

- feta

Pizza's from the night:

I had a lot left over so these are some of my leftover pizza combinations:

This one has shredded chicken, capsicum, some pumpkin, some mushroom, onion, olives, cheese and some feta.

This has some chicken, pumpkin, capsicum, olives, sun dried tomato, pine nuts and feta

Rocket, parmesan, walnut salad:

I used 400g of rocket leaves, 125g shaved parmesan and 1 cup of toasted walnuts and 4 ripe pears (shaved with a grater). I also made a lemon/olive oil dressing with 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice  but it didn't need it.

Make this just before guests arrive otherwise the pears go dark.

I also bought some Coles brand Garlic bread

Dessert

I had the small ricotta cheesecake from Pasticceria Papa. Possibly my favourite cake ever.

Pumpkin Soup and Macaroon Balls

Had a bit of a cooking day today:

Easy Pumpkin Soup: 

1. Cut up a 1/4 Jap Pumpkin into small cubes, toss with 1tsp olive oil, salt, pepper and some curry powder and lay it flat and put it in the oven on 200 degrees celcius for 45 minutes

2. Sautee a small onion with 1tsp curry powder (or more), 1/4 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3. When pumpkin is done, put it with the onion and add 1 cup chicken stock and 1 cup veggie stock or 2 cups chicken/veggie stock. Then put enough hot water to cover the vegetables if needed.

4. Simmer for 10 minutes and then blend for a few minutes leaving some pumpkin so it's more chunky. Season with salt and pepper

This was really nice and quite filling

This is the pumpkin (roasted) and the onion and spices are down the bottom.

Finished:

Chocolate Chip Macaroon Balls

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius

2. Mix vanilla extract with 1 egg white until combined but dont overwisk.

3. Combine 1 cup dessicated coconut (I used shredded), 1/8 cup caster sugar, 1/2tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 cup chocolate chips. If you don't have chocolate chips, it would still work.

4. Scoop into 1 tablespoon balls (makes about 8 large ones) and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. Done

It is seriously delicious even if the mixture seems a little dodgy the egg really binds it well

Mixed the egg white with the coconut mixture

Form into balls:

Sorry I didn't get a good picture of the finished product but trust me they are really good! and they only took 15 minutes in total.

Also, I made these banana, strawberry oatmeal squares and added some blueberries. I wouldn't recommend them because they tasted quite dry and although the outside was hard (tasted more stale than crispy the inside was soft) and leaving it longer in the oven didn't help either.