Fig-tastic!

On the weekend my local Woolworths had heaps and heaps of punnets of fresh gigantic figs on special! Of course I could not resist and because I want to use them (devour them) all before they go off, my breakfasts have been pretty... fig-tastic!

I started off with a perfect parfait:

It consisted of peanut butter oatbran (oat bran cooked with peanut butter stirred in) muesli, dried fruit, banana slices, blueberries, caramelized figs (placed in the oven for 15 mins- 180 degrees celcius) and a drizzle of milk all layered up nicely together :)

That was a yummy spoonful!
Then I was in the mood for some pancakes, so I made blueberry and fig ones! Not quite a trio of pancakes, but definitely a dynamic duo :D

By using the recipe for the trio of pancakes (link above) and just placing figs on half the half cooked pancakes (prior to flipping) and blueberries on the other- you have my breakfast!

Close-ups..
Blueberry:

And more importantly, fig: (actually the blueberries were super delicious too!!!)

Then today I went with making some over night oats... Then topping it off with some fig ice cream:

The ice-cream was really hard.. NOT! I threw a frozen banana into a food processor and whazzed until soft-serve like, then added the fig and pulsed a few times= DELICIOUS!
So if your stuck for ideas on what to do with figs, there you go. Yes, you eat them whole, no peeling or stones inside and yes you enjoy every last bite-I've got some crazy ideas for tomorrow!
Catch ya later :D

Light up my life!

... Or at least my meals:)
I finally got around to making a light box! Yes, and now I don't have to be sad that I can't photograph my fabulous dinners because there's no good light anywhere- no sir-e!

I did a bit of research before jumping straight in and found some good directions here, here and here oh and here :)

So here's my set-up (please excuse the messy... everything :)

You don't know how handy this will be, just look at my before and after shots:
Before:

After:

Dinner:

This was just some bok choy, steamed veggies and salsa beans drizzled with tahini. The pic above looked gorgeous, but didn't taste too good at all, I tried making a savoury buckwheat bake, but it was so bland! I didn't follow any recipe, so that may have been it, but if you want to make a good one, try here!
I'm super excited about my awesome light box (I've named him Larry :) and I can't wait to take some simply stunning photos.
Although I still believe nothing can beat early morning sunshine:

Trio of pancakes- do try!
Have a good day! :D

It's not a breakfast!

I come bearing gifts of a recipe... that's not a breakfast! Yay! :)
Any-way, for lunch I decided I wanted a bun with salad inside- easy enough, cut open a bun, fill with salad... but I'm sure you've all learned by now that I don't do things the easy way- I do them the FUN way!

I thought, 'well I really like pizza and I've always wanted to make my own veggie bread, but I really feel like a bun..' this thinking led to the awesome creation of the Veggie Pizza Bun!

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
60g wholemeal spelt flour
60g bread mix ( I used my wheat free brand- plain flour should also work)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 carrot- shredded
2 tablespoons diced capsicum
2 long green beans, chopped
Herbs and spices! ( I used oregano, basil, ground cumin and ground coriander)
Any filling you want

Method:
1. Mix together the yeast and water and sit for 5 mins until frothy
2. Meanwhile, combine the flours, baking powder and lots of herbs and spices in a medium bowl, prepare veggies as well:

3. Once yeast mixture is ready pour half into flours with the half to oil and mix with a wooden spoon, keep adding bits of both until the dough comes together (start using your hands now)
4. Knead for 5 mins on a floured surface then knead in your veggies by pulling and stretching and folding the dough.

5. Lightly oil a medium bowl, place your dough inside, cover bowl with a clean tea towel and place somewhere warm to rise ( I put mine in the oven- turned off!) for 45 mins.
6. Preheat oven ( other oven- if you don't have two, leave your dough in the pantry or another warm dark place) to 180 degrees celsius
7. Once your dough has rested enough, punch down then knead slightly. Shape into a bun shape ( I just flattened the top of mine a bit) and place in the oven for 15- 20 mins until golden brown.

8. Meanwhile prepare filling- I had a typical salad sandwich ( egg, spinach, tomato) but I would recommend roasted veggies or typical pizza toppings would be awesome too!
9. Cool slightly, then split in half:

10. Fill with desired fillings and top with bun top, then gobble it up :D

 I know it looks little- but it is very filling- still there is room for a delicious salad!

Healthy, wheat free, sugar free, dairy free, nut free, soy free- I can't think of any other frees at the moment, but I'm sure there's more.
Oh and delicious!!!
:)

I had cereal for breakfast...

Well that's a weird thing for crazy, weird food combo Steph to do. Yes, yes it is, so I made my cereal awesome!

It was really cold in the morning today, (well, compared to the 38 degree days we've been having) so naturally I wanted something... cold :)

I was also really in a cereal mood.
So I got out my favourite box of cereal...

 Ok, favourite boxes- a girl needs variety, people! Mixed them all together in a bowl, added some chia seeds and raw nuts, added a splash of milk and... left it in the fridge to thicken up a bit.

Then, I needed to make some sort of extra liquid to act as my milk for my bowl of cereal. Now, I love the colour pink and berries just happen to make everything extremely pink, so into the food processor went a handful of frozen berries, a handful of diced mango, (to balance the tartness of the berries) and 3/4 cup of milk) whazzed up to create a sort of sorbet/soft serve thing. The colour was great!

So I had my milk, my cereal..

Hmm, I really love my favourite cereal bowl, so I added a teaspoon of this guy:

And rubbed him into my cereal, then added my sorbet and some grapes and a little drizzle of coconut butter:

This was delicious! And pink!
The coconut butter hardened on top, see:

Hehe.
Any-who, now you see what happens when I wake up wanting a bowl of cereal... :D
I challenge all of you to try make the best bowl of cereal ever! Trust me, you'll have heaps of fun!
Bye for now!

Friday Sundae

That title sounded really weird in my head :)
Any-way... when I was younger and still into fast food and stuff like that, I would always like getting a stunner meal, because not only did you get a burger, chips and a drink, but you also got a sundae- and I always got a caramel one. I never finished my burger, chips or drink, because I had to make sure I had room for that sundae!

Why was it so good though? Thinking back now it makes me a bit sick about how sweet it was, but the best part about it was getting to the bottom to have a big chuck of caramel mixed with a tiny bit of ice cream.

This morning I had an almost empty jar of almond butter and no desire for a hot breakfast, (I always put cooked oat bran in my empty nut butter jars) so my mind jumped to ice cream. Dairy and sugar free ice cream of course, but ice cream nonetheless!

Presenting my new and improved ice cream sundae:

 It was really good!
I also had a small bowl of muesli just to keep me going through the day :)

The ice cream was simply a massive frozen banana thrown into a food processor with  some mango chunks and whazzed until smooth. Then you shove it in your nut butter jar and voila- best brekky ever! Super healthy too :D

Close-up!!

Of course if you have muesli you've got to make your sundae even better. The more toppings, the awesomer!

And what about the best bit- getting a big chunk of caramel at the end...

...almond butter's even better!
I hope you all have a brilliant weekend and do I even need to tell you to try this?
:D

RECAP!

Yes, it's weekly recap time again, with some pics of yummy meals to give inspiration (or cause hunger pains :)

Brekky's included:
Green smoothie

Delicious pink oats and almond butter:

Almond butter and banana toastie, with banana coconut glaze:

Lunches Included:
A rye flat bread with hommus, avocado, spinach a torn up veggie patty and sauteed tomato capsicum and mushrooms

Multigrain wrap, filled with pumpkin hommus (pumpkin, chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and tahini) tomatoes, spinach, black beans and beetroot chips (thinly sliced beetroot placed in oven until crispy:

So that's what's been crackalacking- what delicious meals have you been enjoying recently?

Mix and match

Carrot cake- yummmm, apple crumble- yummmmm! Breakfast time- 'What to choose'
This is usually how my morning begins with two conflicting ideas/ cravings and one simple answer that I always come up with...
'Why not both?'
Carrot cake/ apple crumble baked pancake:

Ingredients:
1/2 apple chopped
1/2 carrot grated
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 2 tablespoons milk- sit 5 mins
35g wholemeal spelt flour
20g coconut flour
1 tablespoon oatbran
1 tablespoon rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4-1 cup milk (I used oat milk)
walnuts for apple crumble, cranberries for carrot cake
optional - LSA

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, grease a medium round pie dish
2. Prepare apple and carrot:

3. Place the dry ingredients into a medium bowl (not walnuts or cranberries) and stir with a whisk to combine
4. Add in chia gel and milk and stir until you get a pancake consistency
5. Split into two bowls, place apple in one with the walnuts and carrot in the other with the cranberries- stir to combine
6. Spoon and flatten out into greased pie dish
pre-cooked:

7. Bake in oven for 15-20 mins ( I did 15 mins, but the middle was quite doughy... I loved it!)
post-cooked:

 8. If you choose to do 15 mins, like me, have fun getting it out and making it look pretty. Get a spatula and slide right around edges , hopefully for you it will slide out- if not cut into quarters and try and lift out:

I still think it's gorgeous!
9. Top with whatever you like, as you can see I used coconut butter and almond butter and then I added some grapes
10. Enjoy!
Close-up of apple one:

Close-up of carrot one:

Also if your middle is doughy, take advantage of this- roll it up and make delicious cakey-dough balls:

I hope you all have a fabulous day and enjoy breakfast- it is possible for healthy and deliciousnessly fabulous!