An Oat Bar Recipe... Without Oats!!

Hi friends, happy whatever day of the week it is because I'm too frazzled to even remember!

But thankfully, I have enough brain power to type up a recipe (probably not to create one, what with hot elements and cooking etc.- so lucky for me I cooked this up on the weekend!!) and so get ready because...

This 'granola bar' recipe is oat free, sugar free, wheat free, dairy free, ancient grain filled, extremely delicious, filling, protein filled and quite simple to prep together for a make-ahead brekkie/ snack!

The majority of my make-ahead, convenient recipes are as a result of me requiring a make-ahead breakfast to grab running out the door for a few hours later.. and this recipe is no different!

I had a pre-brekky of plain greek yoghurt mixed with frozen banana slices (so yum!) an then grabbed my frozen granola bar wrapped in foil to enjoy approximately 3-4 hours later for second breakfast!

 Pic

Now, I'm not usually a fan of eating plain quinoa or plain buckwheat on their own, like my usual obsession with plain brown rice. Instead I seem to cook them into delicious, sweet breakfast (enter rich chocolate buckwheat 'porridge'.)

So when I needed a bake and then freeze-ahead recipe (ok, it didn't have to be bake, but the chocolate fudge brownie was getting a little old- though still so, so tasty!!) but wasn't really feeling the oats (I think I'd had oats about every day for the past week!) so instead I rummaged through my pantry shelf and pulled out some quinoa and buckwheat groats. Let's cook!

Quinoa and Buckwheat, nutty, cinnamon-y, coconut-y 'granola' bars!
Ingredients:
2 heaped tablespoons quinoa
2 heaped tablespoons buckwheat groats (add more if you're a hungry beast like me!)
1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
sprinkle of chia seeds
small handful chopped mixed raw nuts
2 dates, chopped
1- 2 teaspoons coconut oil

Method:
1. Preaheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, line a mini loaf tin with baking paper (or alternately line a ramekin)

2. Rinse quinoa and place in saucepan with buckwheat, cinnamon and  almond milk in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until absorbed (add some extra water if liquid absorbs and quinoa and buckwheat are still crunchy!)

3. Stir in chia seeds, nuts and dates
4. Pour into mini loaf tin or ramekin, flatten with a spoon/ hands and place in oven for 20-30 mins until golden brown

5. Leave to cool and then cover in foil/ gladwrap and pop in the freezer overnight or until whenever required.

And this is me enjoying my oat-free granola bar during my break at work:

 NOM :)

It may not look like the most vibrantly coloured meal- but boy did it taste good and leave me energised and full for hours!!

All in all, this is such a great, healthy, filling, nutrient dense recipe that I reckon all of you should make when you're in a time-jam and need some awesome food to positively fly through your day!

Your turn:
Are you a fan of granola bars?
Do you make your own homemade versions? What do you put in yours?
Favourite way to use quinoa/ buckwheat?? I'm keen for some more ideas!!

Alrighty! I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day/ week, nourish your body, love your body! Smile lots, love more and as always; Eat something delicious!! Bye for now friends! :D

Sunday smoothie bowls and links :)

Hello friends!! And a big happy Sunday to you all!

I know I've been a little less present than usual on the blog lately, but things have been B.U.S.Y. (End of the year is crammed with so much stuff, am I right?). So I'll continue to pop in when I can (things should calm down a bit by the second half of this week)! In the mean time, I will leave you with some pics of my food (because that's what we do here!) and some lovely links to get you through a bored/ can't be bothered doing anything section of your day (we all have them!).

Say hello to breakfast!!

 Deliciously vibrant green smoothie (banana, big handful frozen mango, greek yoghurt, spinach, water)

Topped with some mixed nut butter and peanut butter granola (with cheerios!!)

And utterly devoured:

 Nom.

And that was breakfast!

Now I'm curious, what did you have for brekky? Comment below!

Now onto the links from the week!


Food:

Vegan Beast Burger & Cucumber Dill Salad 

Paleo Peppermint Chocolate No-Bake Bites

Thanksgiving Vegan Mini Pot Pie Jars

23 Healthier Versions Of Your Favorite Holiday Treats

Snickerdoodle Vegan Overnight Oats {Gluten Free + 6 Ingredients}

Fiesta Sweet Potato Nachos

Fitness:

Voices in My Head

3 Brutal Truths No One Tells You About Being A Fitness Instructor

Dorm Friendly Workouts Every Student Should do

Exercise is Not Punishment for Eating and You Do Not Have to Earn Your Food.

9 Ways to Make Fitness a Priority

Health:

The Health and Fitness Trends You'll Be Following in 2016

12 Signs Your Unrealistic Diet Is Making You Unhappy

7 Easy Ways To Eat Healthier This Week

Happiness:

21 Genius Ways To Eat Peanut Butter And Jelly

12 Insanely Easy DIY Christmas Treats That’ll Spread Some Holiday Cheer



That's all from me today folks, I hope you all have a fabulous, restful and rejuvenating Sunday, do something you love and eat something delicious!! Bye for now! :D

Fruit- glorious fruit!

Happy Sunday friendly friends!!

The sun is out, the birds are singing and it. is. HOT!

Hellooooo Summer!

And you know what else comes with Summer??

ALL. THE. FRUIT!

I'm not going to lie here. This is a place of truth, trust and honesty. I have been eating a lot of fruit. And I love it!

Behold: FRUIT!

So, yes, fruit has been on the regular lately, which is why when I woke up not feeling too flash I knew some nice easy fruit was the way to go (any dairy at all was not on the brain.) And I also had perfectly ripe mangoes sitting patiently in the fruit bowl:

This was the mango prior to slicing up...
This was the mango post slicing up and also eating the remains :P

I also made pancakes... because, well- pancake Sunday!

These guys were just my typical banana bread spelt pancakes :) Topped with mixed nut and seed butter and crunchy peanut butter.

Breakfast was awesome:

Now for some of the links I've been loving from the past week!

Food:

Raw Protein Brownies

Healthy Low Carb Cake Batter Spread (Paleo, Vegan, Gluten Free)

Baked Falafel Tater Tots

 17 Weird Pizza Crusts That Are Actually Brilliant

Caramel Apple Overnight Oats

Fitness:

5 Ab Exercises That Are More Effective Than Crunches

What Gift Should Every Runner Get For Christmas?

Try These 17 Crazy Workout Challenges

Do you have to be sore after a workout to see results?

Health:

Why Am I So Hungry After Breakfast?

5 Vegetable-Packed Meals For People Who Hate Salads

Happiness:

Watch Adele Go Undercover To Surprise Her Biggest Fans

What about you?
What's your favourite thing about Summer? (even though I know many of my Northern Hemisphere friends will be heading into Winter now!)
Fav Summer fruit?
Nicest breakfast on a wobbly tummy?

That be it from me today folks! I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend, rest, rejuvenate and be energised for the week to come and as always- EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!!! Bye for now! :D

A make-ahead lunch recipe!

As a high school student, part time job working, extra curricular, teenager who loves to eat healthy, I find that I need to make a lot of make-ahead meals.

Anything from make-ahead breakfast (overnight oats, truffles etc.) to make-ahead snacks (home made bean muesli bars, cut up fruit) to make-ahead dinners (roast veggies, quiches) I've made it all. And nothing compares to the amount of make-ahead lunches I've prepared in my time. Hello school lunches 5 times a week.

There's a few briefs that a meal needs to meet in order to be a good make-ahead meal. One- it has to maintain it's shape/ consistency/ texture that it would normally have made at the time. Two- it has to be transportable (in that it won't 'break' if it gets tossed around a little bit). And three, it has to taste super yummy cold. And super yummy period.

And what would be an example of a brilliant make-ahead lunch? Give this one a try:

'Cheesy' Pumpkin and Veggie Pasta!

I guess you could say it's my take on a 'healthified' pasta bake/ mac and cheese. But trust me, you'll forget all about how healthy it is when you taste how delicious it is!

Sweetness from the pumpkin, cheesiness from the hommus and nutritional yeast, savoury mixed beans and sweet popping peas.

All of that intensified after a couple of hours in the fridge and then eaten cold. YUM.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
Serving of pasta (I used spelt spirals)
Small 125g tin of mixed four beans
A heaped cup of mixed steamed greens (I used broccoli, string beans and peas)
1 heaped tablespoon hommus
1 heaped tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes

Method:
1. Steam and mash pumpkin, cook pasta as to packet instructions, steam greens and drain and rinse beans.
2. Mix the hommus and nutritional yeast with the mashed pumpkin.
3. Drain the pasta, and add the steamed greens, mixed four beans and pumpkin mixture to the saucepan with the pasta and stir to coat everything with the cheesy pumpkin mixture.
4. Transport to a bowl/ container, leave to cool and then place in the fridge until required.
5. Serve hot/ cold (but cold. Because it tastes so good!)

 This was my saviour after not eating for about 6-7 hours. So happy I had a make-ahead lunch!

 Full of veggies (Not sure, but I'd probably estimate a good 3+ serves in that one bowl!!), fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. Very good lunch indeed!

So next time you need to pull together a little something to bring with you/ make-ahead for when you come back later, why not give this one a try? You won't regret it (and I'm sure you're blood levels and satiety will thank you after passing on that tempting fried fast food).

Your turn:
What's your go-to make-ahead meal?
Is there anything else I should add to the brief for make-ahead meals?
Do you ever prefer to eat your meals cold over hot? I pretty much always do!

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day, take a moment to be 'in the moment' (something I need to work on) and as always; eat something delicious!! Bye friends! :D

WIAW #55- Hectic day eats!

Hello there, lovely lovelies!
Yep, as usual, IT'S WEDNESDAY ALREADY!?! Is the thought coursing through my brain currently and as usual after re-checking my computer calender I am assured once again that it is in fact Wednesday! Time flies when you're having fun studying like a looney!

Any who, this post isn't about studying (we can't have too much fun here, guys!) this post is about food! Glorious food! In the style of a day of eating... in other words WIAW!! As usual, thanks a whole bunch of grapes to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for creating and hosting this link-up party. Now, FOOD!

Today's WIAW is a snapshot into what I ate Tuesday- a very, very, VERY busy day!!

Breakfast:
As exciting as becoming champion girl for cross country was... the cold, sometimes wet early morning trainings aren't always that flash. So why do I still enjoy them so much? :) I had to be up and out of bed at around 6 where I had my pre-training snack:

 Banana +

 Nut butter =

 Best sandwich ever!

Definitely got me roaring through training (from 7:00am- 8:00am)
After training I had to rush to an early class (Tuesday's are the only day of the week where I have to start at 8:00am- we have this thing called period 0, so we can have 2 hours of cooking in Food Science class) So I scoffed my brekky on the way to my class room- which was some choc protein overnight oats- no pic, sorry! :)

Snack: 11:00am
After running around like a mad thing I was finally able to have recess:

Frozen peas in a pot!

Lunch: 1:40pm
Then, can you believe it, I also had PE on that day! More running!! So by 1:40pm I was ready for lunch- I've never loved the sound of our school bell so much.

 A quinoa salad with coconut oil roasted sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts and eggplant along with some spinach:

 NOM! This was eating pretty fast!

Snack: 4:00pm
I was not surprised at all when I returned home from my hectic day STARVING! So I chopped up an apple and some rockmelon (best rockmelon I've ever had!) and poured myself a mug of soy milk:

And then I drove (yep, still driving- haven't ruined any cars yet!) with my mum to my flute lesson and promptly returned home to my beautiful pile of homework :)

Dinner: 6:45pm
And of course I was starving again by the time dinner rolled around, so this dinner was a mix and match of everything I felt like!!

 A piece of rye bread, toasted and spread with hommus, topped with 2 poached eggs:

Some no-added salt baked beans stirred into some sauteed onions, capsicum, garlic, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and tomato paste:

 And some mashed avocado topped with organic blue maize tortilla chips:

 Kinda weird, but totally hit the spot!
I was still hungry of course and had a scoop of greek yoghurt and some walnuts as well straight afterwards :D

That's what I ate!
Yeh, it was hectic but I still ate some awesome stuff and I think it's days like this that make me truly appreciate extra time for myself!

Your turn:
What do you eat when life gets hectic?
Best sandwich ever? Sometimes I can't get enough of PB and apple sandwiches either!
Ever jazz up a simple tin of baked beans? Usually I just throw in some frozen peas and corn... this day I was really craving sauteed onions for some reason.. the sweetness maybe?


Have an absolutely fabulous day and eat something incredibly delicious!! Bye friends :D