April wrap-up

So, it's nearly the end of the month and it's type for a recap of the month that was....
I started April off with my very... 2nd WIAW! Which was quickly followed up with an AWESOME idea, I had never thought of!

Overnight oat ice cream!  

Boy, was that good- might be seeing that again for May!
Plenty of my smoothie jars featured this month:

Tuity-Fruity Breakfast Smoothie!

Green Monster topped with chocolate granola

Another Green monster topped with a variety of flavoured granola ( Coconut, peanut butter and chocolate!)

Pink Grapefruit Smoothie

There was plenty of Savoury inspiration, I promise you!

Beetroot stuffed crust pizza

Best ever grilled veggie sandwich!

A Middle-Eastern Feast!

There were a few old favourites:

Plenty of Spoon shots:

And quite frankly a few realistic U.G.L.Y shots of what my food really looks like when I start eating it!

Farewell April! Bring on May!

It wouldn't seem right to end it there, lets end with a typical Steph moment: (that happened way more than once! WAY more)

Spillage in the village (gotta watch out with those spoon shots!)

:D

Food Heaven

Could you excuse me for a minute.
Thanks, I was just trying to come back down to Earth after some floating around in food heaven! :)
It all started with a new find (it's probably been there for a while! But it's a new find for me) at the grocery store:

Linda McCartney's vegetarian (vegan friendly too!) sausages!
They went into a cheap white bread hot-dog bun...
You don't believe me do you?
Ok, they went into a GINORMOUS salad! Yum!

I think there was everything and anything I could find chucked into this bowl!
There was oven roasted potatoes, steamed carrot and beetroot, peas and corn, chopped capsicum, chopped avocado, drained and rinsed lentils, kale, spinach and 2 vegetarian sausages, crisped up and golden-i-fied in a fry pan with some olive oil! That's it. :)

Super tasty, and with the addition of these wonder sausages- it wasn't plain at all!
It was just huge :)

With lots of pretty colours:

And even though I am a HUGE veggie fan- this guy stole the show!

It tasted meaty- which was a little scary, I must admit- but not exactly like meat (confused?) it was really well seasoned and had AWESOME texture! YOU.MUST.TRY.THIS!

I wasn't out of food heaven yet though, breakfast brought me right on back!
I was flicking through different blog's recipe pages and came across Katie's recipe for voluminous oats. My tummy went 'Yes, please!' It looked totally delicious and just like Katie, I prefer my oats cold rather than hot too!
But, unfortunately it was already morning.
I never let small obstacles get in my way though!
I jumped out of bed and created my own version!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon LSA mix
1 teaspoon coconut butter (optional) and
1 very thinly sliced banana
1 cup (maybe more) milk of choice (I used oat)
Method:
1. Place everything in a saucepan . I let it sit and bubble for a few mins, then whisked away until the banana disappeared. It was still pretty runny (but still gloopy) but I poured it into a shallow bowl and placed in the fridge for about half an hour, stirring about every 10 mins.
VOILA!

Super creamy, super thick! Oh. My. Word :)
In the background you can see a batch of some home-made peanut butter granola!
Take a handful of muesli and some multi-grain cheerios (optional) and place in a bowl with a splash of milk and 1 teaspoon peanut butter (or any nut butter). Place in microwave for 20 seconds, rub into muesli, bake on baking tray in oven (180 degrees celsius) for 10 mins. Crumble with fingers, leave to cool slightly.
I then transferred my AWESOME oats to a pretty mug:

 Added a splash of soy milk:

And some delicious nutty granola:

Holey-Moley! Soooooo good!

Best mug of oats I've ever eaten in my life- and I've eaten a few!

I loved the textures. I loved the flavours. I loved the temperature. I LOVED this brekky! The oats were unbelievably creamy:

 Paired with delicious crunchy peanutty granola:

Food Heaven.

I hope you all have a fabulous week- maybe we will see each other in food heaven! It's a pretty good place!
:D

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and the rest of life!

Hello, hello!
So... it's the weekend! YAY! Well, if you're living in Australia, you've just had one of the shortest weeks anyway! Easter long weekend followed by ANZAC day on Friday! (I'm also on holidays, so every day's a weekend!) But for those of you who had your average 5-day-week, HAPPY WEEKEND!
I was looking through my pictures and noticed I took a pic of breakfast. And lunch. AND dinner! So you lucky folks get another day in the life of my over-spoilt tummy! (You also get some links to some interesting things floating round the blog-o-sphere!
Breakfast!
Breakfast was yummy, it was really two separate breakfasts, but they were both really yummy!
I had some frozen apples, so I wanted to make an apple-y cinnamon-y green smoothie! I also really wanted some of my home-made chocolate granola. I never let my tummy down!

Into the smoothie went 1 chopped frozen banana, 1 chopped frozen apple, 1 teaspoon nut butter, 1 handful of spinach and some oat milk (maybe 1/2 a cup?)

My granola was muesli mixed with a chocolate mixture- which was 1/4 cup of oat milk + 1 teaspoon coconut butter + 1 teaspoon raw cacao, heated in the microwave for 30 seconds- stir! Once mixed through muesli, place on baking tray and bake at 180 degrees celsius for around 10 mins until slightly crispy. EAT! I put mine in my mug with a little soy milk :)

 So, I did end up combining them... it just kinda always happens:)

This week, my list of things I want to make has grown considerably, as everyone has some really good recipes floating around- especially at Spoons!
I want to make her oatmeal cookie dough breakfast bake  and her soft and chewy chocolate chip skillet cookie!
Over at (never) homemaker  I really want to have a go at my take on the Garbanzo garlic knots :)
And you have no idea how many of Kath's oatmeal recipes I have sitting in my brain ready to be created!
But I think we'll get back to my stomach.. it's lunch time!
I was craving fresh. I was craving crisp, yummy veggies, I wanted rolls!

I LOVE RICE PAPER ROLLS! :)

Inside was strips of capsicum, grated carrot, chopped tomato, peas, strips of cucumber, sauteed mushrooms and strips of egg ( I simply whisked an egg and poured it on a plate and microwaved until set ( no oil that way!) and some chopped garlic tofu, all wrapped up in rice paper rolls, soaked in water for a few seconds and left to get sticky and wrappable!

While drooling over so many yummy recipes (mentioned above) I also came across some really eye opening posts, such as this one over at The Diva Dish.
I also really liked this one at The Big Man's World- I pretty much agree whole-heartedly!
Good reads people :)
Finally, we come to dinner, where if you have any anger or frustration built up during the day, bake a whole sweet potato, but first get a fork and jab the life out of it! :)

Then cook in a preheated oven (180 degrees clesius) for about 45mins-1 hour and please for your sake, top with coconut butter- you will not be disappointed (hommus is also accepted if you do not have coconut butter on hand!)

You should also serve it with some salsa beans and lentils- coz they're yummy (drain and rinse a small can of four beans and 2 tablespoons of lentils, heat a little in the microwave and stir in some salsa)

Lastly on my list of links.. even if you don't get around to making any of the recipes suggested above- YOU. HAVE. TO. MAKE THIS!  It's one of those things that make you ask (or throw a tantrum) 'Why didn't I think of that?'
Well there you go! Have a fantabulous weekend and enjoy some good food with family and friends!
:D

Waffles or pancakes?

....'We can stay up late, swap manly stories and in the mornin', I'M MAKIN WAFFLES!'
Hehe, I hope everyone knows where that quote came from!
Anyway! It's the age-old question... Pancakes or waffles? Generally I'd go waffles, coz they look cooler, but lately I've wanted pancakes?
Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to give you a recipe for both.. Darn!
;)
Firstly... WAFFLES!

 Chocolate banana waffles with a mango-berry smoothie!
Ingredients:
chia gel (1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon milk of choice)
1 banana, roughly chopped
20g wholemeal spelt flour
10g coconut flour
20g gluten free self raising flour (optional- just increase spelt flour instead)
1 tablespoon chocolate protein powder
1/2-1 tablespoon raw cacao ( I put a whole one in!)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2-3/4 cup of milk of choice (until you get a pancake consistency. I used oat milk))
optional- LSA mix
optional- melted nut butter

Method:
1. Place all your dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
2.Add your milk, chia gel and banana and melted nut butter (if using) to the mix and stir to combine
It should look like this:

Now you can leave to sit for a bit while making the smoothie- recipe below.
3. Once you've made your smoothie and it's waiting and thickening in the freezer, heat up a waffle maker and grease with oil (or butter etc.)
4. Spoon on half the mixture and close the lid. Check after about 3 mins (If you check sooner, it will be runny and break/stick etc.)
5. Keep cooking until its solid and golden. Remove from waffle maker, grease again and place remaining mixture in for another 3 or so minutes.

6. Place on plate and top with whatever you like ( I used coconut butter)

Ok onto the smoothie recipe!
Ingredients:
1 cup berries
1 cup frozen mango chunks
1 cup milk of choice ( I used soy milk)
and that's it!
Method:
1. Place in blender and blend until smooth!
Keep in freezer while finishing waffles.

YUM YUM!
Gooey chocolatey, banana-ry waffles:

 With a refreshing, thick mango-berry smoothie!

Put em' together and you have a match made in heaven!

Hmm, this guy looks a little lonely..

And this guy looks even lonelier!

All fixed:

:)
Now onto my pancake recipe for today!
This was inspired by.... well my imagination!
Make up a batch of oats by using 3/4 cup of muesli, 1/4 cup oatbran, chia seeds optional- cinnamon and 2 cups of milk:

Cook until all the liquid is absorbed and then cook some more until way over done and sticky:

Let it sit for 5 mins. Meanwhile, you could make some ice cream, by placing a frozen banana in a food processor and whazzing! (You may need to scrape down edges every so often) store in freezer until pancakes are ready.

Core an apple and then slice to make rings. (You'll need about four thin rings - I gave the leftover apple to our birds)
Then heat a fry pan with some oil, place a quarter of your oat mixture on and flatten down with an apple slice:

Cook for a minute or so and flip, it should be golden, they don't need long.
Once you have 4 oat-cakes top with whatever you like, (I went with peanut butter) retrieve ice cream from freezer and enjoy!

Mmmmm, yummy muesli in pancake form!

So it's up to you.. Pancakes or waffles for brekky tomorrow? Or maybe just go with both! They're both delish :)

Oh no, these guys are lonely too!

It's OK, I fixed it :)

 I just think these are the coolest looking pancakes though!

Although these ones are a close second!
See you  later guys!
:D