Food is amazing!!

Food, you are amazing.

Not only do you nourish our bodies with the nutrients- vitamins, minerals, fats, carbs, protein, fiber and everything else our cells need to survive, but you also give us a means to be creative, to explore your different physical and functional properties (hello egg coagulation!) and also create a party for our taste buds.

You are pretty much that perfect student who gets straight A's. That people actually like to be around... ;)

So today I thought I would show you how in the last 24 hours food has given me a creative outlet, nourishment for my craving/needy cells and a whole lotta party for my taste buds!

For Easter we were having a family lunch with my grandparents.. which meant food... which meant I was cooking dessert (I have been permanently assigned dessert duty- mainly because I have permanently baggsed it ;)

An image of an Easter cake flashed through my head and I searched through my large collection of Taste magazines in order to find what I was looking for- this guy!

Chocolate bought, pans lined, oven pre-heating, I got to work!!

The finished product:

A rich, moist (sorry!) chocolate mud cake (similar to a brownie recipe), covered in chocolate ganache with a pine nut (didn't have almonds) praline, spun toffee nest and truffle 'eggs'. (As I didn't have my own Easter egg moulds and the supermarket we went to had sold out of Easter eggs. On Easter. Can you believe it? Well, yes, I can actually ;)

 So I simply entered in plan B and made some easy Easter truffles (crushed biscuits, coconut, condensed milk- stirred together, rolled in cocoa powder)
Job done!

 I love, love, love baking and creating desserts and seriously don't mind not eating my creations! It's the question my friends always ask me:
'How can you make something like that and not want to eat it?'
My answer:
'I make things because I love to make them, I love simply creating awesome things!'

 I was still feeling a little tired and sore from my long run on Saturday, yesterday, so I knew I needed to fill my body up with lots of nutrient dense foods.
Enter dinner:

 An oven baked sweet potato with cashew butter (Mmmmmm) taco spiced beans, peas and mushrooms, roasted in the oven for 15 mins at 180 degrees celsius, and some air popped pop corn. So much yum!

 Low-GI carbohydrates from Mr. Sweet Potato, awesome healthy fats from cashew butter, protein + fiber from bean/pea/mushroom mix and wholegrain goodness (plus so much deliciousness) from the popcorn- who could ask for anything more?

And finally, the food that gave my taste buds a party!
This morning's breakfast:

Creamy green smoothie

 Plus brazil/cashew/almond nut butter granola

 Equals an amzingly delicious (and healthy!) breakfast!

 For some reason both the smoothie and granola were on point more than usual and just tasted so, so good.

 Food is amazing.

What about you?
Did you cook up an Easter treat for dessert yesterday? 
What foods nourish your body?
Favourite foods that give your taste buds a party?


That's all from me today folks! I hope everyone's enjoying their long weekend and having lots of fun/ happy times with friends and family! Challenge for today- give someone a BIG hug! :) Bye! :D