Oatmeal Day :)

Today I decided it was oatmeal day, so, just for you I have saved two yummy and quite different takes on oatmeal.
I think we'll start with the more traditional one, so as not to scare you from my weird creations...

This is my deliciously creamy Apple Pie Oats
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk (I used oat milk)
1 banana
1/2 an apple (I used a small royal gala)
Optional- chia seeds, LSA mix, a spoonful of nut butter spread, walnuts

Method:
1.Place the oats and chia seeds and LSA mix and walnuts (if using) in a medium saucepan, stir to combine
2. Cut the apple into small cubes and add to oats. Slice the banana very thin and add as well
3. Stir in the milk and then place over medium heat and leave for a few minutes to thicken and bubble
4. When it has thickened start vigorously stirring (This is using the  whipped banana method from the blog- Kath Eats Real Food)
5. When the oats reach your desired consistency (mine was probably after 2-3 mins of stirring consistently) pour into bowl and this is the time you can get creative with your toppings- mine included a big spoonful of almond butter :)

Then I got creative with my shots:

And of course it did not look that pretty when I actually prepared it for my eating purposes:

Delish!
My second oat creation as of late, is a bit different:

That my friends is my Chocolate Oatmeal Edible Cereal bowl!
Ingredients:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup oatbran
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Optional- chia seeds
1 cup milk (I used oat milk)
1/2 banana

Method:
 1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2.Place your oats, oat bran, cocoa powder, chia seeds and 1/2 a thinly sliced banana into a medium saucepan. Stir to combine
3. Add the milk, stir and place over medium heat until thicken and bubbly
4. Then start stirring vigorously for a couple of minutes until quite sticky and thick:

5. Pour onto a tray lined with baking paper and flatten out into a circle:

6. Bake in the oven for 15 mins
7. Meanwhile prepare whatever filling you want (I used the other half of my banana to make some banana milk, then I got some grapes and blueberries and chopped up some raw nuts) I'm thinking maybe some banana ice cream or maybe yoghurt and berries or any thick smoothie recipe you love, (maybe this one) think of the oatmeal bowl as a pie crust :)
8. Once baked place on wire rack to cool slightly then mold into the shape of your bowl:

9. Finally fill with your delicious filling :)

Enjoy!

The Breakfast Pizza- Oh Yeah!

The first time I had ever heard of such thing as a dessert pizza, was only about 2 years ago when we were at a restaurant and they featured on their dessert menu...
My life was changed.
Then changed again when I was told I couldn't eat wheat, dairy or sugar- no more dessert pizzas for me.
However, not too long ago I came across this. Chocolate Covered Katie's Healthy dessert pizza- and her other great pizza recipes. Thank you Katie!
So I thought I might try my hand at making my own Healthy Dessert/ Breakfast Pizza! (It gets to be in pink, because pink is awesome :)

That, my friends, is my Berry, muesli, coconut Pizzert (dessert pizza) with almond banana ice cream in the background- yes this was my breakfast :)
Ingredients:
115g flour ( I used 70g brown rice flour and 45g coconut flour- for the slight coconut flavour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Optional-  1 tablespoon LSA mix and a sprinkle of chia seeds
1 1/3 cups milk ( I used oat milk)
Handful of frozen berries
Nutty, fruity muesli for top
Strawberries for top
Almond Banana Ice cream:
1 chopped frozen banana
1 tablespoon almond butter

Method:
1. preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Combine all the dry ingredients (apart from the muesli) in a bowl and stir to combine.
2.Add the milk and stir until completely smooth( coconut flour can tend to be a bit bumpy) add more milk if required- it should be of thick pancake batter consistency.
3. Add the frozen berries and stir a few times so as not to tinge your pizzert grey from the berries juices.
4. Pour into a greased pie dish, sprinkle with muesli
Prior to baking:

5. Bake in the oven for around 30 mins, then insert skewer into the middle, if it comes out clean take the pizzert out.
Post baking:

Mmm, much better!
6. Make the ice cream by placing the chopped frozen banana in a food processor (the normal size is fine- it doesn't blend well in a smaller size) with the almond butter until smooth. Place in freezer until ready to use.

7. Cut yourself a BIG slice of pizzert and arrange some strawberries on top, you could even plop a bit of the ice cream on top. I did :)

Enjoy every last bite of your Berry, muesli, coconut pizzert!

Now your only worry left in the world is what to do with your leftovers...

You could probably freeze it and warm it in the microwave the next time you wanted it. I simply wrapped mine up and placed it in the fridge.. someone in my family was bound to eat it.
Little did I know my dad thought it was this savory bread thing (he wasn't wearing his glasses!) and went on to cover my delicious sweet pizzert in salt, pepper and barbecue sauce! He still ate it all, I'll give him that!
However, I wouldn't recommend that flavour combination...
Have a great day!

Nacho Nacho Man!

...I want to be a Nacho man!
Especially after yesterdays lunch :)
But before that, get excited because look what I got.....

Yay! All my school stuff... joy :) I actually think I was more excited about the box:

Does anyone else love those little Styrofoam thingies?
Well that prompted me to cheer myself up by making a delightfully delicious lunch. I think I've been on a fast food kick lately... of course they are healthified, but you can't really taste the difference:

NACHOS!

When I was younger and I was at a restaurant the only two things I would order were margarita pizzas and nachos- without the guacamole and sour cream, with lots of cheese. I am so glad my taste buds grew up! :)
Nachos- Dairy, wheat and added sugar free:
Ingredients:
Veggie mash-
100g sweet potato cut into cubes
25g parsnip cut into cubes
'Meaty' Salsa-
125g tin mixed four beans
50g vegetarian mince (I used Quorn mince- you can omit this if you prefer/ want to make it vegan)
3 cherry tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1-2 tablespoons of salsa
Guacamole-
1/2 an avocado scooped and chopped
1-2 tablespoons of corn kernels (I just used tinned corn)
A few strips of capsicum and chilli (to your liking)
Vegan cheese-
1-2 tablespoons hommus
1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast + water to thin
Corn chips-
2 small corn tortillas (gluten free)

Method:
1.boil/ steam veggies for veggie mash- 20 mins. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Meanwhile make guacamole by combining ingredients in a small food processor and wazzing up until it reaches your desired consistency- store in fridge.
3. Cut corn tortillas into triangles and arrange on baking tray:

Bake in the oven until crispy (maybe 10 mins) transfer to cooling rack.
4.Make the vegan cheese by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth and thin, set aside
5. Make salsa by adding all the ingredients apart from the salsa to a small fry pan, add 2 tbs water and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed (3-6 mins) on medium heat. Stir through salsa
6. Mash the soft veggies for the veggie mash.
7. Place corn chips on a plate, spoon over veggie mash, then spoon over salsa. Drizzle over the vegan cheese ( I mainly targeted the chips)
8. Heat in the microwave for 50 seconds until cheese resembles melted cheese:

9. Spoon over guacamole... ENJOY! :)

For your ultimate enjoyment, make sure you get a little bit of everything on your chip:)

Mmmm nachos...


 

 

A new take on sushi!

After my big burger lunch extravaganza, I thought dinner should feature my other favourite take-away type food. With a few alterations, just like the burger. :)

Pumpkin Quinoa Veggie Sushi Rolls:
Ingredients:
150g pumpkin
1/2 cup quinoa (1 1/2 cups water to cook in)
Fillings of choice (I used garlic tofu, carrot, capsicum and avocado)
2 sheets of sushi seaweed
Optional- steamed greens to place in center:)
Method:
1. Steam/ boil/ microwave pumpkin until soft. Mash until smooth. Leave to cool
2. Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve for 2 mins. Dry toast in a medium saucepan for another 2 mins. Add water, bring to the boil and then simmer until all the water is absorbed. Add to pumpkin mixture. Leave to cool.
3. Prepare your veggies by cutting them into long thin strips
4. Place your seaweed on a bamboo mat (I simple used a tea towel with glad wrap on top)
5. Place pumpkin mixture and veggies at the end closest to you, press down, then wet the closest part of seaweed to you that is not covered in filling, roll until the ends just meet the wet part. Pull mat back, wet the next part and roll again, until you have created a tight roll. Store in fridge for 10-15 mins.
6. With a sharp, wet knife cut the sushi into desired thickness and serve!
Here is my sushi from a birds eye view:

Here is a close-up... mmm sushi goodness

And here is the pumpkin I used... I'm sure some of you were wondering :)

Well, that was delicious... but not nearly as delicious as breakfast- I'm sure you can guess what it is, being my favourite breakfast and all :)

I am the type of person who hates having the same thing day after day- I always want to try new things, but this is the one meal I could eat daily and never tire of it!
Close-up goodness:

Ok, you can stop drooling over my breakfast now. Catch ya later! :)

A very YUMMY day!

So... today started off grey and just on the brink of raining- so of course I was craving something cold for breakfast :)

Mmmm, banana mango ice cream smoothie! I swear, no one would think this is dairy free- IT IS SO CREAMY!
I think my recipe changes every time I make it, but here is the jist:
1 frozen banana
1 large frozen mango (or 2 smaller ones like I did this morning)
1-2 cups of milk (this really depends on what you want the consistency to be like, see I like mine where you need a spoon to eat it with- see the spoon in the background- so I put less milk in)
Optional- Chia seeds for added Omega-3's, and filling power
Waz all that up in a blender until smooth- enjoy and then drop by and thank me! hehe. So simple, but so much like ice cream :) Pretty good start to the morning I'd say!

Then lunch rolled round...

Meet my friend burger- he didn't last too long! Neither did those sweet potato fries :)
Everything in that image was made by me- nothing processed.. if you were wondering it was also vegan. It was also quite big:

So I had to make some adjustments in order to get my mouth around it! :) (who needs a top anyway. It's way too mainstream)
The bun is based on this recipe, but I halved the quantities, didn't add any agave syrup and needed to add more flour: (pre-cooked)

Unfortunately I didn't write down my recipe for the veggie burger, I usually tend not to as every time I make it, it is completely different, the list of stuff you can add to veggie patties is endless, so I hand the creativity over to you. Mine had beans, lentils, parsley, chilli, sundried tomatoes, hommus and salsa- your turn!

My burger had the lot; patty, vegies, bun, cheese... hang on a sec- CHEESE? Yep, well my kind of cheese.
Vegan Cheese:
1 tablespoon hommus
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2-1 tablespoon of water, to thin
Method:
Mix it all together and there you have it!

Method to put on burger:
Place cooked patty on bun then drizzle over cheese, bake in oven (180 degrees celsius) for a few minutes (or microwave for about 30 sec) until the vegan cheese actually looks like melted cheese:

 If you do make this and can get your mouth around the burger, send me a picture... please!
Happy Burger Monday everyone! (Yes I did just make that up!)

Breakfast Trio Cupcakes

I couldn't decide what to have for breakfast this morning, knowing full well that it was pancake Sunday, but in the mood for something a bit... fatter :) If I don't want pancakes, then I guess I'll have to have cupcakes!

Which brought me to another dilemma. What flavour? Pfft, small obstacle... I'll just make three different flavours:

Chocolate/ walnut/ berry breakfast cupcakes, with an almond butter and banana filling and a coconut flour and banana frosting on top :) In other words... Breakfast Trio Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
75g flour (I used 60g wholemeal spelt flour and 15g brown rice flour)
30g rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg (or egg replacer)
1/4 cup milk (I used oat milk)
Optional- 1tablespoon LSA mix and 1 tablespoon of chia seeds- for added nutrition
2 teaspoons cocoa
3-4 broken up walnuts
4-5 mixed frozen berries
Frosting:( I would recommend just using the almond butter icing, as the coconut one was a bit strange- and that's me talking!)

1 banana
1 tablespoon milk (I used oat milk)
1-2 tablespoons almond butter/ any nut butter

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Combine all the dry ingredients together (apart from cocoa and nuts)
3. Stir in the egg and milk
4. Split the batter equally between three small bowls and add the walnuts to one, cocoa to another and berries to the last one:

5. Spoon into a greased muffin tray or if you're cool like me, spoon into these:

6. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean (don't try this with the berry one- it will never come out clean!)
7. Place on wire rack to cool:

8. Meanwhile, make the icing: Place the banana and milk in a food processor and process until smooth
9. You can split the recipe here and make any icing creation you want (cocoa, berries.. placed in food processor) or just stir in some nut butter... so simple, yet so good!
10. Cut the cupcakes in half and spread with some icing, then spread some on top

11. Keep the leftover icing for dipping (not a suggestion... an order!) and enjoy your healthy brekky cupcakes!

If you want to see if the cupcakes came out cupcaky and fluffy... well:

They sure did!
My favourite was probably the walnut one... next time I might just make three walnut ones, but probably not because I probably will find so many more things I can fill my cupcakes with!

Did you all have a wonderful breakfast?

YUM!

                    

  
While trying to think up an imaginative and creative title for this post, one word just wouldn't budge from my brain. YUM!
On my ever growing list of things to create, healthy pretzels have always been there. I woke up a bit earlier than usual yesterday and decided to take advantage of this.
May I present to you... A stroke of genius...pretzel style:

P.S. It is completely vegan, all natural sugar and wheat free :)
Steph's Breakfast Pretzel for One:

Ingredients:
120 g flour (gluten free/ all purpose etc. I used approximately 62g of wholemeal spelt and 58g brown rice flour)
10 g oat bran (or just crush up your own oats in the food processor)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk of choice (I used oat milk) plus extra to brush on
1 tablespoon oil
Optional (for added nutrients) 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of LSA mix
Banana glaze:
1/2 banana
2 tablespoons milk (again I used oat milk)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. Stir in the wet ingredients, until you have to use your hands- shape into a ball:

What my pretzel looked like at this point.
4. Roll out a long snake on top of some baking paper, long enough to form a medium sized pretzel.
5. Make the shape of a pretzel, then brush on some milk to act as glue in the places the pretzel meets and brush a coat all over pretzel to stop it from drying out:

6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until slightly golden
7. Make the glaze by combining banana and milk in a small blender/ food processor and blending. Spread immediately onto warm pretzel:

8.(Optional) Drizzle with almond butter (or any nut butter/ spread you want)
9. Your welcome.

My pretzel was glazed in the banana glaze, then drizzled heavily with almond butter, with the leftover banana glaze for dipping and a fruit salad on the side. Boy was I full for hours after that!
The pretzel itself isn't exactly like the typical pretzel you can buy, but this one just reminded me of eating a big chewy cookie... YUM!

Childhood Memories

        

         As a kid (no... I'm a teenager now!) my favourite lunch ever was a baked bean and cheese toastie. :) Yesterday, that's what I wanted....
'But you don't eat cheese or wheat?!?' my confused logically self told me. Luckily for me I also have a creative, 'No obstacles are gonna block my way!' part of me aswell. I was going to have a baked bean and cheese toastie no matter what!


...And here it is:

I present to you my Home made, pumpkin, hommus baked bean toastie (what a name!)

Ingredients: (serves 1)
100 g pumpkin, chopped
5-6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
90g butter beans
1-2 Tablespoons hommus (I chose two :)- the hommus gives the beans that cheesy kind of flavour.
Optional- two slices of bread if you want to make a toastie (I used home made, wheat free bread)

Method:
1. Steam/ boil the pumkin for about 20 minutes, then make into mash!
2. Add the tomatoes and 3 tablespoons of water to a small saucepan, cook on medium until you can squish the tomatoes.
3. Add the mashed pumpkin to the tomatoes and stir for about 2 minutes
4. Add the beans and hommus and stir for another 2 minutes (add more water if required)
       These are what my baked beans looked like:

5.  (Optional step if you want to make a toastie)  Spread your beans onto a slice of bread, top with the other slice and place in a sandwich grill until lightly golden (do not press down too much as the inside will squish out!)

I paired my delicious sandwich with a side of mashed root veggies. Really, the sandwich is so filling, you don't need a side!

Enjoy your healthier version of baked beans on toast!