These are a few of my favourite things!

The past two meals I have eaten have been ridiculously yummy (to me anyway!) and I figured I'll just have to share them both.

For dinner last night, I wanted a big, awesome salad! So that's what I made:

This had grilled peaches, steamed pumpkin and parsnip, spinach, tomato, capsicum, carrot, broccoli, green beans, peas, brussel sprouts, walnuts, pine nuts and red cabbage :)

It really hit the spot, but then along came breakfast...

This picture does it no justice at all, but on the side was my breakfast fruit salad and in my big mug, was a dough boy smoothie, inspired by this recipe from Kath Eats Real Food.

Dough Boy Smoothie:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk ( I used fortified soy milk)
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 banana
About 1/4 cup extra milk

Method:
1. Place rolled oats, chia seeds and banana in a bowl, stir
2. Add the milk, stir again then leave in the fridge over night (Just like my overnight oats)
3. Come morning it should look like this:

4. Place in a blender with the extra milk and blend on high until there are no lumps and it is nice and frothy ( I blended for maybe 2-3 minutes straight)
5. Place in the freezer until ready to use, because now you are making my very own creation!

Steph's Breakfast fruit salad:
Ingredients:
A handful of bran sticks
A sprinkle of seeds of choice ( I used pepita and sunflower seeds)
2 tablespoons milk (I used soy milk)
A sprinkle of dried fruit ( I used cranberries)
Optional: Whatever fresh fruit you want- mine included blueberries and figs and also coconut butter :)

Method:
1. Place the bran and seeds on a small plate:

2. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon of milk, add the other ingredients and drizzle over remaining milk and coconut butter if using:

3. heat some nut butter in the microwave so it is runny, then drizzle over dough boy smoothie- I would also recommend stirring your favourite cereal through/ nuts/ toasted coconut- whatever you prefer
4. Eat up:)

My delicious Dough Boy Smoothie: ( It's called dough boy, because it tastes kind of like cookie dough in smoothie form)

My beautiful Brekky Salad:

Last but not least, one of the best bites of the day:

Enjoy :)

Trio of Pancakes

In the past I have already done a trio of different flavoured cupcakes and I enjoyed the variety and awesomeness of this so much, that I decided to do it again... but it's pancake Sunday and so I wanted to make Breakfast Trio Pancakes:

The three different flavours today were...
Blueberry, Banana and Fig Pancakes:
Ingredients:
50g wholemeal spelt flour
50g brown rice flour (or just 100 g of flour of choice instead of spelt and rice)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (so they get nice and fluffy!)
1 egg (or egg replacer)
1/2 cup milk of choice ( I used unsweetened almond milk)
Optional- LSA mix and chia seeds
banana, chopped( I didn't use much, maybe an inch off the top- then I froze the rest)
1/2 a fig, chopped
A small handful of blueberries (fresh/frozen)
1 tablespoon of oil, to cook them in

Method:
1. Combine the flour, baking powder and LSA and chia seeds in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk in the egg and milk until smooth- it will look quite runny, but that's ok!

3. Get two extra bowls and spoon the mixture so there is an even amount of batter in each

4. Add each fruit to a bowl

5. Heat a large fry pan on low-medium heat with about a tablespoon of oil.
6. Spoon in your batter (perhaps do it one at a time, mine was fine... but it sure was squishy!)

7. When you start to see bubbles forming on the top, flip away!

8. Let them cook for another 2 mins, then flip over again for an additional 30 seconds to 1 min.
9. Top with anything you like- remember you still have half a fig!
Suggestions include; maple syrup, honey, butter, jam, nutella, lemon, whatever your favourite pancake topping is!

If you're interested I lightly spread mine with nut butter and then drizzled over some coconut butter :)
YUM!

They are light and fluffy and not dry at all!
The blueberry one was the prettiest:

But the banana one tasted out of this world! It was like warm, gooey banana bread- without sugar, butter or anything!:)

I hope everyone enjoys their pancake Sunday!

A Day of Eats

My blog is designed to help those who have any kind of restricted diet (mainly vegan, dairy free, wheat free, sugar free) or who simply want to eat well without missing out on awesome foods, I mean come on, how many people do you know eat this and this for breakfast!

Back to my first point though. I want to show you an example of what a vegetarian, dairy free, sugar free person eats (that's me by the way ;) so anyone who can't think of ideas might get some.

I just picked a random day, each meal changes daily!
Breakfast:

This is my big mug full of overnight oats.
You simply put about 1/4-1/2 (depending on how hungry you are)of rolled oats/ muesli (muesli has yummy dried fruits and nuts) into a bowl with a tablespoon of chia seeds and either 1/2- 1 cup of milk of choice (depending on how much of the oats you put in- you double the milk) give it a stir and sit in the fridge over night.

In the morning give it another stir:

Then add whatever else you like. I added a pluot (plum/apricot), some grapes and a drizzle of nut butter. Yum!

Lunch:

A toasted scrambled egg, veggie stuffed wholegrain wrap!
All you do is saute whatever veggies you like in a fry pan with some garlic/ oil (optional), scramble two eggs in another fry pan, stir together fold up in wrap and toast- too easy!

Dinner:

That is roasted herby root veggies atop some yellow split peas that are on top of some warm polenta.
The veggies are seasoned with oregano, basil and cumin seeds, drizzled with oil and baked in the oven on a low temp (140 degrees maybe) for about an hour.

I simply put the split peas in lots of boiling water in a saucepan and let them cook for about 35 mins.

The polenta was 1 minute polenta so I added about 1/2 a cup of water to a small saucepan, brought to the boil, added polenta (maybe 1/4 cup) and whisked until it looked like cooked oat bran :)

Which brings us back to breakfast, where I have a real recipe for you.
Fruity, nutty, apple-y oat balls:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fruity muesli
3/4 cup milk of choice ( I used almond milk)
1/4 of an apple grated + 1/4 of an apple chopped into small squares
coconut butter!

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Get your fruity muesli:

add it to a saucepan with the apple and milk, stir on medium heat, then leave to sit until starting to thicken.
3. Once thick:

form into balls, place on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 15 mins, until golden brown:

Drizzle over your choice of topping (I used coconut butter.. yum!) ie. nut butter, jam, nutella etc.
Enjoy as cereal with milk, or stirred through a smoothie or with banana milk like I did:

Enjoy!
I hope you have some inspiration now, go have a yummy day!
:D

Experiments

If you hadn't noticed already, most of the recipes I have posted on this blog have all been experiments where I make up the recipe as I go along. 9 times out of 10 it somehow miraculously works!

But, there are those few that... flop!

Today's breakfast was a bit of both- really good experiment, really bad experiment.
Lets start with the good.
Presenting my Pumpkin Glazed Mini Doughnuts:

Hehe, I decided to make that picture extra large :)
Ingredients:
100g pumpkin, chopped
30 g wholemeal spelt flour
50g wholemeal plain flour (or just 80g flour of choice)
1 teaspoon baking powder
milk (around 1/4- 1/3 cup) ( I used unsweetened almond milk)
Coconut butter (optional- this is what I used to glaze the doughnuts. You could use the glaze from this recipe or top your donuts with whatever you like!)

Method:
1. Steam/ boil pumpkin until soft (15 mins), then mash
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. Whisk in pumpkin and then start adding milk until you get a slightly thick pancake consistency:

4. Now, I have a mini doughnut making machine that I used for this recipe. You could use a doughnut tray to put in the oven, or simply make these into pancakes (you can always cut a hole out of the middle) or make the batter super thick, form into doughnut shapes and bake in the oven!
5. I turned my machine on covered it in oil and spooned my mixture in, closed the lid and let it cook for about 4-5 mins (same time if you are making pancakes- oven might take 15 mins or so)
6. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool:

7. Glaze your doughnuts with your choice of topping. I used coconut butter (suggestions include, nut butter, maple syrup, jam, nutella, mashed banana etc.)

OK, so the bad experiment of the day. See if you can guess what it was:

No, it wasn't these little beauties:

It was this guy!

I attempted to make a healthy chocolate thick shake to go with my healthy doughnuts, adapted from this recipe, but I didn't add any sweetener and it tasted foul. Observe.
My original breakfast:

My breakfast after about 5 mins:

Spot the difference!
I sprinted down to the kitchen, washed the horrible thick shake down the drain, threw a frozen mango, a couple of handfuls of berries and some water into a blender, poured it into my big mug and ran back to my beloved doughnuts! Ahhh, much better!

Hello sorbet!
So the doughnuts tasted fabulous- perfect for me, they would probably not be sweet enough for anyone else, but that's why I gave you so many different topping ideas, It's all in the topping people! I love foods that aern't overpoweringly sweet, but I seem quite alone in the world! Oh well- just one more pic of the doughnuts and I promise you won't see them again!

Mmmmm, DOUGHNUTS!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy

I used to say that all the time... what does it mean though- lemon squeasy? I mean I get that it had to rhyme and all, but why couldn't it be elephant squeasy? I'm just saying, anyway this post is about mainly lunches or dinners you can make that require no brain power whatsoever.

Yes, even I, have one of those days!

But I don't want to reach into the freezer and pull out a pie or heat up a 2 minute rice dish- I still have values! I still want fresh, healthy and delicious! Just not the long thought process that can go with some of my recipes.

Here are some suggestions, but don't worry there will be a recipe at the end!

One of my favourites. Full of veggies wrap:

 Super simple- roast/ steam/ boil root veggies until really soft, mash, stir in steamed greens (broccoli, brussel sprouts, beans, peas, broad beans etc), optional- stir in a chopped up veggie burger. Place on wrap, wrap it up and toast it in a sandwich press. Too easy + delicious! :)

Next Up is another delicious veggie-filled meal. I call it my colourful bowl of yummies:

The bottom layer is just spinach, then there are peas and broad beans, next is steamed pumpkin, carrot, beetroot, parsnip, swede and sweet potato, topped off with lentils and a sun-dried tomato veggie sausage. Very filling indeed!

If I thought this was my colourful bowl of yummies- I was wrong:

This is a bunch of random veggies I through in the fry pan with some garlic and rice- really you can add whatever you like!

There were mixed beans, green beans, peas, corn, carrot, purple cabbage, tomato, broccoli, brussel sprouts, capsicum, mushroom, broad beans and spinach added at the end!

Thsi has got to be one of the best fork fulls of food I have ever had!

I love rainbows!
Last, but not least- yesterdays lunch, which was very filling indeed.
Steph's oven grilled brushetta:

I simply roasted some tomatoes and capsicum in the oven for about 25 minutes, sauteed some mushrooms, garlic and spinach together, added it to my chopped tomatoes and capsicum with some mixed beans and lentils, stirred, placed on a 100% rye flatbread (lightly spread with more garlic- like garlic bread!) and drizzled over with some basil pesto. I then baked in the oven for around 15 minutes. YUM!

So there are your easy lunches- but now be jealous because yesterday for brekky I had bright pink barley 'oatmeal': 

Tea time!
Here's what I did. I cooked up a batch of barley (you can see how here) drained the water, added some milk (1/2 cup to 1 cup, it depends how thick you want it) and thinly sliced banana, handful of berries and let it sit and thicken.
When it started to thicken I whisked and whisked until quite thick and added some chopped walnuts. (omeg-3's people!)

Then I made it look pretty with some of the banana I didn't use and some blueberries:

No I did not forget the nut butter- it's just hiding under all the fruit, getting warm and gooey!
Close-up time!

Admire the pinkness!
Also because I am a real life person, my breakfast didn't stay looking like this for long- I wanted every spoonful to have a bit of everything, so...

Perfect! I think I like this picture the best :D

I hope you have a brilliant day!