That's my JAM!

Today I'm here to give you my super technical, tricky, favourite recipe for jam. Can you tell I'm kidding?
I woke up today and wanted jam. I don't know why.. I've never really liked jam or honey or anything like that- Vegemite all the way people! But as I grow and change, so do my taste buds (who'd a thunk I'd like olives now?)
So, I opened the fridge and... hurrah! We had jam! Look at the sugar content- and almost fell over! So I decided to make my own :)
I know you have to add sugar to jam for the flavour and all, because berries are extremely tart, but my recipe has no added sugar and tastes even better than bought jam! How did I do it?!?
Steph's super simple jam recipe!

Watch carefully guys, I'm only gonna tell you once how to do this!
1. Get a cup if mixed frozen berries, microwave on high for 1:30 mins.
2. Place half a chopped banana into a small food processor:

3. Add your hot berries:

4. Whaz!
Yes, I know, I know, pretty technical stuff- 2 ingredients, whazzed together!
It's super-duper yummy though!
So what did I do with my delicious jam? Well it was breakfast time and I was pretty hungry... but somehow I managed to stop myself from sculling the entirety of my jam (a few spoonfuls is fine!) instead, I decided to make pumpkin jam cookie bar things :)

With some leftover jam on the side ;D
Wheat free, dairy free, sugar free, soy free, nut free...
Ingredients:
140g pumpkin
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
65g wholemeal spelt flour
15g rolled oats
10g coconut flour
10g oat bran
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
optional- LSA mix

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Chop pumpkin and steam/ boil until soft (15 mins)
3. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine
4. Add pumpkin to dry mix:

5. Add chia gel to mix and stir until combined:

6. Take a small bit of dough and flatten onto a tray lined with baking paper- raising the edges slightly:

7. Spoon on some of the jam and top with a bit more dough, until you've used up all the dough:

8. Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins until hard on top and slightly golden.
9. Top with whatever you like (I chose coconut butter) and enjoy!

Yum, yum, yum! Especially that delightful jam!

I placed the remaining banana in as well.
I think we need some close-ups:

Hello DELICIOUS!

Inside view:

Can't forget the spoon shot:

* Note to self, put the spoon down before fiddling with camera...

No- not the jam!
Hehe! I hope you all have a fabulous day and maybe enjoy some all-natural jam!

:D

From the bread up!

So I haven't been feeling too tip-top lately so for breakfast I took it easy with a nice cool green smoothie for my tummy and some muesli:

This was an extra super thicky greeny:
1 frozen banana
1/2 frozen avocado
1 handful frozen mango
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 tablespoon peanut butter
sprinkle of chia seeds
splash of milk- all thrown in a blender and wazzed up :)

For the muesli:
Open box and pour into bowl, add milk (or green thickie) if desired:)

Soothing, filling, nutritious, delicious!

Then lunch rolled round and my stomach was pretty happy, so I decided to spoil it for being such a well-behaved girl!
I made my ultimate grilled veggie sandwich... I'm sure you've seen it before, but I took pictures (mainly coz I was bored :) as step by step instructions for the most delicious sandwich!
Grilled veggie sandwich:
Firstly start with bread (I used wheat free spelt/rye bread)

Spread on the hommus baby!
Next add some greens (me love spinach!)

Top with a cooked veggie patty- I used a delicious curried chickpea veggie patty

And.. some salsa (as hot as you like :)

Next add some grilled eggplant ( I don't know why, but this tastes like the cheese to me!?!)

followed by some oven baked sweet potato:

Some lightly grilled tomatoes and mushrooms: (everything that is grilled- I used a griddle pan on high heat)

 Topped with char-grilled capsicum and some baked carrots

 Finished off with a slice of bread and then... duh! duh! DUH!

 Boy, that sandwich press looks hot and angry!
Sorry sandwich...

Nooooo!
( I had way too much fun making this sandwich...)
And voila!

Thank me later- you have a sandwich to devour first!

Ciao for now!

Sunday Pancakes!

Yay! I love Sundays!!! I love Pancakes!!! Put em' together and you get a whole lotta love!!!
So today, I thought I'd bring my pancake creations back to basics, as all I wanted was a delicious, fluffy vanilla pancake :)
I also wanted a smoothie- just like last week.
I went with a pink grapefruit smoothie and 3 delicious vanilla pancakes:

Vanilla pancakes ingredients:
chia gel- 1 tablespoon chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon milk- leave to sit 5 mins
45g wholemeal spelt flour
30g rolled oats
15g oat bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (depends how strong a flavour you want)
optional- LSA mix
1 cup milk of choice (I used oat milk)

Method:
1. Create chia gel:

 sit for 5 mins until gel-like
2. Place dry ingredients in bowl and combine

3. Add chia gel, milk and vanilla bean paste to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth:

4. Let sit for a few mins to thicken- meanwhile create smoothie:
Ingredients:
80g frozen pineapple
75g frozen grapefruit
110g frozen watermelon
40g frozen mango chunks
About 1/2 cup milk (depends how thick you want it)

Method:
1. Place everything in a blender:

And blend until smooth! (don't add any of that tomato sauce you see next to it :)
Place in the freezer while you make the pancakes.
Back to pancake method:
5. Heat up a large fry pan on medium heat and add some oil.
6. Spoon on the pancake mixture (3 medium ones, lots of little ones, one big one... whatever you want)
7. Flip after bubbles start to appear (2-3 mins)

 8. Cook on the other side or another 2-3 mins and flip again to brown first side.

9. Top with whatever you want- maple syrup, butter, berries, banana, yogurt, Nutella etc. I topped mine with a drizzle of nut butter and coconut butter :)
10. Remove smoothie from freezer- top with anything, or nothing and now go and eat both!

These pancakes are really yumm- I truly believe that sometimes simple is the best and tastiest thing after all!

This is a really great vegan pancake recipe too as it holds together really well- and tastes just like regular pancakes :) Super fluffy too!

The smoothie is super yummy too! If your not a fan of grapefruit, you probably won't like it as the flavours quite strong, but I love the bitterness of it. If that sounds like you, just replace it with a frozen banana. Then top with cheerios :D

Spoon shot:

Another breakfast I have eaten recently was this:

Nut butter on wheat free bread with a yogurt, muesli, berry parfait.
Wait a second- you don't eat dairy Steph!
That's yogurt!!!

Yes, yes it is- vegan yogurt! I was really excited when I saw this in the shops- coconut milk and almond yogurt!!
Unfortunately like every other vegan yogurt I've tried, it was way too sweet, tasted artificial and a little funky :( But I still ate it, I was HUNGRY!
The pictures turned out great too:

I mean, how cool does this photo look- come on!

At least my parfait looked delicious?

The spoon shot looked good too:

Lastly- a question... does anyone else eat all the crusts off toast first so they're left with the middle filled with tons of topping:

Cuz I do ;)
Have a great Sunday!