Peanut Butter Day

So apparently it was National Peanut Butter Day on Saturday the 24th of Jan (the day I got back from camp) and so I missed it.

 Pretty accurate representation of my face!

If you know me at all you would know that I am a self-confessed peanut butter enthusiast and have been for quite some time now.

I'm also pretty sure I missed it last year too.

What is wrong with me?!?

Do you want to know what's worse?

I don't think I've had peanut butter in over a month now!!

What have I become??

So no, I didn't manage to celebrate National Peanut Butter day, I haven't had peanut butter in a long long time and yes, I am currently craving the soft, creamy, nutty paste right now as I write this post. Gah.

Before you start freaking out too much about my lack of peanut butter consumption over the past few weeks, I have rectified the situation by buying a nice big tub of natural crunchy peanut butter that is sitting patiently in my pantry waiting for me to get through my two already open jars of almond butter and choc hazelnut butter in the fridge... did I mention I have an obsession?

Since I have no pics of my peanut butter obsessions of recent, I do have a few of my other current favs...

Snack plates for lunch!!

 Nothing beats a big plate sectioned off into heaps of different flavours and textures for lunch. I love it!

 Pictured above is some sweet potato and carrot fries, raw veg (tomatoes, capsicum and celery sticks), hommus for dipping, organic blue maize tortilla chips and mashed avocado (also for dipping)

A scroll through my lunch:

 I don't think you can ever get bored of snack plates because you can mix and match and change them up so they're different every single time you make one!

 I also have a dipping fetish. :)

 Another thing I've been loving lately? Ginger.
On camp the lady cooking for me loved to incorporate lots of Asian flavours into the meals and they all tasted sooo good! (especially the curry and fried rice) and while I was eating one of the rice dishes she had made for me I noticed some bits of freshly grated ginger that had been cooked up with the rest of the veggies. It brought fried rice to a whole new level!

 So for dinner last night I wanted to have a go at recreating something like it!

 I cooked up some brown rice, sauteed some broccoli, beans, mushrooms, celery, peas, lentils and eggplant with lots of garlic, grated ginger, nutritional yeast and a touch of olive oil then adding the rice to the pan along with a torn up omelette (whisked egg, poured on plate lined with baking paper, cooked in microwave for 1 min) and then served!

 Alongside was some grilled pumpkin (sliced jap pumpkin placed on a grill fry pan and covered with a lid for 15 mins before turning for another 10-15mins until cooked through and soft)

 I love charred veggies!

 Perfect dinner if you ask me!!

 Yes, I did not have any peanut butter, but I did have lots of other good stuff that left me and my tummy smiling. I have also added National Peanut Butter Day to my diary now so I won't forget next year. (Knowing me, I will ;)

How about you?
Did you celebrate National Peanut Butter day?
Do you have snack plates? What do you put on them?
Grated ginger in fried rice? Yes/ no?

Bye for now friendly friends! Have a great day! :D

Banana bread chcoclate filled muffins!!

What. A. Title! Right?
Today for breakfast I was definitely gravitating towards pancakes. Then I thought- I always have pancakes, let's change things up a bit. It had to involve bananas. Cinnamon. Flour. And chocolate.

Challenge accepted!

Banana bread chocolate filled muffins:

 Extremely banana-y, extremely cinnamon-y and filled with warm gooey chocolate hazelnut butter- ticked all the boxes!

These muffins are super healthy, wheat free, dairy free, vegan, added sugar free and filled with all sorts of goodness that they make the ultimate breakfast.

But feel free to have them for lunch/ snack/ dinner too!

This is a great little single serving recipe that makes 3 fluffy cakes, perfectly filling!

Ok, enough talk- onto the recipe!

Banana bread chocolate filled muffins:
Ingredients:
30g wholemeal spelt flour
10g oat bran
10g quinoa flakes
1 teaspoon chia seeds
lots of cinnamon (seriously I love cinnamon, there was probably close to a few teaspoons in my mix)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 vanilla pod scraped (or a few drops of vanilla essence)
1 tablespoon LSA mix/ any fiber mix (optional)
1 banana
1/2 cup milk of choice (I used oat milk)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celisus, collect a baking tray and 3 separate muffin tins (I use these bendy rubber ones) or grease 3 holes in a regular muffin tray.
2. Place the flour, oat bran, quinoa flakes, cinnamon, chia seeds, baking powder, vanilla and LSA mix in a bowl and stir to combine:

 3. Mash 1/2 the banana and chop up some of the remaining banana up into small pieces (you should have 1/4 banana left that you can eat or whaz into the yoghurt thing I made to go with the muffins) and add to the dry mix with 1/3 cup milk:

 4. Whisk to combine:

 5. Leave to sit and thicken for 10-15 mins and then stir in the remaining milk:

 6. Spoon into muffin moulds and sprinkle with a little extra cinnamon. Place on a baking tray:

 7. Bake in the oven for 15-25 mins (check after 15 mins and then check regularly after that with a toothpick (should come out clean)) Place on wire rack to cool:

 8. Turn out of cases and leave to cool for a few more minutes

 9. Slice in half and fill with whatever you like (I chose to use hazelnut and raw cacao butter- you can stir some cacao with some coocnut butter or peanut butter, or simple spread on some butter/ nut butter of choice)

 10. Enjoy!

 Ooeey, gooey, sweet and delicious. This was a good start tot he day!!

 Alongside my muffins was some frozen peach fro-yo made by whazzing together 1/2 chopped frozen peach, the remaining banana and 3 big scoops of greek yoghurt in a small food processor until smooth and then placing in the freezer until everything was ready.

 These muffins taste so good and rich that you won't believe your taste buds that they're healthy- and you don't even miss the sugar!

 Want more proof- how about a scientific cross-section:

 Oh yes.

Your turn:
Do you ever have muffins for brekky?
Do you like banana bread and chocolate together? Always have, always will.
Muffins- eaten warm or cold? For me- warm cannot be beaten!

I hope you are happily drooling away now and are off to go make these :) Regardless of what you do today, make it a good one! Catch ya later! :D

BACK AGAIN! :) :)

I'm Baaaaack!!
Did you miss me?
Well I missed you!!! When I returned from my week away from my usual world (6 hour drive down south to Albany) I checked everything. Boy was that over whelming! Emails, face book, messages, blog posts- I had missed so much, all in the space of one week! So I decided that last week just didn't happen to me in the technological side of things and that I'd just start a fresh this week. To keep last week as simply the week that was camp!

I. Loved. Camp!

Now I usually hate camps- the only ones I've been on being school ones, so when I was getting ready to go on this one I was sort of apprehensive. Along with only recently publishing my post about orthorexia and how being in control of my food and diet has affected me simply added to this worry.

But that's the thing- camp helped me so much with that!

I wasn't in control of any of my meals, I was thrown out of my comfort zone and I was left with a choice on how I wanted this week to pan out. And you know what- I did it. Not only that I enjoyed it. I met brilliant people, formed extremely tight bonds with some and had the time of my life everyday without the constant worry of what I had eaten or how much sitting I had done.

I ate a lot of tofu because that's what the camp chef decided was my only source of protein ;) I ate processed foods like veggie soy sausages and heavily marinated tofu. Lot's of my food was fried in oil and there was significantly less veggies on my plate than I'm used to. I didn't have a shred of spinach for 8 whole days and not only that- no pumpkin!

And can you believe it? I survived! Haha, very funny. In all seriousness though this camp truly opened my eyes to the important things in life. Relationships with other people, good times, just hanging out and of course seeing as it was a Christian/ bible camp learning and loving God. I could finally see that the world would not end if I had a squirt of tomato sauce from a bottle or some dip that wasn't dairy free. I ate what I was given and I enjoyed it. The end.

Now that's not to say I wasn't absolutely thrilled to come home and cook up a storm with a bucvket load of veggies- because that's exactly what I did!

 Roasted pumpkin, carrot, swede, parsnip, beetroot, potato, sweet potato and brussels sprouts with some wilted spinach and two poached eggs!

 I missed my veggies!

 I will admit that after 8 days of a different style of eating my body wasn't all that happy. I did get quite a bit bloated after the white rice and lack of veggies and some other stuff that we don't need to go into detail about, but nothing too serious.

 Because we were always so busy on camp I know I ate quite a bit less than usual but I didn't even realise it until we sat down in the dining hall for the next meal and I was famished!

Also, breakfast was at 9:00am every morning and I was up at 5:30 am... so I did have a snack of something I had brought along to hold me through until second breakfast (apple/ muesli etc.)

That's the other thing I was looking forward to- smoothies for brekky!

 Along with chocolate steel cut oats!

 Topped with some coconut butter= YUM!

 I didn't have any yoghurt in the fridge so this smoothie was 1 frozen banana + 1 small frozen mango + 3 chunks of frozen spinach (didn't have any fresh stuff- must go grocery shopping) some chia seeds, LSA mix and oat milk all whazzed up until smooth:

 And very green!

 This filled me up nicely after my hour long run (another thing I missed) and tasted sooo good!

You know what they say- absence makes the heart grow fonder! And I definitely greatly appreciate being at home and all the wonderful things I can eat and do etc. Although I would go back to camp any day any time!

To sum my week away up in one word- helpful. It helped me realise that I wouldn't die if I didn't have a green smoothie, that I didn't have to run every day that I could just be with others and enjoy life. For that I am truly thankful!

Onto you guys:
Did/ do you go on camps?
Do you sometimes like taking a break from your usual routine?
Do you enjoy returning and being in control of your food again?

I have a lot to do today (school's starting back in a week!) so I best be going! Talk to ya later! Bye! :D

Be Back Soon!

Happy Friday everyone!!

 Who's excited for the weekend? ME ME ME! Whyza? Becuaza I'm ma going camping!

Yeah!
 So unfortunately that means a little holiday from blogging with you guys- but I'll be back baby! Bigger than ever! Maybe... :P
Any way- before I head off on my little adventure I'll leave you with something I seem to like to talk about a lot... that be food in case you were wondering!

 Pink food!
Seeing as I'm going away I don't know how much control I'll have over my food so I've decided to eat all of my favourite foods until I go. Starting with this delicious breakfast of frozen grape and blueberry ice cream topped with nutty granola!

 The 'ice cream' was simply I large frozen banana + a handful of frozen grapes and blueberries whazzed up in a food processor until ice creamish. (Placed in freezer until ready to eat)

 Then topped off with the cooled granola:

 Soooo good!

 On the menu tonight, I'm thinking pizza. Yep definitely thinking pizza.
Who knows maybe I'll do a pink beetroot base? Maybe the theme of the day will be pink? Only time will tell!!

What I do know- this brekky is good, you should try it and then wait until I'm back next week to thank me. Because you'll want to thank me. ;)

 Seriously- who wouldn't want dessert for brekky? (besides all those people who prefer savoury breakfasts).

 Any who I best be going to finish up some packing- I just know I'll forget something!

I hope you all have a great day and then a great weekend and then a great week and I guess I'll see you guys soon!

Will miss you!!

Bye! :D