Broccoli, Cauliflower and Quinoa Cheesey Bake!

Hello there friendly friends!

I thought I might mix it up a little this Wednesday and post an utterly delicious recipe instead of a full day of eats and I promise you will not be disappointed!

Behold: The Broccoli, Cauliflower and Qunioa Cheesey Bake:

Stacked full of veggies, plenty of protein and fibre from the wholegrain quinoa and cannelini beans, calcium from the cheese (whatever type you choose to use; vegan or otherwise) essential B vitamins from nutritonal yeast, and all the yummy flavours that onion, garlic and mustard bring to the table!

If you're a fan of the traditional cauliflower cheese or other cheesey bakes, I highly recommend giving this one a go as not only does it taste super decadent, you can feel good about eating it too knowing that you're fueling your body with all the best ingredients!

Need more convincing? Of course you don't, you were sold on 'cheesey bake'!

Healthier Broccoli, Cauliflower and Quinoa Cheesey Bake

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons diced onion

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon wholegrain mustard seeds

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1 cup chopped broccoli

3/4 cup cooked quinoa (cook as to packet directions)

1/2 cup canned cannelini beans, drained and rinsed (or beans of choice- red kidney, butter beans, garbanzo, chickpeas etc.)

2 tablespoons canned lentils, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast mixed with 1/2 cup water

Handful of spinach

Sprinkling of cheese (either traditional grated cheese, light grated cheese, vegan cheese, lactose free cheese etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Place the onion and garlic in a non-stick fry pan over medium heat and saute for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the mustard seeds and about 1/3 cup water to de-glaze the pan before adding in the broccoli and cauliflower:

2. Cook over medium heat for 10-12 minutes until the veggies are tender (continually adding water to prevent sticking and creating steam- trying to keep it fairly dry throughout though; we don't want a soup!)

3. Add the spinach and cook for a further minute before adding in the beans, lentils and quinoa:

4. Transfer mix to a deep baking tray/ tin, stir through nutritional yeast mixture, a little of the grated cheese and then top with remaining cheese:

 5. Place in the oven and bake for a furhter 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top:

6. Leave to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to bowl and enjoy!

Warm, gooey, flavourful and delicious- this is comfort food at it's finest!

Your turn:

Are you a fan of Cauliflower cheese? I hated it as a kid and now I love it!? Typical!

Cauliflower or broccoli? Or both? Cauliflower used to be on my list of veggies I don't like but in recent times I've learned to love the overlooked veg :)

Favourite type of grated cheese?

I hope you all have a splendid Wednesday, do something you enjoy doing, try and spend time with those you love- show them how special they are to you, and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS (probably this tray bake :) ) Bye for now friendly friends!! :D

 

Recently- The Food Front- Rawesome!!

Okidokie, I have definitely noticed I go through phases like there's no tomorrow!

So you know how I was loving on eating my smoothie bowls separated for a while there..
 

 Well apparently now my body wants a proper smoothie bowl... but with raw granola (ie. not oven baked) so:

 I whipped up a delightful smoothie of 1 frozen banana, a large handful of frozen honeydew chunks, a handful of frozen zucchini chunks, a handful of spinach, a handful of kale, 3 big spoons of greek yoghurt and some water to get it all moving!!

And topped it all off with a mix of uncooked cashew butter granola and uncooked peanut butter granola. Steps as follows:
Place a tablespoon of each nut butter into two separate small bowls, place a tablespoon of almond milk in each, microwave for around 20 seconds, add to one of two bowls, each with 1/3 cup oats, sprinkle chia seeds, small handful of no-added-sugar wholegrain cheerios (or other cereal/ crunchy thing you like) and stir to combine!

 Then simply top your smoothie (which has been chilling in the freezer whilst making the granola) with the soft, fudgey raw granola and ENJOY!

 P.S. Adding honeydew to smoothies is a good idea!!

 Very good indeed!

 But when you don't have time to whip up such an extravagant brekky?
Say, you are scheduled in to start work at 6:00am, so are up at 5:00am but still need a little first breakfast to keep you sane?

1 frozen banana:

 + greek yoghurt:

 = Quick easy and delicious!!

And then when break time rolls round- second breakfast!!!

 Yep, I made my raw freezer frudge brownie again (I really don't like cooking things do I?)

To make this delicious bad bowl, simply place 3/4 cup oats, sprinkle chia seeds, 1 scoop of choc protein powder, 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder, dash of cinnamon, 2 dates, 1 heaped tablespoon peanut butter (or any nut butter) 1/3 cup almond milk (add more if required) to a food processor and process to combine (until thick and sticky)- transfer into a small container lined with baking paper, cover and freeze for a few hours or overnight!

 He may not look like the prettiest brownie, but boy, this guy tastes so gooood! Think of the fudgiest, richest, chocolatiest brownie you've ever tasted and I reckon this guy would give it a run for it's money. And it's good for you too! Bonus!!

Brownies for breakfast? Yes, please!

 The take-away from today's post? Steph's current new phase is raw foods. Or that healthy foods can-and do- taste amazing!

You can take your pick ;)

What about you?
What's your favourite frozen fruit to add to smoothies?
Ever tried uncooked granola? Are you a fan?
Ever had brownies for breakfast? The healthy or... less healthy kind?

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday in whatever it is you are doing (I'm heading out to breakfast!!) be brave, take risks and smillleee :) Bye for now friendly freinds!! :D

P.S> Don't forget to eat something delicious!! Thought I had forgotten didn't you? ;P

Weird Food Habits!

You have em', I know I have em', almost everyone in the entire world has em'!

Whether it be biting off the head of whatever animal shaped biscuit you're eating, saving a certain flavour 'til last, planning out the perfect amount of milk for your cereal bowl, eating around the outside of the bread to save the middle, soft, fluffy bit until last (I am guilty of this):

Those are the middle bits of 2 delicious toasted wholemeal crumpets with crunchy PB and raw cacao hazelnut butter.

.. or even (this example courtesy of my mum) not being able to enjoy a cheese and tomato toastie without a glass of ice cold milk (she literally puts ice cubes in there!)

Whatever it is, we all have weird food habits (I know I have MANY!) and so I decided to scour the internet to find some of the craziest food habits people have to make me feel a lot better about mine for our entertainment! :)

First of all- many, many more people than you would suspect pour orange juice into their cereal instead o milk...

Hmm, don't know how I feel about this.

Another thing that a large group of people adhere to is shaking milk before they drink it:

I mean, I don't actually drink cow's milk anymore and so I do in fact shake my soy milk and almond milk cartons, but when I did drink milk, I didn't even think to shake the bottle first?? Maybe I should have?

This one I just don't seem to get:

People who fold their pizza slice in half before nom-ing. I mean, it's a perfectly brilliant triangular slice that allows half your mouth to experience the intense flavour of the toppings as soon as it makes contact with your taste buds. Folding it- you just get crust!?

And then there's the even more atrocious:

Seriously!? It's pizzaaaaa!

Ok, now we need to go back to cereal... because...

Yep, ice in cereal is a thing. And a very celebrated one at that!

Along those lines of ice and things that generally shouldn't go with it: Ice cream and fries

I'm just kidding though- I totally used to do this!!

On the topic of strange fast food combos:

The banana on pizza movement is gathering quite the following!!

And finally all the wrong ways to eat these foods:

 Kit kats have breakable sides for a reason!

 Nature created oranges in separate sections. NATURE!

String cheese. If you don't string it , it ain't string cheese!

Now, all of this is in good jest- you do you! Eat however you want. I'm definitely not one to judge:

 I've always separated my 'cereal and milk' (even when it became granola and smoothie).

 I used to lick all the flavour off barbecue shapes and then eat them plain because I thought they tasted better.

And just to throw my brother and sister under the bus:
My  sister used to toast some bread, spread on nutella and then fold it in half to enjoy (once again on the tasting only crust thing- I'm sure it's a lot more common that I seem to realise!)

And my bro pours himself a big bowl of cornflakes, fills it up with milk (to the very top) and lets it sit for around- not exaggerating- 20-30 minutes!

My Dad you ask? Lets just say there will be barbecue sauce on everything he eats. Everything. I'll just leave that with you to roll over in your mind for a bit!

Oh, and my Dad's morning cereal of choice is crushed up Weet-bix on the bottom and Nutrigrain on top soaked in milk for a little bit as well.

So you see, we're all weirdos but if that's how you enjoy your food, then what's the issue?

Your turn:
What is your strangest food habit?
Ever put orange juice in your cereal/ What is your favourite way to eat cereal?
How do you eat pizza?

 I hope you found this as utterly hilarious and a little shocking as I did. Now- enjoy the rest of your day, smile lots and as always; eat something delicious (even if others might not think it is!! ;) Bye for now friends!! :D

WIAW #86 Out To Lunch!

Hello there friendly friends! How are we all today?

Good? Good!

Now, first of all let's talk about the weather (because I know how much y'all love the weather!) The next two days for Perth are looking a bit like this:

Max: 39 (degrees celsius!!)

Possible thunder storm.

Can someone say humidity?? HUMIDITY. And if you know me at all, you would know that my hair is Hermione/ Hagrid style on good days... add in some humidity...

  Sigh

Any who, today is Wednesday which means it is the day we get to squiz at everyone's eats, share our own full day of eats and basically celebrate eating!! WIAW style!

Thanks as usual to the awesome Peas and Crayons for creating this weekly link-up and for the other bloggers who host week to week!

Now, let's go!

Breakfast:

8:00am

 I love a good slow holiday morning, where the Tuesday sun rises and you have absolutely nothing to do! Well, in saying that, I love that feeling, but then I do an awful lot! This particular morning I woke up, scrolled through some Buzzfeed posts, did a Blogilates ab workout, came downstairs, created this delicious breakfast, popped everything in the freezer to harden up, wrote yesterday's post and then eventually consumed this delightful brekky!

Coconut banana truffles with a side of cherry fro-yo (frozen cherries whazzed up with remaining banana and greek yoghurt).

 Quite tasty indeed!

 Lunch:
11:30am

 For a special lunch today, mum and I went up to Joondalup to have a little wander around the shops and then made our way to my new favourite café- Health Freak Cafe!

 Happy, Happy Steph!
That ginormous burger type thing in front of me was their protein chickpea patty burger- No flour at all in the bun- instead it said it was made with their special protein recipe (my guess is quinoa, egg and something else.. not sure, maybe ground up almonds or quinoa again)

 Utterly delicious and EXTREMEEELLLYYY filling. Mum and I exchanged weary glances as we tried to swallow down the last few bites- it was just too good not to!

 With a side of sweet potato fries of course!

 N.O.M!

 Snack:
4pm
Somehow after hours of being utterly stuffed, I was quite hungry come 4, so I sliced up a bunch of fruit and loved every bite!

 Rockmelon, kiwi fruit and a granny smith apple- so delicious!!

 Dinner:
6:40pm
Come dinner time, I was feeling a little lazy, so I through together whatever sounded good and ended up with this mix:

 Some grilled pumpkin and eggplant (eggplant bellow the pumpkin:

With some oven roasted brussles and broccoli, peas with garlic tofu (garlic tofu with the brussels and brocc too) and a big bowl of popcorn! Quite tasty, albeit incredibly random :D.

After dinner I had a small glass of soy milk and called it a day!

Aaaand that's what I ate :)

What about you?
Can you tolerate lazy mornings or do you still have to keep busy? I just feel too unproductive..
Favourite café of the moment?
Most random meal you've ever thrown together?? Quite interested to hear some responses to this! ;P

I hope you all have a fabulous day, do something you love to do and as always; eat something delicious!! Bye for now friends! :D