banana & orange smoothie bowl

Happy Sunday!

I'm back with yet another smoothie bowl recipe. I am obsessed with these, but I haven't been eating them much in the Fall/Winter. I've been sticking with oatmeal... but oatmeal doesn't make pretty pictures -- smoothie bowls take nice pictures.

A couple of days ago, I made this banana bowl. I never really like to post the exact measurements of ingredients because unless it's baking then it doesn't really matter (and I don't know how much of each I use). So, I'm just going to write what I used and give you a rough idea in the method part.

Banana-Orange Smoothie Bowl
Ingredients
bananas
orange juice
almond milk
quick oats
toppings: kiwi, chia seeds, coconut and the best cereal chunks to top.

Method
Blend frozen bananas (I only used 2) with orange juice, almond milk and about a cup of the oats. Use enough liquid to help the blender move, if you know what I mean.
Pour the smoothie into a bowl and add toppings! It's January, so I only have kiwi and apples right now, so I used kiwi and the typical chia seeds and coconut. I also used this AMAZING granola/cereal mix that I love. I'm trying to remake it but haven't found a good enough recipe yet -- but I will share when I do!

strawberry smoothie bowl

On August 1st, I became a vegetarian... for the month. I've wanted to become a vegetarian for a while now but I've decided to start with a short time and see how it goes.

I was practically raised a vegetarian as my mum used to be one for years, but when I was thirteen I started eating more meat. Never pork or beef though -- I've never liked them. So, I only really ever ate chicken and fish and so I have actually had to cut out too much. Which is good because that means I haven't had a very hard time!

On my new diet, over the past couple of weeks I have seriously picked up my fruit intake. I probably have about five servings of fruit everyday when before I would have about two. With that becomes a lot more trips to the loo... or is that only me?

Moving quickly along, one of the ways I LOVE to eat my fruit is in smoothies. They are such a refreshing way to start the morning. 

Although I love to drink smoothies, I also like to add toppings such as granola or chia seeds (which just get stuck at the bottom of my blender if I add them in to blend).

Today, I have a recipe for one of those 'bowls' (spoiler alert: it's actually just a smoothie recipe)

Strawberry Smoothie Bowl

Ingredients

1 frozen banana 

1 cup frozen strawberries 

1 cup almond milk

any toppings

Method

Blend banana, strawberries and milk together for a very short time. Unlike normal smoothies, you don't want it to be completely smooth, you want some chunks in there. I only turn the blender on for about 5 seconds to get a good consistency.

Pour the smoothie into a bowl and top. I like topping with chia seeds, oats, cereal, granola or more fruit such as berries or kiwi.

If you do it carefully, it might even look instagram-worthy.

That's the general recipe I use for all my smoothies these days. A frozen banana, one other fruit and milk for the liquid. My blender is so old now that if I added in much more, it wouldn't combine.

... What a first world problem

blueberry & date oatmeal

Hi everyone,

I have another recipe post for you all today. I decided to become a vegetarian almost 3 weeks ago now. Since then I've been a bit food-obsessed and it has been on my mind quite a bit. Not in a bad way! (I know that sounds unhealthy) I mean that it's on my mind a lot because I'm thinking of new dishes to make. With saying that, every morning I have been having some variation of a smoothie bowl or oatmeal.

Since I've already done a smoothie bowl recipe, I thought I write an oatmeal recipe today. I always make my oatmeal the same -- with almond milk and a bit of sugar. So, even if you don't use these exact toppings, know that this ratio of almond milk and oats always works.

A few days ago, I tried using blueberries and dates to top my oatmeal. I thought it was going to be a weird flavour because the dates, but it actually just made me want to experiment more with them. So, expect some more date recipes in the future!

(I also uploaded this picture to instagram)

Date & Blueberry Oatmeal

Ingredients

1/2 cup oats
1 cup almond milk
1tsp brown sugar
dates
blueberries
honey or agave nectar (agave nectar is vegan)

Method
Combine oats and almond milk in a pot over high heat because you're impatient and want food now. Walk away and forget about it until it's all burn and stuck to the bottom. Swear. Hope mum doesn't walk in. Quickly clean the pot before she questions anything.
Then start it the proper way; combining oats and milk over low/medium heat. Once it's all mixed, reduce heat and add 1tsp brown sugar or 1tbsp cocoa powder if you want a more chocolatey taste. Then just put the oatmeal in a bowl and place the fruit (and drizzle the honey) on top.

no-bake peanut butter bars

Heeeello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well! July has been such a quiet month for me. June was hectic, but July has been very relaxing. I've kind of just been sitting around the house and reading the occasional book. Overall, I've been pretty lazy to be honest.

Today, though, I was in the kitchen! I was making these bars  decided to write today about these bars that we sometimes make in our house.

They are no-bake chocolate coconut peanut butter bars. I mean, if I was reading this post, the no-bake alone would have hooked me.

So there is chocolate in this but you could always exchange that for cocoa powder, or leave it out all together. On top of that, if you use the golden syrup over the honey, this dish becomes vegan. However, I'd say the honey is probably the better option. 

I'm not sure though, if anyone knows please correct me. I don't know, maybe these bars are really actually bad for you... but they have healthy ingredients! So logically the end product must be pretty healthy too.

Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
1 cup unsweetened chocolate chips
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 1/2 cups large-flake rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (and about 2 tbsp more for on top)
1 tbsp hemp seeds

Method

1. First, grab a large saucepan and melt the coconut oil, golden syrup/honey and chocolate over medium-heat.
2. Once that's all melted together, turn the heat right down and add in the peanut butter.
3. When the peanut butter has melted in, take the whole pot off the heat and mix in the remaining ingredients (as in, the oats and the hemp seeds)
4. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish. I use a 9x9 one. I also normally use an oil spray to spray the dish before, but you can also use parchment paper, either will stop it from sticking.
5. Add coconut flakes on top
6. Let the bars cool in the dish before putting them into fridge to firm up.

sweet quinoa oatmeal recipe

Quinoa seems to be one of those healthy foods that are just accepted. They're a staple in every vegetarians diet, right? So, I'm not going to sit here and list reasons why you should try it because you probably already know what it is and why it's good. 

With that out the way, I find it difficult to make quinoa... taste nice. You need lots of flavours to soak in to it to have it taste like something other than a plain, mushy, rice thing. Because of this, I normally eat quinoa in my stir-frys at lunch because then there are vegetables and stuff to make it taste better.  When I have a lot of time (and when I can actually be bothered), I will make it for breakfast.
So, today, I wanted to share the recipe I use for those (rare?) days.

Oh, and, confession: I actually suck at measurements.
It took me a long time to find out what ratio works for oats and milk, and even more for quinoa and milk. These measurements seem to work for me, but you may need to tweak them.

Ingredients
1/3 cup of quinoa - wash it before cooking
1 cup of milk - I use almond milk 
handful of dried fruit - I use cranberries/blueberries
handful of nuts - I use cashews
sprinkle of brown sugar - I use more like a handful...

Method
1. Add quinoa to pot, with milk, and bring to boil.
2. Cook for a bit on high heat then bring down halfway. Make sure to mix often so the milk doesn't burn (my problem).
3. When the little tail bit is showing, your quinoa is ready. Drain out excess milk and (optional) place back on heat for a minute to soak up anymore milk.
4. Plate up. Add your dried fruit and nut of choice along with the brown sugar.

simple banana bread recipe

I can't believe it's June, can you? I feel like summer will never come and yet we are pretty much halfway through the year. I just wanted to say that but the rest of the post has nothing to do with time and how slow it passes.

Today, I wanted to share an easy banana bread recipe with you which we make pretty often in our house. This recipe was passed down from my mum and it's fail-proof (because I can do it, ha!).
You can use this as a base recipe and add things into it like chocolate chips or dried fruit or whatever else you think might work -- but I don't normally add things because we don't have stuff like that lying around the house. Tough life is mine.

I also converted the measurements from ounces to cups (to make it easier for us in America) and, let me tell you, it took such a long time -- more than it should have. I can't do math to save my life. Anyway, enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour

5/8 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup butter

2 mashed bananas

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together sugar and butter, add flour, and eggs and then add the bananas.

3. Put in greased pan and bake for one hour.

- 

Iona