Fantastic Feijoa Smoothie

Hi everyone. I am finally back with a recipe! After a great Easter break away  I have been feeling a bit more inspired in the kitchen lately, so hopefully I'll get some great recipes up for you over the next few weeks.

I had a really nice Anzac weekend. On Saturday we went mountain biking at Woodhill mountain bike park. It's a really great nearby park full of great mountain biking tracks, however, it turns out that it is actually quite large so we ended up biking for around 3 hours! My legs were complete jelly at the end.

Sunday we went and got a couple of things in town as I wanted some things to put on the wall in our bedroom to make it feel more like 'ours'. Monday the weather wasn't very great, so we mooched around in the morning and then wandered around some more shops.

I came up with this recipe as a way to try and get through some of the dozens and dozens of feijoas that are covering a part of my lawn at the moment. There are four feijoa trees in our back yard and teamed with this year being a bumper season, I have quite the feijoa problem on my hands. I think this weekend I might have to try preserving some.

I love smoothies for breakfast as they are a great way to pack nutrients into a meal and they are nice and portable, so if i'm running late I can also take them along to work with me. I used a frozen banana in my smoothie, but if you don't like the taste of banana, a frozen apple would also be really nice! Haven't pre-prepared frozen fruit? You can always use fresh and add some ice cubes to the mix.

Ingredients

Frozen banana (or apple)

3 medium feijoas

1 cup almond milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1-2 tsp honey

Scoop protein powder (optional)

Halve the feijoas and scoop out the flesh. Add all of the ingredients to a blender and whiz until completely smooth (I did around a minute all up). Enjoy nice and cold.

So here is one way to use up my feijoas, now to just find about 20 more. Let me know of you have any great ideas for how to use up my feijoas!

Chia & Oat Pudding

Hi everyone. How is your week of wholegrains going? I will admit that not every single grain-based food that I have eaten this week has been wholegrain, but I would estimate that around 80% has been, a balance that I am happy with. One of my wholegrain foods that I loved this week were some chickpea and quinoa patties from Donna Hay. Quinoa is a great source of protein, fibre and lots of other vitamins and minerals, so it really is a great wholegrain to try to include.

This weekend is Waitangi weekend, which means that we get an extra day of weekend. Yesterday we spent doing chores around the house, including sorting through the pantry (which is a great way to see what ingredients need using up in the next few weeks). Today we headed North up to the Matakana farmers market for breakfast. We found ourselves some Bacon, Egg, Chorizo and Veggie breakfast wraps which were delicious! After that we headed to a nearby Marine Reserve to go snorkelling for a few hours. It was amazing how many fish there were and how close you could get to some of them!

So on to today's recipe. I'm not the sort of person who can keep eating the same breakfast day after day. I like to mix things up a little, which means that I am constantly on the lookout for great new breakfast ideas (I actually judge a food blog primarily on its breakfast recipes).

I had seen lots of recipes around for chia puddings, but I thought that I would try and make a slightly more filling and interesting version. This recipe contains the wholegrain goodness of chia seeds and oats, and is the sort of recipe that you can customise with your own flavours and toppings. This breakfast was pretty easy to make, tasted great, and kept me full all morning.

Enjoy x

Serves 1, but easy to double or triple quantities.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 Tbsp rolled oats
1/4 Cup Greek Yoghurt
1 Cup Almond Milk
1 Banana
1 Tbsp Rice Malt Syrup, honey, or other liquid sweetener
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

In a bowl place the chia seeds, rolled oats, yoghurt and almond milk. Stir to mix, cover and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, place the contents of the bowl in a blender or food processor, along with the banana and sweetener of choice.

Blend until smooth, thick and creamy.

Enjoy topped with your favourite fruit and nuts (mine had blueberries hidden in the middle).

Vanilla Mango Smoothie

I am now back into the full swing of my second semester. I'm pretty excited about a 3 day field trip up to the Central Otago wine region at the end of this week and I now have a date booked to do my experiment for my honours dissertation so a lot is happening! The three day field trip is essentially fend for yourself in terms of food so I have decided that to save money I am going to try to make my own breakfasts and lunches from home and just buy dinners. This has two benefits: 1) It will be far less expensive than trying to buy all 3 meals for 3 days and 2) It is much easier to eat healthier when all the food prepared for you is nutritious, real food. My plan at the moment is to make some whole wheat spinach and feta muffins to go with hard boiled eggs and fruit for lunches and to bring a chia porridge mix for breakfast. I tested the chia porridge this morning and it was fantastic!! I stayed full all morning. I will have a little play around with the flavours before I share it with you, so watch this space.

I have found that for some reason I am not responding to the cold weather the way I usually do. Usually first thing on a cold morning I want something warm to fill me up like porridge. However, for some wierd reason after not really craving them all summer I keep getting cravings for smoothies. At least it means that I have a great use for all the mangos I keep buying (2 for 1 was possibly getting ambitious). If I do forget about the mango and it starts to turn a little to the mushy side I can just slice it up and throw it in the freezer, ready for a tropical inspired smoothie that leaves me dreaming of lazing around in the sun somewhere.

Ingredients

1/2 medium mango, sliced and frozen

1/2 banana

1 Tbsp peanut butter or other nut butter

4-5 almonds, chopped in half (unless you have a really good blender)

1- 1.5 cups coconut and almond milk (or milk of choice)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Make sure that you have skinned and chopped the mango before you freeze it. I find snack-size snaplock bags work well for this.

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until nice and smooth. 

*NB I found this sweet enough for me but if you like things on the sweeter side you could easily add in a chopped medjool date or two :)

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Hi everyone, hope that your week so far is going well. After having a few quieter weeks to try and decompress after a crazy semester, I actually need to start getting some dissertation work properly underway before the next crazy semester begins! This means that I have been neurotically timetabling my days, but hey, it seems to work for me and I had such a productive day yesterday!!

This weekend I am heading to Queenstown to catch some of the Winterfest events. I think some of the planned action will be going to watch some ice hockey, ice skating, going to a concert and maybe heading up the mountain to watch the slope style competition. Should be heaps of fun and the place we are staying in is quite flash with our own spa!! I cannot wait! Since the weekend is likely to be not quite as healthy as usual, I am trying to balance out with lots of nutrient-dense foods during the week. I will also try to pack lots of healthy snacks so that I'm not eating junk all day long. Where we are staying also has a kitchen which makes it easier to have healthy lunches etc. I will document some of what I am eating via my instagram (@libbysfood) so check it out!

This smoothie recipe is a fantastic way to increase your veggie intake for the day. I will warn you that if you don't like pumpkin pie, do not go near this smoothie, but if you love it like me, this is a fantastic way to get all of the flavours without all of the sugar. Unfortunately in New Zealand, or at least Dunedin, we don't get tinned pumpkin that is already nice an pureed, so I just used some steamed pumpkin that we had from dinner the night before. You can easily play around with quantities to adjust it to your taste.

NB. Medjool dates are fantastic in smoothies, but if you don't have any you can sub in dried dates that you soak in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients
1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
2 Tbsp rolled oats
2-3 medjool dates
1 tsp maca powder (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup milk of choice (almond would be nice)

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until really nice and smooth. Took me about 40 seconds all up.

Banoffee Porridge

I hope everyone in New Zealand had a great Queen's Birthday weekend and a nice 4-day working week. I am currently sick! Not an annoying wee snuffle kind of sick, but a keep-me-up-till-2am-sneezing kinda sick! Yea not so fun. So basically I plan on spending my day on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket in my pyjamas, blogging, chick-flicking and maybe working on my dissertation.

One of the great aspects of being on dissertation leave is that with my stress levels being waaaaay down I am actually feeling incredibly inspired food-wise. This means that you can expect some fantastic recipes coming your way on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

Today's recipe was something I came up with for the holiday Monday. Porridge is a fantastic winter breakfast, but I always like to jazz it up a little for a weekend breakfast. While it is tempting to throw in a bunch of sugar to make it a sweet treat, this porridge is completely decadent without any refined sugars. Think caramel porridge, topped with banana and whipped coconut cream. I know that there is a lot of controversy over the fat in coconut cream, but hey, a little bit isn't going to hurt. I also find that a little bit of extra fat makes me feel a lot more satisfied and helps stop me reaching for extra sweet treats.

I hope that you enjoy this porridge as much as I did!

Serves 3-4

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups water
Pinch salt
1/4 cup dates
2 bananas, sliced
1 tin coconut cream (must be full fat- in New Zealand I find that Pams works fantastically)
1 Tbsp rice malt syrup (could also use honey or agave)
1 tsp vanilla extract

The night before you make the porridge, open the tin of coconut cream. Leave uncovered in the fridge overnight. (This separates the cream from the water and makes it reeeeeeeeally thick).

Place the rolled oats, milk, water, salt and dates in a pot over a medium heat. Bring the boil, stirring regularly and then reduce to a simmer. Continue to stir until porridge is thick.

Either place the porridge in a blender or food processor and give it a little whiz or use a stick blender to do the same.

Scoop the thick coconut cream out of the top of the can (make sure that you leave the water behind). In a bowl, whip the thick coconut cream with the rice malt syrup and vanilla.

Place the porridge in bowls, top with the sliced bananas and then the coconut cream. If you want an extra touch, grate a little dark chocolate over the top.

Tropical Green Smoothie

I had a fantastic weekend last weekend at my sister's hens party in Martinborough. We had a delicious lunch of antipasto-type platters, and then picked-up some bike/pedal car type things and went around a couple of wineries doing tastings. And some of the wine was soooo nice!! I was very tempted to buy an apricoty dessert wine that we tried, but at $36 for a 500ml bottle it was a lil pricey for my budget.

Sunday was Mum's birthday so we went out for a light dinner and desserts. For desserts I got chocolate hazelnut churros! Yum! I definitely think that homemade churros need to go on my to-do list. Anyway, as is usual when I am away and relying on restaurants and cafes for food I really missed my fruit and vegetables!! So the first morning that I was back I made myself this smoothie to give myself a great start for the week!

Ingredients
1/2 large banana, chopped
3-4 thick slices mango (frozen is best)
1/4 large avocado or 1/2 small
Large handful baby spinach
1 Tbsp real maple syrup or runny honey
1 cup coconut milk
2-3 ice cubes (optional)

Place all of the ingredients in a blender. Blend for 30 seconds at a time or until the spinach and mango have broken up.

Serve chilled

Wholemeal and Buckwheat Pancakes

What a glorious Saturday it has been!!! It hasn't been exciting or anything, probably boring by many people's standards, but it is just one of those kind of Saturdays that make me feel rebalanced. My bedroom is looking beautiful and immaculately tidy, with fresh flowers on my duchess, all of my meals are planned for next week and a shopping list made, I have caught up on Revenge and I even got the chance to make the most of the beautiful weather and sit outside on the deck for lunch and to finish my book.

Now I feel all ready to go out and have a great night with friends as it is Hungry Male's birthday. Unfortunately he was busy all day with surf lifesaving, so I think tomorrow will be my day to spoil him with breakfast in bed. These pancakes that I made last weekend may just be good enough that he won't notice that they aren't the traditional refined sugar and flour version.

Oh and they are so so easy to make!!

N.B. This recipe makes enough for at least 4 very hungry people

Ingredients

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup buckwheat flour (Available from some supermarkets and health food stores. My local New World has it).

2 Tbsp maple syrup (preferably the real stuff)

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

300ml milk

2 Tbsp white vinegar

80g butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric or hand mixer until fluffy. If you don't have one of these, get moving that arm! Thin with a little more milk if necessary.

Heat a pan to a medium high heat and grease with a little extra butter if it is not non-stick.

Using a large spoon or ladle, spoon the mixture into the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, the top should have bubbles all over it and the bottom golden brown.

Flip the pancake and cook for another minute.

Serve with fresh fruit, yoghurt and of course some delicious, real maple syrup.

What is your favourite way to have pancakes? Do you have them by themselves or add lots of extras?

GF Apple Crumble Muffins

I am so excited to share this recipe with you!! These muffins just ticked so many boxes.

First of all they are the first gluten free recipe that I have successfully developed (after a horrible, dry first attempt).

If you choose not to use the crumble topping, they are refined sugar free (they are just as delicious without)

They are nutritionally good enough for breakfast with fibre, protein and some fruit in there.

All of this and they got hungry male's seal of approval.

The only downside of these muffins........

..... They were all gone in less than 48 hours.

I suppose that just means that I will have to make some more. Since I am really busy at the moment that may be a bit of a challenge, but I have found that if I schedule in some baking time as 'me' time, I get yummy food and get to have some time to myself away from study.

These muffins use oat flour, which isn't readily available in New Zealand, but don't worry about that as it is ridiculously easy to make. I either make a big batch by whizzing up rolled oats in my food processor or to make smaller batches just throw some into the magic bullet. I have also made these muffins with apples, but tonight when i make them, I am going to try them with some peaches for a change. I will keep you posted on how they go.

Ingredients
1.5 cups oat flour
0.5 cups almond meal/flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup apple puree (I steamed 3 peeled green apples and then used my stick blender to puree.)
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter, melted (Could use coconut oil to make dairy free)


1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup almond meal/flour
2 Tbsp oats

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a muffin pan

In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, almond flour and baking powder and cinnamon.

Whisk together the apple puree, egg, honey and butter, then add to the dry ingredients.

Gently fold together until just mixed. Fill the muffin tins until 2/3 full.

In a small bowl, rub together the butter, sugar and almond flour and oats until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the crumble topping on top of the muffins.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (These muffins are very moist).

Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from the tin.

Apricot Muffin Bars

Today's post is going to be on the subject of breakfast. I am a sit down and eat kind of breakfast girl. Oh and I must eat my breakfast. Those of you who know me know that I am not pretty without my breakfast! For me this means that I like to be able to eat something substantial in a bowl or plate.

However, as much as I do try to do this it is not always possible. My hair will not behave, I spent a little bit longer in the shower as it was so nice or warm, or I just got busy doing other things. Now like I said, not having breakfast just isn't an option for me so I find it really handy to have a couple of things in the freezer or pantry that I can just grab.

More recently, hungry male decided that he liked the convenience of grab and go breakfasts and the extra 5 minutes they gave him in the morning. His solution was just to grab a couple a muesli bars and while that's not the worst breakfast in the world, it could be a whole lot better. My concern is generally the amount of sugar in them.

Due to this I was inspired to make these muffin bars with no refined sugar in them. I initially made apricot ones as I knew that dried apricots would really help to sweeten them up, however, I am very keen to try them with some other dried fruits. I also amped up the nutrition of these bars by using oat flour instead of ordinary white flour.

Delicious, nutritious and so quick and easy. That's what I call a perfect breakfast on the run!

Ingredients
1 cup chopped, dried apricots
1 cup oat flour (grind oats in a food processor or magic bullet)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk (if needed)
1/4 cup reserved water from the apricots
1/4- 1/2 cup honey (this will depend on how sweet you want it)
1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place the chopped apricots in a microwave safe bowl and cover with water. Cover with glad wrap and place in the microwave for 3-4 minutes or until the apricots are very soft. Drain the water, reserving 1/4 cup. Using a stick blender or potato masher, puree the apricots (stick blender works best).

In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and baking soda and chocolate chunks if using. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, reserved apricot water, and honey. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold till just combined. If the mixture looks very dry add the 1/4 cup milk.

In a greased square cake tin (approx 20x20 cm), spoon in half the mixture and spread out as evenly as possible. Spread the pureed apricots on top followed by the other half of the mixture.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through. Leave to cool then cut into 16 pieces (4x4).

NB: I haven't tried this with other tried fruit but it should work.

Apple Breakfast Barley

I really feel like I have had a really relaxing couple of days, which is great cos hopefully I can go back to uni feeling refreshed. On Tuesday I baked my perfect failed macarons and then had a nice catch up and a walk with mum. I also got to go for my first run in about 5 weeks. Although it was a little tough fitness-wise my ankle held up fine.

Yesterday I had a beautiful sleep in until 8:30 which meant I got around 10 hours sleep, bliss! I caught up with Dad for lunch and one of my best friend's for afternoon coffee. I also did some spring winter cleaning in my kitchen draws. Everything looks so much nicer and organised now.

I got another 9.5ish hours sleep waking up at 8. Then this afternoon I made some delicious profiteroles!! These worked perfectly and are filled with a caramel creme pattisiere. I can't wait to have them for dessert tonight. Oh and even better my last exam result came through today! Two A minuses and an A. Not my absolute best semester but I'm very happy with that as none of my papers this semester were things that I was strong at.

Anyway, I thought after posting a couple of recipes for sweet treats it was time to get back into Real Food. To be honest I needed to get a little more on track myself as I noticed a few more processed foods like potato chips creeping back in. If you haven't caught up on it, I am trying to follow more of a real food diet. The aim is that 80% of my food is unprocessed, which means that when I do buy ready-made or packaged stuff, I should be able to identify all of the ingredients on the packet and they should be things that I could use for cooking and baking at home (i.e. no long, sciency sounding ingredients).

The other day I was watching an episode of Dr Oz. There are a couple of people in this world that I trust pretty much everything they say. One of them is Jamie Oliver as I believe that he is just a ktchen genius. The other is Dr Oz, not entirely sure why, but pretty much everything that he describes seems to be pretty reasonable. Its not that I jump and immediately start doing everything he says, but I take a lot of things into consideration.

The other day he suggested sometimes changing up your morning bowl of porridge/oatmeal for barley. As I had already planned a trip to a local shop, Taste Nature, that stocks organic foods as well as heaps of different types of grains, I thought I would give this a go. I cooked mine in the rice cooker so that I could go away and have a shower/get ready, but it can also be done on the stove top.

I wanted this to have some familiar breakfast flavours, so I used some fruit juice and chopped apple. However, like oats, you can flavour it with whatever you want. Now I will warn you, the texture may not be for everyone. It is veeeeeery different to porridge. The barley was much chewier but I loved it!!

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 cup pearl barley
1 medium apple, cut into small cubes
1 cup water
1 cup fruit juice

Option A: Place all ingredients into a rice cooker. Turn on to cook or the brown rice setting. Leave to cook until the moisture is all absorbed.

Option B: Place all of the ingredients in a medium pot. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then turn the heat down and leave to simmer. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, until most of the moisture has absorbed and the barley is cooked through (about 20-30 minutes).

Serve with your choice of toppings such as yoghurt, nuts  or dried fruit.

Pear Porridge with Dark Chocolate Yoghurt Topping

As we are right in the middle of pear season in New Zealand I thought that it was about time that I did a pear inspired recipe. This all started with me trying to figure out something tasty for breakfast this morning. I knew that I wanted some type of porridge (oatmeal for Americans) but since I had some time, I wanted something a little more interesting.

I had some pears in my fruit bowl and some dark chocolate in the cupboard. Pear and dark chocolate are one of those combinations destined to be together and I love desserts that include these two ingredients. I am the type of person that thinks anything good for dessert can be turned into an equally great breakfast.

I made my porridge with some ground ginger, but I do realise what a polarizing thing ginger is. I knew that many people would not even consider this breakfast (aka my sister) if it had ginger in the title, therefore I have made it optional.

To make the sauce I used a really good quality dark chocolate and greek yoghurt. This worked really well making a really fluffy sauce. You could try using other yoghurt but I can't vouch for how it will be. Just whatever you do don't use chocolate chips or chocolate compound, it will not mix in nicely with the yoghurt!

This recipe is for one serving but can easily be doubled, tripled etc.

Ingredients
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
1/2 medium pear, chopped
1/2 tsp ground ginger (optional)

For the topping
10g good quality dark chocolate
1 tsp peanut butter
1 1/2 Tbsp plain thick yoghurt

Extra sliced pear

1. In a saucepan combine the oats, water, milk, sugar, pear and ginger.
2. Bring to the boil over a medium heat.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer for around 5 minutes or until the porridge is the consistency that you like.
4. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and peanut butter together gently in a small bowl.
5. Quickly stir in the yoghurt until well combined.
6. Serve the oats in a bowl with the topping and some extra slice pear.

Banana Mint Chip Breakfast Shake

Breakfast Shake?? Ok so this is pretty much a smoothie, but doesn't the word shake sound so much better?

I was inspired for this recipe by Leanna over at Healthful Pursuit. A while ago she did some smoothies and one of them was a mint flavoured one. Instead of using a mint essence, she used some cold peppermint tea for flavour. I thought that this sounded like a really interesting idea so I decided to make my own version.

The first time I made this the taste was great, but the colour just didn't portray mint. I had also tried to whizz up some chocolate chips in it, but they just ended up in this wierd pile at the bottom.

This was my second attempt but was much better. To make the shake a beautiful green I added some baby spinach. For those of you who are freaking out right now, please just trust me that you cannot in any way or form taste it in the smoothie. For the chocolate part, I just chose to do some chocolate curls on the top. Much prettier!

Ingredients

1 banana, peeled, chopped and frozen

1/4 cup strong brewed, chilled peppermint tea.

1/4 cup milk of your choice

Handful of baby spinach leaves

Dark chocolate

1. Place everything except the dark chocolate in a blender.

2. Process for 1-2 minutes until everything is blended very well.

3.Take the dark chocolate and with a vegetable peel, peel curls onto the top of the shake.

Yemeni Pancake

I made these pancakes last week as I wanted a bit of a change from the normal pancakes. This Jamie Oliver recipe was just the solution!! His 'Yemeni Pancakes' as kind of like a cross between a crumpet and a pancake.

I served mine with peanut butter, sliced banana and a drizzle of maple syrup and they were divine!! The wee holes that appear are perfect for soaking up anything you put on them. I also think that they would be amazing with some greek yoghurt, berries and honey. Actually as I am writing this, I want to make them again just to try that combination.

I will note that while I often make pancakes for breakfast, while not difficult to make, these pancakes do take a little bit of time. The yeast needs time to develop, so unless you are willing to wait about 1 1/2 hours for your breakfast (I am not) I would recommend making these for a brunch or lunch.

Serves 4

Ingredients

7g dried yeast (about 2 tsp)

1 tsp honey

2 large eggs

400ml milk

175g self raising flour

175g cornmeal flour or fine semolina flour

Salt

Olive oil

1. Dissolve the yeast in a bowl with a couple of good splashes of warm water and the honey, then leave in a warm place for around 20 minutes.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl and whisk in the milk.

3. Gently whisk in the yeast mixture, then add the flour cornmeal/semolina and a pinch of salt.

4. Whisk for a minute or so until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (If it is too thick gradually add a little more milk).

5. Cover the bowl and set aside for around 1 hour.

6. Heat a large, non stick frypanover a medium heat.

7. Rub the pan with a little olive oil on a paper towel.

8. Pour a ladle of the pancake mixture  into the pan and tilt the pan to spread the batter into a large circle.

9. Cook for 2 minutes, lots of little holes should appear on the top.

10. Turn the heat down to low, place a lid on the pan and cooke for a further 2 minutes or until the panacke is cooked through.

11. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

12. Serve holey side facing up.

Breakfast Crumpies

As a Sunday treat for hungry male and myself I tend to make us a nice breakfast. While hungry males liked the full cooked style of breakfast (eggs, bacon etc) I prefer the sweeter things in life, therefore I tend to alternate between sweet and savoury recipes.

This week was my sweet week and I chose to make a Jamie Oliver recipe called Breakfast Crumpies. He called them a cross between a crumpet and a yorkshire pudding. Now to my knowledge I don't believe that I have ever had a yorkshire pudding (I should add it to my list) but I definitely got the crumpet aspect. The holes inside of the Crumpies were perfect for absorbing some of the toppings.

I topped mine with a few combinations including cream cheese, banana, jam and maple syrup. The banana and maple syrup combination was awesome!! Hungry male is a little less adventurous so just stuck to maple syrup.

I have provided the full recipe which makes 12 but for just the 2 of us I halved the recipe as these were delicious fresh but I don't know how well they would store.

Ingredients
500g high grade bread flour
2 tsp sea salt
7g active yeast (I think around 1 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp sugar
Good pinch baking soda
600ml tepid water (When you dip your finger in you shouldn't really feel it)

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, yeast, sugar and baking soda in a bowl.
3. Pour in the water and whisk until just combined.
4. Let the mixture set for ten minutes.
5. Spoon the mixture into 12 greased muffin tins. The mixture should come nearly to the top.
6. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until puffed and golden.
7. Once out of the oven let the Crumpies cool on a wire rack for a few minutes.
8. Cut in half and enjoy warm with your choice of toppings.

Creamy Vanilla Porridge with Caramelised Nectarines

3 posts in 3 days! I think that might be a record for me but I seem to be having quite a creative foodie moment and some of these recipes are just too good to keep to myself.

This mornings breakfast I do believe was a particularly inspired recipes. Where did it come from?? Somewhere in the depths of my brain the combinations of a creamy vanilla porridge topped with sweet summer stone fruit merged together. Pair that with a pretty dark and miserable kind of morning and this breakfast came to life.

I used a nectarine as it was the fruit that was sitting at the top of my fruit bowl but this would also work really nicely with peaches. I also think that it would be very tasty with pear to. Pears are just starting to come back into season so I definitely will have to try this combination

Ingredients
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 nectarine, halved (This proved slightly tricky)
1 tsp butter
1tsp honey
2 Tbsp fruit juice

1. In a pot combine the oats, water, milk, salt and vanilla.
2. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the liquid has absorbed, stirring often.
3. Meanwhile, in another pan melt the butter and honey over a medium-high heat.
4. Place the nectarines cut side down on to the pan.
5. Leave it for around 5 minutes or until the nectarine has begun to become golden.
6. Remove the nectarine from the pan and then deglaze the pan with the juice.
7. In a bowl put the porridge, top with the nectarine and then drizzle with the juice mixture.

Cappuccino Muesli

As the weather starts to get warmer here in the Southern Hemisphere and a steaming hot bowl of porridge just doesn't seem right for breakfast I like to turn to a bowl of muesli with yoghurt. However, since in two months time I will be living away from home and having to pay for all my food it has made me realise how expensive muesli actually is, especially considering that the rolled oats used in muesli are so cheap. Homemade muesli is also really easy to make. Therefore I have begun to make my own muesli. My first attempt was a peanut butter and banana muesli from Healthy Food For Living and it was delicious!! This time I thought that would come up with my own creation including another breakfast favourite coffee.

If you aren't a coffee fan this recipe is really easy to make without it and will still taste good. If you wanted to you could substitute the banana for apple puree and the mixed spice for cinnamon and make an apple crumble muesli.

Ingredients
1/4 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp Canola Oil
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp mixed spice
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal
3/4 cup mixed nuts and seeds (I used peanuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup mixed dried fruit ( I used sultanas and dried cranberries)

1. In a bowl combine the banana, sugar, oil, maple syrup and mixed spice. Whisk until smooth.
2. Add the rolled oats and the puffed rice and mix until well combined.
3. Spread out in a flat layer on a baking sheet and bake at 160 degrees C. for 15 minutes.
4. Toss the muesli to help break it up and add the nuts.
5. Return to the oven for 10 minutes being very careful not to let it burn.
6. Let the muesli cool and then add in the dried fruit.
7. Store in an airtight container.

McD's style Sausage and Egg McMuffins

I am quite happy this afternoon as I am now half way through my exams. I'm also happy because dad treated me to coffee and pastries after my exam. I had a few recipes to choose from today and I settled on this one. McDonald's breakfasts were always a treat but most of them are really simple to recreate at home. The benefit of this is you know exactly what you are putting into your body and can make them much healthier without all that sodium. So, while I catch up on last nights episode of the Borgias you can start drooling over this weekend's recipe.

Ingredients
4 small buns or English muffins
4 eggs
2 large, or 4 small sausages (not precooked)
BBQ sauce
4 slices cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Break the eggs into a greased muffin pan.
3. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until set.
4. In the meantime squeeze the sausage meat out of the casings.
5. Shape the sausage meat into 4 small patties.
6. Cook the patties in a pan for about 3-4 minutes each side or until cooked through.
7. Toast the muffins or buns.
8. To assemble, spread the BBQ sauce onto the muffins and place a sausage patty on the bottom half. Run a knife around the edge of the eggs and carefully remove from the muffin pan. Place the egg on top of the sausage patty. Top with cheese to complete your McMuffin.

Banana Scramble

I think its time for another breakfast post, just in time to get yourself organised for the weekend. This is the perfect way to use up a banana that is going slightly mushy. Bananas never cease to amaze me with what they can do. Freeze them and blend them for 5 minutes you have soft serve. Mash them and mix them with oats you have fritters, put them in baking and you can reduce the sweetner. Yes the humble banana is definitely a favourite of mine.

From Edible Perspective

Makes 2 scrambles, I eat 2 for breakfast
Ingredients
6 Tbsp rolled oats
2 Tbsp ground flax seed, or bran
2 Tbsp milk
1 banana
1 tsp cinnamon
Splash vanilla
2 Tbsp dessicated coconut

1. Mash the banana well with a fork.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together until the mixture is holding together but still very moist.
3. Spray a pan with cooking spray and heat.
4. Spoon half of the mixture into the pan and shape into a patty.
5. Cook on a medium heat for about 3 minutes or until golden.
6. Flip the patty over. It may fall apart a little but this doesn't matter just reshape it.
7. Cook for about another 2 minutes.
8. Repeat with the other half of the mixture.
9. Serve with favourite toppings such as jam, peanut butter or maple syrup.

Flower Egg Toast

I havn't had the chance to post in over a week as I have been so busy!! I am still really busy so today's post is just a quick wee recipe that makes a great breakfast, lunch or snack.

Serves 1 ( The amount depends on how hungry you are)
Ingredients
1-2 pieces grainy toast
1-2 eggs
Tbsp favourite chutney
Handful baby spinach leaves

1. Using a flower shaped cookie cutter (or whatever shape you have, or just cut a circle), cut a shape into the middle of your bread.
2. Spray the bread with cooking spray and then place in a heated pan.
3. Carefully break the egg into the hole in the bread.
4. Cook over a low heat until the edges and bottom are set and the middle is starting to cook, about 5 minutes.
5. Carefully flip the bread over and cook for about 30 seconds, until egg is completely cooked.
6. Serve on top of baby spinach with the chutney.

Honey Pear and Ginger Smoothie

It's about time for a super nutritious recipe so here it is. This recipe is from the Innocent Smoothie recipe book and is a great way to use up some of those end of season pears that are starting to go mushy. This one isn't for ginger haters though as there is quite a ginger presence, but for those who do like it it is divine.

I would recommend grilling your pears a little bit ahead as otherwise they make your smoothie a bit warm. If you don't have time for that add a little ice.

Ingredients
1 pear, peeled, halved and cored
2 tsps honey
Thumbnail size piece fresh ginger
1/4 cup orange juice
3 Tbsps yoghurt

1. Spread honey over the cut side of the pear.
2. Place the pears cut side up in a baking dish and grill in the oven until the honey begins to caramelise.
3. Place everything into a blend and blend until very smooth.
4. Best served cold