An Amazing Amalgam of... Stuff!

Hey everybody! I have been so busy with university work, but don't worry, I have still been cooking! I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of some of the things I've made in the past month.

This is a Nougat inspired mug cake I made for breakfast. I made it with coconut flour, which I just love at the moment. Half is raspberry flavour and half is vanilla. I also pushed a spoon of crunchy peanut butter into the middle. It honestly did remind of a bar of Barrett's nougat! In the future, I would try and distribute the peanut butter more evenly (or use peanuts) so there would be a more peanutty flavour throughout the whole thing.

This was my breakfast this morning. It is proper Bircher Muesli. And by proper, I mean that I made it with an apple, and not a carrot like I usually do! It had a bit of a tropical twist, as I added some leftover pineapple and coconut milk, and a bit of cinnamon, orange and lemon juice to the base. This is a really nice and refreshing breakfast, and while I do like my carrot version, I will try to have this one more often!

 

The pineaple and coconut milk are leftover from some Hummingbird Baked Oats I made for breakfast one day this week. I cannot find the photos though! It has banana, coconut and pineapple in, which of course are the traditional 'Hummingbird' flavours. The recipe also suggested topping with pecans, but as I didn't have any, I added a little more desiccated coconut. It was so sweet and felt really decadent, even though it was healthy! I will definitely be having it again, so you will get to see it at some point!

I had this for tea yesterday. It is quite simple, but really good. The mushrooms are pricked with a fork and topped with lemon juice, garlic and balsamic vinegar before being baked, and then sit on top of a piece of bread and some rocket. It is supposed to be a sandwich, but my bread had gone mouldy so I had to make do with what I had!

This is a stuffed pepper I made for Freestyle Friday. In it, there is brown rice, tahini and sultanas, plus a handful of crudités (cucmber, celery, green pepper, orange pepper, courgette and carrot) I had cut up that were starting to go a bit soft. The best part? Not all the filling would fit, so I had an extra bowl on the side!

Another breakfast (I have been experimenting a lot lately, all will become clear). I have shared the base of this porridge with you before- cooked the normal way on the hob, with two stiffly whipped egg whites folded in. To this, I added a scoop of vanilla protein powder, and topped it with some crunchy peanut butter and grated cacao. It was like eating a bowl of marshmallow, just heavenly! And I just realised, I actually had this for lunch and not breakfast. You could have it for either. Or both (I won't judge!) It's that good.

The last breakfast for now. When I saw strawberry extract in the supermarket I came up with this idea. I give you Neapolitan overnight oats. It was a little bit more faffy to divide the base up, but I think it was worth it! So the base parts were obviously vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, and I added a banana, some maca powder, a few crumbled cashews, a little block of frozen fromage frais and some melted Peanut Butter Company Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. Not quite like the ice cream, but a good breakfast alternative... although who says you shouldn't have ice cream for breakfast? ;-)

And finally, my tea tonight. I had a cheaty leftover roast sandwich. It is a cheat because I didn't actually make the roast! I roasted the last handful of crudités plus some Brussels sprouts for vegetables, used two slices of chicken from the deli counter for meat, and spread some rye bread (which was delicious in it's own right!) with some horseradish for sauce. Topped with some homeamde beetroot chewy crisp thingies. That is literally what I have been calling them. I just sliced a ball of vacuum packed beetroot as thinly as I could with a knife and put them in the oven on low for 4 hours. I had the intention of making crisps, but as I couldn't slice them that thinly, they were more chewy. Even though it wasn't qutie what I planned, I am quite pleased with them. They weren't as sweet as you might think, more earthy with a hint of sweetness. I did get one or two crispy ones as well, so it was a win all round I think!