Blueberry+ chia seeds + peanut butter overnight oats

I've been a little obsessed with overnight oats lately. Coupled with fruits it is bringing me true joy almost every morning before work. As summer fruits are exiting the scene but the summer heat is not, I'm still taking great comfort in a nice cold bowl of oats.

You see previously I'd always put off making overnight oats because I didn't have a cute jar to mix it all up in and leave in the fridge but I didn't even need one! I just mixed it all in a bowl, cover and leave in the fridge overnight. Easy peasy.

This recipe keeps me full for 4-5hrs.

I know.

Insane. 

Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are my busiest at work and I just don't have time to have a mid morning snack. Lets just say I've had some embarrassing stomach grumbling moments... (borborygmi is happily my fav word and also the scientific word for stomach rumbles ;))

With the start of 2014 I had jumped on the new years resolution making bandwagon. One of my top resolutions was to be kinder to myself. This meant many things for me: being more active, leaving work on time, taking time out for myself and making sure I'm not frantically hungry while working.

Waking up early in the morning has always been something I struggled with so trying to make a good filling breakfast can sometimes be difficult. Especially when I don't like cereal... Overnight oats all done up the night before has been a saviour on busy mornings. It's made my stomach much more content and meant that I have a clearer mind to better help my patients every morning. Win-win.   

The other great thing about overnight oats is you can dress it up in a bajillion topping combinations. Here's the base recipe to making beautiful overnight oats:

Overnight Oats
Preparation Time: 10mins
Serves: 1


Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla yoghurt
• 2 tsp chia seeds
• 2 tsp nut butter
• Fruit toppings 
• Sprinkle of dried fruit or toasted nuts

 Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together, making sure the oats are adequately covered in liquid. 
2. Cover the bowl and refrigerate. 
3. Top with fruit 

Per bowl: 1545kJ, 15.1g protein, 12g total fat, 2.9g saturated, 45g carbohydrates, 73mg sodium, 7.2g fibre (calculations do not include fruit toppings and dried fruit or nuts)

 
 Cherries + toasted pepitas

 
 Mangoes + lychee + sultanas + peanut butter + chia seeds



Strawberries + blueberries + almond nut butter + sultanas



Flaxseed + berries + chia



Persimmons + flaxseed + peanut butter



Grilled plums + sultanas + almonds + dessicated coconuts + chia seeds


 

Frozen pineapple + almonds + dessicated coconut + chia seeds

So the last time I posted anything was in June.... 

Sorry! 

Work kind of got on top of me and I spent more time in the kitchen than posting things online. Also people at work now know about this blog and it's all a little embarrassing... Hello everyone from physio department!

I made this cake a few weeks ago for a colleague's farewell lunch and then again last Sunday for father's day. Since the cake was well received and I've had a few requests for the recipe I thought I'll post it up here.




Lemon Yoghurt Almond Cake  
Preparation Time: 20mins  
Cooking Time: 20mins
Adapted from: Everyday Cook

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 160g vanilla yoghurt
•  Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 100g wholemeal flour  or gluten free flour
• Syrup: 2tbs lemon juice, 50g caster sugar

 Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm tin with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
4. Add yoghurt and lemon zest and beat until combined.
5. Fold in the almond meal and flour until combined. 
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Sprinkle almonds on top
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
8. While the cake is baking make the syrup. Heat lemon juice with caster sugar in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens into a syrup (2-3mins on medium heat)
9. Pour the hot lemon syrup over warm cake and then cool the cake in the pan.

The original recipe actually used pistachio meal but after shelling hundreds of pistachios until my fingers hurt, I felt almond would do just fine....
 
I've also tried this recipe using hazelnut meal with great success as seen below. If you are expecting a fluffy light cake, this is not it. This is a dense, rich, sticky cake where only a sliver is needed to satisfy that cake craving.  

First I have to apologise. For keeping this muesli bar recipe to myself for too long.

You see this is a fantastic recipe that I've been using to make delectable muesli bars to impress people and then promising them the recipe but never giving it....

It's super easy with very little prep time unless you're like me and picking specific seeds out of a seed mix packet.....

I've made 2 variations of these now. One that's shown below and another even nuttier and sweeter one for a hike I did. The recipes are fairly fail safe and even my first batch that I made with whatever I fancied thrown in turned out great!



Nutty Oat Muesli Bars
Makes: 16 bars
Preparation Time: 15min
Cooking Time: 20mins

Ingredients 

• 5 fresh dates 
• 1/3 cup dried apricots 
• ½ cup mixed nuts/seeds (I used pepita, sunflower, almonds) 
• 2 tbsp walnuts 
• 2 cups rolled oats 
• 1 tbsp sultanas 
• 1 tbs desiccated coconut 
• 2 tbs LSA 
• 3 ½ tbs natural nut butter (I used organic peanut butter) 
•  3 tbs honey 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp water 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius 
2. Line a rectangular baking tray with baking paper. This is a trick I learnt from Jamie Oliver: Scrunch up the baking paper into a ball and run it under water. Shake off the excess and it will be super easy to line any tray! 
3. Roughly chop up the dates, apricots, almonds and walnuts into smaller pieces. 
4. Combine the ingredients in step 3 with the oats, sultanas, coconut and LSA in a bowl and stir to mix. 
5. Mix the nut butter, honey, vanilla essence, brown sugar and water over the stove until melted and it forms a sticky syrup. 
6. Mix half of the syrup into the bowl of dry ingredients. 
7. Place the muesli mixture into the baking tray and spread it with a spoon to all the corners of the tray 
8. Pour the remaining syrup onto the muesli, making sure there's no more dry muesli mix. 
9. Cut another piece of baking paper around the same size as the tray and lay it over the tray. Press on the muesli mixture to compact it. 
10. Place the tray in the oven uncovered and bake for 20mins or until the top is golden brown and smelling delicious. 
11. Once the tray is removed from the oven, use the baking paper from step 9 to press the muesli again. 
12. Do not take the muesli out of the tin as it will crumble. 
13. Leave to cool in the tray and cut into slices once fully cooled. 

Per 45g bar: 793kJ, 5g protein, 9.8g fat, 1.6g saturated, 18.8g carbohydrates, 7mg sodium 


As you can see the bar is packed with quite a lot of energy compared to say a fruit or low fat yoghurt snack but this will definitely keep you full! This snack is high in protein and fibre and packs a good punch of unsaturated fats. If you use unsalted nuts and natural nut butters like me the sodium will be very low as well.


I also made a batch with some wheat flakes from cereal which added a good crunch to it as well. The batch I made for a hike kept me energised and going for several hours! I also pop these in a zip lock bag to take to work or crumble them to top my yoghurt for some different texture.

Today was hot in Sydney. It's funny how 33 degrees feels soooo hot after winter but it'll soon feel normal once summer sets in. One of my biggest dilemmas during summer is what to have for breakfast (I'm sure this isn't most people's biggest concern but my life kinda just revolves around food....)

Like I've said before, I often value my sleep more than breakfast making so I'm often having breakfast on the go. Normally it includes a piece of toast or some eggs but as the weather warms up I'm getting turned off hot breakfasts. Now I'll always be a tea drinking hot breakfast kind of girl, but I needed to spruce up my breakfast routine during warmer days! I'm not a cereal or muesli and milk type of person so I needed other ideas!

Now hopefully I don't have to tell you all how important it is to have breakfast especially since I recently saw this article in the newspaper. It highlights how skipping breakfast actually primes your brain into seeking out higher calorie unhealthy foods which is why it makes sense that dieters who eat breakfast are often more successful in the long term at keeping weight off.   

So the following will be my top 10 breakfast ideas during summer to start you off feeling cool and ready for the day.

 1. Fruit smoothie
Slurping down on a homemade smoothie always has me feeling alive on a hot day (but the blender is my least favourite thing to clean up....) My absolute favourite is a blueberry smoothie. All it requires is some frozen blueberries, low fat yoghurt and milk and some ice. Sometimes I like to add a teaspoon of honey but often the fruits are sweet enough. I probably get more calcium into my system during the warmer months as otherwise I love a hot cup of green tea. Be wary of cafe smoothies as often they can be quite large, heavy on the ice cream and full fat dairy. I prefer making my own anyway.

 
 The blueberry smoothie is the purple drink in the background!

2. Yoghurt and Cereal
My second favourite cooling breakfast has to be a nice bowl of yoghurt with some broken up weet-bix and some frozen blueberries. I go through frozen blueberries very quickly during summer and there's always a box in my freezer. I think they are essential! Any type of natural or greek yoghurt goes really well with any type of crunchy cereal.

 

3. Fruit salad 
If you have time chop up some fruit or even do it the night before. It'll be super cool and refreshing and you can even add a dollop of yoghurt on top. If you have more time you can make a fruit and yoghurt parfait just to be a little bit fancy.

 

4. Eggs 
Boil up some eggs the night before and leave it in the fridge. In the morning peel and eat! The sulfur smell may stink up your car or the train but everyone's just jealous that you had breakfast while they didn't ;) If you have time the night before make some frittatas and eat cold the next day. Vegetable frittata's are good as they give you a dose of vegetables before the day's even started.

5. Breakfast muffins 
Now I'm not talking those BIG muffins you can get with your coffee! If you have time over the weekend make up a batch of wholemeal or oat muffins. Keep in the fridge and grab on your way out in the morning. These blueberry and white chocolate ones are pretty tasty! Also shown are some orange and chia seed ones (recipe coming sooooon)



6. Think wholegrain breads 
Instead of toasting my bread I just put some organic peanut butter on it and it's nice and soft rather than crunchy. Also good are wholemeal english muffins or mountain bread wraps. Put an egg with some salad leaves and cheese in a wrap and you've got something neatly packed for one handed eating!

7. Can of baked beans 
This is probably one of my brother's favourite. Nice cold can of baked beans on the weekend with some toast. During winter I like to pour the baked beans into a pan with some herbs and let it simmer. Mmmmmm (See I'm already back to winter breakfasts!)



8. Corn on the cob 
My mum is kind enough to sometimes boil some corn for me in the morning but often it is too hot and it gets left till the next day. So i get a nice cold cob of corn! Delish on their own, high in fibre and of course, a serve of veg!

9. Drink ideas: Cold Milo or Juice 
As I said I'm a hot tea type of person. I drink a LOT of green tea throughout the day. Not just because of the health benefits but because it's so delicious and just warms me up and gets me ready to face anything! However during summer my tea drinking habits make way for cooler drinks. I love a cold glass of low fat milk with a spoonful or milo and other times a small glass of orange juice is also good. I'm not a big proponent of juice as I feel the real fruit is ALWAYS best but somedays it's a nice cold drink to wash down breakfast. Remember though I'm talking a small glass, around 200ml rather than the big Boost juices.

 
This is a new juice that's out from Golden Circle. Pleasant taste with the goodness of probiotics for bowel health.

10. I'm Reeeeeeally in a rush!! 
 If you're looking for packaged foods a cold Up and Go, Belvita biscuits or muesli/nut bar isn't too bad of an option. Of course I always advocate for minimally processed foods but if it's a toss up between nothing and something for breakfast, the something always wins.

As you can see from the list there's a slight trend in terms of what to look out for for breakfast. I always try and add fruits, vegetables, dairy and wholegrains to all my meals, especially breakfast. Look for breakfasts with lots of fibre, protein or both to ensure you feel full for longer. Always choose low GI options for the same reason. You can always mix and match the suggestions I've made. Eg. A cup of milo with a boiled egg and a piece of fruit ensures a good source of protein and fibre but also meets 1 serve of your dairy and fruit requirements for the day!

Let me know below what kind of breakfast you're having! I'll love to have more ideas on what I can make!

I know, I know.... Another meatless post!?

But veggies are awesome! 

Before you click the close button and think "Urgh Wendy's gone vegetarian; I guess we can't be friends anymore" hear me out!

This dish LOOKS like a meat dish! =D?


See!? Okay this may be a bad angle for meat imitation. But it COULD look like some chunks of meat!

It fooled my brother. Multiple times. Before he asked me "what kind of satay is this?? I can't find any meat!"

I know though, that there are people that hate deceiving dishes... it's like your eyes promising your tastebuds some meat and it never gets any... And I'm not going to be one of those people who say "It totally tastes like meat! You won't even miss it!" So if you need some meat you can always add some in. I think chicken will go nicely.

So what's with the infux of veggie dishes?

I hate cooking with meat. It just feels slimey, and smelly and HARD to do! Yeh you'll probably never hear "I just can't be bothered to cook meat" from a vegetarian....But I promise the next recipe post will be a meat dish! In the meantime if anyone wants to make me a nice piece of lean steak (or even better take me to have some!) I'm always up for it ;) Don't lose hope in me though! I will have a meatier post soon! 

I found this recipe from the dozen or so mini recipe books I got at the recent conference (I'm really working up a collection!) I actually picked up this booklet not knowing it was all vegetarian recipes until quite a few pages in. The dishes looked so good, I was salivating anyway.

The recipe book is produced by Sanitarium, a company owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church so all it's products are vegetarian, in accordance to its teachings. You can actually order the book online for free and it has amazing photos that will make you drool, vegetarian or not!

Onto the recipe! I couldn't help myself and did make a few changes though.  The ingredient list may seem long but don't be scared! There's no weird ingredients that you only use for this dish and leave rotting in your fridge. Also it's a pretty simple one saucepan dish.

Pumpkin Chickpea and Spinach Satay
Adapted from: Sanitarium Food for Health and Happiness Cookbook

Serves: 4-5
Preparation and cooking time: 30mins

Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil or peanut oil
• 1 brown onion
• 2 garlic cloves 
• Small piece of ginger the size of your pinky 
• 700g pumpkin
• 200ml Carnations light and creamy coconut flavour evaporated milk 
• 1/2 cup salt reduced vegetable stock 
• 2 cups cauliflower florets 
• 1 medium carrot
• 1/3 cup crunchy organic peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce 
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 400g can chickpeas
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander 
• 60g baby spinach
• Boiled rice to serve  
• Chilli (optional)

 Method

1. Make some rice if you don't have any leftovers like me. 
2. Prep all the veggies: Dice the onion, pumpkin and carrot. Chop up the garlic, ginger and coriander finely. Cut the caulifower into small florets.  
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions for 2mins until soft. 
4. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli if you're using it and give it a stir to mix. 
5. Add in pumpkin followed by coconut flavoured evaporated milk and stock. 
6. Bring everything to the boil, cover and simmer for 5-8mins.
7. Add the cauliflower and carrots followed by the peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar and chickpeas. Stir to combine, cover and simmer until cauliflower is cooked (About another 5mins)
8. Turn off the heat and stir in coriander and spinach leaves.
9. Serve with rice.

Per serve: Energy: 1840kJ (440kcal), Carbohydrates 27g, Fibre 10g, Fat 26g, Saturated fat 6g, Protein 20g, Sodium 515mg, Potassium 1245mg, Calcium 115mg, Iron 3.6mg (These values are based on the original recipe and although not stated, I believe it is without rice)


The recipe book is at the back. My dish looks better right? =D 

 

 

I don't usually cook with coconut milk due to it's saturated fat content so to me using flavoured evaporated milk still gave it a nice coconut taste (Don't kill me if you think it doesn't taste 'authentic!') You could also use evaporated milk and add your own coconut flavouring. I had a look at some reduced fat coconut milk, which is where they use coconut extract and water, and some had less kilojoules per 100ml than the flavoured evaporated milk. However the saturated fat content was still higher.

Eg. per 100ml:
Carnations coconut flavoured evaporated milk: 1.1g sat fat
Amoy regular coconut milk: 21.6g sat fat
Amoy light coconut milk (44% less fat): 12g sat fat

How much fat you should have per day depends on your energy needs but I usually recommend 20-35% of your energy should be from fat in accordance with the NHMRC. Also <20g of saturated fat/day, as recommended by the National Heart Foundation Australia. You can see how easy this is to go over when having these products and we havent even gotten into coconut cream!  

Anyway back to the food! The original recipe actually asked for longer cooking times but I found my veggies got too soft and mushy especially when I stirred in the sticky peanut butter. So don't overcook!  My parents tried it without rice and weren't a big fan as it was too mushy but there won't be any problems if you don't overcook it =)

If you want to add meat, lightly stir fry it until cooked and put it aside then toss it back in with the cauliflower. 

As always this will be delicious: I guarantee it! (I should design a Wendy stamp of approval...) All that fibre and protein will keep you full and your body will thank you for feeding it vegetables!

I've got a little bit of leftover coconut flavoured evaporated milk so anyone have suggestions on what to make with it? 

Last week it was my mum's birthday. I have no idea how old she turned this year as she only let us put three candles on the cake.... Over the years I had run out of gift ideas so this year I decided taking the stress from cooking meals everyday off my mum for that one night was the best gift idea.

I'd set out a grand plan of roast chicken, pork belly, salads and vegetables in my head before my mum reminded me that she needed to take my siblings to piano classes at 6pm which left me only 2hrs to prepare everything!

I sent my mum off to get a massage to help her relax while I did some last minute ingredient shopping. I had this grill roasted corn salad in mind but Woolworths had run out of fresh corn that day (amongst a bunch of other things that I needed to make the birthday cake!) and I was running out of time! Instead I grabbed some canned corn and shortened my cooking time!  This salad is the result.

I managed to plate up this salad, beef, mushroom and onion stir fry, roast pumpkin and sweet potato and stir fry bok choy by dinner time. The chicken wasn't ready until an hour afterwards.... Everyone was starving so I didn't manage to take a picture of all the food but I did take a picture of this corn salad before it was gobbled up. Trust me it takes like 5 minutes! I only said 8 minutes to cover myself. And it's delicious. If there's any doubt I'm willing to hold live demos at my house where you can watch me whip it up in 5minutes then proceed to eat it and tell you it's delicious.

Adapted from: The Healthy Foodie 

Serves: 2-4
Preparation and cooking time: 5-8mins

Ingredients

• 1 can of corn
• 1/2 capsicum, chopped
• 1 cupgreen beans cut into 1" (2cm) pieces
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• The juice of 1 lime
• Fetta cheese, crumbled
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped
• 2 cups baby spinach and rocket
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Drain the can of corn
2. Place corn, capsicum and green beans in a pan and stir fry for 2 minutes (You can skip this step too since it's not really necessary to cook these ingredients anyway
3. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss before serving

Per serve (443g): Energy: 1787kJ (427kCal), Carbohydrates 66.5g, Fibre 11.2g, Fat 15.4g, Saturated fat 3.5g, Protein 16.8g, Sodium 532mg (These values are based on the original recipe from the link)

See easy right? This salad didn't store well overnight in the fridge (the beans went a bit brown) so eat it all up on the same day!



 

Isn't it so colourful? And I promise it's good for you ;)

I made this salad last night as part of dinner from bits and pieces I found in the fridge and pantry. It's not only vegetarian but vegan too!

Years ago, when I first started setting foot in a kitchen, I made mainly baked goods. To be more specific, those cake mixes you can buy at the supermarket. I started with these because I never had to worry about main meals (thanks mum!) and I thought they would be the easiest. Sadly I could not even make cake from the packet. I know......

Now I realise it's because I always over beat the batter and my mum would buy the cheapest cake mixes that always looked good when fresh out of the oven but were hard as a rock after a day. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't just give up then and step away from the oven!

I persisted and eventually I was starting to search up easy recipes online I could use. I stuck firmly to the recipes I had, believing that if I even turned the oven one degrees more than specified, my cakes would be ruined! Baked goods are unpredictable that way; they never look like the ingredients they started as. And that makes baking so magical to me. Nevertheless, I bought many ingredients I had to throw out in the end as I had no other use for them.

It took me YEARS to feel comfortable enough to start omitting and replacing ingredients in recipes! First it was with savoury dishes then with the sweets and now I'm finally feeling a little bit more comfortable writing up my own recipes. This is where this recipe came in. I'd only heard about quinoa a year or so ago and I hadn't made anything with quinoa in it for a while (despite my last post also being a quinoa recipe!) so I decided to make a salad. I had a browse online for some recipes and found most recipes had ingredients I did not have. I had no salad greens, no lemon, no meat. Yeh my fridge was quite barren..... The idea of a quinoa salad was already in my mind and I knew I could not let it go so I did what I could with what little I had. And it turned out great!

Maybe you've never heard of quinoa, maybe you're ready to try your first quinoa recipe or maybe you've made quinoa a million times. Whatever your quinoa knowledge may be, go look in the fridge and pantry and put whatever looks good in this salad with some quinoa. The more colourful and vibrant it is the better!         

For those that still want a recipe as a guideline continue reading =)

 
Serves: 2 large serves
Preparation and Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Salad
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water or stock
Half a medium sweet potato
1 medium sized potato
1 small carrot
1/2 cup chickpeas
1 1/2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
Half a small avocado
Half an orange

Dressing
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon oil from sundried tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees celcius
2. Dice up sweet potato, potato and carrot and place them on a baking tray with foil. Give them a light spray with olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste. Put in the oven for 10-15mins or until light brown
3. Place 1 cup of quinoa in 3 cups of stock/water in a saucepan (I used vegetable stock as it gives the quinoa more flavour. Quinoa is very good at soaking up the flavour of stock!) Bring it to the boil then lower the heat so it just simmers for 15minutes or until the quinoa turns opaque and splits. Look at the picture. Most if not all the water should be absorbed. I don't think you can overcook quinoa anyway.... 
4. Dice half an avocado
5. Cut an orange in half and peel half then dice into segments. Cut the other half of the orange into segments and eat while waiting for the quinoa and roast veg to be ready!
6. Once the quinoa and vegetables are ready place them on a plate. Add the chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, avocado and orange.
7. Place the vinegar and oil in the salad and lightly toss the salad with a spoon. (You could toss in a bowl then place on a plate but I'm lazy and less washing up!) If you used stock for the quinoa there's not much need to add salt but flavour with salt and pepper as desired. 
8. Eat slowly. It's delicious, I promise!

I saw the recipe for quinoa corn fritters on one of my favourite blogs Apples Under My Bed and luckily I wasn't scared off by the long recipe! These are actually quite simple to make and make a delicious snack. My mum had bought several husks of corn and this recipe came at just the right time! I made very small modifications due more to the lack of ingredients in my fridge than anything else.

This is the 3rd quinoa recipe I have posted. See another Meatless Monday post and a dessert one too. Lets see who makes all 3 recipes in one day ;)?

Adapted from Apples Under My Bed

Serves: 5 fritters
Preparation and Cooking Time: 45min

Ingredients
1/4 cup dry Quinoa
1/2 cup water
1 large corn cob
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1.5 heaped tablespoons (38g) Wholemeal Plain Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
A pinch of Sea Salt and Freshly Cracked Pepper

Method

1. Rinse the dry quinoa under cold water and then put it in a pot with water. 
2. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the germ turns opaque and splits from the seed- see picture 
3. Shave the corn kernels from the corn cob. 
4. Place corn kernels in a pan with the crushed garlic on high heat and sauté for 2-3 minutes until it smells heavenly and a pretty yellow. 
5. Transfer corn to a large mixing bowl.
6. Add the 1/2 cup cooked quinoa, beaten egg, flour, baking powder, cumin, Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl with the corn. Stir ingredients together until a wet mixture is formed (See picture below)
7. Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil over low-medium heat. 
8. Form small round balls by spooning up 1 tablespoon of mixture and roughly forming it in your hand. 
9. Put the balls on the pan and after 1minute push the pattie flat with the back of a spoon. The mixture is very wet but it will hold if you treat it with care! 
10. Cook for another 5minutes then flip to cook for another 5 minutes until it is nice and brown.
11. Serving suggestions: alongside poached eggs and bacon at breakfast, as part of a salad at lunch, as an appetiser with some sweet chilli dipping sauce or alongside grilled meat or chicken and a big salad at dinner.Or just eat them on their own ;) 

Per fritter: Energy: 551kJ, protein: 5g, Fat: 4.5g, Saturated fat: 0.8g, Carbohydrate: 15.9g, Sodium: 60mg 


This is what the mixture should look like. It looks pretty wet!

 
Sizzling away in the pan...

 
Tada done!!


Nutritionally speaking......
These fritters are a good snack and can be part of a great meal too! They're not too energy dense if you're only having 1-2 and have a good protein content, low saturated fat and low sodium (depending on how much salt you decide to add!) They're also going to be quite high in fibre from the corn and quinoa (although not calcuated) so will keep you full for longer than expected. Plus another fun way to cook quinoa right?  

I must admit my siblings did not enjoy this but I think it was because of the cumin and Worchestershire taste so feel free to substitute this for any other kind of flavouring. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let me know how you cook quinoa or what vegetarian recipes you are trying this week.

Today I wanted to share a salad I've been obsessed over. I've had this for lunch for the past 3 days!! It is so unbelievably delicious you MUST try it! I've had this new fondness for fruit in salads and it's such a brilliant idea especially throughout spring and summer. Sadly summer is over in Australia and with the dreary summer Sydney has had this year, I feel robbed. This salad is the perfect mix of tangy, sweet and fresh taste that I have been craving.

This salad is under 2000kJ/large serve. I usually have some chicken or tuna with it or have it on the side with a meal. However at 2 serves of vegetables, a serve of fruit and plenty of good fats from the olive oil and cashews it's a great low salt lunch choice! Not to mention it's vegetarian on it's own which is why I've added it to Veggie Mamas Meatless Monday list.  


Adapted from: A Couple Cooks


Serves: 4 (side salad) or 2 (salad meals)
Preparation Time: 10mins

Ingredients

• A cup or two of strawberries (Watermelon works great too)
• Half of a red onion
• Handful of cashews
• Crumbled fetta cheese 
•  Vinaigrette dressing
• 4 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 teaspoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Fresh ground pepper

Method

1. Prepare the ingredients: Wash and slice the strawberries. Wash and dry the salad greens. Thinly slice a red onion (if you’d like it to be a bit less spicy, soak the slices in cold water for about 20 minutes prior to serving).
2. Make the dressing: Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl, whisk with a fork
3. To serve, spread the greens on a plate and top with strawberries, red onion, cashews, cheese crumbles and vinaigrette

Per large serve: Energy: 1610 (385kCal) Fat: 26g Sat Fat: 4.6g Carbohydrates: 24.8g Protein: 8.8g Sodium: 84mg 

I wanted to share 2 recipes today on one of my favourite foods of summer: Mangoes!

After the last post about Nok Nok I had an intense desire to make Thai Green Mango Salad and as luck would have it someone had gifted us some!

I did a quick search on green mango salads online and mashed together a few recipes that took my fancy and ingredients were available in my fridge.

Ingredients:

• 1 small handful of dried shrimp (around 1 1/2 tbsps)
• 1 green mango (peeled and sliced or grated)
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts
• 1 birds eye chili (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon coriander/cilantro (chopped)
• 1 green onion (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts (chopped)

Dressing

• 3/4 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• zest of 1 small lime 
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Method:

1. Mix the mango, bean sprouts, chili, green onion, dried shrimp and corriander in a large bowl.
2. Mix fish sauce, lime juice, lime zest and sugar in a small bowl.
3. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve garnished with the peanuts.

Look at this beautiful dish! This will be a flavour explosion in your mouth and with only 3 steps what could be easier? The salad can serve as a healthy and refreshing lunch during the summer or anytime of the day. For those who have never tried green mango salad or would give it a pass just imagine the flavour and texture of this dish in your mouth right now. The soft sweetness of the mango, the crunchy fresh bean sprouts, the flavoursome coriander, the spicy chilli, the crunchy roasted peanuts, the salty and fishy shrimp and fish sauce, the tangy sour lime and the sweet sugar all combined together in one dish. Heavenly!

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I first saw this salad shared on Twitter and knew I just HAD to make it! It had a lot of my favourite ingredients! Sadly it was the middle of the night and I was already in bed so I bookmarked the link for another day. That night I couldn't stop thinking about it and in the morning I recruited the ingredients from my fridge to make this beautiful salad.

Ingredients

• 500g prawns, peeled and deveined
• 2 mangos, peeled and flesh cut into bite sized cubes
• 1 avocado, peeled and cut into bite sized cubes
• 1 small bunch baby asparagus, lightly steamed, cut into small lengths
• small sprig snow pea sprouts, trimmed
• 1 tablespoon walnut pieces
• a few tiny baby cos lettuce leaves, rinsed, pat dry
• black pepper

Dressing:

• Juice of 2 limes (including 1 teaspoon finely chopped lime zest)
• 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, finely chopped
• 1 Birdseye chilli, finely chopped, seeds removed
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. If you are using green prawns, cook the prawns in gently boiling salted water until the colour changes to pink. Prawns don't take long to cook, so be careful not to overcook them. Set aside to chill in the refrigerator. Or if you are using cooked prawns, simply peel and devein, then chill them while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, lime zest, coriander, chilli, honey and olive oil in a small jug and whisk lightly. 
3. Arrange the lettuce on serving plates. Top with the mango, avocado and asparagus, then arrange the prawns over the top. Sprinkle the dressing over the salad, top with the walnut pieces and snow pea sprigs. Season with pepper. Serve immediately.

This salad was really fresh and lovely as well and my family really enjoyed having fruit in a salad. As the weather gets warmer I often find myself uninspired to cook or eat cooked foods so salads are really quick and easy during these times. I was too eager to make the 2 salads above and didn't get a chance to measure the kilojoule content of the dishes but they are definitely low kilojoule, low fat healthy meals. What's also great about salads is anyone can make them out of anything! Put in lots of vegetables and then add in a protein source like meat, chicken, legumes etc to make it more satisfying!

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I have officially graduated from my course a couple of weeks ago! I am now a fully qualified Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD). It's all very exciting and yet nerve wracking trying to figure out what to do with myself now, so I'm taking a holiday! I'll be going away to China for a lovely 3 weeks break with my family tomorrow. We'll be touring multiple cities across China so look forward to many food and travel posts ahead. The weather will be the polar opposite from Australia (though if this rain continues it might be quite similar) so I won't be having any salads! I can't wait to absorb in all the food and culture!

Hope everyone has a lovely and safe Christmas and New Year.

I was having a sweet tooth (do I always have a sweet tooth?) and really wanted to perfect a quinoa recipe I had tried to make twice before.

I have previously mentioned the great benefits of quinoa in a blog post but if you need a refresher click here!

Just a reminder, quinoa is gluten and wheat free and can be used in sweet and savoury dishes. I had previously used it to make quinoa with roasted cauliflower and pumpkin but the versatility of quinoa set me out to search for a sweet dish. This is what I found:

Recipe adapted from vegan-food


Makes:14
Cost: $0.41 per cupcake

Preparation time: 20 minutes + 10minutes in fridge

Baking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup cooked quinoa
• 1/3 Cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 2/3 Cup white sugar (Or low GI sugar)
• 1 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 Cup white flour
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 6.5 Tablespoons low fat/skim milk
• 1 Large egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees celcius
2. Rinse 1/3 cup of dried quinoa (This will make about 3/4-1cup of cooked quinoa)
3. Place rinsed quinoa in a covered pot with about 2 cups of water. 
4. Bring the quinoa to a boil, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes and add water if necessary. 
5. After 25minutes take the quinoa off the stove, drain if necessary and allow to cool (in fridge is quicker). The quinoa should be fluffy and opaque looking and the liquid should mostly be all absorbed.
6. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
7. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon. It should look like this: 

1. Bake at 180 degrees celcius for about twenty minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Per cupcake: Energy: 693kJ (165.5Cal) Fat: 5.3g Sat Fat: 1.0g Carbohydrates: 24.4g Protein: 4.1g Sodium: 127.4mg Fibre: 2g  

Here they come out of the oven....



Notice how it looks bumpy on the top? I think the quinoa hardens with the exposure to heat and it offers a grittiness and crunch on the outside but the inside is super soft.



A look on the inside....
The flecks of yellow are the quinoa casing.

 
These are ones I had made previously when I was still perfecting the recipe. I added some ready made frosting as they looked a bit bare. I would have tried making my own frosting but I was in a rush and the shops had closed!

I have made these cupcakes 3 times now and each time I have added more milk and water (notice how wet it looks in the mixing picture?). This made sure they were nice and moist. Timing in the oven is also very crucial as they can dry out easily if left for too long in the oven. The original recipe called for very little liquid and the flour did not have enough liquid to go with it. I added in an egg to make it more cohesive as the original batch crumbled away. I always feel wholemeal cupcakes need a bit more milk or water as they can turn out dry so experiment!

The cupcakes were absolutely delicious the 3rd time round. The first batch fell apart and were dry. The second batch were a lot more moist but still a bit hard. Three's the charm as they were soft and mosit and so deliciously chocolatey! I brought the 2nd batch into work previously and everyone said they loved it and it didn't taste any different to normal cupcakes. I think they may have lied a bit =P. I can't say you can not taste the grittiness from the wholemeal flower or quinoa at all but it's very acceptable (especially if you had my 3rd batch!).  It looked like a normal chocolate cupcake and tasted 90% like a normal cupcake!

Nutritionally Speaking....
These cupcakes fare nutritionally better than many of the commercial cupcakes being low in saturated fat and higher in protein and fibre. They are a great snack on the go and was able to satisfy my sweet tooth and will be more filling than other commercial cupcakes. However notice the nutrition information is only for 1 cupcake and it may be hard to stop at one with these.... also the nutrition information does not have frosting and the addition of frosting will add to calories. If you are having more than 1 of these cupcakes the energy/calories do add up and no amount of good protein and fibre will discount that!

So what should I make next with quinoa?