Sweet Potato Souffle

It was one of those mornings where you don't want to get up for an hour.

So I didn't.

This brekkie (or meal for any time, really) is perfect for one of these types of mornings, ie, when you have time for it to cook but you're not bothered to physically do much. It's really simple and you could do it with your eyes closed - which is the state you're in to start with!

I based this recipe on a brekkie I tried one day. It was meant to be 'warm sardine and sweet potato dip' but the temp was put up too high for it to just 'warm up' so it turned into a souffle! Sardines have never tasted better! But the cucumber I was meant to use as the dip-holder tasted really boring in comparison. Anyway...

Grab your prebaked sweet potato and mash it up in an ovenproof ramekin or bowl.

Whisk an egg and mix it in. If you're feelin' fancy, dust in some cinnamon too.

In the same fancy manner, smooth out the top and pop it into a preheated oven and go back to bed for half an hour after all your hard work.

I tried to make some roasted macadamias to go with it...

and ignoring the fact that it's unstable and expensive I roasted them in macadamia oil. Like goes with like, right?

But... um... I spent too long doing nothing while waiting for my souffle to cook.

I put a little maple syrup on top of the souffle when it had about 7 - 10 mins left, but it didn't make all that much difference.

Take the souffle out of the oven and go back to bed for another ten minutes. It's hot. Believe me. And it's going to stay hot for a while.

Top with whatever you fancy. I spooned on a bit of kefir and tried some of my little bombs of burnt nuttiness.

NB. I only called it a souffle because it rose. Don't assume it's puffy and airy and doesn't weigh a thing. Take a scoop and see how almost puddingy it is!

Sweet Potato Souffle

Serves 1

1 1/3 cups baked sweet potato

1 egg

cinnamon (optional)

maple syrup (optional)

something creamy like yoghurt, kefir, double cream or coconut butter (or ice cream?!), for serving

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Mash the sweet potato in an ovenproof bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, then add to the sweet potato.

Mix until combined, and add cinnamon and/or maple syrup if using.

Place the bowl in the oven and bake for 20 - 30 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve with creamy topping.

This might be better with coconut flour to make it less dense, and maybe some baking powder to fluff it up. And maybe some baking paper too...

The Art of Teaching

Yesterday I didn't post because I was out til late (well, late for me) doing a stack of yoga. Two hours of purely awesomely fun yoga. Lululemon had their free class for the week on, so I wanted to go there. I went there Monday to see all the lovely stock, and I picked up a brochure to a yoga studio that did hot yoga. I looked it up later and found that they had a good deal and looked really professional so I constantly begged dad to go until he let me. It was on before the lulu class so I decided to go there too.

Hot yoga was fun. Really really fun. It was challenging too, but the heat wasn't as bad as I had imagined. The class started with some nice half moons (where I had to learn to let go and not focus on miss yogi in the corner, or the other guy dripping like a tap already on the far side of the room) and for a bit we did some easy (to me at least), bendy moves where I realised that I was more flexible than half of them. Can't remember what we did exactly but it was basic sort of low lunge and high lunge stuff.

Then we moved onto standing balances, where I finally realised that I'm more flexible than I am balanced. My tree was swaying heavily in the breeze, I could say. And doing eagle, I wobbled before my toes got behind my calf, and then she wanted us to straighten that leg behind us?! I will work on that.

Hip openers were up next, while I was grateful for. I love hip openers, because my hips are not open and so I do these type of moves every day. Pigeon was held for a substantially long time. Which was... not so fun. My hips don't really like pigeon that much. So I watched the sweat drip down my nose into the disgustingly absorbent yoga mat. I really hope they wash those.

The last bit of class was really slow restorative stuff. Once again, I can't really remember what, but some of them required some balance so I tried to focus more on staying upright.

After a towel off, I sat in the park for a while and waited for my next yoga class. Leaving that sauna was probably one of the best feelings of the whole thing. It's like a wave of cool and you feel like you've had this amazing massage that's relaxed every muscle, joint and bone in your body. No wonder so many people love it. I'm going again a few more times in the week while I'm doing the course, but I can't say that I feel like superwoman now.

I ended up waiting outside lulu, and when the doors were unlocked we rolled out our mats and were introduced to Crawf, the owner of another yoga studio, which I WILL go to. The moment I saw his naturally oxygenated face and heard his Yorkshire accent, I knew that the guy I marry better be like him.

We started class in a dark child's pose, and the class was pretty much a basic beginner's class but he added some awesome moves like horse with eagle arms, warrior is with reverse warrior and triangle, and my absolute new favourite: wild thing. Sitting up, one leg is straight in front, the other foot is on your thigh, your bent leg arm is behind you on the floor at your back, and you push your hips up, keeping the bent leg shin on the ground, stretching the other arm past your ear as you do the obligatory growl.

But the best thing about this guy was that he was a born entertainer. He talked not too much and not too little, he showed us that he knew the universe about yoga, but barely told us much about the technicalities and the beliefs behind it, and he made us laugh heaps. THAT was what made him spectacular. THAT was what made me even stronger in the last minutes of doing two hours of intense yoga. THAT was what made me take the business card off him and thank him like a thousand times for a great class. THAT was what made me do yoga better. Humour. If and when I become a yoga teacher, I WILL be funny, and my students WILL be fantastic because of it.

I guess that's all. Yesterday I leant a big lesson (apart from everything I learnt in acting class). I learnt that every yoga teacher is different and amazing in their own way. They all have a unique way of getting people to do stuff. The girl who took our hot yoga never shut up ("Andwhileyoubendforwardmakesureyourkneeisn'toveryourheelandbringyourpalmstogetheratyourheart'scentreandasyoubreatheintwistaroundtoyourrightside..." - I was scared that she wasn't breathing herself) and Crawf made us fall out of balance from unexpected jokes. Don't just settle for one yoga teacher. Try as many as you can.

The divine in me honours the divine in you.

Namaste

Got Leftover Fruit?

We were delegated as 'desserts' people for Christmas lunch, and mum wanted to keep it simple so we wanted to do some fruit things. They weren't exactly 'platters'... We tried to recreate these Christmas tree things that I found on Pinterest but they didn't end up a thing like them.

Anyway, our grandmother had cooked two other desserts as well (and they were maaaaassive, let me just say) and everyone was full from the gigantic feast we'd had for dinner, so our four fruit tree things were barely touched. So we took them home.

What were we supposed to do with these sad looking, toothpick-pricked fruits that still had quite a lot of life left in them? They weren't the prettiest things, but they still tasted great (I mean, it's fruit, of course they did). Out came our saviour...

MR BLENDER!

And did Mr Blender do a good job on those juicy fruits. With the help of my cutting up (and cutting pits out of cherries), and the multiple zip lock bags, Mr Blender turned those sad and sorry looking grapes, kiwis and watermelon bits into this glorious, heavenly nectar of juice, which was then poured into the baggies and frozen.

Thai Chilli Coconut Roast

What do you do when you want beachy, summery flavours and a comforting wintery meal? You combine them of course! Last night it was a little colder than usual but I felt like a bit of chilli and coconut so I came up with a bit of a concoction:

Coconut oil
Chilli flakes
Cayenne pepper
Desiccated coconut
Thai seasoning



And mixed my chicken breast into it. If I wasn't being so lazy, I would've made more and mixed the veggies in it, but the coconut oil was in the fridge so I had to scrape it out instead of scooping it out. I need a small jar of it to keep in the cupboard for easier use. If you don't have coconut oil, feel free to use a light oil or some olive oil (my veggies got a dash of EVOO - extra virgin olive oil). It shouldn't make too much of a difference.