Banana Pudding from frozen bananas

I've been eating stacks of bananas lately. They've just been a high carb breakfast dessert and they go well with the chocolate recipe that hardens when it hits something cold. My excuse is that my stress levels are very, very high and I need carbs to bring them back down, the coconut oil for my saturated fats, and the cacao (I haven't been too naughty with my chocolate and having cocoa) for the magnesium. Magnesium for sleep, carbs for sleep, and yet I woke up twice this morning, both times when it was still far to early to function.

You know what else is fantastic for sleep? Gelatin. Instead of the thick slabs of steak or any other muscle meat high in inflammatory tryptophan, gelatin has anti-inflammatory glycine, which, in short, helps you get to sleep faster.

So I added some lovely gelatin into my life and into my breakfast dessert (a girl's gotta eat :) ). Now the question is: why the hell am I eating foods that promote sleep when I've just woken up??

The reason I've used frozen bananas is due to what I have on hand. Remember that humongous box/branch of 121 bananas I got at the beginning of the year? Well, we're nearly through them all. Nearly. And so that is where the bananas are from. Fun fact: did you know that bananas are meant to have seeds in them? I've seen pictures of it; it looks like an absolute pain to eat around.

Also. I may have made a mistake in my recipe when I made it. You see, I was following Fast Paleo's banana pudding (I don't think hyperlinks work on my phone, so here's their recipe http://fastpaleo.com/recipe/roasted-banana-gelatin-pudding/ ) they had coconut milk. It's just that I've had previous experiences of poor gelatin measurement, and so when I think I've made a trayful of jellies, what I've really made is an accident waiting to happen. I'd reach up and confidently slide the mini patty pan tray out of the top shelf of the fridge, thinking that all the goop would be gelatinified enough to stay intact, and a flood of goop would cascade down, liberally coating my top and the floor, as well as some of the fridge insides. This has happened on more than one occasion, mind you. I didn't want to make the mistake again (weak gelatin foods are REALLY sticky and gross). But my recipe turned out to have far too much gelatin, so I've scaled down in the recipe.

PS. That has honey on top, it didn't leak.

Banana Pudding from frozen bananas

3 bananas, peeled, halved and frozen

1 1/2 tbsp gelatin powder

2 tbsps hot water, optional

cinnamon, to taste

Take the nanas out of the freezer and chop them into chunks. It's easier than it sounds. If you want them roasted, sprinkle the cinnamon on now and pop them in an oven for 20 mins or until you can smell them. Mmm... If not, leave them out on the bench for about half an hour, or until they're pretty much thawed out.

If you haven't cooked the bananas, dissolve the gelatin in some hot water, and add as much water as needed until the gelatin is all dissolved.

Pop your soggy bananas, cooked or not, in a blender. As cinnamon if you didn't before, or if you want more. If your bananas are cooked, add the gelatin now. Purée on low until all the mixture had conglomerated and has come together to make one big happy breakfast dessert family.

Pour into moulds, or mugs, or thimbles if that's your thing. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set.

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...

Carrot Cupcakes

I made up a batch of carrot cakes to get me through prelims. There was a heap left so I made a bigger cake out of it. And writing this now, I've realised that I completely forgot to add the dates... Oh well.

Five years ago, I asked mum once for a carrot cake for lunch (back when I had no idea what 'health' was) and for probably the rest of the year, I'd always get a not-too-fluffy, not-too-dense carrot cupcake with maybe not enough nuts and a load of sugary cream cheese icing. I only wanted a batch of them.

So after so many lunches of getting utterly bored of orange cake and becoming sickened by the cloyingly sweet and creamy icing (I can still remember it...) I gave up on the humble carrot cake. I haven't had one in five years after all the trauma I had from the monotonous lunches.

But I wanted to make a cake today and we had a bag of carrots in the fridge, ready to start being more bad than good, so carrot cakes it was. And mum got mini cupcake tins, so my cupcakes HAD to be little. I didn't care if it ended up being little crumbles of carrot shreds and macadamias.

http://paleomg.com/carrot-cake-donuts/ 

On another note, I didn't create this recipe, so I'll pop LIBK's recipe here and say that I substituted the nut butter with regular cow butter (because you can never have too much butter) and put in some roughly chopped macadamias, fresh ginger and finely dessicated coconut (which didn't add to the flavour at all). And I lined the big baking tin with coconut oil, with the smear of my fingers. Oh, and I left out the dates, which I suggest you don't do. Not that they're awful, they're just not ultra sweet.

“A human being becomes truly human when he plays.”
Friedrich Schiller

Big Batches Save Time

Don't even ask why I haven't blogged.

School is such a nuisance, isn't it?

For my 'week' at dad's, I decided to make a big batch of stuff I can warm up in the oven during prelims time (less than two months! Eek!) so I made two pots of broth (fattiest and most gelatinous I've made yet), a few jars of applesauce and for lunch I had some lambs kidneys. If you don't count marrow and bones in any form as offal, this would have to be my favourite! Kinda because it's less bad than the others, so to speak. In my opinion, it looks like a squished sausage and tastes like farm. Just that essence of 'farm'. They mustn't have been too caged up then! My applesauce turned out a depressing faint orangy-pinkish-grey colour (it tasted fine) so I added a little boiled beetroot and that livened it right up. And my broth was mostly beef bones with two little lamby bones. And if I hold it upside down, it doesn't move! Loving my big batches of good food :)

I have recipes I played with ages ago that I haven't put up yet, so I will get to doing that some day or another.

Also, as I think of it, being winter here in Australia, I'm going to be making so many slow cooked meals for the times when I have no time (ie prelims). Be prepared for some awesome slow-but-fast recipes coming soon :)

One more thing. Yesterday we were shopping and I just randomly thought out of the blue to convince dad to get me the anchovy-smelling cod liver oil capsules. So in a few days I'll be trying them out - swallowed, mixed into stuff, on my eczema - and I'll let you guys know about it.

Lightning Speed Chocolate Fixes

You know what tastes good with a few tablespoons of the ol' cocoa powder and a drizzle of honey (or maple syrup or some coconut sugar)?

- Coconut oil. Make a thick liquid and pop it in the fridge for ten minutes and you get hard fudgey chocolate square stuff. Or dip frozen fruit into it and you've got yourself a magic shell!
- Avocado. Purée and stir it all up and people call it a mousse but I'd say you could probably use it as a cake icing or something like that. But don't be fooled. I will allow you to eat a large serving of it straight from a bowl.
- Tahini. I try to stop thinking of tahini as 'hummus' and start thinking of it as 'sesame seed butter'. I made a tahini-based sauce the other day and mum said it tasted like a satay, so that opened my eyes a bit more about tahini. So this morning I mixed one part tahini, one part cocoa and probably one and a half parts carob syrup (which is naturally high in sugar). And it was just like a thickish chocolate paste! It was awesome. It would make a really nice icing or chocolate spread for something. Oh and I added cinnamon to it.

I'd also love to try coconut butter and cocoa powder and honey. I'll let you guys know the turnout once I try it!

You know what else is good with chocolate? Cinnamon and cayenne. I added it to my avocado mousse and oh ma gawd it's amazing. I love chilli, and adding it to chocolate kinda brings out the flavour but gives it it's own spice too. And the cinnamon grounds the cayenne and makes it more homely. Cinnamon makes everything homely. I mean, what's less homely than smelling cinnamon stewing away in an apple pie scented home?

Brussels Sprouts Craving

My food choices have been pretty weird lately. I haven’t been inspired by anything, and I’ve been getting interesting change-of-season produce for an attempt at a pick-me-up. All last week I had exciting foods, and now I’m starting to stress because I can’t come up with anything.

Tonight’s dinner was using up what we had – thawed chicken breast – and Brussels sprouts to add some green veggies into my diet that wasn’t cucumber or broccoli. I wanted a stir fry thing (which is what I basically always have when my last resort is chicken breast) so I boiled my Brussels sprouts in slightly salty water (because salt levels go down when you’re stressed, and with two exams up my sleeve I’m not the calmest person around!), coated my chopped chicken breast in Fijian curry powder and fried it up in some bacon fat.

I’d read somewhere that Brussels sprouts and butter was a good mix, so I decided to give it a go. Once my chicken was out of the pan, I chopped the sprouts up a bit (1/6ths) and added them to about 2 tbsp butter. Then I added another tbsp as I swirled them around the medium-high heat pan, let them caramelise/sauté in the buttery juices and put them on my plate once they looked alright. And put about another tbsp of butter on top of that.

Well what can I say. My taste buds are excited after a drought of slightly boring and tongue-burning food! These sprouts were amazing and they were the main part of my plate. They satiated me so well (the glorious buttery fat is to thank for that) that I didn’t want to go all caveman on my brother’s leftover chicken wings like I have been doing for the last three days. And that’s saying something.

Super Lazy Almond Spread

I'm not going to lie. This stuff is not amazing. It's nothing like almond butter. It goes to show that if you're bothered to put the effort into something, it will turn out great. The opposite is true in this: I didn't try and so the result was not so fabulous. But I knew it wouldn't be spectacular, and I didn't try to make it spectacular, so that's ok. This stuff comes down to versatility, patience and time

I soaked a big batch of almonds nearly a week ago and they've dried a bit on the outside but they're nowhere near dehydrated. I wanted to make almond butter with almonds in this weird middle state so I popped a few in the blender and carelessly knocked the power to high.

And after a few scrapes and moving-of-chopped-almondy-bits and spooning around in there, I had spready, kinda oily stuff. It was chunky - super chunky at that, I found some whole almonds in there - and moist from the water but it was a quick almond butter style spread. And because the almonds are soaked, you won't feel like you've swallowed a brick when you eat a massive spoonful.

90% of the time, my nut butters just get blended into my smoothies so it doesn't really matter what it looks like or how moist it feels. What DOES matter to me, though, is the time it takes to make, and the cleaning up, which this nutty spread doesn't require a lot of.

So if you're really looking for an easy way to making nourishing nut stuff, have a try of this. You probably don't have to wait a week for the nuts to be in the fridge, but make sure they're not dripping wet or anything. They should only be moist on the inside.

But I'm just going to say, it's not the same as true almond butter.

Creative Thinking - personalish

Today was the first day in my six day course in the city yay! It's a course about modelling and acting which, I know, seems suuuper unrelated to yoga and health and wellness stuff like that but it's just so much fun. I could also be Tara Stiles-y and model and act out my yoga and cooking skillz via commercials and stuff like that. Which would be pretty cool, I reckon. Because modelling is so much fun!

Healthy Oniony Rissoles (and they're easy!)

I haven't got too long and I haven't got any photos (yet) so this post will be a quick one.

Yesterday I made a big batch of rissoles to keep in the freezer because I get so annoyed when mum comes home with ugly, preservative-, additive-filled balls of 'meat' which she thinks are great. Nuh uh. She said that it all comes down to convenience so I decided to come up with a basic recipe for rissoles I can make to put in the freezer. I'd prefer to spend 15 minutes making these over spending a much longer time worrying about what is in those globs of intestinal destruction.

I didn't take any photos of the rissoles because, to be honest, squished raw meat is not pretty. Especially with my uber cool camera of an iphone. And also, when I finished shaping them they went straight in the freezer so it's not like I cooked them straight away.

But I did have a try of them today. And they need a little bit of a touch up, shall we say? I've added changes that I would personally add but feel free to make them however you want!

Healthy Oniony Rissoles

Makes 28 medium sized rissoles

1kg chicken mince

1/3 cup flaxseed meal

1 egg

2 stalks celery

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

5 medium sized mushrooms

1 large Spanish onion

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Chop up the celery and mushrooms up into tiny little bits. I put it all in a blender, which I think would be a lot easier than doing it by hand.

Slice the onion into little chunks, not as small as the celery and mushrooms but small enough to fit into a little rissole.

Put the oil in a medium pan and once the pan is hot, fry the onions and garlic.

When the onions are half cooked, add the mushroom mixture and stir it around until the mushies are all cooked through. Let cool (or not, if you're impatient.)

In a largeish bowl, mash together the chicken, flaxseed meal, egg and salt and pepper with your hands until combined.

Add the onion mix to the chicken and mush it all together with your hands.

Shape the meat into balls as big as the dent in your palm and place on a prelined baking tray.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes or until it's cooked inside.

Shannon's Date in a Blankie

On Wednesday, we're going on camp for three days, two nights for school (I'm perfectly fine with the whole 'camping' thing, I'm just panicking a little over the food choices there) so tomorrow I'll be running around like crazy making sure everything is ready so I decided to post tonight to make up for it. I really hope I survive it, and get enough sleep! They said that lights out is 11pm so I think I'm going to be a little dead by the time I come back. Anyway, onto the recipe.

Last year, our Canadian friend, Shannon, stayed with us for a few weeks before going back home to Calgary (I sooo want to go there!) and before she left, she shared a recipe (well, it's more like an unrecipe) that she and her friends love back home. And when she made a batch of these for us, it's no wonder you can't eat just one!