A Day In My Life

hello friends!

i thought i would break away from the usual for my post today. so instead of sharing a recipe post with you i thought i would give you a little insight into how i spent my weekend.

of course majority of my day is spent thinking about food, eating food, planning what i want to eat and where. even when i'm at work (the source bulk foods in camberwell *melbourne) i am surrounded by ingredients and get to hear what other people love creating and dishes they wish to make. i love helping people find things they may not have tried or give them inspiration to branch out in their diets.

any way, i digress. here is a little insight into what i got up to on my weekend off, which was actually a friday and saturday.

Friday

as my partner works monday to friday i had the apartment to myself today, but decided to spend some time in the city/center of melbourne for a while.

my breakfast fuel for the day was bananas and a dandelion chai with almond mylk and coconut sugar.

i took the train into the city getting off at melbourne central shopping centre, not the biggest fan of public transport but i am getting the hang of it now and it isn't as scary as it used to be. 

made my way into lululemon at the emporium and picked up a new pair of leggings that are warmer than my current pair to wear to yoga. so far i have only tried a 10 day trial but i seriously think i have an addiction... and cannot wait to sign up! luckily my partner generously gave me a voucher at christmas for the studio at the end of our street.

i love walking the streets of melbourne, especially all those little side streets, filled with little boutiques and eateries. i made my way down to degraves street, to pick up a little vegan doughnut at doughnut time.

as it has been a few hectic weeks for both of us, my partner and i decided to have a good old fashion date night at home. so i took it upon myself to make sure we were fully stocked with delicious goodies. they had 2 vegan options the day i went and i decided to go with their vegan fox. its a simple doughnut coated in dark chocolate, pistachios and freeze dried strawberries. it was sooo good, but i am a bit of a doughnut fiend.

as you will see this 'weekend in my life' is far from the healthiest representation of diets but i don't eat this way all that often and therefore have no regrets! 

before leaving the city to head back home, i ducked into raw trader for the last of tonight's treats. they have an absolutely amazing range of raw vegan goodies, and if you are a little nervous about making these kind of treats but want to try them, this place is perfect!

i picked up an apple crumble cake, black forest cake and a trifle slice. We shared these later that night and the apple crumble was our fave, followed but the black forest cake. i'm not a fan of trifle and that slice tasted spot on, so i tried but couldn't eat it because it was so close to the original!

since i knew i'd be having a few treats later that night, when i got home from the city at lunch time i decided to get in my daily dose of veg.

i had a bowl of left overs from thursday nights dinner. veggie lentil bolognese with tri-grain pasta from work, the source bulk foods in camberwell.

so friday night ended with kombucha, popcorn coated in tahini, cinnamon and vanilla powder, shared treats from my trip to the city, while rugged up watching some of the new season of penny dreadful!

Saturday

so saturday actually started off with a sleep in, which never happens for me. i'm usually wide awake early on my days off to get the most out of my day, even if it's just to sit around watching foodie videos on youtube!

then one of my best mates messaged me asking if i wanted to catch up over lunch, so of course i said yes! 

my partner had gotten a restaurant recommendation during the week at his work, for an american style burger joint in richmond called the collection bar, that offered a vegan burger. so we decided to try it out, as our mate loves all things american!

this was the burger, and wholly moly, it was delishiously messy! and even though i haven't had the chance to try many vegan burgers, it was actually realllyy yummy! 

i tend to keep away from soy products because i know my tummy really doesn't like it at all, but decided the discomfort was worth it.

it was called a bbq tempeh cheeseburger, made up of a hickory smocked tempeh patty, with dill steamed onions, vegan cheese, dill pickles, and vegan burger sauce. sorry for the really poor food photo!

as a little snack to tide me over until dinner, i tried out a new to me snack bar. it was actually really good as well! i had a surprisingly good food choices day today, as i find a lot of these types of energy bar/natural food bars are hit or miss for me. most of the time they are a miss actually, i prefer to make my own. but this had a deliciously fudgy texture and good flavour pay off.

dinner ended up being a baked sweet potato boat. which has become a bit of a staple dinner recently, along with spicy lentil stews.

this guy was baked in the oven for quite a while (forgot how long exactly sorry!) until you could poke it with a skewer and feel no resistance in the flesh. also a gooey caramel begins to ooze out of the potato when it's close to done.

once it was baked i opened it up down the middle and spooned over a lentil bolognese i made while the potato was cooking, then drizzled unhulled tahini and nutritional yeast on top.




thankyou for making it to the end of this little adventure, and i'll hopefully catch up with you all again soon.

have an awesome day!

Cinnamon Courtney xoxo

Coconut, Berry & Buckwheat Granola

          Hello everyone! The recipe I'm sharing today came about from a happy accident. While i was baking my last recipe, the Anzac Cookies, I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to line the baking tray of the first batch. As a result I ended up having to scrape what was left off of the tray, ending up with a really tasty granola.

           From there, I swapped out the oats to buckwheat groats, and added in dried berries, because berries and macadamias are a match made in heaven! I used a mix of dried sour cherries, organic cranberries and wild blueberries, which gave it a few different flavours, but if you cant get your hands on all of these just use what dried berry you like the best!

           You could use this granola a few different ways, as it has a delicious crunchy texture, you could add it on top of stewed fruit as a crumble topping, or on top of banana nice cream, or you could simply eat it as you would a normal cereal, with fresh fruit and a plant-based milk.

Coconut, Berry & Buckwheat Granola

Plant-based - Gluten Free - Dairy Free

Makes: 4-5 cups of granola

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Cooking- 15 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 cups raw buckwheat groats

- 1/2 cup macadamias, chopped

- 1/2 cup dried berries (I used a mix of sour cherries, organic cranberries and wild blueberries)

- 2/3 cup shredded coconut

- 1/4 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 tbsp maca powder

- 1 tbsp mesquite powder

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tbsp cinnamon 

- 1/4 cup coconut nectar

- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 160C.

- Place all of your ingredients into one large bowl and stir them around until it is all combined.

- Pour your mixture over a baking tray so that it forms a single layer. You may need more than one baking tray for this, as it will cook evenly when it has the room to spread out. 

- Mid-way through the cooking time, take it out of the oven and stir it around to make sure it doesn't burn around the edges of the tray, then pop it back in for the remainder of the cooking time.

- Once it has cooked, take it out of the oven and give it another mix before leaving it to cool completely on the tray. It will seem quite sticky and gooey when it first comes out if the oven but as it cools it will firm up.

- Store it in an air tight container, and you can serve it with fruit, banana nice cream, yoghurt, on top of stewed fruit, or simply with a dash of almond milk.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Pancakes

            When I was little we would often have pancake Sundays, and if I’m completely honest, I really didn’t like pancakes (I was a pretty fussy eater). Although I loved how my family would all come together and cook up a lot of pancakes for a lazy Sunday breakfast together. The left over pancakes would be eaten by my dad and brother throughout the week. So whenever I cook pancakes, it’s ingrained in me to cook up a large batch, so if you don’t want to end up with as many pancakes as this recipe makes, feel free to halve it!

            I recently got my hands on some banana flour and I have to say that it’s delicious! For this recipe if you can’t get your hands on any banana flour, you can just substitute it for buckwheat flour and it works just as well. I got my banana flour from my work at The Source Bulk Foods in Camberwell.

            Also I used coconut nectar as my liquid sweetener, but you could substitute this with your preference of liquid sweetener; like rice malt syrup, molasses, pure maple syrup, agave syrup or honey if you aren’t vegan.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Pancakes

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: around 20 medium pancakes

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Cooking- 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 ¼ cup banana flour, (could swap this for buckwheat flour)

- 2 cups almond milk (or your choice of plant-based milk)

- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted

- 2 tbsp coconut nectar (or your chosen liquid sweetener)

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or more if you’re a cinnamon addict like me!)

- Coconut oil for cooking

To Serve per person:

- 1 Banana, sliced

- Drizzle of coconut nectar

- Sprinkle of goji berries

- Sprinkle of shredded coconut

Method:

- Combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then form a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add in the wet ingredients. Combine them both together really well until there are no lumps in the batter.

- Heat up a pan to a medium heat and pop a small amount of coconut oil in the pan.

- Once the pan has heated and the coconut oil has melted, pour in around a ¼ of a cup of batter for each pancake, and leave it in there to cook until the little bubbles appear over the top of the pancake. Flip it over to cook for a further minute on the other side, or until it’s golden. Transfer them to a wire rack once they are done, to stop them from getting soggy while you cook up the rest of the batter.

- Cook up the rest of the batter the same way; you may need to add in a touch more coconut oil to the pan as you go.

- To serve, pop them on a plate with fresh sliced banana, a drizzle of coconut nectar, goji berries and shredded coconut. Or just eat them straight from the pan!

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations!

‘There is plenty for everyone, including me’ – Louise L. Hay

Millet Meal Porridge Two Ways

 

            So today I have a double whammy for you, because I’m such an indecisive person (you just need to ask my partner how hard it is for me to decide on anything). I have tried each of these versions of millet meal porridge and loved them both, so I couldn’t choose which of the recipes to share. So I ended up deciding, why not both?

            As much as I absolutely love oats, and could gladly eat them everyday, it is nice to try out different ways of doing things. The millet meal porridge base of this recipe was pleasantly surprising for me. I was half expecting it to taste a bit like a gooey, savory, cous cous kind of thing, but it has an amazing creamy and hearty texture that really just warms you up on those cooler mornings. Also millet is actually a seed, and is gluten free, making it a great alternative to porridge oats.

Although both of these porridge toppings are more on the decadent side of breakfasts, the base recipe of this millet meal porridge would be just as delicious simply topped with warm berries, dried fruit or just a tablespoon or two of coconut nectar.

  

Millet Meal Porridge Two Ways

Caramelized Banana and Hazelnut Porridge

Or

Candy Apple and Sultana Porridge

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Serves: 1

Time: Prep- 5 mins

Cooking- 15 mins

Ingredients:

Porridge base

- 1/3 cup millet meal

- 1 cup nut milk

- 1 tsp maca powder (optional)

- 1 tsp mesquite powder (optional)

- ½ tsp cinnamon

Caramelized Banana and Hazelnut Topping

- 1 banana, ½ sliced, ½ mashed (mashed half to be stirred through the porridge base once it has cooked)

- ½ tbsp coconut sugar

- 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (optional)

- 6 or 7 hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Or;

Candy Apple and Sultana Topping

            - ½ apple, thinly sliced

- ½ tbsp coconut sugar

- 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (optional)

- 2 tbsp sultanas

(As this version doesn’t have any sweetener in the porridge base, you may need to taste test the porridge base and add some sweetener in as desired)

Method:

- Place millet meal, nut milk and cinnamon in a saucepan and heat it up until you start to see steam, while stirring to stop lumps forming. Then reduce to a simmer and continue to cook it until the millet meal soaks up all of the nut milk (around 5 minutes). If you find that the mixture is too dry just add in some water until it reaches the consistency you like.

- Now each of the different toppings are cooked the same way which keeps things pretty simple, so which ever recipe topping you choose, here is the instructions for both;

- While the millet meal is cooking, place ½ tbsp of the coconut sugar into a pan.

- Pop either the banana slices or the apple slices on top of the coconut sugar and bring it to a med to hot heat. You will notice the sugar around the bananas or apples will liquefy as it starts to caramelize.

- Allow the first side to become golden before flipping to caramelize the other side. Watch them as if the sugar goes too far it will burn and taste really not nice.

- Once it has had a chance to caramelize on both sides, add in either the hazelnuts or the sultanas, and allow them to warm through in the pan.

- If you are making the banana version, and the remaining mashed half of your banana into the cooked millet meal.

- If you are doing the apple version, taste the millet meal to see if you need any sweetener added.

- Then simply transfer your millet meal porridge into a serving bowl and cover it with your chosen toppings.

- You can also add a tbsp of your desired sweetener here (or even 1 tbsp coconut sugar and 1 tbsp water, to continue with the same flavours), and enjoy!

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations!

‘I release all criticism’ – Louise L. Hay