Neapolitan Ice-cream

Who remembers those big tubs of ice-cream that had a mixture of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours in them? I assume they are still available. We always had them in our house when I was growing up. My favourite flavour was chocolate, and my brothers was strawberry. Although, occasionally we would have a scoop of all 3 flavours and mix it together to make a big swirl of flavoured ice-cream in our bowl!

Here's a way to combine chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours into a healthy ice-cream swirl:

 NEAPOLITAN ICE-CREAM 

You'll need (per serving):

1 cup frozen strawberries, chopped into pieces prior to freezing

1 medjool date, pitted

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essense

1-2 Tablespoons motherless milk of choice 

Combine all ingredients in a mini food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
The amount of milk will vary depending on your blender, and how smooth you want it.

Deliciousness! 

This one was made with more milk and more cocoa.

Question of the day?
Did you have Neapolitan Ice-cream as a child? If so, what was your favourite flavour?

Strawberries and Cream Cake

We can't have a bake-off without cake!

Strawberries & Cream Cake

You'll need:

2 cups self raising wholemeal flour

2/3 cup raw sugar

1 cup soy milk (or other plant milk of choice)

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 punnet of strawberries

1 teaspoon strawberry essence

1 Tablespoon water

1 x 400g can coconut cream

strawberries to decorate

Remove the leaves from the strawberries and place them in a blender with the strawberry essence and water. Blend til smooth.

 

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour & sugar. Make a well in the center and pour the strawberry sauce mixture in. In a measuring jug combine the soy milk and the apple cider vinegar. Whisk until foaming. Pour into the cake mixture. 

Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Pour batter into a lined baking tin. (I used a 20c circle.)

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool on a rack before decorating.

To decorate:

Place in a can of coconut cream in a fridge *overnight*.

Open the can carefully, remove the top layer of thickened cream.

Place in a bowl with a teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of sugar.

Blend on high for roughly 5 minutes til very thick.

Store in fridge til needed.

Just before serving, spread the coconut cream over the top of the cake and slice a strawberries to put on top.

An alternate way of serving this cake is to cut the cake in half and put the cream & a layer of sliced strawberries in the middle.

Now surely that helps you make it through hump day???

What are you eating this Wednesday?

Christmas Drink #10 - Strawberries & Cream Smoothie

Drink #10 - Strawberries & Cream Smoothie

I decided to include a smoothie in my collection of Christmas drinks. Here's the reason why..... often the morning after a big Christmas meal we don't really feel like having too much, but then I find that skipping breakfast only sets us up for eating more later in the day! Here's a great way to start the day with a festive feel to it! Or, a great afternoon snack!
 

Combine in a blender:

250ml orange juice (that's the juice from 2 oranges, give or take - depending on how juicey the oranges are!)
1 cup frozen strawberry pieces
1 frozen banana
1/4 cup coconut cream

Blend until all the pieces are broken down & well combined.

 

Day 4 Unprocessed

Yesterday was far too filled with adventure to worry about what I ate! So back on track today.....

For breakfast I enjoyed soaked oats with strawberries and a spoonful of my nut-seed milo that I have made a nice big batch of to get me through these unprocessed weeks!

I was at a seminar today in the city. Even though it was completely lousy weather, I still enjoy a day in the city!!

Darling Harbour

Harbour Bridge from Pyrmont Bay

Centrepoint Tower

For morning tea I had a mandarin and one of my banana rock cakes that I made on Tuesday.

I think chef's ~secretly~ love when us vego's come along and they get a chance to cook something different cause I always get the most amazing meals!
Today's was a dish of spinach, onion, potato & sweet potato in a tomato mash/sauce thingo with cannellini beans! I was soooo delighted to get beans with my meal cause I love beans, and usually I just get a mixture of vegetables at places like this! 
It was sooooooooooo delicious, I wished it was double the size hahahaha

For dinner I had some leftovers from our freezer.
This was the Sweet Potato Lentil Chili recipe that was part of the 21 day kickstart. I love this recipe so much! It makes a nice big batch - great for freezing = convenience! :D

I then raced off to netball with no dessert :-( Very unlike me!!!!
But WE WON! So I didn't feel too bad afterall ;-)

Day 1 Unprocessed

It's always exciting to start out on the first day of anything.... but that excitement usually comes with some nervousness as well.
Well my 10 weeks unprocessed challenge has started out just like that! A bit of mixed feelings....

Here's how day one went:

Breakfast was oats with ground flax seeds, frozen blueberries and a chopped banana. 

A batch of home-made soymilk followed..... now I have okara to play-bake with :D

For lunch I raided some veggies from the fridge and got chopping!

 

I made a dressing to go with it:

It was simply tahini, freshly squeezed lemon juice and apple cider vinegar mixed together in my mini-chopper. 

I love little kitchen gadgets <3

Dinner was a cauliflower 'steak' with green & bean mix.

I made the cauliflower steak but simply cutting pieces of a whole cauli lengthways, soak in lemon juice for 10 mins then sprinkle with herbs and spices. Bake for 30 mins in a warm oven.
My green bean mix was onions, mushrooms, silverbeet and cannellini beans sauteed in white wine vinegar! Very tasty!


And of course............ you know I don't cope well without dessert don't you?!?!? ;-)
Thankfully going unprocessed doesn't mean being deprived!

I made some of my strawberry mousse. Always a winner :D



So I survived day one unprocessed!
In fact, it really wasn't too much different from a 'regular' day of mine! 
I look forward to experimenting more in the coming weeks......

Strawberry Mousse

BEST DESSERT EVER!!!!!!!!!

I think this even beats my choc-cherry dessert which up until now has been my favourite!

In a mini food processor combine

1 cup frozen chopped strawberry pieces

150g soft silken tofu

2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend until smooth

Devour!

This makes enough to serve 2 - if you can bear to share it ;-)

Strawberry "Ice-cream"

Adding to my collection of frozen desserts.

Its always fun to add more flavours to the collection!

Here's a strawberry version.

You'll need:

2 frozen bananas

1/2 cup chopped frozen strawberries

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup soymilk

Blend together in a high powered blender or mini food processor.

Serve :-)

Yum!

A week worth of oats

I love having oats for breakfast.
But sometimes having the same thing can become a bit boring. I usually just microwave my oats with some non-dairy milk for a few minutes & then add frozen berries.
So I was on a quest to find a few ways to have my oats that were a bit different from the regular way.

Here's what I came up with!

A week worth of oats

Monday's Oats - Fig & Passionfruit
Cut up 3 dried figs into little pieces, put in a pot with half a cup of oats & a cup of soymilk.
Bring to a boil & simmer for 3-5 minutes until oats are soft. Serve with passionfruit pulp over the top.

                                                        Stirred all together for complete yumminess!


 
Tuesday's Oats - Strawberry Choc-Nut
Put half a cup of oats in a bowl & pour over enough boiling water to just cover the oats. Put them under a cover for approx 5-10 minutes. The oats will absorb the water & soften.
Pour a heaped tablespoon of my nut-seed milo over the top and stir to combine with the oats. Add chopped strawberries for a lovely bowl of tasty oats :-)

Wednesday's Oats - Spiced Mandarin
Soak overnight a bowl with 1/2 cup oats, a cup of pomegranate juice, and a 1/4 teaspoon of each cinnamon, nutmeg & allspice. The oats will absorb the juice overnight. In the morning add a chopped mandarin, a Tablespoon pepitas & a teaspoon sesame seeds.

This is what you'll find in the morning after having soaked overnight

 
Thursday's Oats - Prune & Hazelnut
Stewed prunes remind me so much of my grandmother. She used to have them on her weetbix every morning. This is my own version of how to have stewed prunes for breakfast!
Put half a cup of oats in a bowl & a heaped tablespoon of prune spread. Add just enough boiling water til the oats are covered. Top with a lid of some form & leave overnight for the oats to absorb the water. In the morning grind up a tablespoon of hazelnuts in a coffee grinder & sprinkle over the oats with a half cup of almond milk. So tasty....

The oats will absorb the water overnight

Grind the hazelnuts in the morning

Friday's Oats - Raspberry Oat Cake

This was so good that I thought it deserved a post of it's own! You can find it here.

Stay tuned for some great creations for weekend breakfast cooking with oats.

Hot Days call for Cool measures

This is the perfect afternoon snack for children on hot days!
Who needs zooper doopers when you can make this in 5 mins flat!

I like to keep a decent stash of frozen fruit in my freezer - it always comes in handy.

You'll need:

1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen chopped strawberries pieces.
2 oranges, juice freshly squeezed - (of course you must eat all the guts out of the oranges once you have juiced them!!!!!)

Put it all in a food processor, or hand held blender.
Blend til smooth!


This amount will  make you 2 large servings or 4 smaller size servings.

~Very delicious~

Strawberries & Cream

YUM!
This is wayyyyyyyyyyy better than any strawberries or cream I've ever had before.

And its' soooo easy to make!

Simply slice strawberries & sprinkle with cacao powder & top with a few dollops of cashew cream.
Cashew cream recipe can be found with this link.