WIAW - and Mofo Wrap-up

How has your Wednesday been?

 Here's what I ate today:

I finally decided to do a summary of my Mofo posts - I know its a few days late, but don't they say better late than never?!?
After all, my planning was pushed back a day ;-)
I hope you have enjoyed baking as much as I have this past month!

 Snacks:
Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling 
Carrot cookies 
Strawberries and cream cake 
Scrolls 
Cranberry macadamia cookies 
Peanut butter scones 
Chocolate prune cookies 
Banana sultana loaf

Mains & Sides:
Red lentil tortilla bake 
Mexican chickpea filo pie 
Roasted vegetable roll 
Pasta bake with cauli cheese sauce Roasted stuffed capsicums 
Pizza couscous timbales



Fingerfoods:
Baked tofu strips 
Lentil meatballs 
Cheeseless pizza bites 
Blistered potato chips 
Baked eggplant parmigiana 
Chickpea nuggets


Desserts:
Healthy pastry crust 
Quick baked apples 
Apple crumble pie 
 Baked pumpkin pudding
Apple fig walnut strudel
 
Other posts:
Snack box 
In my kitchen 
Precooked grains 
Events we don't plan









Did you try any of these recipes?
Which ones did you enjoy the most?


My favourites were the cheeseless pizza bites, lentil meatballs and the strawberries and cream cake. They will now be regulars in our home!

Dragon Fruit

Last week I tried Dragon Fruit for the first time!

Although commonly called dragon fruit, its proper name is pitaya. Its the fruit of a type of cactus called Hylocereus. They contain vitamin C, calcium & fibre.

I was quite surprised when I cut into the dragon fruit to find that the flesh was red!
I had never seen red flesh in pictures before - only white. To be quite honest, I did wonder if it wasn't ripe yet or something?!?!? Then upon further investigation I discovered that its just another variety of dragon fruit. There is also yellow skinned dragon fruit available!

I spooned out the soft flesh (the skin is not edible) and was expecting a massive flavour hit to accompany the amazing vibrant colour...... and yet found it to be very plain to taste. It was quite a delicate taste and only mildly sweet. The texture is quite smooth and the seeds were not disturbing at all, quite small and a bit crunchy like the black seeds found in kiwis.

I didn't really enjoy eating it plain so I decided to turn it into a smoothie.
It made an amazing colour that any little girl would surely love to have at a princess party ;-)
I added a frozen banana, frozen strawberry pieces & soymilk.
Delicious.

Question of the day:

Have you tried any exotic fruit lately?
Have you tried dragon fruit? What did you think?

WIAW - Chocolate and leftovers

Welcome to What-I-Ate-Wednesday!

Today's Wednesday was leftovers for me! 
I had not been quite so organised as last week and had prepared nothing in advance! That is when I realise how much I love my freezer!

I enjoyed a chocolate smoothie for breakfast:

 
You truly feel like you can face anything the day throws at you when it's started like this!!!


Morning tea was my caffeinated beverage and 4 dried apricots!

For lunch I had leftover tofu stir-fry:

For afternoon snack I had a banana.
For my trip home I had a Macro Raw Food Bar - they are soooooooooo delicious.

For dinner I had more leftover - red lentil stew with brown rice & steamed zucchini:

Join in WIAW at the Peas and Crayons blog.

Barley Choc-Smoothie

A hearty smoothie that makes a great start to the morning!

You'll need:
1/4 cup barley - soaked overnight in the fridge in water
1 cup frozen spinach leaves
1 frozen banana
2 medjool dates
1 Tablespoon cacao powder
1 cup rice milk


Blend til smooth.




        ~Delicious, thick and satisfying~

The grainy texture of this smoothie is what makes it so filling.
Make sure you don't skip on soaking the barley overnight. It will help make it soft!

WIAW - Unprocessed Week 5

I didn't go for my long drive into the office today like I usually do on a Wednesday.
I went shopping :D
Doesn't every girl dream of a day off work to go shopping?!?

And shopping I did ;-p

You see that! That means our Christmas shopping is nearly all done... ~relief~ to say the least!

But I'm not here to blog about the shopping (although very pleased with the purchases), I'm here to let you know What-I-Ate-Wednesday!

Breakfast was a green smoothie that I drank half of before I raced out the door and poured the rest into a Tupperware cup! I had a long list of errands that I needed to complete before the joy of shopping could start, so I wanted to get out of the house nice and early!

I was very pleased with how quickly I ticked off my to-do-list of the bank, the library, the health food store and the post office before getting to the Christmas shopping and then ending at the grocery store. What a busy day!

I stopped mid-shop to have some lunch.
Convenience food doesn't have to be unhealthy :-)
I love this seaweed salad. It always feels like such a treat when I get some!

When I came home from shopping, I did a massive kitchen clean up which included ALL the washing up! Washing up is my least favourite house-hold chore :-/
But riddle me this ?!?!? Why is it that just half an hour after washing up and completely tidying and cleaning the kitchen that it looks like you've not done anything in an attempt to tidy or clean it?!?    ~sigh~

Come dinner time, I made use of the abundance of energy that I always seem to have on my day off (what's with office jobs and sitting down all day = no energy and feeling miserable?!?!?) and made a bean loaf for me & a meatloaf for my husband. I like to have a meal that is similar when we can! Served with mashed potato & veg. Very satisfying!

This type of meal we jokingly refer to as "The Same but Different".
Stay tuned to my blog for more details on that topic coming soon!

After our delicious meal together I got wrapping on the Christmas gifts! Though I feel like I got a nice collection of 'gifts' today too ;-)
Here's the goodies that I got from the health food store:

Dried beans to cook, organic no salt canned beans, cocoa powder, chickpea flour, spelt pasta, slim pasta, no sulphur sun-dried raisins and some natural prune & date spread. 
Date spread has got to be my favourite spread ;-) But I guess that makes sense since dates are my favourite food!!!

I LOVE the health food store. It always feel like such a treat when I go there. I love the range of items they have. The store I go to is MASSIVE! Its like a grocery store. I could spend hours in there if I had the time (and the money!).

Question of the day?
Do you enjoy going to the health food store?
What items do you like to get from there that aren't available at the regular grocery store?

Want to join in the list of bloggers who enjoy what-i-ate-wednesday?
Put your link on the peasandcrayons website.

And..... HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY EVERYONE! :D

Unprocessed - End of Week 2

Wednesday - 

Breakfast was soaked oats with a grated apple and raisins

 

Lunch was leftover cauliflower fried-rice with a sweet potato pattie & rockmelon

For dinner I enjoyed yet another Wednesday outing :-) ~Lucky me~
This evening I went to a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed a vegetarian bento box

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was my most enjoyable meal out in a long time! Everything was so deliciously tasty & it's nice to get a big meal.... and yet sooo affordable! Can you believe this whole platter was less than $20! :D

Thursday -

Breakfast was soaked oats with ground flax seeds, mashed pumpkin and raisins. 

I forgot to take a picture of lunch :-( I was out enjoying the beautiful sunshine with my packed salad with yet another leftover sweet potato pattie :-)


 
For dinner I sorted through out vegetable drawer in the fridge and pulled out everything that was green and threw together a simple stir-fry, served over brown rice.

Yes, I did have dessert ;-)
Will you be at all surprised if I mention it was banana soft-serve???

Sorry - awful picture.... Taken on my phone!

Friday - 

I woke up early this morning!!! I'm sure normal people do the washing or exercise when they wake up early..... but not me... I made cookies!!!!

I mashed 2 over-ripe bananas, added a cup of oats, a cup of chopped dried apple and a tablespoon of almond butter. Added enough oat bran to hold them together and baked at 180C for 17 minutes......

 

So I guess I should of really baked them for 12 instead :-/ 
Despite being ~slightly~ overcooked they were AmAzInGlY delicious :D
Very pleased with my morning creation.... and as such I spent most of the morning nibbling on quite a few of them :-/
I did have guests so I can honestly say that I didn't eat them all myself!!!!!

I did have breakfast before I had the grand test-taste tho ;-)
Breakfast was brown rice with raisins and cinnamon and an orange.
I have definitely been enjoying raisins this week! They are just so tasty and sweet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all my morning snacking I didn't really feel like lunch! Surprise, surprise....
So at about 2 o'clock I made myself a 'chocolate' green smoothie. Sooooooooooo tasty.....
 

 

For dinner I decided to make some tofu.
I sliced the tofu and fried it in a mixture of soysauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar and a touch of molasses.








I then added a tablespoon of natural peanut butter to the mixture. Using the moisture that was already there to make it 'saucy'.

It was sooooooooo delicious!
I was so pleased that something I could prepare so quickly and easily was so delicious. I will definitely make this again.


Served over mashed potato with steamed veggies.