Yesterday I ran out of snacks. Homemade ones, that is. I still had plenty of the original snack food - fruit, but really wasn't motivated by it all that much. I wanted something that seemed decadent and slightly guilt inducing to eat, whilst still being gluten and sugar free. I found the perfect solution in  Lola Berry's Raw Vegan Prune Powerballs. I found the recipe over at Healthy Blender Recipes, which has lots of yum things to try.

 

Mine didn't turn out to be raw, as my cocoa wasn't, and I'm not sure about my coconut either, but boy were they tasty and totally fulfilled my decadence needs. Have a look and decide for yourself.

 



After making these I got enthusiastic and decided to make granola bars to take out with me today. I need to learn that when I make these I need to work out a way to hide them from myself so I don't eat it all! The recipe for these is so versatile, you really can make it however you like as longas you keep the quantities the same.

This is what the dry ingredients look like before they go into the food processor.

 

 

And here is the finished slab of granola bar before it is fully cut up.

 

You can see the score lines in it, ready to be cut all the way through when it cools. You can find the original recipe at The Happy Tummy
It looks like I'm going to need to make some more snacks tomorrow, because all of the granola bars are gone and there aren't too many powerballs left either ( and no I haven't eaten the whole lot on my own  - at least not quite).

Now all I need to do is find a homemade muesli bar recipe that both my boys will eat. In this case it doesn't have to be gluten free because both of them a refine with gluten, I just want to make them something healthier than in the shops and they don't like these bars. Which is a shame, I know, it means I have to eat more of them :-)



Thursdays Thoughts (on Friday)

Hmmm... talking about Thursday on Friday, odd but not an unusual occurence for me. I often don't get to even read the Sunday paper until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm happy that my food for the day turned out so well, because the rest of the day was a bit of a mess. I had plenty of time in the morning to get ready for work and the boys ready for school, but I still ended up feeling like I was running around like a loon to be ready in time. After work and the evening were big old pile of mess, with tantrums being thrown all over the place (and not just by the kids).

 I had such a delicious smoothie for breakfast yesterday and an even yummier morning tea that I needed to share some photos of them.

These are the raw materials -

• banana
• strawberries
• baby spinach leaves (torn)
• cinnamon
• cocoa nibs
• cocoa
• pot set natural yoghurt
• almond milk and last but not least....
• ice cubes

And here is the finished product -

This kept me full for about 4 hours, which for me is a big deal because it doesn't seem to matter what I have for breakfast, I'm always hungry a couple of hours or so later.

Morning tea wasn't soo filling, but oh so yummy. I've discovered the most amazing gluten free, grain free granola recipe that has to be one of the best things I've tasted for ages (you can find it here -Detoxinista Grain Free Granola). I have to restrain myself from eating the whole lot in one sitting. This is a yummy way of having a small amount but not feeling cheated by only having a little bit of food.

I put a couple of big blobs (very technical term, I know) of natural yoghurt in a bowl, add a drop of maple syrup and then top with a couple of tablespoons of the granola. Heaven in a bowl!!!

This was followed by some finely chopped fruit salad. I love the fruit chopped into such small pieces. I don't have the patience to do it, but luckily my Mum does, so I always get her to make extra for me.

I didn't get round to taking a lunch photo because by this stage I was running late for work, but it was a big tuna salad, with home grown mung bean and alfalfa sprouts.

Dinner, well lets just say dinner wasn't anywhere near as clean as lunch or breakfast but it was still tasty. Dessert was choco-cado pudding, which was divine!!!!! As well as being sugar, dairy and gluten free! It didn't last long enough to take photos of though  :-).

As for today, my food as been pretty good, bt the weather here today is affecting my mood. It's one of those days that are warm, but cloudy, then sunny and cold and now it's humid and threatening to rain, but it's still warm. The air is heavy and oppressive, like it's waiting for something. If it is, I just wish it woule get it over with! Saying that, the weather has been lovely and Springy lately and there's more of the same on the way.

Off to my eldest son's first basketball game now, he's so excited that he ended up getting his clothes out ready for it on Wednesday!

Today's Experiment - Breakfast Bars

Well this afternoon I decided to make breakfast bars. In the original recipe they looked a bit like a muesli bar, not really something I'd eat for breakfast, but I've been trying to find healthier snacks, so I thought I'd give them a try.

I read through the recipe and came to the realisation that the only two ingredients on the list that I actually had were honey and peanut butter (homemade yesterday!). I didn't let that stop me though and the results were pretty darn good if I do say so myself (unfortunately I left them in the oven too long so one side is a little bit overdone - okay burnt-ish).

So for those of you interested, here's the recipe:

Breakfast Bars a la Fumble Fingers

1 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup rice bran flakes
1/4 cup quinoa flakes
1/4 cup rice flakes
1/2 cup combination of dried apricots, goji berries and raisins
1/4 cup LSA (linseed, sesame seed and almond) ground
1/4 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds
2 Tbsp coarsely chopped peanuts
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 170 C. Line a square cake tin with baking paper. In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients.

In a small saucepan, combine honey, peanut butter, oil and vanilla and heat over medium heat until melted together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Tip mixture into cake tin and push down so mix covers the entire bottom of the tin and is smooth on the top. Bake until golden brown and slightly coming away from the sides of the tin (approximately 20-25 mins).

Allow to cool completely in the tin and then remove from the tin, using the baking paper to help with lifting out. Cut into pieces using a serrated knife.

Bars will store in an air tight container for up to a week

The original recipe was found here - http://www.wholeliving.com/132043/breakfast-bars?czone=eat-well/healthy-breakfasts/muffins-granola&center=155850&gallery=155722&slide=132969

Welcome to my First Post

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and share my experiments in the kitchen. I recently have started to re-evaluate my health and as part of that, my eating habits and so I have embarked on a new journey to discover healthy, tasty foods.

My blog title comes from a little mishap I had yesterday. As part of my new adventure, I decided it was time to have a food processor. Being an intelligent person, I thought it would be a good idea to wash all the parts before I used it for the first time. That was fine. What wasn't so fine was when I picked up one of the cutting blades after I had washed it and proceded to slice my thumb open with it!

A quick trip to emergency for some glue and some tape and all should be healed up in no time!

Today, however, I have managed to use the food processor four times (and wash it four times), with no blood shed. I even managed to use the blender twice without damage to myself.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and post some pictures of today's culinary delights, which included Apricot Almond Bars, Savoury Crackers and Grain-free Trail Mix Biscuits - yum!