Monday, 6 August 2012

Birthday week!!!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. We had a super dooper, busy day today and weekend was fab with lots of fun. Our beach house is nearly complete, so I can't wait to start using it very very soon.

No workout today (I really need to get my act into gear)

Okay before I hit the hay, here is what we ate today.....

Breakfast
Creamy yogurt quinoa with fruit


I have a girlfriend, like me, that can still taste that "keen-wah" seedy bad flavour. I have become an expert since experiencing that odd taste and really, really rinse out my quinoa! I even add extra flavours while I boil it so the seeds can absorb my savoury or sweet flavours.

Quinoa is a seed that has a high protein content and contains all of the 9 essential amino acids. This is very popular with those GF folks as it is a good substitute to wheat. It's so practical as you can have it as a breakfast cereal, in your salad for lunch or soup for dinner.

I made mine for breaky and it tasted soooo yummy, my little baby Zali had 2 servings she was that impressed.

1. Rinse quinoa thoroughly 2. place in fruit juice/water & add vanilla 3. boil for 15 minutes

I generally let the quinoa absorb all the water, toss onto a tray or plate to air out then fluff it up with a fork. A trick a local chef told me.

This morning I simply added the juices from a can of "fruit salad" a bit more water, vanilla essence and then once cooked, mixed in the yogurt and fruit. It was so creamy and tasty.

Morning snack
Fruit and nut balls AKA protein balls


Mietta and I were busy blending this morning to give us a very nutritional and supportive snack. I also made bars for the boys and omit the nuts for school & kinda.


Ingredients
1/2 cup almonds
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup seeds
4 dates
4 apricots


Method
Blitz all ingredients into a blender.




Can you see how lazy I was today and didn't get my big blender out and used my little one? Rather it was more of an activity process with Mietta so she enjoyed being my chefs assistant.
You can simply mix all the ingredients together in your blender and if need be add some water to bind the balls or bars.

BTW have you noticed I am getting better with my measurements and recipes? I actually placed it all in measuring cups for you to see :-) normally I just add it all in my blender with whatever ingredients I have remaining in the fridge and pantry. Thanks for being patient with me......




Lunch
Tuna salad sandwiches

Tuna with seeded mustard, grated carrot, spinach and tomato



Afternoon snack
Fruit salad, almonds with yogurt




Dinner
Mushroom risotto


Looking forward to this week as I will be making both Noah's and Zali's cakes. Unfortunately not sugar free but jam packed with all the indulgent stuff I think the kids will be very surprised with :-)
Noah turns 7 on Wednesday and baby Zali is 1 on Saturday. Whoooosh!!!! Where has that gone?

Anyways, I love parties and I can't wait!!! Looking forward to your comments.......and

See you very very soon xxDani