Cinnamon-Poached Quinoa and Apple Porridge with Banana, Berries and Passionfruit

Lately, I've been all about elaborate and delicious, but still nutritious breakfasts, and while, the past two days, I've had some sort of divine egg dish, I wanted something sweeter this morning. So I have created this scrumptious dish with Quinoa and yummy fruits. Give it a go! It's delicious!


Cinnamon-Poached Quinoa and Apple Porridge with Banana, Berries and Passionfruit
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 cooking apple
1/4 cup white Quinoa, soaked overnight (preferably)
1 cup water
1/2 Cinnamon stick
1/4 cup berries (any)
1 banana
2 passionfruits


Cut apple into 8 wedges, leaving the skin on, then halve the wedges horizontally and core the apple. In a small saucepan (with a lid), add the water, quinoa, apple and cinammon and bring to the boil. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes (or until all of the water has been absorbed).


If your berries are frozen, add them to the quinoa for the last two minutes of cooking, or defrost them separately - better yet, use fresh berries. Slice the banana and add to serving bowl, with the passionfruit pulp. When quinoa is cooked (it looks strange and awesome when it's cooked), discard cinnamon stick and add quinoa and berries to serving bowl and combine. 


Serve it alone or with natural yoghurt. If you are a small eater, this might actually be two serves, I certainly struggled, but a boy could finish it off easily.


Why don't you try it, and let me know how you go. Sweet, but not sickly so.


Have a lovely day.
x

Another Quiet Weekend Over

I had a fairly quiet weekend; worked a bit, bought some magazines, a bit of study, cooked some delicious soup (Split Pea and Prosciutto), baked some Shortbread with Passionfruit Cream, visited the relo's in Mornington (and got there by myself without a map - so proud!), did some knitting, watched heaps of movies (including Stranger Than Fiction, which Matt hadn't seen, and is now obsessed with), picked up some new glasses - which I'll post about later because I forgot to get photos of - and looked after Matt. It was still a good weekend though. At first I was a bit sour but it ended up being really good.


I still haven't finished the scarf (and I have knitted more since these photos), but this just gives you an idea of what it's going to look like.

Cardigan: Cotton On, Dress (worn as top under skirt): Supre, Skirt and Belt: Sportsgirl, Tights: Metalicus, Wool and Needles: Lincraft.

I'm such a proud little knitter!

This is maybe half the length that I want it to be. I'm hoping I wont give up on it and I will actually have it finished this year - I have a habit of getting bored of my projects and stopping them before I'm finished.

Here's the wool that I bought, and I have bamboo needles (can somebody say, 'sustainable'). It's such lovely wool, it looks a bit old fashioned, I reckon.

Gosh, Matt is cute. Drinkin' his tea and being all snuggled in the jumper I bought for him. I swear, most of the time when we are at home, at least one of us has a mug of tea in hand. At least it's not soft drink!

Naw, there he is again.

Here's a few things I'm listening to at the moment;

CSS - Left Behind

Yeasayer - O.N.E

Supergrass - Moving - Lisa got me into this one big time. Love it!

Have a lovely week everyone, and forgive me if my posts are dwindling, I have exams coming up very soon and one more assignment to do. 

And, if anyone in Melbourne is interested, Savers is having a 50% off sale today only, and you should go if only because I can't!! Savers' Sale

PS. If I ever mention a recipe that you think you might like, let me know, I'm always happy to share.

x

A Borrowed Shirt and A Pie

Lately, I have been very inspired by one blog, calivintage, and find myself browsing through her long list of outfits most of the time that I am on the internet. I love that she looks different everyday, and tries different looks, but still looks the same, as in, she looks like herself in every different outfit.

The other day, desperate for warm clothes, (gosh, I am REALLY struggling) I decided to trawl through some of her posts until I found the one in the above link, and thought it was perfect!

I never usually wear Matt's shirts because they just look boxy and awful on my body type, but stick a cardigan on top and it looks great - so great that I think I might invest in my own flannelette one (for extra warmth). So, thanks Calivintage! Here's my interpretation:

So, complete outfit was Matt's shirt, Cotton On cardigan, Mum's suit jacket from the '80's, Jay Jay's high-waisted jeans, Reject Shop socks and Sportsgirl shoes.

I think I have about two layers on underneath the shirt as well as tights on underneath my jeans for extra warmth. I'd really love tips of Australian shops I can get warmer clothing from. I'm off to Metallicus today with my housemate, who works for them, and Tracy (boyfriend's sister) to try to get some warmer basics, but I really need warmer jumpers, cardigans and clothes in general! 

Thanks, Matt. Lol

In other news, I baked a wonderful beef and vegetable pie the other night, mostly from scratch - c'mon, who doesn't use the sheets of frozen puff pastry! We didn't have enough potatoes to make a shepherd's pie, so I put pastry on top instead. Delicious! Here's a photo (which refuses to centre itself properly - argh!);

See the pretty leaves on top?

And last night I cooked my step-dad, Fred's German Green Bean Soup, which uses a special German herb called 'Bohnenkraut' or 'Summer Bean Herb' (Wiki calls it Summer Savory at one point, and Summer Bean Herb at another, but I think Summer Bean Herb is a better translation). The soup is a lovely broth, and great to make when we're poor.

Day One of the no sugar (diet? detox? I'm not sure) thing but it is only 11am, so all I've had is two Vita Brits (they don't have sugar added) and some milk. So far, so good.

x

Hey there sugar!

Actually, Goodbye sugar!


A while ago, inspired by my friend Paula, who I worked with at the time, I decided to go two weeks without chocolate, and did so successfully, which I was pleasantly surprised about. After doing so, I wanted chocolate less often, and felt very refreshed! So recently, after a long time of frustration over my acne and some inspiration from another friend, Terri, who has undertaken a crazy detox that I don't think I could ever do myself, I have decided to take my last attempt one step further and go without refined sugar for two weeks.


This means I can still eat fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose) but nothing that has sugar (glucose), so no alcohol, no scones from work (Aargh!), no over processed flour products (white pasta, white bread - not that I really eat that anyway), and nothing with added sugar at all.


I'm hoping that by doing this I will improve my skin and that after I finish I will want to eat products with refined sugar in them less often, it might also have a bit of a detoxifying effect that could be useful because I'm very stressed out and highly strung at the moment!!!


Luckily for me, I live very close to the Queen Victoria Markets so I can get plenty of fresh fruit and lots of dried pulses to cut down the amount of processed food I eat. If you have any ideas for snacks during this period, I'd love to hear them - just don't say carrot sticks! PLEASE!


Also, I plan on cooking Polenta for the first time and I'm very excited! I'm going to try this recipe, but use chicken thighs instead of beef mince (Free Range Chicken, of course!). Delish!

Image from cuisine.com.au

Wish me luck!
x

Copycat: an obnoxious individual who, sickly, gets off on copying, imitating, emulating, simulating or miming the words, gestures and expressions of another individual. the copycat becomes easily amused and the other individual feels like sticking their foot in said copycats ass. typical of 6 year olds but not uncommon in 34 year old lawyers. urbandictionary.com

So, I'm starting to realise how bad my camera is. Looking at these photos, I'm really starting to get annoyed at how grainy they all look. But anyway, here are some photos from the other day of Matt and I mucking around while I cooked our dinner. It was a delicious Chunky Beef and Red Lentil Curry that I made with inspiration from another recipe. And it was even better (as most things are) the next day for lunch. I just served it with chunky slices of grainy bread before we gobbled it all up.

  

Chopping up the all important onions

Matt's brag photos of the Global Knives he bought me

 

Left: I love this shot because it makes me look like I can chop all fast and chef-like

Right: My giant spoon that my friend Ben bought me

 

Yummy curry in the Maxwell & Williams 'Microstoven' that Matt bought for me. (Surely after this post you realise that even my friends know that I am obsessed with cooking because most of the gifts that I get are cookware - =D

And of course; the finished product. Yummo!

And now, for what I promised to post a few days ago; my attempt to copy Ginnifer Goodwin's style without actually buying anything new.

 

                                                                                       This is just to refresh your memory

I'll be honest, I'm not entirely happy with it.

I pinned my hair back and changed my part to try and get the hair right lol.

Jacket; Target/Mum found it and work and now it's mine lol.

Top; Table Eight/op shop find

Jeans; Jay Jays

Bag; Cotton On

Shoes; Payless