Easter breakfast idea

Happy Easter everyone!

Hope you all are planning a very special day with your family and closest of loved ones! As I mentioned the other day my mom just moved to Montreal, and unfortunately I found out my dinner is on Monday and my dad has a squash tournament that day so, I'm back to square one of having no Easter dinner. However... I'm not going to let that deter me from having a nice Easter day. The majority of it is going to spent cleaning and packing for Vancouver/Montreal, but I'm still going to throw in some delicious food, and a work out.

This morning I wasn't quite sure what I was going to make for breakfast. I had a couple of ideas. A tropical smoothie, banana cream pancakes, fruit + Greek yoghurt. Then I thought, it's Easter ... therefore carrot cake! I then thought back to a recent blog post from ChocolateCoveredKatie and immediately looked it up. I pretty much changed the whole recipe, just kept the measurements as my base.

Tropical Carrot Cake Muffin for One

Recipe thoroughly adapted from here

To start I made an individual carrot cake muffin. Jeebus, this was good in the drink, but since I had leftover I had to finish it, and holy moly was it ever delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp AP flour
• 2 tbsp ground pecan
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp canola oil
• Dash of sea salt
  
• 2 mini carrots shredded
• 1 tbsp shredded coconut
• 1 tbsp diced pineapple
  
• 1 tbsp vanilla soy milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients, then mix in liquid (including applesauce, if using). Transfer to a muffin tin, ramekin, or even a mini loaf pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F, for 12-15 minutes.

Whipped "Cream" Coconut Milk

While this was baking I put a can of full fat coconut milk in the freezer. Once the muffin was done, and was starting to cool I took out the can of coconut milk. I wanted this to be a special smoothie, since my weekend treats are usually pancakes, and since I was making a smoothie instead I figured I might as well go all out. I recently read (I cannot recall where) that if you whip a can of full fat coconut milk - chilled, it turns to the same consistency as whipped cream. I decided to do so, I didn't add any sweeteners, i.e. it would be nice and sweet if you added vanilla and maple syrup/agave, but I opted for just coconut since coconut is usually prevalent in carrot cake. This definitely was like whipped cream! I was so excited because it's been quite some time since I've chowed down on some whipped cream, yum! All I did was turned my mixer on and whipped the milk for a couple of minutes as you would egg whites for example. After a few minutes peaks began to form and I knew it was ready to eat.

Tropical Carrot Cake Smoothie

Recipe adapted from here

Next is the star of the show. Oh baby. I have not been this in love with a smoothie since my Shamrock Smoothie. Yes ladies and gentleman I'm still even making the Shamrock Smoothies, I'm not over them yet, and don't plan on it for quite some time. However, now I have an equally close rival in the taste and look department. This was certainly love at first sip. It was full of flavour, from the muffin, to the whipped cream, to the smoothie itself, it was gorgeous to look at but even greater to chug down. I will definitely be making this over and over again. This was a perfect way to start my non-eventful Easter day, and I'm glad it started with this because it was a perfect pick me up.

This is one smoothie you must try, it just screams Spring and it screams delicious, even though it remains very healthy!

Ingredients:

• 1 large, frozen banana
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 baby carrots
• 3 pineapple chunks ~ 3 tbsp
• Dash of sea salt

Directions:

Steam your carrots first, then blend all of the ingredients together in your blender, food processor, or even a Magic Bullet. Top with your coconut whipped cream and then sprinkle some of your carrot cake muffin on top!

How are you starting your Easter day off?