is knowing that a delicious breakfast awaits you very shortly.
I love breakfast, it is by far my favourite meal of the day. Not only is it usually amazing in tastes' it also predicts whether or not I'm going to have a good morning. I've said it before, one of the things I've started doing is meal planning. On Sunday's (and sometimes during the week I will re-organize) my meal menu. The reason I started planning my meals is because when I was suffering from my ED I found it very hard when I was recovering to remember to eat. It'd been quite some time since my body had physically been reminding me to eat, that, or I no longer remembered what my hunger signals were. To try and get past this I would meal plan, so that regardless if I was hungry or not I would eat. It has worked wonders, and now my hunger signals are definitely there, yes they are :D
When I have a delicious breakfast planned I know that my day is going to be full of sunshine (for the morning at least until I get back to work), when I have uninspired, boring breakfast plans, well, I usually dread the morning and the rest of the day is sort of iffy. The bigger my breakfast are too, the happier I am since it means more fuel to go, go, go!
This morning was one of those days. I couldn't wait to wake up. I couldn't wait to do my work out, and I certainly couldn't wait to finish my shower and getting ready so I can chow down on my breakfast. When it comes to breakfasts', sure I have certain regularities, but I often switch some of the spices/fruits (but you will almost always find cinnamon and coconut in it somehow!)
Lately I've been on a real sweet potato kick, you'd think it was the winter and I'm trying to pack on my winter body with all the taters I've been eating, but no, I'm just craving them. I thought I'd eaten quite a bit during the winter... but, seeing as I'm buying 3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes every week, and it's just me who eats them, ugh yeah... I'm eating a lot, however, I'm not going to deny myself these delicious gifts from nature!
It's been an awfully long time since I've had hashbrowns, since hashbrowns are primarily, deep fried, coated in tons of oil and salt, and made with yellow potato. It's been quite some time since I've switched from the old plain Jane potato to the beautiful, orange and sugary-sweet sweet potato, now I cannot reason with myself to eat it's less good-for you counterpart. I wanted hashbrowns and so that's what I did, baked, with tons of flavour, tons of deliciousness, healthy fats, and all around yum! It was so simple to make, and boy was it good!
Coconut Cinnamon Hash Brown with Coconut Yoghurt
- 1 medium sweet potato, cubed
- 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, melted in the microwave for 30 seconds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Toss your cinnamon in the melted coconut oil, stir until well combined. Add your cubed sweet potato. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Next I took the remaining yoghurt I had left as I was trying to salvage the remaining yoghurt before it went bad... even though it was already a few days past expiry... yes, I am not one to follow expiry dates like a crazy person... my mom and her boyfriend, one day past expiry and it's in the garbage, oh the horror!
- ~ 1/2 cup of plain yoghurt
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 tbsp shredded coconut mixed with the yoghurt
I put the yoghurt layer on the bottom.
The sweet potatoes on top.
Garnished with more coconut, more cinnamon, and teeny tiny chocolate flakes.
The mixture of hot and cold was nom-tastic!
Toss everything into a bowl, allow to sit for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to meld together and enjoy.
Yes, the rest of my morning was good, just as I figured it would be because I had a delicious breakfast. My morning was busy, and it was also entertaining as I had Glee Season 2 minimized so I can listen to some songs! Lunch finally struck at 12:30 pm. Here I am, telling my friend I have to take a picture for my blog, "but it's not Wednesday you cheater!", "yeah but I still need a picture for my blog!" So, I put my bowl in the grass in front of our building and take a couple pictures quickly before I look like some weirdo taking a picture of a Mexican bean salad, when all of sudden my friend says, "there's an ant in your bowl!"... ugh oh, my bowl is covered with a ton of BLACK BEANS, how am I going to find a teeny tiny ant? "Well, now you had some added protein!" ... errr, we do remember I don't eat animal/animal products right?
I'm a little freaked out at this point. Tossing my beans + other ingredients around, I don't see anything. I'm sitting at the table eating my salad, still I don't see anything. After a bit, I just figure, I don't see anything, what I don't know isn't going to kill me, and for all I know she could be lying when, dun, dun, dun I see him! I grabbed him, and let him outside! I was so happy I didn't eat him, and that I actually found him. My friend was a little grossed out, but... sometimes c'est la vie. How was the salad in the end? Absolutely fantastic! I told you guys, I am hooked on Mexican inspired flavours lately and this salad definitely captured that. I am so in love with bean salads this summer and am quickly getting hooked. This is a salad full of flavour, rich in fiber, packed with protein, tons of good fats, zing, zest, oooh's and awww's, make this!
Black Bean, Avocado and Corn Salad
Ingredients:
- 3/4 can of black beans, drained and rinse (I used the other 1/4 for my lunch tomorrow!)
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 an avocado, cubed
- 1/4 red onion, mined
- 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced, seeds removed
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp chili pepper
- Juice from 1/2 lime
Toss everything into a bowl, allow to sit for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to meld together and enjoy.
For dessert the past few days I've been snacking on various fruits with lime in a nice fruit salad, today was 1 banana, chopped, 1 peached, cut in squares, and 1 orange, cut, with juices kept, and drizzled with freshly squeezed lime juice. Then I had three cookies that I made on the weekend. When I first made these cookies and tried them I was like eeeeeh, what's all the fuss about. The second day I had them, I was like hmmm, these are actually really good. Third and forth day, FANTASTIC! These cookies are like wine, as they age the better they taste.
I've made some odd foods before (well, what others may consider weird), when I saw a cookie for chickpea cookies, that it wasn't chickpea flour but actual chickpeas I was intrigued. Needless to say I couldn't wait to try them out. This recipe sat in my recipe box for two weeks, however, this past weekend I intentionally opened up a can of chickpeas so I could save half to make for these batch of cookies. I really, do enjoy the outcome. I changed the recipe to meet what I was craving and well I just love them!
Blueberry Peanut Butter Chickpea Cookies
Recipe adapted from here
Ingredients:
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and peeled
- 2/3 cup peanut butter
- 1 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp coconut water
- 3/4 cup white chocolate
- 2 tbsp dried blueberries
In food processor or blender, puree chickpeas. Add peanut butter, flour, maple syrup and blend. It should form a ball of dough, if it is still crumbly, add a tiny amount of water, a teaspoon at a time. Process – it should quickly form a dough ball.
Stirring by hand, add chocolate and blueberries.
Form into 1-inch balls.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
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