Get Baked: Honey Oat and Wheatgerm Bars

Mum is condemning super processed foods with heaps of refined sugar and salt. She is also in charge of food shopping. Therefore I'm on the hunt for healthy-ish snack recipes that don't taste like cardboard...

Step 1: Google and find a recipe and bring your iPad/tablet/laptop into the kitchen. Or be old school and write it down/print it out. Whatever.

Step 2: Pretend you're on a cooking show and pre-measure out all your ingredients.

Step 3: Follow aforementioned recipe.

Step 4: Whack in (preheated) oven and clean up the mess you inevitably made in the kitchen/draft a blog post while waiting for the timer to go off.

Step 5: Publish post and let other people know how talented you are! (refer first photo)

Verdict: Tasty. Easy. Needs more sultanas.

This is my jam.

Baked some Jam Drops this afternoon and thought I would document the recipe/process Instagram style :)

1. Start off with 125g softened butter and 3/4 cup white sugar (I used castor sugar).

2. Cream butter and sugar :)

 3. Mix in 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used essence) and 2 beaten eggs.

4. Add 1 & 1/4 cups plain flour (sifted), 1/4 cup cornflour (sifted) and 1/2 cup desiccated coconut.

5. Mix :)

6. Roll the mix into small balls. I used just a bit more than a teaspoonful for each ball and made approx 36.

7. Flatten/make little wells in the centre and fill with mum's homemade strawberry jam (or whatever other kind of jam you prefer).

8. Bake in the oven (I used 160C fan forced) for 15 minutes. Then let cool on tray.

9. Enjoy :D

Get baked

On Thursday during my lunch break on a trip to Woolies for afternoon snacks, I whizzed past the baking aisle to see that the Donna Hay macaron mixes were on special and figured I'd give them a go. They are relatively simple to make, as traditional macaron recipes require you to measure out all the ingredients precisely (weight wise, not volume wise) but this mix just comes in little sachets and all you need to add is some water and cream. 

The only trouble I had was that the lids didn't rise properly to create the little 'feet' they should have (my friend later mentioned that the Donna Hay magazine says you should tap the bottom of the tray to remove air bubbles- Gee, thanks for excluding that little tip on the box) and a lot of the filling kind of burst/ran out of the sides. Although, that was easily fixed I just removed the overflow and was left with reasonably round shapes to work with. 

The 'ganache' was more like cake icing, so I put them in the fridge and boy do they taste amazing once the filling has chilled a bit. They're not overly sweet, but are quite filling. So if you've ever wanted to try making your own macarons, but have been put off by all the fiddly processes and ingredients, I highly recommend you give this a try :)

To market, to market.

Last night masses descended upon Forrest Place for the opening night of the Twilight Hawkers Market, and we decided to join them.


Our menu for the night consisted of; sesame balls, spring rolls, coconut water, spiral spuds, nachos, paella, donuts (both plain and jam filled) and crepes.


Needless to say I went home and fell into a deep food coma, and no doubt I will be back a number of times during the rest of the season as this event continues throughout summer until the end of March.


More info here.

My Bikram Challenge and Mumma's Day

So my local Bikram Yoga studio turns 1 today, and to celebrate, yesterday they held a mini challenge- 4 classes in one day. And me being the crazy fool I am said "challenge accepted". Now It probably wasn't a great idea to have a week's break from bikram before doing the challenge but that just made it an even bigger feat to accomplish.

Class #1- 7:30 am. I still felt a little sore from the class I did the morning before, but even though the heat quickly limbered me up I still felt a bit uneazy and for half the class was thinking "what on earth have I gotten myself into, I'm going to die!"

Class#2- 9:30 am. The first class went over time so we only had around 15 minutes to have a quick break. I guzzled some Cocobella for electrolyte replacement before getting back into the yoga room. This class was barely different from the first in terms of the way I was feeling. I was still kicking myself for going through it, but tried to 'stay present' and just follow the dialogue. After class I was seriously thinking of just not going back for the afternoon session, went home and had a light lunch, quick shower, some more electrolytes and an 8 min nap...

Class #3- 2pm. Well, I forced myself to go back even if it would just be for the third class. I think the little bit of rest did me good, because the third class was amazing. I got through all the postures, worked hard and didn't feel faint at any time, it just felt like a regular class and it gave me lots of positive energy to get me back into the room for the last class.

Class #4- 4pm. I felt like I was going to vomit. For some reason the elation I experienced during the last cass didn't carry over to this one and I just didn't feel great, but I made the decision to stay in the room for the whole class, sitting out of a posture when I felt faint and holding back on some of the others. But I made it to the end, and I feel good for doing it. I was still alive and Mum applauded me when I came home :)

I then went out for a 21st that night. And wore heels. Bad move.

Today my hamstrings are killing me but I soldiered on and Mum and I indulged in a buffet lunch at the Joondalup Resort and Country Club for Mother's Day. We pretty much celebrate here each year because a) no cooking and cleaning involved and b) the food is always good (chocolate fountain anyone?)

I came down with a classic case of eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome and fell into a 90 min food coma when I got home (probably a good thing I did all that yoga the day before!)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there and I hope you all got to spend a lovely day with your families :)


On another note, I start my new job tomorrow! Just a tad excited mixed with a bundle of nerves haha.

Pics via iPhone