Cleaning Up my Favorite Cookies!

One of the things that I've been most excited about since starting on this clean eating journey has been trying out new recipes! Especially baking recipes ;)

Baking is one of my absolute favorite things to do, especially when I get to eat what I've baked! Only, I always seem to go overboard with the eating part of the process, which isn't exactly conducive to a healthy lifestyle :p

So on Sunday, I decided to have a crack at cleaning up one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes- chocolate chip cookies!

A classic, but I'll never be bored with them!

To clean these up, I knew I would have to replace lots of ingredients like the butter, white flour, and tonnes of sugar. I did a little research (mostly on Pinterest!), and came up with a recipe which I think worked out absolutely deliciously :D

To make these cookies, you'll need:

• 2 cups of rolled oats, or quick-cook oats if you prefer
• 2 really ripe bananas, mashed 
• 2 eggs, whisked in a bowl
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 packets of stevia
• 2 tbs of ground almonds (optional- I love the texture and the taste!)
• 1/2 a cup of dark chocolate chips
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

First, mix together your oats, bananas, eggs, and ground almonds together in a great big bowl

Your oats may appear a little dry at this point, but don't worry about it! As you keep mixing the oats will absorb more of the wet ingredients and will turn out fine. Don't do what I did and add in water! This made my dough become really sticky and hard to roll!

Secondly, add in your baking powder and baking soda and mix thoroughly. This helps the cookies to rise a little, and gives them more of a traditional 'cookie' texture.

Next, add in the good bits! The sugar, stevia, and chocolate chips! Mix the whole lot together, and your batter is all ready!

Line a baking sheet with baking paper, roll out tablespoon-sized balls and spread as many as you can out on the baking sheet. 

Flatten the cookies out a little bit, and then pop them into a 180 degree oven, on 'fan bake'. They won't spread out on the tray at all, so don't worry about that! These cookies will take about 10 minutes to bake, and should be left to cool on a wire rack (if you can wait that long!).

The end result is a delicious, chewy, chocolatey cookie which tastes nearly exactly like a banana chocolate chip muffin! But even better, these cookies are much kinder to your health than a muffin or traditional chocolate chip cookies!

There are so many variations you could make to this recipe! Adding spices, vanilla, grated apple, whatever takes your fancy!

I think next time I'll try mine with some peanut butter added in- yum!

These cookies are high in fibre and protein, and MUCH lower in fat and sugar than traditional chocolate chip cookies! What's not to love??

So you see, eating clean and healthy doesn't mean giving up desert, or missing out on your favorite treats! All it takes is a little thought, and a few clever swaps here and there, any you don't have to miss out on anything!

I'm off to enjoy one of these tasty treats with my evening cup of green tea :)

Hope you all enjoy these cookies as much as I have!

DIY: Sweet Cinnamon Almond Butter!

Perhaps the easiest thing in the world to make!

I kid you not! I had my doubts about how this would turn out, but it took very little effort on my part and almost no time at all!

Totally worth it for the result!

I decided to have a go at making my own almond butter yesterday when I ran out of my jar of store-bought Ceres Organics, and there was NO way I was going to pay up to $14.00 for another 200g jar.

To make your own sweet cinnamon almond butter, all you need is:

• 200g of roasted, unsalted almonds (you could try with raw, or roasted and salted, but I've no idea how it would turn out!)
• 2 packets of stevia
• 1-2 tsp of cinnamon (I used fair trade cinnamon- totally different flavor from what you'd normally find in the supermarket, but I love it!)

First, just throw all of your almonds into a food processor, with a blade attachment put in, and turn on to a low speed.

After 1-2 minutes, your almonds will start to resemble fine breadcrumbs, and will become slightly sticky.

While the food processor is running on low, pop in your stevia and cinnamon, and then turn the processor up to high :)

After 3-4 minutes, your almonds will start to stick together and begin to look like gingerbread dough. Scrape down the sides of the processor with a spatula if you need to at all :)

Give it another 1-2 minutes, and you'll end up with a lovely, thick, almond buttery paste! 

If you like your almond butter thick, then you're all done! But if, like me, you like things to be nice and smooth, let the processor run for another 1-2 minutes, and the almonds will begin to release lots of their natural oils, and the butter will become really smooth and creamy :D

Once you've got the almond butter to the consistency you want, scrape it out of the processor bowl and pop it in an airtight jar, where it will keep for ages!

I chose to put mine in my empty Ceres jar, because recycling is sexy, and good for the planet! ;)

This recipe would be so easy to double, triple, halve, or whatever you need to do! It would also be excellent with additions such as vanilla extract, coconut oil, nutmeg, honey, or anything else you can think of adding!

Processing times will vary depending on your processor- mine isn't that flash, so it takes a little longer than most, but just keep your processor going until you get your almonds to the consistency you want. I promise, it will get there sooner or later! :)

I've eaten this almond butter on my gluten free toast several times since making it yesterday, and it's absolutely delish!

And who would have thought it would be so easy to do??

I'd really love to make this recipe again, and try it out with different flavors thrown in!

What flavors do you love in your nut butters? I'd love to know!

Getting Started with Green Smoothies

The first time I really became aware of these things called 'green smoothies' was when I discovered Kris Carr, who is pretty much the Wonder Woman of green smoothies!

You can check out her blog, KrisCarr.com, right here, I highly recommend it!

Seeing the ingredients going into these smoothies really freaked me out! The kale, the spinach, the cucumbers, the broccoli, the goodness knows what else! All raw, all liquidized, all icky!

(Did I mention I've grown up with an aversion to lots of green veggies? Especially when they're raw!)

So when I saw Kris talking about these, and so many other well-known people in the clean eating 'gang', for whom I have immense respect, I thought they were nuts!

Completely nuts.

But then again, there did seem to be an awful lot of benefits to drinking green smoothies...

Lots of fibre, easy to digest, a huge hit of chlorophyll, really filling, loaded with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, loads of magnesium, zinc, potassium, great for weight loss, a natural source of energy, a sneaky way to increase your veggie intake, helps with blood purification, decreases inflammation, anti-aging properties... Need I go on??

And then again, they do seem to enjoy them..

Maybe they're actually ok?

Maybe I should just try one?

Yeah.

Ok.

JUST DO IT!!

So this was the thought process which brought me to trying my first ever green smoothie.

I would really recommend this smoothie to anyone who wants to have a go with green smoothies, or who may be looking for an easy way to increase the health benefits of their breakfast.

This is what I call my 'Hulk' smoothie!

You can make it as big, or as small as you like! As loaded, or as simple as you want :D And believe me, this will get you off to such a great start in the morning that you'll be shouting "HULK SMASH!" at everything that gets in your way ;)

For the basic recipe you'll need:

• One medium banana, sliced and frozen
• 1.5 cups of baby spinach (trust me!)
• One to two cups of unsweetened almond milk (depending on how thin/thick you like your smoothies)

That's it! Easy, huh?

Stick the whole lot in a blender, and blend until smooth :)

The basic recipe is tasty, filling, and there's no way you can taste the spinach, I promise! (Believe me, there is NO way I would drink this if I could taste the greens!)

There are no end to the changes you can make to this recipe.

For the version I made in this photo, I added a large tablespoon of peanut butter and two teaspoons of ground flaxseed for added protein, fibre, and healthy fats.

Other great additions include frozen berries (especially blueberries!), almond butter, coconut oil, coconut water, chia seeds, ground LSA, low-fat Greek yoghurt, coconut milk, sliced almonds, raw oats, stevia, cinnamon, walnuts, pure maple syrup, protein powder, spirulina powder, the list goes on and on!

This is such a simple recipe, and once you've enjoyed your first green smoothie you can start getting creative with what you put in, and really tailor it to suit your individual tastes!

I hope this recipe helps to get some of you guys along the road to enjoying green smoothies and great health!

I'd really love to hear how you get on with this recipe, if you love it or (eek!) I've got it totally wrong :p

I'd also love for you to share any green smoothie recipes that you love!

Working Weekend!

My weekend has been incredibly busy so far!

On Friday, it was an early start. I was heading over to my bestie's new house to help her move in :)

I knew I would be in for a few hours of hard work, so I made sure I had a really filling and healthy breakfast which would keep my tummy happy until lunchtime.

Yesterday's choice was a piece of gluten free toast spread with Ceres Organics almond butter (fast becoming a favorite!), and a green 'Hulk' smoothie on the side! I'll post up the recipe for this smoothie soon. Peanut butter lovers, you'll be keen on this! Also anyone who's just starting out with green smoothies :)

After a few hours scrubbing and cleaning (the last tenants left the house in a right state!), we went out for lunch. My lovely bestie shouted lunch for myself and another friend who was helping out :)

I chose a small pack of chicken teriyaki and avocado sushi, and then a mango-ey, citrus-ey smoothie (dairy free! Yay!). The smoothie was absolutely to die for, and I could have drunk much more!

After another half hour or so of cleaning, I had to head off and get ready for work.

I have a love/hate relationship with my Friday night shift. I work from 3.30 until 9.15pm, and it's usually really quiet! Not to mention, it's work on a FRIDAY night. And there's usually a list a mile long of things that my manager wants me to get done! Not all of them are straightforward, either (like last night, I had to pull things down from the ceiling using a massive ladder, but I still nearly fell off once or twice!) However, I do get to work with one of my favorite co-workers, which is always nice :) 

The other reason Fridays are a bit awkward is that I never know what to do about food! Last night, I decided to keep it simple and take a few snacks with me!

Carrot sticks and salsa, and a packet of Sunsweet prunes for a clean sweet treat :) 

I absolutely love those snack packs, they're only 70 calories, and are really sweet and tasty!

This kept me going until I got home after 9.30 and had a sort of 'supper' :) A piece of gluten free toast, with a scraping of peanut butter and a suggestion of strawberry jam, a mandarin, and a Lindt lindor ball- so delicious! I always have a treat on Friday nights, but I'm trying to keep                                                               it portion controlled. Good start, huh? :)

Best of all, last night I came home to a roaring fire, courtesy of the manbeast!

Lucky me :D

It was so cosy, and the best way to warm up after a long day of hard work!

Today has been full-on too! Work from 8.30 until 4.00, a little birthday present shopping, and home again :)

It's the manbeast's Grandad's 80th birthday bash tonight! And I mean bash! He's hired out a local theatre, and has invited around 120 people! He's a musician and a musical director by trade, so he's hosting a concert filled with piano pieces, and a range of singers joining him! Yours truly will be one of them!

I'll be singing 'Yesterday Once More' by the Carpenters, and I'm seriously nervous! It should be really great though! It's such a good song, and the night will be really awesome anyway :)

So I'm off to get ready now! We have to be there in an hour! 

Now, all I need to worry about is whether my dress shows too much cleavage for an 80th birthday party....

Hmm...

Can't ask the manbeast what he thinks ;)

Just Like a Holiday...

Only not quite as good!

So my parents are away at the moment- in Singapore!

The lucky duo are spending a long weekend over there, and won't be back until Tuesday next week (hopefully with a few pressies for my sisters and I, but that's a story for another day ;D)

While this is absolutely lovely for them, it does mean that the manbeast and I had to spent last night house/babysitting at my parents place last night.

Their house is a beautifully modern single-story place on a lifestyle block in what is essentially the middle of nowhere, so it wasn't too much of a challenge to do the house-sitting part :p

As for the babysitting part, we were keeping my youngest sister company (she's 17, and MUCH taller than I am, so there wasn't all that much sitting going on :p), because she hates being on her own at night. I can relate! A year or so ago, when the manbeast spent the week in Auckland for work, I went to stay at my parents place. That said, we live next door to a drug dealer and across the road from members of a well-known gang... So I can kinda justify it ;)

So my parents' house is an absolutely lovely place to stay, but I had the worst sleep last night! I just kept waking up every hour or so and I'm super sleepy now!

In order to remedy the situation, I jumped out of bed and made myself a smoothie, my favorite! This one was made with a banana, some frozen blueberries, 2 cups of coconut water and a little almond milk, all courtesy of mum and dad's pantry ;) Don't look at me like that- free food is the best kind of food! Don't act like y'all don't agree with me ;)

I tried to take a picture of my smoothie for you guys, but the camera on my phone was playing up! It was doing it yesterday too, but seems to have fixed itself now. All you need to know is that my smoothie was tall, purple, frosty and delicious! So instead of today's breakfast, take a look at what I had yesterday:

 A delicious Mahana Red apple (just 1/2), chopped up and served with 2 tbs of lite Greek yoghurt, 2 tsp of ground flax and 1 tbs of almonds, and a piece of gluten free toast and almond butter! Totally delicious and filling.

Yesterday's lunch was leftover roast veggie salad, and before heading to rehearsals I had the other 1/2 of an apple spread with a little peanut butter and sprinkled with chia seeds. This was at 4ish, and I didn't end up getting back to my parents' place until 9pm! So nothing to have in between. Talk about starving!

When I got there, the manbeast and little sister had made a chili con carne with brown rice and lots of cheese. While this wasn't exactly clean eating, I wasn't going to complain! Especially that late at night, when someone else had cooked ;) So I avoided the cheese entirely, had a small serve of the chili, and sprinkled a little rice on top. I'll tell ya what, that hit the spot nicely!


I've just dropped my sister at school (much to her disgust), and I'm about to go and jump in the shower and get ready to head into town. I'm meeting a friend for lunch, who I haven't seen in ages, so that'll be nice :) He wants to go to a food court and "cheat on his diet," but there's no way I'm joining him in that! I know there's a great sushi place there called Maki Mono, so I'll be treating myself to one of their brown rice veggie sushi rolls. Nom!

I'm thinking I'll have a piece of toast with almond butter before I head off too, since I'm starting to feel my tummy rumble!

After lunch I'll be heading to a university class, so I'll take some apple slices to keep me going until I get home at about 5pm tonight :)

I can't wait to pop my iPod on when I get into town, and go for a walk to meet my friend! Hopefully that will distract me from the freezing cold weather we're having today!

Hope y'all are having a great day!

Keepin' it Clean at the Cafe!

So it's Tuesday, NZ time, and that means it's my weekend!

Working in retail and studying full-time means that I keep some very odd hours, but I'm just happy to have two days off in a row- the same days off that my manbeast has too!

The highlight of my day has definitely been going out for lunch with my lovely boyfriend, and spending the day walking around town :)

This morning didn't start off so well however- a nasty bout of nausea woke me up early and had me scrambling for a piece of gluten free toast and almond butter to help settle my tummy.

(I thought that I would find it hard to like almond butter at first- it's so different to peanut butter! But I have to say, that after a week or so of eating it, I've fallen in love with it! The only problem is that here in NZ it's not widely available. I know of only one brand which is sold here, and you end up paying around $10 for 200g! Talk about expensive. Still, it may be something that I start to shell out for a little more often now since it's so darn tasty, and healthy to boot!)

Thankfully that did the trick, and kept me feeling happy until manbeast and I got into town for our lunch date :)

We went to one of our favorite little cafe's on the Wellington waterfront, called Mojo. They do excellent coffee, and have really great food! I had my usual order of a soy latte (which had a cute heart on top!), and chose poached free range eggs on gluten free toast with organic tomato salsa, and a little basil in there too :) It was absolutely delish! And yes, it did mean that I've eaten three pieces of toast today, but I'm not too bothered, and it was the only item on the menu that I could order while being sure it was gluten free :)

After lunch the manbeast went to get his hair cut, and I took the opportunity to sneak in a little exercise and take a walk around the beautiful Wellington waterfront! Here are a few of the views that greeted me as I walked along:

Looking across the Wellington Harbour to Oriental Bay

The Boatshed, on the Frank Kitts' Lagoon, where one of my besties is having her wedding reception next year!

Looking across The Frank Kitts' Lagoon to downtown Wellington

I absolutely love the city that I live in! It's such a visually stunning area, especially around the harbours and the hills, and it's filled with amazing little cafes, restaurants, bars, boutique and vintage shops too! It's the only city I've ever lived in, but I've always thought this is where I'd like to buy my first house, and the manbeast agrees with me! Thank goodness, since it's looking pretty likely that we'll be buying together in the next two years :)

My little walk took me about half an hour, which I was really happy with, but I was walking pretty slowly so it was a rather low-intensity exercise session. About five minutes in, I started to feel a little light-headed and clammy, kinda like I was getting sick! I think this was partially because I'd taken some pain medication with lunch, and I hadn't had enough water to drink earlier in the day! Hello dehydration! I headed back to meet the manbeast as soon as he was done, and we came straight back home so that I could have a lie down!

That's where I've been for the remainder of the day! Curled up on the couch, watching Dr. Oz, then Rachel Ray, and now Entertainment Tonight! I'm feeling incredibly lazy ;)

But I'm giving myself a 'free pass' of sorts today. Feeling ill means I can't concentrate, so I'm going to take the evening to rest, and feel better again before I jump back into university assignments and learning lines :)

I'm starting to feel a little better now- a little hungry, which is a good sign! I haven't eaten since lunch at 12, and it's 5.30 now, which is absolutely crazy for me! I'm going to make up a berry and spinach smoothie with coconut water and coconut oil, and maybe watch some more trashy t.v ;)

Dinner tonight will be lamb sausages (yes, I know, not exactly 'clean', but they're free range, really lean, and direct from my parents' farm!), with steamed carrots and broccoli, and I'll probably do some mashed potatoes for the manbeast too.

As for tomorrow, it's another day off! Woohoo! I plan for it to be filled with study and assignment writing, and hopefully another walk!

I'll catch up with y'all tomorrow. Until then, take care :)

Starting like Super Woman!

That's what I like to think, anyhow.

That said, I didn't feel like Super Woman this morning when my alarm went off at 6.00am!

I felt much more like Roll-over-and-go-back-to-sleep Woman ;)

But after my delicious clean eating approved breakfast, I felt ready to take on the day!

I started with a smoothie:

For this smoothie, you'll need: 

• 2/3 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1 medium banana
• 2 cups spinach
• 2 cups coconut water
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Stick all of the ingredients in a blender, and let it run until everything looks smooth and delicious! 

I put my smoothie in a 'to go' cup today since I was leaving so early to university, and drank it in the car as my lovely boyfriend drove us into town :)

To go along with the smoothie I also had a piece of gluten free toast with 1 tsp of Ceres Organics almond butter 

I ate this first thing this morning: I get nausea sometimes from a medication that I take, and this morning I needed something to distract my stomach, and quickly!

While at uni I had a coffee (a soy latte) with my good friend Claire, which kept me feeling full until I got home  just after 1pm.

Lunch was nothing special, just a scrambled egg with a little olive oil and some steamed carrots and broccoli. I wasn't feeling very creative, but boy did it hit the spot!

About an hour afterwards I had a little snack: 

I absolutely love these things! Just a tiny little serve of cheese (yes, I know it looks big in my hand, but I have child-sized hands :p), with lots of calcium and a bit of protein. It tastes really yummy too :)

Dinner will be a little later tonight, since I'm out at rehearsals for a production of Grease, and my boyfriend is out playing football. Neither of us will be home until after 9.30, and there's no way we'll want to be cooking then!

So I've just spent about 20 minutes getting all of the dinner prep done so that when we get home, all we need to do is throw some things at the oven, and dinner will be ready in no time :)

To start with, I made a roast veggie salad:

For this recipe you'll need:

• One large kumara (or sweet potato to you lot who live outside of New Zealand :))
• Three medium potatoes 
• Three medium tomatoes
• One medium red onion
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• LOTS of pepper
• 2-3 tbs of rosemary, depending on how you like it.

Super easy to make: just chop up all of the veggies (wash them first if you need to!), pop onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and drizzle with the olive oil before sprinkling with rosemary and pepper. Then mix everything together, so that it's nicely coated in the oil and seasonings. When you're ready to cook, pop the tray into an oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 mins. (My oven is ancient, so takes ages! Hopefully yours is faster :p)

This is what you'll end up with after the prep is done: 

I'd just like to point out that making a mess of your stove top, like I did, is optional ;)

To go with this, I'll be having baked salmon with soy sauce and lemon pepper, and my manbeast will be having baked chicken with cumin, rosemary, and paprika. Can't wait!

 So that's my day so far in pictures :)

Food pictures, anyhow!

I'm about to head off for a little walk down the road to post some letters. First exercise in a while asides from dance rehearsals! Yay!

I know I've still got a few hours to go, but I've gotta say, so far I think I've done really well to start cleaning up my act.

Catch y'all tomorrow!

Cleaning up my Act

For a long time now, I've wanted to jump right on to the 'clean eating' bandwagon.

Somehow, something always seems to get in my way...

Whether it be my love of baking (and love for eating said baking, especially the peanut butter cupcakes, brownies and Guinness cupcakes pictured here),

Or a family celebration to attend, 

I can always find a reason (alright, an excuse) as to why I "can't right now."

Sometimes it's even just the idea that it's all too hard!

I mean, how does one change the habits of a lifetime? How does one change their eating habits completely, and figure out how to nourish themselves with a whole new range of foods?? (Some of which one can't even pronounce properly! Quinoa, anyone?) Especially when one suffers from a range of intolerances and a semi-serious illness?

More tricky, is working out how one is to convince their lovely partner of four years 

that clean eating doesn't mean eating "tasteless food" (i.e. food that isn't processed, covered in salt or cooked in/with fat, or meals that aren't based around meat, pasta, and rice!)

But those are all questions that I'm really going to have to work out the answers to!

Because, let me be honest with you, right now I'm feeling overweight, unfit, unhealthy, tired, and all of those blue kind of feelings that just take away my sense of sparkle.

And I'm sick of feeling like that!

So it's time.

No more hiding behind excuses, no more ignoring my problems, and no more passing up opportunities to make a change in my life!

I've got too much to accomplish, too much to enjoy, and too much to experience to be bogged down feeling heavy, tired, and unwell.

They say that 

So that's where I'm going to start.

I'm going to change my mind about clean eating being "too hard," and I'm finally going to take control of my health and wellbeing! 

Because, let's face it, for each and every one of us, our health is in our own hands. Most of the time anyhow, there's so much we can do to improve our lives simply by fuelling our bodies with the right foods, and nourishing ourselves with what our bodies truly need: clean food, enjoyable exercise, and lots of green tea ;)

I want to do this now.

It's no longer an "I really should" feeling. I really want to stop thinking about clean eating and being healthy, and make it a reality!

So here goes nothing!

From today, I'm eating clean.

I'm thinking more about what I'm putting into my body, more about how I move, and more about how I think.

This can only be good for me! 

So watch this space, and we'll see how I go.

I'll be posting up recipes and ideas, and probably be complaining a lot and asking for help, so maybe we can help each other out and live our best lives together.