Homemade Protein Bars

Hubs and I put these protein bars together in just a few minutes...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 scoops protein powder
3 cups of oats
Sprinkle of chia seeds
1 cup coconut milk

Literally all you do is mix everything in a large bowl, place in a lined baking tray and leave in the fridge overnight!

Kale Crisps

Just a quick post about kale crisps...

I picked up 'Natural Health' magazine a couple of days ago and noticed a feature on kale crisps. I haven't seen any to buy in the Uk, but thought they'd be easy enough to bake.

Again, google was my friend and it turns out that they are the easiest thing in the world to make! I just put them in at the same time as the peanut butter cookies (160c/20 mins)

All you need is a handful of kale on a lined baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt - simples! :)

Hubby loved them and he's usually a kale hater! They taste a little like seaweed and make a great alternative to potato crisps :)

Flourless peanut butter cookies

I had a bit of an experimental bake this morning - basically because I had a massive peanut butter craving! :)

I googled 'Flourless peanut butter cookies' and just changed a few parts...

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 160c
Line a baking tray with parchment paper

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter (I used smooth)
1 medium egg lightly mixed
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 tbsp coconut milk
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp protein powder

If I'm totally honest, I just shoved all the ingredients in together and whisked them up - I'm in one of those moods!

I put a tbsp of mixture onto the parchment paper at a time (approximately 12 cookies) and put them in for around 20 minutes.

To make them more dessert like, I put mine with yoomoo natural frozen yogurt, strawberries and agave nectar - yum! :)

Like I mentioned before, this was totally experimental, so play around with timings, ingredients etc!

Happy Baking!

Clean Breakfasts ideas!

Blueberry Minute Muffins

Flourless Banana Pancakes

Over recent months I have become utterly obsessed with the wonderful Cassey Ho and her Blogilates revolution! For those of you who have never heard of Blogilates - check it out!Her pop pilates youtube clips are just AWESOME and her recipes are quick and easy to follow.

Anyway, as it's almost time for the new school year, i'm all about finding recipes that don't take hours to prepare and Cassey's 'Minute Muffins' and 'Banana Pancakes' take less than 5 minutes to prep!

I won't put the recipes on here (as they aren't mine!), but do check out the links and try them for yourself. In fact, all of her 'Food Bites' vids are worth a look! Both are wheat free and are protein packed to keep you full - genius :)

Happy Baking! :)

Banana Nut Muffins

I know I haven't posted in FOREVER, but now the hecticness of teacher training and my NQT year is up, i'm hoping to upload a lot more!

I literally spent the last two years eating CRA*P and, after an epiphany at the end of the last school year, have decided to eat clean. Instead of powering through long planning sessions on haribo and diet coke, I am on a quest to find clean and satisfying meals that will keep me energised in the right way!

So... here is the first recipe idea - banana nut muffins! Accidently picking up some extremely over-ripe bananas in ASDA prompted me to search for 'wheat free banana muffins' on the web. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I have amended another recipe:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups of rolled oats
2/3 cup of agave nectar (or honey)
2 tsp baking powder (gluten free)
1/4 cup walnuts
3 mashed bananas
pinch of salt
2 eggs
3/4 coconut milk (i'm sure other alternatives such as almond milk etc would work nicely too)
2 tbsps olive oil
splash of high quality vanilla essence

Pre-heat the oven to 230c and line a muffin tray with cases.

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together first.
2. In a seperate bowl mash the banana's and add the coconut milk, agave nectar, vanilla essence and olive oil.
3. Lightly beat the eggs and add to the wet mix.
4. Slowly add the wet mix to the dry using a spoon - use a hand whisk to make sure it's mixed well! :)
5. Spoon the mixture into muffin cases until it's approximately 3/4 full.
6. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.

I was really pleased with the results of these muffins and they were totally delicious served with greek yogurt.

Happy Baking! :)

Primrose Peanut Butter & Chocolate cupcakes

I'm currently in the midst of moving house and like anybody else i absolutely despise packing. As an excuse to get out of it for an hour or two, i decided to use up some ingredients by baking Primrose's Peanut Butter & Chocolate cupcakes.

Peanut Butter is my absolute favourite and these cupcakes were pretty tasty, although not as peanuty as Hummingbirds cookies I baked last month. The sponge was a tad on the dry side too, but i'm guessing that's a result of the salty peanut butter.

I didn't follow the suggested milk chocolate topping, firstly because I didn't have any cream and secondly I wanted to use up my remaining cocoa powder instead of trundling down to the shops for more green & blacks. This worked nicely, so don't feel the need to buy up loads of extra ingredients if you don't already have them in your storecupboard.

Overall i'd give the peanut butter sponge a 7/10, but i'd like to come back to this recipe with the correct frosting at a later date.

As always, Happy Baking xxx

Hummingbird's peanut butter cookies

Oh wow! these peanut butter cookies from the Hummingbird recipe book were AMAZING! Hummingbird, you are firmly back in my good books.

I knew it was a good sign when i couldn't stop eating the leftover cookie dough and the final product was probably the best cookie i've ever tasted and definately the best i've ever made.

I have absolutely no criticism of this recipe, all i'm going to say is you should absolutely try baking these beauties on the weekend. The combination of crunchy peanut butter and Green & Blacks dark chocolate was delicious, but then I am a big fan of salty/sweet flavours.

Only tips I can really give you are to buy the best ingredients you can afford, use whole milk and crunchy over smooth peanut butter.

Happy Baking! xxx