Peanut Butter Cup French Toast

Okay so I died and went to heaven this morning. One of my best ideas yet, to make this. High five to myself.

Really fast, really easy, minimal ingredients so you can go crazy with toppings… the ultimate meal that you can make over and over again and it never be the same.

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup almond milk 

1 banana, 1/2 mashed and half left for decoration (I used a really big banana) 

Vanilla essence/ maple syrup/ agave syrup, whichever you have/ desire 

Bread of choice! 

Method: 

In a bowl/ container, mash half the banana and add the almond milk and sweetener of choice until combined. Pre-heat a pan with coconut oil (or oil of choice, I just like coconut oil) and dip bread slices one by one into the mixture and then onto the pan. Cook until the first side is crisp and browning, and then flip to the other side and repeat until it is also cooked. Repeat with the other slice(s) until process is finished. 

I topped mine with, to make it peanut butter cup flavoured, two types of peanut butter by Mayvers Foods (the coconut and the cacao flavours) and served with coyo yoghurt, strawberries, the leftover banana, blueberries and raspberries. But do what you like with it! Just syrup works a treat too. Anything goes with this recipe. 

White chocolate caramel PB "nana ice cream"

Sugar honey iced tea… this killed me. Not literally but my taste buds exploded and had to take the day off after this hehe. SO SO SO GOOD. Not bad for an experiment if I do say so myself. The crazy mind of a jetlagged girl created this bad boy.

Ingredients:
6-8 frozen and chopped bananas for me (as many as you want though)
As much almond milk as required to blend nicely (will depend on how many nanas you use)
White chocolate peanut butter

Method:

Add all things to blender and BLEND I SAY BLEND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ;)

I topped with fresh banana and strawbs and coconut chips and cacao chips and buckinis and drizzled all with date caramel and it was holy dooley good mannnnn.

Cinnamon-maca buckwheat pancakes:

Simple things are often the most beautiful. Like this stack, holy dooley. I love pancakes, extravagant or not, but I am going to be eating more stacks like this, fresh and tasty as hell.

I found figs! So I had to make a perfect pancake stack to celebrate my fig findings. And this was just that, perfect (if I do say so myself hehe)

Recipe:

1/2 cup buckwheat flour (I love buckwheat flour in pancakes, I love the flavour and texture, but if you use a different flour please be aware you may need to adjust the quantities of other ingredients!) 

1 tsp baking powder/ soda 

1 tbsp maca powder (optional, or as much as you like) 

1 as ripe as possible mashed banana (I just started a new banana for decoration purposes, the more banana in the pancakes the better in my opinion) 

1 tsp vanilla extract or fresh vanilla if you have it 

2 flax or chia eggs (2 tbsp flax/ chia to 6 tbsp water) (tip: it's best to make these at least half an hour before, or even the night before if possible but yolo moments are acceptable… just aim for half an hour minimum ;) ) 

1/2 cup almond milk/ any dairy free milk 

1 tbsp sweetener, if desired (coconut sugar, agave, maple etc.) 

A bucket load of cinnamon… literally, go get your bucket hehe 

Method: 

Combine all dry ingredients (I'm looking at you flour, baking powder/ soda, maca powder and cinnamon) and mix. Then add all wet ingredients and mix them too(your turn milk, "eggs", sweetener, vanilla). Mash your banana, and stir through also until everything is combined quite nicely! 

Heat a pan with oil of choice (I lurveeee the coconut oil) and cook pancakes one by one (thick and fluffyyyy) until all done. Then stack em up and enjoy with toppings of choice! 

As you can see I enjoyed mine with coyo, fig, banana, coconut chips and yummy ginger syrup, but they are so versatile you could go fruity or decadent and rich and it wouldn't matter, it's all amazing! 

:)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie pancakes:

You know the chocolate chip cookies you buy or make and you take a bit out of the first one and your teeth sink and your heart melts as the chocolate chips, still warm, melt in your mouth and you sigh. You know that feeling? That is my favourite type of chocolate chip cookie feeling.

And these pancakes pretty much mimicked that for me. I am a HAYUGE pancake person, like seriously, I can't not eat pancakes if they are available to me, be it breakfast lunch or dinner. And these ones were a real treat. And not even hard to make! That's the fun bit ;)

AND 100% vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, contain 1 serve of fruit in JUST THE PANCAKES alone and tasty as hell. No need to justify eating, but if you want a stack of pancakes that taste like heaven and hell at the same time AND you don't feel queasy after, head to these bad boys. Plant power, I tell you. Works wonders.

ONTO THE RECIPE that will change your life.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup buckwheat flour (I love buckwheat flour in pancakes, I love the flavour and texture, but if you use a different flour please be aware you may need to adjust the quantities of other ingredients!) 

1 tsp baking powder/ soda 

1 tbsp maca powder (optional, or as much as you like) 

1 as ripe as possible mashed banana (I just started a new banana for decoration purposes, the more banana in the pancakes the better in my opinion) 

1 tsp vanilla extract or fresh vanilla if you have it 

2 flax or chia eggs (2 tbsp flax/ chia to 6 tbsp water) (tip: it's best to make these at least half an hour before, or even the night before if possible but yolo moments are acceptable… just aim for half an hour minimum ;) ) 

1/2 cup almond milk/ any dairy free milk 

1 tbsp sweetener, if desired (coconut sugar, agave, maple etc.) 

AS MANY DAMN CACAO NIBS AS YOU WANT BABES 

For the sauce, I used a mixture of: 

Mayvers cacao PB melted with, 

Loving earth coconut oil 

Method: 

Mix the flour, baking powder and maca powder in a big bowl. Add the mashed banana, vanilla extract, "eggs", milk and sweetener and mix with the dry ingredients. Finally, add the cacao nibs and mix until everything is combined. And thennnnnnnnn in the pan get some heat going on with some oil of choice (I love coconut oil to the death) and then begin putting mixture in bit by bit to form deliciousness that is pancakes, make em nice and thick and fluffy and stack em up! 

In a small pot, whenever you want (before or after pancakes or during if you're super smart) heat as much cacao PB as you want (I did about half a jar baha) and some coconut oil, and melt down that PB until it forms a consistency that you love, then remove from heat. 

Back to the pancakes. Stack em up nice and tall, pop some coconut milk yoghurt on top if you like (I like), pour dat cacao PB sauce on top, with some fresh nana on top and bottom flanking those delicious pancakes like body guards, and a sprinkle of whatever else you fancy (I love blend co… if you haven't tried it, I do recommend, plus it's super good for your skin and it makes me smile) 

And then Bob's your uncle… which is Australian slang for EAT THE PANCAKES I think haha :P

Soy tofu rice paper rolls

So… I love asian food. A lot. Along with Italian, it's probably one of my favourite cuisine styles. So fragrant and light and fresh and simple… AND EASY.

And I haven't made my own rice paper rolls or sushi in a longgggggggg time so I figured why not today? And I did (as you can see) and they were a success… and I am back in love with rice paper rolls.

Super easy, super good and super nourishing.

Ingredients (will make enough for leftovers for the next day too!… if they last):

- One block of tofu, pressed for about 1-2 hours before use
- 1/4 cup of soy sauce
- Coconut oil, for frying
- Vegetables of choice: I used red capsicum, carrot, cucumber (all julienned)  and lettuce (shredded)
- Fresh mint
- 1/2 an avocado, sliced
- 1 packet of rice paper rolls

Optional (but for me not optional): Vegan sweet chilli sauce, or anything else you want to dip it in!

Okay so about 1 hour before I wanted to start making lunch I put the tofu on a cutting board, with a heavy plate on top, and allowed it to sit like that until I was ready for it.
In the meantime, you can chop your vegetables, mint and lettuce up and put it all on a plate ready to go.
When you are ready to cook the tofu, chop it into small slices. Add tofu to a pre-heated (with coconut oil) pan and allow to fry on one side (it will go slightly brown and crisp) and then turn. Add soy sauce at this point, and allow the other side to be fried, and then turn off heat. Place fried tofu on a plate and allow to cool.

Then, put your kettle on to boil. In a big deep bowl, place boiled water and then one by one, dip the rice paper rolls one at a time in until they begin to go soft, then place on a tea towel/ cutting board flat (don't let them curl up!) until you are done with all the rice paper sheets.

I recommend sitting down now! Place all your ingredients of choice in each wrapping and then wrap each one up like a little present of deliciousness! I tended to roll each one about half way, flip down the top and bottom ends, and then continue to wrap up tight.

I served mine with sweet chilli sauce, and my Watermelon Coconut Berry Mint frappe (recipe is in my index) ;) and it was pure bliss. With the smell of my banana bread baking… It was magic I tell you.

Watermelon Coconut Berry Mint Frappe

So this drink right here was DELICIOUS. And I am not even a huge fan of coconut water but I think that is now changing peeps! Eeep exciting! 

So as part of my goodness me box I was given one Natural Rawc coconut water carton, and not being one to guzzle it down plain I was going "hmm what will I do with it?" so I decided to make it into a fruit drink to have with my lunch :) 

Ingredients: 

-1 carton of Natural Rawc coconut water 

- About 2-3 cups of watermelon, diced 

-3 handfuls of frozen mixed berries 

Optional topping: a few bits of mint and a lovely straw 

Method: blend all in a blender until smooth/ combined, and drink ASAP with a cute straw from a beautiful jar (like so) and it goes great along side my tofu rice paper rolls p.s. (recipe for those is also in my index) ;) 

Sadhana Kitchen Raw Degustation 7-Course Dinner

Last night, one of my closest friends, Maddie, and I were blessed enough to go to the Sadhana Kitchen 7 course raw vegan degustation. And boy, did we feast. And boy, was it good. We both had been there to eat during the day (and we absolutely love it there, we can't get over how amazing the food was) so it was awesome to go there at night for dinner… and many courses at that!

So it was all very lovely, to begin with. A light setting I was used to was transformed into an (dare I say it) romantic (but I would prefer to describe as) serene and blissful candle lit restaurant, with one long communal table for everyone to sit at for the adventure. It was actually really great, because we could have a giggle to the people on either side of us as to how much we were loving the food. (And we did)

A picture of the menu (mostly for me to remember haha) and the first course: and I loved this, and I'm not even a huge coconut water drinker (yet… anyway). So this was a coconut water probiotonic with strawberry and mango. I could have had like at least 20 more of these… so delicious and refreshing. Alas, I needed to save room for what was to come! 

Second course: walnut, almond, cashew and sesame cluster with an orange tahini drizzle. Needless to say, yum. We both just wanted to pick this up and eat it with our hands (alas we did not… manners girls). It was hard to cut into, but once you got into it it was absolutely divine. Fruity, yet savoury. And the tahini was a winner… as tahini always is. 

Cucumber rolls with julienned seasonal vegetables, enoki mushrooms and kumara chips with spicy chilli chutney: This one may have been one of my favourites for the savouries… reasons: kumara chips (huge tick), the sauce was amazing (!!!) and the vegies were delicious. But I am terrible with favourites because… 

Holy mackeral… Beet ravioli with onion cashew cheeze and basil walnut pesto… oh my golly goodness. So… the cashew cheeze though. Amazing. Tasted like good french onion cream cheese… Like holy wow. And I love pesto, so needless to say this one won my heart. However…

Holy moly macaroni! I mean… parmigiana (hehe). Eggplant pastrami parmigiana with baby spinach, sundried tomato marinara and herbed cashew cheeze. I am a huge eggplant lover. And I am Italian. So basically, this was like a piece of my childhood but way more superior. And tastier, dare I say it. The sauce was a standout. The cheeze was amazing. The cool decoration even had a cheezy taste to it. Mmmmhmmm it was really really yum. We actually used our fingers to get everything off the plate (there go our manners). Now, onto desserts… 

Maddie and I definitely needed this after so many savoury flavours. Plus, this wasn't just an in between step, because this was great. Watermelon and papaya carpaccio with pecan and date crumble and vanilla lime dressing. The dressing was there in a hint, but it was fabulous and not over done. The crumble  was really delicate in flavour too, which allowed the true standouts of the fruit to come forth. Didn't dissapoint. Even with the following course… 

Last but no least… the real desserts! Guys, I got the most amazing raw cheezecake. It was Neopolitan… and it really was. It tasted like the ice cream cake from my birthday party memories. Except better. BETTER. So creamy, so ice cream cake like, the sauce with it was amazing (when is cacao not amazing let's be real) and the berry fudge on the side was fabulous as well. And Maddie got the Mango Float, and it was really yum too. Combined with the (surprisingly wow combo of) caramel sauce, I couldn't really pick a winner (well, maybe my cake was the winner… Sorry Maddie) 

All in all, I recommend anyone that can go to Sadhana Kitchen for the degustation to. Especially if you know little about raw vegan cuisine. I think it's a good eye opener. And it also suits experienced raw veganists, who want to experience their favourite cuisine style at night time without having to make it (I can't say cook because let's be honest nobody is cooking anything when you're raw vegan) yourself. :) 

Maz is lovely, and her kitchen staff are all creative geniuses. All in all, amazing night. I 10/10 recommend it to you. And if you can't go to the degustation, please just get yourself to Sadhana for breakfast lunch or somewhere in between. It is one of my favourite places to be! 

Sadhana Kitchen is at 147 Enmore Road, Enmore NSW 2024. 

Ph: 02 9516 1334 

E: hello@sadhanakitchen.com 

They are open 7 days a week 

9am-3:30pm dine in, 3:30-4:00pm takeaway only 

Friday nights at 7pm is the raw degustation dinner 

They also do lunch deliveries to your workplace… see their website for details!