Fierce Kitten Breakfast

Entrée:

Smoothie with soy milk, half a banana, some spinach, 1/4 of an avocado and celery.
In a fancy Kriek Lindemans glass (not optional, it has to be a beer glass).

Main: 

Microwave Muffin!

In a mug combine 4 T of oatbran, a sprinkle of salt and a sprinkle of baking powder. Add 2 T of plain yoghurt and 2 T of coconut milk. Stir to combine.
Add an egg(white) and whisk until smooth.
Add ins: chopped almonds and chocolate chips.

Microwave on medium high for 2 to 3 minutes.

I topped mine with some more coconut milk but in order to make an extra fierce breakfast you can also top it with a coconut-peanut butter glaze: microwave one T of peanut butter until melted and whisk in 1 T of coconut milk, smother this on top of the muffin and sprinkle with some grated coconut, simple as that.

This breakfast will make you as fierce as a Mona-kitten chasing a scrunchie!

Love, M.

Mondays and Radical Self Love

I’m usually not such a Monday person, but this Monday has been great!
* Warning: an extremely random post will appear when you scroll down *

I started of the day with a breakfast date with my dad and the sis.
I was a bit  disappointed cause I really wanted to go to Le Pain Quotidien but it was too crowded. We went to some other place and while the food was not great I did really enjoy their company. Such a nice way to start a new week.

Lunch:

Cause all the cool kids have their lunch in coffee cups!
Smoothie with soy milk, half a banana, a couple of strawberries, lamb’s lettuce and avocado. Topped with flax seeds.

You can also see the things I spent the rest of my afternoon with in the background: photographs and a photo album!

I’m making an album for my godchild Floris, with all the photographs I took of his mum while she was pregnant, family photographs and pics of places I’d like to go see with him.

I also spent some time journalling: pasting in photographs, writing lyrics and inspirational quotes. I decided to make May the month of Radical Self Love, as seen by Gala Darling. More about my Radical Self Love challenge will follow in a later post but in the meantime you guys really should check out Gala’s site, I discovered it a while ago and she’s been such an inspiration.

On a total random note, I don’t know whether you guys can read it but my scrapbook is composed in some kind of gibberish language combining English, Dutch and sometimes even French. That’s just how my head works, I even find I do all my internal thinking and debating in English, so weird as my native tongue is Dutch.

Back to food: this, my dear friends, is my newest food combination obsession: banana with peanut butter and cottage cheese, I could eat only this for the rest of my days and be perfectly happy with it!

And here’s an exciting note to end on: tomorrow my yoga studio’s hosting a yoga marathon!

They will teach 4 yoga classes, marathon style, the money they make from these classes will be donated to support Cancer research. So I’ll be yogaing away all afternoon tomorrow! To help me through these hours I bought some liquid fuel in the form rice milk and a berry smoothie.

Love, M.

Running on Pink

I’ve been having the most productive week ever!
And it’s only Wednesday, so things can only get better.

So far I’ve been:

• catching up on courses I’ve been neglecting
• writing papers like my life depends on it (one of which on the development of dummy from the 16th century to now, such fun)
• rode on a bike in the city for the first time  (which was fun and scary at the same time)
• took 2 yoga classes in 2 days (vinyasa power and ashtanga)
• working on my gift for Floris (more about that later!)

My mind is on full speed, even though my body has not been really cooperating, I’ve been sporting a throat ache that is not really something serious yet but serious enough to bug the living hell out of me at night, which translates into some severe sleep deprivation.

But apparently you do not need sleep to be productive, as long as you have enough caffeine and strawberries at you disposal.

Overnight oats with coconut and strawberries to start the day of on the right foot.

Smoothie with banana, strawberries and some ice cubes to sooth the troubled throat.

Spring salad: Lamb’s lettuce with cherry tomatoes, radishes, asparagus and strawberries of course.

Today’s lunch on the go: quinoa and strawberries with an apple and cherry tomatoes on the side.

PS: there won’t be any photographs of Floris until the weekend as I’m stuck in Leuven for the week!

Love, M.

Got to have it all

All I could think about when I woke up this morning were oatmeal toppings!

I wanted granola, I wanted melted peanut butter, I wanted cottage cheese…
I did not want oatmeal however.

My craving for real Spring weather is not satisfied yet but my appetite has already decided that it is getting too much like Spring to keep on eating a steaming bowl of oatmeal in the morning.

Exit hot oatmeal, bring on the smoothies with oatmeal toppings!

In the smoothie: Soy milk, half a banana, 1/4 of an avocado and some lamb’s lettuce. Topped with: 5 t of cottage cheese and melted peanut butter.

This was really amazing!
You can’t call it a light smoothie by any means and I would not recommend drinking this (unless you’re used to drinking your cottage cheese, then go ahead) but it was a filling breakfast and it was really tasty.
I liked the texture as well, because I only used half a banana it wasn’t a thick smoothie but the cottage cheese made up for that lack of texture a lot.

Anyway, I think it’s time for cold oatmeal to make  a comeback, or else I’ll have to think of other, more Spring like breakfasts, all ideas are welcome!

Love, M.

Again with the Sweet Potato

Creamy, creamier, creamiest….

über-creamy!

Someone just had to invent a new word to describe the creamy factor of this bowl of oats.

‘Sweet Potato Cottage Cheese Oats’

• 40 gr (half a cup) of oats
• some water
• some soy milk
• half a sweet potato, prepared in the microwave
• 1 T of cottage cheese
• cinnamon

Add the oats and just enough water to cover them in a bowl. Microwave for one minute. Add the soy milk, half  a mashed sweet potato you prepared in the microwave first and 1 T of cottage cheese. Place it back in the microwave for 2 a 3 minutes. Top with some more cottage cheese and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Now I can hear you think:
“What the hell am I supposed to do with the other half of that sweet potato??”

Well, you use it in a smoothie, simple as that:

Smoothie with half a sweet potato (mashed), half a banana
and some lamb’s lettuce.

So there you have it, sweet potatoes have made their return, consider yourself warned!

Love, M.

Goodies

 

The ultimate breakfast smoothie with a banana, a couple of handfuls of spinach, a couple of handfuls of blue berries and a dash of star anise.
Topped with granola and mixed seeds: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and  pine nuts.

Apple Cinnamon tea! Just the smell makes me smile, it reminds me of those apple beignets we used to eat when we were little .

Vitalu Crackers with nuts and seeds

combined with cottage cheese or a dab of this:

Well, hello there giant peanut butter jar!

Lunch for the lazy, the busy and the healthy: take away from Mange-Tout with basmati rice, steamed veggies (zucchini, mushrooms and green beans) and curry sauce.

It was really yummy and packed with fresh foods, the only negative point was the sauce: it was good, but usually I like some sauce with my food and not the other way around. On the other hand the portions sizes definitely get bonus points, I split this up for lunch and dinner, so it’s very suitable for the super lazy and busy.

Love, M.

More Monsters

Whether they’re green or not, I’ve been on a real smoothie kick lately.

Smoothies are great brain food. They are light so they won’t leave you feeling all sleepy and they are packed with all sorts of goodies to keep you in top shape.

Some new things I’ve tried these last couple of weeks:

• All fruit smoothies: think lost of kiwis, grapes and lychees
• New types of greens to add into the smoothies: I’ve been hooked on lamb’s lettuce smoothies these last months but I also found back my first love: spinach. And a new green to end this list: zucchini!
• Toppings: I’ve always enjoyed nuts and seeds (think flax, almonds, sunflower seeds) but you have to promise me to try rice krispies in your smoothies, or as a topping on anything really cause rice krispies are amazing!

Maybe you haven’t noticed yet but I have a thing for rice krispies lately.
Bet you couldn’t tell it by the view of this bowl though, cause this is a moderate topping portion, obviously 😉

I also gave juicing a try this week, I started with spinach with a couple of grapes to give it a sweet extra, but this didn’t really convince me. Maybe I should add some kiwi next time?

Juice experiments: not bad, not great either…

Smoothie art: yoghurt swirl

But you don’t have to worry, my mum baked a chocolate cake so I’m balancing out all those fruits and veggies which just the right amount of cocoa!!

Love, M.

So, You’d rather have Cookies for Breakfast?

 

This morning I was still on a yoga-high from last night’s class and the wonderful view  only added to my excitement.

It’s a glorious, icy morning in Leuven. 
When we were little and the sky was in a pink haze our mum would always tell us  that ‘Sinterklaas’ was  baking cookies for the good kids (for those of you who don’t know Sinterklaas, it’s a Belgium tradition for the kids to get presents on the 6th of December from Sinterklaasn but only if they have been good ).

Anyway, thinking about Sinterklaas and cookies inspired a great smoothie idea.

‘Petit Beurre Green Monster’

Cookies and veggies for breakfast, bet you never saw this combo coming?!

Add one or two petit beurre cookies to 200 ml of soy milk, let it sit for a while so the milk can take in some of the flavours. If you use one cookie you’ll get a very subtle petit beurre flavour,so add some more if you want it to be more noticeable.

In a blender add the cookie-milk, one very ripe banana, a few handfuls of spinach or lamb’s lettuce and a couple of dashes of cinnamon. Blend it all together.

I topped mine with some rice flakes and more cinnamon, granola would be great, petit beurre crumbles would be sublime!

So there you have it, cookies for breakfast!

Love, M.

It’s a freakin’ Milkshake

Look at this lad, doesn’t he look smart!

I’ve downed this bad boy about a minute ago, I still have an orange tinted milk moustache as we speak…

But the world just needs to know about this recipe asap, it would be a great deprivation for the blogging community to wait any longer to post it.
So I’ll just bear with the moustache until it’s posted, I’ll clean up my face and the mess I’ve made in the kitchen as soon as the world know about this guy!
(talking about making sacrifices for the good of all mankind ;))

‘Pumpkin Smoothie Milkshake’

In a blender combine about 100 ml (1/2 a cup) of soy milk, 1/4 a cup of pumpkin, half a frozen and extremely ripe banana, a couple of tablespoons of greek yoghurt, loads of cinnamon and a few dashes of nutmeg. Optional addings: some honey or agave, 1t of cocoa powder,…

Now blend away, and keep blending, and keep blending…. till it’s all thick and creamy and wonderful.
This my friends, is the moment in which a simple smoothie gets transformed into an almost milkshake!

Now, go make it, enjoy it, feel very sad when you’ve finished it and never,ever in your life feel the need to have a real milkshake again!

Love, M.

Today’s Special: Pumpkin

Good Morning, and welcome to Mixxedtape’s breakfast bar.
Today’s specials are all in a pumpkin theme: what do you think about a Pumpkin Pie Monster for breakfast, or maybe some Pumpkin Overnight Oats?!

Yes, I’m guilty, I’m going to eat breakfast twice again today (one regular breakfast and I’m planning on having breakfast for dinner tonight, just because I can ;))

I used to say I’m not a ‘smoothie for breakfast’ person, it had something to do with drinking your breakfast and the lack of chew, so now I eat my breakfast smoothies out of a bowl and I add nuts/seeds/oats/granola…. to make it a bit crunchy.
I’m definitely a ‘smoothie for breakfast’ person now!

‘Pumpkin Pie Monster’

In the mix: a cup of soy milk, half a cup of pumpkin, one banana, a couple of handfuls of lamb’s lettuce, flax seed and cinnamon and nutmeg to spice it all up.
I’d highly recommend on adding a frozen banana or some ice-cubes in there,cause the iciness gives such a nice contrast to the nutmeg.

And it gets even better, I added half a teaspoon of melted peanut butter on top and it was just splendid.
Also fun: when your smoothie’s cold enough the peanut butter will get solid again and you get all these nice peanut butter chunks in your smoothie (if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about now, just try it, it’s fun and yummy!).

After the smoothie was consumed, I hit the kitchen to craft some overnight oats (with leftovers!)

‘Pumpkin Overnight Oats’

• half a cup of oats
• some boiling water
• half a cup of Greek yoghurt
• pumpkin
• half an apple, chopped
• almonds, chopped (I would have liked walnuts but didn’t have any, if you do have walnuts, please use them!)
• cinnamon
• optional: a teaspoon of brown sugar

Pour some boiling water over your oats (not too much) and let it sit for a while until all the liquid is absorbed.
In the meantime blend together the yoghurt, pumpkin, apple and nut chunks and the spices. Combine everything and pop it in the fridge overnight (or if your planning a ‘breakfast for dinner’: pop it in the fridge for a few hours).

I can’t wait for dinner!

I’ve just had a sneak peek (and taste) and the mixture has become all thick and creamy, almost batter- like. And it tastes superb (I can’t blog about it unless I know it’s edible, right? 😉 okay okay, I just wanted to taste it and needed an excuse).

Love, M.