3 months *correction* YEARS! Blogiversary

How could i almost miss out on my Bettysbites blogiversary...!

It's been THREE years since my first ever post and although i don't update as much as i used to (or even want to) i still love doing it - just lately life has been getting the better of me - the days are getting shorter and time is not as available as it once used to be.

My spare time is juggled between family, staying fit & healthy (includes gym time, sports comps, planning meals), Bigbear, friends, and sometimes when i feel like it is all too much for me, i try to remember to be thankful for the life that i have, and the people that are a part of it.

My blog always cheers me up though, and also browsing food blogs has become part of my daily rituals, food makes me happy and to see it make other people happy makes me happy too :D

A big thank you to my readers i dont know exactly how many there are of you but i do truly appreciate the time you spend reading my foodblog!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the things i've been up to lately - nothing too exciting but i couldnt sign off my post with zero pictures..!

bringing out my inner kid - making waterballoons on a hot day

baking (with Natalie!) for friends birthdays: red velvet and cream cheese babycakes

check out her awesome fashion blog lucyandtherunaways i am a dedicated reader :):)

more baking for friends: cheese cake brownies

helping my cousin bake a 4 color layered cake for her best friends birthday

a simple yet beautiful quinoa salad

I quickly whipped this up this morning, with ingredients that were already in the fridge and pantry. I'm lucky in a sense that my parents very much always have fresh produce in the fridge so we are never without healthy ingredients. The cherry tomatoes are from our garden, which are ever so sweet once you try them you won't want to buy it from the supermarket again!

Quinoa is my preferred carb intake at the moment, and has been for the past few months. It's healthy, good for you, very filling with a low GI number, and its SO easy to make. Its similar to cous cous, but i dont think it is a grain, it is a superfood seed, gluten free and is busting with nutrients.

How to cook quinoa:

- measure out a 1:2 quinoa: water ratio (e.g 1 cup quinoa with 2 cupcs water)

- bring to the boil in a saucepan over high heat until boiling

- simmerfor 10-15 minutes (or until water has evaporated)

- be careful not to let it scorch on the bottom, keep a watch on it after 7 minutes as you want to take it off the heat as soon as there's no more liquid

- let it cool in the saucepan until completely cool.

- then, dress with veggies, protein (chicken/fish), and make a delicious dressing like the one i have given below :)

2 tbs rice vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

dash of sesame oil

mix together until sugar has dissolved.

Its a very easy but delicious dressing for any quinoa salad no matter what you put in it. I always add a can of lentils to my quinoa salads (or chickpeas), and i chuck in every possible vegetable that i have to make it super filling.

I hope you give this recipe a go, or even better- give QUINOA a go! Its so delicious and you know its so good for you.

Wetherill Park Tafe - The Restaurant

My friend Dabinh told me about this restaurant, which is located at the TAFE that she works at. After about 2 months we finally got seated for lunch (after a few cancellations and postponing).

The Restaurant is run with the students of the Tourism block, a chance for them to experience first hand how it feels to work in the industry - i think this is a great idea!

I know a friend of a friend (as cliche as that sounds i am not making this up lolz) that has dined at the restaurant every fortnight on a Friday night for the last EIGHT years. WOW i know. Their dinners and lunch days vary, each month there are only specific days that they take bookings, i'll leave some details at the end of the post on how you can find this out.

bread roll with butter

Dabinh said usually the rol is warm but today it seems that we got our one cold. And cold was the butter as well, too cold to spread with :(

love the flower decoration!

entree: pumpkin basil and feta cheese tart

My friend is a vegetarian, so they made up a separate dish for her. A simple kind of tart, no dressing on the pumpkin and feta it seemed, and the pastry slightly cracked and dry, the olive oil and balsamic vinegar would've been better in the tart rather then decorated on the plate.

entree: bucatini with garlic prawns

The size of my entree was medium sized, i had 3 large prawns, and was fascinated at the type of pasta it came with - bucatini (thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center). The sauce could've been thicker as i found it a bit plain, but the pasta was cooked al dente.

main: olive and sundried tomato pasta

This pasta dish wasnt as dry, but as a vegetarian main, i think some more ingredients could've been added. Dabinh enjoyed it though, and the serving was massive!

main: salmon with satay coconut sauce and citrus mash

My main was the last to come out, i liked the arrangement and the coconut satay sauce - i wish i had more! It was delicious i loved the flavors and my salmon was cooked well. The citrus mash paired well with the salty sweet sauce, i really enjoyed it :)

dessert: little mango served with fresh cream

We decided to share dessert since the entree and mains were quite big, the pool of caramel/toffee sauce was sticky and sweet, underneath the layers of mango was a semolina based cake i think. A really simple dessert which we both enjoyed.

All entrees mains and desserts were $6 each (a bargain totally!), and i was very full from lunch, when i got back to my desk i was in food coma sleepy mode hehehe. I'd love to come back for dinner one night, at $25 it won't affect the wallet much!

The Restaurant offers dinner, which is 3 courses for $25.

Contact the restaurant for enquiries and available dates through

Elizabeth McDermott: Elizabeth.Mcdermott5@det.nsw.edu.au

Phone: 02 9829 9740

Almond chickpea cookies with chia seeds and dark choc buttons

My girlfriend Stella is going on a hectic trip around Asia, leaving today so when we met up on the weekend i just had to make her some going away treats to enjoy for her last weekend in Sydney.

She can't eat anything gluten so lately i have been saving lots of gluten free baking recipes in Evernote (i strongly recommend using Evernote its just a neat little program that lets you save pages or sections on the internet for viewing later on). This is one of the recipes i had in mind for her, these are gluten free and vegan (except i didnt use vegan chocolate)

I recently switched to almond butter instead of peanut butter but i didn't take a liking to it .. so I'm back to KRAFT's crunchy PB :) So i had exactly half a cup of almond chia seed spread enough for this recipe!

These are incredibly simple to make. In comparison to other flours, chickpea flour has a higher protein count, and also i just found out that when you mix equal parts with water - it becomes an egg replacer in vegan cooking!

I love the sprinkle of almond meal and sea salt on top before baking, this really gives it another dimension of yummy. But ofcourse you can keep them plain and simple and omit the chocolate chips as well.

Recipe from familyfreshcooking.com

Almond Chickpea Cookies

Makes about 14 cookies

NOTES:

If you do not have garbanzo flour you could also try using oat flour or corn flour. Here is how to make roasted or unroasted chickpea flour at home.

I used smooth natural salted almond butter. Crunchy would be tasty too. Be sure to stir in all the oil that has risen to the top of the jar so you can easily combine the nut butter into the batter.

Add some chocolate chips for a slightly more indulgent cookie.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Garbanzo (Chickpea) Flour

1 cup Brown Rice Flour (i used rice flour)

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 teaspoon fine Sea Salt

1/2 cup Almond Butter (i used almond chia seed butter)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

4 full droppers Plain Stevia Drops or an equivalent of 4 teaspoons sugar

3/4 cup light unsweetened Coconut Milk

OPTIONAL GARNISH

1/4 cup Almond Flour

a few pinches of fine Sea Salt

a sprinkle of Sucanat or Stevia Powder

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350˚F with the rack in the middle.

Prepare cookie sheet with Silpat or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients.

In another bowl mix together wet ingredients.

Combine wet and dry ingredients to form a batter.

Taste the batter and add more sweetener if desired.

Make cookie shapes with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter per cookie.

Flatten with your hands and press almond meal into the tops.

Sprinkle on some salt.

Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.

Let the cookies cool for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

Enjoy!

Stella i hope you have an awesome trip around Asia, lots of eating sight seeing and back packing around, see you when you get back xx


And also, you might have heard of a new frozen yogurt joint in Strathfield (maybe not new, but it was new to me!) it's called MOOCHI and its a small shop with limited tables but always has a line but its totally worth the wait!

On the night that i went they had yogurt flavours plain, green tea, pomegranate, and ?, but we were told they change the flavours around and have also had mango at one point (yum!)

They have mini, small, medium and large sizes i think, the large one is pretty big i noticed a few people got them in take away. There are lots of different topping options (all 50 cents each topping) they had lots of fruits, marshmallows, chocolate chips, biscuits, cereal toppings, very very exciting but for indecisive people like me it can be a bit of a head ache haha.

(left cup) berry and pomegranate yogurt with strawberries

Shop 1, 7-9 Churchill Ave Strathfield NSW 2135 info@iheartmoochi.com.au

(front cup) green tea yogurt with strawberries and lychee