Heart 1st cereal

I hope everyone had a great easter, loved my 5 day weekend!!!!! What did everyone get up to? I managed to hit the gym twice, watched a few episodes of Californication, read about 40 pages of Angels & Demons, watched Fast and furious 5, and ate SO MUCH FOOD! I had pretty much a food related event everyday.

Friday - yumcha

Saturday - house dinner

Sunday - picnic with friends, dinner at my uncles

Monday - lunch at my uncles, bbq with friends

Tuesday - lunch at my workmate's place, and sushi train for dinner

I feel totally bloated today :( Monday - Friday i can eat so damn well, and i squeeze in 2 hrs of exercise each day, but then come the weekend/holidays, i eat so badly..

So this morning I've taken out my box of health 1st cereal to have with banana and skim milk. I was sent this from Laura of Mark communications back in February, and since then I've finished it and bought another box to start on.

This cereal is sweetened not with sugar but with honey, golden syrup, cranberries, cinnamon and has three types of nuts almonds hazels and pecans, & 3 types of seeds flax, sunflower and buckwheat. What makes this cereal so good for you though, is the combination of wholegrain barley with wholegrain oat flakes, which leaves you feeling fuller, for longer, making it very low GI.

You can get more information on Superfoods other products here.

So this week i am very much detoxing! Lots of fruits, vegies, brown rice, lots of green tea, and two hours exercising everyday, eating so much junk on the long weekend has left me bloated and my body is really feeling the effects of eating bad foods.

Harvest Box Review- & a FREEBIE!

I'm sure anyone that work's in an office - will always get peckish mid afternoon, just before heading home for the day (well, i know i do!)

When i ignore this hunger i usually end up binge eating when i get home before dinner, which is so much worser then just having a little snack at work to keep hunger pangs at bay. But reaching for a coke, or chocolate, or biscuit - can be detrimental to your waistline :s

When i found out about HarvestBox through Jennifer, i knew it was what i needed for my health conscious self.

Harvest Box will deliver a package to you once, twice or three times a week (however often you want it) and there is also a rating system so that you can get your favourites (and avoid the one's you didn't like as much).

I have mine delivered once a week, and so far i love it! No longer am i starved till i get home, or craving junkfood at work, these little packages are yummy and nutritious and keep me satisfied :)

By the beach (my favourite so far!!)

brazil, coconut chip, macadamia, mango

Mont blanc

blueberry fusion, white chocolate, crown sultana

Latin swing

brazil, roast almond, macadamia

Everest & Beyond

date, goji berry, crown sultana

Now for the freebie :O)

If you head to www.harvestbox.com.au and punch in the code 551K8UKVA, you will get your first box FREE and 2nd box at half price.

Enjoy!

Cape Seed Loaf Give Away

WINNERS!

Thanks to the few who entered, the two winners are:

http://happynomnomnom.wordpress.com

http://foodboozeshoes.blogspot.com/

:O)

* * * * * *

I was recently sent a loaf of Baker's Delight Cape Seed bread, along with some vouchers to give away to my readers :)

Abit about the loaf:

Every Cape Seed Loaf Contains

• Iron – for healthy energy levels.
• Vitamin E – for healthy skin.
• Zinc – for a strong immune system.
• Calcium – for strong bones and teeth.
• Omega-3 ALA – to maintain a healthy body.
• Niacin – to help supply energy to the body.
• Magnesium – for healthy muscles.

And it's also

• High in fibre – for a healthy digestive system.
• Low GI (48) – for sustained energy.
• High in protein – for growth and repair of muscles.
• Rich in antioxidants – for general wellbeing.

I had recently tried this breakfast combo in the blue Mountains: Banana, ricotta, & honey. A relatively healthy breakfast idea!

I really enjoyed the seeds in this loaf, compared to a standard white or wholemeal slice of bread, the seeds give you a bit of crunch in every bite, & also, seed are good for you right?? hehe

I have two Cape Seed Loaf (regular size) vouchers to give away.

To enter the competition, leave a comment below or email bettypham20@gmail.com with your answer to the following question:

What would you put on your Cape Seed Loaf sandwich?

If you comment anonymously, please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are a winner. We will select our favourite responses and post the winners' names on this page by 10th September 2010.

Terms and Conditions
The competition is open to residents of Australia only.
There is a limit of one entry per person.
Unless selected as a winner, entrants will not receive any correspondence from us as a result of entering the competition.
Chance will play no part in the selection of the winner.
The competition commences on 1st September 2010 and closes at 11.59pm AEST on 9th September 2010.
There will be two winners, who will each receive a $5.00 voucher for one regular loaf of Bakers Delight Cape Seed bread.
The winners will be published on this page within seven days of the competition close date.
If a winner cannot be contacted within two weeks, another winner will be selected.

VITARIUM - Gluten Free pancake mix

Thank you to Genevieve from HAYSTAC for sending me a few VITARIUM products, she actualy let me pick and one of them was a pancake mix.

I havent really used my wilton color pastes, and have always wanted to make rainbow pancakes after seeing this post. Very small dabs of icing were needed to yield these bright colors so i'm very impressed, i'll never go back to liquid food colouring :)

The pancake batter was a bit thick, so they were slow to spread on the pan, and also burned quickly before the pancake was completely cooked (that could be my lack of pancaking skills), but it did taste nice, not as fluffy as i thought they would be though.

I loved making these rainbow pancakes, one packet made 7 large pancakes.

QUORN Product Review - Meat free Soy free Sausages

The final product i was given in the QUORN range were these sausages. I've had my fair share of not so great meat free sausages, usually they have a rubbery texture, not much flavour, and a bit sickening to eat. So i wasn't going to get my hopes up for these ones.

Straight out of the box, they didn't look too appetizing, but after pan frying them over medium heat in two tablespoons of vegetable oil, they turned a nice golden colour.

I didn't want any carbs with these, so i sauteed two small onions in a pan with a table spoon of olive oil, when they were soft i added 1/4 cup of honey, and 2 tablespoons basalmic vinegar, and let the basalmic vinegar evaporate before plating up.

I was aiming for a 'caramelized onion' look, but failed :( They still looked pretty white, and weren't as soft as i wanted them to be. Will need to read up on that sometime..

The verdict: these sausages are the nicest vegetarian ones i've had, by far. They are a lot like the texture of chicken sausages, these were my favourite kind of sausages back in my meat eating days. The onions were a nice accompaniment :O)

I would definitely buy these again, and maybe try a bangers and mash style meal. Big thanks to James for letting me use his camera, and also helping out with photo-taking :)!!!

QUORN Product review - Meat free Soy Free Mince

My 2nd post on QUORN products, stars a frozen packet of Mince. And my special vegetarian pasta recipe, that I've made time and time again, without fail, with whatever vegies i have on hand :)

I usually make a huge pot of this, and have it for lunch at work for a week. It's very healthy, full of vegetables, lots of garlic (i love my garlic!) and is definitely a satisfying meal for a vegetarian. So with the mince in the freezer i thought i'd add this in.

The product itself, does not look very appetizing (i wish i had taken a photo of it but its a bit hard when you're doing all the cooking!), its a dark grey brown colour and frozen into a big ball, i placed it in after the sauce was made, and crushed it up so that it could thaw and cook in the sauce.

The result? My yummy pasta sauce, with mince, that i would say... would be an 80% pass for a meat style pasta sauce. I think if i had added in two packets, it would've been nicer.

Chop up:

1-2 carrots

1-2 bulbs of garlic

2 white onions

small jar of sundried tomatoes

2 green capsicums

800g mushrooms

4 tomatoes

these can all vary, depending on what you have at home, or what vegetables you like more. I like to add in a small jar of olives as well if i have any :)

one packet of QUORN mince

adjust this to two packets if you can.

1 large jar dolmio sauce 'extra garlic'

1 large can whole peeled/crushed tomatoes

one packet of pasta

I'd never noticed this curly fettacine so decided to try it out, i think it gives the pasta a bit of a funky twist with all the curls :O)

Instructions:

1. Add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil into a pot, when heated up stir through the garlic and onion, with half a tablespoon of salt (so that the onions dont brown).

2. Add mushrooms and stir through till they have softened slightly, and have released some juices into the pan.

3. Stir through the canned tomatoes, and jar of sauce, crushing the whole tomatoes, while the sauce heats up.

4. Add the carrots, capsicum, chopped tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and stir through.

5. Over medium heat, stirring every 5 minutes, let the sauce simmer until the vegies are cooked.

*tip: microwave the carrot in a dish with half a cup of water, so that they don't take too long to cook in the pot.*

Bon Apetit!

Quorn Product Review - Meat free Soy Free Pieces

Fiona from Markcomms had sent me some products from the new Quorn range being released in Australia, and ofcourse i accepted - as these are vegetarian friendly products suited to non-meat eaters but also for people who want to eat healthy as well.

http://www.quorn.com.au

One of the products i received was meat-free & soy-free pieces which are frozen but can be cooked in the oven, microwave, or in a pan with some oil.

double product review

QUORN & PASSAGE TO THAILAND

I had bought this stir fry sauce a couple of weeks ago, was going to do a vegetable stir fry but never got around to it, so the timing was great when i received my QUORN products.

Real simple, two onions roughly chopped, stir fried with a table spoon of oil and then QUORN's Meat free and soy free pieces are added.

Stir until pieces are heated through, add stir-fry sauce, and stir until sauce is completely heated through. This didn't take long, i was done in less then 15 minutes!

The result? An imitation meat stir fry, the texture of the soy pieces didnt exactly replicate real chicken, but i'd say it was about 70% there :)

I told my sister it was a chicken stir fry, and she said it was really nice. She still doesnt know that it was 'fake' meat, should i tell her? hehe :P

Red pesto with fettacine with chilli garlic scallops

The first time i ever had my own jar of pesto, was when i went to the 2009 good food & wine show, and got a free showbag full of goodies. Lots of samples of food like pasta sauce, honey packets, rice, drinks and snacks of all sorts, there was a jar of red pesto. I had no idea pesto came in red (i always assumed it was the green stuff) and i had never tried it before.

I was visiting a friend after the show, going through all the goodies i had bought on the day, and realised i was really hungry, so he brought me a bowl of rice and i was curious to try the pesto ..

Yeah, a few people think its a bit odd that i had pesto sauce with rice, but it was seriously addicted & yummy! AFter that, i had a bit of an obsession and had it atleast 3 times a week.. with chopped cucumber, tomato, whatever fresh veggies i had in the fridge.

I did however get sick of this.. (its a vicious cycle of addiction and then having it to much i cant stand it anymore, it's happened with quite a few foods..). For about 6 mths i didnt have any pesto, until i came across this link, and i wanted to try it out.

Oh & yup i'm no longer fully vegetarian, i eat scallops and oysters because they have no face, so technically speaking, i'm a pesketarian again.

This is my preferred brand for tomato pesto, i've tried other brands but.. this one is the creamiest and most flavoursome one.

All i did was (sorry this isnt a proper recipe but i did sorta just make it up based on what ingredients i had at home)

some garlic

some olive oil

some scallops

make sure the oil is well heated (otherwise the scallops will release a lot of water)

and pan fry the garlic until fragrant, then add the scallops

so with scallops, to get that stripy grilled effect you need a cast iron griddle thing which i didn't have, and a really high heat stove. Mine wasn't heating it enough so i ended up draining the scallops of all the water that came out of them..

after, you get some pasta from the cold section at the shops, this is the fresh packet pasta that is already cooked so it doesn't take long to cook in boiling water, only about 5 minutes or so.

When that's done, stir through pesto (which is better if you preheat in a pan first), top with scallops, decorate with halved cherry tomatoes, and sprinkle with grated parmesan.

A fairly quick meal to get together, i found it a lil dry though, possibly because... i'm not sure. Its definitely not the creamiest pasta i've had, but the pesto is really strong so maybe extra pieces of avocado would help!

Mochi

My aunt had come back from Japan with some goodies, one of them being Mochi. Now i haven't had mochi before.. maybe the vietnamese kind but nothing REAL from jap.

The wrapping & cover box were pretty, the box cover had a cartoon illustration, looks like an eatery house of some sort?

There were two flavours, red bean & green tea (both my fav icecream flavours as well woohoo!)

These were really fresh (they must've been, my aunt told me not to leave them for too long because they were still fresh). Really soft and a nice chewable texture, unfortunately i didn't LOVE them, not something i'd go out & purchase myself anytime soon.

Here are a few Mochi recipes i've found on the interwebs, but i don't think i have the patience to handle something so sticky!

http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/05/red-bean-mochi-recipe.html

http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/09/02/coconut-jam-mochi-cakes/

http://citrusandcandy.com/2009/09/malaysian-favourites-loh-mai-chi-take-1.html

Birds Eye Vegetable Fingers

Before i stopped eating meat - i used to LOVE eating oven baked goodies like fish fingers, chicken nuggets, potato gems, potato chips, all those sorts of things. I remember back in high school, i would come home at 3 and put all these things under the grill and keep an eye on them, my two younger sisters would wait eagerly with their plate of tomato and BBQ sauce, waiting to dig in.

I miss fish fingers & chicken nuggets, so when i saw these at Coles supermarket - i had to buy them to try, hoping they would be like the real deal fish fingers i used to eat (alot) hehe.

One thursday night, i chucked a whole box of these under the grill, along with two handfuls of potato gems. Richard & I, armed with mayonnaise and ketchup, excitedly waiting for them to turn golden brown so we can eat (and watch UnderBelly heehee).

They look like fish fingers, with their bread crummy outsides, and inside, hot vegie mush consisting of peas carrots & potato. I much prefer these, as there was no fishy smell or taste. Oven baked (instead of frying) means there is less calories, and they didn't take too long at all. Only about 15 minutes under the grill (turning them over at half time).

These were great i just LOVE anything rolled in breadcrumbs and then grilled/fried. I wish junk food didn't have the high calorie price tag attached to them, i wish healthy food could taste as good as things like this.

Indulge your senses Pure Chai

So, bettysbites was sent a *first* product for reviewing from Rachel of Polarity Consultants. I was really excited to see an email in my inbox with "Product review request - Indulge Your Senses Pure Chai" & eagerly read on, replied, & shortly after - received a package in the post!

I'm a huge lover of chai, i don't drink coffee so chai is the next best hot drink for me.

Now i straight away made some for my boss & my workmates & ofcourse myself. I had received two canisters one of chocolate chai and the other vanilla and honey chai.

The results? Naveed loved it, and asked where he could buy some. Rahul, asked if he could start a food blog - would be get offered product reviews too? Hehe. & my boss, said it was to sweet for him (i should of thought twice before offering, as he only takes half a teaspoon of sugar in his coffee (and this drink requires atleast 2 teaspoons of powder to be stirred through)

I made two cups for myself (so naughty i know) and i preferred the vanilla honey over the chocolate, only because i felt like i was drinking chai more with the honey & vanilla flavouring, and the drink being a lighter colour.

When made with skim milk, these drinks are 99% free - no guilt included! Yet the flavours are so intense, something i won't feel guilty about indulging in every morning tea time.

Now, onto the icecream.. I was browsing blogs & came across Shez's 3 ingredient-no icecream maker needed- icecream, where she too had also been offered the same products.

I had always thought that icecream took a long time to make, and quicker with an icecream machine. So after reading her post, i most definitely had to try it out, All i needed to do was stop by the shops after work and buy a tub of thickened cream..

all you need is:

600ml thickened cream

1 can (375ml) condensed milk

2-3 heaped tablespoons of chai powder (i used chocolate)

Put all the ingredients into a bowl, and beat until the mixture doubles in size. Pack into containers & freeze for atleast 4 hours before eating. This process can be quickened by stirring through at half time to even out the cold icecream.

I have one container especially marked for my best friend Ann - she's gonna love it!

Shez used 2 tablespoons, but i reeally love the flavour of chai, and i think the colours in mine turned out abit more darker aswell.

Richard was the first to try the icecream (after me hehe) and he said the icecream was premium tasting - better then anything he's ever tried. Now i'm not sure if he's just over complimenting, but it was pretty good :) & i loved the fact that i could just whip it up in the morning quickly, and it was ready when i got home from work!