Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Oat Cookies - 3 ingredients (sans optional extras)

So after Tuesday's healthy banana pancakes - which turned out to be amazingly delicious, I have been very intrigued by the idea of baking with bananas (besides banana bread)! That along with my recent lus (for lack of a better word!) for crunchy oat cookies got the gears in my brain turning.

So I thought ... surely if I could bake a pancake with banana and eggs, I could make an oat cookie using a similar method. So I turned to trusty old pinterest to see if it has been done, I went through tons of recipes, a lot of them called for apple sauce, some called for vanilla essence, flaxseed, almond milk, the varieties are endless.

So based on what I read I decided to give it a go, with peanut butter of course, that's why they are 3 ingredient cookies, but if you don't dig the PB then skip it and turn them into 2 ingredient cookies!!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
1 cup of raw instant oats (give or take, depending on the size of your bananas)
2 teaspoons of peanut butter

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Using a fork mash up the bananas in a bowl, try to get it quite smooth.
Add the oats and mix thoroughly until well combined. If you are using large bananas you'll need more than one cup of oats, otherwise your cookies won't be very crunchy but rather dense and chewy.

Mix in the peanut butter.
Once everything is well combined, add in your optional extras (apple and cinnamon, fudge pieces, dried cranberries, nuts and raisins or choc chips).
I went for the dark choc chips!

Roll the dough into balls of your preferred size and place them on a greased baking sheet. (I lined our oven pan with tin foil and sprayed it with cooking spray.)
Flatten the dough balls out, they don't spread or rise so you don't have to accommodate for a cookie spread when you place them on the tray.

Pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, the tops will go golden brown and the edges of the cookie will start browning.
Once they are ready, take them out the oven and let them cool.

The recipe yields between 12-16 cookies and the hardest part is not eating them all on the same day they were made...we did! OOPS!

At least we don't have to feel guilty about it, it was really just a banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter and half a cup of oats each with a sprinkling of choc chips!

They are surprisingly filling and would be great for breakfast on the go, or a pre/post workout snack.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any interesting variations I can try!!

Shrove Tuesday AKA Pancake Day

Since tomorrow is it's almost Shrove Tuesday AKA Pancake day here in London, I am going to share 2 recipes with you...

1 - The healthy banana pancake recipe I plan on trying for breakfast tomorrow morning (follow me on Instagram if you want to see how it turns out).

So since I started Kayla Itsines again today after a few months of being WAAAY to inactive, I decided to try healthy pancakes for Pancake day tomorrow!

I found the recipe for 4 ingredient choc chip pancakes here, but I'll be adapting it a little...

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of ripe mashed banana
A pinch of baking powder

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Heat your pan and coat it with spray and cook.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan and spread it into a circle.

Let it cook until it's light brown, flip it over when the edges are dry and the bottom is pretty golden.  Cook it for about a minute on the other side.

Put the pancake in a plate to one side.

Continue making pancakes until all the batter is used up.

I'll be having my pancakes topped with peanut butter and apple, don't judge...just try it!!

2 - The recipe for the French crepes I made for Valentine's Breakfast this weekend.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of flour - sifted
250ml water
300ml milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Butter/spray and cook to coat the pan

Method:

In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together, except the butter.

Make sure there are no lumps and the batter is well combined.

Set the batter aside for about an hour is better, or overnight in the fridge if possible.

Heat the pan over medium-high heat, melt a little bit of butter, just enough to lightly coat the pan, or coat it with spray and cook.

Pour the batter into center of pan, jug, cup or ladle. 

Spread with the ladle/swirl the batter until you've made a circle.

Cook for 2 minutes or until the edges start browning and bubbles form in the batter.

Flip (with the mad skills that I know you possess) and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.

Place the crepe in a plate to one side, continue making crepes until all the batter has been used up.

Re-grease the pan every few crepes.

Once all the batter has been used up, you can add all kinds of awesomeness to the crepes.

We melted nutella in and folded them over French style, and then served them with fresh dark red cherries and blueberries.

Note - I added a little extra milk to make batter and crepes thinner. You can play around according to your preference.

I was going to share Aunty Annies awesome pancake recipe with you but I need to find the additional notes to it, so keep an eye out for our recipe for awesome pancakes.

For a yummy savoury filling in your pancake/crepe try filling it with some cheese, a sprinkle of aromat and a few drops of tabasco, then pop it in the microwave until the cheese melts...AMAZEBALLS!!

What will you be making for pancake day? Traditional pancakes or something a little different?

South Africa's Best Chocolate Cake

I think it's about time I share with you all the recipe for South Africa's Best Chocolate Cake. I know I've been bragging about this a little (I do deserve to though), and I've been promising the recipe for a while now. A wise person once said, no good story starts with a salad, and I couldn't agree more!

This story starts with my Gran. She found the Best Chocolate Cake Competition in the Sunday Times and insisted I enter, she even drove out to drop the article off at my house so I could get all the details. I literally left it to the last minute, after contemplating entering and thinking up ideas for my cake (the cakes had to be original), I entered in the last couple of days. Shortly after entering I got a phone call from Hillary Biller, food editor for Sunday Times, she called to tell me that out of hundreds of applicants I had been shortlisted to the final 6. We were to compete in a bake off at Sandton City Shopping Centre on 14 September 2013. I could hardly believe it!

So on the 13th of September the finalists met up with a few of the judges, we had drinks, followed by a wonderful dinner at The Walnut Grove in Sandton City, we spent the evening making new friends and chatting about baking and food in general, it was clear to see that everyone at the table had a passion for good food! After dinner we set off to take a sneak peek at our bake stations for the next day.

Then it was off to bed, we spent the night at the Sandton Sun in complete luxury, but with hearts racing and tummies full of butterflies it wasn't easy to fall asleep.

On the morning of the 14th we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the day ahead. After a scrumptious breakfast we headed down to the bake stations and so it began, checking that all our ingredients were there, sending people to get what was missing, preparing our stations, setting our ovens, measuring out ingredients, prepping our pans and doing interviews with the press, there were soooo many cameras!!

At 11 we were told to start, this was some serious Masterchef stuff going on! Everyone was hurrying around popping cakes in the ovens, the area filling with a strong sweet smell of chocolate, it was incredible. About 15 minutes after I put my cake in the oven I realised I had forgotten to set the timer, I was panicked but kept my cool and decided to just wait and see what happened. In the mean while I prepped the decorations and chatted to the TV people.

After a few hours we had all finished our cakes and had them on display, photo ready! Not one cake was similar to the next, brandy, granadilla, orange and strawberries had all found their way into the mix! After a miniature photo shoot the judges got a bit of each cake and had to judge them one by one, this was nerve wrecking, waiting to hear the outcome. Eventually the winners were announced and much to my delight and surprise I came out on top! It was the most amazing feeling!

Ok! I think I've kept you long enough, so here it is, the recipe for South Africa's Best Chocolate Cake:

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour
¾ cups cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups sugar
½ cup oil
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease two 23cm round cake pans well using spray and cook.
2. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.
3. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence and beat with an electric mixer for about two minutes. Add the boiling water and mix until combined. The batter will be quite runny, this makes the cake nice and moist.
4. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes.
5. To test if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick into the middle of the pan. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Slide a knife around the edge of each cake to loosen it from the pan, turn the pan over onto a metal rack to cool.
6. Let the cake cool completely before icing.

Chocolate Ganache Icing Ingredients:
200g of chocolate (dark or milk or a combination)
200ml double cream

Method:
1. Heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat on the stove until the chocolate melts.
2. Remove the pan from the stove and whisk the mixture until smooth glossy and thickened..
3. Put aside to cool and until the icing is thick enough to spread over the cake.

Decorations:
+/- 40 flake chocolates cut to size Fresh strawberries (washed) for decorating
150ml cream
1.5m Pretty ribbon of choice

Method:
1. Beat the cream until thick and spread in between the 2 layers of the cake. You can add a pinch of sugar to help thicken the cream.
2. Ice the entire cake with chocolate ganache icing.
3. Thinly slice the strawberries and arrange them in fans ontop of the cake. They should be placed along the edge of the cake, leaving the centre of the cake open for decoration/candles, etc or for more strawberries.
4. Stick the flake fingers to the icing around the sides of the cake ensuring the entire cake is “surrounded” by flake fingers.
5. Once the entire cake is covered tie the ribbon around the cake.

Serve and enjoy!!

If you give my cake a try please do let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy baking it as much as I do, and I'm sure you're going to love it!

**Photo's taken by myself, Mariaan De Klerk and The Sunday Times

#Blogtober14 Days 12 & 13

I missed day 12, BUT since there aren't really any rules when it comes to blogtober, AND since rules are made to be broken, today I will post day 12 and day 13.

#Blogtober14 Day 12 - The best advice...
I have received so much good advice in my short lifetime from family, friends, colleagues, clients and pinterest...this makes deciding which piece of advice is the best a difficult task.

The following rank in my top three:
1. Don't compare your chapter 1 to someone else's chapter 20.
2. Do what makes you happy.
3. Don't change who you are for anyone, be yourself, you are unique and special.

  

So that's that, a few wise words to start off your week!

#Blogtober14 Day 13 - My favourite fall recipe...

Since fall is all about the pumpkins, and even though it isn't fall over here, today I will share a South African favourite with you guys - Pumpkin fritters (Pampoenkoekies as known by Afrikaans people) from the Hibiscus coast seconds website, I don't have my family recipe on hand at the moment.

Pumpkin fritters are delicious, especially when served warm with crunchy cinnamon sugar, the are usually served as a side dish for a main meal but its so sweet you can almost serve it as desert!

What you're gonna need:
500 g pumpkin
1 cup plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

How you're gonna do it:
First you steam the pumpkin until tender. Mash thoroughly and allow to cool.
Then you combine the cooled pumpkin, flour, egg, baking powder and salt.
In a non-stick frying pan, add a drizzle of vegetable oil.
Using a bit of kitchen paper, spread the oil lightly around the pan.
Then spoon tablespoons of the pumpkin batter into the pan and fry over a medium heat.
After a couple minutes, flip the fritters over and lightly press to spread the batter out slightly.
Cook for another 3 minutes and flip over again. Give them another couple of minutes per side.
Remove from the pan and place on kitchen paper.
Whilst still warm, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve.

Enjoy!

*Image sourced from Pinterest

The Londoners Guilt Free Dairy Free "Ice Cream"

Although it's a little late, as promised yesterday..here it is!
A healthy, guilt-free, dairy-free "Ice Cream" that will not de-rail your diet but is oh-so delicious!

I first found this recipe over on The Londoner's blog (her pics are waaaay better than mine...but I'm working on it, so for now - please excuse me), Rose has tons of awesome recipes, I still have a few I want to try! I followed her instructions, it's easy peasy and only takes a few minutes - but I hate chopping hard things in the blender, it gives me the heebie jeebies!!
So the next time I made this "Ice Cream" I used the same concept but did it a little differently.

What you'll need:

4-5 Bananas - not too ripe
Flavouring of your choice

How you'll do it:
Peel your bananas and cut them into chunks. (Rose tells you to freeze your bananas after this step)

Toss them into your blender/food processor/smoothie maker or any other pulverising device.

Pulse the blender until your bananas are a nice smooth consistent mush.

Add your flavouring and blend well - I made chocolate and split it into 2 portions (one plain chocolate and the other with a teaspoon of peanut butter!) You can really use any flavouring you like. I plan on adding some fresh strawberries to my next batch! Oooh and maybe I'll make a coffee batch as well...just thought of that and it sounds good, I can imagine it would taste like a freezo, YUM!!

Decant the contents of your blender into a freezer bowl, and pop it into the freezer. Leave it in the freezer depending on how you like your ice cream, I freeze mine for a couple of hours because I like my ice cream to be firm. If you like it a little mushy and melted then an hour should be just fine.

I like eating mine straight out of the freezer bowl but you could always scoop and serve if you feel like sharing! You can top it with fresh berries, chopped nuts or anything else that tickles your fancy!

What I like about this recipe is the fact that its good for pretty much everyone, lactose intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, you name it! Also, the banana flavour doesn't really come through unless your bananas are over-ripe. I also think it's really  important to use a good quality flavouring because, well that's what ice cream is all about!

I like making a big batch of this ice cream (chocolate of course) and freezing it, that way whenever my sweet tooth is calling, I have a healthy but satisfying snack at my fingertips!

Chocolate Fondant with a South African Twist

Firstly I'd like to say "Bonjour!" to my newly acquired French readers! It's so exciting to see that my blog is reaching all corners of the globe!!

So, ever since my first trip to Mozambique in February 2013, I cannot get enough of chocolate fondant.
We went to a restaurant called Zambi and we had the most amazing prawns for dinner, followed by an even more delightful dessert...Chocolate Fondant.

Alot of people confuse chocolate fondant with your normal fondant that is used for decorating cakes. There's a major difference though, Chocolate Fondant is easily 1000 times more tasty than fondant icing, and blatantly put - it's your diet's worst nightmare!!

When I got back to Jo'burg I searched high and low for a restaurant that sold chocolate fondant that was as unashamedly chocolatey and downright delicious, as the one I had had in Mozambique, but NONE came close.

I had no choice but to find a recipe!! So I went digging through our recipe books at home, and as usual Mr Ramsay never disappoints!

If you're a chocolate lover like me, then you are highly likely to fall in love with this quick and easy recipe, if you're not then I think you need to pay a visit to your doctor because there's obviously something wrong with you!

Unfortunately we can't live off of these decadent little desserts, well, technically we could, but it isn't recommended! So, just as it goes with all the finer things in life, when trying to stay healthy, moderation is key!

This recipe yields 4 servings and is best served straight out the oven, otherwise your gooey chocolate centre disappears!

What you'll need:

4 7.5cm ramekins (you can also use muffin pans)
50g unsalted butter, plus extra, softened, to grease the ramekins
2 tsp cocoa powder, to dust
50g good-quality dark, bitter chocolate(minimum 70% cocoa solids), broken up in pieces - I use Lindt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
60g caster sugar
2 tbsp Amarula - this is a delicious South African liqueur (Any other liqueur such as Tia Maria/Frangelico will work)
50g plain flour, sifted
Vanilla ice cream or crème fraiche to serve

How you'll do it:

1. Heat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Butter your ramekins and dust liberally with cocoa powder. Make sure you cover all the nooks and crannies so your fondants don't get stuck!Place in the fridge while you prepare the fondant mixture.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water, or in the microwave. Take it off the heat and stir until smooth.
3. Using an electric whisk, beat the whole egg, the egg yolk and the sugar together in a separate bowl, until pale and thick, then fold in the chocolate mixture. Fold in the liqueur, followed by the flour.

4. Divide the chocolate mixture evenly among the ramekins and bake in the oven for 12 minutes.

5. Run a knife around the edge of the dishes and turn the chocolate fondants out onto warm plates. Alternatively you can leave them in the ramekins. (But then your amazing chocolate river will not ooze out the middle when you break it open for the first bite!)
6. Serve immediately, with a dollop of crème fraîche or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

And ENJOY your tiny taste of heaven!!

Red Velvet Romany Cream Cupcakes

I don't know if they have Romany Creams anywhere other than South Africa...is it like Peppermint Crisp, that you can only find it here?
Surely there's an alternative out there somewhere!! There has to be in order to make these delicious little monsters!!

For those of you that don't know what a Romany Cream is....it's like one of my most favouritest cookies EVER!! There are a few other cookies that I like more, but they are all home-made. I will be sure to share the recipes...EVENTUALLY!

Romany Creams are the most delightful chocolate coconut cookies that are sandwiched together with a milk chocolate filling. If you dunk them in your tea for a second or two, the chocolate filling melts a little and it tastes like heaven!!

 

I have tried to make my own Romany Creams but nothing comes close to the real deal! Only the bakers man can!! 

This recipe yields 30 delicious cupcakes all in less than 2 hours!

So this is how it goes:

What you'll need:

Cupcakes
2 1/2 Cups of Flour
30 ml Cocoa
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking soda)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Butter (Unsalted, Softened)
1/3 Cup Cooking Oil
2 Cups of Sugar
4 Large Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Milk
30 ml Red Food Colouring
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
+/-15  Romany Cream Cookies

Cream Cheese Vanilla Frosting
250 grams Plain Cream Cheese
1/4 Cup Butter/White Margarine
2 tbsp Sour Cream
+/- 600 grams Icing Sugar (Sifted)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
+/-7 Romany Cream Cookies (Depending on how sweet you like your icing!)
15 Cookies for decorating

How you'll do it:

Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180° C. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a medium sized bowl, set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Mix in the sour cream, milk, oil, food colouring and vanilla essence until well blended.
3. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on a low speed until just blended. Do not over blend.
4. Crush the cookies until quite fine and stir them into the cupcake batter.
5. Line your cupcake pans with paper cupcake cups, and spoon the batter into the cups filling each one 2/3rds full.
6. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes/until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool before icing.

Cream Cheese Vanilla Frosting
Beat the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar until smooth. Split the 7 cookies and remove the milk chocolate from both sides of each cookie. Pulse the cookies in a blender/food processor until its a really fine crumby consistency. It is important that there are no large chunks of cookie because they will clog the piping tip. Stir the cookie crumbs into the icing. Use a Wilton 1M tip to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes. Cut the remaining cookies in half and place a half cookie on top of each cupcake and Voila! You're done! 30 delicious little monsters waiting to sabotage your diet!! But hey it's all about moderation!

I really hope you enjoy the cupcakes as much as I do!

Kickass Carb-Free Chilli Beef Lettuce Wraps

Ok so this is my absolute most favouritest way to cook beef mince!  It's just amazeballs! 

Beside the fact that it's super tasty and easy to make, the best part about it is that it only takes 10 minutes to make!

Carb Free Chilli Beef Lettuce Wraps

We adapted the recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course.

It's a great dish for a hot summer night, when you want something fresh and light!

This recipe makes a good serving for 2 - 3 people, along with a side of your choice, we usually have ours with a salad or veggies.

What you're gonna need:

Olive oil for frying
400 - 450g lean beef mince
1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil for frying
1 – 2 red chillis – finely chopped
A sprinkle of ground ginger
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or 1 heaped teaspoon of crushed garlic)
1 tbsp brown sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lime/lemon
Salt, Black Pepper and "Steak and Chop Spice"
2 little gem lettuce separated into leaves

Sweet and spicy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 – 2 tsp durky sauce
1/2 chopped chilli (leave the seeds in for extra heat)
The juice of 1/2 a lime

How you're gonna do it:

Heat a large frying pan and add a little olive oil to warm. Season the mince with salt, pepper and steak and chop spice and mix to ensure the seasoning is evenly distributed.

Fry the mince in the hot pan for five to seven minutes until crisp and brown and broken down to a fine consistency.

Drain the crispy mince in a sieve and set it aside – this will help it stay crispy.

Using the same pan, add a tablespoon of sesame oil, the garlic, ginger, chilli and sugar and fry for about 2 minutes - Don't burn it!

Add the drained mince and stir it up.

Add the lemon juice and zest and heat through. Stir for about thirty seconds. Turn off the heat.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a sauce jug and adjust to taste.

To serve, spoon some of the mince mixture into the lettuce leaves, please for the love of all things grown in the earth, wash your lettuce leaves before you use them!! Haha! Drizzle with a little dressing and dig in to the most amazeballs lettuce wraps ever!!

I know a picture is worth a thousand words but pictures seriously don't do this dish justice!!

Cream Cheese Craziness

I love cream cheese!
I love it on crackers with sweet chilli sauce, I love it in my sushi, I love it on toast with smoked salmon, I love raw carrots dipped in it (especially if it's the smoked salmon flavoured cream cheese), but mostly I love cream cheese in frosting on cake!

This week was my boss's birthday and since I'm the resident baker in our office I was happily recruited to bake the cakes! Yip CAKES, not one, but two delicious cakes with cream cheese frosting! (Seems to me that we have more than just crunching numbers in common!)

The choices were Red Velvet and Carrot Cake - both tried and tested favourites! :)

So there I am on Thursday night, in my element, baking away!

Red velvet cake in the making.

A couple hours and quite a few dirty dishes later I was done...Happy with my nights work, and off to bed with the house smelling like a bakery!

Delicious Red Velvet Cake

Mouthwatering Carrot Cake

Don't mind if I do!

For some unknown reason, my first batch of delicious cream cheese frosting came out a little lumpy, I think my butter wasn't soft enough, so I whipped up some more for the cakes and popped the "flop" into the fridge. I plan on finding a new recipe to try that needs cream cheese frosting this weekend because the lumps seem to have sorted themselves out!

If I had to choose a favourite it would be...the carrot cake! I love it, the nuts and cinnamon combine so well with the frosting, I'm sure that it is one of the few things that heaven might taste like!

I find it quite crazy to think that before Riaan and I met I had never eaten carrot cake, the thought of vegetables in cake grossed me out completely, I mean who does that?? I can't remember who baked this cake the first time I ate it, it's a family recipe from my mom-in-law's family, but they convinced me to try it nonetheless and I was blown away! Who knew vegetables could be so...."un-diet-friendly" and tasty??

Now I am always sceptical to order/try carrot cake, I'm always like "Will it be as good as ours?"
I must say though that I DID find another great carrot cake, recently my Aunt Mandy came to visit us all the way from Scotland and she made a delicious carrot cake for our family get together. Her blog Mandys Oven Lovin has been quite quiet lately but if you are looking for recipes she has a few goodies up on there!

If you have any interesting recipes that involve cream cheese and licking the bowl once you're done, please send them my way!!