Healthy Fall Granola

You are probably wondering why I posted a picture of my cereal. In a jar. (In the midst of the fall and halloween decorations) Well, first of all: it isn’t just your ordinary, plain cereal. Nop, it’s awesome and healthy, home made granola. Second of all: it tastes amazeballs, so I had to share my recipe.

Since yesterday night the wintertime officially kicked off (I bet you all loved the extra hour of sleep today) it just became all the little harder to wake up in the morning. With it still being dang dark outside AND too cold to leave the warm soft blanket… If you are anything like me, you might find yourself rushing through the morning to make it in time for the workday :).  I know a lot of you don’t take time to eat breakfast on those kind of mornings or might even skip the whole thing. Bad! You should always do breakfast. It’s a kickstart for your day and it gets your metabolism up and running to burn off those calories you eat during the rest of the day. And also, eating a banana or an apple on the go or some crackers isn’t really a lovely way to start the day, right? Soooo, luckily for you I just prepared the best on the go breakfast that you can make in big batches on a lazy, maybe rainy, sunday afternoon. I eat it with greek yoghurt and some fresh fruit and we’ve got ourselves some breakfast perfection. Quick and healthy, you have to admit those two words sound too good to be true right?

You’ll need (*)

• 3 cups (240g) Quaker Oats
• 1 cup (120g) sliced almonds
• 1 cup (140g) chopped cashews (or pecans, walnuts, peanuts,… you can use your favorite nuts here)
• 2 tsp flax seeds (preferably grounded)
• 2tsp cinnamon
• 2tsp water
• 1tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 cup (28g) apple sauce
• 1/3 cup (50g) agave nectar (or honey)

Directions:

First you mix all dry ingredients together: oats, sliced almonds, cashews, flax seeds and cinnamon. Use a big bowl, or else you’ll end up like me with 10 dirty bowls on the counter because all the ingredients didn’t fit. Kitchen queen: not so much. 🙂 On a side note: some of you might not know ‘flax seeds’ (Lijnzaad in dutch). It looks like dark brown sesame seeds. They are  a superfood and I was told they are most beneficial when grounded. Well, I can tell you these little bastards aren’t all that easy to ground! Or mash. I bought mine on the market. Still looking like seeds. I only half succeeded grounding them. (so I’ll get half the benefits? :)) Off course now I found out you can buy them grounded in a health store. So next time: I’m going grounded!

Then mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Water, vanila, apple sauce and agave (or honey). Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture until they are well incorporated. Now, normally you should spread a thin layer on a baking sheet. But since we only own a small oven that does this turning thing while baking, I had to use a oven tray and I had a huge layer… I can reassure you guys: it does the same magic! 🙂 Bake the whole lot at 160°C (300°F) for 18 minutes, then stir and flip the whole lot and bake for another 18 minutes.

Once baked, you can add whatever you want. If you like to add some dried fruit, raisins or maybe some coconut flakes? I’m going to stick to my good old Greek Yoghurt (0% fat) and fresh berries (and maybe some goji berries :)).

(*) about the calories:

The total batch will make about 3090 kcal (fat: 153, carbs: 304, protein: 79). The whole lot weighs 650 grams. I plan on making one serving about 50 grams which is 240 kcal. But, you can choose the amount you prefer. But now you have some guidelines to calculate :). If you are a calorie counter off course.

Bon appetit!

xo, Kirsten

Overnight oatmeal

I’m a morning workout person. When I come home from work, I want food and my couch. I usually don’t want to get in my workout gear and be active. So I make sure I all ready did it in the morning. But hey, do whatevs works for you! Nothing wrong with a late night run. I schedule a workout each morning and set my alarm at 6:30 a.m. (weekdays, I mean). Which means about two out of five times I actually wake up and workout. 🙂 But this works for me, if I would ‘plan’ three workouts, I might only go once. Sew me. So I plan five, sometimes I do make it every day (which is dang great!), sometimes only one.

Anyhow, whenever I come home from an early morning run, I want a quick and nutritious breakfast before leaving for work. But I don’t want to waste too much time on preparing it. And breakfast is essential, in my book, I will not skip it. So, overnight oats are the perfect solution, and it’s delish!  I first heard about overnight oats via Lauren Conrad (whose blog is one of my daily visits), so this one is based on one of her recipes with some alterations.

You’ll need (makes one serving, 306 kcal)

• 40g Quaker oats
• 100ml almond milk (or plain milk)
• Low fat Greek yoghurt (I use Total 0%)
• Stevia
• your favorite fruity toppings
• pinch of cinnamon

Directions

Put the oats in a jar (or bowl) and add your milk. Now add the greek yoghurt and stir it through your oats and milk. If you like it real sweet, like I do, add some cinnamon and stevia. Now put the lit on your jar, or some foil on top of your bowl, just make sure it’s sealed, and refrigerate the mixture overnight.

The next morning I always add my favorite berries (raspberries/strawberries/blueberries) or some mango or passion fruit with another pinch of cinnamon. Since I usually buy frozen berries, I heat them first in a pan, so it turns out to be some sort of berry sauce. You can also add some honey or agave sirup if you want. Or if you had a very tiring workout, you can add a sliced up banana to get some extra carbs in there. Recently I’ve been adding my healthy Nutella too. Dang great.

Oh, and you will love hearing that this entire recipe contains flat belly foods only. Or at least, that’s what I learned from Laurenconrad.com 

Bon appetit,

xo Kirsten

Yoghurt Parfait

This is my – at least at the moment – favorite breakfast. The best way to kickstart my day. I eat it almost every day. (Ok, it eat it every day. Besides on sundays, when I go for healthy banana pancakes) That’s how I usually roll, I discover a new ‘breakfast’, love it, and then eat it for weeks until I’m sick and tired of it. But this time, I just can’t imagine ever getting tired of this one. Breakfast perfection. BreakFEAST. It really tastes like dessert for breakfast, which is a perfect {in my opinion} breakfast before heading off to work. A little sweetness early in the morning never killed anyone. Especially when it’s healthy sweetness. I kid you not. So, I guess you could also eat it as a dessert?

My boyfriend turned 26 last wednesday, and I made him a big surprise breakfast. Besides eggs and salmon, buns and a white chocolate with praline filling (his favorite) I made my yoghurt parfait. He loved it too. So, without any further ado or blablabla from my side, here comes the recipe:

You’ll need (makes 1 serving, 350kcal)

• Greek yoghurt (0% fat – I use ‘Total 0%’ yoghurt, which is 170g)
• Banana
• 20g Quaker Oats
• Cinnamon
• Stevia (or any other sweetener like sugar, honey, agave sirup,…)
• Goji berries
• 5g peanut butter (which is only a little, I know. But it’s high in calories, so I use just a pinch for taste :))
• Fruit (I usually go for strawberries and raspberries, my favorites. But often add mango or blueberries)

Directions

Heat a skillet on a medium heat and add the oats. Meanwhile peel your banana and slice it lengthwise into two pieces. Don’t bother doing it neatly, it’s only for baking. They’ll end up in small pieces anyhow, because they won’t fit your glass or breakfast bowl otherwise ;). Move your oats to the side and put your banana in the middle. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Bake it for about two minutes on each side. You want it to caramelize and soften a bit. After you can mix the banana and oats together with a spatula. You’ll get sticky, caramelized looking oats. Some sort of mash I guess…

Meanwhile I mingle my greek yoghurt with some stevia . I love to make it as sweet as possible, so I’m not giving you directions on how much sweetener you should add to the yoghurt. You can do this to your own taste or not add any at all! 🙂

Mix through some Goji berries. I’ll dedicate a post to these berries later on, it’s a superfood you should really add to your diet. I eat them daily. The list of (healthy) benefits is endless. You can usually buy them in a health store, or, like I do, you can buy them at the market at a Moroccan stall (right next to the nuts and olives :)).

Now you can do it pretty like in the picture above, and layer your ingredients OR you can do like I usually do during weekdays – like when you don’t get up at 6 a.m. to make some breakfast perfection for the boyfriend – and throw the whole lot together in your favorite breakfast bowl :). Greek Yoghurt, baked banana and oats, berries and to top things of: a dash of peanut butter. I  usually add some extra cinnamon on top too {sweet tooth, remember}.

Bon appetit!

Oh, and do you like my table setting for the birthday boy? 😉

xo, Kirsten