Food Discovery week

Hiya! This week has been a discovery week for me regarding food and myself which I will tell you in a bit. I haven't had time to go to the gym this week as I have been revising hard core for my exams and writing a 3000 word essay that was due on Friday. However, my living room have been my gym during my breaks (not every break), I did 50 squats and lunges once a day. Just so I won't feel guilty lol. Having said that I still made time for food. The longest break I've taken is when I cook.

Anyways. It was a beautiful warm day on Sunday and so I decided to make some summery lunch.

Pepper stuffed with quinoa and halloumi cheese, with Ryvita crackers on the side topped with slices of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. 

For drink, I made 'Pine-apple-nana' (I made that name up of course lol):

- 2 small Gala apples

-1 cup of chopped pineapples (fresh not tinned),

- 1-2 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice. 

Blend all ingredients until smooth and frothy

Pine-apple-nana

Regarding my discoveries. First I have discovered that baked sweet potatoes served with halloumi cheese = HEAVEN! Eating the skin as well is even better. Its like sweet and then savoury, just awesome. I also made quinoa with yellow peppers and cherry tomatoes; I seasoned the quinoa with a bit too much salt ^.^". I added some effects to the photo hence why its kind of yellowy.

As you can see the sweet potato is huge so I couldn't finish it all at once, I had the rest later in the evening. I had goji and chrysanthyum water. I've been having this quite a lot this week because according to Chinese medical theory, those two ingredients are good for your eye sights- since I've been reading a lot this week this is meant to be good. You just put the two ingredient into a cup and pour boiling water into the cup and cover for about 15 minutes to get the flavour out of them. 

Second discovery. I made sirloin steak this week and I discovered that covering the raw meat with corn flour/ potato flour will lock the moist in and so when you grill or pan fry it, it will still be very juicy. No need to have sauce to go with it. Vegetables are bit dry though I know lol.

Third discovery. I had kiwi a few times this week and think I'm allergic to them. Either my gum feels funny, like something is pricking them or I get stomach aches.

Apart from discovering new things, I've been quite experimental with pancakes. I love my pancakes but its so fatty. I wanted to make pancakes that is less fatty and still good for you. So I added hemp protein powder into the batter so it will be high in protein lol.

Its green because the hemp protein is green. The bottom left is my first attempt and the outcome wasn't very nice. The bottom right is my second attempt on Friday night and it turned out really good.

Banana Hemp Protein Pancakes (makes approx 5 pancakes)

-  1 cup plain flour

-1 tablespoon baking powder

- 1 scoop of hemp protein 

- 1/2 cup of almond milk

- 1 banana

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon almond powder.

Not entirely healthy I know. Next time I'm going to try with different flour, something healthier like chick pea flour. Basically that's socca pancakes, some healthy French street food.

One last discovery I forgot to mention is regarding my cooking skills. It so have improved! Lol. And I have mastered cauliflower and broccoli cheese, maybe I should say I have mastered the white sauce. I also made chicken and roast vegetables. I seasoned the chicken so well and again I dusted it with cornflour which made it really moist. Excuse the presentation, I started eating it before taking a picture lol.

Cauliflower, Broccoli & cheese, chicken with roast veg

I made some summery/ refreshing smoothies this week, "Dragon berries smoothie". That's;

- 1 dragon fruit

- 5 strawberries

- 1/2 cup of blueberries

- 1/4 cup of almond milk

- 1 tbsp of Honey to taste

All blended together until smooth.

I've never had dragon fruit before and it tastes like.....grass? Lol I can't explain but I wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be sweet.
Below is a smoothie my brother made for me during the week, and I'm not quite sure what's in it but definitely tomatoes and carrots.

Smoothie by my brother

Snack of the week: Berries with Greek yoghurt. I love my berries especially with yoghurt. Apart from having it with yoghurt I also added walnuts, mixed seeds (the top photo), oat flakes and manuka honey (bottom). There's actually strawberries too but they were at the bottom.

That's it for now, as you can see I've been making lots of "summery" food, the sunshine has got me in the mood. Next post I will show you my socca pancakes. Thanks for reading.