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complex carbohydrates

Friday Fare, Health

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

June 6, 2014

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Hiiii. I am so sorry I missed last week’s Friday Fare 🙁 I swear, I have so many delicious and healthy recipes to share with you all but I have been travelling a lottt recently and two situations occur:

a) I make a delicious and healthy meal but have nowhere I can photograph it (good lighting and scenery is everythaaang people) or b) I have a perfect place to take photos but I am really busy and do not have time to make anything special. Oh blogger dilemmas, man.

Anyway, a few nights ago I was really craving oatmeal and somehow managed to be quite creative and come up with overnight kombucha chia oats with matcha green tea yogurt … AND photograph it!! I probably should have done something to make the photos a little nicer (’tis a bit plain) but alas, I did not.

The idea for soaking the oats in kombucha came to me because I actually had a bottle of Synergy’s cherry chia kombucha chilling in the fridge (pun .. hehe). I had nooo idea how the combo of cherry flavored kombucha, chia seeds and rolled oats would take, but I decided to take the risk and I am really glad I did. It was delicioussss. Now, the matcha green tea yogurt idea came about because I bought some matcha green tea powder at Safeway the other day despite it being kind of expensive.

But seriously, matcha green tea powder is so bloody hard to find and I really could not be bothered to drive to Japan Town (HATE driving in downtown San Francisco) and the good Asian supermarket nearest me is still kinda far … so yeah anyway, tangent. Since I had the powder I thought it would be fun to make a flavored yogurt which was also delicious, although I did have to lightly sweeten it with liquid stevia. And the toppings seemed self-evident because they are all awesome, delicious and healthy.

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Okay, so now that you have the full-blown history of how I thought of this recipe (hope I didn’t bore you all!!) let’s get to making it!

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt Recipe

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Alice Williams
A perfectly invigorating blend of kombucha chia soaked oats with fat fighting green tea yogurt

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats I used Bob's Red Mill brand
  • 1/2 a bottle of Synergy's Cherry Chia Kombucha
  • 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
  • 1 cup of full fat plain yogurt - don't fear fat ... or a fat-free version, but check to make sure it doesn't have any extra added sugar as most fat-free versions are really high in sugar
  • 1/2 cup of blueberries
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish honey
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish pumpkin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish slivered almonds

Instructions
 

  • 1. The night before you plan on eating this meal, put your rolled oats and the cherry chia kombucha into a mason jar (or anything that will be sealed) in the fridge overnight to soak.
  • 2. Now that your oats are ready and soaked, let the fun begin! To make the matcha green tea yogurt layer, simply get a bowl and put your yogurt, matcha green tea powder, and liquid stevia in a bowl and use an electric whisk to blend it all up (you can use a normal whisk too). Once the yogurt is ready, dollop it on top of your oats.
  • 3. Now layer the blueberries on top of the yogurt layer, followed by the honey, shredded coconut, pumpkin seeds, and slivered almonds.
  • 4. Voila! A really easy, delicious AND healthy breakfast which can be taken on the go or enjoyed at home. I like having mine with a cup of tea, green tea of course 😉
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

How else can I enjoy Overnight Oats?

Overnight chia oats with kombucha are so versatile and can be altered in so many delicious and simple ways. Another variation involved using greek yogurt (I like Fage) instead of normal yogurt, strawberries and Dang coconut chips, mmm.

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

I hope you all enjoyed this week’s edition of Friday Fare. If you make this, please share a photo with me and hashtag it #fridayfare if you upload your re-creation on Instagram or Twitter!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Health, Products I love

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

May 21, 2014

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

What a treat I have in store for all of my readers who suffer a gluten intolerance or happen to be following a vegan diet 🙂 Today I want to introduce you to Bisogno Pasta! They are a California based brand and currently sell their products in Southern California. Luckily for all us Northern Californians, Bisogno Pasta are currently expanding to the Bay Area, woo hoo!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan

I came across Bisogno Pasta and was instantly intrigued by them. Why? Because they are the only fresh gluten free and vegan pasta currently on the market. Their nutritional values were super impressive, boasting 20g of protein (as much as 4 ounces of chicken) and 23g of fiber (basically fulfilling how much fiber you need in a day). Their pasta is made from lentil flour and water and so absolutely no gluten, wheat, corn, rice, soy, dairy OR eggs were used at all!

I really wanted to try Bisogno Pasta because I have tried a few gluten-free pastas for fun but honestly, they were all kind of … lacking. Bisogno Pasta kindly sent me samples of their three flavors of pasta: beet, lemon parsley, and spinach. My boyfriend and I had a lot of fun thinking up some recipe’s to try out the pasta and were seriously so impressed. The texture and taste were both fantastic, and I would never had known that it was missing wheat and eggs if I had not known beforehand. I think my favorite was the spinach pasta (who doesn’t want a way to incorporate more veggies into their diet?) but my boyfriend preferred the lemon parsley. All flavors were fantastic though, and I encourage you to try them!

Here are some photos of what we made followed by the recipes 🙂

Spinach and lemon parsley pasta with cashew pesto and smoked salmon

Ingredients

1 serving of spinach bisogno pasta
1 serving of lemon parsley bisogno pasta
4-8 ounces of smoked salmon (I used honey smoked salmon)
Cashew pesto – I used walnuts instead of cashews in mine however because I had run out of cashews!
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese to garnish
A few basil leaves to garnish

Serves 2 people

1. Prepare the cashew pesto first and then set aside for now.
2. Prepare the bisogno pasta according to instructions – boil in hot water for 4 minutes.
3. Serve pasta and top with a generous serving of cashew pesto, smoked salmon and parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with pesto

Beet pasta with Thai style chicken

Ingredients

1 serving of beet bisogno pasta
16 ounces of chicken
1 can of coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 sliced carrot
2 cups of cauliflower
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fish sauce
1tsp red chilli flakes (feel free to add more if you like spice!)
OPTIONAL – 1 cup enoki mushrooms

Thai style chicken will serve 4. Make 4 servings of bisogno pasta to use all of it or store the rest away as leftovers.

1. Prepare the thai style chicken 1 day in advance. Using a slow cooker/crockpot, put all of the ingredients (minus the bisogno pasta) into your slow cooker and set on ‘LOW’ for 7-8 hours. Keep in slow cooker on ‘WARM’ setting until you make your pasta.
2. Make bisogno pasta according to directions – boil for 4 minutes.
3. Serve pasta with 1/4 of the chicken that you made. The chicken will serve 4 people and is a great leftover meal!

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with thai chicken

Bisogno Pasta: Gluten-Free & Vegan with thai chicken

I cannot waaaait until Bisogno Pasta expands to the Bay Area. When it does it is going to be a constant in my kitchen! Can’t wait to make people think they are eating normal pasta and then tell them the nutritional profile hehe.

I am curious, how many of you are actually gluten-free and vegan?

Honestly yours,
Alice

DISCALIMER: I was not paid to write about bisogno pasta. I only ever write about brands which I believe in and have high quality and healthy products.

Friday Fare

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

May 16, 2014

Okay so I just want to start off by apologizing in advance as the photo’s are not the prettiest But seriously, how pretty can oatmeal really be? Hehe, I tried my best but just be assured that this slow cooker oatmeal TASTES amazing!

So what is this week’s edition of Friday Fare? … Slow cooker oatmeal!

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

My boyfriend bought me a slow cooker a few weeks back and I am literally obsessed with it. It has made meal prep and meals in general so much easier. I mean seriously, all you do is add your ingredients (plus chopping stuff if you need too, which can take a while actually as slow Alice found out) into the slow cooker, set it to low or high, and then leave it for several hours. And voila! Delicious food in mass quantities, mmmmm.

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Told you the photo’s wouldn’t be fantastic 🙁 SO delicious though

I discovered the idea of slow cooker oatmeal while just searching the web trying to look for alternatives to overnight oats. I really like overnight oats but it’s cold .. and I really like a warm and comforting breakfast. Slow cooker oatmeal presented a lovely way to have a warm and delicious breakfast with minimal effort involved! I like my oatmeal really creamy and rich so I used unsweetened almond and coconut milk as my liquid, but feel free to substitute half for water if you want a less rich oatmeal.

This meal is full of protein and complex carbohydrates and is extremely filling and should keep you feeling full for a good three to four hours.

 

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Alice Williams
Creamy slow cooker oatmeal; all the taste with none of the effort.
Servings 2

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup dry steel cut oats
  • 2 and 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk or sub for any milk you like
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • 1. Put all ingredients into your slow cooker
  • 2. Set slow cooker to 'LOW' setting and let the oats cook for 4 hours
  • 3. Eat! You can add anything to these oats (after they are cooked though, I added fruit into the slow cooker and each time it turned out nasty). Some idea's are fresh fruit, honey, natural peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, nuts .. the world is your oyster!
Slow Cooker Oatmeal

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Friday Fare. Now there is no excuse to not eat breakfast since you can make it ahead of time and then just leave them in the slow cooker with the setting set to ‘WARM’ 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice