Browsing Tag

peanut butter

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.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
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

Friday Fare

Soba Noodle Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

May 9, 2014

So once again, I was extremely busy this week plus kept forgetting to take photo’s of possible Friday Fare options (le sigh). So instead of disappointing you all and not posting a recipe, I decided to share a soba noodle salad rolls with peanut sauce recipe created by one of my favorite healthy food bloggers, Nutritionist in the Kitch!

Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of Christal, from Nutritionist in the Kitch, and regularly make her recipes and find inspiration from her. I thought her soba noodle salad rolls with peanut sauce recipe looked incredible and I wanted to share it with you all. I actually bought some fresh spring rolls the other day, so I will be experimenting with my own fresh roll creations.

Without further ado, here is the recipe and some of Christal’s photo’s of this yummy looking dish 🙂

Soba Noodle Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

 

Ingredients

  • Rolls:
  • 10 sheets rice paper
  • 6.5 oz soba noodles
  • 1 carrot, peeled and julienned
  • 1 bell pepper, julienned
  • 2 green onions, cut into strips
  • small bunch cilantro
  • small bunch lettuce
  • 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • Peanut Sauce:
  • ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
  • ½ lime, juice
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon pure honey
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (optional)
  • ¼ cup water (add more if you prefer a thinner consistency)
  Instructions
  1. For Rolls: In a large pot, heat 4 cups of water to boil and cook noodles according to package instructions. Run cooked noodles under cold water and drain. Mix in 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil with noodles. Set noodles aside.
  2. Fill a shallow dish with warm water. Place one sheet of rice paper in dish until it is submerged, soak for 1 minute or so until it becomes soft, carefully set on a clean surface, such as a cutting board, and make sure the sheet does not bend or fold.
  3. Place about 2-3 tbsp of cooked soba noodles in the middle of the rice paper sheet, top with a few slices of carrot, pepper, onion, a few sprigs of cilantro, and a couple leafs of lettuce.
  4. Fold the top of the rice paper sheet over the filling, then fold in each side, then roll until the opposite end has closed the roll, put on a plate and repeat the process until you have ten salad rolls! (Learning this process may take a little patience, but after the first couple rolls you will get the hang of it! :) )
  5. For Sauce: Combine all ingredients in a food processor, or mix together by hand.
  6. Serve with cold rolls, enjoy!
Prep time

Cook time
5 mins

Total time
20 mins

Serves 5

Nutritional Information
Serving size: 2 Rolls & 2 Tbsp Peanut Sauce Calories: 323 kcal Fat: 8.7g Saturated fat: 1.6g Unsaturated fat: 6.5g Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 56.7g Sugar: 6.2gFiber: 3.6g Protein: 9.5g
 

Soba Noodle Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Soba Noodle Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Mmmmm, cannot wait to make these and fresh rolls in general. You can pick up rice paper at any Asian supermarket, and they are usually pretty inexpensive … perfect for a student budget, woo hoo! Actually most things at Asian supermarkets are much cheaper in general, so you should definitely give them a visit the next time you need groceries. I picked up some sesame chili oil for only $3 or something like that. Normally sesame oil is something ridiculous like $5 … no thank youuuu!

Have any of you ever tried fresh rolls before? I first had them about a year ago at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Leandro and have never looked back!

Honestly yours,
Alice

 

Blogs I love, Fitness, Health

Sunday summary

January 19, 2014

I feel as if I have accomplished so much this past week. I officially launched Honestly Fitness on Tuesday, January 14th, have received over 798 hits and gained 306 likes on Honestly Fitness’ Facebook page.

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Wow!! Thank you all so much, I could never have expected such an amazing response, and I all it all to YOU, my wonderful followers!! I have received really supportive and positive comments all around, and I am so happy you are all enjoying the blog posts. That is my goal, to create a blog where people are genuinely excited for the next post to come up and as a way to learn new things about health and fitness. And please, let me know what you would like to see next! I have many idea’s for future posts but I want to know that I am blogging about things you guys want to know about.

I just wanted to end this fantastic week with a health and fitness mention, sort of like a ‘This week I am loving …’ post.

The Green Post

I recently discovered www.thegreenpost.com.au and really love how their approach to health and lifestyle is focused on educating people on a sustainable and healthy lifestyle. It is such a breath of fresh air to find someone else who is focused on the long-term as opposed to quick fixes and short-term changes that will get you nowhere. Although The Green Post is still fairly new, they already have many interesting articles and delicious looking recipes posted! I tried their Butter nut and Lavender Apple pancake recipe and it was AMAZING!! The fact that it still tasted so sweet with only apple sauce as the sweetener was fabulous, and the lavender was a refreshing touch to them. A very original recipe that I recommend you all try!

Yummmmmy! I actually made 3 pancakes but the 3rd one was not photo worthy .. pancake flip fail shall we say ;P

So there you have it for this weeks recap! I am so excited to see how Honestly Fitness grows over the coming few months and eager to share most posts and video’s with you all. I have had so many idea’s locked up in my mind and it is incredibly to be able to finally share them all with you. I also want to mention that I recently created a Pinterest page, so please check it out when you have the chance.

Honestly yours,
Alice