Crepe Paper Flowers Tutorial – Iris (with video tutorial)
You can watch the step by step video crepe paper flower tutorial here.
If you’d like to play along you can find the template here.
Mango Smoothie Bowl
Since this is my first smoothie bowl, I kept it simple. It is so easy to make and so refreshingly delicious, I know I’m going to be making more than a few more of these All you need is the fruit of your choice, milk and a little yogurt. Onto the toppings. You could use your choice of cereal, granola, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips pretty much whatever you feel like.
So go ahead and give these bowls a try. They will be a hard summer option to beat. You know you’ll be seeing a few more of these. Oh, have I mentioned these just take a couple of minutes to make. Its a winner all the way.
Also, I have news. I have finally been bitten by the Instagram bug. I hope you can join me there. My Instagram username is @TheAspiringHomeCook. You can find the recipes from this blog making an appearance there at #theaspiringhomecook. Have you tried a recipe from this site. Post a picture on Instagram with #theaspiringhomecook and tag me in the picture to be featured in my feed.
Mango Smoothie Bowl
Serves 1-2
1 cup frozen mango cubes
1 banana, frozen
1 cup milk
4 tbsp Greek yogurt
For the toppings –
A few fresh blueberries
Peanut butter granola
Place the mango, banana, milk and yogurt in a blender and blitz on slow at first.
Scrape down the sides and blitz till you are left with a soft serve consistency.
Pour the smoothie into a bowl.
Top off with fresh blueberries and some granola.
Serve chilled.
A walk down the SRC memory lane
6) Carrot, Cumin & Tomato Soup
7) Shish Tawook Chicken and Toum
8) Corn Fritters with Balsamic Honey Reduction
9) Dutch Baby Over Pancake with Fresh Berries
10) Thai Inspired Chicken Patties
11) Cayenne Truffles
12) Brownie Pudding
15) Sriracha Peanuts
16) Carrot Fritters
17) Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
18) Mini Banana Peanut Butter Yogurt Popsicles
19) Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
22) Iced Caps
24) Coconut Pie
30) Apple Hand Pies
33) Pots de Creme
35) Chorizo Hash
36) Chocolate Oatmeal No-bake Cookies
39) Caramel Popcorn
41) Peppermint Hot White Cocoa Shots
42) Mocha Muffins
45) Smokey Potato Salad with Pan Fried Chicken
47) Wholewheat Oatmeal & Raisin Muffins
49) Orange Julius
50) Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones
52) Low Fat Healthy Deviled Eggs
53) Black Russian
55) Tzatziki
Banana Oat Blueberry Pancakes
Last week I had 2 over ripe bananas and its been so hot, I had no intention of switching the oven on to make the banana bread. I kept putting off the tea-time fritters and yesterday I decided I had to use the bananas and if I left them anymore, I’d probably have to throw them out. I hate wasting food so that was out of the question. The plan that morning was to make some oatmeal for breakfast, but then it struck me I could use the bananas with the oats and do something with that. I remember a while ago, coming across a banana oat pancake recipe and decided to try it out. Now, those of you who’ve been visiting for a while know I love my pancakes. So what could be better than combining my love for bananas and pancakes. Nothing much right! So breakfast that morning was sorted. I blitzed the ingredients in the blender and added a few fixin’s like fresh blueberries and roughly sliced almonds. I think Jamie Oliver would have been happy with me. I really like his philosophy on superfoods. Eat a variety of fresh produce in moderation and everything acts as a superfood. I figure the addition of the berries and almonds would amp up these pancakes to superfood status. I googled a few recipes but in the end just ended up throwing a few things together and I tell you it was great. I was really pleased with how the pancakes turned out.
Basically this recipe uses no refined flour and no refined sugar and you’ll never miss them. We did use some maple syrup over the pancakes to sweeten the deal, but who can resist maple syrup over pancakes. Definitely not me 🙂
I hope you give these pancakes a try. They deliver taste and health together.
Banana Oat Blueberry Pancakes
Makes 6 pancakes
1 cup rolled oats
2 over ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
A handful of fresh blueberries
12-15 roasted almonds, roughly sliced
A pinch of salt
A little oil, to fry the pancakes (I use olive oil, but you could any oil of your choice)
Maple syrup, to drizzle over
Blitz the oats in a blender till you are left with a powder.
Add the bananas, eggs, a pinch of salt and the vanilla extract. Blitz till you are left with a nice batter.
Scrape the sides down and give it another quick blitz.
Pour the batter in a large bowl and add the sliced almonds and blueberries and fold through gently, making sure they are evenly distributed.
Heat a little oil in a pan, about half a teaspoon. I use an oil spray to reduce the amount of oil being used.
Carefully ladle some batter onto the pan. Cook on medium heat.
When the bottom edge looks like its getting a little color, gently lift a portion of the pancake. If you are happy with the cooking on that side, flip the pancake and let it cook on the second side too.
Repeat with a spray of oil and a ladle of batter for every pancake till you finish the batter.
Serve warm with some maple syrup.
Enjoy!!!
SRC: Classic Blueberry Muffins
For my last assignment, I got Emily’s blog, Life on Food. Emily’s blog is full of wonderful food. I had an almost impossible task of picking a recipe for this reveal. Go over and say Hi to Emily and tell her I sent you. While you’re there check out the wonderful food on her blog. You will also see her gorgeous little baby there – absolutely precious. Here’s probably what makes Emily my favorite person – she goes to Disney World every year. Yes, every single year. Someday, I hope to be able to visit every single Disney park there it to visit. It is on my bucket list. Anyway, back to Emily’s blog. In the end, I narrowed down my endless list to these gorgeous Cheddar Bay Biscuits, these Chocolate Hazlenut Truffles, Chocolate Chip and Hazlenut Cookies with Sea Salt, Macaroon Blossoms, and this Coconut Rice Pudding, but in the end these Classic Blueberry Muffins won.
We’re in the middle of spring at the moment, so everywhere I look I can see berries and that was one of the main reasons I decided to go with this muffin recipe. You can never have too many muffin recipes, can you? This recipe is perfect for summer and they make a great brekkie on the go. You know what else they’d be great for …. morning tea at work. These muffins are one of the best berry muffin recipes I’ve tried. They’re packed with berries and have a beautiful crumb. At first, I was a little skeptical of the cinnamon in this recipe, but don’t be like me. The cinnamon is subtle and you can barely tell its there, but it does wonder for the flavor of the muffin. I did add a little vanilla extract to the recipe but other than that stuck to the original. Thanks Emily for a fantastic blueberry muffin recipe.
Classic Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup blueberries
Preheat the oven to 180º and line a muffin tray with paper liners or grease a tray.
In a mixing bowl, place the flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder and salt and whisk till combined.
Toss in the blueberries and make sure the flour mix coats them well and set the bowl aside. (This ensures the berries don’t sink to the bottom.)
In another bowl whisk the egg till it has loosened. Add the sugar and whisk till you are left with a thick mixture.
Add the vanilla extract and combine.
Add the melted butter and whisk well to combine.
Lastly, add the sour cream and whisk until just combined.
Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients and gently fold in using a rubber spatula until just combined. The batter will be thick and you may see a few small dry flour spots. I found mine a little too dry so I added a couple of tbsps of milk and folded in gently. Take care to not overmix the batter.
Spoon the batter into the lined muffin tray.
Bake till the tops are a light golden brown and a toothpick pierced in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
Immediately move the muffins to a wire rack to cool and serve at room temperature.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.