birthday and recent foods

It was my sister's 21st birthday and she found this 'Big Fat Chocolate Cake' in one of the cafes while we were in Fremantle. It was the first and last cake that she saw, and it doesnt take much to guess why she picked it. It was essentially a chocolate mud cake, with lashings of milk chocolate icing, and protected by a delicate layer of more chocolate. I don't really like mud cakes because they taste a little too boring and dense for me, and the cake itself wasn't very sweet apart from the icing and surrounding chocolate. But it was a good way to end a fun birthday dinner party.

This was from the nearby Japanese restaurant Yuki's that the family dined at the night before her birthday party. This dessert, I think, was some kind of almond and coffee ice cream, and unfortunately I only remembered after I'd taken a bite that I disliked almond ice cream, just like I disliked marzipan. 

I baked the Aria Chocolate Tart; which featured on Masterchef (of which I'm a hardcore fan of) from this recipe, for my sister's birthday lunch. I had pie dough left over and decided to turn it into some chocolate cookies for the family to nibble on. In the end I ended up nibbling the most of them. 

 My favourite lunch of late: toasted sandwiches. I think I had it about 5 times during the school break, and with the usual characters: cucumber, carrot, chicken and cheese. I'm in love with my mother's sandwich toaster at the moment, and I've tried it on spinach wraps too. Next time I'm putting in a little djon mustard.

Spontaneously I decided to make use of the gluten-free pasta I'd bought a while back. The sauce consists of some regular spaghetti sauce, fried celery, tomato, onion, garlic and pork mince. I just love a chunky pasta sauce.

first and best

Don't you just love starting the day right? Having a good breakfast just sets me on a happy and fulfilling path for the rest of my day. I have all kinds of healthy things for this important meal; fresh fruit and yoghurt, oat porridge with sultanas and honey, boiled or scrambled eggs and a hot cup of black tea. I feel terrible and crabby if I miss this one crucial meal, and it generally results in my stomach protesting loudly through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th session of school.

These would be my third batch of granola, and although the recipes are different, the end result is still satisfactory, no matter what ingredients you put in.

Granola 
Adapted from smitten kitchen

Ingredients:
2 C rolled oats
1 C crushed almonds
3/4 C crushed cashews
1 C shredded coconut -I used dessicated coconut, and used 3/4 C-
1/2 C honey
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 C dried fruit of your choice -I used sultanas-

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a shallow baking dish with baking paper. Mix together the rolled oats, almonds, cashews and coconut and spread out on the baking dish, bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. 
Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the honey, vanilla and fruits while it's still warm. Spread out mixture into the baking dish again and bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it's golden brown. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before breaking up and storing into a container.
This can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks, but to keep its crispness, store granola in the fridge. 

I really like granola mixes because they are so versatile, so it's impossible for me to choose a favourite. These ingredients were just the ones I had lying around, but I really want to try using sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, peanuts and all sorts of different dried fruits. Maybe I'll have this stuff sprinkled generously over some homemade natural yoghurt (I made it from Easiyo... anyone else know of it?), with a little dollop of honey to sweeten it up and garnished with some blueberries and strawberries? Oh gosh, I can't wait until tomorrow morning's breakfast.