smooth matcha shake

This is such a wonderful 'shake' that I have been enjoying at the moment. The summer days have really set in (with gusto), and as I am in the midst of packing and moving, a refreshing afternoon drink has been a bit of a lifesaver for me.

Yep, we're moving house and really looking forward to it. Currently we are living in a one bedroom loft style barn conversion and moving 200m down the road to beautiful stone cottage.The barn doesn't have any inside doors and extremely open plan living. It has been decided that with a change in circumstances, this may no longer be very practical, thus the change!

this little guy is looking forward to the new place

I'm really looking forward to the bright new kitchen, especially having a pantry! At the moment all our flours, nuts, cereals and grains are stored in a long narrow cupboard. It's a bit difficult to find anything as I have to reach back and feel around for the ingredients that I'm after. It takes quite a few goes before I actually find what I am looking for. So a pantry is very very exciting for me.

Enough of that, on to the recipe. This is just a delight. Refreshing, smooth, easy and best of all anti-oxidantly healthy.

Ingredients

(serves one)

1/4 c organic natural milk/alternative

1/4 c water

1 tsp matcha powder

1 tsp sugar (extra to taste)

a handful of ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a martini shaker/protein shaker/blender and shake/blend until smooth.

Pour into a glass and enjoy!

wellbeing stir fry with green tea noodles

There are never enough hours in the day!

With my hours at work having picked up lately, I'm finding it a juggle to fit everything (fitness, blogging, housework, entertaining etc) into the limited time I have in the evenings. 

So, when I am time poor, I love a quick throw-together stir fry that has a rainbow of colours with minimal cooking time for a warm yet fresh dinner.

The more colours you can enjoy with your food the better.

Not only is it appealing to the eye, but also, each vegetable holds its own nutritional content and to combine and vary what you eat is great for all-round wellbeing.

Ingredients

(serves 2-3)

100g green tea noodles

1 tsp pure sesame oil

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 red hot chilli, finely sliced (optional)

1 tblsp soy sauce

1 tblsp mirin sauce

10 button mushrooms, finely sliced

2 bunches of baby pak choy, finely sliced

1 red banana pepper, finely sliced

4 shallots, finely sliced

1 c purple cabbage, finely sliced

1 tblsp dried wakame

1/2 c peas

1/4 c roasted cashew nuts

1/4 c fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Cook noodles in boiling water for about 5 mins - until tender.

Drain and rinse with cool water - set aside.

Next, heat oil in a wok and add ginger, garlic and chilli - cook for 1 min stirring constantly.

Then add the soy, mirin and mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms are softened and browning.

Then add the pak choy, pepper, shallots and purple cabbage and toss for a minute or 2.

Then toss through the seaweed, peas, nuts and coriander. 

Remove from heat and toss through the noodles*.

Serve and enjoy!

*You may need to re-rinse with cool water to prevent sicking.

matcha mini muffins with sweet adzuki bean paste

Seriously couldn't help myself!

This is what happens when you have a new toy in the kitchen.

Why, oh why did it have to be a mini muffin tin!

So, I guess if I'm going to make a sweet, I'd better make it some what healthy.

I had been wanting to try adzuki bean paste with these adzuki beans I recently purchased. 

Traditionally the bean paste requires a lot of sugar, but I've kept the sweetener to a minimum - you could add more sugar if you wanted.

As it's a bit of an Asian sweet, I thought it may be interesting to pair the adzuki beans with some matcha green tea powder.

Then I had this thought of mini muffins filled with the sweet bean paste.

So, that's where I came up with these matcha mini muffins with sweet adzuki bean filling.

They turned out great! I was really surprised and pleased with this creation.

Joel says he's confused by the muffin.

Ingredients

(makes 12 mini muffins)

Adzuki Bean Paste

1 c adzuki beans, soaked for 8-12 hours and drained

10 drops of stevia

1/4 c coconut sugar

Put the soaked beans in a heavy based saucepan with about 2-3 cups of water.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour*.

Remove from heat and drain excess liquid off, keeping an inch of water in the bottom of the pan.

Add the sugar and stevia, stir through until sugar is dissolved.

Using a fork or masher, mash down the bean mixture until it resembles a thick paste.

Set aside to cool.

*you will need to check the water level, adding more water if needed to ensure the beans don't burn.

Muffin Batter

1 organic free-range egg

1 tsp matcha powder

1tsp vanilla

8 drops stevia

2 tblsp coconut sugar

1/4 c self raising flour

Heat oven to 150 degrees.

Beat the egg until thick and creamy.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat until a thin batter-like consistency.

To assemble

Spoon approximately one heaped teaspoonful of the matcha batter into a non-stick mini muffin tray*. 

Next spoon a teaspoon of the adzuki bean paste** on top of the batter.

Then, divide up the remaining batter and pour over the bean paste.

Bake in oven for about 15 mins.

*If using a tray that is not non-sick, spray with olive oil first.

**If you find that you have left over paste, you can freeze it easily.

yummm xo