I love peanut butter, do you? Peanut butter works well in so many different flavour combinations, peanut butter and chocolate, peanut butter and white chocolate, peanut butter and oreos, peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and pretzels, peanut butter and banana, as you can see, I could go on all day with this, so I’ll stop there. If you’re a big peanut butter lover like I am, give this smoothie a try.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1/2 banana

1 cup milk

1/2 tblsp chia seeds

1 tsp sweetener

1 tblsp peanut butter

Blend all the ingredients together and enjoy. This is a great snack to keep you going in between meals or bulk it up with some oats and protein powder for a fulfilling meal.

Do any of you remember a time when red velvet cupcakes and macarons weren’t so unbelievably popular, I do, but those memories seem to be slowly fading into the distance. Red velvets were not a favourite of mine to begin with, I had tried it a few times and was never impressed, until this recipe of my own. I’ve been enjoying them ever since, I think I just had a few bad experiences in the beginning. Macarons on the other hand, I’ve loved ever since I tasted my first one while holidaying with my husband in Singapore, this was before they became trendy in Australia and I’ve pretty much been obsessed ever since. With that said, I thought I would combine these two ever so popular treats into one mega treat… Drum roll please… The Red Velvet Macaron! Yip, that’s right, a red macaron with a light hint of cocoa, sandwiched with a smooth cream cheese filling, what’s not to love?

Red Velvet Macarons

40g egg white (1 egg white at room temperature)

56g almond meal

72g icing sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

20g castor sugar

1/4 tsp red gel food colouring

Measure out your ingredients. Combine almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder, grind these till you achieve a fine powder. Whip egg whites till foamy, slowly stream in the sugar until egg whites are stiff and glossy. Add in gel colouring and give it a quick beat until it turns an even red. Sift almond meal, icing sugar and cocao mixture on top of egg whites and fold until just combined.

Pre heat oven to 150°c. Fill mixture into piping bag and pipe 3cm rounds onto baking paper lined trays. Let mixture sit for 15-30 minutes. Place in oven for 15 minutes or until tops don’t move when pushed with a finger.

Cream cheese filling

40g softened cream cheese

40g softened butter

3/4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla essence in a bowl until creamy and combined. Slowly add sugar till smooth and fluffy. Fill in a piping bag and pipe into macaron shells.

Love Red Velvet Cupcakes? Love Macarons? Then you’ll love these Red Velvet Macarons. Red with a delicate hint of cocoa, accompanied by a cream cheese filling, yum!