Do you call it muesli or granola? I’ve always said muesli. I think granola is more of an American thing. Either way, it tastes so good! You can of course buy this from the supermarket, but homemade is just as great as store bought (if not better).

It’s also a great healthy snack to have on hand, a snack that fulfills your sweet craving whilst not being too bad for you. I decided to amp up my usual muesli recipe by making it chocolate! Yum!

I won a pair Bigmouth funnels in an Instagram competition. Aren’t they great? All that muesli going straight in the jar. Their new purple/pink colours inspired me to make matching food tags, pictured above. These food labels are in PDF format, all you have to do is click here and hit print.

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.

I’m not sure many of you have heard of this before, but it is a must try. I have been obsessed with it since the first time I made it a few weeks ago and have it for breakfast nearly everyday. It’s easy and delicious and especially good for summer, since it involves no cooking. Yes, you read right ‘no cooking’!!! Try the basic recipe below, I’ll be putting up some variations in the coming weeks.

Basic overnight oats

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tblsp chia seeds*

1-2 tsp honey or other sweetener (adjust to your sweetness tastes)

*chia seeds can be found in health food shops, it is an ancient seed that’s full of protein and omega 3 and 6, it also helps you stay fuller for longer

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and put it in the fridge overnight. Top with yoghurt, fresh fruit or nuts and enjoy! This recipe is that simple, the oats soak up all the liquid and are soft and perfect in the morning. Be warned though, it doesn’t look like much, but it can be really filling. Overnight oats, a breakfast 12 hours in the making.

I’m a little late of the mark, I know, but I just had to get an Australia Day dessert in before the day was over. I wanted to steer clear of the stock standard lamingtons and pavlovas and do something different. These are macadamia crumble mini cheesecakes, using Australian honey and macadamias.

In keeping with my blog resolutions for this year of creating more healthy desserts, this one uses light cream cheese, is wheat free (possibly gluten free, oats is a questionable ingredient when it comes to gluten) and sugar free as well. Trust me though, you won’t miss any of those ingredients in this dessert. The crumble almost tastes like ANZAC cookies, how much more Australian can you get?

Honey and Macadamia Crumble Cheescakes
(makes 8 mini cheesecakes)

Macadamia Crumble

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup coconut

1/4 cup macadamias (lightly chopped)

2 tblsp honey

Cheesecake filling

250g light cream cheese

4 tblsp honey

To make the crumble, combine all the dry ingredients with honey. Toast the mixture in a pan until lightly golden, set aside. Same goes for the cheesecake filling, just combine the cream cheese with the honey and mix well.

To assemble the dessert, pour half a tablespoon of crumble into little bowls, spoon or pipe cheesecake mixture and top with more crumble. It’s that simple, no need to turn the oven on, no special equipment, and the best part, you can do it all in 15 minutes.

Happy Australia Day! I know what we’ll be having for dessert, what about you?

Ramadhaan has dawned upon us once again. Dates are out in full force, from fruit shops, to grocery stores and even the local supermarket chain. Dates are very nutritious, full of fibre and great to stave off hunger pangs, no wonder it’s the perfect food to break fast with. The best part is that this wonderful treat is not only good for you, it tastes good and most importantly it’s Sunnah!

We go through a lot of dates during Ramadhaan, so I’ve come up with some date recipes to spice things up a little. There’s no doubt that dates taste great just by themselves, but if you do want to try something a little different, are having guests over or even need a treat outside of Ramadhaan, give these a go.

Pistachio Cashew Dates

Split date on 1 side and remove pit. Crush pistachio and cashews. You’ll need 1 tsp of nuts per date. Fill dates with crushed nuts.

Coconut Almond Dates

This is an old classic. Split date on 1 side and remove pit. Fill 1 almond in each date. Heat butter on stove, throw in coconut, again you’ll need approximately 1 tsp per date. Roll dates in heated butter and coconut mixture.

Cream Cheese Walnut Dates

Split date on 1 side and remove pit. Fill each date with approx. 1/2 tsp cream cheese and 1 walnut which you can crush by hand. This is my personal favourite, it’s a recipe given to me by a friend. Thanks Christina!

Give these a try sometime, great during Ramadhaan or any time really. Ramadhaan Mubarak to everyone out there, hope you all have a blessed month.

Just over six months ago we embarked on a journey to the subcontinent. My husband, son and I left in late December to make a few stops along the way. Phuket and Kuala Lumpur were on the cards before getting to India, a country neither of us had been to, despite our Indian heritage. This was not a holiday by any means, our sole purpose was to attend the wedding of Abdullah’s sister (my wonderful sister in law), Aasiya. What we never expected was to leave feeling humbled, grateful and renewed.

India is an amazing place with amazing people and beautiful sights. One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was definitely the wedding and the functions that preceded it. And coming a close second was the food, there is honestly nothing like Indian food, so intricate in flavour and colour. My favourite dish in India was anything that had paneer (an Indian cheese, looks like a block of fetta, texture and taste of cottage cheese).

It’s something I always order in an Indian restaurant here and usually cook with the frozen bags at home. As in India has a high population of vegetarians, paneer is extremely popular, and depsite having over 20 paneer dishes while in India, not one of them was the same, there was paneer in different types of curries, paneer with marinates that were grilled, paneer balls, crumbed paneer, paneer stuffed in chillies and vegies, and too many more to mention. Even after all that, I wasn’t sick of the paneer, and forunately for me, on my last day in India I watched an Indian chef on TV make paneer from scratch, I couldn’t believe how easy it was.

Since our trip, I have made paneer countless times, and there’s nothing like the fresh stuff, I’ll never go back to frozen again. I will be doing a recipe on how to make paneer from scratch sometime in the near future. For now, here’s a recipe using paneer.

Paneer Malai** Tikka