The Porto Bellas

This morning I woke up extra early, or late, (damn you daylight saving nothing, especially my time-), and felt motivated to bake something sweet, with little to no fat. Guilt free, is how baking works over here…

You’ve heard it a million times: do not skip breakfast. If you do, you’re more likely to gain weight, it can affect your mood, lead to all sorts of serious heart troubles, decrease cognition- and it may EVEN kill you in your sleep and take your children for ransom. No pressure or anything.

So not enough time to eat the most important meal of the day? Prepare this super easy oatmeal bake in advance. Play around with the ingredients (adding nuts, banana, or even a good sprinkle of coconut flakes). Chop it up in squares, and you’ve got yourself breakfast for the week. Fibre from the oats and flax, antioxidants from those blueberries, and an entire apple to keep the doctor miles away. Also check out my Double Nutty Oatmeal Vanilla Bake, which is just as packed with fuel for your morning commute. Or morning in bed…

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup rice milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP + 1 tsp maple syrup
3 TBSP melted margarine
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp cocoa powder
2 tsp flax seed
1 cup blueberries
1 cup diced and peeled apple (1 whole apple)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 TBSP white sugar
dashes of salt

Directions: Grease baking dish, and preheat oven to 375′ F. In medium bowl, add all wet ingredients; (rice milk, egg, vanilla, maple syrup, margarine). Whisk. In larger bowl, add remaining ingredients. Pour wet ingredients inside larger bowl, and mix. Pour inside baking dish.

Music: A long with my morning coffee, a little nostalgia is brewing over here – so I digged up, “Youth”, by Daughters. Enjoy, youngings.

JulieC

Have you ever opened or defrosted a can of your homemade tomato sauce for the week, only to realize by the weekend you completely failed at ever using it? If you answered no- please skip and scroll down to Ingredients. If you answered yes, let’s be friends.

As organized as I am, life can be a little unpredictable. So a 20 minute ‘chili’ (yes those quotations are necessary… because let’s be honest, a true chili will take all afternoon), is an easy fixer. So don’t be so hard on yourself you super scheduled, organized, food planner people. Sit back, relax, and put an egg on it.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups tomato sauce (mine was homemade: onions, carrots, celery).
1 can of mixed beans
handful of parsley
1 tsp of chili powder
salt and pepper (to taste).
4 eggs

Directions:

In a medium sauce pot, combine all ingredients minus eggs. Bring to boil, then immediate simmer/low, until desired consistency. (Usually about 10 minutes). Meanwhile, fry your eggs.

Music:

Every once in a while, I’ll pull out this tune from my youtube library…

Anni B Sweet’s version of ‘Take on Me’ is absolutely adorable. Okay, maybe she’s just super adorable. All I know is I want to carry her around in my pocket while I sleepily make coffee at 8 AM and awkwardly dance around my kitchen trying not to hurt myself. Visual success? Enjoy.

JulieC