Style Speaks Louder

Hi, I'd like to introduce you all to a special friend of mine - my puppy Maple, who has been dominating my life for the last two months.

She joined our family at the end of June and has quickly won the hearts of family, friends, neighbours, the post man, strangers in the street..... the list goes on.

She is a shih tzu breed and is currently 4 months old, so she is fairly small as she also belongs to the toy variety of dogs and she is a rare gold colour with a black mask, as shihtzu's typically tend to be white with brown. Despite her size she has got quite a demeanour and isn't really scared of much, with the exception of baths and the hairdryer, and happily plays with dogs two to three times her size without batting an eyelid. Today for example she decided to take on a full grown rottweiler, who was thankfully a sweetheart and didn't mind.

Her hobbies include staring into space on our balcony,



Wearing her rain coat,



Accepting flowers,



And running through long grass in the park.



She has changed our lives for the better and I'm not sure what I'd do without her, even when she is being a cheeky madam.



I've made this video to show a snipet of her day to day life to share with you so I hope you love her as much as we do, and I'd love to hear what you think - I'll be sure to tell her because she loves the attention. x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4SARCY1iQ8

I'm not a big fan of breakfast. I've never liked cereals on the account that they taste a bit off with soya milk (I've never liked drinking soya milk and I'm lactose intolerant) so I've always stuck to Marmite (love it) on toast, until I became gluten intolerant and toast became a treat. Argh

Besides a slice of toast has never really got me running to the kitchen in the morning. So when I came across this buzzfeed article in support for Ramadam I thought I would try some of the recipes as they looked super healthy and fun to eat, even though I wasn't following Ramadam myself.

My favourites included this Baked Peach Oatmeal Casserole  which is from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com



You can make it in advance the night before and save it in the fridge for the whole week, or until its all eaten. I quite liked the texture, which was sort of like a custardy oatmeal.
Tip: Add a splash of almond milk before heating up your breakfast portion.

How I made the  Baked Peach Oatmeal:

Ingredients (converted to metric from the original post)
Dry ingredients

• 200g rolled oats - these are just plain loose oats


• 25g light brown sugar


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients

• 400ml Almond milk


• 1 large egg


• 45g butter melted and cooled slightly (or coconut oil for healthy alternative)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1/4 tsp almond extract


• 3 peaches - 2 diced to line the tray and 1 sliced to cover the top.

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 200 C and grease a 8x8 oven proof casserole dish.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl
3. In separate bowl whisk together wet ingredients
4. Arrange chopped peaches on the bottom of the baking dish.
5. Sprinkle the dry oat mixture over peaches, followed by pouring the wet milk mixture and shaking the dish to ensure all the oats are covered.
6. Arrange peach slices over the top as shown below:


7. Bake for 40 mins until golden and set, allow to cool and then place in fridge for next morning's breakfast.

Peanut Butter Breakfast Smoothie 

I also loved the idea of a breakfast smoothie in the morning and what is better than a peanut butter and banana breakfast in slurpable form?
So this recipe from www.mindfullyfrugalmom.com had my name all over it.



I loved that the recipe also contains oats, to give you that energy boost that will last you all the way until lunch as well as giving the smoothie a satisfying thickness.

Here is how I made the Peanut Butter Breakfast Smoothie 

As I'm lactose intolerant I replaced all the dairy items from the recipe with my non dairy favourites but you can choose to use dairy or non dairy.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond milk


• 1/2 cup dairy free yoghurt - I used plain free from soya yoghurt from Tesco


• 1/2 cup quick oats, soaked in 1/2 cup water - I used Ready brek


• 1 banana - I used pre frozen banana chips


• 2 tbsp peanut butter

There is the option to add chia seeds and cocoa powder but I didn't feel the need for them so left them out and it turned out excellent.

Instructions 
1. Soak the quick oats in the water for 5 - 10 minutes to make them easier to blend.
2. Add all the ingredients to the blender in the following order; milk, oats with soaking water, yoghurt, peanut butter, banana.
3. Blend until smooth and frothy and serve chilled.

The quick oats in this recipe really transform a regular smoothie into a breakfast treat that will sustain you throughout the morning and with the addition of the chia seeds you will be getting protein and fibre in one tasty swig.
Make this the night before and you will have a healthy breakfast to grab on the go, and who doesn't love peanut and banana combo?

Let me know what your breakfast recipes are or if you make any mentioned in this post, I'd love to hear from you. x