Frankie's Pikelets

Feeding a 10month old banana porridge was proving to be messy and challenging, particularly because the little person is determined to feed himself. So I decided to turn his porridge into pikelets and let him munch on them on his own terms. 

To give him a bit more protein and omega 3 I've added a few extra nuts and seeds. This recipe makes about 12 little piklets so there's plenty to feed us too :) They're definitely worth eating even if you don't have a small human to feed!

Ingredients

1/3 cup of oats (could use quinoa flakes instead or as well but I haven't tried this yet)

1/2 tbs chia seeds (you could add some flaxseeds too)

10 almonds

10 cashews

1 banana

1/2 to 2/3 cup of water (could use a plant or nut milk)

Handful of blueberries 

Method

Put oats, nuts and seeds in a blender and wizz until fine - the consistency of almond meal or finer.

Add banana and water and blend until smooth - start with the 1/2 cup of water then add more if needed.

Add the blueberries and pulse through so they remain chunky.

Heat a pan with a little coconut oil or similar or nothing if your pan is super dooper nonstick etc. Once your pan is ready pour piklet sized amount of batter into your pan and cook until bubbles start to appear and they are getting brown on the bottom then flip and cook for maybe another minute or 2 until brown. My belief is that cooking pancakes and pikelets is all intuition and no science so good luck with the cooking process!

Vegan Queery STAPLES SERIES: Nina's Energy Slice

Today at Freedom Centre where I work, a visitor at the centre asked me about how to eat vegan coz he'd been trying, but struggling. So I said I'd get him some basic staple vegan recipes for meals and snacks - ones that would ensure you get a balanced nutritional vegan diet. We got talking about what are essential foods to get in your diet to cover key nutrients that you need.

My favourite ingredients to include in my weekly diet to cover my essential nutrients are;

• Spinach, silverbeet, kale
• Chia seeds
• Quinoa
• Chick Peas, hummus, beans
• Walnuts, cashews, almonds
• Soy milk, Almond Milk
• Bananas, Strawberries, kiwi fruit, apples
• Broccoli
• Mushrooms, avocado, tomatoes
• Prunes, Sultanas, Dates

A couple of good websites with vegan nutritional info as well as recipes are www.peta.org.au and www.whyveg.com

So now I'm all motivated me to add more to this blog to share - hence this upcoming series of VEGAN QUEERY STAPLES XD

To Start, SNACKS. This blog already has a large proportion of snack options. Actually, I think all of it so far could classify as snacks. hahaha so here's another one! We made this for our friend Nina when she was a new parent of twins and had no time to eat!

Nina's energy slice

Ingredients
    •    3/4 Cup Sultanas
    •    1/2 Cup Dried apricots
    •    2 Cups Dates
    •    1/2 Cup Sesame seeds
    •    1/4 Cup Coconut oil
    •    1 1/2 Cups raw almonds
    •    1 Cup Raw unsalted cashews
    •    1/2 Cup Walnuts
    •    juice of 1 lemon
    •    1/2 Cup Unsweetened shredded coconut
    •    4 Tbsp Chia seeds


Directions
    1.    Combine nuts and seeds and pulse in food processor.
    2.    Add the rest of the ingredients and process
    3.    Flatten, compacting with your hands into a pan and refrigerate