Get the word out – this delicious and creamy treat will fill your heart with love, your body with happy cells and healthy goodness.

They are so versatile! Team your oat mixture with any kind of fresh/dried/frozen fruit and nuts.

It’s like a jacket that goes with any of your outfits. I like to mix mine with some bananas/grapes/berries and nuts – cashew/hazelnut/almonds/pecans/walnuts for some variety.

This time I opted for chocolate hazelnut spread by none other than The No Nasties Project .

Made with sunflower oil and cocoa butter (not palm oil), no preservatives and additions, lesser sugar but taste amazeballs! Mind, blown.

I’m loving how hassle-free it is to make them:

Mix 1 1/2 cups of instant oats with 2 cups of any kind of milk (I usually prefer mine with soy milk – just gives that little bit of nuttiness) / potable plain water / coconut water (for a lighter, less creamy taste).

Give the oat mixture a nice mix and add the below;

2 tablespoons of honey

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, or black sesame seed powder (or both!) also make a nice touch.

Make sure it’s well covered – I like my Ball mason wide mouth jars – chuck it in the fridge to have its beauty sleep overnight, ready to be enjoyed as breakfast or a nourishing mid-day snack.

Thanks to my sis, Caroline for this awesome snack!

This unusual combo came from The Flavour Thesaurus, a book by Niki Segnit – immediately got my attention to try it! (amongst several other flavour combos I’ve never tried before)

Onions, garlic, butter, dash of white wine (Giesen Sauv Blanc in this case), portobello mushrooms, softness of the al dente rissotto rice mixed together in comforting harmony, and to top it off, generous shavings of tasty or parmesan cheese.

The occassional burst of blueberry – its sweetness and crunchy/bursty texture cutting through some of the rich, creamy rissotto density (feedback courtesy of my bro-in-law, one of my taste testers).

Both mushroom and blueberries have a similar earthiness that go hand in hand. Kinda makes you feel like part of the audience to a performic duet sung by these earthy plants.

Both equally gentle, not one dominating the other. I loved eating as much as making it!

I am a MO to the THER, yo! Second year of being “employed” to this role and loving all aspects of it, even at unpleasant times. Yes, of this I’m 100% sure, even though hours earlier I was screaming at Josie to stop whinging for unknown reasons.

It just occurred to me that I’ve changed so much, especially now with a child in my life, yet I’m still the same. I’ve grown much more comfortable in my own skin, embrace the uniqueness that makes me who I am, and respect others’ individuality – aspects I’d hopefully be able to pass on to the lil miss.

To celebrate, my lovely hubby took us out for brunch on this cool cafe at Kirribilli.

Checkout this view! Celcius Coffee Co. is located right by the waters, boasting a superb view of the harbour, while enjoying scrumptious food – I love it! Gotta be honest we were initially a little puzzled as to the whereabouts of the cafe when we parked nearby – there were no signs of restaurants or food around! Then we saw people coming up from below some flight of stairs, connecting the residential area we parked in to the cafe, which turned out to be the wharf as well! It was a little treasure-hunterish 🙂 like finding the jewel at the end of the tunnel or something 😀

Lovely, chilled atmosphere.

We didn’t mind the 1/2 hour wait, as there was plenty of sunshine and beautiful water views ❤

Smoked bacon, avocado, relish sautéed Swiss chard, poached eggs, mushrooms, miso butter on sourdough. This dish inspires me to buy swiss chard a.k.a silverbeet, as it wasn’t usually our go-to type of green veggie. Everything on this plate was delicious, but I wished the sourdough was thicker, or that they’d add another slice of it because the toppings were plenty.

House-made sweet soy glaze, red chillies, fresh Asian herbs, avocado & sweet onions on vermicelli noodles. Fresh and tasty but there could have been more elements on the dish to break apart the richness of the pork belly.

SUPER LATE blog post due to being too tired taking care of the lil one! (yes, I conveniently and lovingly blame everything to the baby :p)

Brunch @ Kickaboom

Another sunny morning in the Mountains, and we’re off to our brunch-venture ❤

The atmosphere and the food in this place is, as how their name goes, indeed kicks a powerful punch! Definitely puts those smiles on our faces 😉

Soba noodles, pickled carrot & cabbage, puffed tofu, cherry tomatoes, peanut dressing (more on this soon), furikake (dried Japanese mixed seasonings).

Before I go on and rant about how good it taste, I have mixed feelings about this bowl. Fresh, awesome taste, its healthy, super tasty, love all the texture combination (slurpy soba noodles, the pickled veggies, the dressing all just works!), lovely visuals of bright colours, and nice crispy shallots to top it all off. I got so excited and caught up with all the ingredients and how delicious it taste, that I totally forgot about the peanut dressing and fed it to Josie, who is allergic to peanut!! BAD MOM moment right there – UGHH! I mean, its right there on the menu description too!!

Within seconds of giving her 2 short noodles (laden with the peanut sauce, dear God wot’ve I done…), her lower lip swelled up twice its normal size and blotchy rash started appearing around her mouth. THANKFULLY things didn’t turn for the worst, she didn’t seem too bothered by it and the swelling eventually had gone down, although it took few hours. LESSON LEARNT – have to pay extra attention what we give to her AND have antihistamine in hand!!

Roasted pork belly, fried rice, egg, cucumber, shallot salad, kraut, sriracha, tempura greens. What a load of elements in one dish! We love this combination of cultures – korean, thai, malay/indonesian and german too. Bomb flavours; enough heat from the fried rice and sriracha, sweet, sticky roasted pork belly pieces infusing more yumminess into the dish, and the tang and freshness of the kraut works a ton!

Even the kids’ meal humble toastie is on another level, just the right amount of butter, vegemite and cheese on perfectly toasted sourdough. The lotus chips add that extra touch of love, and a little bit of serenity – a winner!

Afternoon tea @ Bakehouse Gourmet

Afternoon rolled around and it was time for a quick lunch before heading back home. We decided to get something fast and get back on the road, to avoid traffic. Well-known around the area for their pies, it was perfect for what we were looking for at that moment!

Fall-apart, melt-in-your-mouth pastry filled with slow cooked lamb – hearty and absolutely delightful! If excitement was a pie in a cartoon, it’d look something like this

or Shaq giving this look….

In a comic world, I imagine the pastry barely able to contain its glee, saying, “Wait til u taste what’s insiiidee…” *giggles*

Yeah, one taste and my mind went like that 😀

Anyways, I just mean to say, it was delicious!!

I also felt like something soupy and luckily, Con’s Continental Deli, a shop right next door, has just what I want!

Quick, flavoursome, hearty, comforting, JUST what I felt like.

Thank you, Blue Mountains, for feeding us such good food! Til next time ❤

Brunch @ Lily’s Pad

After a restful night, we were off to Leura to get a taste of Lily’s Pad dining. The experience started footsteps away from actually entering the cafe – a quiet and charming entrance walkway off the main road features greenery walls and soothing water sounds from the little fountain at the front, setting customers at ease straightaway. Service was instantaneous and friendly – always a plus for hungry customers 😉

Buttermilk pancakes, free-range eggs (your choice – scrambled or poached), bacon, served with maple syrup.

Buttermilk pancakes with fresh and poached fruits, coconut chips and vanilla ice cream.

Verdict: simple, fresh food done exceedingly well, fuels us up, ready to take on the beautiful day ahead ❤ Fluffy pancakes, delicious, complementing flavours. The scrambled eggs perfectly cooked, bacon – the right amount of smokiness and not too oily. The sweet, soft fruits and crunchy coconut chips make an interesting combo because of the gentle contrast in texture. And the ice cream just welds all the beautiful components together in a harmonious note.

As I was enjoying the meal, couldn’t help my curiosity about the ingredients – I had to bug the busy chef/business owner Aaron Sutton, who was at the front greeting customers and who’d certainly met my questions with equal, if not more, passion about the food and the business in general. Their pancakes are made of wholesome allbran flour and buttermilk, which helps with the fluffy texture.

They usually make them with coconut flour and ricotta for the pancakes but allbran takes much faster to make, and you’d need SPEED for such a busy place on a weekend. I think this piece of information shows me a glimpse into their dedication and thoughts that are put into everything they do at the business – which was so inspiring and awesome to get to know!

Absolutely love the positive vibes from the whole dining experience – keep up the good work and good food, guys! Will definitely be coming back here!!

Lunch @ Leura Garage

This garage-themed place sure is a hit! We were on the waitlist and waited for 20 minutes. Love that the theme is well and truly present in literally every inch of the place, expertly designed of course. Vintage mufflers lining up atop rows of wine – very chic, car tires decorated along one wall, and large industrial fans all make up the feel of casual yet classy dining atmosphere.

A delicious plate of earthy, uncomplicated, fresh foods that compliments all of its elements – the fresh al dente pasta, the mushroom, the thyme and the parmesan work well together from first bite to the last ❤

Roasted eggplant (YUMMM), pureed olive, yoghurt, sun-dried tomatoes and rocket all encapsulated in turkish bun – those are 6 HUGE TICKS √ √ √ √ √ √ for me.

It’s a very well-thought plan, I reckon – so, thank you Chef! Roasting the eggplant brings out the best of the vegetable – tender, smoky, sweet eggplant goodness. The olive tapenade adds that savoury saltiness and as for the sauce, you know you’re in for a treat when you mix yoghurt, sun-dried tomatoes and rocket! To top it off, the turkish bread helps mop all those flavours and keep them neat for your mouth to savour. Wonderful flavour and texture combo indeed.

Pork meatballs with fennel and apple puree and crispy beetroot chips. From the To Share section of the menu, we’d ordered these yummy meatballs and we love the portion as it was perfect for 3 of us to share. Very tasty and generous portion, I especially love the fennel and apple puree sauce hidden underneath. The chips however, was not crispy, but taste was not bad. Would definitely be coming back when we can!

Dinner @Phô Moi

On day 2, we’d managed to do much more sight-seeing (yayy!) – Leura Cascades and Pool of Siloam, which were AWESOME. So psyched to see waterfall! Lots of heavy huffing and puffing from all those narrow stairs with the baby though! All of which worked up our appetite for some nice, big, comforting bowl of PHO.

Business must be booming because it was BUSTLING BUSY and we waited for about 40 minutes in the cold, to get our seats! Our steaming bowls of delicious pork broth noodle soup arrived and it was like God’s extended hand blessing our tummies and souls with this blissful soup that is Pho ❤

In all honestly, the broth was the best bit, the noodles perfectly holds its shape and texture, as well as the tastiness of the broth. The beef brisket however, a little less than ideal as it was mostly fat instead of protein. But all in all, the broth and noodles were champions! Thank you Pho Moi for the delicious meal!

Fresh air, good vibes, gorgeous nature all around, charming town centres with food and attractions that come hand in hand – what better way to spend Easter??

Lunch @ 2773

First tummy stop for lunch – this place is a HUGE HIT with the long-weekend crowd, we were on the wait list for about half an hour (thank God our stomachs could still hold out) but service was friendly and attentive, with plenty of space to roam about 🙂

Fun, family and pet-friendly, chillax vibe – what a way to kickstart our short break!!

Pulled pork pizza with red pepper, onion, avocado, sour cream, corn chips. You can’t see the pulled pork here (my bad, didn’t wait to take better pic due to hunger) but its underneath all that corn chips and sour cream.

Smoky, melt-in-your-mouth, pulled-pork-goodness, topped with that undeniably perfect combination of crunchy corn chips with sour cream? Bliss! Apart from that, had to say I was a little disappointed the pizza wasn’t as warm as I’d like it :s which was a little odd to me, as it was quite a warm day…but oh well!

Another pork dish – slow roasted pork this time. This dish won me over because of its apple jam and cheddar combo – OOOH BABY! You can taste the tart sweetness of that apple, mixed in with the juicy tenderness of the meat, and the cheddar was the perfect glue to both flavours. The crunchy slaw marinated with all of the above mentioned elements mmMMM….I will just leave it to your imagination! One thing though, they were very oily, the wedges even more so than the jaffles – so I wished they had dialled down on the deep fry! Lucky for us, our lil “personal trainer” kept us busy running after her at the spacious backyard kids’ playground so it was quite an exercise!

Dinner @ Springwood Thai Kitchen

A car ride (albeit a short 1.5 hour one) with a baby in tow is not an entirely easy feat, especially when all 3 of us were coming down with cold. We were a little more mentally prepared this time, compared to our last little family outing to Forster (5 hours car ride one way, as opposed to 3 hours  /(o___0″)\  due to Josie simply not wanting to stop screaming on her seat, plus the traffic……)  but toward the end of the day after enjoying Josie’s laughter, and enduring her tantrums, we were almost at our wits’ ends. After finding our accomodation and checking in at 11.30am (the process was FAR from being breezy – hotel was locked out, we spent half hour looking for someone..some WAY to get in, was met with less than friendly staff, found out that said hotel had NO LIFTS, had to lug ourselves, baby and bags up 3 flights of stairs….), we settled ourselves and rested a little while before dinner. Moods quite low by this time due to crankiness and hunger, a quick Google search of ” Springwood quick eats ” led us to this haven that quickly lightened our mood and ended our first night perfectly ❤ thank the Lord~!

The lovely Thai ladies who warmly welcomed us made me feel like we were totally meant to be in the right place, at the right time (yes it was that kinda day…)

Food was delicious and served promptly, service was friendly and welcoming – what a perfect way to end our day, thank you Springwood Thai Kitchen, you have certainly made our day much better, fed us with good food and sent us to bed smiling, our tummies full 🙂

We decided to celebrate our 3 year hubby-wifey-ship at Fratelli Fresh in Lane Cove (the print advertising on Chatswood buses clearly got its message to my tummy – good work, marketing & creative team!)

Straight onto main meals for us :

The creamy, cheesy gorgonzola sauce was so smooth, rich, packed with flavour but can get bit too much after a few mouthfuls. Halfway through the meal, I’d grown increasingly underwhelmed by its overpowering cheesiness. It’s like my tastebuds keep wanting it, but my stomach says otherwise…dilemma! The crispy polenta chips were amaze-balls!! Perfect crunchiness, melt-in-your-mouth polenta yumminess!!

A bit of spice is always nice…love the little kick of the chilli flakes, and the twang of passionfruit. Vodka was of good amount too, but I had hoped the martini itself to be more spicy, rather than just the top bits where the chilli flakes are. Perhaps chilli powder or a little sriracha mixed in with the drink?

  As always, the lil miss loved her mushroom ravioli ❤

10 April 2016 was our wedding day. Just like that, 3 years had gone by like a flash.

Not to say it had been a breeze, but I thank God for everything that has happened and what we’ve learnt about each other, and continue to do so for many years to come 🙂 ❤

We celebrated with a little sweet something and a really nice sparkling white Wiley’s Creek.

“..it offers a delicate palette with a toasty finish…” It was definitely a delight to sip!

Pop these fun little bite-sized cuties and you’ll find delicate flavoursome custards (yuzu , blueberry, strawberry, salted egg and original). Smooth with just the right about of sweet, crumbly golden pastry and melts in your mouth. The salted egg was unusual and intriguing! Though we probably won’t go for seconds as it didn’t quite hit the spot. The Yuzu (lemon) was my favourite!

Dinner was a home cooked baked barramundi with carrots, green beans, capsicums and zucchini. The recipe was easy to make, although I wished I had seasoned the fish a little more! Overall I like making it, as it is healthier and still packs flavour, and the fish was still tender!

 

Here’s to us!

Korean food is best shared with friends, especially a special gathering after MONTHS of not catching up.

Dinner with girlfriends meant LOTS of catching up and FOOOOODD 🙂

The menu was a big variety of set menus, rice and noodle dishes, to-share dishes, side dishes and so on and so forth, but we were not wasting time deciding because the set menu looks extremely appetising! With its Bu Dae Jjigae (mish mash of ramen noodles, spam, sausages, corned beef, beans & veggie in hot and spicy hot pot),  korean style crispy fried chicken, Ju Muk Bab (seaweed rice balls) on its first page, we didn’t have to look far 😉 ❤

Please excuse the shaky photos…I really gotta amp up my photo taking skills (and/or phone…)!

Great about having dinner in the city on a week day : NO QUEUES, and still a nice mix of people but not too crowded. Don Don is nice and spacious, we were company of 5 plus 1 child and 1 baby in a pram and were placed in a spacious 6 seater.

Definitely coming back for more next time, still many food items yet to taste!