Easy Nutella brownies?

While I was stalking scolling down Facebook this popped up on my news feed!

NUTELLA BROWNIES!!! Nom nom nom nom.

It looked so easy I just had to try! I already had the ingredients in my pantry so all I had to do was whip up a batch. I baked my brownies for about 12-15 minutes at 180c and this is what mine looked like....

The verdict? I may have overcooked my brownies a little bit as they were not as chewy as what a brownie is supposed to be. But it tasted GOOD like chocolatey hazelnut good! I made about 23 bite-sized brownies from this recipe - they were all gone in 5 minutes.

Besides being a simple and tasty recipe, I thought it wasn't the greatest in terms of price and quantity. I mean Nutella is an expensive commodity! Since the recipe does not yield a lot (especially when people would eat at least 6 of the bite-sized brownies) it is not very affordable. I may need to experiment a bit more with this recipe and maybe use an el'cheapo version of Nutella and see if there is any noticeable difference.

I believe this recipe does not need to be limited to Nutella. Most nut butters would work but may need to add some sugar/sweetener as well if you want a sweet treat. But this recipe is definitely delicious and popular. Give it a try and let me know if you agree with me!

Andrea

Cheesy Potato Gem Bake

Last year I promised to share a simple recipe to you all involving potato gems!!

This recipe is SO SO SO EASY and you don't need to be some MasterChef to do this! My brothers and their friends absolutely love this dish. It is a great side dish to serve with other things at a big dinner or gathering. Of course it is not healthy dish but you could always change the potato gems for a healthier alternative such as pumpkin or sweet potato.

Ingredients:

Potato Gems

Shredded Cheese (I used mozzarella and tasty cheese but the choice is yours!)

Diced Bacon

3 ingredients - THAT IS IT! This recipe is so easy to follow (and even more so with pictures!), so give this a try :)

Method:

1. Bake/fry the potato gems according to the packaging instructions - this is so you can avoid having mashed/soggy potato gems in the final result.
2. Lightly spray your baking dish and put one layer of cooked potato gems.
3. Layer cheese and bacon on top of potato gems
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 till you have filled your baking dish. (I did three layers in total)
5. Bake it at 200c for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and turned golden

And VIOLA! You are done with a cheesy bacon goodness of a potato bake. It is crunchy, stringy and tasty. You can always enhance this by adding some sauteed onions and mushrooms etc. Be creative with this basic yet delish dish.

Here is my brother's plate filled with mainly potato gems (serving number 1). 

Now a quick mention about healthier alternatives of this dish. Here is one made with roasted pumpkin (Sorry about the poor quality picture). It has been made the same way as previously mentioned (just with pumpkin & low fat cheese instead) and it was a success. It was pretty tasty but unfortunately does not have the crunch factor like the potato gems. But hey I thought it was a good substitute for me considering that I am watching my waistline more than my brothers (haha).

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you thought! :)

Andrea

Plans for 2014

Hi all

Sorry for being absent for the past few months. Usually at the end of the year my schedule gets a little crazy and exhausting. But nevertheless  .....

There is something special about the beginning of the year - maybe it is the fact we can start over afresh and feel just oh so new. 2013 was an EPIC and AWESOME year for me and I hope it will be the same (or even better) for this year! Anyways I just want to share some goals, plans and dreams I have in store for 2014 - for life and this blog.

Eat Clean-er
Since as a teenager, I struggled with my weight for years. I was always overweight and in 2012 I decided it was time to take charge and persevere. I started at 87.5kg and through the Dukan Diet I lost 23 kilos in 10 months. 2013 was the year of maintaining and following through Dukan's stabilisation phase. I am proud to say that I have managed to keep the weight off!
So now for 2014, I want to take a step further and start to eat clean. Loose the extra fat and gain lean muscle. Start to portion control and eat good wholesome meals.


Finally finish my studies
I have been taking forever to finish my bachelor degree mainly due to academic reasons. When I first got into university, I was so slack and unmotivated that it greatly affected my academic performance. So I got back into university last year with the maturity and a mindset to succeed. And that is what I did - successfully completed one year with marks that were a lot better than my past years. Now I only got this year, 2014 to finish it off. I know it is going to be tough but hey I know it is possible.



Have more creative fun time
I love to be creative but I never set aside any time for it. I am planning to actually timetable it into my diary as a commitment and not as a 'if only I got time'. I think it is important to have this to de-stress and not worry about other things. Just spend some time to enjoy the moment of creating something. Also this will help finish my unfinished projects (those that are several years old hahaha...).


ORGANISE myself
This is a biggie. I am what I call an organised chaos. Everything is messy and all over the place yet I have managed to remember errands, engagements and stuff. But when I organise myself and plan day/week, I tend to be less stressed and feel more accomplished when I tick the to-do list. Also I always hear that planning helps you in the long run.




This Blog
I want to start updating this blog regularly and I think I can manage it by posting weekly. What would the posts be about? I don't want to promise anything but as long I can post a decent one each week, I will be happy. Of course the posts will most likely consist things about food and craft with a picture here and there. As long it is decent and I do it weekly (minus the weeks when I am travelling) I will have fulfilled this goal!



So those are my goals and plans for 2014. What are yours?


Happy New Year
Andrea

Tune in for a simple yet UBER popular potato dish.

So it was my brother's birthday recently and I wanted to bless him with some of his favourite foods. One major thing my brother loves is POTATOES. He absolutely loves them especially in their unhealthy forms of chips, crisps, fries, hash browns and all. I have a recipe to share with you guys and yes it does involve potatoes but unfortunately.... I have no pictures of it. So next time I will get picture snappy and share this popular yet simple recipe with you guys :)

Here is one clue...

Love Andrea

Homemade low fat beef burger patties from SCRATCH!

When I cook, it tends to be quite experimental and when you experiment... it is fingers crossed all the way that it would turn out okay. I have had my fair share in experiments not turning out the way I want them to but we have to learn from our failures to succeed.. right? But hats off to those people on those competitive cooking shows where they think of successful recipes on the spot! I really admire their talent and creativity! Oh how I wish I could do that!

Today I decided to make burger patties from scratch. When I say from scratch, this means mincing my own meat! I haven't mentioned this yet but I am currently on the Dukan Diet the Consolidation stage. So I am always trying to find ways to make delicious meals that are low fat and low carb. One thing I usually have trouble is lean mince meat - it is always too dry when you want to make grilled burger patties or meatballs. Even baking results dry and cardboard-y texture that I am always forcing myself to eat it since it would be a waste. But this has not stopped me in experimenting and trying to achieve a decent low fat/low carb burger patty.

So instead of buying lean mince, I went out and bought some beef steaks (I think they were rump? I cannot remember) from Woolworths. Cut the outer fat, chopped it into chunks and threw them into the Thermomix. I love how my Thermomix can mince meat! But if you have a meat grinder (like me but never use it) or even a food processor - you could mince your own as well. But before all this meat landed in my Thermomix,  1/2 of a carrot, 2 cloves of garlic and a small onion were chopped first. The carrot and onion is to help give moisture to the burger patty (garlic was for flavour primarily). Then the meat was minced with those chopped veggies

Added some salt and pepper, mixed, mixed mixed. Shaped four beef patties (each patty roughly 100g worth of beef.. mmmm) and pan fried them on a nonstick pan.

Now it surprised me that my burger patties were brown already before they were cooked. I swear my steaks were red before! But I think it was due to the carrots? (hmm...)

Prepared my open burger (or open sandwich) - wholemeal bread, lean ham, tomato, cooked beef patty and cheddar cheese. Popped into grill for 5 minutes till cheese melted. 

Added salad and voila! Have to say the burger patties have been the best ones I made so far in regards to moisture - it wasn't dry and cardboard-y like past experiments. One thing that could be improved on was flavour - it was on more of the bland side. Cause I want to minimise my salt intake, I think I need to try and amp up the burger patty with a whole lot of herbs. Plus I might flatten my patty to increase its' overall surface area, therefore fit on the bread better. But overall I have to say this was a decent open burger/sandwich!

Till next time!
Andrea

Note: This burger patty is only appropriate for PV days since it has carrots in it. Remove the carrots and add a bit more onion should help do the trick. Though cannot guarantee that it would yield similar results to mine.

Attempt #1 DIY Gel Clutch Bag

So on YouTube I have subscribed to a lot of people. If you look closer a whole lot of it is DIYs, cooking and beauty. I love watching DIYs and always go.. "One day I am gonna do that!" but never do.

One of the YouTube channels I am subscribed to is secretlifeofabionerd and I have to say she is pretty awesome! One of her tutorials was a clear makeup case and I really liked her idea of integrating a pouch for facial wipes. So I thought why not seek out more tutorials related to clear bags or cases and gain some inspiration. Did a lil search on YouTube and typed 'diy clear bag'... low and behold another cool tutorial popped up.. this... DIY Gel-Filled Clutch

It was too awesome not to try out. So I headed out and bought supplies! Unfortunately I did not get the waterproof superglue but some UHU contact glue that was waterproof in a stick form.


After doing this first attempt with this glue - I think I will buy that waterproof superglue as it seem so much easier on the video than what I was doing. 

So I pretty much followed the video but with a few tweaks. I made my own template on an A4 piece of paper and traced the vinyl over it.

In the video, the girl used soap and soap dye. Me, I used cheap hair gel mixed with some water and food colouring. I have to say I preferred how my gel turned out - it wasn't watery or runny like hers.

End result - a pretty cool bag. One thing I would definitely change is the glue I used - it was just fiddly to work with a gluestick. Also it didn't dry as transparent as I would like it to - the bag had streak marks on the edges. Plus maybe if I wasn't trying to finish the project in top speed, I should have wiped off the pen marks on the outline of the vinyl. Cause it left the edges looking kind of dirty. 

Will I make this again? Yes - it is really awesome and kinda uniquely fashionable. It is retro, cool, funky and plain awesome. I am planning to make one as a present for a friend and chuck in some beads or glitter into the gel as well. Overall it is a fairly simple tutorial and you should try it out! You will love the end result :)

Good Luck!

Andrea

Oh and P.S. make sure you have absolutely covered all edges with glue with at least a 1 cm from the edge in. Because unfortunately, I had one tweeny weeny part that wasn't glued properly and it is leaking. I need to buy that waterproof superglue pronto to squirt into that section.

P.P.S. How many of you think my clutch looks like those refreeze-able icepacks? XD