Something Fishy…

This recipe was meant to be last nights dinner. I had it all planned out and had even cut up the onion, opened the tin of salmon and sliced the tomato when I realised that I only  had one egg left. Fail. So into the fridge all the ingredients went and out came frozen left overs from last week. At least this meant that when I went to cook lunch today everything was nicely prepped for me.

This quick recipe was another recipe inspired by the random items left over before grocery shopping day. The little salmon quinoa cakes are baked in a muffin pan. The quinoa helps add a little crunch to the outer shell of the cake and prevents them from being watery. If you don’t mind spending a little extra, use red salmon instead of pink. I think the taste is far nicer.

Salmon Quinoa Cake Recipe

(serves 2)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup quinoa
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 210g canned red salmon, drained
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1 heaping teaspoon of whole grain mustard
• 4 egg whites, lightly whisked
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Boil quinoa in 2/3 cup of water for approximately 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed
2. Microwave onion for 2 minutes in a medium bowl to soften
3. Add baby spinach to quinoa once it is cooked and keep over heat until the spinach has wilted
4. Add baby spinach, quinoa and all other remaining ingredients to onion
5. Stir gently to combine. I tried to keep small hunks of salmon instead of making it into a paste but it’s up to what texture you prefer.
6. Spoon mixture into 6 muffin holes, lightly sprayed with cooking oil
7. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown

I served my salmon quinoa cakes with tomatoes roasted in balsamic vinegar, rosemary and olive oil, on top of some iceberg lettuce leaves. This was the perfect fast, high-protein lunch after a heavy morning gym session.

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Banana Buckwheat Breakfast Bake

I promise I didn’t try to alliterate that title! I took ages to decide what I felt like for breakfast this morning. It was too sunny outside for oatmeal and I couldn’t be bothered messing around with pancakes. Then, I remembered a recipe I’d tried a while ago by Ashley from The Edible Perspective for Buckwheat Bakes.

I’ve tried making these before and they are fantastic. You can cook them in one large ramekin or  in individual muffin holes. I prefer to make three individual bakes so you get more of the crunchy outside and can fit more topping on! Their texture is close a muffin’s bit a bit more dense and the buckwheat give it a yummy nutty taste.

If you haven’t tried chia seeds before – give them a go. Their taste is unnoticeable in baked goods and they are a good source of fibre, protein, omega-3, magnesium and potassium.

Ashley’s recipe makes a rather substantial sized meal so I cut the recipe down a little because I didn’t want to be weighed down before the gym. I was also out of buckwheat groats and not worried about making the recipe vegan so used an egg white and cows milk.

There’s no added sugar or fat but you wouldn’t guess it from the taste. If you like things a bit sweeter or were having the bake without toppings, as suggested by Ashley, you could add one or two teaspoons of sugar/honey/maple syrup etc. I didn’t worry about doing this because mine were smothered in Simple Berry Sauce and yoghurt – a great start to the day.

Banana Buckwheat Breakfast Bake Recipe (adapted from The Edible Perspective)

(serves 1)

Ingredients

• 1/4C buckwheat flour
• 1TBSP chia seeds
• 1/4t baking powder
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 3T trim milk
• 1/2t vanilla essence
• 1/2 ripe banana
• 1 egg white
• 1 TBSP plain unsweetened yogurt (vanilla flavoured yoghurt would work fine too)

Method

1. Mix dry ingredients together with a fork
2. Mix wet ingredients (including the banana) until there are only a few clumps. I quite like hitting the odd bit of banana in my bakes so you don’t need to be too fussy.
3. Pour into a greased ramekin or muffin holes.
4. Bake until the breakfast bake bounces back and is golden at the edges.

Vanilla, Banana & Blueberry Protein Oats

 

I love oats. I eat them almost every day and there are few things that I enjoy more than relaxing on a weekend morning with a huge bowl of warming oats, a coffee and something to read.

My theory is that if you don’t like porridge then you are cooking it wrong. My way to eat them has to be using Kath’s Whipped Banana Oatmeal method. (Click here for oatmeal porn). It makes the oats sweet and creamy without any added sugar – definitely a good start to the day.
For the bowl of oats pictured I used:

1/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup trim milk
1/2 cup banana
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup blueberries
1/3 cup lite cottage cheese (optional)
1 egg white (optional)
1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (optional)

You whisk the oats, water and milk together & stir every few minutes until the banana has dissolved and the mixture is thick and creamy. Once cooked, add the vanilla essence and optional extras. Add the blueberries in right at the end too so you don’t get purple porridge!

I’ve added cottage cheese, egg white and protein powder into my mix because I struggle to get enough protein into my diet for someone who does quite a bit of weight training. The protein powder changes the texture slightly (makes it a tiny bit chalky perhaps) but isn’t too noticeable.