Garlicky Roast Mushrooms

 Enjoy them on their own as a meat-free meal with a green salad.

Or present them as a sidekick to your next steak meal.

Super quick to whip up, you'll be devouring them in 15 minutes!

To make it, you will need:

6 portabello medium-size mushrooms.

Trim the stalks.

Place in a non-stick baking dish.

Dice 2 cloves of garlic and finely chop 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme sprigs.

Sprinkle over the tops of the mushrooms.

Mix 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and 5 Tablespoons of olive oil.

Drizzle over the mushrooms.

Grind seasoning of salt and pepper over top and place in a preheated oven heated to 180 degrees Celcius.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve immediately.

I served mine as a main meal with a bacon, chicken and vegetable stir fry.

You can enjoy them on their own with toasted sourdough bread for breakfast.

Or they are delicious with steak and coleslaw.

Printable recipe HERE.

#mushrooms #sidedishes #healthyfood

Mango Orange Smoothie

This smoothie is:

Super 'good' for you.

Super 'yummy'.

A great start the day, 

 lunchtime or afternoon tea thick shake style drink.

You will need:

A Magic Bullet or a blender:

425g can mango slices (drained)

2 oranges peeled and diced.

1/2 cup soya milk

(1 cup if you prefer a thinner consistency).

1 Tablespoon liquid honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup crushed ice or coconut icecream.

BLEND until smooth.

Pour in a glass and devour.  

Or into your 'on the go' drink vessel.

Printable Recipe HERE

Note: An ingredient conversion chart can be found HERE

GRAB A COFFEE AND POP OVER TO MY GIFT STORES AT

FINE ART AMERICA

REDBUBBLE

SAATCHI ART

#smoothierecipe #smoothie #healthydrinks

Healthy Family Food Options - No Bake Nut Slice

Meet Bridget...

  I recently met Bridget Serafimidis on my 'eating healthy journey'...

Bridget is passionate.

Passionate about:

Women's and children's health.

About empowering families to take control of their own health, by giving them the tools to create healthy food cultures within the home.

She loves sharing recipes that are not full of fillers and for the most part, refined sugar-free. 

Recipes that are easy enough for even the new home cook to pride themself on creating. 

Recipes that are family-friendly and adaptable for everyone.  

Bridgets philosophies resonated with me as I am on a heal myself through diet mission.  

A mission that is all about health, vitality, energy and healing from consuming homemade and healthier food chooses.  

Here is a delicious slice to try:

Healthy Nut Butter Slice.

Base

2 cups of almond meal

2 cups of toasted coconut

6 Tbsp of coconut oil

4 Tbsp of maple syrup

Pinch of salt

6 Tbsp of cacao

2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter

Filling

3/4 cup of cacao/peanut butter

3/4 cup of mixed nut butter

4 Tbsp of maple syrup

6 Tbsp Coconut oil

Topping

Melted Whitakers chocolate 85%

Toasted slithered almonds

Place all base ingredients into a food processor, blitz and press into lined 20 cm cake tin.

Melt filling together in a pot, pour over the base, set in the freezer for 20 mins or until firm.

Melt chocolate and drizzle over the set filling, sprinkle with toasted almonds.

Cut into small squares (a little goes a long way.)

(Printable recipe link at bottom of the article).

It is a fabulous nutty, chocolatey, 'sweet fix' choice.

It's also 'no-bake'.

Plus super fun to make with the children or grandchildren.

A slice homemade - so that you know exactly what the ingredients in it are! 

Do pop over to find out more about Bridget here on Facebook.

Or over at 'Lifestyle Tribe' (she's the co-founder).

Printable recipe for 'Nut Butter Slice' HERE.

#recipes #nutbutter #slices

Lemon Mustard Salad Dressing...

The health journey I have been on has been epic!

Many choices of change have been made.

It's been a long, slow journey.

Goals made.

Goals met.

New goals set.

I began putting my journey into words in 2017 here at Mia Bella Passions.

In 2020 - began updating that story, which is ongoing.

The hope is that it may inspire others who are chronic pain and poor health sufferers.

You will find that story so far HERE.

It also inspired me to start sharing some of the recipes I love with y'all

- that offer healthier choices.
Delicious and tasty choices.

Today I'm sharing a lemon and mustard dressing for salads.

Lemon Mustard Dressing

In a bowl place:

1/2 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 Tablespoon of honey

Juice of 1/2 lemon 

1 teaspoon crushed garlic.

Whisk until combined.

Salad

Rocket, lettuce or mixed salad greens

diced cucumber

chopped tomato

diced red onion.
diced orange capsicum

(omit or add any other salad ingredients you desire)

I served this with flaked cold salmon.

But try it with:

Honey grilled chicken.

Seared lamb or beef.

Crumbed fresh fish fillet.

Topping:

Dry toast sesame seeds over high heat in a non-stick frying pan.

Swirl and stir constantly until golden.

( I make a large quantity at a time and store in an airtight jar, to have on hand to add to salads, savoury baking, and pizzas.

A superbly tasty salad that is very quick to prepare.

Printable Recipe HERE.

#healthyfood #weightlossstory

How Easy Is It To Make Peanut Butter?

In blog land everyone else is making peanut butter!

And everyone says it's EASY!

And ya all know EASY is my friend...

so I decided to test the theory.

Off I went to Bin Inn bulk store...

purchased my roasted salted peanuts.

Got out my food processor, added my peanuts,

 pulsed and smashed those peanuts into little pieces.

One blogger said - it takes 5 minutes to make smooth peanut butter!

Well....

my food processor is so powerful - 

I am glad it has suction cups to stick it to the bench.

It literally takes off!

Yip - it is a BEAST!

And after 6 minutes at top speed I had smashed peanuts,

that did not quite resemble peanut butter.

Processed for another 2 minutes - hmmm no change.

So I am thinking - 

maybe we dry roast all the oil out of our peanuts in New Zealand.

USA you must have wonderful oily peanuts!

So in went two tablespoons of oil.

Another 3 minutes of full speed processing and I had an in between kind of crunchy and smooth peanut butter.

By this stage the noise of the 'BEAST' was doing my head in,

 so after a taste test, I decided it was good enough.

It took 11 minutes but I won the homemade peanut butter battle.
It is delicious.

When compared to a natural store bought peanut butter
that is available in New Zealand (in the same quantities), 
it's actually no cheaper to make at home.

But at least I can tick it off the list, and say I've done it.   

;)