Well, seeing I am trying (let’s say trying again) to eat well I am finding that I still every now and again crave chocolate. To say I am the mousse Queen is an understatement. I love chocolate mousse and the way that you can change the flavours so easily to suit what you feel like at the time.

You can imagine my extreme happiness when I stumbled across a healthy dessert blog called Chocolate-covered Katie. Her desserts look amazing and even better, they are good for you…well as good as you can get for something with chocolate in it!

The above pic is of the Chocolate Mousse I made last night adapted from Katie’s blog. The one thing that drew me to it was the main ingredient, apart from chocolate of course but this said ingredient had me thinking “are you kidding?”. See how smooth and creamy it looks? Do you want to know what made it like that? Are you ready? Are you sure? Ok, it’s…tofu! Yes, you read correctly…tofu! and you want to know something? If I served that to you and you had no idea what ingredients I had put in, you would have never even thought that tofu was the main ingredient and you want to know how I know this? because I served it to my Husband and he didn’t even have a clue. He thought it was awesome!

Chocolate Mousse

(Serves 2-4)

• 1 pack silken-firm tofu
• 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 125g of block of chocolate
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon milk of choice (I used rice milk)
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 Tablespoon agave or other sweetener

Melt the chocolate, either on the stove or in the microwave. Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until super smooth.

You can either serve straight away or or place in the fridge until a bit firmer. I ate mine straight away but the Husband asked for his a little firmer.

~ enjoy ~

When I heard that I could turn my Instagram photos in to a case for my iPhone I jumped at the chance!

Casetagram offers Instagram users the best quality case, I have ever seen, with whatever photos from their own account they choose. The above picture is what I have chosen for my new iPhone5. You can view galleries of what others have chosen and there are different filters to use to change your photos, for example, to look vintage, etc. I decided to keep mine how I captured and edited the photos myself.

I can guarantee you will be just as impressed with the case as what I was when I received my first case for my iPhone4. I have had for nearly 12 months and there is not one crack or one scratch on it and I constantly have people asking to have a look at it.

If you are looking a new case and you have an Instagram account, definitely get on to their website. If you don’t have an Instagram account, then what are doing? Start snapping & sharing!!!

*Note: for some reason the chicken looks quite pink in this photo. Trust me it, was really cooked & not pink in real life!

I found this recipe on the Better Homes & Gardens website and it sounded exactly what I needed for dinner last night. I tweaked it just ever so slightly and I think next time I will use Chicken Breast as I’m really not a fan of Thigh.

Ingredients

400ml Coconut Milk
Grated Rind of 1 Lime
1 Tablespoon of Fish Sauce
1 Stick of Lemongrass, white part thinly sliced
3cm piece of Ginger finely sliced
4 Kaffir Lime Leaves, thinly sliced
Juice of Half a Lime
6 Green Shallots, each cut in to 4 x 8cm long pieces
6 small Chicken Thigh Fillets
2 Tablespoons of Coriander, chopped
375g Fine Dried Egg Noodles
2 Tablespoons of Peanut Oil
150g Baby Spinach Leaves
1/3 Cup Flaked Coconut, toasted
Lime Wedges, to serve

Method

Put coconut milk, lime rind, fish sauce, lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves in a medium heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Meanwhile, put 4 shallot pieces on centre of each chicken thigh. Roll up and tie with string to enclose. Add rolls to coconut milk mixture and cook, covered, for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Transfer to a plate and stand for 2 minutes, then slice. Remove and discard string. Add coriander to coconut milk mixture.

Cook noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Drain, then transfer to a large bowl. Add oil, spinach leaves and coconut. Toss to combine.

Divide noodle mixture between serving bowls. Top each with chicken and coconut milk mixture. Serve with lime wedges.

~ Enjoy ~

When I was a child Halloween really wasn’t celebrated. We knew about it and heard the fun that people overseas had when the time of year came around but that was as far as we would get. The last couple of years, though, I have noticed that Australian’s have decided to get on the bandwagon…much to the dismay of some Aussie’s.

Just like the kids in the area, my boy Jordan loves Halloween. Only issue being while we were trying to get his costume on the kids were knocking at our front door so it was a battle trying to get Ghost Dog ready while running to the door (mainly me after Jordan). By the end of it he looked more like a Mummy than a Ghost!

All in all he enjoyed himself and at 14 years of age with legs that are starting to drag behind him, he was bouncing up and down whilst greeting all the kids and their parents.

Happy Halloween!

Photo courtesy of news.com.au

One thing I have managed do to while on my blogging hiatus is change my eating habits.

I’m not a bad eater but more of an erratic eater. I’ll skip breakfast most days, have a small lunch and then by dinner I am ravenous resulting in servings bigger than what a man can eat. I love my food and I definitely love to cook, especially bake, so our fridge and pantry is always stocked with copious amounts of food ingredients.

After coming down with the worst chest infection I have ever endured I decided it was time to clean out my system but I didn’t want to “detox”. A few months ago I was directed to a clean eating plan on the Body For Women site and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to find out more about the chef who designed the meals.

The Healthy Chef aka Teresa Cutter is a classically French trained chef, nutritionalist and fitness trainer dedicated to healthy eating and lifestyle. Her knowledge of food and how we can still eat the foods we love without the “naughtiness” had me reaching for a pen and paper to make a list of everything I needed to start heating healthy. She also made me want to throw all the processed crap out of my cupboards and fridge.

To give you a little insight on how awesome her recipes are, check out the Chocolate Cake. Now, before you scroll down to read what ingredients go in to making that cake, how good does the frosting look? Are you drooling just at the site of the glossy, gooeyness of it all? There is avocado in it! Yes, you read correctly…A V O C A D O!

I have been mixing ingredients and putting things in to dishes that I would have never thought possible and I feel fantastic! Oh and my skin is glowing.

Pic courtesy of weheartit

This is how my life feels like right now!

I hate whingeing to people and saying “I’ve been so busy” but my life has been so chaotic lately that all I can fit in to it is work with a bit of time for eating and sleeping in between. At least I’m not bored BUT I am finding that the small things like my blog and even my poor friends are getting left behind.

There are seriously not enough hours in a day at the moment and I am finding myself getting to an end of a week thinking “how the hell did we get here so quickly and where has the time gone?” That really is a scary thought actually. It’s bad enough that I sit here typing this and then my mind starts wandering off thinking “OMG I’m 35 years old, where has my life gone?”

THAT’S IT!

I will now make a concerted effort to take the time to enjoy every single second of the day and not get caught up in the moment. Some times we have to stop living to work and enjoying this precious time we have.

This photo just shows the epitome of happiness in my boy, Jordan.

Jordan will turning 14 years old this month & unfortunately he can’t even make it around the block let alone going to his favourite place in the whole wide world…the beach. A soon as we would turn the corner to road to take down to the beach he would start whining as he knew exactly where were going. He would jump out of the car at lightening speed & sniff every inch of the sand dunes before taking a run along the beach, only getting his paws wet in the water. He’s not a huge fan of the waves so would only go in “ankle” deep.

I took this photo as he was doing his usual run, sniff, play & only gave me seconds to snap then he was off again as some puppies caught his attention.

This post is part of the I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Pet Faces. Pop on over & take a look at all the gorgeous entries. I think I’m going to take at least an hour or so to get through all the cute faces.

Day 5 ~ Logo

If you love Japanese food as much as I do then this place is a must to go to! Harajuku Gyoza is a quirky little gyoza & beer bar in The Valley in Brisbane. From the moment you step through the door you feel like you are in Japan from the warm hospitality to the amazing freshly made dumplings that melt in your mouth with every bite.

Hot tip: if you are a sake drinker then you must place an order but only if you dare

Day 4 ~ Somewhere You Sat

Afternoon coffee with my Brother at our favourite place Blackboard. Here are the boys making our aeropress.

Day 2 ~ One

The icon, Q1