Divine banana pancake recipe for all day energy

Divine banana pancake recipe for all day energy Sunday is pancake day at my house and I love slathering a rich fruity topping over the hotcakes as soon as they're flipped from the pan. You are going to love these. They are hearty, filling, tasty and very satisfying. You only need 1 or 2 to feel full and unlike a typical pancake they won't spike your blood sugar and make you sleepy very soon after eating them! Most pancakes tend to pack on the pounds because they're full of flour and sugar. These ones do the opposite and taste even better! Full of bananas, [...]

Orange ginger oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (wheat free, gluten free)

Orange ginger oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (wheat free, gluten free) While oat week is officially over, I just had to share one more recipe from my oat week experiments. I had some trouble making a cookie that was not either rock hard or really bitter thanks to the baking soda. After finding this wonderful exposé on the gluten-free leavening agents necessary for successful baking, I did a few more tests, and voila! I finally ended up with with tasty, hard on the outside, chewy on the inside, wheat free cookies! But wait! Sin of all sins, how can cookies be [...]

Italian style savoury oatmeal with wild mushrooms, leeks and bacon

Italian style savoury oatmeal with wild mushrooms, leeks and bacon It’s Day 7, the final day of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! It's time for some savoury Italian oats to end Oat Week in style! Oats do such a great job in this recipe of providing a low GI starch as a base for some hearty autumnal Italian flavours. You won't believe that this is oatmeal! A new twist on a traditional risotto type Italian recipe using Oatmeal instead of rice. This dish is full of heart healthy oats, leeks, mushrooms, and garlic. MAIN BENEFITS / WHY EAT THIS? [...]

Skin beautiful prawn oatmeal curry with turmeric

Skin beautiful prawn oatmeal curry with turmeric It’s Day 6 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! When you think of oats, savoury dishes don't immediately come to mind. Most people think of pairing them with sweet things like apples and cinnamon however they are much more versatile. If you think of replacing rice with oats in certain recipes, it opens up a whole new ballgame! I don't eat a lot of rice, however I love many of the seasonings that come in rice dishes. So I use oats with italian flavourings in risotto-like dishes, or with Thai and Indian spices. It's [...]

Gorgeous vanilla apple crumble (wheat free, sugar free, and gluten free)

Gorgeous vanilla apple crumble (wheat free, sugar free, and gluten free) It’s Day 5 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! One of my favourite ways to use oats is in an apple crumble. The trouble with most crumble recipes is the addition of wheat flour, sugar, and margarine. This recipe cunningly sidesteps these harmful ingredients, while offering a satisfying mouth feel and rich apple vanilla-spice flavouring. I've cut out the normal first step in crumbles which is to cook your apples first in a pot before baking the oat crust in the oven. In this case, we are going to simplify [...]

Oatcakes with garlic avocado and egg rocket toppings (gluten free)

Oatcakes with garlic avocado and egg rocket toppings (gluten free) It's Day 4 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! Today is less about cooking, and more about snacking. Oatcakes with garlic avocado and egg rocket toppings (gluten free) Oatcakes could just be your new BFFs, but wait! Just be clear. Oatcakes taste AWFUL on their own. Do not under any circumstances eat these on their own (unless you have been kidnapped and all you see within reach are a pack of oatcakes). They are not Cheese-its, or Doritos, or anything that you scoff down by the 100's. These are [...]

Zesty apple cranberry oatmeal bars with almonds

Zesty apple cranberry oatmeal bars with almonds It's Day 3 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! These chewy wheat free bars are full of apples which are nutrient-dense without being energy-dense, so you can get your sweet tooth on, while still maintaining a healthy weight! I often throw one or two in my bag in the AM. They're great to have handy for coffee breaks or between meal snacks. The almond chunks get nicely toasted and the flavours of apple, lime and cranberry give the bars a nice tasty zing. These babies are dense bundles of lovely nutrition! MAIN [...]

Blender pancakes with oatmeal and banana (gluten free, heart-healthy)

Blender pancakes with oatmeal and banana (gluten free, heart-healthy) It’s Day 2 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! I am a sucker for pancakes. I think it's because they drop me right into "weekend mode". But the regular wheat-y kind give me a sugar low about 20 minutes after eating them, and all I want to do is take a nap on the couch! So much for Saturday afternoon! Blender pancakes with oatmeal and banana (gluten free, heart-healthy) These oatmeal pancakes taste better to me than the original (egads, is it possible?) They are full of heart friendly goodness as well as [...]

Banana oat muffins with almonds and blueberries (wheat free recipe for cholesterol reduction)

Banana oat muffins with almonds and blueberries (wheat free recipe for cholesterol reduction) It's Day 1 of Oat Week at The Curious Giraffe! Today we are making muffins with oat flour and absolutely NO wheat. Before Oat Week gets underway, I wanted to clarify something. Why all this fuss about going 'wheat-free' or 'flourless' and using oats instead of wheat? Cardiologist William Davis, MD, author of Wheat Belly sums up wheat nicely (all forms including supposedly healthy forms like whole wheat, sprouted, etc.)  as "incredibly destructive genetic monsters".  His fascinating account of the genetic modification of wheat over the last [...]