Honey & Vanilla Muffins: inspired by Ilona Andrews

Curran popped the lid off. Six perfect golden muffins. The aroma of honey and vanilla floated around the table. [...]
Curran took one muffin, passed it to me, and bit into a second one. “We came to your house last week.”
“I was out on clan business. That doesn’t count.”
I bit into the muffin and, for the five seconds it took me to chew, went to heaven.

~Magic Binds, by Ilona Andrews

I have a confession: I am hopelessly addicted to urban fantasy books.

I just love being transported to another world where there are heroes and heroines, magic is real and there is a mystery to be solved. 

One of my absolute all time favourite series is the Kate Daniels series by the urban fantasy royalty duo Ilona Andrews. A wisecracking badass heroine, magic, mystery, were-creatures, vampires and monsters - what’s not to love? I was doing a reread of the whole series because the tenth and *sob* very last book came out, when this passage stopped me in my tracks:

Six perfect golden muffins. The aroma of honey and vanilla floated around the table.

Holy honey muffins, Batman, do those sound freakin' amazing or do those sound freakin' amazing?

Spiced butter cookies

In between looking after a toddler and a 4 month old and wrangling with Kmart over a bungled order (Kmart I love ya but you let your homegirl down this time!), Christmas has really sneaked up on me this year! So if you too find yourself needing to do some last minute Christmas baking- whip up a batch of these amazing and super quick cookies!

Grammed: Orange Almond Cake

I love me some Orange Almond Cake. 

Tender, citrusy and incredibly moist; it tastes of sunshine and summer. Delish. 

Grammed: Low carb pancakes with quick sugarfree berry chia jam

Brekkie this morning: Low carb pancakes with sugarfree berry chia jam. 10 mins from start to finish #booyakasha #breakfastofchampions #somuchgoodness #healthyeating #lchf

A post shared by Nessie@bakingequalslove (@bakingequalslove) on Jan 23, 2018 at 1:38pm PST

This is a super quick and easy breakfast, perfect for those mornings when you want a treat but not the guilt.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding

We only moved from Wellington just over a year ago but my gosh it seems like a lifetime ago.  We were pre-baby, living right next to town with a magnificent view overlooking the beautiful harbour.   We used to just stroll on down to the centre of town and go to one of the many amazing eateries right at our door step. Life is most definitely very different now with a little 10 month old to chase around!!

One of our 'locals' was this funky American-style diner at the bottom of our road that did the most ah-mazing Reese's peanut butter chocolate milkshakes.

I've been feeling rather nostalgic recently and missing our Wellingtonian mates and local haunts so I thought I might recreate a little piece of our windy city life by making Chocolate Peanut Chia Puddings as a healthified homage to our Welly life.

Grammed: Miso Kimchi Udon Noodles with Kale and Tofu

Kimchi miso udon noodles with fresh kale, bok choi and spring onions from our vege garden 🌱🍜 #sofresh #gardenbounty #plantsusuallydieonus

A post shared by Nessie@bakingequalslove (@bakingequalslove) on Feb 11, 2017 at 1:39pm PST

This is a super quick super yum meal we have pretty regularly on our weeknight dinner rotation.  We usually have it as a vego meal but you can add some pan fried chicken or a softly boiled egg for extra protein

Grammed: Pink coconut rice salad bowl

Pink coconut rice salad bowl to make up for the copious amounts of ice cream and chocolate consumed this week #onholiday #buddhabowl

A photo posted by Nessie@bakingequalslove (@bakingequalslove) on Feb 10, 2017 at 6:30pm PST

I bow down to all the mom bloggers out there - man I don't know how that do it! In between running around after a mischievous little munchkin I've found it really hard to blog.  So I've made the leap and ventured into the wonderful world of Instagram! 

Hopefully that will be a way to keep up with a little bit of bakingequalslove blogging in between proper posts! If you are also on instagram you can find me here at: https://www.instagram.com/bakingequalslove/

So as the first 'grammed post - here's a super quick and easy recipe for Pink Coconut Rice Salad Bowl.

Christmas Gingerbread Bundt Cake

It has been 9 months since my last post but it might as well have been a lifetime ago! Since my last post we have welcomed our gorgeous little girl into the world and the months have just flown by. Life is so full and hectic and magical with a little one. It has been the most incredible experience watching her grow and become a little person. And now all of a sudden Christmas is here!

Christmas is a million times more fun with a kid isn't it? For our first Christmas as a family of three we decided to go with a living Christmas tree! The idea is that we will get to watch the tree and our little girl grow up together.  New traditions for our brand spanking new family.