Recipe: Healthy Spinach Artichoke Quinoa Casserole

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I love baked recipes at dinner time. Not only are they warm and comforting - there's also a secret not-so-guilty pleasure behind them. 

You see, I often come up with these quick and easy baked recipes simply because it means I have 10-15 minutes to do whatever I please. 

Whilst I'm putting together what needs to go in the oven, I'll prep whatever sides we're having alongside it and then second that baby goes in the oven? I'M FREEEEEEEEEEE! 

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You'll see me dashing out of the kitchen and plonking myself down on my big red chair with whatever I'm reading at the moment, or sitting at my computer catching up on blog posts from my favourite blogging babes. 

Forget slaving over a hot stove, these recipes are my favourite because they take just a little bit of prep and a little bit of waiting whilst they bake away. 

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This Spinach Artichoke Quinoa Casserole is a current favourite in our house. Whilst Jesse turned his nose up at it the first time I made it (because he'd never eaten artichokes), it only took one bite to convince him that it was a winning recipe - and one that needed to be share. 

Fast forward to now and this is a recipe we still make once a week. Sometimes with grilled chicken thrown into the mix, other times as a meatless meal - but everytime gobbled down in moments because it is seriously, ridiculously good! 

So let me share the recipe with you! >> 

Recipe: 3 Ingredient Flourless Nutella Brownies

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Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and if you're anything like me - you're probably feeling like it snuck up out of nowhere.

Wasn't it Christmas yesterday? Weren't we just celebrating Valentine's Day? How did we get here. 

If that's the case, worry not.. because I have the perfect Valentine's Day to share with you. Why is it perfect? Because it's a last minute recipe that uses just three ingredients and is ready to devour in less than half an hour... 

And that's where my Valentine's poetry ends, friends (or maybe not... since that rhymed too 😜)

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I wouldn't call this recipe a particularly healthy recipe - but Valentine's Day is the perfect day to indulge and treat yourself. 

This is a recipe we've made dozens of times - but one I'd almost forgotten about until last week when World Nutella Day rolled around and we had a jar of Nutella sitting around that needed to be used up. 

Enter, brownies.

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These brownies are stupidly simple. Using just THREE ingredients and no boxed cake mixes or weird hard to find ingredients, they can be mixed up and poured into a pan in just a few minutes and before you know it, you've got a tray of brownies ready to eat.

A tray of brownies with gooey fudgy centres and crispy, chewy edges. 

Brownies so good that you'll have to hide them from your husband who would happily devour an entire tray in one sitting. 

So let me share the recipe with you! >> 

Confessions of a Nut Butter Addict

If you ask any of my family and friends what my favourite food is, they'd say peanut butter. That's because I'm known as a peanut butter addict.

Truth be known, I don't know if I could pick one favourite food - I love bananas, peanut butter, apples, oatmeal and carrots - they're my main squeezes, so to speak :P 

But it's not just peanut butter that I love, I'm a nut butter addict in general. There are quite a lot of staple nut butters (and other butters) I have in my house at all times - peanut butter (in at least 3 different varieties), almond butter, sunflower butter, nutella and coconut butter.

I put nut butter on everything I can - muffins, cereal, oatmeal, overnight oats, muffin messes, sweet potatoes (almond butter and cottage cheese are my favourite sweet tater toppings! - my family thinks this is disgusting).

If I put nut butter on anything, I will always leave a big dollop for the last bite. This means when I top my breakfasts with it, I always leave some in the side dish I melted it in for the last bite.

My current peanut butter collection includes (clock wise from the top left):

Sanitarium Natural Peanut Butter- I always change between the crunchy and smooth with this PB, at the moment it's smooth. It only has 1 ingredient, 100% peanuts and is super drippy and delicious. This is a great PB to use in recipes because you don't need to melt it. 

Kraft Crunchy Peanut Butter- My childhood favourite PB still has a large place in my heart. I don't care if it has added oils or sugars, it tastes delicious! It's more solid than the natural PB so when drizzling it over something I melt it for about 40 seconds first to get it drizzle-worthy.  

Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter - I bought this off iHerb and was actually surprised to find I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. The jar has had a far longer life span than most in my presence as I don't use it alot, but I do like it as a faux-frosting on muffins.

Earth Balance Crunchy Peanut Butter - This peanut butter is one of my iHerb staples. This is my favourite PB for Sandwiches and I am desperate to get my hands on the new crunchy coconut peanut butter as they didn't have it in Louisiana. This PB also has flaxseeds, giving you an omega-3 boost!

White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter -  another iHerb buy. I like this one better than the dark chocolate dreams but as it's a really sweet PB I don't use it as much as the others. It also makes a great faux-frosting and is perfect when added to baked goods or not-so-sweet breakfasts. I love how it tastes frozen and will often freeze some to eat on it's own or spread it onto a banana and freeze it for a treat later on. 

Coconut Butter is another one of my favourite spreads. At the moment I have a full collection of Cacao and Cashew, Coconut Cashew, Vanilla Coconut and Chocolate Coconut Butters - though plain coconut butter and vanilla coconut butter are my hands down favourites. I love drizzling a bit over cereal, oatmeal or other breakfasts and they're great in sweet recipes too! 

One of my favourite things to do with coconut butter is to get a medjool date, split it down the middle and take the pit out and then spread some coconut butter inside - pop it in the freezer for ~10 minutes and let the coconut butter harden and you have a delicious healthy candy-like treat! Yum! :)  

Currently both vanilla and plain coconut butters are on my to buy list as the jars are empty! 

I'm not only partial to peanut butter, other butters get loving too! 

I have always been a fan of Nutella every now and again and things haven't changed! Nutella also makes a great faux-frosting and is a delicious treat to have on a sandwich or on top of oatmeal, cereal or other breakfasts. I love nutella and bananas together and one of my favourite nutella combinations is a little odd but so delicious - nutella and plain goats cheese. It sounds disgusting but it works, trust me! 

Whilst in Louisiana I spotted Crunchy Hazelnut Spread from Kroger and of course I had to buy it! I'm a crunchy nut butter girl so this is heaaaaaaaaaaaven! 

Almond Butter is my second favourite to peanut butter and jars suddenly drain all the time - not sure what happens there? I love almond butter on almost everything - carrots, apples, bananas, oatmeal, cereal, overnight oats, muffins bowls, sweet potatoes, sandwiches you name it! The one I currently buy from Woolworths under their Macro brand is made with 100% almonds and is delicious! 

Sunflower Seed Butter (Eskal call it Free Nut Butter) is also another butter I keep in my house. I love dates with sunflower butter and it's great on sandwiches. I wish I could find an unsweetened version, though! Sunflower butter is another thing that tastes amazing on sweet potatoes and before I realised soy was a major problem for me, I used to love mixing a little sunflower butter and soy sauce for a stir fry sauce - delicious! 

So tell me,  are you a nut butter fan? 

What's your favourite?