Home Happenings

Even though I am at home now, I am still cooking tea practically every day. My mum works until half past six and my dad does shift work, so I like to help out how I can. I enjoy it, so it works out well all round really!

After saying that, the things I am going to write about now aren't even 'tea dishes'. But none the more for that. Yesterday, it was my grandpa's birthday, and as rock cakes are his favourite, I made him some of those as a present. I like making rock buns because it involves rubbing butter and flour together... this is one of the first jobs I ever did in the kitchen (seriously, there is a video of me doing it that I don't even remember!) and it remains one of my favourite jobs to this day! The other being taste testing... ;)

Dried fruit, cinnamon and not overly sweet. These were made for me!

As this started out as a general craft blog, I am going to show you the card I made him.

It is a horizontal card, but I have yet to figure out how to rotate photos on here...

This was quite fun to make as I couldn't find any glue or my glue dots- which are fabulously quick and easy by the way! I solved it by using pretty coloured tape, and a little bit of normal tape rolled over to tape the main section to the card. I do enjoy card making, but I don't have room for all my materials etc at university, so I only get to make them while I'm at home. I like to make them wherever I can, so if you have any requests, send them my way. I have no work to do so I'm free to spend as long as I like on them!

I also did some baking yesterday for my mum to take to work. Where we work, whenever someone goes away they usually bring back something edible to share, and I suspect this is the case in workplaces the world over. She went with my dad on a motorbike tour of Portugal, with a little bit of Spain thrown in... so it was really practical to try and bring anything back. Biscuits? Get crushed. Chocolate or sweets? 40 degree heat. Would melt. So it fell to me to make something! We had a look through some of the many recipe books we have (at last count, 280 something... and that was about 10 years ago...) and she decided on Bakewell Biscuits from Miranda Gore Brown's book, Biscuit. Neither of us has ever made anything from this book, so I was quite excited. Plus that fact that I would get to tick a new recipe. Plus I just ADORE anything remotely Bakewell-like. 

The biscuits contain almond extract, ground almonds and glacé cherries to make them 'bakewelly' (new word). They are topped with toasted flaked almonds before going in the oven, and the icing is a simple glacé icing with a tiny bit of almond extract. The cooking time is 30-35 minutes (only 30 in our super hot oven!), which may seem a long time for biscuits, but the texture of them is quite different. I wish I'd taken a picture of the inside as it is quite hard to explain! They don't have a traditional biscuit/cookie texture, it is more macaroon like and quite chewy... very different and very delicious. I didn't try an iced one, just a quarter of one that broke ACCIDENTALLY- I swear!- as I was transferring them to a cooling rack, and a teaspoon of icing. When I tried the icing, my first thought was that I should have cherry bakewell for my birthday... but you already know that I chose Battenberg six months in advance! Maybe I'll have both, it is a special birthday after all... my 21st! I think I will have both. Birthday Battenberg and Bakewell is just too fun to say to not do it! 

Only five months ad 14 days to find out what I have!

Super Stack

Today was one of those times where I had a few random pieces in the fridge to use that had accumulated over a few days. This has probably happened to most people before. The ingredients you have might not seem to go together, but when you combine them with some stor cupboard items, you can end up with some pretty yummy things. That is how I came to have my Super Stack for lunch. I griddled half an aubergine and about a third of a courgette, plus one slice of sweet potato... I am using the rest of the sweet potato tomorrow, and I will share the results of course ;)

I layered the griddled vegetables with half a can of tuna, some hummous and beetroot. I wanted to stack the lettuce I also had... But thought it would be too precarious, and I wanted to get a good photo  for you all. So next time you have some odds and ends in the freezer, just throw them together some how and see how it turns out. You never know, it might be the best thing you've ever had!

Beautiful Butternut

I like art. But usually I make it with paints and pencils... You know, the usual medium. I don't usually play with my food that much, just make it look vaguely presentable for a photo for you guys! And to go on Instagram (my username is @anniebellaaa if you want to take a peek!). But when the recipe intro said that butternut squash was a bit of a still life. So I tried to make it into one! The dish was a salad, so lots of ingredients to play with. So... What do you think?

I made something a little different for lunch today... honey soy glazed tofu! I usually just have it in miso soup at home (which my mum and I both like). We both like tofu, and I am always interested in different ways of making it, so when I saw I had all the ingredients for this, I just had to make it. It does take a little time, but it can mostly be left on it's own.

First, the tofu is fried in coconut oil for 5 minutes. While this is happening, the sauce ingredients can be mixed: soy sauce, honey and rice vinegar. Then the sauce is tipped into the pan. Turn the heat down to low and leave it for 15 minutes, then turn it and cook for another 15. When I turned mine it didn't take quite 15; just basally cook until all the liquid is gone. You should end up with something like this...

I had it hot today. I'm having it cold tomorrow to compare! I think it would be great  with soba noodles as a tea.

Sticky and firm on the outside, smooth and white on the inside! 

I did actually take the step of pressing out the excess water from the tofu beforehand, which I don't usually do. I can't vouch for the success of this recipe if you don't, but I do feel it is better to get rid of the excess. It only takes a few minutes to open the tofu, put it between some paper towels and put a weight on top anyway. If anybody tests the other way though, do let me know! 

Saucy Stir Fry and Cool Cobbler

Yep, so I did my usual thing of intending to blog about things as soon as possible after I make them, but then forgetting. Hence why I have two things to share with you this evening.

When I was planning a tea for Monday, I thought I didn't finish until 17:00 so I wanted something quick. (It turns out we were only in for a half day, but none the more for that.) I chose stir fry, because once everything is prepared, they are pretty speedy to cook. I'd planned to prepare what I could in the morning and then I wouldn't have much to do when I got back. I found out Sunday that we only had a half day, so I didn't prepare anything in the morning, but it was still quite quick to do. I used soba noodles, but anything would have worked really; the recipe also suggested egg. But seriously, any noodle. Soba noodles take four minutes to cook, which is about average, and in those four minutes I managed to prepare everything else. Perfect. While they were cooking, I mixed the three sauce ingredients (soy sauce, ginger, and a teeny pinch of sugar), then added that to the chopped vegetables, which were, mangetout, red pepper, sliced garlic, onion and mushrooms. The onion was supposed to be red, and there were also supposed to be beansprouts... but it was still good! Then I added a beaten egg and  the cooked noodles, mixed everything together and cooked it in the pan I used for the noodles for about two minutes.

I took the time to chop the pepper super thinly. I think things like that make a difference when you don't have long to cook them. I still managed to do all the prep in four minutes, so I think it was worth the effort.

A saucy, scrambly stir fry. Yes, scrambly is a word...

This next one might surprise you. It might not. I don't know. Anyway. I eat fish quite a lot, but I rarely post about it. I usually have steamed fish and vegetables, and although it is a super super nice tea, there isn't really a lot to say about it! I had planned to have that this week, but there was a recipe I saw for baked fish with potato, olives, green beans, garlic and lemon. I thought I'd give it a shot, because the baked salmon recipe my mum and I both do a lot is SO good, and to try something different is always good. The fish I used was smoked river cobbler, but again, any fish would be okay.

I also added some mangetout because I had some left over from the stir fry. Gotta get those veggies in! ;)

This is a meal that is very adaptable, depending on what you have. Like I already said, I added mangetout when the recipe didn't have any. I also added two halved spring onions. Only got big tomatoes? Slice them. No mangetout? Use sugarsnap peas. Any vegetable. The world (or veg rack) is your oyster. Just make sure they are roughly the same size- or make sure they will all be cooked at the same time. I bought a sweet potato as well, intending to chop it, instead of normal potatoes, but forgot to use it. I'm not doing well this week... I can only blame essay brain!

A little extra something for you, because I do like to share!

For breakfast a few days ago, I had overnight oats, but I used kefir because I didn't have any yoghurt. The fruit I used was frozen berries. When I added the rest of the kefir on top of the berries in the morning, it froze. So it was like having genuine yoghurt covered fruit! Kinda cool. You might not think so, but I was impressed...

Spice and Spaghetti

Before yesterday, I can't remember the last time I had a white potato. When I have baked potato for tea, I always have sweet... I'm fact, anytime I have potatoes I have sweet. They're more nutritious and just plain yummy! But when I did my shopping for last week, I thought, hey, why not... A Friday night treat! I used half a baking potato and cut it into wedge and chip shapes. It was a mixture because the shape of the potato obviously made it difficult to get them all uniform! Not that I was too bothered. After cutting them, I boiled the potato for about five minutes, then shook them around in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil, some paprika and chilli powder. As I was having them with a pork chop, I put them in the oven for ten minutes, then put the pork chop in as well. A good Friday treat.

It's spaghetti Saturday today! I was flicking through my recipe books deciding what to put on the weekly menu, as I usually do, and came across a spaghetti bolognese recipe I hadn't tried before. Sure, it wasn't anything particularly new, but I had to try it! I really enjoyed it. We used to have it fairly regularly when I was younger, once every few weeks or so, but I haven't had it for ages. The recipe didn't actually have tomatoes in it, it was just a suggested variation, but to me it isn't a bolognese without tomatoes! Perhaps I'll try it one day. I'm glad I had this tonight because it reminded me how much I love it. Maybe you'll see a different version in a few weeks or so...

Rich, tomatoy, herby, meaty... just. Plain. Delicious.

Belated Birthday Baking

In this post, I am going to share with you some things I baked for my mum's birthday. It is belated because her birthday was on the 7th of June. But anyway.

The first thing I made was Strawberry Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake Custard Bar Thingies... Okay so I can't remember exactly. But it was something like that. The bottom layer was chocolate brownie. The top layer was a sort of custardy cheesecake mixture with chopped strawberries in it. So really my title is quite accurate. I made them to take to her colleagues at work, and apparently they were very well received.

The second thing I made was a cherry almond loaf cake; the same as the one I made for Easter. My mum wanted this as her birthday cake because we never actually got to try any of the ones we made at Easter, as we made them for other people! And we both adore fruitcake. So it was a natural choice.

I obviously didn't decorate it like that for Easter, but apart from that it was exactly the same. My mum decided she wanted this pretty much straight after Easter. You might think that is in advance, but I think I have chosen mine already as well. My birthday is in January. Look out for a birthday Battenburg in six months or so ;-)

I also made brownies. Of which I took, literally, the perfect photo. But the other day I decided I would be organised and clear out the photos on my phone. And then deleted said perfect photo. It was a sad moment, as I wanted to keep it, due to the fact that I don't think I am very good at photography so I like to keep the photos I believe are good! But I think you all know what a brownie looks like. And who knows, maybe I'll also have some birthday brownies to go with the Battenburg. In six months, you'll find out!

Gorgeous Green

An unfortunate thing happened. I said yesterday I would tell you about my procrastibaking. But I ate it all. I thought I'd taken a photo. Turns out not. I have loooooots more work to do though, so I'm sure  some more will happen at some point...

But I have some pretty things to show you anyhow. They are both, as the title of the post suggests, green.

Well, the first thing, my breakfast, is only partly green. But pretty nonetheless. I had my usual oats, but I added courgette... Which of course we all know, is green. The flavours I used were grapefruit, lemon and coconut. It was delicious, and quite fitting for a day with lovely weather, the first day of June of course. It was very refreshing, and quite got me in the mood for Summer.

And this is my tea (for tomorrow and Tuesday as well). Which, as you can see, is very green. Pea soup! Although this took no more than half an hour from start to finish, it didn't make it any less tasty than a soup that has simmered for hours. I also got to use my new handblender, which was a bonus! It only cost me £4.15, which I don't mind telling people because who doesn't love a bargain?! And I want to show people that you don't have to have super fancy equipment to make good food. I didn't blend it totally smooth, I left some chunks. I prefer my soup to have chunks, but it's just personal preference. You could blend it totally smooth, just a bit or not at all.


Another summery dish for the first day of June. Okay so it's not a heatwave, but that's all the more reason to cook things like this, to make it seem like it is.

Quick Kebabs

I have to apologise now for the short post. But I have two exams next week so am knee deep in revision right now. Oh the fun.

But I couldn't not share my first post placement meal with you! It seems like forever ago I had a non placement meal, especially with the two week Easter break in the middle. For this momentous occasion I chose Lamb Kebabs with Greek Salad. There is a cute little Greek restaurant that I really want to go to. It even has lace tablecloths. I decided to recreate my own...

The meat was marinated in lemon juice and rind, garlic, cinnamon, dried oregano and seasoning. Then I baked mine as we don't have a working grill, but the original recipe was to use a barbecue... Waiting on the weather for that one!

The Greek salad was a traditional one of lettuce, cucumber, black olives and tomato. I roasted the red onion alongside the kebabs. I also added a courgette, as I am going home on Wednesday and I seem to have ended up with rather a lot of fresh food to be eaten! When the kebabs were cooked, I pulled the pieces off the skewers and topped the salad with them, then added a dollop each of hummus and quark (in place of Greek yoghurt).

I almost forgot, for the salad dressing I just used some balsamic vinegar and a some of the brine from the olive jar. I thought it was quite a good idea myself... But I would say that ;)

Ok, this post went on rather longer than I imagined... Ah we'll, back to work! I will have to share my 'procrasti-baking' with you as well, but for now, back to work...

A Breakfast Bap, Mini Muffins, Luxurious Lunches and Cheeky Chicken

If you have read my blog before, you may know that I like to 'healthify' things a lot of the time. However, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, sometimes only the real deal will do. My lunch today was a mixture of the two. I came upon the idea to have this because I saw that my local supermarket sold turkey sausages and I wanted to try them. I was also thinking about getting bacon for the pancakes, so I combined the two for today's lunch; the Breakfast Bap. When I went to buy the sausages though, they weren't there. I decided to push ahead with the idea and get some different ones. It was a toss up between healthy pork sausages or venison ones. I went with the pork ones in the end. I think either would have gone well, but I felt pork was more traditional to go with bacon. Keeping with the fillings theme of 'English Breakfast', I also added a tomato and an egg. The egg was poached, and the tomato, sausage and bacon were grilled. So healthier than a normal fry-up. The bacon, as I mentioned yesterday, was streaky... not so. But I had my reasons for choosing it! (To find out all about the pancakes and bacon, go to  ).

I nearly forgot to add the egg. But as I was using my nifty microwave poacher, it only took one minute, literally, to cook. I knew something was wrong when I was taking the photos, I just couldn't put my finger on it!

I put the sausage in the oven at the same time as I made... the mini-muffins! Luckily, they needed the same Gas Mark as I wanted to cook them at the same time. As it is my last week of placement this week, I made chocolate mini muffins to take in. I always make something to take, because I like baking and hardly ever get to do it. I made straight up chocolate mini muffins with chocolate chunks. I also added some chocolate glacé icing, as I didn't feel it would be sweet enough for most people... I have to say, my sweet tooth is fading, but I thought I would add the icing for the others, as that is who they are for!

From this...

...to this...

... to this! Be jealous you're not on placement with me ;-)

 

My luxurious lunch for this week is a wholemeal pitta bread. Which doesn't sound like luxury. But with a filling of avocado, salmon, cucumber, lemon juice, cottage cheese and seasoning it is.

And the pittas were only 50p, which isn't in the luxury price bracket. But I'm not complaining at all. The cheaper the better! And I'm sure the pittas have doubled in size since the last time I bought some. Which again, is no bad thing.

For tea is Chicken Stripper. Ooh la la. It is another Sam Stern recipe, which I am certain I have cooked before, from another cookbook. But they are rather tasty, so that isn't an issue. They are also quite quick to make, which is a bonus in my book. The chicken is simply bashed flat and cut into strips, then tossed in seasoned flour (also with chilli powder), then egg, then polenta, before being baked for 10 minutes. Done. I chose to serve mine with some quinoa, as I wanted to have some last week but the shop didn't have any. For vegetables, a simple mix of peas and spinach. And a dollop of cottage cheese on the side, because seriously, I love that stuff.

Ok, not pretty. But looks aren't everything. Expecially not when it tastes so good.



Steak Sandwich and Streaky Bacon

Another steak post... I know. But there were two in a pack so what am I supposed to do... Not eat it?! ;-) at home, we are big fans of steak sandwiches. We don't have them that often, they are kind of a treat. We usually have a big, juicy, grilled steak in a piece of baguette, for tea. Which is delicious. But I was having mine for lunch so I didn't want something so... Big. As you saw in my last steak post , my steaks are quite thin and flat, which was perfect. The bread I used was a wholemeal bad topped with oats, very lightly toasted. The steak was too large for the bad, but when I cut it in half it was perfect. I like to have some sort of veg with every meal, so I thinly sliced an onion and some garlic. I also put a teeny smidge of mustard on each side of the bap. Much as I like the simple baguette version, sometimes it's nice to snazz things up a bit!

Steak sandwich in a sandwich... Steakception?

That was the steak, now the streaky. I eat pretty healthily, so I don't have bacon very often, but I do like to have it every now and again. And I like my bacon crisp. Very crisp. The best bacon for crispness is streaky, so that is what I used. I have had bacon medallions from the healthy range of a supermarket, and they were nice, but more hammy than bacony. So they didn't really kill the bacon craving. I recently ordered some protein pancake mix from The Protein Works which I obviously wanted to try, and some pure Canadian maple syrup. Bacon, maple syrup and pancakes. What a combination.

Protein pancakes with maple syrup, plus cremated bacon. Just the way I like it. I am studiously ignoring my vegetable rule here hehe. Call it a Sunday treat!

And bacon craving is satisfied. I plan to use another rather tomorrow, and freeze the other 12. Yes, that's a lot of bacon, but it was the smallest pack available. And I wanted my crisp bacon. At least I won't be short should bacon cravings strike at an unexpected moment.

Paneer, Pizza and Pasta

Much as I like eating out, I do prefer to cook my own meals. I once had a curry while I was out that was made up of vegetables, and the main component was paneer cheese. I wanted to make something with it, but no shops I knew of sold it. A little while ago, however, the supermarket I do my shopping in started to stock it. I kept meaning to get some, and include it when I planned my menu, but I kept forgetting! This week however, it finally happened. I saw a photo of a lunch that someone had made, which was a naan bread 'pizza' with spinach, tomato and paneer. I decided to have it for lunch today.

The photo is a bit steamy, but I wanted to eat it while it was hot! On it's own, paneer can be a little tasteless, but it soaks up wonderfully the flavours of anything it is cooked with. I used a mini naan as I had some in the freezer... and I have one left, so I might just have to make this again!

I'm not quite sure what happened, but despite careful planning, I ended up without a tea for tonight. It didn't take me long to decide on pasta, as I haven't had it in a long time, so have been sort of craving it. I went through various combinations in my head, and although what I eventuall cooked was nothing like my original idea (as always!), I think I stumbled across a really good combination.

 

 

What we have here is wholewheat penne pasta, mixed with smoked diced ham, quark and wholegrain mustard. I wanted to add some peas, but I couldn't get to the freezer- long story- but I still really liked this combination! I am a big mustard fan (seriously, I can eat it right out of the jar), and I have liked the ham and mustard combination for a long time. So what's not to like about this?! I think peas would be a worthy addition, as I can honestly say it felt weird not having a vegetable included. However, it was still good as is. I think smoked ham was the right choice, but I'm sure unsmoked would be nice as well... feel free to experiment and let me know what you think! 

Super Steak, Salmon and Salad

As I am still batch cooking for the week day meals for placements, I like to do something different on Saturdays and Sundays to keep variety. This weekend's meals are the subject of this post, and first on the menu is Saturday Steak.

I have to admit, I didn't really do anything special with the steak, but it was cooked just perfectly and I really enjoyed it- what I could taste of it with a blocked nose! It did feel like a bit of a waste as I couldn't totally taste it, but I still enjoyed it.

As the grill in this house is just silly to be quite honest, I griddled the steak. And I served it with onions which I slow cooked with some tomato pureé and garlic, and spinach which was simply wilted. I didn't put anything on the steak... just plain, meaty goodness!

For second course, Sunday Salmon and Salad. The salad I did was one that caught my eye last week. It's called Vitamin Boost Salad (a Sam Stern recipe), and as it had just lots of ingredients I love, I knew I had to have it. Dates, nuts, seeds and fruit (in the form of an orange). Right up my street! For a 'dressing' I just thinned down some wholegrain mustard to make it drizzle-able! I could eat that stuff by the spoonful, no kidding... I ended up with salmon because I was looking at the Runner's World list of the 30 Best Foods for Runners and I wanted to see how many I could eat this week (I'll update you at the end of next week!) and salmon was on it. I got tinned salmon as it was on offer, making it only 1p dearer than smoked salmon, and as it is usually quite dear I thought I'd take my chance!

To spread the salmony yumminess, I had half of it in a sandwich yesterday with lettuce and  tomato and half today. The sandwich was simple but delicious, I wish I'd taken a photo of that as well. But never mind, you can just look at my beautifully presented salad ;-)

Another Sunday, another batch of meals cooked. Only one more week of placement after this coming week though! Until next week. See you then.

Bunches of Batches

Soooo, it's that time of the week again. Batch cooking for placement! Approximately two hours, 5 lunches and 5 teas. I haven't got a photo of my lunch as it got all mushed together when I had to fit it in my tupperwares! If I manage to open one and it looks decent, I'll try and snap a pic for you all!

I did get one of my tea however. On my last placement, I made a green lentil salad with a roast gammon joint. This is quite similar really. It's a bulgur wheat salad with sliced ham in. The ingredients I mixed with the lentils and bulgur wheat are pretty similar; think tabbouleh type things. Cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, lemon juice, garlic, that sort of thing. I also bought a new clic loc tub today, which happens to be the perfect size to fit this in.

I think that pleases me more than it should.

In a bit of a backwards order, I now want to tell you about my breakfast this morning. I always always have some form of oats. To cut a looooooong, long, long story short, it took a lot for me to have such a different breakfast. It's still oats, but in a different form.

I really, really didn't know what I wanted so I just kinda chucked everything in. Nothing that I didn't want or felt I should have, just because I'd planned it.

And it was good.

Ok. The base. Half one was half of my portion of oats mixed into fromage frais which was first mixed with maca powder, cinnamon and vanilla. The other half was the other half of oats with just some milk to moisten it. On top was half a banana, some mixed nuts, sultanas, chia seeds and cacao nibs.

And now forward again! Lunch. I almost forgot. You know how mad I am on Quest bars. I saw on Instagram that somebody made Quest bar cereal by making them into balls, baking them and using a protein shake as milk. I won't bore you with my process (because believe me, that would be waaaay too long a post!) but I used a Vanilla Almond Crunch Quest bar with a vanilla protein shake as milk. It. Was. Wonderful. It reminded me of a cereal I had a couple times as a child, I can't remember what it was called but it started with 'Golden' and the logo was a cowboy and a donkey! I love eating healthily, but it was really nice to have a trip down memory lane. I would definitely have that combination again, I love eating healthily and finding healthy alternatives to things. If anyone knows the name of the cereal, please let me know!

And I have just realised, it looks like Cookie Crisp! So much yummier though, I promise. I was hesitant about trying it because I didn't want to 'waste' a Quest bar, but I'm so glad I did. And I will definitely be having again in other combinations.

Naughty Noodler and a Quite Brilliant Quest Breakfast

So. The dish I said I was thinking of for tea tonight didn't happen. It was going to be a pasta dish. But then my julienne peeler arrived yesterday, and I somehow ended up with a spare carrot. I had seen that the julienne peeler can be used as a cheat's spiraliser, and I really wanted a spiraliser! It was only a few pounds so I got it. But I only got about a quarter of a way through the carrot when it broke. I was sad. I did however still make a good dish. I took the time to do it properly rather than a rush wish I usually do.

I sautéed half an onion which I had left over with some curry powder, then added some broken up mushrooms into the pan, and at the last minute some torn spinach. I blanched what little carrot noodles I had and mixed the lot together. I will, however, not give up on my spiraliser quest!

Speaking of quests. I am more than a little bit obssessed with Quest bars. I love all the flavours. I limit myself to one every two days, otherwise I'd go through them waaaaay too quickly. Now. The other day on Instagram I saw a method of making a peanut butter sauce of just mixing hot water with peanut butter. I've done hat several times and topped my breakfasts with it, but then I had another idea. What if I made it really thin, used less milk, and used that mixture to soak the oats for overnight oats? I'm so glad I did. I took one half a spoonful and froze, my thoughts going QUESTBARQUESTBARQUESTBAR. I'd also experimented with mushed up defrosted frozen berries with some chia seeds for jam... Pb and j, one of the best combinations known to man. Peanut butter and jelly, Quest bar, oats. One breakfast. That, my friends is what you call a good dish.

I have been thinking of how to make the other flavours of Quest bars in this kind of way, keeping the base as the peanut butter soaked oats. I sense experimentation is in order...

Pancakes, Chickpeas, Breakfast and Bakes

You know when you just get a sudden wanting for a certain food? Well that was me the evening before yesterday. I wanted pancakes. But healthy ones. So yesterday for lunch I had sweet potato pancakes! I made them with coconut flour and an apart from a pinch of ground ginger an egg and a splash of milk, that was everything. I cooked them more like little Scotch pancakes than crêpes, but I'd like to experiment with a more crêpe like batter in the future!

They were really yummy and satisfying. The texture wasn't as 'pancake like' as I thought it would be, more just like little sweet potato cakes. This isn't a minus point by any means, just an observation! I believe more experimentation is required ;)

As I said in my previous post, I have been at home for a little while until last week. To cut a very long story short, my mum and I were thinking of combinations of fruit and nut to go in yoghurt as a small dessert, or for lunch. I had half an apple that needed using, so the night before last I'd planned to have apple, mango and coconut. Alas, I was too full. I didn't want the apple to waste, so I decided to use the combination in my Bircher muesli today for breakfast. Let me tell you, it was wonderful! Apple and coconut may not be a classic combination, but it certainly worked. And mango and coconut always go well together. This one definitely gets ticked off the list!

If you're wondering, the black dots are chia seeds! They make it thicker and creamier, and help keep you full.

For lunch today I had something that I have been wanting to try for quite a while now- the classic combination of an egg in an avocado baked in the oven. Another success story, that will be repeated. I also had a slice of toast cut into soldiers for dipping, but it isn't strictly necessary. With or without, you have to try this!

Another part of lunch was roasted chickpeas. There are tons of combinations out there on the Internet, but I just rolled mine in cinnamon. They take on a crunchy texture with a kind of nutty taste. Good as a snack or part of a meal. The flavour combinations are many, so take a look around and you'll be sure to find one you like; sweet or savoury, there's bound to be one to suit.