Baby flapjacks

I I finally had a) the baby napping solidly enough and b) the energy to try baking something new! As a household we've always had a pretty healthy diet, so we're not making major adjustments now our son in on solids, but it did make me realise that while a biscuit when you're peckish isn't so bad for an adult who should know better, it's not really desirable for a baby who doesn't know better! Our son eats enough fruit at each meal time to keep Dole in business for many years to come, so I scoured the offerings of Pinterest for something a little different he could have for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Lo and behold, the sugar free baby flapjack has been baking in our oven.

This is the original recipe, but please carry on reading to find out how I found it and what my end result was: http://www.myfussyeater.com/sugar-free-flapjacks-for-baby-led-weaning/

The ingredients are (and I used cup measurements just because they were available, though my scales were handy and they definitely didn't match the weights to cups conversion on the original recipe):

2 cups rolled oats, ground up a bit in the food processor

1 tbsp desiccated coconut

1/3 cup butter, melted (you can use coconut oil but mine is for my hair!) - also, be careful if melting it in the microwave, I hadn't done it before and have ended up with a butter-coated microwave interior to clean

3 dates, pitted

1 & 1/2 bananas

4 tbsp orange or apple juice (I had orange open)

1. Mix the processed oats and coconut together in a large bowl

2. Put the other ingredients into a blender / food processor and blitz till they're paste-like, or at least combined and not too lumpy

3. Pour the wet paste into the dry mix and thoroughly combine

4. Line a tray with parchment (I used Fry Light to grease my tray and help the parchment stick)

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tray, then pat it down tightly with a spoon to make it nice and dense

I had preheated the oven to 170 Celsius (actually 150 due to mine being fan). When I do this again I'm going to put it at at least 170 fan, if not 180, to encourage a bit more colour and less drying out. 

The original recipe says to bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden, but mine were in for much longer... Maybe 40 minutes. Hence the idea about upping the temperature next time. 

This recipe should make 8 to 16 bars depending on how greedy you are. I'm actually giving my son no more than half a 16th of the total at a time (a 32nd??!?) because I made them quite thin but they're pretty wide. You can just slice them into however many you want once they're a little cool.

I had licked the spoon as I out the tray in the oven and really enjoyed the taste. I then shared a bit with my son after they'd cooled a little, and I have to say, neither of us were disgusted at these healthy little bars! Normally with healthy versions or sugar-free things I usually think I'll just make the sugared version and eat less, but these are pretty good. My husband tried one and he won't be stealing them; they're not quite up to his sweet tooth requirements, but I think we'll happily make our way through the remaining 30 32nds! 

The original recipe says they can be frozen in parchment and defrosted with 30 mins notice, this excites me quite a lot but I've run out of parchment so they will be plastic-tubbed until I can get some more parchment tomorrow! 

Whoops, but... yay! We're back!

I know, I know... I leave you for a whole year and then come back with a post that doesn't even have photos on it. Sorry about that.

To fill you in, I've been a little busy for the past 12 months or so. I grew, birthed and am raising a lovely baby boy. It preoccupied my mind somewhat and baby brain destroyed my ability to sew and cook (no joke, I tried to make him a room decoration at Christmas and ended up in tears with mis-shapen fabric swatches in front of me!). Blogging was at the back of my somewhat shrivelled mind. But my post isn't about the whole baby thing. It's about something I cooked tonight!

I have reignited my love for cooking proper food and eating well, and this is echoed not only by my husband but my son has some pretty healthy eating needs too!

On Saturday we had reheated cajun chicken (home cooked a week or so ago) with rice and vegetables for dinner. Not any old rice though - cauliflower rice! Or should I say "riced cauliflower"?

I steamed it in big florets for about 20 minutes, then put it through my potato ricer. The first lesson I learned was that what looks like a lot of cauli doesn't go very far in rice form. The second lesson I learned was to rice it into a sieve, to allow the water (soooo much water) to drain away leaving fluffy "rice". The third and final lesson I learned was that everyone loved it, including me! I normally like a bit of cauli but only if it's smothered in cheese sauce and served with a Lincolnshire sausage. It's acceptable in curry too. At Sunday roasts it's one of the things that gets eaten off my plate first to get it over and done with. Saturday's attempt was a revelation.

I promise next time I make it (it'll be soon, I have half a cauli to use up), I will take photos and make them available! Yippee for riced cauli.

I wonder what else I can rice...

P.s. you know the last post was about beetroot? Turned out that was a massive craving. Madness.

Smooth talking

I recently decided that my diet could be improved. Not that I don't enjoy what I eat, far from it, and indeed I am healthy, but I realised how many days I go without the full range of vitamins and nutrients I should be having daily. In a bid to fix this, I started making myself breakfast smoothies.

Here are some of the recipes that have worked for me (and some tips about what doesn't work for me!). Bear in mind I'm not a nutritionist and have applied the standard "make it up as you go along" principle to my recipes as I do for anything else...

I've been having my smoothies where possible with a coffee by its side, and the combination is dynamite for brain power and motivation (with no slump when the caffeine wears off, wow!).

Glorious greenie

1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
4 strawberries
Big handful of kale
About 200ml almond or soya milk (but eyeball it to the right consistency - you can always add more but you can't take it away!)

Blueberry delight

1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
1/4 cup blueberries
Big handful of kale
200ml almond or soya milk (as above)

Fruity Popeye 

(pictured above)
1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
4 or 5 strawberries
Big handful of spinach
200ml almond or soya milk (as above)

I've been preparing all of these with my hand blender. I put the fruit into a plastic beaker (the one that came with the hand blender) and then have just used the blend attachment to mix everything together. It's not a perfectly smooth end result but the texture is really pleasant, and makes you feel like you haven't been diddled out of a "proper" breakfast.

Tips

Freeze as much fruit and veg as you can, chopped and ready to use. I freeze pineapple in chunks (makes a 75p pineapple last weeks), bananas are amazing peeled, sliced and frozen, and spinach and kale work as well from the freezer as they do fresh. I've also used frozen berries on occasion but while they're in season I've been adding fresh ones from the fridge. I tend to put the frozen fruits in my mixer jug as soon as I get up, then shower, dress etc and go back to make the smoothie at least half an hour later, allowing some defrosting to take place. Oh and keep the prepared fruit in freezer bags, not a box; significantly aids retrieving as much as you want without breaking your fingers.

Make sure you add enough liquid. One day I didn't add very much and the the smoothie coagulated before my eyes. Hard to suck up through the straw and the gelatinous concoction nearly put me off the whole affair. I've been alternating between almond and soya milk - based on availability and nothing else. I prefer almond milk but soya is no hardship and my local Co-op stocks it.

Lob in a bit of what you fancy. Trusting your taste instincts is underrated. If you think it'll work it probably will.

Greens make the smoothie richer. Don't know why, they just seem to. None of my smoothies have tasted green or veggie either. Weird.

Don't leave the smoothie alone for too long. Another coagulation issue could arise. Or the dog could steal it.

Use a straw. Not only does it give you something to stir it with as you get down it, it makes it feel like you're at a kids party too!

Raspberry salad dressing

Oops! It's been a really long time since I wrote any posts, and for that I apologise! Things have been pretty busy recently and I haven't had time spare to invest in my hobbies and interests (booooo).

I managed to do a couple of things today that have delighted me in the kitchen department, and I thought I'd share one of them. I'd share the other but who really wants to see my online shopping order? No, didn't think so.

The item worth sharing is this; raspberry salad dressing. Oh my. Quite the unexpected delight.

It really is this simple:

1 tablespoon of raspberry jam (yes, you heard me)
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Splash of water

I put the jam in an empty and clean old jam jar, then added the balsamic, screwed the lid on tight and shook it like a Polaroid picture (that's "vigorously", to young folk out there). Then I added a splash of water to loosen the whole thing, and hey presto, salad dressing enough for two meals. I'm keeping the second serving in the jam jar in the fridge for tomorrow lunch time.

I would recommend making homemade croutons to go on top of whatever salad you choose to dress with this, because you're going to want to soak up every last drop. It was delicious. It was sweet, but didn't taste like someone had put pudding on dinner.

Banana & oat pancakes

I've done a classic "Lucy". Tried out a new recipe and forgotten to take photos. In all fairness, there aren't a lot of photos you can take in 4 minutes without it overtaking what you're doing.

Today's breakfast was banana and oat pancakes. Health food, if you will.

1/2 cup oats (I've gone all American, sorry)
1/2 a banana, ripe
2 egg whites - and frankly a bit of yolk because it slipped in

I whizzed these simple bits in my hand blender, and then poured the "batter" in 3-inch discs onto a hot dry non-stick pan. Simple as that. They take about a minute on each side - you can lift up the edge and see if the underside is golden, before flipping it onto the other side for the same treatment. It made 4 little pancakes which were plenty filling, let me tell you.

They are fat free and flour free and all that healthy-what-not. Which means they don't taste like normal pancakes, however... if you're trying to be a bit healthy and you want a full tummy without the guilt, they are really very agreeable. I will admit to adding a tablespoon of golden syrup to them after serving, as they don't have much "pep" - but I might try adding some fruit to the mixture next time (after I've been to the shops) for a healthier topping.