Banana, Date and Oat Smoothie

What better way to kickstart a healthy regime than with a substantial smoothie, followed by a run on a cold sunny day? It was my first in about 6 months (run that is, not smoothie) so it took some effort to drag my unwilling feet out of their slippers and into my running shoes. But I'm glad that I did it, because even though my thighs hated me the next day, I can't help but feel satisfied with the pain - and with the ridiculous hills around me in Bath, it's only going to get more gruelling!

So here's how to make a smoothie that will give you a long-lasting energy hit - whether you're going for a run, or just off to work or school for the day. It'll easily keep you going until lunchtime. 

Makes 2 smoothies

In a blender - or in a bowl, using a hand-held stick blender - whizz together 2 bananas, 2 very small handfuls of porridge oats, 4 chopped dates, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 1/2 cups of almond milk (or whichever milk you prefer - if you're watching the calories, almond is a great choice). Make sure all the dates are thoroughly blended as they can be a little tough!

Pour into glasses, adding a little more milk if the consistency is too thick.

Banana Peanut Butter Oat Smoothie

Today has started well. I came up with this great smoothie for me and the Little One, and it's a good feeling knowing he's gone to school with a belly full of banana and oats.Try it if you need an energy boost, or as a lighter breakfast option. It's delicious! For two glasses, whizz together in a blender:

2 bananas

400ml natural fat free yoghurt

2 tbsp porridge oats

1/2 tbsp natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1 tsp honey

a glug of orange juice 

Add a little orange juice at first, then however much you need to reach the desired consistency, blending after each addition.

I enjoyed mine whilst staring blankly at my laptop, contemplating the vast amount of work I have to do. So then I did some Pilates, had a shower, and am now writing this blog post. I need to stop distracting myself and get back to my desk, basically.

Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins

Sometimes you want a fruit muffin. Sometimes you want a chocolate muffin. Or, you can just have both. Just solving life's little issues one baking session at a time.

I found a recipe for these little beauties on the BBC Good Food website, and adapted it slightly with some more raising agent to give a lighter, fluffier result. They're embarrassingly easy to make, and would make a great addition to your brunch this Easter weekend.  
                                                          

250g plain flour 

50g caster sugar 

2 tsp baking powder 

a pinch of salt

3 eggs, beaten

50g butter, melted and cooled

100ml milk

75g blueberries

100g white chocolate, chopped into chunks

Heat the oven to 180 ° C/gas 6 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Mix the egg, melted butter and milk quickly into the dry ingredients with the blueberries and chocolate (don't overmix, it should be a bit lumpy). Divide between the cases and bake for 25 minutes until risen and golden and cooked through.

Old Fashioned Bread and Butter Pudding

There are many exotic versions of bread and butter pudding around these days. My friend Sarah over at 'Yet Another Lifestyle Blog' recently made a fancy sounding White Chocolate and Cranberry Bread and Butter Pudding, with the genius addition of Amaretto. I am equally as taken with the idea of this Raspberry and Whisky combination  from The Telegraph. 

Yet sadly both of these recipes use brioche, which I didn't have in the house this evening (I've also just realised that they're both alcoholic, which says a lot about me and perhaps wouldn't have been the wisest choice for tea with a five-year old). No, my need for a simple, classic bread and butter pudding was borne from the relative crisis of having nothing for dessert, and half a loaf of stale white bread to use up. So with fond memories of Food Tech lessons at school, I whipped up an old-school frugal version using ingredients that I always have in the kitchen. There is something so carb-ladenly comforting about this dish, that it feels down right illicit to be eating it in January when everyone is still starving themselves.

Serves 4

8 slices of white bread, buttered and sliced into triangles 

100g raisins (you could use currants or sultanas, but I'm not a fan)

50g caster sugar

1 pint milk (or half milk and half cream)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Nutmeg and cinnamon

Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Large oven-proof dish

Pre-heat your oven to 100°C. Grease your baking dish with butter.

Cover the bottom of the dish with an initial layer of bread slices, buttered side up.
Add half your raisins and half of your sugar, sprinkling evenly across the bread.
Add another layer of bread, then another layer of fruit and sugar. At this point you should add a third layer of bread to cover the raisins. I forgot to do this which resulted in slightly burnt raisins, but it really wasn't the end of the world (I only used 6 slices of bread which is why I have stated 8 in the recipe).
In a jug, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and about 1/2 tsp each of the nutmeg and cinnamon.
Pour evenly over the top of the pudding.

Leave to rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the egg and milk mixture to soak into the bread. Make a cup of tea, check your emails, browse Pinterest, perhaps spend an enjoyable 2:33 minutes watching this...

When you've finally dragged yourself away from cat videos, get back to your pudding.

Sprinkle a generous amount of demerara sugar across the top of the pudding, to give it a gloriously crunchy crust, and bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is golden. 

Leave for a few minutes so that it's not too hot, but serve while it is warm. Nobody ever liked cold bread and butter pudding.

Serve as it is, or if you're feeling flush it goes well with single cream or ice cream.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Banana Bread

There are many things in my life that I'm feeling thankful for right now. I'm thankful for having a beautiful son who brings me joy and wonder every single day. I'm thankful for my loving boyfriend who fills my life with laughter and affection. I'm thankful for my adorable family, and friends who energise and inspire me. 

But let's just take a minute to be thankful for the holy trinity that is chocolate, peanut butter and banana. 

Now there aren't many banana bread recipes out there that take the bold step of combining all three of these glorious ingredients, so I had to do a bit of tweaking and re-tweaking to create my own recipe.

This is the banana bread to end all banana breads.

Except maybe this one, which has bourbon in it. Now that's just silly!

I've used the American cup system of measurement here, as that was mostly what I had to work with. It also makes things really easy if you're feeling in a lazy baking mood, so I recommend getting yourself some measuring cups if you don't have them already.

ANYWAY. Here's the ingredients list:

1/2 cup wholemeal flour (vaguely healthy)

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 heaped tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 bananas

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 tbsp peanut butter (I used crunchy)

100g dark or milk chocolate

(beaten brutally into chunks with a rolling pin)

First, mash your bananas. If you've never mashed a banana, here's a helpful demo from my sous chef.

Now add to your bananas the milk, egg, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well.

In a larger bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients - that's the flours, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.

Add the chocolate chunks, and fold gently through with a metal spoon.

Now pour into a lined loaf tin, and bake in an oven pre-heated to 180°C, for 35-40 minutes. 

 Mine took just over 40 minutes, but check on the bread after 35 minutes as ovens do vary.

Insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean, it's ready.

Leave to cool for as long as you can physically bear to. It's delicious warm but tastes almost better when it's been left to cool and firm up.

It tastes great the next day and will keep for around 2 days.

It really won't last that long though!

Banana and Honey Flapjacks

Always end up with a few over ripe bananas? This flapjack is an easy little way to use them up! They're also great sources of energy for lunchboxes or after school. I've added chocolate chips here too, but that's not at all necessary...

50g butter
60g brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp honey (or golden syrup)
2oog porridge oats
2 small bananas, peeled

small handful of milk chocolate chips (optional)

In a pan, melt butter, add sugar and golden syrup and stir well - or simply melt together in a bowl in the microwave.
Mash the bananas with a fork (if you have a little helper they'll enjoy this) and mix into butter mixture with the oats. Spread into a greased and lined baking tray, roughly 15cmx20cm in size. Flatten with the back of a spoon, and bake at 200C/Gas 6 for 15-20 mins until slightly brown.
Leave to cool, then cut into squares - I cut mine into 12.

Apricot and Almond Tart

Definitely the nicest thing I've made for a while. We ate it warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream. I suggest you do the same!

Line a 23cm/9inch loose-bottomed tart tin with sweet shortcrust pastry. I have a confession here...this was the first time I've actually made my own pastry. I've always thought it was one of those technical things that I might mess up, but I used Rachel Allen's recipe from her "Bake" cookbook and it was so simple. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but it turned out perfectly crisp. Find the recipe here.

Then here's how to make the filling:

1 medium egg, plus 1 egg yolk

50g unsalted butter, melted

100g golden caster sugar

100g ground almonds

In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients. Spoon into the pastry case.

Now top with some drained tinned apricots and sprinkle over some flaked almonds.

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200°C/Gas 6 for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

That's it! Be prepared to feel very proud of yourself..and you don't have to tell anyone how easy it was!

Foraging

Pretty much the perfect Sunday today. A picnic in the park (where we seemed to bump into everyone we knew so felt very popular)....

....followed by picking blackberries from the ridiculously wild bramble that has taken over the side of our garden. This is where my laissez faire approach to gardening has really paid off. We managed to get over half a kilo today and I'd say there's about another kilo still to ripen!

Now I just have to decide what to do with them all...any great blackberry recipes you guys know of? So far I'm most excited by blackberry ripple ice cream. Actually that's a lie. Honestly I am most excited about making blackberry gin!

Emergency Strawberry Tarts

Ok, I know my life must sound incredibly twee that I would need such a thing as "emergency strawberry tarts". But...well, yes sometimes people show up and I want to give them something sweet. I like to give people cake when they come my house. Sometimes I even wear a pinny. That's just how it is.

Anyway I trust you guys enough to make this confession...sometimes I buy ready-made sweet pastry cases and keep them in the cupboard. Now, reader, you might be the type of person to spot such a thing in another person's shopping basket and briefly judge them. But hear me out! Would you not also be super pleased to arrive at someone's house, pretty much unannounced, to be greeted with a plate of these beauties?

Make a strawberry coulis by simmering some chopped strawberries and a handful of caster sugar, for approximately 8 minutes until soft. "Mush" (technical term there) with a fork until you have a thick sauce.

Now whip up some cream with a drop of vanilla extract. Fill the cases with the cream. Top with some coulis, fresh strawberries, and a good drizzle of more coulis.

And by all means, if you have more time and haven't been at work all day, make your own pastry. You'll be the better person for it.

Breakfast

The British raspberry. I salute thee.

Porridge with Cinnamon Baked Peaches

This is not what breakfast in the middle of May should look like. However, today it's grey, cold and rainy outside. So all I wanted to do when I woke up this morning was bake something warm and spicy, make a pot of tea, and curl back up under a blanket with Wonderboy. So that's what we did!
Simply halve and stone some fresh peaches. Lay onto a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle over approx 1/2tsp ground cinnamon, and dot each peach half with a bit of butter. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200'C for 15-20 minutes.

We had ours with porridge, but they would also be great just with some natural yoghurt.
Now let's hope I can bring you some sunnier food for the rest of the week..

Raspberry Eton Mess with Lemon Butter Biscuits

Sorry guys, I've had blogger-block this week. It could be due to the hectic weekend I had, and in particular the amount of food (and drink) I consumed....is it possible to overdose on double cream? Yeah. Maybe that's it. Toby and I went to stay with my family for Mother's Day. My sister cooked an enormous beef roast, and I contributed this eton mess-what I thought would be a light end to the meal. I didn't follow a recipe, mostly went with my eyes and tastebuds, and here's what resulted: Whisk 2 large cartons of double cream until thickened but not stiff (I know it sounds like loads BUT this does make about 10 portions) Crush in about 10 ready made meringues (you can make your own if you're feeling fancy, but hey give me a break, it was a Sunday and I was hungover).

Now add some raspberry coulis. This, you do have to make yourself. It's a doddle and tastes way better than anything that comes in a bottle. Oh, I love it when I spontaneously rhyme.

Take two 150g punnets of raspberries. Add to a small saucepan with 4 tbsp caster sugar, and simmer for 2 minutes, crushing them with the back of a spoon as you do so. Now strain through a sieve to remove the pips. Yeah, this is probably the least fun part..

Add two thirds of this to the cream and meringue mix. Swirl through but do not mix in completely. It's also nice to add some fresh raspberries at this stage (you'll need a third punnet).

Serve in glasses if you have them-as you can see, we had to use rather an eclectic mix! Spoon in some of the mixture, add a drop of the coulis in the middle, then top with another layer of the creamy mixture.

I also served them with these awesome buttery, lemony little biscuits. I used a Rachel Allen recipe which you can find here.

In other Mother's Day related news, check out these beautiful chocolates...

...they inspired my little artiste to draw some himself, including a "happy mummy chocolate and a happy Toby chocolate". His adorableness knows no bounds.

Hope all you fellow Mummy followers had an equally gluttonous day! x

Pineapple, Blueberry and Coconut Smoothie

Miss P is not a morning person. Smoothies make my mornings that little bit better. And fruitier. Cut these into chunks... Add a handful of these frozen little balls of goodness....

2-3 big dollops of this......

Oh, and a drop of honey (approx 1 tsp). Now whizz it all together in a blender, push through a sieve to remove any little bits.....

And get ready to face the day. x

Mango Smoothies

My friend Sophie is finally back in Bath, after spending the last year travelling around Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. We made these mango smoothies (using diced mango, strawberry yoghurt, and orange juice), and she told me all about her adventures. To say I was jealous is would be putting it mildly! I'm so itching to travel. Anyway she loved it so much, she's moving to Australia in a few weeks. We must meet up some more before she goes...

Easy Blueberry Tart

I have to say I'm developing a slight addiction to cookbooks. Especially buying them online at Amazon, as you hardly notice you're doing it! Anyway, this week saw a new addition to my cookbook family land on my doorstep, Tana Ramsay's "Homemade". This is a beautifully illustrated book with recipes that really make you want to get cooking. And, unlike some of my more aspirational cookbooks ("Indian Food Made Easy"- you didn't make it that easy!), Tana has created recipes for real people and real families.

This Easy Blueberry Tart is the first recipe I have tried from the book, and I was very pleased with the results! It was quick and simple, yet felt like a really special Sunday dessert. Looking forward to trying more of Tana's recipes this week, so keep watching this space..

You will need:

plain flour for dusting

375g pack shortcrust pastry

300g blueberries (I used frozen)

1 tbsp golden caster sugar

200g mascarpone cheese

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 the lemon

1-2 tbs icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

Pre-heat oven to 200'C/Gas 6.

Line a large baking tray with baking parchment.

Prepare the cheese base: beat the mascarpone with the lemon zest and juice, and add icing suagr to taste. Keep in the fridge until required later.

Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the pastry until its approx 1/2 cm thick. Use a small dinner plate or the base of a cake tin to cut out a circle approx 23cm in diameter. Put onto the baking sheet, prick over all the edges with a fork, and pinch around the edges with your thumb and forefinger. Chill the pastry base in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the blueberries into a pan with the caster sugar, and place on a low heat. You want to cook them for about 5 minutes - long enough to gloss the fruit with the sugar,and soften them slightly without making them go gloopy. Take off the heat to leave to cool completely.

Put the pastry into the oven for 15 minutes, until golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Once the base is completely cool, spread the cheese mix evenly over it. Spoon the blueberries on top. Dust with icing sugar and serve.