Life, love and little things - September

I mentioned in my Meal Planning Monday post this week that I can't believe it's Autumn already, yet there's a distinct chill in the air, my trusty Saltwaters have been swapped for Converse and soup has been made for lunches. Add to this a batch of coughs and colds all around and it's undeniably time to dive in to scarves, sweaters and stews. 

Last month on the other hand was glorious - sunny days drifting into warm evenings, apples starting to tumble from our trees, sunhats, sandals and salads all around. 

These pictures all come from my Instagram where I regularly pop up little insights into our days, be they messy play, baking or simply coffee and lego... 

I've spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen this month, apple butter, variations on banana bread and some egg free oaty bars as well as preserving tomatoes and green beans from our garden. 

Harry and I have spent a lot of time in the garden, playing in his teepee, splashing in the paddling pool and thoroughly watering the veg patch - well, the bits he can reach! 

I've also started trying to pretty the house up a bit - we're on an inevitable road towards having to renovate and decorate our spare room. It's only a matter of time before we need to move Harry into a big boy bed, and we're facing a mammoth task involving replacing carpets, a window, building a cupboard, painting louvre doors (I loathe this with a passion) and stripping the paper before repainting. I think mammoth may be an understatement. To get me in the mood for home improvements I reorganised our much hated fireplace to try to disguise the loathed crazy paved facade. 

My crochet blanket I talked about here is proceeding, albeit slowly. The glorious sunshine did not encourage sitting with a blanket on your knees! I'm hoping to have it finished for Christmas - my target of a stripe a day may be halted by my plans for *whispers* Christmas crafting which I need to get started on fairly promptly. I'm about a third of the way through my blanket though so getting there. 

Apricot and Cherry banana bread: dairy free recipe

Making this Apricot and Cherry banana bread was a bit of a spur of the moment decision. M had commented yesterday that we had no cake, knowing that I'd baked a massive lemon drizzle traybake the day before (I hadn't eaten it all, it was for the birthday of one of ladies in my Bible study group). I felt that this should be remedied.  This had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I've had two overripe bananas looking hopefully at cake tins all week. However, trying to pair said bananas with the contents of our cupboards and fridge I had one of those dawning realisations that I had some of the ingredients for most of our favourite cakes, but all of the ingredients for none. Typical.



Necessity being the mother of invention and all that I cobbled together a somewhat experimental cake which turned out to be rather yummy. So I thought I'd blog it. Of course I had to take pictures which I was helped with by my 2 year old assistant.



Apricot and Cherry banana bread
Dairy free, soya free
Serves 16

400g overripe bananas - weighed in their skins (this was 3 largish bananas)
125g Flora Freedom spread (any Dairy free spread would do but this is what I had)
300g self raising flour
125g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
125g dried apricots, quartered (I do this with scissors as they tend to be a bit sticky)
125g glacé cherries, rinsed, drained and quartered

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and line an 8inch square cake tin
Mash the bananas, beat in the butter (you can melt this first, but I don't)
Add the flour, sugar and baking powder and beat in until you get a thick batter
Beat in the eggs one by one
Stir in the apricots, then the glacé cherries

Pour the cake batter into the tin and level off the top
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes

Allow to cool then serve, sliced thickly (buttered if you want) with mugs of tea.

Why not use this picture to save this recipe for later on Pinterest.

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Blueberry and Banana Oaty Bites: Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soya Free, Vegan

In the eternal quest for bakes the whole family will enjoy, that meet the needs of my CMPA, egg allergic baby, I came across a recipe for a Banana, oat and chocolate munchy bar on Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb and ginger. Whilst that recipe looked very tasty it’s near impossible to get dairy and soya free chocolate, and what you can get is too expensive to use in cake (Booja Booja, I’m looking at you). I thought I’d adapt the original recipe to suit our needs allergy wise and make it a bit more suitable for a weaning treat.

This is a fabulously easy recipe that you could easily change up to suit your family’s tastes. It's much like an oaty version of a banana bread or a cakey version of a flapjack - not unlike my Porridge fingers for big people.

Blueberry and Banana Oaty Bites: Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soya Free, Vegan

Serves 12 (or 24 if all being used for babies)

2¼ cups Porridge Oats

½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

½ tsp Baking powder

¼ tsp Salt (just a pinch if using Kosher or sea salt)

1 tsp sweet mixed spice

3 overripe Bananas

1 pot Apple puree (the type for Babies) or ¼ cup of cooked down Bramleys

2 tsp Vanilla extract

¼ cup Maple syrup

½ cup Blueberries

Grease a 9”x9” Brownie pan, and line with a long strip, the width of the tin, and 3 times the length

Preheat the oven to 160ºC

Blitz the oats in a food processor until they are rough flour

Pour into a mixing bowl, add the Bicarb, Baking powder, Salt and sweet mixed spice. Give a quick mix to combine the dry ingredients.

Break the bananas into chunks and pop into the food processor, add the Maple Syrup, fruit pot and Vanilla. Blitz until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, add the Blueberries, and stir to combine.

Pour this into the prepared tin, smooth out the top, and bake for 20 minutes at 160ºC (Check at 15 mins)

When the top is golden and the bake feels firm to the touch, remove and leave to cool in the tin.

When cool, use the strip of baking paper to easily remove from the tin.

Slice into bars, this makes 12.

Enjoy with a cup of Tea, or if you are little, half a bar with a sippy cup of Oat milk.

These freeze beautifully - I halve the bars, and much like I do for pancakes separate them with little square of greaseproof paper before popping in a freezer bag. Then it's just a case of defrosting at room temperature. 

Meal Planning Monday: freezer week

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, it turns out that returning to work, Guides, Brownies and nearly full mobility (save for the cast of course, don't even ask. Three more weeks!) can take it out of you somewhat. Somewhat being that you're in bed, asleep before ten most nights. Baking, has just not been on my mind.

That's not to say I didn't try to cook, I managed a disastrous attempt at rhubarb syrup, burnt a chicken casserole, ditto a vegetable soup. So towards the end of the week I relied heavily on leftovers. Tonight we had omlettes.

Truth be told we do need to clear down both freezers - the other plans that are keeping us going in the direction of moving in together are all in fifth gear. Two full freezers (that I keep adding tupperware to) are not going at the same speed. So this week comes to you, courtesy of reclaiming my tupperware. Freezer surprise it is.

Breakfast: I'm alternating the porridge with 0% fat greek yoghurt, each with fruit.

Lunches: Lifechanging soup and soda bread for me, supplemented by lots of fruit

Dinners:

Monday: Shepherd's pie (filling was frozen on Christmas Eve) with steamed veggies

Tuesday: Freezer surprise - I have my eye on what I suspect is leftover casserole, but it could also be pie filling.

Wednesday: From the freezer again, lentil ragu (I've got a bit of leftover chorizo from last week's chilli to perk it up a bit)

Thursday: Carbonara (I took a risk and froze leftovers)

Friday: M's off to his parents for Mother's Day, having done my daughterly duties this weekend I'm at home and will be indulging in poached smoked haddock and peas. A meal guaranteed to get M running for the hills if there ever was one.

Saturday: Truthfully I'm not sure, I could just dig around and see what I come up with. I know there's more bolognaise in there, and ditto to lentil ragu. But I'm going to be keeping to the pattern.

Sunday: Church Parade and a massage for me, so food is probably going to lag behind those somewhat. I do actually quite fancy cooking something but as yet inspiration is sorely lacking. I'll think on it and come back to this. Maybe.

Baking: This week will be banana bread as I have a fruitbowl full of overripe bananas, and also some more blood orange curd.

As an upside, I think the only shopping I need for that lot is eggs. Score!

Be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: The Back to Work edition (take 2)

How does this post come around so regularly? Seriously I swear in my head it's only Tuesday! Anyway, last week's meal plan went well - with the exception of no steak, and extended leftovers (ever the romantic, that's me) on St Valentine's and a take-away curry that was infinitely dissapointing on my birthday - mind you, I caught a Jamie 30 minute meals today that will hopefully change my Indian meal experience (update to come soon). I changed the enchiladas to quesedillas which worked well, and did two lighter dinners for us both. 

This week, I am hoping to go back to work (yes, again - as you will have realised it didn't happen last time) and pending a check up at the doctors on Tuesday, will be resuming training detail on Wednesday. Whilst I need to check with my manager where she wants me, I'm kind of hoping I'm office based until the end of this week at least. 

M and I had a lovely dinner last night. For my birthday we went here for an amazing three course meal. I had a beautifully rare steak, with fantastic triple fried chips (a note to our waitress. Please don't remove chips from the table as soon as I put my fork down. I had my eye on them), pudding was wonderful - I went for a retro delight in the form of a lemon meringue pie, with the softest meringue I have ever eaten, which contrasted beautifully with the tart lemon inside. That, a gin and tonic, and two glasses of a fabulous sauvingon were a wonderful way to celebrate. Please don't mention my age as it sets of what Seth Rudetsky calls a 'marathon crying jag'. 

Breakfasts are porridge, I've really got back into this, and half a cup of oats really does keep me full until lunchtime and beyond. I've got more stewed fruit to use up as toppings, and some more apples to stew again. 

Lunches: Monday I have leftover Beetroot and horseradish borscht, and from then I've not really thought about it. The easy option, is of course sandwiches, but I'm trying to keep my carbs as low as possible as since coming out of hospital I feel like I've put on a fair bit of weight. My jeans still fit though, but I feel - swollen almost. I have some frozen carrots, parsnip and swede that lend themselves beautifully to soup, perhaps with a ginger hit to offset their inherent sweetness. 

Snacks: we've got the cake I made for my birthday (post coming up later this week) and some of the banana bread still to eat up, and these should keep us going throughout this week and possibly beyond. 

Monday: Sausages, Baked Potato (for M) and steamed savoy cabbage
Tuesday: Chicken and sweet leek pie (on request from M) more cabbage for me, and roasties for M
Wednesday: Leftovers, and M is in charge of vegetables. 
Thursday: Fish with soy and sherry, and greens
Friday: All being well, we're hoping to go away this weekend to the New Forest, so cooking is on hold. I'm hoping for a cream tea and an epic roast after some pottering. I'll come back with pictures. Promise! 

Be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to this week. 

Meal Planning Monday: I'm still hurting

I can't believe it's that time already. Meal Planning. Last week, was a bit of a disaster in the Pantry. I had the treatment for the migraine, and although it's lessened the pain, it bruised the back of my head something shocking, and the migraine is nowhere near gone. Add that to M working late, and long hours and you have a recipe for disaster. Certainly not one meal planning will help.

Here's hoping this is a better week; less pain, fewer working hours and being a bit closer to a return to work would all be good. Especially as I turn 35. Dear God yes, I am finally Bobby from Company.

So here's this week's meal plan as it stands currently:

Monday: Leftover roast beef Cottage pie - using this recipe, with mashed swede, carrot and parsnips and savoy cabbage

Tuesday: Steak, baked potatoes and salad/ veg (well it is Valentine's)

Wednesday: Veggie burritos/ enchiladas with guacamole and salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Slow cooked tomato pasta (I don't think I've blogged this before. I will as it's gorgeous and tastes like it's taken a whole lot of work, whereas in fact once it's super easy)

M's packed lunches are being supplemented with sausage rolls and soups at the moment as it's just so cold. We've also got banana bread to add in there.

Lunches for me will carry on being soup - I've got two portions of split pea and frankfurter left in the freezer.

Breakfasts are porridge, with stewed fruit for me.

Baking - well every girl needs a birthday cake, and I've got some fruit that's been soaking in a lot of brandy since before I went into hospital.

Have a good week all, and don't forget to head on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

Banana Shpeel

Sorry, it's a completely off-centre reference to a Cirque du Soleil show, but I wanted to maintain my good track record of musical references in post titles *is a girly swot*

I was searching through my previous posts and was astounded to find a lack of reference to Nigella's banana bread from Domestic Goddess. In my copy of DG this is one of those pages that's covered in sticky fingerprints, flour and quite possibly bits of banana. In my defence I never claimed to be the cleanest cook.

Last time I made this, I tried the variation and made a chocolate banana bread. I have a confession to make: I didn't like it anywhere near as much as the regular one. So this week I went back to my reliable tried and tested recipe.

INGREDIENTS

100g sultanas
75ml bourbon or dark rum
175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
2 large eggs
4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
60g chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured or with a paper insert

METHOD


1. Put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.
3. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or
4. a wooden spoon, combine well. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1–11/4 hours. When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

Variation

Replace 25g of the flour with good cocoa powder and add 100g of dark chocolate, cut up into smallish chunks.

This is such an easy cake to make, and it goes down a treat with everyone I've ever offered it to. Honestly, I can now make it in about 20 minutes and then once it's in the oven you can do what you like. It always bakes with quite a dark top, but it's just the colour it goes. Great for elevenses with a cup of tea.