Meal Planning Monday: So near and yet so far

In my first trimester I couldn't imagine being more tired. I could sleep anywhere: tubes, trains, buses, Brownie pack holiday... the list could go on. It's slightly ironic that at week 32 a combination of stress and utter exhaustion combined with 3am insomnia are wiping me out now - let's not even consider what bump has in store for me when they arrive. One of the things I've always been conscious of is the balance of living my life as I want to with having chronic conditions, and now I'm balancing both of those things alongisde a pregnancy.

Last week was an insanely easy week in the kitchen, that if you don't know me, might prompt you to question my validity as a foodie. The next couple of weeks won't be, can't be much different as I'm concentrating on completing everything I need to do at work, trying to help M finish the nursery alongside absolute exhaustion, and an unhealthy dose of stress.  I'm fighting the urge/ need to retire to bed for a few days and channelling my inner Dory.

So where are we this week? A good question indeed - to which the answer 'all over the place' is quite literally true: Birmingham, North London, Croydon, Poole, NCT, Guides, Brownies and Archery - are just the tip of the iceberg! Next weekend we have M's parents visiting (if you hear sobbing, it's me trying to make the spare bedroom accessible as it's being used as our dumping ground since we started the nursery) and my favourite part of the week ahead is that I'm going to The making of Harry Potter!

Breakfasts: I've really got a taste for Weetabix of late, which is odd as I'm rarely a cereal person.

Lunches: I've still got that salad bug - with feta or halloumi depending on if I'm wfh or out and about.

Dinners: I'm roasting a chicken this afternoon which will make next week easier.

Monday: Leftover roast chicken with baked potatoes and veggies

Tuesday: Chicken and mushroom risotto

Wednesday: Leftover risotto

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Chicken kiev, homemade chips and veggies

I have baked today - Peanut butter and jam bars which will top up lunch boxes for us both.

I'm hoping for a bit more energy as the week goes on, but otherwise will just be trundling along.

Oaty Bars: The activity plan

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
Oaty Bars
Equipment: Sturdy saucepan (biggish) Wooden spoon Scales Greaseproof paper Brownie tin/ cake tin/ roasting tin Sharp knife Grater Clean hands
Ingredients (per patrol): 65g butter (Sainsbury’s economy butter is the best and cheap) 75g light, soft brown sugar 65g crunchy peanut butter - a no sugar one if you can find it, I'm using a Whole Earth 35g of honey (or golden syrup) and 2 teaspoons to drizzle over at the end Zest of a lemon 100g porridge oats 75g of dried fruit 75g of mixed seeds This makes about 12 Energy bars, so ideal for a Patrol of 6-8 girls	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity and links into the On Your Marks resource: Energy Boost (page 18) I would also count this towards clause 9 of the Cook badge as the girls need to chop the fruit, grate the zest of the lemons, use the cooker safely and cut up the oaty bars at the end. If you’ve not got digital scales – go with rough quantities. But if you’re rounding one up by 5g do the same all the way through to maintain ratios of ingredients Why not get the girls to taste and choose some different dried fruits – each patrol could make a different batch up
Instructions: Wash your hands Measure out the butter, sugar, peanut butter and honey and put into a big saucepan Grate the zest of the lemon into the pan too Melt these ingredients over a low heat, when they’re all combined, stir in the oats, dried fruit and seeds Press into either a greased and lined brownie pan (about 20cm square) or if you prefer flatter bars a roasting tin Cook at 160 degrees for 35-40 minutes Take out of the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely Using a sharp knife cut into squares or bars and store in an airtight tin for up to a week. These are ideal for a pre-camp cooking activity and will make a fantastic snack once you’ve pitched your tents! I checked on the prices on www.mysupermarket.com and Asda came out the cheapest, working out at £0.45 per head for a unit of 24 girls.	Safety notes: Please make sure that the girls are well supervised – especially when melting the ingredients. This recipe has huge allergy alerts – Peanuts and seeds, so please check your Joining forms/ Go reports for any allergens you need to be aware of. The peanut butter can be replaced by a couple of mashed up bananas. Alterations for Brownies/ younger Guides Weigh out the ingredients yourselves and put into little bowls Get the girls to put them in the pan, but let a leader melt them A sturdy pan is best, I didn’t bother about using a non stick one though Keep your heat low. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.

Montage Part two: Secondary characters (or Oaty bars, which is more literal)

I don't know if I've really talked about M's job much - but he's very active, and is often hungry. The quest to make sure he stays warm and has energy is one that I've struggled with, we've tried dried fruit, chocolate bars, bananas, but nothing quite hits the mark and I hate the thought of him being cold and hungry (it's clearly love).

Cereal bars that you can buy often seem to be a miss for us, they taste processed, oily even and I just don't enjoy them. So a couple of weeks back when I caught an old River Cottage I was intrigued by the idea of Hugh's oaty bars. Akin to a thick flapjack, using honey and peanut butter as the base they were chockablock with good things; dried fruit, seeds, nuts. The recipe is one of those that you can take as more of a guideline, and over the last couple of weeks I've run with it, taking the rough quantities and interpreting them loosely, depending on what we have in, and M's tastes.

Oaty bars - the Pantry version

125g butter
150g light, soft brown sugar (darker sugar would make your bars more treacley and would work really well with chopped, fudgy dates)
125g crunchy peanut butter - a no sugar one if you can find it, I'm using a Whole Earth
75g of honey (or golden syrup) and 2 teaspoons to drizzle over at the end
Zest of any two citrus fruit you have
200g porridge oats
150g of dried fruit - again go with what you like - we had chopped dates and sultanas last week, plain sultanas this week. Don't forget to soak your sultanas in tea to make them more succulent
150g of mixed seeds - last week we used sesame and pumpkin, this week we used the end of those, pumpkin and linseeds

As long as you don't alter the ratios too much, this is a completely versatile recipe - change it up to suit your tastes. Once you've made it once it would also work perfectly well doing it by eye. I can't say I weighed much this week when I made them *cough*lazycook*cough*

Method

Melt the butter, sugar, peanut butter, citrus zest and honey in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat
Stir in the oats, dried fruit and seeds
Press into either a greased and lined brownie pan (about 20cm square) or if you prefer flatter bars a roasting tin
Cook at 160 degrees for 35-40 minutes
Take out of the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely
Using a sharp knife cut into squares or bars and store in an airtight tin for up to a week.

This is such an easy recipe I wouldn't hesitate to do it with the Guides - in fact we are next week as part of their On Your Marks badge. (Just check for allergies) I'll type this post out as an activity plan.

PS: This post is without pictures because the light is APPALLING this week, and the oaty bars look like mush in every photo I take. What is my life? *overreacts*

We go together like... peanut butter and raspberry jam cake bars?

Well, it makes more sense than a rama lama lama ka dinky da dink da donk. Don't you think?

For someone brought up on a diet of largely American musicals, novels and television the lure of PB&J (I know, get me!) has always been great. However, the reality never quite lived up to the expectation - somehow it didn't transport me to a summer camp, or a high school, or one of those yellow school buses that permeate the world vision of those musicals and tv shows. Try as I might it was always still a grey London housing estate with semi-permanent drizzle and I was still a teenager with frizzy hair and spots. And the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, just a combination of things in my world that just. Didn't. Go. Occaisionally it would seem like a good idea again, and the romanticism of those idealised worlds would once again peek through the net curtains of a house that was just a bit too small for it's ever growning residents, only to let you down at the crucial moment. I don't know what was wrong, maybe the peanut butter wasn't salty enough, or the jam not fruity enough but crucially it just didn't seem to be the magic combination that was promised. And so, as with the perm, the ice skates and the matching t-shirts and ankle socks (I was epically cool I'll have you know) it was discarded, and largely forgotten about.

Last week I needed to bake, I needed to make up for forgetting to go to Brownies (don't ask) and I always try to take cake to our Division's working day. Having been off sick with these migraines of late, I've been watching a lot of the Food Network, and am growing to love the Barefoot Contessa's cooking quite a lot. Apart from today, today she made 'mac and cheese' and had to switch off lest I threw up again. Anyway, my food phobias aside, her liberal use of butter, her pristine kitchen, and her garden (ohdearlord her gorgeous garden) have me hooked. I haven't seen her make these cake bars, but when I was throwing around ideas I wanted something that would slice up well, and that was a bit different and for some reason the peanut butter and jam idea popped into my head. I have no idea why, it was a very English weekend, gardening for most, Guides and resting for me but something about the flavours spoke to me. A bit of googling found a Barefoot Contessa recipe which I didn't adapt too much, apart from in the quantities of jam and peanut butter. Oh and I don't have a kitchen aid or beaters as I burnt out the motor on the ones Mark had loaned me making these. I would say a mixer or by hand is best as it's a really sticky dough.

The end result was fantastic, a moist yet short, peanutty base, with a really great jammy layer topped with more of the peanutty base mix and (and this is the touch of genius I think) some bashed up roasted, salted peanuts which give a brilliant crunch, and a fantastic touch of salt to the flavour. I have to say this made about 35, 2inch squares of cake which was brilliant (and a perfect mix to a hot cup of tea), but it is a LOT of mix to wield and is quite heavy to boot.

Peanut Butter and Jam bars

250grams butter at room temperature
1.5 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 cups smooth peanut butter (I used Sainsbury's own but the original recipe recommends Skippy)
3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.5 cups raspberry jam
2/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Grease and line a 9x13x2 inch baking pan (I used the grill pan from my oven)
Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the vanilla, eggs (one by one) and peanut butter. Now this is where I diverge from the recipe as I couldn't be bothered with measuring out 2 cups of sticky peanut butter so I just dolloped in 1 and a half jars as that felt about right. Mix well until evenly combined

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and add slowly to the peanut butter mixture. Mix well - this is what make the motor of Mark's beaters smell of burning so be careful. Or get someone you love to buy you a KitchenAid or similar.

Spread about 2/3 of the mixture in the pan, smooth it out with a pallette knife or spatula. Top with the jam. Now, I realised (cunningly) that the jam jars and the peanut butter jars held the same amount, so I went with the incredibly precise jar and a half quantity. Again.

Top with dollops of the peanut butter mix (this spreads out whilst baking, so no need to freak out like I did)

Sprinkle with the peanuts and bake for 45 minutes. I think my oven is a bit insane because it took about an hour in a fan oven for me to feel it was cooked through, and it was still nice and sticky so work with your oven, don't let that be prescriptive just because it's the recipe.

Cut into small squares whilst warm (it's easier) Let it cool in the tray though.