Not just for brekkie breakfast bars

I  am obsessed with buying cookbooks. I know you can find just about any and every recipe on the world wide web but there's something about getting a new book, the smell, the pictures and oh the possibilities. I also have a habit of changing recipes and adding or removing ingredients.

My new favourite read is "The Virgin Kitchen" by Susan Jane White. Susan has created and developed lovely easy, nutritious and healthy recipes for anytime of the day. These "Badass Breakfast Bars" caught my eye at 10pm last night and i just had to make them there and then. I'm off work every second weekend so i like to try make that Sunday morning brekkie a little special or at least different.

The super thing about these are that because oats are low glycemic food they release energy slowly, however they do need to be cooked or soaked to get the most from their nutritional benefits, so these bars tick all the boxes and of course are not just for breakfast.

I have put the measurements in cups because everyone has a cup and as long as you use the same cup for measuring all the ingredients your onto a win win situation.

Breakfast Bars
Makes 10-12 bars depending on greediness..

2 1/4 cups a mix of dried apricots, prunes and figs
cinnamon stick
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon toasted pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon toasted sunflower seeds
2 1/2 cups of rolled oats ( i used half and half buckwheat flakes and rolled oats) *
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup of milled linseed
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
pinch of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt*
1/2 cup of orange juice freshly squeezed
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 1/2 tablespoons of honey or agave syrup or brown rice syrup
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or extract

*if you use jumbo oats give them a quick pulse in a food processor being careful they don't turn to dust.
*Himalayan Pink Salt is jam packed full of minerals.
To read more on its benefits just visit this link http://fitlife.tv/10-amazing-benefits-of-pink-himalayan-salt/

Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius and line a 15 cm square tine with baking parchment paper.

Put your dried fruit mix and cinnamon stick into a pan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20-25 minutes until soft. You may need to add a little more water towards the end. Stir in the lime juice and squish with a fork to mix all together. It should not be completely smooth.

Roughly chop the seeds and in a mixing bowl mix with the grounds almonds, oats, rye flour, coconut, salt and linseed.
Heat the coconut oil with the orange juice, vanilla and sweetener gently in a small pan don't allow to boil you just want to melt the coconut oil.

Using dampened hand place 2/3 of the oaty mix on the bottom of the tin and flatten down. Spread the dried fruit jam on top and crumble the remaining oat mix ontop. For a little texture i like to leave the top slightly crumbly.
Bake for 40-45 minute till golden but not brown. Allow to cool completely (if you can) before slicing into squares. These will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 10 days.

Banana and apple bread

I wanted to make these into muffins but I actually couldn't find my muffin tray but it worked nicely in a loaf tin actually. 

Rye flour is lower in gluten.

I love this vanilla bean paste found in all good supermarkets. It's a little more expensive but you only need a little.

Banana and apple bread

Makes 12 muffins or 1 loaf cake

1 cup rye flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 tsp bread soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

3 ripe bananas

1 stewed apple or Apple sauce

1/2 cup sultanas

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

1/3 cup tasteless oil

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Sift together the flours, soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, vanilla paste and oil. For a little sweetness I added 1 dessertpoon of agave syrup ( or honey).

With your hands squish tighter the banana and stewed apples. Mix all the wet ingredients into the dry and spoon into lined muffin tins. 

I sprinkled some toasted pumpkin seeds on top but you could use nuts or rolled oats.

Bake for 40 mins. 

Chicken and tarragon casserole

Keeping with the chicken and tarragon theme this one pot dish is straight forward and yummy. Some weeks i like making dishes that use similar ingredients as i find it means less waste of unused veggies. I always have chicken stock in the freezer. Dice the veggies as big or as small as your little's ones mouth can manage.
Serves 4-6
Not suitable for freezing

6-8 chicken thighs
1 onion diced
1 stick of celery diced
1 carrot diced
1 clove of garlic smushed
750ml chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
1 red pepper diced
1 small cabbage shredded
1 tablespoon creme fraiche
1 dessertspoon Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius\gas 4

In a heavy based casserole pan fry the chicken thighs in batches on both sides, remove and set aside.

Turn down the heat and cook the onions, celery and carrot until nice and soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Pour a splash of the stock into the pan and scrape all the lovely bits from the bottom of the pan.

Return the chicken to the pan with the tarragon, red pepper, cabbage and poor in enough stock to cover the chicken. With the lid on bake in the oven for an hour.

Remove the chicken  and as much of the veg as you can from the casserole and reduce the the cooking liquor by about a half by boiling for about 4-5 minutes. Turn down the heat and stir in the creme fraiche and mustard. Whizz the sauce with a hand held blender and return the chicken and veg to the pan and serve immediately. Serve with egg noodles, brown rice or new potatoes even.

Chicken and Barley goodness

Well after three weeks of hectic-ness, doctor visits, A and E visits, loss of appetite and more doctor visits we are finally back on track and back to normal-ness (ish).
Needless to say there was not much productiveness in the kitchen department however i did mange to create a few quick meals.
This chicken, tarragon and barley one pot went down a treat thankfully and freezes well too. There's something about barley i think its really comforting and nostalgic, maybe because my Granny used it in her stews.

Chicken, barley and tarragon one pot...of goodness.
Serves 4
Suitable for freezing

2 large chicken legs
2 bay leaves
2 sticks celery, 1 finely diced one roughly choped
2 carrots, 1 peeled and diced one roughly chopped
1 red pepper deseeded and diced
1 courgette diced
large handful of mushrooms diced
2 shallots, 1 finely diced, 1 halved
2 cloves of garlic, 1 smushed up
Handful of parsley with stalks
160g pearl barley
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves

Put the chicken legs into a large saucepan or stock pot with the roughly chopped celery, carrot, mushroom stalks, parsley, 1 of the bay leaves, the halved shallot and 1 garlic clove.
Cover with 1.5 liters of water, bring slowly to the boil. Skim off any froth and turn down the heat to a gently simmer. Allow to simmer for about an hour or until the chicken is coming away from the bones.

In another pan gently soften the diced shallot with the garlic in some olive oil and butter stirring regularly until soft and translucent, this may take up to ten minutes so bear with it and dont let it burn.

Remove the chicken from the stock and tear the meat off the bone making sure no bits of bone make their way into your pile of chicken flesh. Shred the chicken meat and leave aside to cool down.

Add the barley, diced carrot, celery, red pepper and courgette to the onions and mix well. At this stage give a good twist of black pepper. Pour the stock into the pot and discard the veggies.
Simmer for around an hour or until the barley is nice and tender. In a small frying pan sautee the mushrooms in some butter, this will give them a nice texture and carmalised taste, toss in the tarragon.
Stir the chicken and mushrooms into the soup base, if you feel its a little thick let it down with some boiling water to your desired consistency.

We hope you like it and find it as comforting as we do...

Moussaka

I've been a little slack of late so i've a bit of catching up to do.

Admittedly im not a huge fan of lamb but even i have to admit Moussaka is yummy. This quantity would feed a family of four and can also be portioned and frozen.

Moussaka

1 aubergine

1/2 courgette cubed

handful of button mushrooms cubed

1 onion diced

1 clove garlic smashed

1/4 mild chilli finely diced

500g minced lamb

1 tin chopped tomatoes

squirt of tomato paste

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of all spice

Handful of flat leaf parsley

White Sauce

25g butter

25g plain flour

600mls milk (or half and half cream for a richer sauce)

100g grated cheese, i use Gouda

Crack of black pepper

Grated parmesan

Firstly the bitter juices need to be taken out of the aubergine. Slice to aubergine into about 1 cm slices length ways. Lay onto some kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt, leave for 15 minutes, pat dry, turn over and repeat, leave for another 15 minutes.

Using a griddle pan (or frying pan) brush the slices of aubergine with some oil and cook gently on the pan, you don't want it to brown too much just to soften nicely 5-8 minutes on each size depending on the thickness.

Next in a frying pan on a gentle heat soften the onions, garlic, chilli, mushrooms and courgettes. When nicely softened add in the spices and allow to cook out for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the pan and brown the mince. Add the onion mix back to the pan, mix together and pour in the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Next the white sauce, melt the butter gently in a saucepan once liquid add the flour in and cook out for a couple of minutes whisking with a small whisk all the time. Slowly and gradually add the milk making sure to whisk all the time to prevent lumps from forming. Simmer for approximately 3-5 minutes until nice a thick. Take off the heat and stir in the grated cheese and season with pepper.

So to assemble the Moussaka you need a casserole dish, sprinkle the chopped parsley into the lamb and spoon the lamb into your dish next layer with the cooked aubergine and finally smother with the white sauce. Grate with Parmesan and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celcius for 40 minutes until nicely golden and bubbling.

Easy peasy quick frozen yoghurt

This is so simple and is great if you have too many berries or bananas that are about to turn and you don't want to chuck them out. Pre frozen berries can also be used.

The fruit should be frozen cold but not rock hard and the yoghurt should be cold straight from the fridge.

Frozen yoghurt

300g frozen strawberries

500g yoghurt

2 tblsp honey

Start by giving the fruit a quick blitz in a food processor then add the yoghurt and honey. Taste for sweetness and add more if too tart and serve... Simples!

St Patrick's Day Fish Cakes with Orange flesh beetroot hummus.

I These were concocted very quicky as we wanted to watch the local parade but also did not want any grumbly tummy's. The St Patrick's Day colour theme was completely by chance actually.
Considering there are not alot of ingredients, these salmon fish cakes pack a serious taste punch, so much so a friend took the remaining four to impress a new boyfriend and claimed all the credit.

I made the hummus the evening before and it keeps in the fridge in an airtight container for a week. Its delicious with cheese and crackers too, and can also be made with regular purple beets.

Golden beetroot hummus

2 medium sized beetroots
1 large clove garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
2tblsp rapeseed oil or olive oil
200g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp tahini
lemon
oil
pepper
fresh parsley for garnishing

First off scrub the beets gently to remove any soil. Refrain for trimming or cutting them or the vibrant colour will be lost to the cooking water during boiling.
Bring to the boil in a large saucepan filled with water and then simmer till a sharp knife can be inserted easily and comes out easily. Resist testing for at least and hour as the more you poke holes in them the more colour will be lost. If you have an aga or range you can just put the whole saucepan covered into the bottom oven.

Meanwhile finely chop or crush the garlic and gently cook with the cumin in the oil over a very low heat. DONT BURN THE GARLIC.

When the beetroots are cooked drain and gently peel away the skin (use rubber gloves to prevent dying your hands). Place into a blender with the chickpeas,tahini, garlic, oil and cumin and a few twists of black pepper. Whizz to a smooth consistency. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice in to taste. Adding some boiling water can give a smoother less dense consistency.

Salmon Fish Cakes
1 large sweet potato
3 medium sized potatoes
2 salmon fillets
pepper
handful of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
lemon
2-3 spring onions roughly chopped
1 small leek finely chopped
1 egg
150g plain flour
200g breadcrumbs i used some old -ish brown sourdough bread, but any will do or bought breadcrumbs

Roast the whole sweet potato in its skin in the oven. Place the salmon in an oven proof dish skin side down and put into the oven at 150 degrees celcius for approx 15 minutes depending on the oven and the thickness of the fillets.Once cooked remove and turn the oven temperature up to 200 degrees celcius so the sweet potato will roast a little quicker.
Boil the potatoes until just soft (not mushy).

Gently soften the spring onions and leeks in a little oil and butter over a low heat.

For the coating break the egg up lightly with a fork and pour onto a plate.
Put the flour onto another plate and the breadcrumbs onto a third plate.

Once all the components are cooked, scoop the sweet flesh from the sweet potatoes into a bowl, gently crush in the potatoes, i like to leave some chunks for texture.Gently break in the salmon and chopped parley. With a fork mix in the onions and leeks and season with pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Shape the fish cakes as large or small as you wish. I got 4 large and 2 smaller ones from this mix.

Next the coating. One at a time dip the cakes into the egg first, followed by the flour and then with a clean hand into the breadcrumbs. When all are coated set into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. In a shallow frying pan with a little oil gently fry the cakes on both sides till golden brown, place onto a roasting dish and into the oven for 7-10 minutes again depending on the size of the cakes.

Serve with a spoonful of hummus and veggies such as broccoli, peas or spinach.