Weekend reflection

I had the weekend just past to myself as MR decided not to come to Perth.  My usual emotion on hearing this is one of neglectedness.  I want to see my boy and I don't get my way so I drift off into a funk of woe.  I'm such a child sometimes. 

Now don't get me wrong, I love alone time.  There is nothing better that a few hours of perfect peace and quiet to curl up and read a book.  I look forward to days where I don't have to leave the house or see anyone, days in which the only sound I hear is my cat (and myself conversing with her).  But I don't love it when those days last the entire weekend.

This time I was determined to be more adult about it.  (And perhaps the fact that next week is school holidays and I'm going to go and spend lots of time with him helped.)  When MR cautiously mentioned on the phone that he might stay home and go out riding on his quad bike with his friends I didn't chuck a tantrum.  I said okay.  And then I made a list of stuff for me to do.

Things to be productive like making a new batch of chicken stock to put in the freezer seeing as I had run out.  And making some chicken and sweet corn soup with my stock.

Things to relax like sitting in my pyjamas in the sunshine and reading for a few hours (thank you weather gods for playing along)

Creative things like doing a bit more of my blanket which is now so so close to being finished that it just seems to be taking forever to get there.  I've got about 15 rows to go. Please excuse my empty pasta bowl photo bombing my rug.

And I've been having these crazy urges to do painting for a few weeks now.  So I added that to the list and got out my watercolours for a bit of playing and then to make a card for my friend.

A friend who I organised to catch up with on Monday for morning tea at my place.  Three days of solitude is Way Too Much. So I made some custard and berry danishes.  And even better, I walked to the shop to get the berries instead of driving. 

There was also general household jobs on the list, like washing and collecting all the frangipani leaves that have fallen in the front yard (both of which I've done) and a few twenty-minute-tidies on my list.  Six of them.  I've managed three so far... 

All in all though, I'm pretty pleased with my weekend efforts.  Nice even amounts of productivity, fun and slackness.  And the house and garden looks much tidier for it as well.


Although the ironing is still sitting in its pile.

  

Bread and Milk

Today I went to the shop for bread and milk.  I told myself I was just going to walk out with bread and milk.  Nothing extra.  Not a thing.

But then the bakery had run out of multigrain bread and I don't like supermarket bread so I grabbed crumpets.  And then as I walked to the milk I passed the fruit and saw a guava so grabbed that too.  On the way to the checkout I passed maltesers on sale and my chocolate stash has diminished a bit lately so I grabbed a pack of them as well.  

I walked out of the shop cursing myself for lack of will power.  Seriously, I do this every time I go shopping.  I know I am terrible at this so when I do a normal sized shop I tell myself, just one thing extra and 99% of the time I fail.  

Of course, as I write this post, I have just finished my guava and am enjoying a little bag of maltesers so they haven't gone to waste so that's good.  On the other hand, MR has won a trip to Europe for us because his business has well and truly met and surpassed their sales targets and reached the level needed to qualify for the trip.  It's all expenses paid (apart from shopping) from what I understand although I haven't really got any information yet so it all seems a bit surreal and unlikely.  But if MR is correct and we are going to Europe (health and doctors permitting in my case) then I need to save some spending money!! The trip is ten days and it falls during the school holidays which is perfect.  I will probably also try to get another week of leave without pay or something, providing we can add on to the trip and visit an adjacent country (so no extra flights) or stay in Germany or The Netherlands (the planned countries for the trip) and do more exploring, all of which will require extra money for accommodation, food and sight seeing (and more shopping!).

My budget is a little bit strapped for spontaneous European holidays however as we've just bought a car and it is using way more petrol than my previous one, something I didn't factor into the planning stage of car buying budget analysis.  But, I do have an extremely big shopping budget, $250 a fortnight for two people, one of which isn't there much.  I've been told this is a bit extravagant but I really like my fruit and pastries.  And I am a bit of a food waster as well.  So the challenge is on.  Stick to the shopping list (with one extra treat), use what I've got in the fridge and start using up stuff out of my overflowing pantry filled with things I might maybe one day need.  I'm going to put my $250 in a separate coin purse and whatever is left at the end of each fortnight goes to the holiday fund. 

Wish me luck! And please, send me any tips you have for cutting your food bill and any things-you have-in-the-pantry recipes.    I started it off last night with my favourite pumpkin soup recipe made with two small $1 roadside veggie stand butternut pumpkins plus a punnet of slightly squishy cherry tomatoes, half a red capsicum which I roasted first and three sticks of celery all thrown in so as not to waste them.  Yum! 6 serves for $2 for the pumpkins, another $2something for sour cream (which I also used in fajitas on Friday) homemade chicken stock which cost nothing and old veggies from the fridge.

Walking past those pastries at the bakery is going to be tough though...

 

Homegrown soup

Back in February, I posted about a surprise vegetable sprouting in my garden after burying some veggie scraps in an effort to improve my sandy soil.

It grew happily without much attention from me and it turned out that it was a pumpkin vine.  Unfortunately I only got one pumpkin off it, and only a small one but I turned it into the most delicious soup!

Just a baby pumpkin

Which strangely didn't have any seeds!

I used this recipe from taste.  Surprisingly, I actually followed the recipe too.  Fairly rare for me.  The only thing I changed was  just a smidgen less cumin than suggested so it wasn't too strong and using sour cream to stir through instead of natural yoghurt.  I also used my own homemade chicken stock.  I get such pleasure out of making and using my own stock.  It makes everything taste awesome and I feel so organised by have it in the freezer all ready to go.

I hadn't used this recipe before but to be honest, it's the best pumpkin soup recipe I've ever tried and I've already used it again since.  That's a pretty good referral from a not-really-a-soup-person. 




What's your favourite soup?  I'd love a recipe recommendation to try out.
 

Buns in the oven

Happy Easter everyone!

This Easter I had my first two attempts at making hot cross buns.  The first lot I baked as a test run on Thursday and they were rather rock-ish so I ate (the inside of) one and threw the rest in the bin.  I think I just cooked them a bit too long.  The recipe did 30-35 minutes and I cooked mine for 30 but I think 20 would have done it to be honest.

My second attempt was on Sunday when MR was down to help me eat them.  I used a different recipe, this one from The Bookery Cook, after a recommendation from Nicole on IG except I just used powdered cinnamon and all spice, not all that lovely fresh stuff and I didn't have time to steep them in the milk so I just heated it up a bit and then let it cool off.  We had a bit of a time limit, we were due for afternoon tea with MR's parents who have retired and moved to Yanchep, a 40 minute drive from our house in Perth.

This time I watched my hot cross buns baking like a hawk and as soon as they looked like they might be browned enough I pulled them out and did the tap-tap-do-they-sound-hollow test and they did - cooked enough for me!  This recipe said 20 - 30 minutes and I pulled mine out at 17 minutes. 

Hot cross rocks in the top six and nice soft crumb filled hot cross buns in the bottom six

The recipe made twenty which really is a bit of an overkill, so we took some over to our next door neighbour (and returned with a slab on homegrown watermelon), some to MR's parents and ate the rest ourselves this morning for breakfast.

While up in Yanchep, we went for a little walk along the beach just as the sun was beginning to set.  After living in the country for 35 or so years, MR's Mum is so happy to be back by the coast (she grew up near the coast in New Zealand) and was excited to show off their little beach.  Their house is across the road and over a sand dune from the beach and there are lots of ocean views from their house.

After getting back from our visit we headed out for dinner and to see the new Captain America movie.  We went Gold Class and when we were given our tickets we were told we would be receiving a complimentary Easter sundae for dessert during the movie to celebrate Easter Sunday.  How lovely is that? 



I hope your Easter weekend was just as lovely as mine :)

 

Lately...

Crafting...
Sewing date and lunch with some lovely friends at my place.  I almost got this quilt that I started at the beginning of last year finished, only about 20 cms of stitching the binding on to go and I'm embarrassed to say, it is still not finished!  I put it down after the girls left because I had some school prep to do for the next day.  Must. Finish!

The Bertie Blankie is going well, I am getting a bit more done most nights of the week.  I'm getting close to being half way there and in even better news, I'm not yet bored of it! 

Watching...
The Block (the first reality TV show I've been sucked into, ever!)


The Riddick movies

Thor: The Dark World


Reading...
The Gentleman Bastard Series, Books 2 and 3.  If you like a bit of a fantasy/intrigue/con artist sort of thing this series by Scott Lynch is pretty great!!  I found out about it via a review by one of my favourite authors, Patrick Rothfuss, on Goodreads.  How exciting is it to see what your favourite authors like to read?  He rated the first and second books with five stars so I thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad I did.

and now back on to the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  I got book 13 for Christmas and it's the final in the series but I'm determined to reread them all before reading the last one so I am all up to speed and know exactly where everything has been left off.  No missing important bits here just because I've forgotten them!  I just started book 5 last night.  Do you reread series when the next in the order comes out? 

Baking...
Banana and raspberry bread

My comfort food - sago  

Anzac biscuits for MR, and using my new biscuit barrel for the first time.

Pancakes, the last three weekends in a row!!

Growing...
My pumpkin is looking more pumpkinly every day.  Unfortunately only one flower was pollinated so there's only one pumpkin.  My dad told me (way too late to do anything about it) that I should have pollinated the female flowers with the male flowers by hand but unfortunately I really am a gardening novice and had no idea there were female and male flowers on the same plant and just thought all the flowers should turn into fruit through immaculate conception.  Clearly not.  I will know better for next time a pumpkin plant decides to grow in my garden.  Especially now that I have googled it and know how to do it and tell the two different flowers apart.

What exciting things have been happening in your world lately?

  

Roast pumpkin, corn and feta fritters

For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook, Save with Jamie.  It's my first Jamie cookbook.  I'm not a huge cookbook person, I'm a bit fussy on the ingredient front so I tend to just search online or make up my own thing.  But I watched the TV show and it seemed like my sort of book so I added it to my wishlist.  

I've already made two recipes from it (with some alterations because I just can't help myself).  They were both pumpkin recipes based around roasting a whole butternut pumpkin and then scooping out the flesh.  Half of the flesh I used in a pasta recipe with the mashed flesh and some crème fraîche becoming the sauce.  I added some snow peas, cherry tomatoes and chicken to it as well.  It was so tasty.  So tasty that I didn't get a photo because we were too busy enjoying it.  And I particularly like that it was so veggie-fied.  I never eat enough veggies.  

The other half of the pumpkin flesh went into these fritters above.  In the original recipe they were just pumpkin but I added corn and feta as well.

Roast Pumpkin, Corn and Feta Fritters

1/2 butternut pumpkin, roasted and flesh scooped out

150g cottage cheese (I used Philly cream for cooking because I forgot to buy cottage cheese)

100g self raising flour

1 egg

1/4 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to season

corn (I didn't measure, maybe about 3/4 cup?)

about 100g feta

Mix first five ingredients in a bowl, I didn't even bother with a mixer, just used a fork.  Add corn and feta and stir through.  Cook in a heated pan with melted butter or oil (I used a bit of both for flavour) Dollop spoonfuls in and flatten out for better cooking through.  Cook until golden brown.  Mine took a couple of minutes on each side. 

I served mine with some tomato relish and salad and they were really yummy.  I had the leftovers cold with some butter spread on them like pikelets for lunch the next day, just as tasty.

I'm really enjoying the holidays, so much more energy to enjoy cooking a nice meal for dinner.  This one was very quick though, I will definitely be adding this in for the school night meals and leftovers for school lunches!

 

One week down, one (and a bit) to go

It's hard to believe the first week of my holidays is practically over already.  Usually it gets of to a much slower feeling start.

I spent the weekend in MR's home town where he is now working again.  He's staying with his parents so I did too, it was nice to get looked after for a couple of days.  They live on the edge of town, overlooking a paddock.  This was the lovely view greeting me outside each day.  Anyone see the legless rooster cloud?

I got to watch a really good game of netball by my old team, which actually has no one on it that I used to play with and also now has one of my ex-students.  Way to make me feel old!

It was incredibly freezing there on the weekend so I didn't get a lot of socialising done, I kept racing home in need of warming up.  But I did manage to light a fire myself for the first time in over 15 years.  My first attempt wasn't too successful but the next day I tried again and got it going first try.  I spent a fair bit of time cooking myself in front of it.

I also made a cheat's pavlova and a chicken and chorizo risotto for a family dinner on Monday.

And on Tuesday I got some help getting the binding ready and attached onto the baby quilt I started during the Summer holidays.  MR's Mum is an accomplished quilter (I have just finished selecting the fabric for her to make us one) so she was a great help getting me on the right track.  I've got one side of the binding all attached now and the corners are all pinned and I have done about a quarter of the hand stitching.  I don't think I blogged about this when I was making the top of the quilt so apart from the tiny sneak peek in the corner below, unless you follow me on instagram, you will have to wait to see the rest!

Since getting back on Tuesday evening, I've just been chilling at home, reading books, watching DVDs and The Ashes, stitching the binding and attempting to get on top of all the washing that seems to have built up to mammoth proportions.

Today I went for a massage this morning and now I am madly trying to push away the need for an afternoon nap.  I haven't had a nap yet these holidays and I actually had a sleep that was restful enough to rate as a good night's sleep two nights ago (sadly followed by a bad sleep last night) which is pretty rare for me. 

Unfortunately, the thought of school work has started to loom above my head with the almost half way point of the holidays.  Next week will need to be a bit more productive!

 

This week...

we got a dishwasher. We haven't had one up til now and I am on cloud nine. Every time I put a dirty dish in it I get a big grin on my face and when I turn it on (twice so far) I have clapped my hands and bounced with glee.

I finished my Kindy reports a day early. This is big for me, usually I am the type that hands things in a day or two late. Being on time has never been my strong point. So to finish and hand them in a whole 24 hours before they are due was a super exciting and proud moment for me. It also meant a weekend ahead of no school work. *ahhhhhh*

I baked, twice. Sago and banana bread. Can you guess the reason why? (Hint: see point one) Baking and no dishes afterwards? My kind of bliss.

I caught up with my best friend for a movie (Monsters University) and waffles. We felt like we were in high school again as we both chose mint fudge choc chip ice cream, the flavour of choice from those years.

I bought a new pair of jeans and only paid $35 for them. Enough said.

I have managed to schedule in a don't-leave-the-house, pyjama-filled day of reading, blogging and relaxing.

I have indulged on naughty forbidden treats; blue brie and pate. Oh how I love them. I'm on antibiotics at the moment so I figure they will kill any bad things hiding in them. This is my justification anyhow.



And finally, this week marks the end of MR's break after finishing up on the mines after 6 years! Unfortunately he is not now living full time with me but instead we have swapped locations from when we were first going out. Now he will be in his country home town working at the family business and I am in Perth. We're back to (as many as we can possibly fit in) weekend visitations after two years of approximately one week of three visitations. I'm a bit sad about it but it also marks the start of the next chapter in our lives together and I'm sure I'll get used to it again. I'll be in Perth probably until the end of next year and then I'll be heading back to the country as well.


How has your week been?

  
  

Many Good Things

Today is the first day of school holidays.

Need I say more about good things when the above is the case?

Not really, but I shall.

Not only was it the first day of school holidays but I also woke up to rain on the roof.  How good is rain of the roof when you get to stay in bed?

I am still in my pyjamas and it is 3:15pm.

I got to have yummy banana bread that I baked yesterday for breakfast.

The house is relatively clean because MR vacuumed yesterday.

I managed to find the energy to do a double batch of baking yesterday as well as go to Brown Owls, (amazing what you can get done when you don't need to conserve energy for a week of work) and so MR has headed back to work this morning with two containers of ANZAC biscuits to snack on (his favourite).  

I went to Brown Owls yesterday and had fun chatting and stitching away at this.

I have a $100 reward shopper voucher from Picnic/Hobbs and a $20 one from Myer burning a hole in my wallet for some retail therapy later in the week.

I have a massage booked for Friday.

I have a lovely stack of books from the library just waiting to be read.

My cold seems to be getting better.

MR and I went to Cirque du Soleil's Ovo show during the week and it was just as amazing as expected.  And the bouncing lizards?  Even more amazing!

My baking cupboard has been reorganised as well as finding enough space to have a dedicated pots, pans and frying pans cupboard.  (Today's job is to reorganise the plastics cupboard and tomorrow's job is the pantry)

We got our soil tested on the weekend and have started the steps to improve it so things will actually grow.

In the small area of the garden where things do actually grow, there are buds on my loquat tree for the first time which will hopefully turn into fruit.

And best of all, Summer seems to have finally ended, leaving Autumn a chance to shine (and pour, as it did all night and morning).




  


What is good in your world at the moment?

 

Sunday snippets

uncovering old stuff

hanging new stuff

more new stuff (from here)

market visiting

Christmas tree-ing

pikelet cooking

More snippets at Tinniegirl's

Best laid plans

Today was my first at home day where I didn't need to go anywhere in almost two weeks.  This is the longest stretch of 'stuff' I have been busy with since before my transplant so I was looking forward to a bit of relaxing in the morning and a lot of productivity in the arvo, with a big long list of things to do.  I even set my alarm for 9am.

Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well, waking up in the early hours with bone aches in my arm.  Bone aches seem to be one of the few side effects I get from my leukaemia medication.  They feel a lot like those weird 'growing pains' you get as a child.  I shouldn't complain - I only get them every now and again and I know some people who get them regularly.  

So instead I snoozed until midday, had a lazy brunch of grainy toast with homemade jam and a banana smoothie and proceeded to spend half of the afternoon slothing around until my arm stopped hurting enough to do a few things.

Smoothies make everything better.  I've been a bit obsessed with banana smoothies since I've been able to drink milk again.  My favourite concoction involves two Carnarvon bananas (the sweet little lunchbox variety), a pot of vanilla yoghurt, a small handful of rolled oats, sometimes a spoon of honey, milk and a few icecubes blended together.  Yummo.

What's your favourite recipe?  I'm thinking smoothies are going to feature strongly in my diet this summer so I need some more tasty recipes!

When I'm feeling a bit woeful or too sore/tired for some craft it's time for rereading a favourite series.  Escape my world for a bit.  Have you read this series?  His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I think this is about the sixth or seventh time I've read these now.  You might have seen the first one at the movies, although it is that different from the book I almost didn't recognise it.  The movie is called The Golden Compass.  They haven't made a movie of the second two at this point.  I've never really read a series like it, it deals a lot with religion, but not in the traditional sense.  The story is set in a world similar yet different to ours and deals with other worlds as well.  It follows the life of a girl, Lyra Belacqua, who is destined to play a major part in the survival of the worlds.  If you do read it, a bit of a heads up - there's plenty of teary bits, particularly in the third book.  I'm dreadful at reviews so google one up if you want to know more about it. 

Are you a rereader?  I reread a few of my favourite each year.  I always get really involved in the stories so it's like visiting old friends. 

Thank goodness I have a quiet weekend ahead of me, plenty of time to get that big list of stuff done!

  

If shiny was a taste

Because we all eat raw egg and sugar mixes right? Right!?

...it would be raw meringue batter.  Don't you think?  It is just so slippery and smooth and shiny in your mouth.

I am all about adding to a word's sensory descriptability.  And all about creating entire new words altogether apparently.  Descriptiveness?  Oh look, no red squiggles.  I still think descriptability sounds better.  And it follows the rules of suffix addition and it makes sense to everyone - unless that's just me - so it should already be a word, right?

But back to the initial lingual argument.

I don't often use the word 'scent', I'm more inclined to say 'flavour'.  As in, 'What flavour is that candle?'  Taste still gets to use flavour too though.  Scent is just somewhat defunct in my vocabulary.

And afterall, other words get to be multisensory.  The kitten can look and feel soft and the cake can smell and taste sweet.  Why can't meringue batter look and taste shiny?



What word would you like to imbue with an extra sensory meaning?  And for extra points, what would you use it to describe?

Last night's dessert

Sunday Snippets

Just a few snippets this week...

Bread and butter custard, fresh from the oven

Pistachio brownies about to go in the oven

Getting back onto the exercise bandwagon (slowly)

A recipe first

Do you know, up until two nights ago, I had never in my life made brownies.  In fact, I didn't even taste brownies as a child that I can remember.  If Mum was making something chocolatey she usually made hedgehog slice or caramel slice.  Brownies, to me, were always an American treat.  And until recently I hadn't realised quite how good they are. 

Quite often, someone will bring them to Brown Owls.  And I always have one (or two, or three).  So the other night when I was in the mood for a bit of baking at quarter to midnight and had realised I had no milk left, I was flicking through the Donna Hay Fast, Fresh, Simple recipe book for something I could make and found her standby brownies recipe and thought I'd give it a go.

Of course, I had to add something to my brownies and definitely not choc chips because there is more than enough chocolatiness to them already.  I had a bag of unsalted preshelled pistachios in the cupboard so that made the decision for me.  I used about half a bag, next time I think I'd use at least three quarters if not the whole lot. 

Pistachio brownies

150g butter
275g caster sugar (I used low GI cane sugar, just because it seems like it is healthier)
75g cocoa
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
75g plain flour
bag of unsalted shelled pistachios

The recipe says to melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in a saucepan but I just chucked the butter in a bowl in the microwave and once it was melted added the sugar and cocoa after that.  Less dishes is a good thing.  Add the vanilla and eggs and whisk well (I just used a hand whisk, not much needed stirring in so no point getting out the kitchen aid).  Sift the flour over the top and whisk in.  Pour half the mixture into a lined square cake tin.  Scatter pistachios or other nuts over the top, as many or few as you like but make sure you hold back 16 to go on top.  Pour the rest of the mixture in and then lay your reserved pistachios in a 4x4 grid over the top (so there will be one on the top of each square when you cut it up).  Cook at 160*C for 30-35 minutes (my fan forced oven took 23 mins) or until centre is just set.  Cool in tin and cut into squares to serve.


I kept six for me and took the rest out for afternoon tea yesterday.  I met Amanda from Homely One who was kind enough to offer me a cuckoo clock of her dad's that she was going to give to the good sammies.  Aren't bloggers such generous people!  It is a very gorgeous cuckoo clock, it is just missing its pendulum stick so I need to order one from ebay and then work out where to put it and get MR to put a hook in the wall.  I can't wait to share photos when it's up and cuckoo-ing!!


Is there a fairly common recipe that you've never made?

  

Pin it, Make it - Lasagne cups

  
I've been wanting to join in this new meme over at Polkadot Lane for a while now but I kept accidentally missing it.  I almost missed it again today too - I watched too much catch up tv online and my internet has been shaped. Oh the disaster! Luckily, they gave me another gig to get me through the next two weeks until it gets reset.  So after today, I may be a little bit absent again for a bit.  Another hint that I should be doing more actual stuff and less internetting perhaps?  No doubt!

pinned

originally found

My most recent pinning and making effort involved a lasagne variation.  Baked in a muffin tin! Supposedly good for portion moderation it certainly is not when you overestimate and cook it in a 6 hole texas muffin tray.  That's a normal sized dinner plate up there.  Way. Too. Much.  I think a standard 12 hole muffin tray will be just fine next time!  However, it was pretty delicious.

Of course, being me, I didn't actually follow the recipe too closely as I already have my own awesome lasagne recipe.  I just used the concept.  The recipe wasn't really very clear about whether you line the bottom of the muffin hole with the pasta sheet or just the sides so I went with both as I like my lasagne with lots of pasta.  The top edges get a bit crispy, but I was okay with that.  I've still got 3 left in the freezer, very handy as to pull out, heat up and serve with some salad on those lazy days where cooking falls into the too hard basket.

Head on over to Polkadot Lane to see what else people have been pinning and making.  It's on every second Friday and I'm sure Kelly would love to see what you've been up to as well! 

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enter my cross stitch case giveaway

 

Quick food #1 - Apple Pikelets

Lately I've been a bit slack in the eating department.  My appetite has changed a fair bit since surgery (diminished) and whether it's because of the drugs, my tummy shrinking while I was in hospital or because I'm not doing so much and don't need to consume so much, I'm just considering it a bit of a good thing because I used to be Major Piggy.  Not a major piggie but the Major Piggy.  I've noticed that whilst MR is away I lose a kilo or two because I am having light and easy meals like fish fingers and salad or eggs on toast for dinner.  And then he gets home and we have big meals like pasta from our favourite local Italian restaurant or a huge slab of steak with potato gems and salad and I put the kilo or two back on.  Work alright for me!

However, it's still important to eat while he is away and with me starting back on my leukaemia meds tomorrow (eek), it's time for a bit of a plan on quick food.  Not necessarily dinner foods, but something I can nibble on for lunch or afternoon tea that really don't take a lot of preparing.  Something that isn't a couple of handfuls of burger rings in a bowl.  You know, something with some sort of nutritional value to it.  That is where I fall down in the eating.  I have breakfast (usually a couple of pieces of toast and a piece of fruit) and then nothing (healthy) until dinner time.    If my new meds are anything like my old ones, I'm going to get a good dose of fatigue so I need something that takes less than ten minutes to prepare.  It can take a while in the oven because that doesn't involve much, but if I have to watch/tend to it, it needs to take less than ten minutes to do that too.  Twenty minutes isn't long, I can handle that.  

So, for the first one, really - who can go past the good old pikelet.  I do love pikelets, and not just because the batter is really yummy, which it totally is but I shouldn't be thinking of that because immunosuppressed people are not supposed to be eating raw eggs and therefore licking the bowl should be banned.  (woops)  I like to add a bit more nutritional value by adding fruit to my pikelets...

Apple Pikelets

 

On the left are apple and raspberry and on the right are apple - Yum!

1 cup self raising flour

1/4 cup low GI cane sugar

1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

about a teaspoon of butter, melted

1 green apple, peeled and grated

frozen raspberries

Chuck the first six ingredients in a blender or in a bowl and beat.  

Go sit down and put your feet up for 20 minutes or so (batter is better if rested)

Peel and grate apple, eat peel and stir grated apple into the batter.

Heat some butter in a fry pan on low - medium heat and spoon in the mixture.  

Turn once lots of bubbles appear.

If you feel like it, add some frozen raspberry pieces to some of the pikelet mix for even more juiciness and nutritional value.

Slather with butter and enjoy!

  

 

I'd love to hear your quick snack recipes.  Doesn't have to involve cooking, it could be something as simple as cheese and tomato on crackers.  If you post about it, send me a link in the comments!

 

It's 2am...

 
... and I'm making mini crustless quiches.  Of course I am!!

excuse the glarey flash photo - it is 2am after all!

I roasted the pumpkin earlier and was going to put them together tomorrow for when Sally and Sarah come over for a sewing day and lunch, but I exercised again today and I'm not tired. Even after getting up at 9.45. *sigh*

So instead, I started putting the quiches together.  Roast pumpkin, leek, english spinach, cherry tomato, spring onion and parmesan.  All I need to do tomorrow is whip up the egg mix and pour it over them, dollop on a bit of ricotta and bang them in the oven.  Lovely lunch ahead!