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I don’t know what it is but the last 24 hours I have been really enjoying my baking! I cooked up two batches of muffins based on my banana walnut muffin recipe. Last night I made some banana blueberry, then this morning I made up a batch of half plain banana (for fusspot hubby) and the other half I experimented with adding 1/4 cup of oats and a teaspoon of cinnamon with a pecan nut for decoration. I also reduced the amount of oil in this batch and they turned out perfectly.

After a quick trip to the supermarket I came home and made some amazing pancakes for breakfast.

Spelt Choc Chip Pancakes for one

• 1/2 cup of spelt flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of total greek yoghurt
• 1/4 cup of soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips in a jug. Heat a frying pan to medium high and coat with spray oil and then pour a third of the mixture into the pan. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the batter add a few chocolate chips to the top then flip and cook the other side. Repeat until the batter is used up, keeping the other pancakes warm under the grill. Eat with maple or agave syrup and fresh fruit.

 

These were so good! I felt very naughty eating chocolate with breakfast but one tablespoon of dark chocolate won’t do any harm. I ate mine with two fresh dates and some strawberries.

I had a busy day out and about planned so I made up a packed lunch to take with me. I made up a big salad including romaine lettuce, spinach, carrot, yellow pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas, spicy roasted chickpeas, soya beans and a little balsamic dressing. I also took a peach and two apples with me. I only ended up eating one of these apples as I was quite full!

I visited my parents, sister and friends. In the afternoon me and my best friend decided to have a walk up to an area which has a lot of ethnic shops. We had such a great time looking around them and at all the unusual ingredients. I gave myself a £5 budget and came away with this:

Assorted baclava sweet pastries, roasted spicy chickpeas, garam  masala powder and a couple of lemons. This only came to just under £4. Very happy to be able to stock up on spicy roasted chickpeas I love them!

I came home and made a lovely dinner of roasted and mashed butternut squash with a pork and leek sausage (kindly given to me from my manager at work – she got them from an award winning butcher in the Durham Dales) and steamed broccoli, kale and cauliflower. I also made some caramelised red onion gravy.

So completely delicious, I love sausage and mash! For desert I’m having some of this home made frozen yoghurt:

Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

200g of Total Full Fat Greek Yoghurt

1 cup of fresh strawberries

1 tablespoon of agave syrup

Put the fresh strawberries in a bowl and mash with the back of a fork until you get a mushy consistency. Add the greek yoghurt and agave and mix well. Put into a suitable container (I used a small lunch box) and pop into the freezer. Every hour for 4 hours stir the yoghurt mixture to break up and distribute the ice crystals. Remove from the freezer at least 30 minutes before serving to allow to soften a little.

I’m going to have some of this along with a couple of my sweet baclava pastries, yum!

I’ve been enjoying my baking so much recently that my freezer is full with muffins, breads, soups, curries etc. I spent some time labelling all my freezer bags this morning:

Do you make good use of your freezer? I wish I had a much larger one to fit more goodies in!

Hope you’ve all had a good Saturday, we are going to watch the movie Kick Ass tonight and relax, I’m really looking forward to it. Catch you later! x