Month: November 2011

Christmas almond bars?

Well, sort of.

I love love loved the fudgy almond bars that I saw on Marijke’s blog a while back (recipe here) and I also saw a fab recipe for gluten free raw chistmas bites on delicious alchemy. I have been wondering if I could combine the two, to make Christmassy bars.

Excuse the action shot that seems to be rather blurry!

First up I toasted 2 cups of almonds, for about 10 mins. Then I blitzed them in the food processor with 1 cup mixed dried fruit and 3 cups dates. Then I added 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate, cinnamon and allspice, and a pouch of maple almond butter.

Then I poured this mixture onto a lined brownie pan, and squashed it down a lot.

 Then topped it with some marzipan stars. I was wondering if I could use marzipan in the mix instead of the chocolate- I might try that next time.

They need to be wrapped up and stored in the fridge I think, and they are pretty tasty. I think some lemon zest or something like that would add to it, but they have the seasonal flavours that I like. Also could do with more marzipan! 🙂

I stopped by Sweatshop yesterday to spend one of the vouchers;

I got a fluorescent vest to wear over the top of running clothes- should make me feel safer when I am out running in the dark now.

I also made the chocolate brownies again (the bag is for Bronagh as she won a prize on my giveaway), and this time added some soaked dried cherries to them. But the batteries were not working in the camera (well, needed charging) and I was going to take photos to go along with the recipe. Ah well I will have to make them again- shame! I took the rest to work (well, I saved me and Andy one each) and they went down a treat- I was even told I should sell them! Not sure where though 🙂

I am glad the weekend is here- I have lots of pottering around to do which I am really looking forward to!

Any nice weekend plans?

A day in the life

Hey

I just liked this picture as I had no other pictures for the post 🙂

I keep seeing posts on a day in the life, and I love reading them-I think I am quite nosey about what other people get up to! So I decided to do my own- for yesterday (Wednesday).

6.50am- Alarm goes off (Radio 4)- visit bathroom, get dressed, blink in the bright lights.

7am- Empty dishwasher while porridge cooks in microwave. Put lunch in lunchbox with ice pack, fill up water bottle for work.

7.10am- sit down to read blogs/ email/ facebook while eating porridge and drinking water. Publish my WIAW post and link up. Reply to the cupcake decorating email- I have booked on to a Christmas cupcake class!

7.30- realise that time flies when I am on the internet- quickly clean teeth and finish getting ready. Brush hair.

7.40-Rush out the door, get bins from around the corner, get car out of garage (grr I used to have our parking space but since Andy bought a bigger car his now can’t fit in the garage!). Listen to more radio 4- tune out and only realise it is the weather forecast when it says about the weather for Wales- ahhh I missed it for the south east!

8am-Arrive at work. Set up classroom for the day (I won’t list all the things I do as it will get very long haha!).

8.55am- let children in- get on with teaching!

10.30am- break time (not my duty day so I get a break)- make a cup of dragonfly rooibos chai tea, and have a cocoa mint nakd bar.

10.45am- break ends- more teaching.

12.15- lunch time- do some marking.

12.30- lunch time meeting- eat my hummus and carrot pitta and pear while in said meeting.

1.00- meeting ends- set up for afternoon lessons

1.15- children back- afternoon lessons

3.15- children leave- tidy a few bits away and get out a few things for tomorrow. Put marking aside for tomorrow morning.

3.30- after school meeting- data analysis makes my eyes go funny. How can people spend all day staring at a computer screen? Makes my eyes hurt!

4.50pm- Leave work and drive home- on the drive home think “Now it is all dark, maybe I should skip the run. We could have a walk instead. Who I am kidding- we will not want to go out on a walk in the dark and cold. Plus we have to wait in for the shopping. So just miss the run? But then I would have to run on Friday instead and I much prefer coming home straight away on a Friday. OK, maybe just a short run then.”

5.15pm- arrive home, quickly change into running clothes.

5.25pm- go out on a short run. Wow it is cold out there! Feel pleased because I did over 3 miles when I really didn’t feel like it much at first.

6.05pm-Arrive home, put dinner in the oven to heat up,  jump in shower (while Andy unpacks shopping which arrived an hour early!)

6.15pm- out of shower (I didn’t wash my hair which saves time of drying it later on too- bonus).

6.30pm- Sit down to dinner- yummy vegan lentil tofu moussaka and roasted carrots, butternut and sweet potato left over from my lunches. This was so tasty and I wanted to take a photo but the batteries in the camera died. Ah well, you can picture it (or click on the recipe links to see them!).

7pm- Make some chocolate cherry brownies- these are for the final prize as Bronagh lives close by so she is going to collect her prizes. No photos though as the camera batteries are still charging!

7.30pm- Check emails, blogs etc.

8.30pm- realise the time and turn off the computer! Sit down to watch some TV with Andy.

9pm- Have a cup of mint tea and my last date almond bar.

10pm- Make my porridge for the next morning, get my lunch ready, clean up in the kitchen, put on dishwasher, get ready for bed.

10.30pm- Read for a bit in bed (and feel pleased that I got to bed pretty early!).

11.20pm- realise I have read for far too long and now will not get my 8 hours! Ah well, will try again tomorrow! 🙂

Now your turn- tell me something interesting about your day.

WIAW- on a Wednesday??

What? Yup, that is right, for the fun that Jenn organises I actually chose a Wednesday. Last Wednesday. The only problem is that it was a week ago now, and I don’t have a great memory!

Breakfast:

Porridge with oats, chia seeds, Kallo soya milk, grated carrots and cinnamon. I left it to soak overnight as usual and it was very tasty.

Snacks;

Pecan pie for the morning, and lime raisins (these are zingy!) before my run. Both from giveaway prizes 🙂

Lunch;

Massive carrot hummus sandwich and a pear.

I had a run after work but I cannot remember how far I went- I will go for 4 miles- that sounds about right.

Dinner;

Pepper stuffed with giant cous cous, quinoa, chickpeas, squash, plus some more of the filling, a little Delamere goats cheese and some rocket.

Snack;

Greek yoghurt with honey and a little muesli (I have a lot of yoghurt that needs eating!)

Although with this colder weather I feel like I need warmer things as snacks too (to go along with all the teas)- what do you like to eat to help warm you up?

You can catch me!

Because apparently I am very slow and am certainly not the gingerbread man (shh marathon talk listeners, not that type of gingerbread man).

I think my Nike+ is struggling- although I have had it for 18 months now. It keeps losing the signal from my shoes, and today I did nearly 5 miles (and I only just calibrated it)- at a fair pace for me, in 47 mins, but it thinks I did just over 4 and had an average pace of 11.30, and it won’t upload my run. Grr. Anyway it was a bit of a mind battle today- during the day I was looking forward to a run, but after leaving work and driving through the drizzle, by the time I got home all I fancied was a cup of tea and some TV. But I did know that I would feel better after a run, and regret not getting out, especially if later in the week the weather is worse- if it tips with rain on Wednesday at least I know I only have to do a short run because I did a longer midweek one today. It was so dark though- I went up to Sweatshop on Sunday to get some high viz things with my vouchers, but they were shut (grr), so I am planning on stopping by on Thursday after work. I don’t mind it where there are lots of street-lights- I never need to worry about bad pavements, but when I am driving it reminds me of how seeing pedestrians is really hard, so when crossing the roads I was getting a bit paranoid. Was glad to be home!

But I did have a yummy gingerbread man after my dinner to make up for that fact. These are tasty but not that gingery- I think my taste buds are so used to lots of spices that I need more! And more! Also they would be yummy with a little melted dark chocolate on top- does that destroy the “no junk” promise? I will use nice chocolate 🙂

Last night I tried some Teapigs Lemon and Ginger tea ( I love the little piglets so much!)- this was yummy- not too gingery and I think perfect if you were feeling like you had a bit of a cold or something.

How do you eat your gingerbread men? I like to eat the legs first (so they can’t run away- cue evil laugh) but also because then they keep smiling at me. Weird.

Now a technical question- I quite like the idea of a facebook page (sort of getting with the program, I am afraid I am never going to understand tweeting but I can do facebook!), but I wonder if I am better to have a profile instead of a page? I don’t really want people from work reading my blog (I know stuff on the internet can be found by anyone, and if they did come across it then fine, but I don’t want to put it out there to make it easy!) and I tried to make a page this evening. But then I can’t seem to add people (I would like to add my lovely blog friends) like you would on a normal page- anyone with some idea of how it works I would appreciate a few pointers! Cheers.

Vegan pumpkin spice cake

The Pink Whisk November challenge is to make a tray bake recipe- for all those charity fund-raisers that happen at this time of year. I have had a few people request the recipe for the vegan pumpkin spice cake, and even though I can make it in the individual cake tin tray, I generally make it in a brownie pan and slice it up. I thought a vegan recipe would be good as with dairy allergies and things like that it is nice to have something at a bake sale that appeals to those specific diets. I have also made it gluten free (once) by using quinoa flour.

My recipe is based on the Sweet Vegan recipe, but I have reduced the oil, changed up the spices and made a few other modifications.

You will need

  • 260g plain flour (I use 130g white, 130g wholegrain spelt, or use all quinoa flour for gluten free- rice flour may work too)
  • 240g soft dark brown sugar
  •  2tsp baking powder (Dove’s Farm is gluten free)
  • 1 tsp bicarb (again Dove’s Farm is gluten free)
  • 2tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 50ml rapeseed oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 420g pumpkin puree (one tin of Libby’s from Waitrose or Ocado)
  • 150ml milk (I use soya, but almond would work, or dairy milk)
  • 3tsp ground flax seeds mixed with 4 tsp warm water (this replaces the egg- I have made this non vegan using an egg and it was still lovely)

Preheat the oven to 170C, and line a brownie pan with baking paper.

In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and spices.

Then add the oil, milk, vanilla, pumpkin and mix until well combined.

Add the flax seeds in water and mix gently to combine.

Pour into the baking tray, and bake for 40-55 minutes. It is a very moist cake but a skewer should come out clean when it is cooked.

Leave to cool before slicing (and then selling at a bake sale!).

Optional- top with spiced cream cheese frosting (use a vegan cream cheese if you want to keep it dairy free). 100g cream cheese mixed with 200g icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a tsp cinnamon. Low fat cream cheese will go very runny, so if you want to use it (I do sometimes) then add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (again from Dove’s Farm) which will thicken it up.

These are sooooo good- they are gently sweet, and the spices are lovely and warming. Don’t take my word for it though, have a go at baking them yourself! 🙂