Month: November 2011

Nuts and orange fingers

Hey peeps

I am glad everyone liked the look of the Stollen yesterday- I think Germany has the best Christmas traditions. My Dad’s mum was Austrian so we always had a lot of those sorts of things growing up. When my parents come over for Christmas I will be making another one for then.

As well as making stollen, I made some spiced nuts- whisk up an egg white, add a few tbs icing sugar and brown sugar, loads of spices (cinnamon, mixed spice…) and some extract (vanilla/ almond/ orange) then bake.

They need turning/ shaking a few times- these took around 20 mins.

Yum! Leave to cool, then store in an airtight jar. I will make a variation of these as Christmas gifts.

I have also been making some more warm lunches.

Another from my squash box- this was a red onion squash- with such vibrant orange flesh.

This was chopped up along with a couple of carrots and a massive sweet potato, and roasted in the oven for 30 mins with a little rosemary. By the way, I walked up to Aldi today (I actually went to go to Sweatshop to spend my race vouchers, but it was closed despite having Sunday opening hours of 11-5pm, anyway..) and I got a big bag of sweet potatoes for 69p! And a big bag of apples for 69p! And 3 peppers for 69p! Super cheap.

Then I cooked 50g quinoa and 50g wholewheat giant cous cous with some vecon stock, added a tin of tomatoes, chilli flakes and a tin of black eye beans.

This made 5 servings all layered up, and some more roasted veg for dinner on another day.  After all that chopping I have very orange fingers, so to match I nibbled on;

Yum- Montezumas Milk chocolate with orange- soooooooo good!

Favourite orange thing? I wonder how many people will answer with pumpkin!

PS I also made the vegan pumpkin spice cake, so stay tuned for the recipe 🙂

Stop! Stollen time

Woo!

I made the most of my weekend at home- seems like it has been ages (well, we have spent the last 2 weekends going away for races).

Saturday started with some gingerbread porridge (2 boxes for £3 in Waitrose, but they only had 1 box left!)- nice but I think it could do with more ginger! I think I am a spice addict.

Then it continued with an 8 mile run- I could not decide between a 6 and 8 mile run (I was aching a lot from body pump on Thursday-I had to miss last week due to parents evening, and normally I would go down weights if I miss weeks but I didn’t and was worried that I would not actually finish the squats track), so went on how I felt at mile 3 (when I have to choose the route home)- I was feeling great so I carried on. I even contemplated rounding it up to 10, but then thought Andy might worry about where I had got to. 1 hr 32 which I think is my quickest time for that route too. (We went out last night for a friends’ birthday and I had some chocolate orange raspberry torte for dessert- must be my rocket fuel).

This was meant to be my post run snack, but I actually forgot to drink the milk. The Larabar was amazing though- tasted very similar to the almond fudgy bars.

Then it was stollen time! Hooray! This recipe is vegan and is based on the one in Rachel Allen’s Bake (which also has the best Christmas cake recipe, gingerbread house and white chocolate peanut butter blondies need I go on- check it out). It made me 3 loaves- one normal and 2 smaller.

First up and the fruit needed soaking- 400g fruit (I used 50g mixed peel and 350g mixed fruit, but I have added cranberries, cherries etc before), 100g ground almonds, 50ml brandy, tsp vanilla and tsp almond extract.

Then heat 220ml almond milk and add 2 tsp dried yeast- leave to bubble for 10 mins. As the almond milk was sugar free I also added a tsp sugar here to help the yeast.

Meanwhile put 500g strong bread flour in a bowl with a load of spices- I did cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, cloves and nutmeg. See, spice addict.

Add the frothy milk and stir it- then knead in 150g pure spread and 100g caster sugar.

This gets sticky! You may need to add a little more flour to make it into a soft dough.

Then leave covered for 2 hours to double in size.

Hooray!

Then put it on a board and roll out, pour on the fruit mixture and knead it all in.

Then split it into however many loaves you want (I did 3). Roll each one out, put some marzipan in (which seems to be vegan? For some reason I thought it contained egg whites but the ones I have are just sugar and almonds) and sprinkle a few flaked almonds inside.

Then roll up into a loaf shape and attempt to seal the crack down the middle. Leave for an hour to rise. Then heat the oven to 200C.

Bake for 40-45 mins, and then dust with icing sugar. This is in the recipe but also handily covers the bits where the dough opens back out again.

I could not wait to try some (with some lovely vanilla rooibos tea). My one came out blurry, but look at this slice;

The marzipan in the middle is the best bit! 🙂

They keep for a while (if you can resist them) and also freeze well- so I have put one in the freezer and we are taking the big one to Andy’s parents tomorrow.

I hope you all had a lovely Saturday too- what did you do to relax today?

Also on a totally random note, I have seen that clif bar do seasonal flavours– how good do these sound? : spiced pumpkin pie, iced gingerbread and peppermint stick (US peeps- are they as nice as they sound?). Actually they sound like latte flavours too, but they are clif bars! Amazing. Maybe they need a stollen flavour to add to the collection….

Lumie Lamp

Hey peeps

A few weeks ago in the UK the clocks went back for the winter time. Now personally I never understood why we keep this tradition going (traditionally it was for the farmers etc who had to get up early, but now everyone gets up early as we all work long hours- we can’t just get up with the light!). It means that the mornings are lighter (for about a week it seems) but the evenings are darker an hour quicker. So before half term I would be driving home in the light, but after half term it is getting gloomy at 4pm.

I have seen numerous news reports saying that we should not move the clocks back any more because of road safety (for example here and here)- it makes sense to me as in the mornings children are being dropped off at school or walking straight there, so if it was dark children would only be on the roads for a short about of time, whereas in the afternoons children go to after school clubs, more of them walk home alone, they walk to the shops with their friends etc, so more potential for road accidents to happen. It always seems that when this is brought up, Scotland are the ones who stop it going through parliament, so I think we should have two different time zones.

I also do not like the dark evenings as it means by the time I get home from work it feels like night, and I am less inclined to go out for a walk- it feels like the day is over.

A while ago I was contacted by the people at Lumie, asking me if I wanted to trial one of their products for a couple of months. I have a small Lumie body-clock lamp in my bedroom (you can program it to turn on gradually over 15 mins or so, so you wake up naturally, but I am such a light sleeper it woke me up right away, so I turn it on once the alarm goes off) and the light is much more gentle and realistic than normal lamps.

They sent me a Brightspark lamp which is a certified medical device for the treatement of SAD- seasonal affective disorder. It was recommended to have it on for 45-90 mins each day, and to sit very close to it. There is lots of research on their website if you are interested.

The light from the Lumie lamp was very very bright- as if it was a really sunny day. We have been putting it on in the evenings for a little bit, but not sitting as close as was suggested as I felt it was giving me a headache (not sure if it was because it heats up a bit?). Having that more natural light instead of the normal artificial lights really helped with the darker evenings. It is just a shame they cannot make street lights out of them!

I love my Lumie body clock, and I would say that the Brightspark would be good for if you worked in an office or something like that, to keep the light nice and natural all day through the winter months.

Thanks Lumie for letting me try this.

How do you feel about the clocks going back in the winter? Do you think you suffer with some form of SAD? How do you cope with the darker evenings?

Attack of the giant cous cous

I am a bit late for a halloween post. Today I was watching Dancing with the Stars (love Carrie-Anne) and it was Halloween themed, so I had Ghostbusters and Addams Family in my head all day. Anyway I did get some giant cous cous last week and have been quite enjoying it.

I was fancying something warm for lunch this week, so I cooked up a big batch to have each day. I cooked some quinoa (80g I think) and giant cous cous (40g?) together in water, with a little vecon stock added (smells like marmite), plus some paprika because I like the colour. I stirred it a bit and let it absorb all the water.

Then I added some beetroot, roasted squash, chickpeas and sundried tomato puree. The cous cous is nice and chewy, and when I warmed it up at lunch time it was very filling.

I also had it in a stuffed pepper, alongside yet more roasted squash. Still enjoying the squash box! 🙂

My fridge is currently being attacked by yoghurt too! The lovely people at Rachel’s organic contacted me and asked if I would like to try out some of their recipes. They sounded fab, so I agreed- I thought they were sending me some plain yoghurt and some coconut yoghurt.

Like the pic? Andy was home and before he squeezed it all in the fridge he even took some photos for me! I normally take one and hope for the best, I think he took about 10! I was thinking I was going to have to get them all back out the fridge to take the photo!

So much yoghurt! I love Rachel’s yoghurt anyway- they have such amazing flavours (check out the seasonal ones- apple and cinnamon or apple and rhubarb). I look forward to making some of their fab recipes. I enjoyed some of the greek yoghurt with honey for breakfast this morning 🙂

Any other fans of Dancing with the Stars/ Strictly? I watch them both (I do fast forward through all the practise bits and chatter) but I love the US one so much more- it seems more showy and sparkly somehow. It also reminds me of Christmas time- coming home on a Saturday afternoon and it already being dark, but let’s not worry because we get to see lots of glitter on the TV. And Carson on the US one. 🙂

Starting the countdown and booja booja

Now I must apologise, as this post contains references to a certain traditional holiday that is coming up in less than 2 months.

Now personally I get a little annoyed with Slade blaring from the shops, and mince pies being on sale in September, but I also like to be organised. At work we bought the presents for the children back at the start of October as there was an offer for free postage, plus it spreads the cost.

Also we are going away for Christmas (well, hopefully not like last year) and so need to be prepared- I am seeing my parents on the 10th December! Super early!

big budget buttonbig

One of my blogger challenges was to start getting things ready, so I thought I would share a few things with you.

I bought this cool (decorative) cockerel watering can for my mum, from The Natural Collection– she loves her chickens and chicken things, plus the garden, and I could not resist it! We also got our cards from a local charity (Grove House Hospice)- they are of St Albans Abbey (we have a lot of family there) and also one of a pretty decorated tree.

I have also been getting ready to make presents. I bought a lot of these jars from Ikea- they were only 90p which is so much cheaper than anywhere else I have seen. Plus some pretty silver twine, labels and red ribbon (and that bottle is pectin as I am going to make SuperJam  which uses fruit juice instead of sugar). I just need to get some nice fabric for the tops.

I have also been practising my icing skills (?) to get ready for the big cakes later on!

Away from the holiday theme (although these would make fab presents) I was sent some Booja Booja truffles to try. I was sent the “Rum Sozzled Sultana Chocolate Truffles” and they are rum sozzled for sure! Booja Booja chocolates are always so amazing- really velvety and rich. I do not drink alcohol but I did always used to like rum truffles from bakeries (did anyone else love those?) but I don’t think they actually contained rum. These do for sure! I do quite like them, but I prefer the other flavours. If, however, you like a bit of rum in your chocolate then you will love these!

Thanks Booja Booja! 🙂

Also I ordered some tasty treats in my shopping this week- I keep seeing these mini gingerbread men on Rachel’s blog, so I ordered them in this cute tin. Plus some goodies summer peaches sweets- they sell them on Ocado and they are so tastu (plus free from gelatin).

 Do you like to get things ready in advance or are you a last minute buy it all on Christmas eve type person?