Hey- I have been having a bit of an obsession with mincemeat this week.
Sunday started with a pile of pancakes:
Wholegrain spelt flour, pumpkin puree, baking powder, almond milk and spices all cooked gently. Served with a massive chopped apple cooked in a tsp coconut oil, and served with that lovely Meridian mincemeat. Yum. Plus a cardamom chai.
On a week day I don’t have time for pancakes- I get up as early as I can! So today started with porridge made with pumpkin puree, and topped with more mincemeat. So good.
Tomorrow we are having a breakfast at work, and I offered to bring muffins. I have seen lots of mincemeat recipes- mincemeat scones on The Pink Whisk look amazing, so I decided to adapt a recipe for cinnamon muffins.
Makes 12
Ingredients:
250g flour (I used half wholegrain spelt and half white)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
115g soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
120ml milk (approx)
85g butter, melted
200g mincemeat
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200C. Put cake cases into cake pans ready.
Mix the flour, baking powder, spices and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter (microwave for 20 seconds), and mix this with the egg and the milk.
Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture, and pour in the liquid ingredients, then add the mincemeat and mix gently.
Put spoonfuls into cake cases- then put in the oven for 15 mins. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (or sugar) and then bake for another 5 minutes until golden.
Leave to cool in the tins before turning on to a wire rack to cool completely. My cases were full so I used some little loaf pans to bake the extra in- might have to have one later as a quality control check.
Yesterday for Sunday tea I took around the orange cake that I made on Saturday- any excuse to use the orange peel 🙂 This time I added dark chocolate chips in the mix to make a chocolate orange cake- yummy.
Today I went on my run and I was listening to marathon talk. They have a Spring motivation challenge (Jantastic! appeals to my love of puns etc)- it is just for fun, but anyway you can sign up on their website. You can enter on your own- for January you just pledge how many runs you would do each week, and then log them each week (nothing lost if you don’t do what you aim for), then for February you do that, and pledge the distance of your longest run each week, and then for March you try to predict to the nearest second a race/ race distance (can be a 5K you do on your own, or a race you are entered in).
Anyway, I am going to do it- I did it 2 years ago but couldn’t last year. But they were saying you could have a team, with a minimum of 6 members. So I was wondering if anyone wants to join up in a blog team? I was trying to think of a good name, but I can’t, so any suggestions welcome. I think it would be quite fun. They say the run has to be over 1 mile, it can be a run/walk, but you have to be wearing your kit, so no counting running to the bus! Anyone fancy it? If so, let me know by commenting here, or emailing me- also if you have a good idea for a team name let me know! Then I think when you sign up the team will appear (once I register it) from the drop down menu.
Might be worth a bit of extra motivation for getting out there when the weather is cold and damp and windy etc.
Cheers 🙂
I’m quite keen – could it be Treadmill running too? I think I need a goal to kickstart my New Year!
Yay hooray!
I’ve just been doing a quick catch-up on blogs and yours has delivered some amazing baking; I can just imagine the joy of the smells and warmth of the kitchen. I bet you are looking forwards to the end of the week and Christmas break.
Will you join our team? Helps with your marathon training??
If you have enough people to do it I’d definitely be interested in joining your team for the running challenge. Lord knows I need the motivation!
Hooray!
Do they have one for going to the gym? My running motivation is great, but the mere thought of working out at the gym makes me want to hide under the bed covers 😉
Um, well I think treadmill running counts as well.
Hehe…no, it was a joke! I don’t run at the gym, I use the weight machines (which I think are boring). It was weight training I was referring to 🙂
Such a lovely idea to have a blog team. Your cakes always look so yummy!
Thought it might be fun 🙂
All those recipes look fantastic. I never think of making pancakes normally, but I enjoy them when I do.
Jantastic sounds like a great idea. I’d be interested – I think it would help me get back into running after quite a while off.
Hooray! Right I had better think of a team name then…
I’m totally up for joining the team! I love mince pie oats 🙂 I went through a jar in a week ha, I’m saving my other jar for over christmas time!