Recipes - Maria Runs

Snowy weekend, and less than 100%

Yep, I can’t not mention it I am afraid. So I will try to be brief.

Friday evening:

Keeping warm with a hot chocolate (swapped this mug with some smaller ones which are now at work instead). Got a bit of a cold.

Saturday morning:

Pumpkin Pancakes (made with peanut flour so they basically fell apart)-plus cooked apple and some meridian mincemeat- plus teapigs chocolate tea for a late breakfast.

Opening a parcel from the blogging team at confused.com for me to use for the blog- giveaways for some of the items will be coming up at some point.

Saturday afternoon:

Making chocolate covered mango with some yummy urban fruit mango.

Eating a lot of the mango while Andy cleared a lot of the parking area outside.

(This was Sunday morning, when the snow started and had begun to cover where he cleared- although you can see a lot of what he cleared...)

I also helped Andy for about half an hour with the sweeping of the snow- we ended up with 3 piles as the area is communal so we have to move it right to the edge so it is not in the way of any of the parking spaces.

Going on a snowy walk (mainly to see the state of the pavements).

Pavements near us were not good!

To be fair, neither was the road.

Frozen pond (usually has fountains running in it too).

Later Saturday afternoon:

Baking a carrot cake (used the recipe from the new Leon book- a pretty healthy recipe, using a little oil- I used hazelnut- plus agave nectar, wholegrain flour, carrots, coconut, spices…).

Saturday night:

Enjoying a slice of the carrot cake (topped with a little icing made with orange juice and icing sugar).

Sunday morning:

Went out on a snowy run. The pavements were OK on Saturday- they had been cleared and gritted, and my cold was loads better, so I decided to do a short run to get my third of the week (so not 100% for week too, boo)- instead of the 10 miles planned. Ah well. It was fun- the snow was coming down while I was running, and I ended up looping around the same bit several times- I ended up running next to my first lot of foot prints so it looked like someone had jumped along with their feet next to each other. It amused me, anyway. That photo was when I got back, and the bit that we cleared on Saturday was covered completely!

Cranberry pecan swirl for breakfast after a shower to warm up.(Yes, I did a lot of baking this weekend!). I used this recipe, but divided it into 9, so I made 2 generous ones.

Sunday evening:

Deep heat on my back- one side was really sore and I can only think it was from sweeping up all the snow on Saturday- pointless as it turned out to be!

Monday:

Spent the day working as my school was closed (I was very relieved as the roads around here were not gritted)- I usually have planning time on a Monday so I did that at home instead.

Late in the afternoon I needed some fresh air, so I went for a run. The pavements were awful! They seemed to be cleared in short places (the business park by me usually clears them as they have these little mini truck things), but then not in others. So I was jumping over piles of snow, running through inches of slush- my socks were wet through and my feet were freezing by the time I got home. 4 miles was quite enough! Luckily the deep heat can be used on chillblains too. The snow went past my ankles (I don’t think the picture shows it very well)- and more snow below that was compacted! Anyway, at least the roads were clear so driving tomorrow will be fine once I get off my road, as it still is covered in compacted snow and ice.

I also made some foccacia bread (from the Hairy Bakers book) and roasted up some butternut squash and sweet potato, for some soup.

Soup and warm bread = a perfect dinner after a run in the snow.

So, to sum up, my weekend was a bit like my Jantastic team (which are all awesome by the way)- filled with running, baking, and now a long blog!

Bye 🙂

Christmas recipes

Hey peeps

My fingers and toes are all crossed at the moment, as tomorrow I am hopefully going to be going on a Christmas holiday (to New York)! Last year we had to cancel as I was ill, and the year before it snowed and our flight was cancelled. So we are hoping 3rd time lucky!

Anyway, we will be away for a week, but I am looking forward to doing some more baking when I get home, so I thought I would do a round up post of the baking that I like to do in the holidays.

I love making a gingerbread house! First of all they smell amazing, and they are just fun to decorate. And I promise not as hard as they look. I cheated this year and bought a kit from Lakeland which contains all the cutters so I won’t have to make my own templates, but even making those is not hard.

I also love making stollen– I am a bit of a marzipan addict I think! Plus it is a good way to use up dried fruit left over from Christmas cakes. The recipe I tried from the Baking Mad website is very easy, and could easily be left as a loaf instead of bites, and I also made stollen whirls one year (like cinnamon rolls).

Of course it would not be Christmas without a Christmas cake. Yum. Although that recipe can be made a long time in advance, it can also be made right before you eat it, so you still have time!

Mincemeat slices are another favourite of mine. I really like mincemeat (especially the meridian one) but I am not such a fan of pastry. A while ago I created these slices (you could leave the marzipan off and just dust with icing sugar) and they are lovely, and also pretty quick.

Fudge is always a great gift to make (I was so shocked when I saw the prices for home-made fudge at the Bath Christmas markets) and this recipe for Christmas pudding fudge is pretty easy to make. I find that if you let it get to the soft ball stage you have to turn it off right away, and don’t beat for too long- the longer you beat it the crumblier it will get (more like tablet), and I prefer it to have a softer texture. You can also adapt the recipe- leave out the Christmas pudding and add cranberries when you beat it, and then sprinkle some white chocolate chips on, or sprinkle some mint dark chocolate over the top. Basically whatever flavour you like you could make.

White chocolate and coconut fudge- pour half the fudge into a pan, sprinkle on white chocolate (it will melt), pour the rest of the fudge over, flatten down and sprinkle on coconut.

Or how about some spiced nuts with cranberries and coconut? I made them again this year as gifts, and used a mixture of almonds, hazelnuts and brazil nuts. Very pretty too with the bright red cranberries.

Right, most of the packing is done now, so I am off to relax for a bit. One more day of work to go and then hopefully to enjoy the holidays! Have a fab week all (and don’t forget to sign up for the Jantastic team, Run Blog Bake! The more the merrier! And it is just for fun.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Mincemeat madness, motivation and a muffin recipe!

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 🙂

Reindeer cupcakes (almost)

Hey peeps

So I had a plan, to make little reindeer cupcakes for the school Christmas Fayre. I had seen a few ideas on the internet, using pretzels for the antlers. So I bought some pretzels, and this evening made some chocolate cupcakes. I iced them, cut up the cherries (for the noses) and got some raisins out (for the eyes).

Then I opened the packet of pretzels- turned out they were giant pretzels. Yup, it said it on the packet, but I didn’t think they would be that big!

You can kind of see it I think! Next time I would use chocolate chips for the eyes, as the raisins hardly show up against the chocolate icing. Plus the fake red cherries would be better, as they show up more too.

Hopefully they will go down well with the children.

Right, off to bed!

🙂

Change of plans

Hey all,

Hooray for the weekend!

I was going to have a long run this morning, but it was raining, and drizzling, and as the weather is predicted to be lovely and bright and crisp tomorrow, I decided to have a shorter run today, and have a longer one tomorrow. Just as well as I was aching loads after body pump on Thursday. I did the same run as Wednesday (when my Garmin went crazy- those 2 and a half minute miles!)- when I downloaded it, it thought I was miles away at first, which is why I was apparently going so fast. Anyhow, the actual route I did today was 3.5 miles. Nice to stretch the legs.

Then I was going to make some panforte.

When we were in Florence we went to Siena, and the speciality there is panforte- a cake made with nuts, dried fruit and spices. We shared a slice for lunch one day, and it was amazing. Some were made with cocoa, or covered in marzipan, but we stuck to the plain one.

I basically spent a lot of the time looking at it in all the windows!

Anyway, I googled it when I got home, and found so many recipes. I settled on this Jamie Oliver one, as it sounded fairly simple.

Chopped nuts (hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios), mixed peel, cherries (for colour), flour and spices in the bowl.

Honey, blitzed figs, sugar and more spices bubbling away.

I even bought some rice paper from amazon to use for the recipe (to line the pan with).

Ready for the oven. I had to cover it in clingfilm to press it down into the pan, as it was so sticky.

Then this happened:

Oh dear. It baked fine, I left it to cool in the pan, but then it was a total nightmare to get back out the pan! I checked and there was nothing about oiling the pan, but maybe that needs to be done?

So, another change of plan. I chopped it up (scooped up some of it) and put it in to paper cases instead. Still tastes nice!

I also marzipanned the Christmas cakes. It seems very early, but we do not have many free weekends left between now and Christmas, so I wanted to get them started. I might ice them tomorrow, and then all I have to do is find time to decorate them.

This afternoon I popped to the shops, and treated myself to a Starbucks- it is becoming a bit of a weekend habit. This time I asked for steamed soya milk with gingerbread syrup- seriously this is their best drink ever (and cheaper than a gingerbread latte)- they had the syrup for sale and I was very tempted, although it didn’t have a price on it.

I also got a very exciting delivery- gingerbread clif bars! They do seasonal flavours and they get rave reviews (coincidently, in the summer we tried a panforte “special” flavour which really was amazing- having never even heard of it before then)- anyway, they have been out of stock at i-herb, but I found them on amazon USA, and decided to treat myself. I also got some spiced orange yankee candle tealights (but from the UK amazon) because I just love their candles so much. Smells like Christmas in here now.

Any suggestions regarding getting the panforte out the pan next time?

What are you up to this weekend?