Zalando winner!

Is it just me, or do you get that ABBA song in your head every time you see the word Zalando. (“There was something in the air tonight, the skies were bright, Zalando….” Just me? OK).

Right, it is time to announce the winner. Of course being the super high tech person that I am, I wrote all the names down on paper (and of course if you entered 2 or 3 times you got more pieces of paper) and put them in a cake tin. What else.

And the winner is Sarah! (In case you can’t read that!). So Sarah please email me and I can sort out Zalando emailing you your voucher.

Also, before Christmas I was sent some veggie sweets to review- look here to see what I thought.

Any songs you get stuck in your head at certain times/ for certain things? For Teapigs I get the silly Moonpig jingle stuck in my head.

Leftover cookies

I am sure a lot of you will be in the same boat- lots of left over chocolates and things from the festive period. I decided to use some of the leftovers by making some cookies.

I had lots of chocolate (especially milk chocolate which I am not such a big fan of) and peppermint candy canes, so I decided to attempt mint chocolate cookies.

As I had had success using the Millie’s style recipe that I saw on Lucy’s blog, I decided to adapt that. They really are super easy and pretty quick.

First up I chopped up some milk chocolate (I even used some truffles in there), and bashed up the candy canes in a pestle and mortar. That was fun, although bits of peppermint flew everywhere so I needed to crush up more (and vacuum up a lot too!).

Then I followed the recipe, only I added a tsp peppermint extract instead of the vanilla, and mixed in chopped chocolate and candy canes. I find that I need to cook them for about 11 minutes, but that might be my oven. The recipe says 7 mins for really soft ones, and 10 mins for more traditional cookies. These ones are still chewy and delicious.

They are so pretty with the little flecks of pink candy cane in there.

Andy said that the crunch from the candy canes was really good too. 🙂

Now I just have to find a use for all the other candy canes….

What are your favourite ways to use up leftovers? I am talking savoury or sweet. I love making up a hotch potch warm quinoa salad with anything I have, or some lovely bread is great to use up any cheese and pickle, and of course most sweeter things are fab for topping porridge (not sure if I could handle peppermint porridge though!), or brownies.

Perfect pancakes and not so perfect veggie loaf

I think I have found my favourite pancake recipe!

Enjoyed the other day with a chopped and microwaved apple, and some lovely meridian mincemeat.

It goes like this: 35g wholegrain spelt flour, 50g fruit puree (or apple sauce or pumpkin puree- I like the little pots meant for babies because they are small), 1 tsp baking powder and about 50ml soya milk. Add in cinnamon/ orange essence/ other flavours if you fancy them.

Whisk it all up and cook slowly. Very slowly.

Today (made with pumpkin puree which I think does not work quite as well as the apple sauce) topped with dark chocolate dreams and the most massive pink lady apple (chopped and microwaved and cinnamon-ed).

Yum!

I also attempted to make a nut/veggie loaf over the holidays. It is tasty, but did not turn out quite firm enough. I found this recipe, but then I did not have any eggs, and did not like the sound of the cheese in it (I do not like it when cheese gets overcooked and goes all crispy and this has to bake for a long time), so I did not follow it to the letter. In fact, very loosely! Might be why it didn’t quite work.

Mine had a chopped red onion (instead of shallots) and a chopped carrot cooked in a pan, and some drained cooked lentils (I used dried lentils as they were so much cheaper and don’t need pre-soaking so seemed quite easy) which I cooked in water with a little marmite added.

They went in a bowl with 250g mixed toasted and then chopped nuts, a tin of tomatoes, some herbs and some dried cranberries (got to get something festive in there). I added some flax and chia seeds soaked in water (I thought that might replace the binding of the egg).

It all went into a lined loaf tin and then cooked for about an hour and 15 mins.

It was really tasty, but it did not slice very well. I think if I had cooked it for even longer it would have firmed up more, as the ends were firmed more than the middle. Or maybe use tomato puree instead of the chopped tinned tomatoes next time. But I was hungry! Alongside some hummus, cucumber for dipping and rocket it was delicious and really filling. I sliced (well tried to) up the rest and have put them into the freezer (individually wrapped) to enjoy another time. Or maybe what I would do it bake it on a roasting tin- like a brownie almost- spread it out a bit flat as then it might go more solid and cook more evenly.

Also, I was sent a couple of books to review, so please check out my review page and see what you think of them.

Any recipe successes recently? Or misses? What do you love to have on your pancakes?

WIAW- persimmon vs sharon fruit

Hello. That time of the week already. This week I chose yesterday, mainly because I forgot on the other days to take photos!

Breakfast:

Gingerbread porridge with soya milk and peaches.

Lunch:

Sabre hummus with ryvita chilli crackers, cucumber and peppers to dip.

Plus satsumas (or clementines, never sure the difference or what I end up buying), a persimmon / sharon fruit and some Montezuma’s dark chocolate snowmen. Which are very hard to eat- they are very very solid! I do not think I have had sharon fruit before (although I did have conditioner scented with persimmon so I thought I would like them!), but they were on offer when we did our shopping so I decided to try them. On the pack it said to eat them like an apple, so I sliced it up, but I did not end up eating the skin- it seemed too thick to be edible. The flesh was lovely and sweet though. Have you tried one before? If you do eat them, do you eat the skin?

Afternoon snack:

A soya chai latte made with a starbucks chai teabag (thought I would try it). I also found a little jug which can go in the microwave- easier to heat the milk than in another cup (well, easier to pour).

Dinner:

This is what I made for Christmas lunch (and it made 3 lots so still some in the freezer). I cannot remember exactly, but I think (?) I cooked a red onion and some red and yellow peppers, then added a carton of passata, some herbs and some lentils. I blended a block of silken tofu in the food processor with a few sundried tomatoes, and then mixed this with the tomato/lentil mixture. That got spooned into metal foil trays. Then I microwaved 2 sweet potatoes, scooped out the filling and mashed with a little almond butter, and used it to top them. I froze it once cooled (as it is all cooked) and it just needed to be re-heated. I had it with some rocket and piccalilli (yes that is the horrible yellow blob on my plate!).

Dessert:

Gingerbread tea (I only have 4 teabags left now!) and the last lebkucken.

Thanks to Jenn for organising the link up, and happy 50th!

P.S. You still have time to enter my Zalando voucher giveaway.

Lush convert

Hey all.

I just realised that this is my first post of 2012- Olympic year woohoo!

Hope you all had a good new year’s eve- I was asleep by 11 I think (but don’t worry, even if you are not awake you still end up in the next year)- I read some Runners’ World (which is a bit annoying as I won’t be running anywhere in the near future!) and watched the fireworks the next day. Happy new year anyway!

For Christmas I was given some goodies from Lush. Now normally I never go in their shops because I find the smell so overpowering (if they are in a shopping centre or something you can smell it from shops away!), but the goodies I was given were lovely and actually did not smell too strong. I was also given a voucher so Andy took me to the shops the other day and we ventured inside one.

The shop assistants were fab- I was given some shower jelly stuff (like a tub of jelly) and they showed me what to do with it, and demonstrated some lovely skin conditioner on me (which I was sold on as I get dry skin really easily). I also wanted to look into the solid shampoos as one of my friends always raves about them- lots of pro’s as they are economical (one is the equivalent of 3 bottles of shampoo), last for ages, no preservatives, help the environment by reducing packaging, and would be good to take on holiday. There were lots of options but I chose this one– it smelled amazing plus apparently is good for shine with dark hair (and also good for receding hair but I did tell the guy I was not worried about that!). Anyway, I was looking forward to trying it out.

You wet your hair, rub the bar around your scalp a few times, then lather up. I did wonder whether it would be as easy to get to the underneath of my hair, as it is very thick (I can normally put a little shampoo on my fingertips and get it in that way) but the shampoo lathered up really well. Plus it did smell amazing- the cloves lingered especially.  They said to leave the bar to dry between washes, so I have left the tin open (I bought the tin separately but that can be re-used). I am very impressed though- I will be interested to see how long it actually lasts. A day later my hair still looks clean- sometimes products that “enhance shine” actually make it a little greasy- but this is passing in my book. I then spent ages on their website (hence all the links!) and noticed they do a solid conditioner too. Something I might try in the future.  Anyone else used these types of products at all?

I went to the GP this morning and have been signed off for another 2 weeks. Although I think that is the best for my health (I feel OK, then the paracetamol wears off and I feel really bad- still can’t walk very far or move normally, plus the worry of children bumping into me and things) it might not be the best thing for my sanity! Anyway, after I went to the GP I popped to Waitrose for some salad (feeling very guilty as I feel I should be at home- I have never been signed off before this and am not really sure what is allowed- I know that popping to the shops is not the same as a full day at work but I do feel guilty- even though I need to sit down for about half an hour to recover when I get home!) and found a few bargains.

This cute owl box (which I saw before but was £10- today it was £5 although it contained sweets (which I will take to work as they look like marshmallows) when I was hoping it would contain an owl mug)- I have already used it to put my cake decorating bits in. And some Montezuma’s truffles (peppermint white chocolate, and orange and geranium ones) for £1.25 each! Bargain! So get yourselves down to Waitrose for some post Christmas bargains. The lady in front of me was loading up on the bags of chocolate coins/ santa’s as they were something like 25p!

What do you feel you are “allowed” to do when off work? What do you do to pass the time? Have you ever used solid shampoo’s or other products similar?