Healthy "onion rings"

The other day I stumbled upon a blog called The Peaceful Mom, and more specifically a series of blog posts on how a family of five lives on less than $28,000 a year. I found that an absolutely fascinating read. I constantly struggle with my finances, but in the back of my mind, I know a lot of it is because I'm just not organised enough. And I indulge in crazy impulse buys, like last month when I decided I wanted to start doing paper crafts, and instead of buying things little by little, I spent all the money I was going to save that month on inks, stamps and cardstock. Especially with my work contract coming to an end very soon, and not too many jobs around to apply for, I should be saving all the money I can to prepare for possibly being unemployed for a while. 

The blog I found made really interesting reading. I think the lady who writes the blog is really brave to be so honest about her family's financial situation, something which is pretty much tabu to talk about. Also, she is very careful about not being judgemental, she just says these are the choices that work for her family, and everyone should try to figure out what is important for them and to work towards those goals. The blog highlights the need to plan your finances, and also prepare for those bills you know are coming. Also, I loved the idea that was raised in one of the posts: do you really need everything you think you need? I have lived without a TV for a few years now, and every time I tell someone I don't have a TV (usually to explain why I haven't watched this or that TV show), I just get a look like I'm crazy. I'm not saying anyone else should necessarily get rid of their TV, but I can honestly say I don't miss it one bit. I watch DVDs, sometimes I watch something on iPlayer, but mostly I go to the gym, do crafts, and read (or write) blogs. For me, the internet is something I couldn't live without, I would be bored in no time, but I never want to get a TV again. Well, my point was, if you are trying to save money, hop over and have a look at the blog.

Talking about saving money, this is a super frugar recipe. Who wouldn't love some nice hot onion rings, drenched in all that heart friendly fat... Well, Best Friend wouldn't, as for some inexplicable reason she can't stand onions. But other than that, she is a lovely person! It has just been a source of unending wonder and amazement to me how someone doesn't like onions. But fair enough, that just leaves more onions for the rest of us onion lovers. 

This is not really a recipe, it's just a really great way to cook onions. And despite being much more healthy than those battered and deep fried onion rings you so crave every once in a while, these are at least as tasty (actually, I think they are superior to the battered ones, but I'm a bit biased I think).The key is to cut them relatively thin so that they really crisp up real good, and then enjoy them piping hot, right out of the oven. You can use either yellow or red onions, the red ones caramelise a bit more as they have a higher sugar content, so they are my favourites. These make a great side to roasted chicken, a nice juicy steak or served with other roasted veg and topped with a bit of goats cheese.

Oven baked crisped onion (serves 1):
1 huge onion (or two medium ones)
1 tbsp oil (I used smoke flavoured extra virgin rapeseed, but olive or even coconut would work great)
salt and pepper to taste

The howto:
Pay close attention and read through the instructions at least a few times before starting, because this is really complicated. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Slice onion into 1/2 cm thick slices and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Make sure the onions don't overlap, because you want then to be all nice and crisp, and they won't be crisp if they overlap. Drizzle with oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bake in 200 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until nice and crisp around the edges. Serve immediately!

The verdict:
I like to bake my onions until they are browned and super crispy. This does lead to a bit of a problem though, as the smoke detector in my house is ridiculously sensitive, and as soon as I open the oven door, I know I will have to run down the stairs and turn off the fire alarm. But it's worth it every time, as this is one of my favourite sides to serve with practically any meal. Or just to eat on it's own. I know, I'm sick, but I have been known to eat a whole batch of these straight from the baking sheet, without even putting them onto a plate. I actually had to show great restraint to be able to get a photo for the blog as it meant I actually had to transfer them onto a plate, and wait until I took the photo. Which is why there isn't too much artistic touch in this photo (either...). I just wanted to tuck into my lovely onions!

Friday quickie - cheese and puff pastry wheels

This is one from the archives. I was actually preparing another post, but got distracted, so I thought I might as well finally get this one posted as it has been waiting for it's turn for such a long time. It's a true Friday quickie. It's so quick it's technically not a recipe at all. And it might not have been the healthiest recipe ever. But oh so good...

I was writing up a post about soft pretzels, and fear not, it's still coming. But after getting halfway through writing that post, for some obscure reason I decided to finally get back to tweeting again. That turned out to be a bit of a project, as I had to have my password reset for my twitter account. My last tweet was from June last year, you can't expect me to remember what my password could have been. When I finally figured out my twitter username (@pinkunicornfood by the way, please feel free to stop by and say hi, I feel so lonely out there in twitterspace), I realised I had connected that account to a really old email I no longer use. So I tried to swap it to my unicornmail, but Twitter told me that email was already linked to another account. Which I thought was odd, since my other twitter account is linked to my main email account. After a bit of detective work I figured out that my unicornmail was actually linked up to a third twitter account, a really ancient one I set up ages ago when I first tried out twitter. I haven't used it for a few years at least. So I realised I have three twitter accounts (but a total of six or so tweets between all of the accounts...) and three emails. I needed to swap the emails around, but because twitter won't let you make up a fake email address, I actually had to go and create a fourth email for myself so that I could switch the really old twitter account to that new email address which I have no intention of ever using. Then I was finally able to swap my food twitter account over to my unicornmail. This whole thing is getting slightly ridiculous, with so many accounts and passwords to remember. And on top of that there are all the gazillions of passwords to remember for work. I'm all for some sort of fingerprint or retinal scan or DNA based identification method to grant access to all the electronic devices and accounts we use. That way we wouldn't have to remember a thing. That would just be so convenient. Do you have some great tips how to remember your various passwords?

Cheese puff pastry wheels:
500 g puff pastry
250 g grated cheddar or other cheese of choice
2 tbsp garlic pachadi, or you could substitute by finely chopping 1-2 cloves of garlic and mixing with 2 tbsp of olive oil

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Roll out puff pastry to a rectangle. If you roll it out really thin the puffs get more flaky and crunchy, whereas a slightly thicker pastry stays softer (the way I like it, just a bit gooey in the centre) Spread cheese and pachadi (or garlic oil) on top. Roll together like a swiss roll, and cut into chunks. Brush with egg wash or milk and bake until golden on top and cheese is bubbling, about 20-25 minutes.

The verdict:
What is there to say. Wonderfully flaky puff pastry and cheese. Make sure you buy the good, all butter puff pastry because it makes a huge difference. The cheese puffs look so tiny and innocent, but you can't walk past without popping one into your mouth. Then another when you walk past again. And then you are making up excuses to walk past them some more. And then magically they are all just gone. 

These are great to serve as an appetizer or late night snack with some wine and grapes. Endless opportunities for variation by using blue cheese, goat's cheese, feta or whichever cheese strikes your fancy. Best friend made some really tasty cheesy wheels using a strong cheddar with ground black pepper, and they were really tasty. 

Finnish pancakes

The Finnish pancake (sometimes I've also seen it referred to as a Dutch pancake in recipes, what's up with that?!?) is very different from the US pancakes. The Finnish pancake has less flour and more eggs, it's not fluffy at all but more dense and a bit gooey (and I'm using the term gooey very lovingly here). And it's much less high maintenance compared to its American cousin, as it's baked in the oven and doesn't require anyone to slave at the stove flipping pancakes while watching the rest of the people eat them faster than you can get them off the pan opand onto a plate.

I know this is entirely a matter of taste and preference, both which are heavily influenced by what you have gotten used to and grown up with. But as much as I love a good stack of American pancakes (with butter and maple syrup) the Finnish pancake just has that special place in my heart which is only reserved for things which make me remember happy moments of my childhood.

When we were kids, me and my sister always spent Tuesday evenings at the stables, as that was the day of our riding lessons. Or maybe it was Wednesday... Anyways, it was the best day of the week, no doubt. My sister had her riding lesson first, and me and my friends had ours after that. And obviously we would sit out there in the riding hall to watch each other's lessons. Which in the winter got really cold, as there was no heating. As long as you were on horseback you were ok (riding really is a physical sport which gives you a good work out, just take my word for it if you haven't had any hands (or legs) on experience). And I still remember that penetrating cold, your thighs would start to tingle and you lost all feeling in fingers and toes. And still it was really sad when my mum or dad would come and pick us up from the stables, as that meant it would be another week before we would get to spend time with the horses again. But when we got home, the sauna was hot for us to warm up our frozen limbs. The fingers and toes would tingle when you had a warm shower before entering the sauna, and then warmth would slowly start spreading over your body until after sitting there for a while, it just got too hot and you had to slip back out to take a cool shower. I still love that feeling of anticipation when you are really cold, but know that soon you will be warm again. Unfortunately I don't get to enjoy that often enough these days, especially as the sauna at the gym is a disgrace and nowhere near warm enough to get to that blissful state of overheating. What has this all to do with pancake you ask? Well, obviously that was what my mum had cooked for me and Sis for supper after the sauna. It was always baked in a large black oven sheet, and the best bits were the edges which were drier and crispier than the gooey middle. It was usually enjoyed with berries and my mum's home made strawberry jam (well it wasn't proper jam, it was more like mashed up strawberries frozen with a bit of sugar, and it was so much better than jam because it tasted more of strawberries and less of sugar). Every time I have Finnish pancake, that is the memory it brings to my mind. And that is why it will always taste better to me than any other pancakes.

Because the crispy edges of the pancake are much better than the middle, I though the idea of making mini pancakes in muffin tins or moulds was a genius one. This gives a perfect ratio of crispy edge and soft centre. I saw this pin on Pinterest, and it immediately went in the 'has to be tried' pile. And now I had the perfect excuse as I needed some practical take away brekkie for a morning on the go. I decided to reduce the amount of sugar a bit, and add some berries for extra flavour and vitamis. These pancakes only take a minute or two to prep, and can be baked the previous day for a grab and go in the morning. The are nice to eat cold, but I think pancake is best if eaten fresh, not hot out of the oven, but still warm after letting it cool for a while.

 

Mini pancakes (makes 6-8):

1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat)

15 g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

100 g frozen mixed berries

 

According to my estimate (made using MyFitnessPal) one pancake (1/6 of the recipe) contains 90 kcal (2.9 g fat, 12 g carbs of which 3.5g sugar and 5.2 g protein).

 

The howto:

Preheat oven to 200 deges C. Mix flour, sugar and salt. Add milk and eggs and mix with a fork or wooden spoon. Distribute batter in individual muffin moulds (or pour in an oven proof tin to make one big pancake). Sprinkle frozen berries on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.

The verdict:

I loved them. Loved, loved loved. Also the culinary consultant seemed to enjoy them enough to have two, although he found them a bit tart. I don't think the whole wheat flour made them taste any healthier than regular all purpose flour would as the main flavour comes from the berries, but of course you are free to use any flour you want. I think I will experiment with using some other flours as well, maybe quinoa or spelt, why not even rice flour or some other gluten free variety. And you could add any flavouring you wanted, blueberries, cranberries, chocolate chips, raisins, pineapple, or whatever your heart desires. The traditional Finnish pancake doesn't have any topping at all, and it's really tasty on it's own as well, although for that I would probably add some more sugar. Overall, add more sugar if you find my variation with unsweetened mixed berries too tart, or leave it out completely (or replace by maple syrup or agave) if that's your preference. Or mashed ripe banana would also work perfectly to bring some flavour and sweetness. Ooh, that's my next attempt. Banana and chocolate chip pancake.

I baked my pancakes in my flower cupcake silicon mould. In the picture I turned two of the pancakes with the pretty flower side up, and left the other two upside down so you can see the berries and the puffy golden brown edges of the pancakes.

 

 

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Hummus 2.0

I have been using an app called My Fitness Pal ever since I started my weight loss journey in September 2011. Or I guess I should call it my new life. I really like the app. It has a huge database with nutritional information on food items, and it allows you to create your own recipes and calculates the nutritional content of them. It's really easy to use, and it even has a barcode scanner, which has identified the majority of food items I have used it for. Basically you tell the app your weight, and how much weight you want to lose per week (1 lb, 0.5 lb, stay at current weight etc) and it will calculate your calorie allowance. You can also add workouts, there is a database of approximate calorie burns for many sports, although I always wear my heart rate monitor when I work out to get a more exact count. It's a really nifty little app, I have it both on my iPhone and iPad, and you can use it online as well, although the few times I have used it online, I have found the user interface to be much inferior to the apps.

Anyhows, although in general I have mostly good things to say about the app, I was bitterly disappointed last week. I thought the app would save your data indefinitely. However, I wanted to go back to my data from 2011, to the time I was losing weight really quickly, to check on things like daily carb amounts I was eating, but there was no more data left!! I was so disappointed, as on of the reasons I started using this app was to find something that would form a lasting database of my eatings and sports. Seems like I didn't eat anything before March 2012. Which makes me so sad. I would really have wanted that data. But other than that, I still really like the app for keeping check on my daily calorie intake, and to keep an eye on carb and protein levels. Below are a few screenshots from one day last week. I'm currently on a really calorie restricted diet, just to kick start my weight loss. I'm also aiming to reduce my carb intake a bit more than I have for the last few weeks, again just as a kickstart. I seem to quite comfortably get into the 100-150 g carbs per day range, which is quite ok as I work out a lot, but thought I would aim for 50-100 g for the next few weeks, just to be extra strict and hopefully get some booming results during January.

I'm actually off on holiday the first week of February, so it would be nice to have shed at least a little bit of the wobbly bits before that. Also, I know from experience that staying on a really restricted calorie diet and working out 1-2 hours a day is really tough. It's ok as long as you have quite a bit of fat to burn off, but later weight loss has to slow down and I have to get in a bit more calories if I want to keep up this amount of sports. Which I'm totally ok with. One and a half year ago, when I started my new life, I decided not to think of this as a diet, but as a permanent lifestyle change. And I'm still doing that. I know I failed in the latter half of 2012 and put on some of the weight I had worked so hard to lose, and I am incredibly disappointed with myself. I did keep up with my exercises, but my eating just got out of control. Too much chocolate, and way too many mince pies. But I also know I have two options, to dwell on that and keep on eating like a pig because I feel like nothing I ever do will make a difference. Alternatively I can admit that I strayed, payed the price, and will now be strict and work hard to get back to the healthy me I was last summer. And I am happy I don't have anywhere near as much weight to work off as I did back a year and a half ago. I also know I will stray again, and put on weight, but I hope the next time I will catch myself a bit earlier so that there is less to work off. Carboholism is a tough thing to live with.

Anyways, that was quite a long detour to today's recipe. The point is, I enjoy having fruit for snacks, but decided that for the moment, I need to control my sugar intake a bit more. So I needed another snack instead of the fruit, and decided to make hummus my snack for next week. I have made more and less successful attempts at hummus in the past, and I have posted one of my favourite variations on the snack here. As yummy as that variation is, I still wanted to master the original hummus as well. Also, the other recipe contains pistachios, which firstly are too expensive for every day use and secondly add quite a bit of calories to the recipe.

I stumbled upon this recipe of ethereally smooth hummus on Smitten Kitchen, one of the great food blogs I follow. Apparently, the secret to really smooth hummus is to peel the chickpeas. Fair enough, lets peel. In the comments section to that post there was a link to another food blog called Coffee and Quinoa for something called extra creamy hummus. The author of the blog had wondered how to get that really light and fluffy hummus consistency, and discovered that there are over 3 million google hits for the search term 'creamy hummus'. Apparently, the secret is in the order you add the ingredients, you need to emulsify the tahini with lemon juice and water before adding the other ingredients. That should take care of the textural aspects. However, I am still also in search of the exactly right proportion of ingredients for my palate. And I think one of the secrets is that you need to add a bit of salt to enhance all the flavours. I'm usually not a big fan of using salt when cooking, and have gotten used to quite a small amount of salt in food. Which is one of the reasons I have to make my own hummus, I find the store bought one way too salty. But here, I have admitted defeat and use a bit more salt than I would optimally like to, as it's the only way to get the taste just right. Also, I added a bit more tahini than I have used before, and lastly, reduced the amount of garlic quite a bit. Raw garlic is a bit too bitter for my tastes, and I always make my hummus as a snack for the next few days, so the garlic taste really has time to develop while the hummus hangs around in my fridge. A little goes a long way in this case. Of course, you can easily change the amount of garlic to fit your palate. Also, I would love to roast my garlic before adding it to the hummus. But I just can't be bothered, especially since I usually make my hummus on a Sunday night which for me is not a time to be very fancy with my cooking. Using all these small changes, I think I have finally arrived at a recipe I'm happy with. Both textually and flavourly (yes, I know it's not a word, but nonetheless...)

Hummus 2.0 (serves 3-4 as a snack):
1 pack (1 cup) of chickpeas (net weight 380 g, drained weight 230 g)
3 tbsp tahini
juice from 2 lemons
1 tbsp water
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp ground cumin
0.5-0.75 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

One serving (a third of the recipe, as that's what I consider a large enough snack, contains 233 kcal, 16 g fat, 18 g carbs of which 1.2 g sugars, and 7.3 g protein)

The howto:
Peel the chickpeas. This is easily done if you place the chickpea between your thumb and index finger and gently pop the chickpea out of it's shell (see pictures below). It's a bit tedious, but worth it, although probably not absolutely necessary. Put tahini, lemon juice and the water in a food processor, and mix for about 20-30 seconds until the tahini becomes white and fluffy. Then add the garlic, cumin, salt (maybe start with a smaller amount, and add more later if you think it's needed), olive oil and chickpeas. Mix until you have a creamy paste, I needed to add about 2 tbsp of water (or the liquid from the chickpeas, if you aren't an idiot like me and drained it all away) to get a nice texture. Serve topped with some olive oil and smoked paprika.

The verdict:
Finally a hummus that tastes exactly the way I think hummus should taste like. It is so much better than the store bought, it has lots of flavour and a nice tang from the lemon juice. And like I said, it might seem like there is quite a bit of salt, but it really brings out the rest of the flavours. I think it's garlicky enough with one clove, especially after an overnighter in the fridge, but if you are fond of garlic or are serving it right up, then another clove or two might be a good idea. Ideally, I would love to use roasted garlic, but as I said above, I can't be bothered. Which in itself is a bit ridiculous, it's not like it takes long. Well, the baking time is rather long, but the prep takes all of five seconds. But the hour long wait is usually too much for me.

There are quite a few variables to making good hummus. First you need to find chick peas to your liking. One option is also to buy dried ones and cook them yourself. My favourite brand is Tesco's Organic chickpeas in water, they seem to be cooked to perfection, usually every single chickpea is whole and not mushed up at all, and they are very easy to pop out of their skins. Another variable is the tahini, I used to have another brand, now I'm using Al'Fez Natural Tahini, which I like better than whatever it was I had before. Although tahini is usually something you don't have a choice on, there is just one brand (if that), and you should just thank your lucky stars your grocery store stocks any brand. I got the one I have now at the Co-op. Then of course there is the lemon juice, which will vary from lemon to lemon, and some garlics are more potent than others. Which is why it's good to sample the tahini, and possibly adding some lemon juice or salt if the flavour is not quite perfect. And I guess it goes without saying, you want a good extra virgin olive oil. I usually keep two different olive oils at home, one cheap for cooking, and then an expensive, really good one for things like dressings, dipping and hummus.

Yoghurt oatmeal

Things usually are clichés for a reason. Take the saying "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day". Everyone keeps saying that. Is it really? I have been reading up quite a bit on intermittent fasting, which is basically the idea that you should only have a 6-8 hour feeding window each day, have three meals during that window, which is built around your workout, and the fast for the rest of the day. There is a rather good blog called Leangains, which is written by a guy who is a personal trainer and nutritional consultant. And based on the photos of him, I would say he is definitely doing something right, he looks absolutely amazing and is able to keep to at a very low body fat using intermittent fasting. The conventional wisdom is you neet to constantly eat small meals to keep your metabolism going, but it's clear from looking at this guy, there are several approaches to food and nutrition which will work. I am a strong believer in trying out different approaches and doing what feels right for you. My approach to weight loss was built around strict calorie restriction, four meals spread evenly across the day and very strictly keeping away from starch carbs. However, I did try the intermittent fasting for a while as well, as I thought it really sounds quite sensible. And I don't believe your body will actually care very much whether you eat one big meal a day, or five or six really small ones. It's all about psychology, and what will work for you. Well, let me tell you, the intermittent fasting did not work for me. In theory it sounded very good, and it did allow me to have quite a big meal in the evening, which I really love. Evenings after workout is when I crave food the most, and when I stray off the nutrition plan (which has been embarrassingly often lately) it's always in the evening. So I thought by restricting my eating in the morning and day, when I'm at work and can't sneak away to the fridge, I would be able to eat more in the evening, thus hopefully reducing the risk of slipping onto that slippery path of having treats. First I tried a feeding pattern with pre-workout lunch at 3 or 4pm and then a big dinner post workout. It was a horrible pain to go from 9pm to 3pm the next day without eating. It was totally horrible. Especially on days when I bike to work, I thought I would die of hunger by 9am, and then still had 6 more hours to go. So I changed it up to brekkie at noon, then lunch at 3pm and a post-workout dinner. But I have to say, as much as I really wanted that to work, my preferred distribution of meals is brekkie post-workout in the morning, then a snack at noon, lunch at 3pm and dinner post workout in the evening. I have changed things around thanks to the intermittent fasting experiments as I used to have lunch at noon and a snack at 3pm, but it seems to work out better for me the other way around. The moral of the (disturbingly long) story is that you should be open in trying different things, and see what works for you. So for me, the cliché about breakfast being the day's most important meal is true. And this is when we finally come to the point of this post! (Yes, I can see the relief on your faces).

Once again we have Pinterest to thank for a great idea. I saw this pin with no-cook oatmeal in a variety of flavours, and immediately had to try it out. Technically, oats are not part of my nutrition plan. Neither is dairy. But hey, neither was that jar of Marshmallow fluff I stuffed my face with earlier this week, so on the grand scheme of things, I don't think this oatmeal will be why my ass is constantly in an outward expanding motion. I will try to cut down on sugar. And eventually other carbs as well. But until then, I really wanted to try this out. And I love the idea, basically a combination of oatmeal and muesli. Great to eat quickly before heading off to the gym in the morning, a good fix of carbs with some protein added from the yoghurt and chia seeds. And easy to take along to work or wherever. Works as a snack as well, would probably work as a pre workout snack in the afternoon quite well. Easy and so convenient to pre-make for the whole week at once! And endless options to vary the flavourings, only your imagination is the limit. 

The basic recipe:
25 g (1/4 cup) porridge oats (or other cereal, I use about 1/3 millet flakes and 2/3 oats)
70 g (1/4 cup) yoghurt (full fat Greek is my favourite)
80 ml (1/3 cup) milk, rice milk, coconut milk or other liquid (like left over whey from making cheese)
1-2 tbsp chia seeds (or flax seeds or maybe some other seeds)

things for flavouring, like berries, fruit, maple syrup etc. I made one with blueberries and unsweetened strawberry jam, and another with strawberries, raspberries and vanilla extract.

The howto:
Mix everything but berries and/or fruit in a jar, close lid, give a good shake, add the berries/and or fruit and give another shake. Pop in the fridge at least over night, or up to a few days. The original recipe says she used half pint (one cup) mason jars, whereas I used empty marshmallow fluff jars which are much bigger, I would guess at least a pint or so. At least there is room for more berries that way, and stirring the ingredients is easier when the jar doesn't get too full.

The verdict:
Yet another genius food idea which is fast, easy, affordable and only needs a couple of ingredients. And I really loved both the taste and the texture. I'm a big fan of oatmeal as well, so that might partly explain it. But I would say that even if you don't like oatmeal you should give this a try, as it tastes quite different. Somehow the combination of oats and yoghurt has a good harmony. I have only kept mine in the fridge over night and the oats (I am currently using Tesco Organic oats, which are the hugest oat flakes I have ever seen in my life) have been a very nice texture, soft but with some chew left in them. I don't know if keeping the oatmeal in the fridge for more than one night would make them softer. The chia seeds are very neutral in flavour, basically just consider them a nutritional add on, they don't bring much to the flavour or texture. Also, you might need to experiment a bit with the amount of liquid depending on type of cereal and type of yoghurt used. And on your preference of how solid or runny you like your oatmeal. I used the same basic recipe for my blueberry flavoured batch as well as my strawberry and raspberry one. The strawberry and raspberry oatmeal turned out much runnier, partly I think this is because I used a lighter yoghurt (goat's milk yoghurt versus full fat Greek in the first batch) but also because both berries did release quite a bit of liquid during the night. So with softer berries, I would decrease the amount of liquid or use a heavier yoghurt. But experimenting with these things is half the fun, and both batches did end up tasting really good anyways, so don't be scared, just jump in there and trust your gut. Both for measuring the ingredients and for sampling the results!

The options on how to flavour the oatmeal are endless, this is a perfect time to use your imagination. I have actually gone so far as to consider quite disturbing flavour combos, like throwing in some bacon. I mean, choc chip and bacon muffins or pancakes sound absolutely delish, so why not choc chip and bacon oatmeal? You can swap millet for some other favourite cereal, use your favourite seeds, use any yoghurt (or liquid, I guess you could substitute things like orange juice here as well) you prefer, and the combination of flavourings in endless. There are some brilliant ideas in the post where I originally discovered the idea (from The Yummy Life) and there are more ideas here. The flavour combinations mentioned in those two posts are:

• mango, honey and almond extract
• blueberries and maple syrup
• unsweetened apple sauce, cinnamon and honey
• banana, cocoa powder and honey
• banana, peanut butter and honey
• raspberries, raspberry jam and vanilla extract
• canned mandarine, orange marmelade and honey
• cherries, chopped dark chocolate, vanilla extract and honey
• cocoa powder, espresso powder and honey
• coconut milk (to replace the regular milk), pineapple and honey
• pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup (ok, can you get more American than that??? well maybe if you added peanut butter)
• chopped peaches, raspberry jam and vanilla extract
• chopped pecans, cranberry sauce, honey and nutmeg
• dried apricots, crystallised ginger and almond extract

That should be enough to give you some ideas. Basically any fruit or berry you can think of, with something sweet (if you fancy that, although with berries and fruit, I personally don't think it needs any other sweetener than the fruit sugars. I like the slightly sour flavour of the yoghurt to come through). For some reason making this in a jar instead of on a plate (which you can do of course) makes it much more fun to eat. My jars are quite big, so they fit a lot of fruits/berries, it's of course up to you (and your tolerance for added calories) how much you want to add to the basic cereal mix. I can't wait to try more flavours, I bet the banana ones are going to be awesome. I also have some raw chocolate and sesame seed paste which I haven't been able to find any use for, I think it would go great with some banana. I think that will be the next one I try.

Yummus

It should be fairly obvious from some of my previous posts that I love chickpeas. And let me tell you, I really love hummus. The cumin, lemon, garlic and tahini. What's not to love. However, I have struggled to find a really good hummus recipe. And funnily enough, my new favourite one is not even proper hummus. It doesn't have any tahini or lemon in it. And it's modified from a recipe for chickpea burgers from the wonderful blog A Cosy Kitchen. I made the burgers a while ago, and when I was tasting the mixture for the burgers, I realised this is like hummus but much better. So with a few changes it became my new pseudo-hummus. It's so darn yummy it became yummus. 


Yummus (serves 3):
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp harissa paste
1tbsp ground cumin
1tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 can (230g) chickpeas
30g unsalted pistachios
2tbsp olive oil
salt to taste


Finely chop the onion and garlic, and saute until onion is done, about 5 minutes or so. Add harissa paste, cumin, paprika and cinnamon, and fry for another minute. Add about 2tbsp of water so that a paste-like texture forms. Combine the onion-spice mix, chickpeas, pistachios and olive oil and blend to a paste. Add water if needed. Season with salt to taste. Serve with carrot, cucumber and sweet pepper sticks.


One serving contains 260 kcal (17g fat, 21g total carbs of which 3.0g sugars, 8.5g protein)


The verdict:
Well, I guess it should be obvious from the above that I absolutely adore this. My only problem with it is that when I make a batch, I plan to eat it as a snack for the next few days. Often, it tends to just disappear right out of the bowl where I make it. Fancy that, disappearing yummus. 


Compared to the other recipes for (proper) hummus I have tried, I think the key to success here is that the frying somehow softens up the taste of the garlic, the onions add a wonderful slightly sweet taste, as do the pistachios. I'm usually not big on using salt in any food, but I would say, in this recipe, just give it a good pinch of salt. It somehow brings out the sweetness of the onions and pistachios to a whole new level. I think next time I'll try to throw in a bit of tahini as well, see if it gets even better or if it will mess up the perfect symphony of flavours.

Stilton and walnut cookies

A while ago, I bought a book called Step-by-step baking, by Caroline Bretherton. I wouldn't say I need a step by step guide to baking, I'm pretty good at it. But it has the most amazing recipes. And really good pictures as well. I have never understood cooking or baking books which don't have pictures. How are you supposed to choose what to make if you don't have pretty pictures to look at? Are they seriously suggesting you should read the recipes themselves? And they are no fun to browse. Well, this book certainly did it for me, I have spent countless hours drooling over the pictures. For me, the way food looks is definitely part of the enjoyment. I know you wouldn't always think so from the pictures on my blog (I'm getting there though, I'm trying to shop for some nice new plates so you wouldn't always have to look at the rather aesthetically unpleasing beige ones I have...)

Anyways, back to my obsession with cooking and baking books. As much as I love to read blogs, sometimes you just want to feel the weight of a proper book. You can take it with you to bed and browse pictures of cakes before going to sleep. Or curl up on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and amazing pictures of cookies, macaroons or whatever. (As an aside, I now own 13 flavours of Whittard's hot chocolates. To be quite honest, I'm a bit disappointed with them, many taste very much alike. There are some gems in there, my favourites at the moment are white choc and rhubarb, orange and Rocky Road).



There are so many things in the book I want to try, there are recipes for making your own croissants and pain au chocolate which I will definitely brave at some point. Interestingly however, the first recipe I tried from this book wasn't even a sweet one, it was a savoury cookie recipe. That was quite a surprise to me, as I usually would go straight for a cake, cookie or muffin with at least three different types of chocolates. So here you go, a recipe I have stolen without even making any small changes to it.



Stilton and walnut cookies (makes about 20-25):

50g butter

120g blue cheese

125g flour

60g walnuts, chopped

egg yolk

black pepper



The howto:

Let butter and blue cheese soften in room temperature. Using an electric whisk, mix together butter and cheese until soft and creamy. Add the flour rubbing with your fingers so you get a crumbly dough (I can't be bothered to get my hands dirty, so I actually just mix quickly with the electric whisk). Add walnuts, egg yolk and black pepper and mix to form a stiff dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.



Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. On a floured surface, knead the dough lightly, then roll out to 5mm thickness, and cut out shapes with a pastry cutter. If you don't have one, use a glass, or just make small blobs out of the dough and flatten with your palm. You can also chill the dough as a log and slice it with a knife to make round cookies. Bake for 15 minutes, turn cookies and bake another 10 minutes (to be honest, I couldn't be bothered to turn them, I just baked for about 23 min, and they turned out perfect)

The verdict:

These cookies are a great savoury snack, and would be great with a glass of red wine. I have made a few batches, and they turn out better if you use a strong blue cheese, the Stilton I used for the first batch wasn't strong enough in my opinion. The second time I used Tesco Strong Danish Blue and the blue cheese flavour came through much better. However, when using a strong blue cheese, the dough will turn to a rather unpleasing green colour, but don't worry, the cookies turn beautifully golden in the oven.



Another point worth making is that for my second batch, I chopped the nuts in a food processor, and chopped them way too finely. I recommend hand chopped nuts, as the chunks are bigger and give the cookies a much nicer texture.



So with these two tips, chunky nuts and strong cheese, these make a perfect savoury treat. I served these to some colleagues who seemed to enjoy them. Like I said before, perfect to combine with red wine. Maybe go crazy and have some cheese on top, and a grape or slice of pear. Mmmmm....