Tea and Sympatico

Day 29 is holiday test run day. I like to make my own granola now and again and I've been thinking about trying to come up with a seasonal flavour for a while. I kept coming back to something that I like to make at this time of the year - gingerbread! I was pretty happy with the result but think I would like to tweak it still further. It's not overly sweet so I think next time I'd try adding a little more maple syrup, maybe 1/4 cup. I'd originally wanted to use dried apples but they seem to be out of favour at the moment and I could find dried fruit of all descriptions except apples! The dried pears tasted good but were a little too chewy for my liking and stuck in the teeth a bit! I think I would possibly try this again with some dried pineapple as pineapple and ginger is such a great combination. Anyway the texture came out great and I loved the pecans in it. I'll put the recipe below for people to play around with and I'll continue to refine it until...

So today's Mofo prompt asks 'Was there a food you used to hate and now don't?' As I'm sticking to my breakfast theme I struggled a bit with this as I couldn't really think of any breakfast foods that I don't like, if anything I feel I am discovering new ones all the time. 2016 has definitely been 'The Year of The Breakfast' for me. But then I remembered the first time I ever heard of Bircher Museli. It was about 15 years ago and I'd gone round to my friends Robert and Corinne's house. Now this pair are fantastic cooks and know their food so when Robert was talking up this Bircher Museli that he had started making I should have known it would be great. However, the picture that popped into my head of oats soaked overnight and then eaten cold in the morning just made me think, urggh, cold porridge! Now years later and a regular overnight oats eater I am pleased to say I am a huge fan of Bircher Museli too. Basically anything that takes a few...

The prompt for today is Autumn traditions. For me that would be roasting apples to use in recipes throughout the winter. I am lucky in that for the past few years I've had people give me organic homegrown apples. I use the recipe from Babycakes to prepare them. Roasted apples - From Babycakes by Erin McKenna 2lb apples peeled, cored and diced into 1 inch cubes 1 tablespoon of cinnamon 1/2 cup of agave nectar or Sweet Freedom 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice Mix everything together and spread on a baking sheet covered with greaseproof paper and bake for 35 minutes. Once baked I like to keep some of the apples as chunks. There's a tealoaf and a muffin recipe in the book that uses them like this. The rest I blend up with a little more sweetener and some hot water to make applesauce. Most of the Babycakes recipes use applesauce so I tend to bag them up into various cup sizes ready to grab from the freezer when I need them. I've come to love doing this as...

Day 19 - Goth Day – Blues, purples, blacks? Let your dark side shine. As a former teenage Goth I got a little bit excited when I saw this prompt and immediately set about thinking about how to create a purple breakfast. I'd picked up a couple of bags of these Urban Fruit blueberry and blackcurrant mix a few weeks ago in Home Bargains and they seemed perfect for today's suggestion. Here's what they looked like straight out of the packet. I popped 2 tablespoons of them in a cup and added a little hot water, just enough to cover and let them re-hydrate further for about 20 minutes. I then blended the berries and water mix with 3/4 cup of soya milk in a blender. In a bowl I mixed this with 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 1 1/2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Then I poured the mixture into one of my favourite cups and popped it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I served it with a few dried berries as a topper and this was really tasty and blackcurranty. I'll d...

If you've been reading up to now you'll know that as well as following the prompts I'm trying to do a breakfast theme which also features fruit and nuts in some way! Fairly recently I had a great charity shop score of a brand new 12 hole mini donut pan for £2. I am a massive fan of Erin McKenna's books Babycakes and Babycakes Covers The Classics . After trying donuts from the Babycakes Bakery in New York City many years ago I was so pleased to see donut recipes when I got the second book a few years ago but until now have not had the right equipment. On my first go I made the classic cinnamon sugar dusted donuts as pictured above. These were delicious and I can report that they froze well too. For my second attempt I made these for a visit from my niece and nephew and went the multi coloured decorating route. They loved these and asked for seconds. Yep, that's 6 year olds asking for seconds of vegan, gluten free baked goods, love it! And the fruit...

Today's prompt asks if an alien landed on your doorstep what would it eat? Seeing as it's an alien I wouldn't have a clue. It would also have to arrive around breakfast time to catch us in. With that in mind I would like to find out it's views on marmite. Would it be 'love it' or 'hate it'? Hands up if you watch 'Eat Well for Less'. If you don't the basic premise of the programme is that two blokes who used to be green grocers spend a couple of weeks with a family and find ways for them to dramatically reduce their food bills. It's usually things like making takeaway style food at home for cheaper, having one meal instead of cooking four different ones for picky eaters and buying supermarket own brand goods instead of pricier brand leaders. They also always feature one item where they reckon it is worth paying MORE. This is usually something like sausages or bacon from a local butcher instead of a supermarket it. In our budget hou...

Today's Mofo challenge is to take two cuisines and make them work together. In the spirit of the prompt may I introduce to you - Fritalian Croissants. We have the croissants from France married to perfect Italian pizza flavours. I mean who doesn't like pizza for breakfast!!! I like to pick up a tin of Jus Rol croissants whenever they appear in our local bargain shop. These were 39p instead of their normal RRP of £2. I also picked up a jar of sundried tomato pesto for 59p from the same shop. It was Dolmio brand and I was surprised to see it was vegan friendly. We don't normally buy pesto as Matt doesn't like pinenuts and basil gives me bad acid reflux. This had a teeny safe amount of basil though (2%) and the nuts used are cashews. It also means it fits with my fruit and nut breakfast theme, yay! Once the pastry is unrolled and cut along the perferations into triangles you simply add a smear of pesto, a sprinkling of Italian dried herbs and a smidge of vegan...

Today's prompt asks if you dug straight down where would you come out? Well for me that would be Australia. In keeping with my breakfast theme I did a bit of online research and it seems that Aussie breakfasts are not that different to British breakfasts and that we both like a fry up! What would be different though would be the beverage I'd have with my breakfast. Sadly, I haven't tried this in real life but I have been reading about Wattle Seed tea from Australia. I'm hoping that Susan from Kitten's Gone Lentil or another Aussie reader can fill me in and let me know if this tea really does taste like waffles as one review has led me to believe. I mean tea that tastes like waffles how amazing would that be!!! I don't think I'd actually serve it with a fry up as I'm not much of a fan. Instead my breakfast of choice would be some home made strawberry chia jam on some crusty just baked French bread.

The prompt for Day 7 is to blog about a food from your county, state or home town. Although I am not originally from here I have lived in the Peak District for over two years now and hope to be here for many years to come. The town I live in is part of the county of Derbyshire and as I am also doing a breakfast theme I thought I'd blog today about  Derbyshire oatcakes . Not to be confused with the hard oatcake biscuits that you eat with cheese, the Derbyshire oatcake is a kind of yeasted pancake. I have to confess that I haven't made these as my local health food shop Peak of Health sells them ready made in packs of three. I simply wrapped my oatcake it foil and warmed it in a hot oven for ten minutes.  It's served with some apples that I stewed the night before. I made a Redbush chai syrup at the same time which I stirred into the stewed apples when they had finished cooking. The oatcake is topped with a heaped spoonful of Coconut Collaborative plain yoghurt...

Continuing with my theme of fruit and nuts for breakfast I'm merging this with today's daily prompt which is to share a comfort food that always cheers you up. For me that would be porridge. I love that there's no end to ways to 'pimp your porridge' with allsorts of different fruit and nut combinations. Porridge does not have to be boring! It's also a great breakfast when you are on a budget as oats are cheap and there's always good prices to be found on dried fruit and nuts. I am a big, big fan of Urban Fruit. They do a lovely range of dried fruits which they advertise as 'gently baked'. Whenever they are on offer I stock up. Recently our local Co-Op delisted a lot of lines and brought in new ones so I grabbed some bags of dried strawberries and dried cherries for bargain prices. I like that you can also pick up Urban Fruit in mini bags too. I love the pineapple for snacking on. Here's what the strawberries look like out of the bag....

So today's theme is a late night snack. With my theme (breakfast) within a theme (fruit and/or nuts) within a theme (the daily prompts) I have to admit I was stumped at first with this one! But then I thought - of course - Granola. I'm not much of a late night snacker to be honest but occasionally if I am hungry it's to the cereal section of the pantry that I head. I like to eat it from a big soup cup that I won in an Amy's competition a few Mofo's ago. Granola is a favourite late night snacking cereal for me. Just recently we've been enjoying this Red Fruit Crunch from Whole Earth that came in the wheelbarrow of organic food that I won in an organic September competition. It's a super sweet style of granola with yummy dried strawberries, redcurrants and raspberries and definitely one I would purchase in the future. I'm a big fan of granola and like to make my own too, there's a recipe coming up in post later this month. What flavours do...

Seeing as my theme is about breakfasts I thought I'd blog today about my favourite vegan breakfast I've found in a cafe. Sadly Filmore and Union is not very local to us. They have branches in North Yorkshire and we live in the Peak District but they are not too far away and we have friends in Skipton and have been to the Skipton branch a few times when visiting them. I'm not a big fan of the fried breakfast. It's something I will have now and again but increasingly less so. Fried food gives me reflux issues which is then a nightmare for my cough condition so unless I'm prepared to glug a chaser of Gaviscon I'd rather search out other options. Filmore and Union is a great place to find said other options! This was lovely. A warm comforting bowl of quinoa porridge cooked in coconut milk served with stewed apples and cinnamon. There was even a little extra jug of warm coconut milk served on the side. Matt is a lover and connoisseur of the fried br...

Today's Mofo prompt is what your easy cook meal, the meal you cook when you can't be bothered to cook much. I came up with this breakfast recipe recently when Matt was away on tour. Don't worry I don't just live on bars of chocolate when I'm on my own! It was a Friday night and I was munching the bar above thinking how much I loved the flavours of dark chocolate, sea salt and lime. Choc Affair also make it in hot chocolate form which is one of my favourite hot chocolates ever. What came to me was the idea of combining these flavours into a breakfast chia pudding. Minutes later the pudding was sitting in the fridge just waiting for me for the perfect, delicious no cook Saturday morning breakfast. Ingredients Serves 1 1 1/2 tablespoons of cacao powder 1/8- 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt 2 tablespoons of chia seeds 1 1/2 tablespoons of agave or maple syrup 3/4 cup of almond milk Juice of half a fresh lime Stir all of the ingredients together. Pour...