Banana and sultana drop scones

My inlaws went out for a cream tea this afternoon and I had sudden scone-envy. It was also 20mins before tea-time (we had a Sunday roast at lunch), so I had to act fast. With some "past their best" bananas in the fridge I settled on banana drop scones. 

Ingredients:

175g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

25g caster sugar

50g sultanas

2 over ripe bananas

1 egg

150ml milk

Butter for frying

1. Weigh out dry ingredients. Mix in a bowl and stand to one side. 

2. Mash banana, add egg and milk.

3. Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle on a medium heat. Add a knob of butter.

4. Slowly stir wet ingredients into dry ones until they are well mixed into a thick "dropping" consistency. 

5. Drop spoonfuls of the mix onto hot pan and they will flatten and rise to become stodgy little discs of banan-y scone/pancake goodness.

6. Serve hot or cold with butter. Don't expect to have any for tomorrow.

Stir fry veg with rice

Beef and veg stir fry!

A quick and easy tea after a busy work day:

Just the veg I had, some leftover braised beef that crumbled delightfully into it and a winning combo of condiments made this tea a BLW win!

This served 2 of us and our 14month old with nice big portions. 

Everything was cut into strips (julienne):

First in the pan:

1tbsp Olive oil

Then: 

2 Red onions

1/4 Butternut squash (raw)

1 Aubergine 

After these began to soften I added:

1/3 Green cabbage

1/2 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

Then finally:

2tbsp coconut oil 

Crushed clove garlic 

Finely sliced ginger root (1/2")

5ml soy sauce (contains 0.8g salt)

2tsp honey

I stirred it through until the garlic and ginger had nicely caramelised. Served with jasmine rice (140g dry rice).

Accidental Granola

I usually make lovely sugar free flapjacks for the baby using dates and bananas. I had no dates or bananas so thought I would try peanut butter and maple syrup with sultanas (and butter and oats). My main error (I think) was that the mix wasn't wet enough and oats didn't "soak up" enough liquid before cooking.. I was rushing.

End result - over dry flapjacks which fell apart = YUMMY peanut butter and maple granola! 

The second batch of flapjacks (with apple juice introduced) is in the oven... However I can't blog about them as I didn't measure quantities.  I suppose there's a little bit of me hoping they'll fail too...

Quick pizza sauce

Quick to make while your pizza dough is rising...

Sliced red onion. 

Fry gently in olive oil until onions slightly browned and softened. 

Add 1tsp balsamic vinegar, 1tsp sugar and 1tbsp water - stir and heat until bubbling and sugar is dissolved (about 30-60s). 

Add one tin of tomatoes, leave on hob to simmer on a medium heat stirring occasionally until ready to use. Can be blended to make a smoother sauce. 

Dairy free peanut butter fudge

I finally made this! It is yummy and quick and has just 5 ingredients:

1/2 cup PB

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

Few drops vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

1. Put all ingredients in one heatproof bowl. Microwave gently until the coconut oil melts (it's solid at room temp)

2. Mix thoroughly.  

3. Pour into silicon tray and freeze (I used large ice cube tray

4. Ready in about 45mins

5. Eat from frozen like you would normal fudge. 

Original recipe here: https://wholefoodsimply.com/peanut-butter-fudge/

Breadstick ideas

IMy one year old LOVES bread. It's probably not the best food she could be eating, but I can at least try to make it as healthy as I can. I tend to use a mix of white and wholemeal flour (babies aren't supposed to have too much fibre) and I don't add salt. For her birthday recently I made three "different" things with one lot of bread dough. The start mix was dairy free (olive oil instead of butter in this http://clearlyfood.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/breadsticks.html?m=1 recipe).

I made "dairy-free bread stars" (rolled dough out and used star cutter), they rose beautifully like mini pointy dough balls, no photo though - oops!

I made "cheesy bread men", adding cheese to the mix and rolling out then using a man cutter and sticking the feet and hands together like a paper chain. 

Then used the cheesy bread dough and some homemade pasta/pizza sauce to make mini pizzas.. 

These all froze and defrosted really well! 

Enjoy!

Cookie butter (should come with health warning)!

A friend shared this with me on Facebook yesterday, I thought I would try and make it for her as a present/surprise. Then in one of my favourite shops today they had these gorgeous jars and so I hatched a plan, and that was my afternoon gone. All plans to tidy and reorganise my bedroom gone in a flash of ultimate planned procrastination! 

What is "cookie butter"? It's liquified cookies with butter and condensed milk! Yep! Calorie overload!

This was the link my friend shared... so if you want to know how to make it you can find recipe here http://www.bustle.com/articles/83042-a-cookie-butter-recipe-thats-even-better-than-what-youll-find-at-trader-joes-video

I made three flavours... 

Choc chip cookies (fox's choc chip cookies, butter, condensed milk, evaporated milk, choc chips - added at the end). 

Custard creams (17 biscuits), butter, condensed milk, small amount evaporated milk.

Oreos (15 biscuits), butter, condensed milk and small amount evaporated milk.

The three packets of biscuits used most of a 250g pack of butter and a whole tin of condensed milk, I used v little evaporated milk as it was making mix too "wet". There was little left over once I'd filled the three jars. 

You can spread it on bread like chocolate spread or have it with rich-tea style plain biscuits or dip fruit into it. It's very very naughty and quite sickly.. but as a special treat....