Banana and Walnut Wholemeal Brown Bread

This was just an experiment.....it was definitely not as good as yesterdays cake extraordinaire!!! but after letting it settle for a couple of hours, it was quite impressive. I wanted to combine the really great nutritive value and goodness of wholemeal bread with the beneficial oils from walnuts(good for your brain) and the yumminess of bananas...and this is what happened:
again, with the measurements, I used a pint glass to measure the flours, both rye and wholemeal and as well, I just added the buttermilk until the right consistency appeared.



1 pint of wholemeal flour
1 pint of rye flour
teaspoon of bread soda
5-6 bananas
handful of walnuts
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
olive oil

 

·         Follow directions 1-4 of Wholemeal bread with treacle

·         Mash the bananas and then add the walnuts

      Add this mixture to the flour 

      ·         Add two tablespoons of Greek yogurt to the buttermilk and then slowly add the                              buttermilk, a little at a time, stirring it in after each addition

• When it reaches the right consistency, a little sticky, it's ready to put into the oiled bread tins.

• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 200 degrees

Wholemeal Bread with treacle

Mum showed me how to make this morning, it's really yummy and so easy to make. I've always been afraid of bread making, although, after trying it, it's probably the easiest thing to master!
as long as I've been watching mum and my relations cook, it's always been a spoonful of this and a handful of that. so, writing down measurements for this was not easy but she gave me a good pointer: if you fill a pint glass with wholemeal flour and another with rye flour or white flour depending on how rich you want the bread.
make sure butter milk is at room temperature, best thing is to leave it out over night.

Pint full of Wholemeal Course flour
Pint full of rye flour
2 tablespooons treacle
Butter milk
olive oil


Heat oven at 200 degrees and oil two bread tins

Sieve the two pints of flour into a mixing bowl.

Add a teaspoon of bread soda to the mixing bowl.

Add two tablespoons of treacle to the butter milk, allow it to reach room temperature to ensure the treacle has melted throughout the milk

Very slowly add the buttermilk to the flour mixture a little at a time, after each addition, mix with a wooden spoon

When the mixture becomes sticky, not runny or dry, it is ready to add to the bread tins.

Smooth out the mixture in the tins with a spoon dipped in cold water



Bake in a well heated oven at 200 degrees for 40 minutes,




*DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN* the bread will sink.

Banana and Greek Yogurt Sweet Bread

Ever since I can remember my mum has been making banana bread for us, we would always gobble up a few slices of it after school and the smell of it still drives my taste buds a bit loopy!! I'm home in lovely Sligo for a couple of days and last night myself and mum put our thinking caps on and after several ideas I decided this recipe was my favourite, I basically just looked at what we had in teh fridge and out a few things together. I've used a basic Madeira cake recipe for guaranteed sweetness.



100g Castor Sugar
150g Self Raising Flour
2 eggs
100g margarine
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 very ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 dessert spoons of Greek yogurt
handful of sliced almonds


preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius(fan assisted) and grease a cake tin

cream the margarine and sugar until smooth

add in the egg a little at a time, stir after each addition to avoid curdling, add a little flour if curdling happens

sieve in flour and baking powder

mix it all together until smooth, no lumps!

squash the 2 bananas with a fork and add into the mixing bowl, add 2 dessert spoons of grrek yogurt and some sliced almonds

mix it all up together and add to the greased cake tin

place in centre of the oven at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes

avoid opening the oven as it will prevent the cake from rising

put the kettle on and enjoy!!

Cheesy Omelette/Tortilla

I was away at the weekend at the Irish Windsurfing Inter varsities in Achill, unfortunately we(UCD) didn't win anything bar the best fancy dress....Phil in a French Maids outfit, our off the water activities were definitely memorable!! on Sunday, after all the random locals had gobbled all of the food in our house, I rustled up a rather naughty cheesy omelette!!
It was a great cure for my 'last day of the inter varsities blues' :(

I've used mozzarella and cheddar with this before, but really it depends on whatever tickles your fancy!! use just enough to avoid over powering all the flavours with the cheese but yet give it that extra kick!!

All you need (for one person) is:

2 free range/organic eggs
1/2 medium onion, diced
6 baby potatoes, sliced
teaspoon of butter
pepper
garlic salt
parsly flakes
the cheese of your choice

Heat the butter in a frying pan whilst chopping the potatoes in to slices.

Add potatoes to the pan and fry until golden brown

Add the diced onion and all the herbs

Whisk up the two eggs in a small bowl and add a dash of water to thicken it up a bit, chop up pieces of cheddar and add this and some pepper to the egg.

Make sure the potato and onion mixture is spread out evenly through the pan and then add the egg&cheese mixture to the pan. Throw on some more cracked pepper :)

Let this fry for a few minutes and then place under a heated grill,leaving the handle sticking out. The cheese will absorb the pepper and will melt and be DELICIOUS!!!

perfect for a lazy Sunday :)

Spicy Roast Baby Potatoes

Nobody can resist a good spud....so I thought I'd throw a few spices and herbs together to create either a snack during the day or an accompaniment for a main meal, they're absolutely gorgeous and go really well with either salsa or mayonnaise...or both!!!
I find Dunnes Stores Exquisa new potatoes are nice for this recipe!



1 bag of new potatoes potatoes,
Rosemary
Cumin
Coriander
Cracked Black Pepper
Garlic/Salt
Parsley flakes
Lemon/Juice


Heat a roasting tray in the oven with some Olive oil

Parboil the potatoes

Mix together all of the herbs, keep the lemon juice and basil leaf for garnish

Add a layer of herbs to the bottom of the roasting tray, then add the potatoes to the tray and cover the potatoes with the rest of the spice mixture

Place in the centre of the oven, fan assisted for about 15 minutes.

Place in a bowl adn garnish with a drop of lemon juice and basil.

Ginger and Lemon Prawn salad

I love this recipe because it's so easy and takes no time to make, it's great in the evenings after yoga as it is so light yet so full of flavour. Your taste buds won't stop tingling!! I used to refuse eating prawns until my sister, Denise convinced me that I had to try them.



100g Prawns
1/4 head of Iceberg/Cos lettuce
2 scallions
Cucumber
Cracked Black Pepper
Half a carrot, grated
Juice of half a lemon
Ginger(peeled and diced)
1/2 teaspoon Olive Oil

Add the oil to a frying pan and heat.

Add in the prawns, ginger, cracked black pepper and lemon juice, make sure there is a lot of juice.

Simmer this mixture until the prawns have absorbed all of the juices.

Chop up some lettuce, cucumber, scallions, grated carrot and add into a salad bowl

When the prawns are ready, add them to the salad and mix up together.

Enjoy!!!

The aftermath of Pancake Tuesday

Pancake Tueday was a lot of fun, I ended up cooking till around half 11, there were a lot of hungry bellies to feed!!! it was one of our friends birthdays at the weekend, but as we were in Belmullet windsurfing and nowhere near civilisation we never gave hima card or a cake......so I made them for him on Pancake Tuesday night!


The following night I made a roast for my housemates, it was a very last minute thing, but I put a few things together and the chicken was the yummiest part....

1 medium chicken
6/7 Basil leaves
Rosemary
Brown sugar
pepper and chili flakes

Cover the top of the chicken with olive oil and then gently opened the space between the breast and the skin on top

cut half a lemon into two more halves then put them just under the skin

put the basil leaves in with the lemon as well

cover the top of the chicken with pepper, rosemary, chili flakes and of course, my favourite, lots of rosemary!!

Cook in the oven at 180 degrees for approx two hours, serve with some baby potatoes, brocolli and snow peas et voile!!

yum yum

Pankcake Tuesday :)

I'm very excited about Pancake Tuesday, I've been thinking of some super saucy fillings for the past month amd it's caused me quite a few sleepless nights!! I'm having a pancake party and have to feed about 20 mouths, so....
There will obviously be the usual lemon and sugar, well you can never go wrong with that combination,
I was thinking of mixing it up a bit with some 1)Blueberries and sugar.
2)Nutella/chocolate sauce and Chopped almonds(or the nut of your choice)
3) Strawberries and Cream
4) Maple Syrup and Bacon
5) Chocolate chips - white, plain and milk
6) Stewed apple with brown sugar, cinammon and raisins

So i reckon with all of those filling I can't go wrong with the pancake hungry mob,

The recipe I'm using is a Delia Smith one

You will need:

110g Plain flour
2 eggs
2 tabelspoons of melted butter
pinch of salt
75ml water
200ml Milk

I think the good old traditional pancake recipe is the key and none of this pancake in a bottle malarkey, the whole fun of the day is experimenting and getting very messy!!!

1)Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl


2)Make a well in the centre and add in the eggs, whisking to blend in the eggs and incorporate air.

lumps should disappear when you begin to add in the liquid so don't panic!!
3)Add in the milk and water until it forms a light batter
4)Try to use a non stick pan as this makes the process a whole lot easier. I got mine in Dunnes :)
5)add a knob of butter to a heated pan
6)add the melted butter to your batter
7)stir through until it is smooth and ready to ladle into the pan
8)Ladle you rmisture into the pan and make sure it spreads evenly around the pan
9)Cook for about a minute on either side on a reduced heat

10)Happy Flipping!!

Photos will be up after tonights festivities!!

Butternut Squash Soup

This is the yummie recipe for the Butternut Squash soup, add in as much pepper and niutmeg as you like, I like loads, it's sweet yet savoury and full of so many good nutrients, vitamin A in the form of Beta Carotene which is great for your eyes and also an anti oxidant which helps to remove free radicals, preventing cancer and keeping us healthy!! it also contains potassium to keep your heart ticking nicely and it's really low in calories but full of flavour!!

Butternut Squash Soup
A real winter warmer and perfect after a long day!

1 large butternut squash1 large onion
1 large potato
Nutmeg
Pepper kernels
Vegetable stock
Tbspn olive oil

Peel butternut squash, deseed, peel and cube

Leave skin on potato, it preserves its dietary fibre, however wash thoroughly, chop and leave aside

Dice onion.

Heat olive oil and sweat the onion, don’t brown it.
Add in the chop potatoes and plenty of nutmeg and pepper kernels.

Boil some water and add in so as not t

o let the mix stick to the pan.

Simmer very gently.

Add in the cubed butternut squash and the vegetable stock and hot water.

Simmer the mixture gently for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes and squash are soft enough to blend.
Add more ground pepper and nutmeg to taste

Serve piping hot with some crusty brown soda bread.

Award Winning Soup!!!

The Healthy Eating competition was a lot of fun!! there was 9 contestants altogether, some of the recipes there were absolutely beautiful, my favourite was a Sweet potato curry with lentils and Quinoa, it won first place, obviously, mouth watering!!!

I won second place in The Starter category, very chuffed with the squash, although, I wasn't too pleased with the preparation, by the time we got there all the starters had been made and they just micro waved them in plastic jugs, I was not very impressed as I had been told they would prepare them fresh. But aside from that, the day was a lot of fun, there was pesto meatballs, lentil and chorizo stew, which Antonio is preparing above, Paella and a lot of gorgeous flavours, the cooks from The Cooks Academy were really friendly as well, I'm going to stick up a few photos of the afternoon, I was a tad worse for wear but very excited!!


Later on then, I showed Simon, my sister's boyfriend how to make some yummie vegetable soup. Simon's Soup, it was delicious for his first attempt, but a lot of pepper went in there!!















it was scrummy though, they bought all of their veggies on Sunday afternoon at The Farmer's Market in Dun Laoghaire, they were were so fresh and colourful, for the soup we used:

1 onion
3 cloves Garlic
6 Florets Brocolli
6 medium/small Carrots
1 Courgette
1 Leak
stock
pepper kernels
chili flakes

• Dice and simmer Onion, leave cloves of garlice whole, then add garlic with stock and pepper kernels and as much chili flakes as you want.
• Wash and chop up all the other veggies and add them in as you go, adding more water and another stock cube.
• Let all the ingredients simmer for 15 minutes and then blend up.
• The easiest thing to make and so very delicious,

We ate it with Red relish cheddar cheese melted on Wholemeal bread, it was a meal fit for a king!!