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Happy Monday evening everyone 😄 I had my litt

Happy Monday evening everyone 😄

I had my littlest one home with me today while we both get over colds, so I enlisted his help to make our healthy treat for the week, @deliciouslyella 's Apple and banana spelt muffins from her fourth book, The Plant-based Cookbook.

These muffins were an absolute joy to make with my son. There was so much for him to do, including peeling and dicing apple, and mashing bananas 🍌 🍎 while I did the majority of the measuring of dry ingredients. He then did a marvellous job of stirring everything together, though watching a fairly small child spoon cake batter into muffins cases is something I can barely deal with... 😳 I was desperately trying to demo the way you flatten your finger against the spoon to push the batter into the case, rather than randomly poking your finger into the mixture on the spoon and trying to somehow push it all off 🤯😂

These muffins include spelt flour and coconut sugar in the ingredient list, and I just wanted to chat a little about both.

• Spelt is a very ancient grain originating in Iran and southern Europe. It is fairly nutty in flavour, and can be used as a whole grain or ground into flour. It's super tasty, cam be bought in brown or white, and is an excellent source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, manganese, and vitamins B1 and 6. Thanks to @wholeheartedlylaura 's gorgeous book Grains as Mains for that succinct info 😀
I tend to buy @dovesfarm spelt flour from Tesco, but it's stocked in many supermarkets. Health food shops will also sell their own version or alternative brands.

So how about coconut sugar?
• It doesn't differ massively from cane sugar and can be swapped pretty much like for like. It's flavour is comparable to light brown muscovado sugar more than any other type of sugar, imho.
In nutritional terms, although still a sweetener which shouldn't be consumed in any greater amount than it's advisable to consume cane sugar, it does have a nutritional one-up on the former. According to @wellandgoodeats website, coconut sugar has a smaller impact on your blood sugar because it contains trace minerals which help slow absorption.

Continued in comments...

Along with the ginormous beetroot and pumpkin I me

Along with the ginormous beetroot and pumpkin I mentioned in my previous post, I was also gifted a huge and knobbly butternut squash from my friend's allotment, and decided to use it in as the accompaniment to my Lamb in Red Wine Sauce recipe, which you can find on my website. I usually serve this meal with crown prince squash, and if you've seen my stories on how I tackled this beast, you'll have seen my observation that the texture of this squash is a little more dense than the butternut I'm used to, and actually quite similar to crown prince. Perhaps, though, that's because I'm not usually privileged to be cooking with allotment-quality food.

The squash is baked in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a shake of cinnamon, salt and pepper, and is baked for 50 minutes. It's the perfect pairing for this incredibly simple, slow-cooked lamb, but gives you the chance to experiment with a new type of squash, if you fancy it.

The seasonal squashes are starting to appear in supermarkets now, and pumpkin patches are open everywhere, so if you've acquired a squash you don't know what to do with, try using it in this recipe. It will work with pretty much any type, as long as it's not spaghetti squash!

I usually serve this with tenderstem brocoli rather than generic, but my elder son insisted he will only eat regular broc 😒

I'll link to the recipe in my bio 😋

#dinner #cooking #cookingfromscratch #ingredients #squash #seasonalmeal #easyrecipe #eattherainbow #healthy #healthyeating #healthyliving #meatrecipe #lambrecipe #homecook #learntocook #foodphotography #delicious #familyrecipe #mealplanning #seasonalsquash #squashrecipes

My very first meal planning client @ceriwiggs came

My very first meal planning client @ceriwiggs came to our session armed with goodies from her allotment, including the largest beetroot and pumpkin I've ever seen 😀

We were meant to be visiting friends today, but illness conspired against all of us, and we ended up having a pretty quiet day, interspersed with a rather beautiful, newly discovered walk.

Being home meant the first thing I thought of after breakfast was what bread to make for lunch 😁 I chose a @leithscooking recipe; Crunchy seeded granary plait. Admittedly the "plait" aspect wasn't so successful, and it ended up being more of a twisted lump, but it tasted great 😂

I had planned a slow-cooked lamb meal for dinner, but I was one of the ones feeling rough, so I decided to make a simple soup with the ginormous beetroot for dinner, which conveniently went perfectly with the leftover bread; my elder son absconded to my in-laws mid-morning, so we unexpectedly had plenty of leftovers.

This really is a soup for beetroot lovers. Although tempered beautifully with some roast parsnip and caramelised carrot, it definitely holds beetroot forth as the star. It's also super thick, but you can counter this by simply adding more stock when you see the liquid becoming too sparse for your liking.

As I've gone on for far too long and there's no space left, the recipe is in the comments 😂

#soup #ingredients #bread #breadmaking #baking #homecooking #homecook #homemadefood #autumn #cooking #learntocook #easyrecipe #souprecipe #beetroot #beetrootrecipes #healthy #healthyeating #healthyliving #homemade #delicious #food #vibrantfood #eattherainbow #foodphotography

One recipe I stumbled upon whilst researching for

One recipe I stumbled upon whilst researching for my clients the other week was this delicious-sounding Banana Curry from @tescofood 🍌🥘 I love using bananas in cooking. Whether caramelised in a pan, or perhaps slipped into a dish like South African bobotie and baked, cooked bananas add such a beautiful sweetness and texture to many savoury dishes.

This super simple recipe didn't disappoint in terms of delicious, well-matched flavours. It also includes chopped apple and sultanas! But if I made it again, I would definitely sauté the apples for considerably longer to ensure they would be pleasantly soft rather than still crunchy, a texture which, for me, didn't quite sit happily with the accompanying softer textures.

I would also possibly add 200-300ml coconut milk from a carton for the apple to simmer in for about 15 minutes, then perhaps caramelise the bananas in a separate pan before adding them to the main mixture and simmering for a further minute. We loved the meal as it was, but definitely talked about how it could be improved.

My parents were here for dinner too, and my mum is avoiding onion and steers clear of spices, athough this recipe only uses mild curry powder. I made my mum's "curry" in a separate pan in the same way as I made the main meal, except I left out the onions and curry powder. I allowed all the ingredients in her pan to go nicely golden, and finally served everyone's curry with some basmati rice and a sprinkling of fresh coriander 😋 Hers is the bowl in the top right of the photo. She absolutely loved it!

If you fancy this gorgeous meal, just search Banana Curry tesco recipes 😊

#dinner #dinnerrecipe #plantbased #wholefoods #wholefood #curry #vegetarian #vegan #ingredients #homecooking #homecook #cookingfromscratch #cooking #tesco #easyrecipe #learntocook #bananas #healthy #healthylifestyle #healthyliving #food #foodphotography #foodie #cookingathome

It was a chilly one this morning; the perfect morn

It was a chilly one this morning; the perfect morning for a big bowl of porridge with all the toppings. I hadn't made this with the intention of photographing it; it's a variation of a recipe I make frequently - jumbo oats simmered in oat milk, topped with a selection of goodies, this time being dates, blueberries, frozen raspberries, toasted pecans, almond butter, and maple syrup - but once I'd throw it all into the bowl, it brought a smile to my face, because however many times I make it, it always looks beautiful 😍 There's something about a gently thawing raspberry covered in ice crystals that's irresistible 🤗

So forgive me for sharing more of the same today. I have so much on at the moment that I've been somewhat lax in sharing recipes. Rest assured though; I've found some wonderful ones whilst seeking out recipes for clients, so I'll be sharing those soon 😊

Have a beautiful day 🌄🌞

#breakfast #breakfastoutsidethebox #breakfastrecipe #porridge #oats #quakeroats #freshfruit #plantbased #vegan #wholefood #wholefoods #porridgerecipe #oatsrecipe #breakfastbowl #learntocook #homecooking #homecook #homemadefood #beautifulbreakfast #freshingredients #ingredients #cooking #balancedeating #healthyliving #healthylifestyle

If you saw my stories earlier, you'd have seen tha

If you saw my stories earlier, you'd have seen that I was in the middle of a *huge* fridge clean-out. I'd just got in from doing the shopping, went to start unpacking, and couldn't put off the inevitable any longer 😒 Out of the fridges (we have a tall fridge-freezer and an under counter one of each too, though I was only doing the fridges today) came EVERYTHING, and so began the mammoth task of cleaning them out, and going through all the remnants, which, as hard as I try, there are always more of than I'd hoped 😏

You'll know I love to make leftovers meals on a Monday; come to think of it, that's probably the last type of recipe I shared 🙄 But I couldn't not share this one, because not only did it use up some leftover mushrooms and kale, but it was simply incredibly delicious 😋 Also making use of harissa paste and cashews, this yummy, super healthy light meal was an explosion of flavour!
Here's what I did:

Ingredients (just do however much you fancy 😉)
Chestnut mushrooms, peeled and sliced
Handful of cashew nuts
1/2 tsp harissa paste
Generous amount of kale
Sweet pointed yellow pepper
Cherry tomatoes
Knob of butter
Olive oil
Cumin seeds
Turmeric

Heat the oven to 190°C fan.
Place the cherry tomatoes and sliced yellow pepper onto one side of a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, grind over salt and pepper, and bake for 18 minutes.
Remove from the oven, throw the kale into the other half of the tray, drizzle with olive oil, shake over some cumin seeds and turmeric, season, then return to the oven for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, once you've added the kale to the oven, place the butter in a nonstick frying pan and add the sliced mushrooms plus a little salt and pepper. Sauté until colouring nicely, then throw in the cashews, allowing to go golden. Add the harissa paste (I added about half a tsp for myself) and stir in nicely, cooking for another minute or so.
When it's all ready, either serve the separate parts next to each other on a dinner plate, or pile it all into a bowl and mix it up.
Enjoy! 😄

#wastenot #healthy #homecooking #homecook #learntocook #healthyeating #ingredients #eattherainbow #plantbased #wholefood #wholefoods #eatrealfood #veggie

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