Back to Oats

I've come back to oats.

Well it's the time of year for a tummy warming bowl of porridgy goodness to start the day.  I recently gotten into the habit of leaving a couple of scoops of oats soaking in water in the fridge overnight, this makes the oats creamy rich in their own right without the need for lots of milk. As you can see in this photo they swell nicely and absorb all the water, meaning they are all soft and ready for a quick cook.

Which means every morning all I have to do, is to get it out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature while I sip bleary eyed at my first coffee of the day.  Add a splash of my favourite almond mylk, give it all a good stir and breakfast is a four minute blast in the microwave away.

It keeps me full until lunchtime and stops me getting the nibbles mid morning which my previous couple of slices of toast were doing.

What's your favourite Winter breakfast warmer?   Alan's is still two poached eggs on toast.

Sue xx

Soup ... and Egg and Bacon Breakfast Muffins

The huge pan of soup I made at the start of the week has done sterling work keeping us fed every lunchtime.

After dishing us up a bowlful each at lunchtime on Monday, I cooled off two single and two double portions for the freezer, and some was put into a clean pan and popped into the fridge once it was cold.  Today we have just eaten the last of this particular batch, a smaller bowlful each this time, followed by a sandwich. 

Tomorrow while I am away at my sons, Alan can have some of last weeks Broccoli soup for a change with some of Stilton crumbled in ... his favourite.

A new favourite of his are these egg and bacon breakfast 'muffins'.

Easy to do and they cook in the time it takes you to feed dogs and drink your first coffee of the morning ... about 20 - 25 minutes.

Simply oil a muffin tray and line each section with a slice of bacon, add some chopped tomatoes, and/or mushrooms if you have them ...

... pour in some beaten eggs and cook in a medium hot oven until the egg is set as much as you like it.

You can just crack an egg into each cup of the muffin tray if you like the white and yolk separate from each other, but our eggs were quite big so he divided two eggs between four cups.

And then try and remember if you are going to do a blog post about them to catch him before he eats the first two  ;-)

Sue xx

A Neat Cook ... and Bashed Biscuits

I've turned into a neat cook.  

I like to measure out all the ingredients and have them ready to throw into the pan as and when I need them, this saves so much time spinning around in the kitchen making myself dizzy while I rummage through cupboards for ingredients while my onions burn or my garlic singes.  It also means that I have time to put on my thinking cap and work out what I can use in place of any ingredients that I might not have.

This time I was following this recipe as I wanted to use up our last homegrown cauliflower.  It was absolutely delicious and these amounts gave us a large portion each for one night served with rice, a smaller portion for the next night again with rice for me, and with rice and a pork chop for Alan, and one also a small tub full for the freezer which will make either a lunch for one or an addition to a Buddha bowl for both of us.

Delicious ... I added peas to ours because I didn't have any fresh coriander to add that very necessary splash of green.   :-)

Pudding was a simple favourite of ours, a layer of fruit in a glass, a layer of chilled Oatly custard and then a packet each of crushed Biscoff biscuits for a crunchy topping.  We ate them before I took a photo, but this is how it all started off.

Sue xx 

Mondays Fridge Soup

At the end of last week we had to call to Tesco late in the evening and for once we were lucky enough to grab a few bargains, it's pretty rare these days that we are there when the yellow stickers are out in force ... well to be honest we've just not been shopping that much recently, only going to the shops for absolute necessities. 

Anyway this morning I set about using the veggies up, they had survived the weekend very well in the drawer of the fridge, but I wanted to use them up before they got any unhappier!!

I emptied out the rest of the fridge drawer too ... 

... put back the few things that were in really good condition.

Then I got out the 'bits and bobs' bag from the freezer, I save all trimmings and stalks from the cauliflowers and broccoli for just such occasions.

Then it was time to fish out the 'flavour enhancers', some Approved Foods bouillon powder ...

... and one or two other additions.

I always find the more variety of flavours you put in the richer and deeper the taste of the finished product, and anyway I like to play.  So I chopped and diced and got everything simmering away nicely for a while and then decided it looked a bit wishy washy ...

... so I added a good squirt of tomato puree and a couple of teaspoon of Turmeric.

It looked much better !!

After a couple of hours in the bottom oven of the Aga I whizzed it up with my stick blender and had a good bowl full for my lunch ... for tasting purposes of course.

And then the rest was cooled ready to go into the freezer, with one small bowl put into the fridge for tomorrows lunch.

I had already dealt with the bargain pack of ham as soon as we got home, you don't leave meat lying around for too long.  First it was dried off slightly on kitchen paper ...

... then split into four usable portions.

Before being placed in a zip lock bag and popped into the freezer.

As you can see I am still determined to make full use of everything we buy or grow and watch our pennies and I'm gearing up for next year ... when the purse strings will once again be pulled in very tightly.

Sue xx

The Last Of ...

At the start of the growing year it's all about 'the first of the ...', now we are into the tail end of the growing year and it's pretty much all about ' the last of the...'.  This morning I brought in the last of the Broccoli, the chickens were lucky I gave them all of the leaves and some of the stems ...

... but the rest went in a big pan to make this weeks lunchtime soups.

I padded it out with some celery, a couple of onions and a couple of homegrown potatoes, then a handful of soup mix for added goodness.  After the first stirring I decided a few cloves of garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes would be a good idea.

They were ... the finished soup is a well rounded very healthy tasting panful of green goodness.  Much nicer than some other green things we've been trying recently.  I'll tell you more about that tomorrow, for now I have to get off the computer as it's telling me it wants to start an 'important update'. 

And anyway I need to feed and walk the dogs before the weather turns any nastier than it already is here.  We woke this morning to a weird and slightly eerie yellow coloured world and after a day of sunshine and blue skies it looks like the high winds have brought the yellow clouds back again to round off the day.

So that's ' the last of ... my blogging ' for tonight then  ;-)

Sue xx