I want to Read, Knit, Bake, Cook, Run, Walk, Massage, do my Housework, Blog watch a little TV, and soon I shall want to be Gardening too…..
There are just not enough hours in the day !
Although over the weekend I did manage to Run, Walk, Massage, Bake , Cook and do some Housework 🙂
Passion Cake
First Attemp
My first baking attempt was pretty good, although a little flat and it did stick to the linning paper, that did not stop it being eaten , but I felt there was room for improvement
I had another read of the book and decided it needed more “cloaking”, and that I should invest in a silicone non stick oven liner.
Second Attemp
When I took a walk to Aldi this evening I found just the oven liner I needed, so tonight I have had another go at baking my bread.
This time it did not sick or flatten too much and it actually looks like a rustic loaf.
I have a feeling I should have baked it a bit longer but its all trial and error till I get it perfect 🙂
dough mix
Today I started the master recipe for my Artisan bread, its taken from the book Five Minute Bread , the revolutionary new baking method , no bread machine, no kneading.
Basically you mix 4 ingredients, pop it in the fridge,then shape bake and eat !
dough risen
My mixture is now in the fridge waiting for the next stage of shaping and baking tomorrow.
The master recipe is enough to make 4 x 1lb loaves and will keep in the fridge for up to 14 days.
It will be interesting to see the results 🙂
We broke with tradition today and instead of the usual lemon and sugar pancakes, I made American style pancakes.
I made 2 different fillings, blueberry and peanut butter and banana.
They don’t look perfect but smell delicious ….
and now they sit on the kitchen table waiting for Matthew to finish work 🙂
Having cake without all the calories….is achievable if you know the right cakes to bake.
This week I have made a fat free, banana and sultana loaf, which contains 2,363 calories, so cut into 14 slices (66 grams) makes it 169 calories a slice.
Here is the recipe…
1lb of over ripe bananas (about 5)
2 beaten eggs
6oz brown sugar
4oz sultanas
8oz SR flour
mash bananas add eggs sugar and sultanas mix well then stir in flour . place in loaf tin and bake for 1 hour to 1hour 30 at gas mark 4 or 180
My food cupboards are also becoming a calorie counters dream, as I have been labelling all my containers with there calorie content.
All these small things make it quick and easy to see the calories in what I am eating 🙂
All this from someone who was so adamant that she would never count calories!
With it being Valentines this week I had an extra trip up to Cambridge and a most enjoyable extra night with Geoff.
I was treated to a lovely meal at Le Gros Frank followed by a trip to the cinema to see “woman in black”, a very jumpy, enjoyable film 🙂
Then there was the Valentine Surprises……
Needless to say I can hardly wait to book the massage………
Its February which can only mean one thing…. Seville Oranges are here and its marmalade making time.
Geoff has often mentioned how he would like 52 jars of marmalade,as he eats it at a rate of one jar a week
I have never been able to achieve this in past years but after 2 marmalading days I now have made 42 jars of lovely home made marmalade 🙂
I made one batch in Cambridge on a gas hob and another batch here on my electric hob, it was amazing to see how much quicker boiling point was reached on a gas hob !
There is also another batch of oranges in the freezer,so I can make some orange and ginger marmalade at some point in the future, once I gather some cooking apples together.
So I might just get to that magical 52 Jars and have a few spare jars to give away too 🙂
The recipe I use for my marmalade can be found here…
I am loving the Good food web site at the moment, not only are there a huge range of recipes but they all come calorie counted too.
If you have read a previous post about my fitbit you will know why I am counting my calories, and having a huge success from doing it too 🙂
I always like to make an effort at the weekend to make at least one nice meal if not two, so last weekend I tried this one pot mushroom and potato curry.
After a days walking I need a recipe that is quick and easy to make, this certainly fitted the bill and yet again I was not disappointed.
Next time I might try making it with cauliflower instead of aubergine and maybe add some spinach too, just to give it some colour.
A great warming dinner after a days walking in the snow 🙂