I wrote this on Sunday evening complaining how fast the weekend had gone.  Somehow it’s now Tuesday evening and I swear it was Saturday morning five minutes ago.  That’s how life feels at the moment, like a whirlwind.  My husband and I constantly complain that we don’t have enough time to get things done.  Sure we do relax and enjoy our weekends but all those little jobs that we mean to sort out seem to constantly be pushed to one side.  Among other things I have photos to edit, folders to organise on my hard drive (and I’m a Media Manager in my day job), but I can’t seem to find the time to manage my own Media.  There are pictures waiting to be hung up around our home, books to put away and don’t even get me started on the paperwork!

No matter how busy I am there is always time for breakfast.  I’ve mentioned just a few times how much I love porridge.  Well I don’t need to say it again...except I just did.  I thought I’d share with you the stuff we put on our regular Monday to Friday breakfast to give us the energy to avoid doing our chores.  I believe in breakfast and the importance of packing in as much nutrition as possible.  I am not by any means a qualified nutritionist, my only knowledge comes from the research I’ve done myself.  This is just what I think is good and healthy to eat.  We sit down at 5.45am (yes, I know) and enjoy the quiet of the early morning.  There may be birds singing in the dawn but we are far too focused on consuming our porridge to notice such goings on.

I make my porridge with gluten free oats and rice milk.

Bee Pollen: considered a super food, it is high in protein and amino acids.  Read more about Bee Pollen here.

Ground Flaxseeds, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts and Q10: for Omega 3,6 and 9, Selenium and Magnesium.  I buy this mix.

Chia Seeds: These little seeds, loved by the Aztecs, provide a power house of nutrients including Omega 3, fibre and complete protein.  More reading on chia seeds here and here.

Dried Cherries: Just because I love them.  But they are pretty healthy too.

Honey or Maple Syrup: for a little sweetness.

 

Roasted Grape Gluten Free Pizza.

It’s my belief that roasting fruit is the stuff of genius.  It never ceases to amaze me how a humble piece of fruit can be transformed in the oven.  Take the grape for example.  I’ve never really been a fan.  They’re fine, but not really on my radar on a day to day basis.  I can never help but associate them with something you bring a sick person in hospital.  Roast them in the oven however and you have sweet and caramelised deliciousness.  When I happened upon this post from How Sweet It Is I was instantly inspired to roast some grapes and I knew I wanted them on pizza.



I used my old favourite gluten free flat bread recipe originally adapted from BBC Good Food.  Simply add the roasted grapes to the flat breads once they are cooked and finish off under the grill topped with hard goat cheese.  The sweet grapes paired with the tangy goat cheese were a match made in heaven.

 

To roast the grapes simply wash, cut in half and lay on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and roast at Gas Mark 7, 220°C, 425°F for about 20 minutes until the grapes are caramelised and beginning to burst.

 

 

Blueberry Almond Cake



I’m unintentionally stereotyping here but it is generally assumed that you could turn up at many a house in this country and expect to find the necessary elements for making a cup of tea within.  I’m talking the basics here, tea bags, milk and sugar of some description.  So when we had a gas man here the other day fixing our boiler we realised that we had none of the above.  He ended up being handed an instant black coffee from a jar so old my husband had to dig the granules out.  We were impressed he drank it all.  The reason we don’t have the basics to make visitor a nice cuppa?  Over the years for one reason or another we’ve cut out cow’s milk, we’ve both cut down on caffeine and I tend to buy healthy sugars for baking.  We can do herbal teas, we can do fresh black coffee.  We just lack tea, milk and sugar...  So if you come for tea give us some notice and if you time it right, there is sometimes cake.

A few weeks ago I made this almond cake shared by Kathryn of London Bakes via My Darling Lemon Thyme.  I love that the cake uses extra virgin olive oil and is made entirely from ground almonds.  Not having a mixer I feel I failed miserably at whipping the eggs until light and fluffy as instructed but the cake still turned out great.  My cake is quite a bit darker, perhaps because I used coconut palm sugar which was the only sugar I had (you see my point).  I threw in some frozen blueberries which I thawed a bit first. The result was a lovely moist cake, dense but with a nice crunch on top from the almonds.

Find the recipe here.