banana muesli loaf cake

Yet another recipe - Though I seem to be getting more writing done in the last few days my head is full of recipes and ideas for food. I have a week at home alone with the kids and I am determined not to reach for a single pouch of the ready made baby food... it's day two so we'll see how we get on. I've just been blitzing whatever me and the older one have with a stick blender for a few seconds for baby River, and it's going down a treat.
We have a glut of ripe bananas today, and I can't stand waste, so it's banana loaf time :) this recipe uses up three, and adds a load of yummy nuts and seeds and fibre goodness too. Hopefully should outweigh the sugar and butter, and make a nice treat for after school too. Makes two small loaves or one large, or twelve muffins if you prefer.

3 bananas, as brown and ripe as you like.
2 tbsp date syrup (but honey will do)
200g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
150g salted butter, soft
200g light brown sugar
2 eggs
200g fruit and nut muesli (or a random mix of oats, nuts, dried fruit, coconut, sunflower seeds, linseeds, anything really)

Your oven should be preheated to 180 degrees C, grease your tins, and then roughly mash the bananas with the date syrup in one bowl. In another sift the flour, baking powder and nutmeg together, and add this to the bananas. In the bowl you used to sift the flour, cream the butter and sugar together till it's creamy, then add the two eggs, whisking with each addition. Add the bananas and flour to the egg and sugar mix, and combine in the muesli. Fold the mixture into your tins, and bake for around 50-60 mins, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool completely, this cake improves over a couple of days so is perfect for keeping in the cake tin. Goes beautifully with a dollop of creme fraiche too.

sneaky healthy pancakes with maple bananas

I thought it was probably about time I posted a recipe, since I purport to be a food writer. Oh, and I just figured out how to get photos onto the blog :). 

My middle daughter once described everyone in our house - Mattie is good at drawing and science, Simon is good at thinking and playing games, Harry is good at saying 'is there wifi?' and baby river is good at pooping, and mummy is good at healthy stuff. Not fun, playing games, or braiding hair. No. I get 'healthy stuff'. I don't think she meant it as a bad thing though. My obsession with healthy food (punctuated with the odd chocolate bar and take away, and liberally sprinkled with red wine, I might add) has led my middle child to loving some pretty unusual stuff for a six year old. So when I ask her if she wants a treat, she might say 'crackers and blue cheese', or 'sardine and lentil stew' (I know - thats a weird one even for us) or she most often says "healthy pancakes mummy". In fact when asked what my signature dish was by colleagues, my husband named these pancakes too. Not great for an aspiring cook, but they are pretty good. Perfect for lazy sunday mornings with the papers and everyone in their pyjamas till lunchtime. The picture below is of the cheats version I make sometimes midweek, if we have stale white bread left over.

Pancakes with maple bananas

Choose a large-ish mug, and fill it to the brim with self raising flour, and chuck this in a bowl, add two eggs and mix with a whisk. Pour whole milk/almond milk to the brim of the same mug and slowly add this to the mix while stirring. Then add one grated apple/carrot/pear/beetroot - if you're feeling its a purple sort of day.. add a tablespoon of chia seeds and linseeds, or any other seeds you fancy, or grated coconut, some almond butter, mashed banana... the options are pretty much endless. The 'healthy' bit of these pancakes is in what you can disguise within them to make children eat what would otherwise seem too worthy. Once the mix is well combined, heat a little butter in a frying pan and dollop the mixture in. These pancakes are similar to drop scones in that they get quite fluffy and rise, not like the wafer thin crepes. While these are cooking, or once you have cooked most of them off, thickly slice a couple of bananas and fry these around the edge of the pan. They will caramelise quite quickly so keep an eye on them.

Once everything is cooked drizzle with maple syrup, et voila! 

Chia eggy bread

As above, but without the faff of making batter: whisk a couple of eggs (or just egg whites if you're being super diety) add a tablespoon of chia seeds, dip the slices of stale bread in for a few minutes, then cook as above. 

What Beowulf might have eaten (or not)

The sun has been shining for days now, and it is almost as if summer is creeping up around the corner. Except it's April, and I know, even though I would rather I didn't, that there will probably be snow next week. So we have spent lots of time on our rather diminutive patch of outside space, planting seeds in all sorts of unsuitable containers, and sowing wild flower seeds literally everywhere.  So the blog, and writing in general, took a back bench position for a wee while. That was, until we went on a little family outing to Birmingham yesterday, and visited the Staffordshire hoard. The largest Anglo Saxon gold and silver metal work hoard ever found, over 3500 pieces, all beautifully wrought, detailed pieces of weaponry and spoils of war, dug up out of a ploughed field in 2009. Interestingly, all of it is for fighting, in some form or another. Not one of the tiny fragments of gold or silver were for decoration or 'female uses'. And lots of swords. Many many different bits of swords, and daggers and scabbards and accoutrements. There was one particular detail that I found really enchanting. They found lots of these small, pyramid shaped buttons, in pairs, richly decorated and apparently attached to scabbards. It is now believed that these were probably tied to leather cords, which were strung around a scabbard which then tied around the dagger or sword within it, and tied. They were maybe (because we don't know for certain) known as peace cords - because they prevented a sword from being drawn in haste or anger. You had to untie it first, which gave you time to think. What a beautiful, poetic, poignant thing.
So beautiful, so enticing, and yet all instruments of war. It got me completely fired up over Beowulf, about Beawa's story and where she might lead. I think she would struggle to untie her dagger when she was cross.  I think it might save her from herself once or twice too.
When we got home we were so inspired we had what we imagined to be what the Saxons might have had for tea too (with a little poetic licence). Insanely good bread from The Bread Collection in Knowle in Birmingham - a crusty rye flecked loaf full of nuts and raisins and a delicious wood charred crust... mmmmmmm...... sorry. Yes, that, with good yellow butter, stinky melting blue cheese, a pile of walnuts, a  wedge of ham and some ripe little tomatoes (I told you there was poetic licence) with a really cheap bottle of rioja (again, sorry). So good.
So this is it. I am stating this here so that there's no turning back. Beawa's story is shouting to be told, and now is the time. I cant keep her quiet any longer, no matter how much rioja I drink. Watch this space. (Oh, and there'll be some recipes soon too)