Pancakes for breakfast!

Hello!

If you read my last post you will know that I really enjoyed Valentine's Day this year!  Basically I spent a lot of time just doing things that I enjoy.  This didn't include the usual laying about and watching TV/ getting lost down the rabbit hole otherwise known as the internet.  No this time we were very productive but mostly just getting out and about doing things that we enjoyed.  It was like taking a little holiday in our home town.
Somehow pancake day falling on the following Tuesday felt like it was prolonging this proactive-ness in that if forced me to get out of bed in the morning and get cooking!  Normally I laze around in bed pressing the snooze button for at least half an hour (terrible I know but I set my alarm earlier than I need to because I know I'll probably end up doing this).  I'd never have the time to do any cooking in the morning before work after all that snoozing.  On Tuesday I was actually a little excited to get up and treat my fiancé to some pancakes for breakfast.

I decided to go for American style pancakes because they're my favourite.  I was a bit selfish as my fiancé prefers the crepe style pancake, but seeing as I was the one doing all the work.....
I used the same recipe I always do, the American Blueberry pancake recipe which I found on the BBC good food website.  It makes a lovely fluffy batch of pancakes though sadly I didn't have any blueberries to add in this time.  It's good that I got up as early as I did because it does take a bit of time to cook them all up if you're making four at a time like I was.

We ate them with golden syrup and they were delicious!  The recipe made far too many pancakes for just the two of us so I was able to store some in the fridge and have them for breakfast the next day.
It made a lovely change for breakfast to throwing things in the blender and whipping up a quick smoothie (or just dipping some biscuits in tea when I can't even be bothered with that!).  I think changing your routine around a bit like this can really make a difference to how you feel.  Now that I've done a bit of baking I want to get in to the habit of it again.  Next on the list of things I want to bake is some scones!   I just need to purchase a cutter first.

Did you enjoy whipping up some pancakes for Pancake Day?

till next time :)

Twirlybirdie

Sundays are for Baking

Hello!  Did you have a good Sunday?

It was a really lovely day here.  We went to some shops out of town to try to get some things for our kitchen.  I had so many things to carry home though that I wisely didn't take my camera there with me.  The morning and evening I spent baking!

I had been waiting all week to make these biscuits which I've made a couple of times before.  They feel slightly healthier than normal cookies because of the oats (though I'm sure the butter and sugar more than make up for them!).  Either way they're delicious.

You can find the recipe here at the BBC Good Food website.  Hurry as the recipe is only going to be up until September 30th!

Before baking....

...and after!  They only take 10 minutes in the oven.  Quick to make and quickly gone in to my stomach too!

In the evening I decided that I wanted to use up the ripe bananas we had in our kitchen so I found a quick and easy recipe for banana bread!

 I bought a new loaf tin specially for it.  It worked really well!  It was one of those fancy new rubber variates.  I was impressed with it, it was really easy to use.

It is another good food recipe, this one here. 

I love the good food website, there are so many recipes up there!  I cooked the banana bread a little bit longer than stated in the recipe as I read the comments below the recipe and that's what most of them said to do.  The smell whilst it was cooking was delicious!  It tasted yummy too.

So it was quite a productive Sunday.  I hope my Monday will be equally as productive though I feel like I need to recover from eating too many biscuits and cakes!  Is Sunday a good baking day for you too?

I need to pop out to the shops now, I really want to go and find a blender so I can make my own smoothies.

till next time

Twirlybirdie :)

Sweet Potato and Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Tonight I made this!  It's absolutely delicious.  I found the recipe here on BBC Good Food website.

My cooking in process!

I've made it before in the vegetarian version that the website has it up as.  I'm not a vegetarian although I don't like to eat a lot of meat so tonight I made it with 200 g pork and 250 g lentils.  It was really delicious both with and without meet.  I would read the comments though as some people found the filling too runny.  I don't have a lid for my wok dish though so boiling it uncovered the whole time seemed to thicken up the filling just fine!

My sister doesn't like this as she found it too sweet.  My boyfriend and I love it though so if you like sweet potato you should give it a go!

BBC Good Food Website

My finished version!