recipe – Flo's Debt Free Diary

Apricot, Almond and Pecan Granola (3 Step Granola)

I am ill with a cold, but luckily haven’t had any time off work ill since the end of February. I’ll take small victories where I can.

I generally have stomach issues, colds I get about once a year, so hopefully this is all I will have to put up with in 2018.

I have had trouble sleeping because The Boy has been away on a stag do and as soppy and as silly as it sounds I can’t get to sleep easily without him there. And being ill with a cold always gives me insomnia, so when I woke up at 4:50am this morning I knew attempting to get back to sleep would be futile, so I got up, watched some of the Commonwealth Games, and made Granola.

INGREDIENTS

350g Oats

70g Flaked Almonds

70g Pecans, chopped into small pieces

2 tsp Cinnamon

140g Dried Apricots, chopped into small pieces

250ml Honey

60ml Rapeseed Oil

METHOD

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and then add the honey and oil.

Mix together and spread out across two baking trays as thinly as you can.

Bake in an oven at Gas Mark 4 for about 30 minutes, mixing half way through (I also like to swap the trays around the shelves)

I think this is my best granola recipe yet.

Gooey Date Bars

This is my interpretation of a recipe I came across on the Money Saving Expert site.

I intend for these to be a post gym snack.

MAKES 16 SQUARES

INGREDIENTS

20cm x 20cm Baking Tin

250ml Water

200g Dates

180g Plain Flour

1/2 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

180g Soft Brown Sugar

200g Porridge Oats

180g Butter

METHOD

Cook the dates in the water over a low heat until the water is evaporated and you have soft, sticky dates.

Add all the other dried ingredients (sifted) into a large mixing bowl and then add the butter and mix together (it will be quick sticky/wet).

Add the date mix and combine well.

Press down the mixture into the lined tin and then bake in the oven for around about 50 minutes on Gas Mark 5, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool and then cut into 16 squares.

These are so good that when I had one I went to The Boy and said ‘I feel sorry for you not liking dates, as these are great!’

Store Cupboard Granola (Batch Cooking)

This was inspired by a recipe in Eat Smart by Niomi Smart, which I currently have out on loan from the Library.

This recipe relegated from my cupboards my seeds, walnuts and cranberries which has freed up a lot of space.

INGREDIENTS

60ml Coconut Oil

125ml Agave Nectar

200g Porridge Oats

260g of mixed nuts, I used walnuts and pecans

60g Mixed Seeds (or seeds of your choice)

120g Dried Fruit, I used Cranberries and Prunes

METHOD

Heat the oil and agave nectar together until melted, then set aside.

Add the nuts to a food processor and pulse until you have ‘chopped’ them into a mix of sizes.

Add the oats, nuts and seeds to a bowl and then pour over the oil/nectar mix, mix together.

Baked in the oven on Gas Mark 3 for 40 minutes/until golden and toasted.

Add the dried fruit and mix together.

Look at your depleted cupboards, smile and think ‘I need to go shopping’.

Batch Cooking My Work Lunches: Red Lentil and Coconut Soup

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to batch cook.

(Ok, that is not strictly true, I made 2 portions of a swede, cabbage, onion, carrot and pea soup earlier this week, but for various reasons it smelt and tasted bad, we all make mistakes).

I have decided to use up what I have in my cupboards, perhaps inspired by being stuck at home due to the snow, and I decided to tackle a bag of lentils I bought in 2017. Probably mid 2017.

I had a quick look on BBC Good Food for ideas and made this.

Note: I have divided it into 4 potions, but I think it would have been better as 3, but maybe I am greedy (I am greedy).

INGREDIENTS

150g Red Split Lentils

1 Tbsp Chopped Ginger (I used frozen)

2 Gloves Garlic (I used 2 tsp of lazy garlic)

1 lovely sized tsp of Turmeric (There ain’t no party like a Turmeric party)

1.2l Vegetable Stock.

1/2 Onion, or 2 handfuls of Frozen Onion

3 ‘clumps’ (technical term, obviously) of Frozen Spinach

400ml Can of Light Coconut Milk

METHOD

Add the lentils, turmeric, ginger and garlic to a large pan and then add the stock.

Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils are soft.

Add the coconut milk, mix and then add the frozen vegetables and simmer until cooked.

Lean over the saucepan and smell your delicious soup.

When The Boy suggests you assign your coloured soup mugs to certain days of the week – e.g. Red = Monday, scoff at him, but actually think it’s a good idea.

(What colour would you guys assign to each day?)

(I would have Red = Monday, Pink = Tuesday, Green = Wednesday and Blue = Thursday)

(They only had 4 colours in the shop, poor Friday).

Snow Day Rolls

In South Wales on Thursday and Friday there were Red Level Weather Warnings due to the snow.

On Saturday we were running low on supplies. Well, we had plenty of ‘freezer bread’ but The Boy for some reason detests the freezer bread, he also turned his nose up at my dried milk powder, so we had to venture to the shops.

This was what greeted us in the bread aisle.

So I made the bread rolls from the River Cottage Veg Everyday book, and I felt like I could survive anything.

The Boy liked that the house smelt of bread.

INGREDIENTS

250g Strong/Bread Flour

250g Plain Flour

1.5 Tsp of Sea Salt/Best quality salt you have

1 x 7g Sachet of Dried Fast Active Yeast

325ml Warm Water

METHOD

Measure out the flours with the salt and yeast into a bowl.

Add the water and mix to a dough.

Knead for 10 minutes until it is slightly sticky and smooth.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place for 1-2 hours until doubled in size. (I placed it in a recently used but coolish oven).

Knock out the air and then divide into 8 roughly equal round shapes.

Place on a baking tray in a warm place (uncovered) until they have risen.

Cook in an oven at gas mark 5 for about 30 minutes.

Eat one of them immediately with butter to ‘test it’ (That is why there are 7 rolls in the photo when the recipe said 8)

Flo’s Gra-Yes-La*

*The title is my idea of humour, sorry.

I saw a lovely recipe for Granola in Gizzi Erskine’s ‘Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts’ which I have taken out of the library. The main appeal of the recipe was that it used dried apple and I had most of a bag of them left and they ‘technically’ expired…in November. So it was probably about time to use them up.

I didn’t have all the ingredients that Gizzi used, so this is my version, but I did use her cooking method, so give a clap to Miss Erskine.

If you have never heard of Gizzi Erskine, then do check her out, she has fab recipes, presented good shows on healthy eating and she responded to me on Twitter years ago, so she is nice as well.

FLO’S GRA-YES-LA

INGREDIENTS

150g Dried Apple, cut into small pieces

200g Porridge Oats

75g Pecans, cut into small pieces

100ml Honey

30ml Rapeseed Oil

1 tsp Vanilla Extract/vanilla bean paste

50g Mixed Seeds

25g Milled Flaxseed

1 tsp Cinnamon

METHOD

Add the cinnamon, oil, honey and vanilla extract to a bowl and slightly mix.

Add all the dried ingredients APART FROM the dried apple, and mix together.

Spread the Granola mix out across two baking trays, thinly.

Cook for 20 mins at Gas Mark 2 then add the dried apple and cook for a further 10 minutes.

TOP TIP – STERILISING JARS

Something as pretty as this shouldn’t be stored away in a tupperware, but I generally don’t use Kilner jars anymore, but wanted to for this.

I pulled the kilner jars down from the top of the cupboard where they had been for many a yonks and whilst you should always sterilise your jars, I knew it would be extra important now.

I washed the glass jars in very hot, soapy water. Then I rinsed them, placed all three in a roasting tray and when I took the granola out to cool from the oven I placed the jars in (so they were in at Gas Mark 2).

Leave inside the oven for about 20 minutes, then take out and leave to cool.

Fill with your lovely granola.

Life Hack: Easy Peasy Omelette

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe, and this isn’t really a recipe as such, and it will probably turn out everyone knows how to do it, but it is at the least food related.

I am a bit crap at making Omelettes, and sometimes I will go to the effort, but at the weekends I like to spend my time catching up on the TV I have missed during the week and can forget to eat as I normally am drinking oceans of coffee.

This is how I can have something fluffy and tasty within 3 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

A teaspoon of butter

2 eggs, beaten

15g grated cheese

2 slices of toasted bread (optional)

METHOD

Get out a measuring jug and place the butter in. Microwave briefly to melt (don’t burn)

Mix the eggs with the cheese and add to the jug.

Microwave for 1 minute, then give a mix.

Microwave for another minute.

Tip out on to the toast and enjoy!

Leftover Christmas Muffins

I had a sad looking apple in the fruit bowl and a jar of mincemeat from Christmas.

I made these.

INGREDIENTS

400g Jar of Mincemeat

250g Self Raising Flour

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder

1 giant apple/2 medium apples, diced

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

50g sugar

1 egg, beaten

Butter/Oil

METHOD

Sieve the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl

Cook the diced apple in the butter with the cinnamon in a pan, add the mincemeat and cook till slightly thickened.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and add the egg. Combine.

Grease a 12 hole muffin tray with a little oil and divide the mixture.

Cook for 30 minutes at gas mark 4 or until a skewer comes out clean.

Festive Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I decided to make some shortbread as it is Christmas and I wanted to use my lovely Christmas cookie cutters.

You might not believe me but I actually used white chocolate chips, they do look like milk chocolate in the photo though.

Also you can’t see it but one of the shortbread cut using my snowman cutter got a bit elongated and bent and looked very phallic.

INGREDIENTS

125g Caster Sugar

250g Butter

125g Cornflour

250g Plain Flour

100g Chocolate Chips

METHOD

Cream the butter and sugar.

Sieve the flours into the mix and blend to form a dough.

Roll out into traditional shortbread formation or use biscuit cutters to make shapes.

Bake for 20 minutes at Gas Mark 5.

Give to the boy to take into work as you don’t want to get too fat before Christmas.

Cheapskate Puttanesca

Hi everyone,

In a bid to use up my stores I discovered a tin of plum tomatoes that expired in September. Knowing that I have the house to myself tonight I decided to make a puttanesca sauce, but wanted to do it on the cheap.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t usually look for reasons to not eat anchovies and capers, but after introducing sardines to my diet back in the summer (when I realised how cheap they are) I noticed they had an extremely similar taste to anchovies, but are generally half the price.

Next time you make a puttanesca sauce, why not give sardines a go? A tin is 33p in Lidl (I am now obsessed with Lidl).