All That I'm Eating

Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.

Oat and Raisin Cookies

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Oat and Raisin Cookies close up

I had such a craving for some proper oat and raisin cookies. Ones which are crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle and about the same size as my face. I’ve tried several recipes in the past and they’ve tended to be not quite what I’m after in my perfect cookie. Until now. If you’re after a healthy cookie I wouldn’t read on any further.

ingredients

You will need (for 10 cookies):

  • 225g unsalted butter, softened
  • 200g light brown sugar
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 190g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 240g rolled oats
  • 140g raisins

Method

I made these in a food mixer but you can make them with an electric hand whisk, or by hand if you prefer. read more

Lemon and Coconut Flapjacks

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Lemon and Coconut Flapjacks

When I cut into a lemon I can’t help but give it a good sniff. It’s the same with lime and grapefruit. There’s something about that citrus smell that I just can’t wait to inhale; especially if it’s a drizzly day. I also love tropical flavours at this time of year: coconut, passion fruit, mango, you name it! Combining a bit of citrus and a bit of tropical was the idea here so I set about baking some lemon and coconut flapjacks.

ingredients

You will need (for 12 flapjacks):

  • 125g butter
  • 125g soft brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp golden syrup
  • 225g oats
  • 25g desiccated coconut
  • Zest 1 lemon
  • Juice 1 lemon
  • 4-6 tbsp icing sugar (I used unrefined)

method

Preheat an oven to 180C and grease a baking dish well, the one I used was 20cm x 20cm.

In a small saucepan melt together the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup on a low heat. Stir often to ensure everything gets well combined.

Stir the oats, coconut and lemon zest together in a large bowl.

Once the butter, sugar and syrup have melted pour them into the oats and mix everything together well to ensure that the butter mix has coated everything.

Tip the oats into the baking dish and flatten the top with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the flapjacks from the oven and mark into portions while they are still hot. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes before removing and leaving to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl. Sift in three tbsp icing sugar to start with and see how thick the icing gets. Keep adding more icing sugar until the icing becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Drizzle, splat or dunk the flapjacks in the icing to decorate.

Now when you come to ice the flapjacks don’t be alarmed that the icing dribbles down in between the oats. That tangy lemon hit will settle somewhere inside and be delicious when you come to eat it. By using unrefined icing sugar the icing will come out a pale brown/yellow colour but if you use refined icing sugar it will come out white. I really like using chunky whole oats for flapjacks as I think it gives a great texture and mixed with coconut the overall texture of these is slightly chewy at the edges and soft in the middle. Just how I like them.

Apricot and Coconut Granola

By 13 Comments

apricot and coconut granola

I used to think I didn’t like dried apricots. As it turns out, I do, but only the extra squidgy unsulphured ones. When you bite into them or pull them apart it’s almost like they are full of thick honey and you can see the strands of sticky apricot trying to hold on to the other half. They are the perfect addition to some apricot and coconut granola; a burst of sunny-day flavours for breakfast is how I like to start my day.

ingredients

You will need (for a big jar of finished granola):

  • 350g oats
  • 150g mixed nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, macadamias, walnuts or whatever you like)
  • 75g seeds (poppy, linseed, sesame or whatever you like)
  • 75g desiccated coconut
  • 125g dried apricots, chopped
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 120ml honey or maple syrup

method

In a large bowl mix together the oats, nuts, seeds and desiccated coconut.

Preheat an oven to 150C and line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Add the honey (or maple syrup) and coconut oil to a small pan and heat gently until the coconut oil has melted. Stir everything together to make sure it’s well combined.

Pour the honey and coconut mixture over the granola ingredients and mix everything together really well with a large spoon.

Tip the granola onto the lined baking trays and spread the mix out over the tray so you have one even layer.

Put the trays into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until it’s smelling toasty. Remove the trays from the oven, mix everything together well and then put back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes so that everything gets evenly toasted. Be careful not to let anything catch but do leave it in long enough for everything to be a lovely golden colour.

Remove the trays from the oven and leave to cool. Add the chopped apricot to the granola mix then tip into an airtight container.

This amount of granola will last two of us at least a fortnight having a generous serving with yoghurt.

I love how dark the apricots are amongst all the other ingredients. You can of course use the orange dried apricots, or any other dried fruit that you like to make it your own. The combination of apricot and coconut together I really like and I think I’d add some coconut flakes next time for more texture. I like to serve my homemade granola over yoghurt and my OH likes to add some to other cereal and make both go a little further.

Banana Bread with Chocolate, Oats and Honey

By 10 Comments

banana bread with chocolate, oats and honey

You know those bananas that you keep avoiding in the fruit bowl? The ones which got a bit speckled a few days ago and now are fully fledged brown? Well, throw out your normal go-to recipe because my banana bread with chocolate, oats and honey is the way to go. Adding a few extra ingredients gives it a delicious flavour and texture and I have been very much enjoying having a slice for breakfast each morning. Any excuse to start the day with chocolate.

ingredients

You will need (for one banana bread loaf):

  • 125g butter
  • 3 medium overripe bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g honey
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 250g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 75g oats, plus a few extra
  • 100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

method

Grease and line a loaf tin and preheat the oven to 160C.

Melt the butter and honey together in a small saucepan and stir to ensure they are well combined.

Mash the bananas in a large bowl then pour in the butter and honey and crack in the eggs. Whisk everything together well.

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into the banana mix and fold everything in gently. Stir in the oats and most of the chocolate chunks.

Pour the mix into the prepared tin and then sprinkle the extra oats and leftover chocolate over the top.

Bake for an hour, then check on the loaf to see if a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. If not, keep baking and checking it every 5-10 minutes until fully baked.

Leave the loaf to cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing and leaving to cool on a wire rack.

The oats on top of the banana bread have a lovely toasted flavour and the oats inside the bread swell up and have a deliciously chewy texture. Who can resist a slice of warm banana bread? It’s even harder to resist when you know it’s covered in and is full of melted chocolate. Dark chocolate is definitely the best choice for this as it works so well with the sweetness from the bananas, sugar and honey. The honey gives the cake a beautiful mellow flavour and slight sticky texture. If your banana bread lasts a few days and you want to freshen it up, try lightly grilling or microwaving it and serving with plain yoghurt. Honestly one of the best breakfasts imaginable.

Chocolate Rolled Oat Biscuits

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Chocolate Rolled Oat Biscuits

Part biscuit and part flapjack, these Chocolate Rolled Oat Biscuits are a doddle to make. All mixed in one bowl and baked in one dish; minimum fuss and washing up, maximum baking satisfaction. I like that these biscuits aren’t too sweet and the generous amount of oats used means they are really filling. I’m not sure if they are technically a flapjack or a biscuit though; the lack of honey or golden syrup isn’t very flapjack-y but then the oaty flavour is so familiar it’s hard to believe it’s not a flapjack! I am sticking with calling them a biscuit on account of the crunch.

Ingredients

You will need (for 14-16 biscuits):

  • 300g rolled oats
  • 200g margarine (you could use butter if you prefer, I happened to have margarine in the fridge)
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved

Method

Beat the sugar and margarine together well so the mixture becomes smooth.

Add the oats and cocoa powder to the margarine and ensure everything is well mixed together.

Preheat an oven to 150C. Grease a baking tin, ideally one that’s 20 x 25cm.

Press the mixture into the greased tin, making the top as even as possible, then bake for 30-40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and mark into portions while still hot.

Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

If you eat them while they are still a little warm they do have a little bit of flapjack gooeyness; wait until they have cooled and they are a fantastically crunchy biscuit. I would add some dark chocolate chips or maybe some crushed hazelnuts or raisins next time to add something a little extra. I think they’d also be delicious dipped into some melted chocolate, it would finish them off perfectly. Just the thing with a hot cup of coffee and a good book.

Granny’s Oat Biscuits

By 18 Comments

Granny's Oat Biscuits - pile

When I was young I baked with my Granny at any opportunity. She’s got mad cooking skills and will beat anything together that looks like it’s not going to work, portion up a raw chicken to freeze in the blink of an eye and somehow manages to produce amazing food from seemingly nothing. Safe to say, she knows what she’s doing. However, we made these biscuits once together and, thanks to a timely phone call from my Mum, somehow both forgot to add any sugar to the dough. We made some very successful crackers but it wasn’t quite what we were aiming for. Almost 20 years later I thought it was probably time to give Granny’s Oat Biscuits another try.

Ingredients

You will need (for 16-20 biscuits):

  • 125g margarine
  • 80g sugar
  • 80g oats
  • 175g plain flour
  • Pinch salt

Method

Start by putting your oats into a food blender and blending them to a coarse powder; a few big bits are fine.

Beat the margarine and sugar together then mix in the flour, oats and salt. Mix everything together with all the strength you have in your upper arms. It will look like a bowl of lumpy powder but keep on mixing and you’ll get a dough.

Preheat an oven to 150C and line two trays with baking paper.

Roll the dough out until it’s 3-5mm thick then cut out with a biscuit cutter. Re-roll and cut until you run out of dough.

Pop all the biscuits onto the prepared trays and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven then take off the trays and leave to cool on a cooling rack before storing in an airtight container.

Success! All the ingredients were added in this time; Granny was very relieved to hear this news. I planned on taking some round for her to try but we accidentally ate them all. There’s something that the blended oats give to the biscuits that make them extra tasty; I’m not sure if it’s the nutty flavour or extra crunchy texture. I think these biscuits are great on their own; a celebration of simplicity and something that can be made and baked in under 30 minutes. However, if you wanted to go a bit fancy-pants you could add a little orange zest to the dough or maybe dip the biscuits in chocolate once they’ve cooled down. Delicious additions and something I think I’ll be trying with my next batch. Which hopefully some of, will reach my Grandparents.

Homemade Easy Granola

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Easy Homemade Granola on tray

Why bother making your own granola? I mean, the stuff that comes in a nice box all full of stuff can’t really be that different and making your own sounds like such a hassle right? Nope. As it turns out making your own is not only ridiculously easy but it’s so much tastier than anything I’ve tried pre-bought. I find the readymade ones are far too sweet and you spend every morning searching for the elusive hazelnuts you’re pretty sure are meant to be in there. With my homemade easy granola you make up your mind and decide exactly what goes in your breakfast.

The best thing about this recipe is that you don’t need to be very exact; a few grams over or under aren’t going to make any real difference and it’s so versatile you can add whatever you want, just stick to the proportions below.

You will need (makes a big jar):

  • 350g oats
  • 200g nuts (I used pistachios, walnuts and hazelnuts)
  • 100g seeds (I used a five seed mix)
  • 50g coconut flakes or desiccated coconut
  • 100g dried fruit (I used dried cranberries)
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 120ml honey or maple syrup

Mix together the oats, nuts, seeds and coconut in a large bowl.

Melt the coconut oil and honey together in a saucepan until combined.

Pour the honey mixture over the dry ingredients and mix everything together with a spoon.

Preheat an oven to 150C. Line two baking trays (or one very large one) with greaseproof paper and pour the mixture onto the trays. Spread the mix out so it’s in roughly one layer then pop into the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, take the granola out and turn the mixture over with a spoon so it gets evenly toasted. Return the tray to the oven for a further 15 minutes. You want everything to be nice and golden but not overcooked so it might need a little more or less than 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Mix the dried fruit in to the granola and store in an airtight container.

If you wanted to you could add some cinnamon to the honey mixture to give everything a lovely spiciness and if you want to leave the coconut out you can add some dark chocolate or cocoa nibs when you mix through the dried fruit. Raisins or dried blueberries are really good; as is a mix of brazil, pecan and macadamia nuts. The possibilities are literally endless.

You can also add a handful of cornflakes or rice crispies if you wanted to bulk the mix out a bit and make it go further; depends how much you like to put in your bowl and how often you want to make it!

One word of warning: once you make a step into the world of homemade granola, you’ll never go back. It’s not something I ever thought I’d get in to but here I am: a bonefide, breakfast pre-planning, granola maniac. I love that I can just pick up whatever I have in the cupboard, chuck it all together and ta-dah, breakfast for the week! It’s really good with natural yoghurt, I have also tried pouring apple juice over it rather than milk and that’s pretty fine too.

Dried Blueberry and Almond Cereal Bars

By 19 Comments

You know when you buy an ingredient to make something and the remainder of it sits in the cupboard waiting to be used? I had a bit of this going on with oats, flaked almonds, seeds, maple syrup and dried blueberries. To use them (or as many of them as I could) up I made some lovely crumbly cereal bars. I wanted to keep the butter to a minimum to try and keep them a little on the healthy side. read more

Cardamom infused Porridge with Raspberries

By 20 Comments

A weekend breakfast is a completely different thing to a weekday breakfast. I don’t know about you but my weekday breakfasts consist of shovelling yoghurt (if I’m lucky I’ve added some fruit or nuts) into my mouth while running around trying to get ready being very careful not to spill anything on myself. It’s not what you would call relaxing. A weekend breakfast is a whole new affair; the possibilities are endless. Pancakes, pastries, fruit, tea, coffee, juice, a full English, toast and jam and many others are all contenders but can sometimes involve a need to purchase these items in advance. This cardamom infused porridge is for one of those mornings where you feel like something luxurious but only have basic ingredients. read more

Damson and Apple Crumble

By 15 Comments

baked damson and apple crumble
Crumble is the food I turn to when the evenings start getting darker and it starts getting cooler. Especially this damson and apple crumble. The way the sweet, slightly tart fruit of choice bubbles and seeps through the crunchy, crumbly, biscuity top is a sure fire way to warm you from inside to out. What I love about crumble is that it’s so versatile; the fruit is whatever fruit you can get your hands on.  I think that a person’s crumble is as unique as their fingerprint. Some crumbles are like a great wave of shortbread on top of the fruit, some are all big and little bits scattered willy nilly all over the place, some add extra sugar on the top, some add nuts and some add oats. Whatever your crumble style, it’s your own.    Recently I bought some damson jam out of politeness at a local market. I don’t even like jam. When I got home I wondered what on earth I was going to do with it. I got some crusty white bread, some soft unsalted butter and a dollop of the damson jam and it was a revelation. I’m ashamed to say that the loaf and jar were consumed in one sitting. What have I been missing out on all these years? It turns out I do like jam but was left wondering where damsons had been all my life.  When I noticed some lovely damsons outside my local greengrocer I just had to have them – I’d run out of jam for one thing. They were crying out to be made into a crumble. As I didn’t have that many of them I added an apple to make it go a bit further and add a little sweetness. This damson and apple crumble was absolutely fantastic. The damsons add such richness and gorgeous colour, the apple is just detectable in the background giving it a lovely homely feel. This crumble had extra caramelised bits on the edges of the dish and peeling them off and chewing them has to be one of the most enjoyable things there is. If you’ve not had damsons before or are unsure how to deal with them then I urge you to give this a try. Crumble is such a tried and tested favourite, how could it go wrong?

Top Tips

Just like the crumbliness of your crumble is rather personal, so is what you choose to serve the crumble with. Cream, custard or ice cream? If you go for cream is it single, double, Gold Top or clotted? If custard, ready made or home made? If ice cream should it be vanilla with or without vanilla seeds or should it be clotted cream ice cream? It’s all very complicated and someone will always be upset no matter which you choose. I always opt for cream because I can stir it all together in the bowl and pretend I’m 8 years old again.  read more

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