January is typically the time of year where you make heaps of resolutions. But now we are into February, how many have you kept?
Like most people I wanted to start to eat healthier and work out more. At both of these I failed miserably.
No salads eaten…
Back in May 2010 I made wholewheat hot cross buns and I got a pretty good reception on them.
It’s not exactly the right time of year for Hot Cross Buns but I gave them another go, but then breads and sultanas never really go out of season!
So how can I claim these are healthier than my wholewheat 2010 buns? Well this time I substituted coconut oil for butter, low fat coconut milk for milk and Light At Heart sugar for, uhm, sugar.
I guess I should be up front about it – I was given Light At Heart sugar for free by Tate and Lyle, however I had been hearing about stevia based products for years and been dying to try them. Unfortunately until December 2011 they weren’t allowed to be sold in Europe! The good thing about Stevia based sugar is that it’s half the calories of normal sugar but it’s all natural. (i.e. Not weird Splenda type stuff that was invented in a lab).
For some reason calzone seems so different from a normal pizza, it’s a nice change when you get bored. I kept this recipe simple by using a bread mix instead of measuring the flour and yeast out myself.
You can choose which ever fillings you like for this recipe – but I have to say I love the way the kale cooks up in this dish – delicious! And how can you ever go wrong with bacon?
I thought I would try putting together a slideshow of the steps for this recipe, I’d really appreciate it if you check it out and give me some feedback!
For the best affect select the “Show Info” button on the top middle-right of the screen during playback.
In terms of food blogging this year has been a bit of a wipe out, I dropped Daring Bakers, Daring Cooks, making my own bread, ice cream and french macarons. I stuck to simple dishes when I blogged at all, that were either left for hours to slow cook, or were ready in a matter of minutes.
While this was necessity – you can’t plan a wedding while still working a 40 hour week and have time to keep up with the making, photography and posting cycle.
In 2012 I want to get back into pushing the boundaries a little. As much as Daring Bakers and Cooks was really great at pushing you to try new things, I did spend an inordinate amount of time pushing myself to make things that I would never have eaten if I had the choice. Like those marshmallow disaster cookies. I cried over those, tears of anger and disappointment.
While I am not sure I necessarily want to go through anything like that again – you don’t learn if you don’t push the boundaries. Learning new recipes is all very well and good, but really what you need to learn is new frameworks. Ideas that catapult you out of your everyday dishes, like learning to make bread – once you have the technique millions of new recipes are open to you.
Last Christmas I asked for a copy of Ottelenghi’s Plenty
However it didn’t work that way and the book ended up on the shelf (in fact it was lost in the basement for a period), when I finally opened it up – I was in a panic.
Somewhat stupidly I had just agreed to do a Christmas dinner for my friends, for the first time to anyone ever. I had given myself less than one week to prepare. I’d had an entire year but my vegetarian repertoire was as pathetic as before. I read Plenty cover to cover, I scoured the internet, foodgawker, the guardian Christmas food sections, but found nothing that looked special enough for a vegetarian Christmas meal.
I have been rather absent in recent weeks, so I thought I would post a couple of shots from my wedding.
Organising a wedding in November I understood straight away that I could not count on the weather. In fact I planned assuming the worst, ice, snow, rain and wind. No outdoor wedding for me, in fact the venue I booked allowed us to do all the different sections of the day under one roof. No taxis, or cars needed. In fact in the end I actually walked to the venue, dress draped over my arms (it was only 2 minutes).
Having photos outside was an option that didn’t seem likely at all. So when I woke up to see the sun shining on a crisp November morning – I was a little shocked. I hadn’t planned for this eventuality at all.
Thankfully the venue has access to Queen St Gardens, so after we had our first glass of champagne/ whisky as husband and wife, we walked along to the gardens for some photos.
Photo by Bryony Beckitt
About this time of year I start to really crave sweet things after dinner. Ok I crave them all year round but maybe it’s just I give in a lot more easily when it gets dark and cold…
This is a happy medium, I get something sweet but it’s an apple, so it’s obviously healthy – right? Ok so it’s an apple filled with brown sugar, sultanas, nuts and the tiniest hint of butter. But it is AH-MAZ-ING. You need to try this.
Despite the relaxing necessary this weekend I did want to post something food related. Don’t worry I am multitasking and breaking in my wedding shoes at the same time. Is it worrying that the word I most associates with shoes after 30 minutes is “ouch”!
This braised beef dish is another great autumn recipe perfect for a Sunday evening. I got this recipe for Rich Braised Beef with Melting Onions from the October edition of Good Food, and it appealed to me as it was so simple and I had all the ingredients I needed.
I haven’t really been blogging and to be honest my dinner dishes recently have lost inspiration. I’ve made an awesome Green Thai Curry about 4 times in a month – because it’s tasty and more importantly quick. (I will post it eventually I promise).
When I have been baking I have been using my new Kenwood Chef Mixer, which I love and I am sure you will hear much about in the run up to Christmas! But to reduce stress I have been remaking old recipes, and while fantastic I don’t like reposting.
It’s less than three weeks till I get married now, the hen night was a success, the invitations are out, and I am in a quiet period before things start to get really stressful again.
As the leaves are starting to turn and it is starting to get pretty cold and nasty out there it seems the perfect time to get a casserole in the oven. While I love a good old beef casserole, I wanted something a little different, and Venison is one of the mains at our wedding meal.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén