Breakfast in a Biscuit

I made biscuits and they were good.

Once upon a time I had a gym membership and I used it. My favourite part was the Les Mills 'Body Combat' classes and I showed up for one every Wednesday morning (my day off at the time). After the class, I would walk a few blocks to the nearest bus-stop and head into town. Usually I'd head to my favourite café and order a black coffee and a 'breakfast muffin'. The café is no longer there and they stopped serving the muffins long before that, but these biscuits taste just like them!

Thanks to Vegan MoFo (that's Vegan Month of Food, for the uninitiated) I've been browsing vegan blogs again. Yesterday I came across this recipe from 'Vegans Eat Yummy Food, Too' and realised that I had all the ingredients to make them. I changed up the recipe a little and ultimately my version is no longer vegan. Oh well, they tasted good and are still healthier than your standard sweet biscuit.

Here's how to make them:
Ingredients

• 1 cup oat bran
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup Crunchy Nut Cornflakes®
• 1/4 cup sultanas
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (linseeds)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp margarine

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat bran, grated carrot, sultanas, flax seeds and cinnamon. Stir until well combined.
• Fold through the applesauce, honey and margarine.
• Stir well until mixture clumps together. (Use your hands if you need to!)
• Shape into rounds and place on a lined baking tray. Flatten each biscuit with your fingers or a fork.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden brown.
• Transfer to wire rack to cool.

When my father came to visit recently, he left us a box of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes® that none of us enjoy as a cereal. This recipe, though, is perfect for them. Any time of day we can taste the flavours of breakfast, in a biscuit.

-Polly

Baking

We have been enjoying a lot of sweet treats lately because I have been baking again. Now that we've been getting some cooler weather, it seems okay to have the oven on more often. Recently I made these orange and date muffins using one of my mum's recipes. I hadn't tried this particular recipe before. Mum always made yummy muffins. :)

One of my husband's favourites is this caramel mud cake from a packet mix. It has been requested 3 times already.

I have also made Gran's banana cake, lemon cupcakes, apple-blueberry crumble, date loaf and vegan lemon slice. I put some of them into the freezer to eat at another time.

They all make a great morning tea with a nice hot cuppa. It has been especially nice to enjoy them together while my husband has been on holidays from work. I have been adding a few slices of lemon zest, along with the tea leaves, to the teapot for a little extra flavour some days. The coffee machine, too, has earned it's keep.

E is learning how to bake along side me. Her favourite part is licking the spoon!

-Polly

Peanut Butter Biscuits

I tried a new recipe recently and it has got to be the easiest biscuit recipe ever. Yummy, too. I can't remember where I originally saw it, but this is my variation anyway.

Here's the recipe:

PEANUT BUTTER BISCUITS
Ingredients:
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup oat bran
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Place tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto a prepared baking tray. Flatten a little with your fingers.
Bake for 9 minutes.
Let cool on tray for 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes about 24 biscuits.

Enjoy.

-Polly

Baking Australia

As part of our recent Australia studies, E and I made a shortbread map like the one by the kids at Creekside Learning. We used the basic shortbread recipe from "Cookery the Australian Way". Here's E checking the instructions:

E got her hands sticky rubbing in the butter and then she rolled the dough flat.

I helped to get the right shape using a printed map and cling-wrap. There was just enough dough left over for E to use cookie-cutters to make her name. Then we baked it all in the oven.

E wasn't up to adding landforms or state lines like the cookie made by the Creekside kids, but at least we included Tasmania. E chose to make purple icing and we spread that all over our shortbread.

We added smarties in the approximate positions of each capital city and E had fun covering the whole thing in sprinkles...

and then we invited Daddy to help eat it. Yum!

-Polly

Happy Birthday, E

E is 2! As a big 2-year-old, there's some things that she just MUST do: like wearing pigtails and taking her own lid from her yoghurt tub.

To celebrate, we spent a whole day at Scitech. Then we came home and had a little party,

with blowing out candles:

...eating cake:

...opening presents:

...and playing with balloons:

She wore her new Dora the Explorer party dress, too.

Here's a clearer picture of the cake:

I made it using the instructions in the Women's Weekly "Kids' Party Cakes" book that my sister gave me. I used strawberry packet cake for the body and a chocolate cupcake (recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking") for the head. I changed the decorations a bit from the book and I think mine turned out cuter. I gave the ladybug lollipop antennae, malt sticks for legs, piped icing pupils and smile. I also used dark chocolate melts for the spots instead of the suggested 'freckles'.

I think we succeeded in making E's birthday extra special. Thankyou also to all the interstate family who sent gifts in the mail. ^_^

-Polly

Owl Fun

A short time ago, E was heading out with her dad to go visit a friend. I asked her which hat she would like to wear and she replied "Owl hat". The only problem was, she never had an "owl hat". After a short discussion ending with her telling us to "buy one!" she chose a different hat and was on her way. We didn't buy her an owl hat (and I have no idea where she got the idea from), but I did make her one the next day. She loves it and wears it nearly every day. She has a little skirt in the same fabric (the owls fabric, not the spotted one), but she hasn't worn them together yet. Actually, I made her a dress in the spotted fabric... I wonder if it still fits her.

I had planned on doing an owl-themed day with E in a few weeks' time (to give myself time to plan some activities), but her sudden new obsession with owls brought it forward a few weeks. It's a good thing that "owls" is another popular theme, as it was easy to find things to do.

It all started with E waking up one morning, walking over to my computer desk (I wasn't even at my computer at the time), pointing to the printer and saying "Owl". So... I did a quick google search and found a nice owl picture to colour in. She liked that I chose a picture with two owls. "One, two, one, two..."
Then I set about finding some more owl-themed things to try.

We found pictures of owls in some of E's animal books and we read "The Owl and the Pussycat". We 'flew' around the house saying "Whoo, hoo!" like an owl and made 'owl eyes' with our fingers. We drew pictures of owls on our blackboard and played with a little owl toy that I had made.

I found this owl mask and printed one. We got out E's bowl of crayons and coloured it together. The colours were all E's choice. I then cut it out and stuck it to a piece of cardboard to make it sturdier and cut holes to see through the eyes. We took it in turns holding it to our face and E still plays with it, days later.

After seeing these owl cupcakes on Almost Unschoolers, we had a go at making our own. We started by baking some vanilla cupcakes. When they were cool, we made some grey icing and iced them. I then broke open some cream biscuits and realised that they were way too big to stay on our little cupcakes. Oh well. The cupcakes were still yummy and we didn't need cream biscuits with them, anyway. We probably would have chosen a more appetising colour, though, if they weren't intended to be owls.

-Polly

Toddler Baking Time

Yesterday, E asked for cake for breakfast. I said no (and not just because we didn't have any). She settled for yoghurt and fruit. 

After breakfast, we decided to bake a cake. 

We picked a packet mix from the pantry (red velvet cake) and got to work.

We poured the dry mix into a big bowl.

We counted 1...2... eggs, beat them, and added them to the bowl.

We measured out 1...2...3... quarter cups of milk and added that to the bowl.

(I don't have any pictures of all this. It's quite mundane and I hadn't planned on blogging about it.)

Then my phone rang. I went into the next room to answer it and came back to this:

Yes, that's our half-mixed cake batter all over the kitchen floor. E had climbed up onto the counter and decided to try pouring it into the tin on her own. Most of it missed.

E taste-tested the spilt batter (from the tin, not the floor) while I salvaged the small amount left in the bowl. By adding a little extra liquid, to get it back to the right consistency, I managed to make 6 heart-shaped cupcakes. They were quite tasty.

So there's our latest baking adventure. Has anyone else been having fun in the kitchen?

-Polly

Lots of Baking

cornbread

A few years ago, a good friend of ours gave me a cookbook for Christmas called "The Joy of Vegan Baking". While it is an American book, it doesn't use any weird ingredients that we can't get here and any measurement or temperature conversions have already been done. I have made many versions of the Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies over the years and it is one of my go-to recipes for cookies. I made a big batch of caramel-choc-chip cookies the other day that were a variation on the Chocolate Chip Cookies from the same book. Next time I think I'll cut back on the sugar a little - they're very sweet. Whenever I flip through, I remember that I mean to try one (or both) of the soda bread recipes. I don't tend to keep that much flour on hand, as we'll get moths in the pantry again. I really should invest in some storage containers with better seals, I suppose. One recipe that I used to make a lot is the Cornbread. I made it again the other day (after finally remembering to pick up some polenta) and served it with a veggie soup that used a bunch of our home-grown veggies.

And, just to show that we're not all about sugary treats around here, here's an easy frittata (not vegan, obviously) that I made last week:

1 zucchini (grated)

2 carrots (grated)

1 onion (finely chopped)

5 eggs (whisked)

1 handful wild rocket (finely chopped)

2 Tbsp parsley (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp flour

Squeeze as much moisture as you can from the veggies.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Transfer to a greased and lined pan (20x20cm).
Bake at 180C for 30 mins.
Serve with cracked pepper and fresh lettuce.

Mmm, all the greens in this recipe were freshly picked from our garden. If only we had the space for some chickens.

-Polly

A Blue Day

blueberry smoothie

...literally, as we're all quite happy here. :)

Colours make good, easy theme days. Today's theme, in our home, is "Blue". E and I got up this morning and put on some blue clothes. We made blueberry smoothies for breakfast. I know that blueberries are technically purple, but they are called blueberries and blue isn't exactly a colour that is generally associated with food. We used blue straws. E likes banana smoothies and although we did add a banana to our smoothie this morning, she took one sip and said "No!" pushing her cup away. So E had regular, not blue, toast.

I printed the word "Blue" in block lettering and we coloured it in using blue markers and blue crayons.

Next, I gave E a blue bucket and we walked around the house collecting anything blue that we could find. We collected toys, blocks, bowls, books, a cup and a hat. We arranged some of them on our blue couch to get these photos, which were in part inspired by Maple's gorgeous photos here and here...

...and we made some little buildings with the blocks after that.

Yesterday we had clear blue skies, so I thought that I'd be able to point that out to E today. No such luck, as it was raining all day and the view from our back window was decidedly grey.

grey sky

For another blue activity, we baked blue cupcakes. I know, I know, I said blue wasn't a colour for food. What was I thinking?! I usually avoid artificial colours in our food, especially blue. I've even refused to give E blue frosted cake at a birthday party. We had just about every colour patty cases except for blue, so we used pale, purplish, stripy ones. The cupcakes did turn out quite pretty, don't you think? They taste nice, just like normal vanilla cupcakes... but they're blue. That's just not right. We had one each, anyway. E gets excited about cake.

 One other blue themed activity that we did today was about the easiest yet. I gave E a piece of blue bubble wrap to play with. Pop, pop, pop!

Playing with bubble wrap.

-Polly

The Pigeon says "Happy Birthday"

E likes to have her daddy read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus," by Mo Willems. It's very clever, reminiscent of a 'Sesame Street' book that we both read as children: "There's a Monster at the End of This Book," and is written all in speech bubbles. The Pigeon acts just like a preschooler trying to get his or her own way. I'm sure E is learning 'tricks' that she wouldn't have otherwise picked up on just yet, but it's a cute book all the same. 

Our whole family is pretty much obsessed with books. I can't wait until the council builds us a local library. I believe that they have allocated funds, but that's all I've heard. There are a couple of public libraries not too far away, but they're a pain to get to on public transport. In the meantime, we're building up our home library. We have bought a lot of books recently. Everything from board books to 500+ page textbooks.
The latest children's book to arrive at our house is a sequel to "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" called "The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog", in which the pigeon has become even more impudent and we are introduced to a new character, the duckling. Otherwise, it pretty much follows the same formula as the first book. We realised that E probably didn't know what a hot dog was, so Hubby decided that we'd have hot dogs for his birthday dinner this week.

Mmm, cake batter.

Because it was a birthday dinner, of course we had to bake a cake! The request was for moist vanilla packet cake. Easy. E and I spent the morning baking. She could hardly wait to lick the spoon. While waiting for the cake to cool, I did a bit of crafting and made a pigeon. I would have used marzipan so that it was edible, but that's not something that I keep in the pantry. This way we get a keepsake, anyway. I had bought some craft felt for another project and the rest was all from my 'stash'. I love those big, white buttons that I used for the eyes. They're the reason the pigeon is so large. E and I then iced the cake and decorated it, with plenty of time left before hubby arrived home from work.

-Polly

Mum's Apron

Milk and cookies

We've been baking again. We made choc-chip cookies this time. E wasn't too keen on getting her hands sticky when it came to rolling the dough into cookie-sized balls, but she loved saying "Plop!" as she dropped each one onto the baking trays.

Mama's apron

In my last baking post, I spoke about E's apron. Well, here's mine. -->
I made it from an old pair of hubby's jeans. The main part of the apron is one and a half legs of the jeans, stitched together. I made little darts in the top to give it a bit of shape. The neck strap is made from the waistband of the jeans and the pocket is one of the original back pockets, cut out, and stitched to the front of the apron. I added waist ties from another old apron. I hemmed the sides, but left the bottom edge raw. This is a good, tough apron for working around the house.


-Polly

Babycakes

Mix, mix, mix

I used to be a purist when it came to baking. Now there are always packet-cake (or packet-biscuit or packet-pudding) mixes in the pantry. They provide just the right amount of steps for a toddler to participate in almost every part of the process. I measure out the ingredients and help to beat the egg(s). E then dumps the lot into a bowl. "Mix, mix, mix" and the batter's ready.
If we're making a large cake, E will pour the batter into the pan. Today we made "babycakes" or bite-size cupcakes, so it was Mama's job to fill the pans and put them in the oven.


Do you see the black apron that E is wearing? I didn't really get a good photo of it. It's made from an old (adult-sized) t-shirt that never fit well. I simply cut straight down the middle of the front of the t-shirt (it had a "v" neckline) and went over the rough edges with the overlocker. The shirt already had ties at the waist, so it was done. The back of the t-shirt became the front of the apron and it's the perfect size for E. Easiest apron ever. And thanks to my sister for the hand-me-down shirt!

The finished babycakes

 <--Here's what the cakes looked like when they were done. They're strawberry flavoured and covered in sprinkles. Way too sweet, in my opinion. With the cakes being so small, the icing-to-cake ratio is all wrong. The sprinkles, whilst pretty, just add more unnecessary sugar. They're a good size for E, though, so we'll probably make "babycakes" again. I think we'll pick a nicer recipe next time. "Babymuffins" perhaps?



The weather here is still quite Summery, although the wind has picked up a bit this afternoon. We spent the rest of the morning in the backyard. It was lovely, just swinging on the swings and watering the garden (which I almost forgot to do - there's a sprinkler ban here over Winter, and isn't it supposed to rain, anyway?).

-Polly