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  1. Everything flapjacks

    February 11, 2012 by lallyd

    I was inspired this week to cut out eating ‘junk’ food at home, so instead of a packet of crisps, eat some crackers or rice cakes, instead of chocolate have a yoghurt or a piece of fruit. Inevitably, I got bored of that quite quickly and decided to make some flapjacks.
    I’d forgotten that I blogged about a flapjack recipe I’d made a few months before on here, and went googling for ‘everything flapjack’, hoping that I’d find some creative ideas for flavours to add to a basic recipe, and I found this recipe entitled ‘Flapjack all kinds of ways’.
    Using the measurements listed on the site, I decided to experiment with my ‘extras’

    Ingredients:
    160g butter
    115g demerara sugar
    1 tsbsp golden syrup
    240g porridge oats
    115g extras (optional)

    So far, I’ve made three batches of these flapjacks. The first ones had 50g milk chocolate chips and 65g of mixed nuts and raisins. I also used a muffin tin to bake this batch, and found the mixture divided quite nicely into 12 portions, albeit quite large ones!
    The second and third batch I made at the same time and tray baked, with a piece of foil covered card used to separate the two batches on the same baking tray. To half of the mix I added 40g white chocolate chips, 40g of crushed banana chips and 35g dessicated coconut. To the other half I added 50g dark chocolate and 65g of mixed nuts and seeds.

    The first batch I made went down a storm, with a wonderful crunch on the outside and soft chewy insides. The second batch were a bit experimental, and even though they were nice, I think I’d use fresh banana rather than banana chips next time, as the chips give a nice crunchy texture but don’t add as much flavour as fresh bananas do.
    The third batch were my favourite. I was worried that the dark chocolate might make them a bit bitter, but actually it had the opposite effect of balancing out the sweetness of the syrup used in the recipe. The nuts & seeds give a lovely texture, however because these were tray baked they stayed soft and didn’t get crunchy on the outside, which would have been nice. Next time I think I’ll try them in a muffin tin. I’m also going to have a go dropping the chocolate from the recipe and topping up with fruits/nuts and dipping the next batch in melted chocolate, as I saw on Nigel Slater’s Christmas programme!

    So there we have it, flapjacks three ways or as I call them “everything flapjacks”.

    Category Food | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  2. Tasty food for dieters?

    August 11, 2011 by lallyd

    So, it seems that being on a diet and having a sweet tooth don’t mix.

    Since Monday I’ve been trying to lose weight by keeping a food diary, doing 30 minutes of yoga every day and avoiding all “junk” food, ie; crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks, cakes etc as well as aiming to keep my calorie intake under 1500k per day (recommended daily for women is 1940k, 2450k for men) but anything under 2000k a day is good by me, as long as it’s the right types of food; fruit, vegetables, lean meats etc.

    Unfortunately for me, trying to avoid sweet things is like asking a dog not to bark! So I’ve been on a mission for the past couple of days to find a healthy but tasty treat to make, and here’s what I found; Banana Flapjack.

    Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still a high calorie snack, but the combined calories for the batch  is about 2000k and I plan on getting about 10 slices out of it, so at 200k per piece it’s roughly the same calorie content as a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar, but lower fats, saturated fats and salt (in fact, no salt at all). Not to mention that flapjack is much more filling that a packet of crisps so likely to quash hunger pangs for longer, as well as being a high energy combination, good for after a work out.

    The calories break down (roughly) thus;

    • 75g  margarine (I used butter) = 500k
    • 2 tablespoons honey =150k
    • 75g soft brown sugar = 400k
    • 1 large banana mashed = (I used 2 medium) = 180k
    • 200g rolled oats (porridge oats) = 800k

     

    Would you believe that the highest calorie count is the oats at 800k for 200g!? Since keeping an eye on calories, I’ve been astounded by the high calorie count of most high fibre foods, eg; 1 slice of granary bread is approx 150k, a 50g bowl of muesli with nuts/raisins is around 300k. I’m trying not to get too bogged down in counting every calorie, and if I don’t know the exact figures I’ll just guesstimate but it does make you take stock of what you’re eating and whether you need to of not.

    The flapjacks are currently cooking in the oven and smell delicious and hopefully will do the job of substituting chocolate and sweets for a while.

    Please add a comment if you know any other low-cal recipes that I can try.

     

    Lally.

    Category Food | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Goats Cheese Pizza

    August 1, 2011 by lallyd

    So, this afternoon I opened the oven to retrieve the left overs from yesterday’s roast chicken dinner and to my absolute horror, out flew two giant flies! I was planning on making a lovely chicken and mushroom pie, but my plans were scuppered and the lot went in the bin.

    So what to do? There wasn’t much else in the fridge bar a few leftover ends of cheese, a packet of bacon and the bag of mushrooms.

    We’ve also recently harvested a bumper crop of home grown potatoes, so I wracked my brains for a recipe that would combine these ingredients (and avoid a trip to the shops!), but nothing came to mind.

    I quickly searched on BBC food website for goats cheese and found no inspiration, when I stumbled upon a recipe for a goats cheese pizza!

    Another quick google search for “pizza dough” led me to this recipe which I realised I had all the ingredients for.

    So following the instructions (but using a combination of 1/2 plain white and 1/2 strong white bread flour) I made the dough, although I cheated and used a mixer instead of kneading it by hand. I did knead for the final 5 minutes to get the right consistency, I also found I used a considerable amount of extra flour to stop the dough feeling too sticky.

    After allowing the dough to rise for about an hour and a half and taking great pleasure in punching all of the air out of it I spread the dough over two cookie sheets, about 1cm thick on each and topped the dough with pasata, then goats cheese, fresh vine tomatoes and mushrooms and finally a rasher of bacon cut into 1cm strips on each base.

    I covered the whole lot in about 100g of mild Cheddar (50g on each pizza) and put in a preheated oven on Gas Mark 6 for 20-25 mins.

    I swapped the two pizzas over about half way through the cooking time and this is what I ended up with (x2):

    20110801-195818.jpg

    On reflection I would add a few herbs to the pasata next time. To serve I just ground a little bit of black pepper over the pizza and accompanied it with some home made coleslaw (Mum’s secret recipe) and a beetroot and tomato salad. It was nommy!

    Lally.

    Category Food | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments