Spicy Breakfast, Recipe, then Cakey Breakfast

 

It was an unusual breakfast yesterday morning, I just wasn't in the mood for anything remotely breakfast-y ... and anyway who says that breakfasts have to be toast or cereal!!

Why not have a spicy start to the day.

Sorry for the blurry photo, I must have moved as I snapped. 

 I decided mid morning to use up my last two disgracefully black and overripe bananas to make some Banana Bread.  The recipe also used up the last of the eggs and the last of my white sugar from the jar,  I had to top it up with some demerara sugar to get to the right weight.  This was a huge success by the way, the crunch and flavour it gave to the bread was wonderful.

My Banana Bread

140g softened butter

140g sugar

2 beaten eggs

140g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

1tsp vanilla extract

Cream together the butter and sugar and then add everything else to the bowl and give it a really good mix.  Divide the mixture between two greased or lined 1lb loaf tins, or you can make one large loaf but this will take longer to cook and doesn't have as much gloriously crunchy edge-to-cake ratio.  

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees for about 40 minutes.  Check after 20 or so minutes as you might need to cover the top with some foil to stop it browning too much.  I always have to do this.

My two cakes cooling on a wire tray.

Do try to let them cool almost completely before eating a piece, as they are very crumbly at first and difficult to slice.

I always cut the pieces of foil large enough so that I can use them again for something else and then fold them to sit neatly on top of the cakes.

This is delicious as it is with a nice cup of coffee,  or it can be served with custard, ice-cream or cream, or ... and in my opinion the best way ... spread thickly with butter.  

Guess what I'll be having for breakfast for the next couple of days?  

Well it's not having cake for breakfast if it's called Banana Bread now is it.  😁

Sue xx

Just a note:  I have noticed a lot of my comments on other people's blogs vanishing almost as soon as I make them, and even on my own blog occasionally ... so do check your Spam boxes for comments again if you think you haven't heard from me recently.   I am also finding a lot of peoples comments are ending up in mine too and I have been retrieving some most days.  Blogger is a pain!!

Using Up the Food Stash, Making Good Use of Leftovers ... and the Pantry Challenge

As well as using up the contents of the freezer I am slowly but surely working my way through all of my food stash over the coming weeks.  

It makes sense to use up all those things that might go off or go wildly out of date first, especially as while my freezer is full I can't add things to that to stop them from going bad.  The other day I saw just how wrinkly the apples in the fridge were ... far too wrinkly to be eaten just as they were ... so I peeled, sliced and slightly stewed them. 

I also used up one of my two rolls of pastry that had been bought well before Christmas.  It was out of date but not horrifyingly so.  The other pack of pastry had been squeezed into the freezer last week but there was literally no room for this one.

Out of one roll of pastry I got the two apple tarts, two little cheese, onion and potato pies and the one little end piece after rolling out was simply cooked as a thin cracker and eaten as soon as it was properly cooked ... chef's perks. 😀

Not a soggy bottom in sight.  😁

I ate one of the Cheese and Onion pies for my tea the night they were made with some garden peas and gravy and the other one I had for lunch the next day, warmed through in the Remoska and served with just a dollop of mayo.  

The apple pies were shared, one for me and one for Alan ... which he enjoyed while it was still warm from the oven with some salted caramel ice-cream.

I am determined not to waste anything as I work my way through all the food stash, no matter whether it's a fridge, freezer or cupboard item.  To keep me on the straight and narrow and for meal ideas and inspiration I have been watching Jessica over at Three Rivers Homestead regularly.  It's this time every year that she does her pantry challenge, working her way through her enormous stash of home-canned and preserved foods and all those things that sneak into a busy home over the course of a few months.  With a family of ten, including one gorgeous new born baby, she's doing it on a whole different level to my own little challenge.

Here's her first video of this year's Pantry Challenge.

https://youtu.be/tYGf-I1U9vY

Are you starting this year by going through your cupboards or freezers while keeping your spending low?  And do you follow any other bloggers or vloggers that are doing something similar that I might be interested in finding out about and taking inspiration from?

Sue xx

Menu Plan Monday ... Gosh I'm So Organised

 

I want to start the first couple of weeks of this year really using up what I have in my freezer.

When I sorted through it all the other day I found foods that I had forgotten I even had, including a nut roast from Christmas 2021!!  Well now is the time to work my way through all this older stuff and try not to put anything into the freezer until I have cleared it.

I was aiming to have at least two things from the freezer every day and it was with this idea in mind that I put together this first weeks menu plan ... although in the end when I look at it now I have actually managed to incorporate three things each day.  It will be interesting to see how this first week alone impacts on the state of the freezer drawers.

If things in life come up that mean a days meals don't get used, I will simply move that whole day forward to begin next weeks menu plan and fill in the rest of the week from that day forward.

And rather than working from my paper scribblings and eventually getting confused, I sat and typed all the contents of the drawers out so that I can see more clearly what have and be more easily able to tick off what I use.

Here's to week one of slow but steady freezer emptying.

Sue xx

Freezer Food Stash, Removing Labels from Myself

 

Not long after writing yesterdays post I decided that while it was on my mind I would crack on and make an inventory of the freezer contents.  

I'm a great one for prevaricating these days and I find that if I don't seize the bull by the horns and just do something it gets pushed further and further down the list and then falls off the bottom and disappears.  So before the computer had even cooled down I had the top drawer of the freezer out, a few sheets of paper and a pencil on the work top, and away I went.

Sorry about the dreadful lighting, the sky was so overcast yesterday that my hallway kitchen was dismally gloomy.  But if you click on the photo it should enlarge nicely and you might even be able to read my scribblings.

I simply pushed through and got on with the middle drawer while the urge to be organised was great.

I did start flagging after this one and I have to admit to a restorative cup of coffee and a quick blast of Wordle on my phone.

Back to business and the bottom drawer was soon emptied and the contents listed for posterity, well until they are all eaten up of course.

I seem to be able to fit a lot into this little half drawer.  The reason for the large stack of Linda McCartney sausages is that I only buy them when they are on special offer and then simply add them to the bottom of the stash for future using up. They are an assortment of all three of the flavours that I like:  Lincolnshire, Vegetarian and the Red Onion and Rosemary, plus an experimental (for me) Chorizo and Red Pepper.  All bought when they were reduced to £1.50 in Sainsbugs.

Seemingly I now have a total of 41 sausages, the 40 from this drawer and the little lonely sausage that I found wrapped in clingfilm in the middle drawer.

The eagle eyed among you might have spotted something that will have surprised you.  

Yes, I have some fish in my freezer drawers!!  Over the past couple of months I brought fish and eggs back into my diet as an experiment for my health to see if these animal sources of protein had any beneficial effect on my health.  They totally haven't, so once I have used up all that I bought including the tinned fish in my cupboards I doubt they will remain full time.  But I am no longer as rigid in my views as I once was and have given myself permission to remove all the labels that the food police seem to want to place on people.

I am not vegan.

I am not vegetarian.

I am not pescatarian.

I am not plant based.

I am me!!

However, I still don't and will never eat meat and dairy.

Sue xx