RANDOM BAKES OF KINDNESS

It's back to school time here in Ireland - and it made me think "who dreads going back more - the kids or the teachers??"  At least the kids have all their friends to sweeten the pill, but the poor teachers, back to the grindstone after 2/3 months of freedom!!!!

Vanessa has introduced a wonderful new challenge called Random Bakes Of Kindness (what a genius idea!) whereby you gift a batch of your baked beauties (!) to someone who goes the extra mile in your life.  I decided the the teachers at my niece and nephew's school would be the ideal recipients for a "first day back at school cheer me up" - they have been so good to the kids over the past few months, keeping their school lives as even and calm as possible.  Who better to receive an injection of sugar (and thanks) with their morning coffee.

I was up with the birds on the day they were going back, and so decided to whip up Coby's Banana and Yogurt Muffins - Coby has a fantastic blog (which she shares with a great group of bloggers) you'll be delighted when you visit - it's a font of ideas and mouth watering recipes and photos, but most of all it's a beautifully written blog - you share in all their lives.  I whipped up the muffins when I got up, and they were still warm when I popped them into a tin for the kids to bring to school.  Brownieville Princess and Boy #4 weren't too anxious to bring in the gift, so I dropped it into the office on my way out - and seemingly they went down a storm - some warm, fairly low fat goodies on the first day back to school - I hope they brought a few smiles to the staff room!!

The recipe is over on The Clayton's Blog - the only change I made was to use peach instead of passionfruit yoghurt, and sunflower instead of olive oil, they were light, fluffy and brim full of flavour.

Thanks a million to Vanessa for this excellent idea - it is really good to spend time thinking of all the people in your life that you need to be grateful to - there are so many.

START THE DAY THE RIGHT WAY!

As I have said before - I spend my life either on a diet or breaking a diet (and the latter seems to be winning at the moment!!!).  But I think that if you start off with something healthy, filling and tasty, you are giving yourself the option of being good for the rest of the day!!!!

Kim, who writes a wonderful blog called Stirring the Pot, wrote about a Banana & Vanilla Milkshake some time ago, and there is a reason why she was so enthusiastic about it - it is delicious!  This is my version:

Banana and Vanilla Milk Shake

1            Frozen Banana*
3            Ice Cubes
1/2 tsp   Vanilla
1 cup      Fat Free Milk
1 tsp       Honey*


Blitz!


I have tried a few variations on the theme (the biggest disaster was adding a spoon of coffee powder - yuk!), but I think that this is the best (and easiest) version.

*If the banana is very ripe, you might not need the honey.

Continuing on the theme, in the new Leon Cookbook there is a recipe for a Carrot, Orange and Ginger Juice - not rocket science perhaps, but a fantastic combination of flavours (that I wouldn't have come up with) that for some strange reason, really, really fills you up! (and they say is a great cold-buster too - Happy Days!)

Carrot, Orange and Ginger Juice.

3      Carrots
1      Orange
1      Piece Ginger (thumb nail size)

Juice the carrots - if you don't have a juicer  (and I wouldn't blame you, they are a killer to clean) just use juice from a carton
Juice the ginger (or grate)
Juice the orange and add to the carrot and ginger juice, stir and enjoy.

AN AWARD FOR NO SINKAGE!!!!?

I bought Nigella Lawson's most recent book Kitchen when it came out, but haven't dived into it with as much enthusiasm as some of the great bloggers I follow, I'm hoping it's (or I'm)  a slow burner.  That said I can't wait to try the sweet and salty crunch nut bars she cooked on her programme last week, but have to wait until I have enough people in the house to eat them all in one go - otherwise I know where any leftovers would go (straight onto my hips!!!!)

I am amazed that all the loaf cakes in this book, well all the photos of the loaf cakes in the book show cakes that  have sunk quite a lot - I thought it might be interesting to see if the recipe caused this or was it perhaps an editorial decision (to make the cakes more approachable) or some other reason.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

I baked the Coconut and Cherry Banana Bread from Kitchen, and am happy to say that there was no "sinkage"!!  Of course, I fiddled a bit with the recipe, I replaced the cherries with some cranberries and chocolate chips.  The texture was excellent, the coconut added an extra dimension.  The banana, cranberries coconut and chocolate were an excellent flavour combination.  It was a lovely "everyday" type cake, nice to have in the cake tin but without the risk of it being demolished in one sitting! 



Cranberry, Coconut and Chocolate Banana Bread

125g                     butter
4                           medium bananas
150g                     caster sugar
2                           eggs
175g                     plain flour
2 tsp                     baking powder
1/2 tsp                  bread (bicarbonate of ) soda - sieved
100g                     desiccated coconut
75g                       cranberries
50g                       chocolate chips

Line a 900g  (2lb)  loaf tin with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 170 C


Melt butter in a large saucepan., then remove from the heat.
Beat the sugar into the cooled butter.
Mash the bananas and beat into the butter and sugar mixture.
Beat in the eggs.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and bread (bicarb of) soda.
Add the cranberries, coconut and chocolate and fold until everything is well incorporated.
Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until bouncy on top.
Allow to cool for ten minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

As you can see this mixture made one loaf and 4 muffins.

The lovely (and hugely talented) Megan over at  Foodalution  paid me the great honour of passing on the Versatile Blogger Award to me some time ago - my son has recently given me a "how to move a tag" lesson and therefore I am delighted to accept and to be able to pass it on to some  of the wonderful blogs that I enjoy reading.

I believe that I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself and then pass the award onto 7 blogs I admire.  So here goes:

1.  Other than food and cookbooks, I would spend all my money on books (novels) and C.D's (can't be doing with i-tunes!!!)

2.  I have recently returned to Yoga, and am loving it.

3. I badly need a new oven - but only like shopping for food, books and music so have been putting the purchase on the long finger!!

4.  I am a member of two book clubs and am contemplating joining an on-line one - just not sure when I will be able to find the time to read all those books!!

5.  I love reading about people who become self sufficient (or even partly self sufficient) and would love to be able to follow suit - just not enough to do all that weeding!!!!!!!!

6.  My perfect holiday is spent in a beautiful place with wonderful restaurants (surprise, surprise!!) with not a sun lounger in sight!

7.  My house is filled with musical instruments (and I mean filled!!) and I can't play one of them :-(

I am delighted to pass this lovely award on to the following blogs, I look forward to each new post from them and am pleased to recommend them to you.

1.    My Little Space

2.   The Art Of Being Perfect

3.   Dunn to Prefection

4.   Belleau Kitchen

5.   Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes

6.   Baking Making and Creating

7.   From Beyond My Kitchen Window

  

In an embarrassment of riches I have another award to be grateful for (thank you so very, very much) The Art of Being Perfect  and  Cath at  Dunn to Perfection, both wonderful bakers (pop over to their blogs you will be impressed, very impressed!) have paid me the complement of granting me this award - thanks so much.

This time all I have to do is nominate 15 great blogs I have discovered and enjoy and inform them of this - easy peasy!!!  (If I have left anyone out I am truly sorry and please leave me a nasty comment!!!)

Happy Valley Cook

Cooking At Marystow

The Chocolate Teapot

Tasty Trials

Tinned Tomatoes

This Yorkshire Life

Second Hand Rose

The Goddess Kitchen

Stuff I Make, Bake and Love

Foodalution

Please Do Not Feed The Animals

Alwayz Baking

Cooking For My Peace Of Mind

Hanaas Kitchen

Adventures of a Blond Baker

All of these blogs are worth a visit - you'll thank me!!!