Tasty Tuesdays - Pancake Day

Ideal for a yummy, quick and easy breakfast. 

Today for pancake day we treated ourselves to some Oat and Banana Pancakes. Wheat free too. Not that I don't eat wheat. Love my Bread.

Ingredients:

2 Bananas

2 eggs
1/2 cup of oats
Splash of milk
Splash of vanilla essence (but this is for my personal taste)
Butter for cooking

Method:

Turn you hob on to get it heated up whilst you make the batter.

Break up the banana and crack open the eggs then add all of the ingredients into a jug or blender. Mix them all together to make the pancake batter. I used a stick blender to achieve the smooth consistency. 

Place your pan of the hob then add a small knob of butter to grease up your frying pan. Allow your pan a few minutes to get piping hot.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out 2 spoonfuls of the mix into your frying pan and using circular motions with the back of the spoon. Smooth out a small cup size pancake, I can fit three into a large frying pan.

Leave to cook for 20 seconds (the first batch will need 5 seconds longer as the pan is still heating up) and start to gently lift up the pancake from the frying pan ready to turn over. Do the same for the others and leave each for another 20seconds to cook. If they aren't cooked fully, just simply turn them over and allow to cook for a further 5-10 seconds to finish.

Et voila, you have small circular-ish pancakes.

We served ours with maple syrup but you can serve them with anything for fruit to chocolate to ice cream. Enjoy.

All ingredients in a jug

Blended to a smooth batter using a stick blender.

Circular motions with the back of a tablespoon to create the shapes of the pancakes.

Turning over time, using the spatula gently to prevent tearing.

The first side will be browner then the second side.

What the second side looks like in comparison.

Note: If you stack the pancakes ready on the plate as you make them, it will keep them hotter for longer.

Pancakes a go to get in my belly, served with maple syrup. Oh yummy times.

Tasty Tuesdays - Pizza on Toast

Pizza on Toast

Quick and easy simple dinner/snack.

Ingredients:

Bread
Tomato puree
Mixed Herbs (I used herbs de provence)
Cheese
Salami
Pepperoni

Method:

We bought a soft tiger bread uncut loaf from Aldi, which gives you the option to put it in the oven to crisp of the top or eat it soft and squidgey.

First I cut the tiger bread into slices to create a lovely thick base.

I squeezed a dollop of tomato puree (or you could use a sauce such as tomato or BBQ) onto one bread slice and sprinkle some herbs on top. Use as much or as little to taste. Then use a knife spread it on like butter.

I sliced the cheese, put it on to cover the slice of bread then added a slice of salami and pepperoni for the topping.

Repeat for all slices.

These I then put on a baking tray and cooked them for about 20mins on 180c, which meant I could put the oven chips in at the same time.

And in no time at all a tasty and simple dinner.

You can add any other toppings like ham, pineapple, chicken, beef, vegetables etc. The same as you would a pizza and the cooking method is like having a varying version of cheese on toast.

This dish was so quick and easy, it took literally no time at all and created very little washing up. Great for a lazy evening.

It's a dish that could definitely be made by kids and that they could do as a food making activity.

The results are so yummy, similar to an actual pizza in taste but lighter in density.

Thumbs up to this quick dish. 

Tasty Tuesdays - Cake in a cup

Five Minute Cake in a Cup

You've run out of chocolate, nothing in the house is sweet enough to fulfil your naughty sweet tooth craving. What can you do? In most peoples cupboards there are the ingredients for a cake but baking a cake can take a lot of time if you need a quick fix in your busy schedule.

This recipe is quick and easy and the washing up created is minimal.

Chocolate Microwave Cake in a Cup 

(I used these lovely vintage soup bowls I bought from a charity shop)

Ingredients

makes on large ish cup cake (half ingredients for smaller cup)

4 tbsp self raising flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
handful of chocolate chips (if you have them)

Method

Add Flour and Sugar to bowl/cup and mix together

Add cocoa powder and mix.

Add Egg, Milk and Vanilla Essence then mix throughly until light and fluffy. Add Chocolate chips, mix those in.

Then your mix is ready for 3 mins on high in the microwave (If it doesn't look quite ready give it another 30 seconds to 1 min blast to finish off).

The cake will rise out of the cup/bowl during and after cooking but will slip back down after cooling.

I made two cakes but honestly one would have been enough to share. 

Sharing is Caring.

Tip: To make this dish even more naughty, tip it out onto a plate and cover in double cream or custard. Could even add a few strawberries (all part of your 5 a day) ;)

Pie Faces

Happy Pie Faces

Whenever I cook a pie for dinner, I have to give it a smiley face instead of the a simple hole (which is done to let out the steam). So the face is always made before you cook the pie. And results are even happier.

Hash Brown Recipe

I'm always searching for something different to attempt to cook, so dinner doesn't get repetitive and boring. I can only be one added extra item that can make the difference to a simple meal.

The other day I planned to make a cooked breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, mushroom and toast. Easy. Then I realized we had no bread, hmmmm... not a good start. What could do? All I needed was something stodgy to bring the breakfast together. Something to do with potato I considered but didn't feel like chips.

If only we had some hash browns, now that would be great. Then I googled the recipe to see how hard they would be to make and in fact they were actually very simple plus I had all of the ingredients.

Hash Browns (will make 4/6 hash browns depending on size)

Ingredients:

2 medium/large potatoes

1 white onion

1 egg

1 1/2 tbsp Plain Flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

Oil or butter for frying

What to do:

I first peeled then washed the potatoes. I used a tub grater to grate both potatoes and to catch it all. Then I finally chopped the onions.

Placing both potato and onion into a bowl or jug (or whatever you prefer to mix with), crack the egg into the mix then and the tablespoons of plain flour, add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Mix these all throughly together and that surprisingly is the basic mix.

 Heat up a frying pan on a medium heat, so as not to burn them and give time for the potato to cook through, with oil or butter depending on your taste (I used the pan from cooking the bacon, which I feel adds extra taste to them). Spoon the mixer into a frying pan. Leave to cook for five minutes then flip over to cook for a further five minutes. I gave mine a second frying on both sides to further brown them off again this all depends on preference, the longer you leave them the more crispy they become. Then they are ready to serve up with the rest of your cooked breakfast selection.

I found the original recipe to mine here http://allrecipes.com/recipe/57783/emilys-famous-hash-browns/

Cleaning tip:

Lay a piece 2 piece of kitchen roll in your cooling frying pan, cooking trays or grill to soak up the oil and fat. This saves less from getting down the drains and blocking it as it solidifies as it becomes cool.

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