Fruity walnut pear pomegranate salad

Fruity walnut, pear and pomegranate salad

Nice and fruity salad. I had a super crunchy pear, which is generally how I like it, but I would recommend going for a bit of a riper/softer pear for this recipe! I made it as a take-to-work lunch. Ate it while sitting outside enjoying the lovely sunshine 😀

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 45 grams of mixed green leaf salad
• 1 pear (ripened to own desire)
• 2-3ish tablespoons of pomagranate arils
• 30-40 grams of feta cheese
• 10 grams of chopped Walnuts

Dressing

• Honey
• Dijon mustard
• Lemon juice

How to prepare

1. Put the salad on a place.
2. Slice your pear thinly or chop up in small bite-sized pieces.
3. Top it with the pomegranate arils, walnuts, and crumbled feta cheese.
4. Drizzle with dressing (about 2/3 honey, 1/3 honey and a few drops of lemon juice)
5. Mix or eat like this.
6. Enjoy!

Additional notes

• Might also be really nice with goats cheese!

Pumpkin-oat cookies

Pumpkin-oat cookies

As with the pumpkin pancake these cookies definitely aren’t as sweet a the two ingredient banana oat cookies. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t perfectly yummy after adding a drizzle of honey 😀

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 45 grams of oats
• 110 grams of pumpkin puree
• 10 grams of walnuts
• Cinnamon and all spice to taste (You are supposed to use pumpkin spices which contains: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves but I don’t have any..).
• Honey (to drizzle over the cookies when they are done)

How to cook 

1. Preheat the oven to about 175 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients (but the honey) together.
3. Grab a baking tray and put some aluminium foil on. Spray the aluminium foil with some oil to make sure the cookies don’t stick to it.
4. To shape the cookies I put the pumpkin-oats mix in an ice scoop and then ‘released’ them onto the tray. This gives them a nice and round appearance. However, I’m sure there are a million different ways of shaping your cookies as well as just shaping them with your hands.
5. Put them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes (check they don’t get too brown). Exact time may vary according to the oven and on how big you made your cookies!
6. Take the cookies out of the oven, let them sit for a few minutes and lift them off the tray. Let the cookies cool down for a few more minutes and eat warm or let them cool down fully.
7. Drizzle them with some honey or maple syrup and enjoy!

Additional notes

• Adding some raisins might be nice!

Sweet brussel sprouts with goats cheese.

Sweet brussel sprouts with goats cheese

Have to be honest guys. This recipe is not yet a master piece as I can barely cook pearl barley 😉 I have come across it a couple of times online; this way of cooking brussels sprouts is definitely new to me and am therefore still experimenting a bit. So yes: feel free to google for some extra information that I might be missing here..

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 35-40ish grams of pearl barley (or however much you feel is a good portion size)
• 30-ish grams of soft goats cheese (I use about a third of a 100 gram tub)
• 150 grams of brussels sprouts (in all honesty; I can’t remember, so however much creates a good balance)
• A small handful of dried cranberries (apparently you can also use actual cranberries but I’ve only spotted them in Tesco’s once)
• A handful of chopped up walnuts; pecan nuts will probably be even better!
• 1-2 teaspoons of honey
• Black pepper + salt

How to cook 

1. Cook the pearl barley according to instructions. NOTE: this takes about an hour so start early! (If anyone can tell me how you can let that stuff simmer with a lid on for an hour without having to add extra water or without the whole thing boiling over.. please let me know!)
2. Pre-heat the oven to about 200 degrees.
3. About half an hour in start preparing your brussels sprouts. Remove the bottom stalk bit and the dodgy looking outside leaves and chop them in half.
4. Mix them together with a tiny bit of oil and some pepper (+ maybe a tiny sprinkle of salt)
5. Put a frying pan on the stove and let it become really hot. A sprinkle of water should evaporate immediately!
6. Put all the brussels sprouts in the pan, their flat side facing the heat. Once they start to become golden brown, take them out and chuck them on a baking tray or oven dish. Put them in the oven for about 15 minutes (you might have to play with this time. They have to be cooked but you don’t want them to become too brown)
7. Chop up the nuts.
8. Once the pearl barley is cooked put into a bowl (one that is a bit smaller than the one I used in my example ;))
9. Add in the brussels sprouts, cranberries, nuts and black pepper.
10. Toss and mix while adding in the honey.
11. At last add in the crumbled goats cheese and maybe give it another quick toss.
12. Serve and enjoy!

Additional notes

• Probably not great for re-heating!
• Any advice on cooking pearl barley or roasting brussels sprouts are definitely welcome!

Two ingredient banana oat cookies!

Cookies for breakfast? Hell yeah!

Came across this recipe on loads of blogs in different variations. The one I saved and used came from: “The Burlap Bag”
The cookies can be eaten warm and cold. Eat all of them if you want breakfast, eat one or two if you just want a nice little snack!

Note: So far my cookies have been firm but also a bit mushy/gooey at the same time. Which I quite like! Haven’t found out if you can ever get them snappy and crusty though. Will report back if I do.

Ingredients (serves 1 for breakfast or 3-6 for snacks)

• 1 medium sized ripe to overripe banana
• 30-40 grams of oats (I used/stole some Quaker oats; not sure who they belonged to but they’ve kinda past their expiry date anyway!)
• walnuts
• cinnamon

Yes. I know it says 2 ingredient cookies. And you can make them with just a banana and oats but adding in some cinnamon and walnuts (or anything else for that matter) makes it just so much nicer!

How to cook 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175-ish degrees.
2. Slice and mush up your banana.
3. Add in the oats, walnuts and cinnamon and mix together (just with a fork or so, nothing fancy).
4. Add more oats if needed.
5. Grab a tin/baking tray and put some aluminum foil on. I also sprayed the foil with a little bit of oil, just to make sure the cookies weren’t going to stick to it.
6. To shape the cookies I put the banana-oats mix in an ice scoop and then ‘release’ them onto the tray. This gives them a nice and round appearance. However, I’m sure there are a million different ways of shaping your cookies as well as just shaping them with your hands.
7. Put them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes (check they don’t get too brown). Exact time may vary according to the oven and on how big you made your cookies!
8. Take the cookies out of the oven, let them sit for a few minutes and lift them off the tray. Let the cookies cool down for a few more minutes and eat warm or let them cool down fully.
9. Enjoy!

Additional notes

• Other things that might be worth adding in: Chocolate chips, almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, peanut butter etc etc.
• Other things you can make them with: apparently you can replace the banana with pumpkin puree. Might try that soon!
• Wondering if you can also make it with semi-mushed-up apple.. fearing that might fall apart though.
• Best to make them and eat them the same day (or the night before and then eat them in the morning).

Lunch: goats cheese breadroll

Goats cheese breadroll

Just another easy lunch recipe I can remind myself of I know, so not a lot of explanation here as I don’t think it really needs it 😉

Ingredients (serves 1)

• Whole-wheat bread roll with nuts.
  I made this one myself (one of many semi-successful batches) but any nice whole-wheat or multigrain bread roll will do really!
• About 35 grams of goats cheese
  I always use a third of the organic goats cheese I buy but honestly, it all depends on how big your bread roll is and what the goats cheese/bread roll ratio is you like.
• Walnuts
  Can be omitted if they are already in your bread roll, but go nuts with it reallly! ;))
• Honey
• Salad made from: Mixed salad leaves, pepper, cucumber and sunflower seeds.

Additional notes

• If possible oven bake or toast your bread roll just before preparing it.
• Have it with a nice serving of soup!