This weekend I had a bit of a marathon session of baking/cooking. I’d been saving loads of recipes from other blogs and things I’d found whilst perusing the internet, and decided that I’d better actually get around to trying some of them!

My culinary creations included:

Baked Oatmeal– Recipe adapted from SkinnyTaste.com. Other similar recipes also found at PeanutButterFingers and Kath Eats.

2 bananas

1 cup oats

Some chopped nuts

Your choice of berries 

2 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

0.5 – 1 cup of milk 

I tweaked the recipe slightly by just mashing the bananas, using raspberries instead of blueberries, and just adding all the ingredients in one go! It seemed to turn out ok- I tested a few crumbs and it tastes awesome 🙂 I’ve cut it into portion sizes and will reheat for breakfast, served with Greek yoghurt.

Almond Butter Granola – Recipe adapted from PeanutButterFingers. Other similar recipes include Cinnamon Chia Seed Granola. 

2 cups oats

4 tbsp almond butter (or any other nut butter)

4 tbsp honey

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp chia seeds

I don’t know whether my almond butter was just thicker than that used in the original recipe but this turned out much more like a crumbly flapjack or cookie dough. Maybe I didn’t spread the oats thinly enough on the baking sheet so they crisped up- it still tastes pretty good though, and will make a great breakfast or afternoon snack with some stewed apples and yoghurt 🙂

Lemon and Coriander Houmous – Recipe adapted from BBCGoodFood. 

I forgot to buy fresh coriander and also only used lemon juice rather than lemon zest as well, so this doesn’t taste quite as good as I suspect it’s supposed to, but it’s still highly addictive! I tested it out with some celery sticks- yum! This recipe makes quite a lot too- 2 of the tubs seen in the photo, 1 has been frozen as I doubt I can eat that much houmous on my own! (although I could try…)

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Oaties – Recipe adapted from BBCGoodFood. 

175g plain flour

0.5 tsp baking powder

85g porridge oats

175g golden caster sugar

140g butter

1 egg

100g chocolate chips

30g dessicated coconut

This is a great cookie dough recipe that Mark and I have used on countless occasions. It’s so versatile because you can substitute in whatever fruit/chocolate/nuts you fancy. The original calls for blueberries and pecans, but I’ve done raspberries and white chocolate, cinnamon and raisin and many others. You roll the dough into a log, and it freezes really well to use at a later date! I made this batch for work so froze most of it, but just baked a few to test, haha…

Phew! And that’s it! Now I have lots of yummy food to eat throughout the week (and a heap of washing up to do…).