Tag: Breakfast
Overnight Strawberry Oats

Overnight Strawberry Oats

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Recipe

Makes 1 large jar

Time: 5 minutes, plus chilling time overnight

Ingredients

  • 60g porridge oats
  • 85ml milk (I used almond milk)
  • 100g strawberry yoghurt
  • 2-3  large strawberries, diced
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds

Method

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a large jar (I used a jam jar).
  2. Cover and let sit overnight to enjoy in the morning!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Apple Pancakes

Apple Pancakes

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Stress. Yup, stress is officially the key work of the week. Everything’s blowing up a bit atm but we’re getting through it with the help of some amazing friends and (as always) lots of food. This recipe takes me back to the chilled few days when I was down in Devon walking the south west coastal path last month. We didn’t have access to big shops with lots of ingredients so instead I made simple dishes like these sweet apple pancakes with Greek yogurt.

My opinion of healthy pancakes fluctuates regularly. Some days I think they’re the key to all healthy eating and God’s gift to sweet toothed brunchers, and on other days I really can’t see the point as they essentially just take the best bits out of the pancake and replace them with ingredients more closely resembling gravel. That said these do have the element of feeling a little healthy due to the apple floating through the batter and make a great semi-low-sugar brunch to get your day started.

Recipes

Serves 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 40g Self raising flour
  • 1 Egg
  • 20ml Milk
  • 1 tsp Brown sugar
  • ½ tsp Ground cinnamon
  • 1 Green apple
  • 1 Red apple
  • 1 Cal oil spray (or 1/2 tsp Sunflower oil)
  • 2 tbsp Greek yogurt to serve
  • 2 tbsp Maple syrup to serve (optional)

Method

  1.  Put the self raising flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Break in the egg and mix together. Then pour in the milk a litttle at a time to get a runny batter.
  2. Add the sugar and cinnamon to the mixture and stir these in. Then grate the apples into the batter and stir to combine (you can leave the skin on the apples to grate them if you want).
  3. Put a little oil into a large pan and use it to grease it. Then place it over a medium heat and leave for about a minute to warm up.
  4. Spoon blobs of the batter onto the pan (I got about 3 at once in mine) and fry until you can see the underside starting to cook through. Flip the pancakes over with a fish slice and fry again until golden brown.
  5. Put the cooked pancakes on a plate to one side and repeat with the rest of the batter. Serve warm with Greek yogurt and a little maple syrup.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Bacon and Leak Hash with Eggs and Beans

Bacon and Leak Hash with Eggs and Beans

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Did someone say brunch? Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, even on holiday things can be a little crazy. There’s a saying at Oxford that holidays (or ‘vacations’) are not times to stop working and relax but rather times when you just ‘vacate’ Oxford and go and work somewhere else. So much for rest and recuperation eh! At least my degree is basically what I do for fun anyway, so I get to spend my days drawing, cooking and planning various drama projects I’ve got lined up for next term.

So, back to brunch. When you’ve not got a lot of time on your hands what’s better than to combine two meals into one and have a hippy, hearty, filling bowl of comforting deliciousness? Since coming home I’ve basically stopped having breakfasts at all and I really miss starting the day with a hot plate of fried up morsels, so the other I decided to get off my arse and actually make myself a cooked breakfast. This bacon and leek hash might seem like a bit of a paph – especially when you can just fry up some bacon and have it with potato smiley faces from the freezer (and why not – they’re so good!) – but trust me, if you want a fancied-up snazzy brunch try adding it to your classic eggs and beans and you won’t regret it!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 300g Potatoes (about 2 medium)
  • 1 Leek, trimmed, washed and sliced
  • 3 Rasher of bacon
  • A sprinkling of Paprika
  • 100g Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 Large tin of baked beans to serve (optional)

Method

  1. Wash and chop the potatoes into small chunks. Then bring a pan of water to the boil and boil the potatoes for around 5 minutes until just cooked through. Drain and leave to steam-dry.
  2. Take a large frying pan and put it over a medium heat. Add the bacon rashers (as many as will cover the base of the pan at any one time) and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until crispy and golden brown. Transfer the cooked bacon to a plate and repeat with the rest of the bacon until all the rashers are done. Leave until needed.
  3. Wash the leek and then cut the ends off it (top and tail). Half lengthways and then finely slice. Add the leek to the pan the bacon was cooked in and fry for 5-10 minutes until soft and starting to caramelise.
  4. Cut the bacon up with a pair of scissors to make small pieces and then add it to the leeks. Add the drained potato and paprika and mix together.
  5. Transfer the hash mixture to a small roasting tin and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crispy. If using cheese sprinkle a little of it over the top of the hash 5 minutes before coming out of the oven.
  6. Meanwhile prep the eggs. Spray a little oil into the pan you cooked the bacon in to add a little more grease. Then crack the eggs into the pan and leave to fry until the whites are opaque. Using a fish slice transfer them to a couple of plates.
  7. Whilst the eggs are cooking heat the beans in a pan or in a microwave until piping hot. Serve with the eggs and the hash!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Yogurt Granola Bowl

Yogurt Granola Bowl

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Whoever said ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ is probably one of the most annoying people on this earth… and yet since getting to uni I do kinda see their point. I never used to eat breakfast, not sure if it’s because I didn’t have the time or I just didn’t feel hungry but I just wasn’t that kinda person. However one of the side effects of being catered in college is that we have to pay for breakfasts even if we don’t eat them so wahey I’ve become a breakfast person!

So now I’m back home and get super hungry at about 8:15 every morning I thought I’d branch out and explore some things to make for breakfast. I’ve also just recently discovered the wonder that is Greek yogurt and honey (check me out coming across all this really normal stuff for the first time!) and so hey presto – Add a couple of oaty bites and a fruit compote to a bowl of honey and yogurt and Bob’s your uncle!

Recipe

Serves 1

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp Greek Yogurt
  • 1 Small banana
  • 100g Frozen berries
  • 1 tbsp Honey
  • ¼ tsp Cinnamon

For the Granola Chunks

  • 5 ml Vegetable oil
  • 5g Honey
  • 5g Brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 50g Porridge oats
  • 1 tbsp Extra flavourings if wanted (chopped nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chunks etc)

Method

  1. Begin by making the oat clusters. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Add the oil, honey, sugar and salt to a bowl. Whisk to combine and then add the oats and any added flavourings. Stir again to combine.
  3. Spoon the granola onto the lined baking tray in clumps. Bake for 15-20 minutes until crisp. Leave to cool to one side until needed.
  4. Now make the compote. Put the frozen berries, honey and cinnamon into a small pan over a medium heat. Gently heat the mixture through until the berries are soft and juicy, then set aside to cool.
  5. When ready start assembling the bowl. Put a few tbsp of yogurt into one side of the bowl. Put a couple of granola clusters into another ¼ of the bowl and fill in the final section with the berry compote.
  6. Slice the banana and arrange the slices on top. Drizzle the bowl with a little honey and then sprinkle with any extra nuts and dried fruit you want!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Maple Bacon and Blueberry Pancakes

Maple Bacon and Blueberry Pancakes

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I honestly don’t know where the time’s going at the moment. I kind of feel like I’m running through a tunnel and as I pop up every now and then for air I find out a months past. I only realised this morning when I looked at my post-plan spreadsheet(yes I plan my posts in a spreadsheet) that it’s pancake day on Tuesday! So, onto the obligatory story about why pancakes have a special place in my heart – if you’re not the sentimental type feel free to skip to the recipe below!

Pancakes are one of those special dishes for me as they’re one of the earliest food memories I have. Whether it was on holiday, pancake day or just the end of a really long day, it was always a treat when my mum would make a batch of these – churning them out as quick as my sister and I could eat them. When I was really young we’d have them with lots of golden syrup that would leave your hands all sticky and sweet. Then when I was about 11 we came across the wonder that is Nutella and banana pancakes, which remains my sister’s fave to this day! These days I’m more of a lemon juice and sugar girl, however I’m just starting to branch out from that and realise how versatile pancakes can be. Way back in the summer when I went to Canada I came across these at the airport where we stopped off for a quick breakfast before boarding the plane. I admit, yogurt and bacon doesn’t come across as the most likely combo for success, but with the maple syrup, sour fruit and crunchy pumpkin seeds it makes a plate that’s so so mouth watering!

Recipe

Serves 3

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the pancakes

  • 140g Plain flour
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Caster sugar
  • 140ml Semi skimmed milk
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 Knob of butter

For the topping

  • 6 Rashers of bacon
  • 2 tbsp Maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp Greek yoghurt
  • A handful of blueberries (about 80g)
  • A handful of pumpkin seeds

Method

  1. Take a medium sized bowl and put in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk and the egg. Whisk everything together to make a smooth batter.
  2. Put the knob of butter into a large pan over a medium heat and leave to melt. Pour the excess butter into the pancake batter and mix it in.
  3. Carefully pour blobs of the batter into circles in the greased pan and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until cooked through and golden brown. Transfer to a plate the repeat with the rest of the batter.
  4. Meanwhile pre-heat a grill on full heat and grill the bacon for 3-4 minutes on each side until crispy. (You could also do this in a pan, but it depends on how much space you have and what equipment you’ve got to hand).
  5. To serve put 3 pancakes onto each plate and top with a couple of slices of bacon. Drizzle everything with maple, then top with a few dollops of yogurt and a generous scattering of berries and seeds. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x