Cookies & Flowers!

For a Valentine's Day that we weren't celebrating, I've had a pretty good day today! :)

First up though, breakfast! Liam went in to university really early today as he has a project due in on Thursday so lots to be getting on with. Once the hectic-ness of getting daughter ready to school was over, baby had a nap and it was time to think about food. I decided to get a bit more adventurous with my smoothie - salad smoothie in a bowl :) I've seen people adding kale, spinach etc to their smoothies so I figured it'd be a good way to use up my leftover bagged salad - it was mainly spinach and beetroot anyway. I also used frozen strawberries, blackberries and forest fruits, plus Kara milk, cocoa powder, Xanthan gum and a little Sweet Freedom...

I topped it with another sachet of Bear Cocoa Cherry Pie Granola and fresh raspberries (the flavour got swallowed up in the smoothie yesterday, wanted to be able appreciate them more today!)...

This was really tasty, and inadvertently "Valentine'sy" with the deep red from the beetroot! I couldn't really distinguish any particular flavour in the smoothie, but it felt "good" for me anyway!! :)

After breakfast, it was time to bake. When I read Julie at Peanut Butter Finger's post last night, I knew these chocolate oat cookies were the cookies for me! The recipe is here. I used sugar instead of splenda, and in the first batch I used melted butter instead of oil. I gave the oil a go in the second (double sized!) batch for convenience. I also used liquid egg whites which I luckily had in the fridge...

...much easier than having to separate a load of eggs! These were so easy to make, and delicious too...really gooey/fudgy and a rich chocolate taste - they reminded me of cocoa porridge, yum! Only problem is I ate most of the first batch...

so I had to make some more! I doubled up on the recipe for the 2nd batch, but didn't bake them til just before Liam and daughter were due home...didn't trust myself!!!

Delish! I've just eaten (yet another!) one and I think I prefer the batch made with melted butter...however that may be because I ate the first batch must quicker so they were more fresh... or maybe I'm finally getting sick of them after 10 large cookies in one day!!!

So that's the cookie part of the post... on to flowers...

The daffodils Mum gave me yesterday have really opened out today - so pretty...

and Liam came home from uni with a bunch of my favourite flowers - purple tulips... they weren't really big enough to fill the vase so I kept some daffodils in there too...

so pretty! :) seems a bit of a waste to have 2 lots of flowers on the go when I probably won't have any more for the rest of the year (except on our wedding day, eeek!!!) but they look lovely so I'll enjoy them while they last!

After all the cookies, lunch was just leftover dauphinoise potatoes...not worth a photo!

Dinner was portobello mushrooms stuffed with lardons, garlic, Philadelphia and cheddar. Plus salad, a breaded Camembert and some cranberry sauce...

Oh and one slice of garlic bread...

random but really tasty!

Not many photos today as I have pretty much lived on the cookies, 10 have been eaten by me so far...each time I think I'm full, I still manage to fit another one in!!

Hope everyone's having a good evening! Just an evening in front of the tv here whilst Liam gets on with uni work...not very interesting but at least I can sit down & relax :)