Daughter's Request for Dinner

I have had the major munchies today!!

I started off great with Une Vie Saine's Blueberry Pancake Bake...

topped with a blob of peanut butter...

This was delicious, the peanut butter went all melty and the pancake bake was sweet and filling. I think next time I need to find a smaller dish as the pancake bake was so spread out/shallow that the blueberries filled the whole depth! Not that that is a bad thing, delish! :)

Lunch was a bit rushed as we spent the morning in town and by the time we got back everyone was super hungry. A perfect excuse to have a quick sandwich - peanut butter and blueberry jam...

PB&J sandwiches are sooo good, even with cheapo bread!

Unfortunately, despite also eating half of baby's cheese & cucumber sandwich, this wasn't very filling...it wasn't long before the afternoon munchies hit...

In the end I decided to have a couple of medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter instead repeating lunch...

One of my favourite snacks, but I soon gave in to the white bread temptation with a quick crisp sarnie...

Thankfully this, finally, kept me going until dinner...hate it when I just eat, eat, eat for the sake of it...always seems to be in the afternoon...boredom? Not enough food for lunch? Gah.

Dinner was worth the wait though. Daughter had been asking me all week to cook "the thing with layers" - for those of you who don't speak "4 year-old" this translates to lasagne...roast vegetable lasagne no less, yum.

I have shown this recipe before here, but I've decided to set out the recipe a bit more clearly today, a) because Liam brought an SLR camera home from uni so the photos are hopefully slightly better, and b) because I might actually get round to setting up a recipe page on my blog some day soon! So with no further waffling...

Roast Vegetable Lasagne
(serves 4-6)

• 4 peppers
• 2 red onions (optional, I didn't use today)
• 5g coconut oil (or other oil to roast veg in)
• 500g passata
• 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
• pack of mushrooms (approx 250g), chopped quite small
• 400g tin green lentils (approx 265g drained weight)
• 40g butter
• 40g plain flour
• 350ml milk
• 6 lasagne sheets
• 70g cheddar, grated

First up, roast the peppers (and onions) at 190C for 30 minutes, turning half way through...

While the peppers are roasting, get started on the tomato sauce. First simmer the passata with the garlic...

I used this time to chop the mushrooms - I like them chopped quite small so that they become almost indistinguishable from the mushrooms in the sauce...

When the peppers have about 15 minutes left to cook, add the mushrooms to the tomato sauce and continue to simmer...

and then add the lentils just before the peppers are ready...

During this time you also need to make the white sauce - I do this between adding the mushrooms and lentils above. First melt 40g butter...

before mixing in 40g plain flour and cooking for a minute or two...

finally add 350ml milk and keep whisking to ensure a smooth sauce...

All the hot ingredients ready for layering...

and the cold...

I won't completely bore you with step by step photos of the layers (for that see original lasagne post!) but it goes: roast peppers - tomato sauce - lasagne sheets - white sauce - roast peppers - tomato sauce - lasagne sheets - white sauce - cheese. A couple of the prettier layer photos...

and the final layer of cheese before putting in the oven at 200C for 30-35 minutes...

after cooking...

This is so tasty...

I love it much more than meat lasagne - the peppers give it more substance - you get veggies to bite into as well as the slightly smoother tomato sauce, yum!

and best of all (!!) baby was too tired to stay up and have dinner with us, so I managed to save a portion to have for my lunch tomorrow, yey!

After dinner, I fancied something sweet so decided to make Averie's Peanut Butter Cups. I tried to make these before but they were a bit of a fail - only cheap milk chocolate available when I had the urge to make them, not enough chocolate and not enough patience to let them set properly. Today was different, I had dark chocolate and I forced myself to have patience...

I'm glad to say they were definitely worth the wait...

and I made 6 of them so if I can stop myself from going back to the fridge I have more to eat tomorrow! :)

A high note to end the day with! :) Indeed, looking back at this post, I've just realised that, with the exception of dinner (and a couple of unpictured lattes), every single thing I've eaten today has included peanut butter...yum :)

Oh and finally, just to write it down, I will be going to the gym tomorrow morning, ok? I haven't been for about a month, which is just ridiculous when I pay gym membership, and Friday mornings is the easiest time of the week to go (Liam at home to look after the children) so I will charge my iPod, get out my trainers and go do some exercise! & then I can eat more peanut butter cups afterwards!! :)