Would You Like Some Peanut Butter With That?

This week, my eating has NOT been very structured! What with being in hospital until Monday, and then having decorators in...last night was the first meal in over a week that I was able to cook in my own kitchen! I made it a good one though - Mama Pea's Quinoa Pizza Casserole...

I topped mine with grated cheddar, roast peppers and basil smoked tofu, with some salad on the side...

This was sooo good! Loved by all - I had thought I'd have some leftover's for today's lunch but Liam went back for seconds and polished it all off!!

Until last night though, I have been eating more snacks than meals! I spent most of the week at my Mum's house (luckily she lives just round the corner!), we did have a few meals such as pasta with roast vegetables and pesto...

and baked sweet potato with broccoli, roast asparagus and grilled pepper Philadelphia...

the green veggies I'd been longing for!! :)

However there were also many many snacks! A lot of these were peanut butter based - I seem to be making up for the lost peanut butter time from when we were in hospital!! There were Oreo cookies, with peanut butter...

Apologies for the rubbish photo - I was too busy eating - delish!

There was also a Dairy Milk chocolate bar, with peanut butter...

A good combo, but would've been even better with dark chocolate...obviously lots more peanut butter was spread on this after the photo!

And in the same "snacking session" a banana was also spread with peanut butter...

I have also this week eaten six packs of, unpictured, Reese's peanut butter cups, less 2 cups that Mum ate, so 16 peanut butter cups total!! They were reduced from 60p to 29p in Waitrose on Tuesday so I bought 3 packs, then on Thursday they were reduced further to 19p so I bought the last 3 packs...looks like Waitrose won't be selling them anymore :( I know I can make much better quality versions though, I ended up popping these in one after the other...too addictive!!

* To avoid any possible confusion, I have clearly eaten more than the above the last week - there have even been some other meals - muesli, soup, toasted teacake out with my Grandma etc - but less photos have been taken than usual due to disrupted routine!

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Today I had it all planned out that I would get back to normality. Daughter was back at school for morning + lunch today (thank you so much for all the well wishes, she's much better now, she started improving as soon as she had the op, so we're just glad they finally realised what was wrong with her!) and I had planned to go to the gym. That was until we snoozed the alarm for 45 minutes and ended up having to rush to get daughter to school - got out of the morning routine habit! I just had no energy this morning, had been awake in the night blah blah blah, and couldn't face the gym. After taking daughter to school, I settled for a healthy breakfast instead...

This was a bit of an "eat up fruit that's been forgotten about while we've been out of the house" smoothie - 2 small overripe bananas, 2 overripe pears, spinach, frozen cherries, vanilla rice milk and xanthan gum. Topped with toasted coconut flakes and, of course, peanut butter...

this was fantastic! My smoothies can be a bit hit or miss (especially if I add protein powder, bleugh, not a fan of the texture!) but this was divine :) I have to admit it though that it pretty much just tasted of banana and peanut butter...but that's fine with me!! :)

Lunch today was a simple poached egg on seeded toast...

I was doing so well! Then Liam went to work and the peanut butter jar started calling to me from the cupboard!!

Medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter...

and then peanut butter based fudgy oaties inspired by Oh She Glow's Frosty No-Bake Glo Cakes. I simplified it down a bit, just mashing the last small overripe banana (55g), then mixing in 45g peanut butter, 20g maple syrup, 8g cocoa powder and 35g oats. I wanted a fudgy pudding so I didn't freeze the mix, in fact I only managed to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes before I could wait no longer! Topped with chocolate chips...

I shared this with my daughter for a tasty afternoon snack, it reminded me of something but I can't put my finger on what it was (annoying!) but it was super yum, lovely and gooey and chocolatey :) It also kept me going until after I'd fed the children, put them to bed and had time to make my own dinner.

The original plan for dinner was roasted butternut squash wedges thanks to Mr Waitrose...

but after spending some of the afternoon browsing Oh She Glow's Recipe Page, I found a way to add some peanut butter into my meal! Parsnips...

with yet more peanut butter, in the form of Peanut Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries...

with the addition of lemon & coriander houmous from this trio...

all cooked and put together...

this was delicious and, despite appearances, really filling. I'd been a bit worried that the parsnip fries wouldn't crisp up because the butternut squash took up a bit too much space in the baking tray, but these were perfect! I love the crunchy crust that the peanut butter formed :)

2 hours later I'm still full up, so hopefully that'll be me done eating-wise for today!

This weekend has the potential to be a bit food-filled - today is Liam & I's anniversary, but he has to work (boo!) so we're going out for dinner tomorrow night. Then Sunday is Mothering Sunday and I'm baking a cake to take round to my Mum's in the afternoon...details will be shared once made if it's a success!! I must just try to eat as healthily as possible - I feel so much better when I do - not sure where peanut butter falls in that though - it seems to have replaced my old addiction to Nutella!

Hope you're all looking forward to the weekend! It's going to be quite a busy one here - as well as the foodie occasions mentioned above, I'm also meeting a friend for coffee tomorrow morning, and going to see daughter (she's well enough to be in it, yey!) and my little sister in a dance show in the afternoon. Should be a good one :)

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 :)



It Was All Yellow...

Apologies for the corny post title...it gives me a good excuse to show off my pretty flowers though! :)

My Mum brought them round for me this morning, yey, aren't they pretty? Reduced too, we do love a bargain in our family!! :) I was particularly happy as Liam and I have decided not to give each other anything for Valentine's Day this year. Now though, with these flowers and I'm planning to open a box of Booja Booja truffles tomorrow, I can still feeling like I'm being treated!! :)

The main reason for the blog title though is what I ate for "dinner" this evening...we'll get to that later.

Back to more important things...such as food...

A couple of happy coincidences yesterday meant I was "destined" to have my first ever smoothie in a bowl yesterday. I used to make smoothies all the time a few years ago but haven't made them in ages. Yesterday I had bought Xanthan Gum with the intention of thickening smoothies at some point, and Bear Granola packets (not that I realised then that they would end up on a smoothie!) Then when I saw Jess' blog post yesterday, her strawberry smoothie in a bowl inspired me! I couldn't find the recipe she referred to on Laura's blog so I just made up my own with what I had in.

In the mix:

150g frozen strawberry slices & blueberries

50g fresh raspberries (a last minute addition, hence not in original picture)

200ml Kara coconut milk

50g Meridian peanut butter

Little bit Xanthan gum

Topped with:

30g packet of Bear's Cocoa Cherry Pie Granola

The stick blender I'd been intending to use turned out to be in need of *ahem* a good clean after sitting in the cupboard for a couple of years, so I hoped my little Kenwood would be up to the job!

It worked! Although note to self: (I keep forgetting this!) put the blade in BEFORE the ingredients - I had to tip all this into a bowl to get the blade in...more washing up! Worth it though...

into a bowl...

I'd never had Bear granola before today either, hadn't realised it would have pink bits in it to perfectly match the smoothie!!

This was so yummy! :) Next time (and there will be many more!) I will increase the Xanthan gum and/or decrease the milk a little bit as it wasn't as thick as I was expecting. I will also probably give the peanut butter a miss as I could barely taste it, so would rather use the extra calories to have peanut butter with apple (or just on my fingers!!) later in the day. Delicious though, now I've realised how easy it is to make this in my blender it will feature regularly, a great start to the day, and kept me going til lunch, bonus!

Lunch was a simple baked sweet potato with tuna & sweetcorn mayo...

easy to have ready for when Liam comes home on his lunch break, but still very yummy :)

On Friday I bought all the veggies to go with Laura's Socca, which I didn't end up making, so I was planning to make that tonight after the rest of them had eaten up the greasy party food that had been in the freezer since Christmas. I took a few photos of their dinner to show how greasy, unappetising and, well, yellow it looked...

greasy yucky yellow food. But you know what's coming next right? I have no willpower! Whilst feeding the baby, I managed to shove in my mouth... 2 sesame prawn toast, 1 filo prawn, 5 butterfly prawns, 1 battered prawn, 2 onion bhajis, 4.5 cocktail sausages, and a few too many chips with ketchup. I am so annoyed with myself! I didn't even enjoy it, was just putting it in my mouth mindlessly whilst chatting to the others! Grrr. No healthy socca with veggies for dinner for me yet again!! I felt so bloated after this as well, we all did, I don't even know why I bought it...got sucked into the "party food for Christmas" I guess!

I did find time for a little more food this evening though. My computer crashed whilst I was in the middle of writing this post (which had luckily saved itself) so I got out some chocolate from the cupboard - Montezuma's Sea Dog (dark chocolate with lime and salt)...

I've never had Montezuma's chocolate before - love the pattern on it! Did make it hard to break though so I had more than intended...

and am now nibbling on the rest of it...whoops! [blush!] It is very yummy, reminds me of the chocolate lime sweets, you know the hard boiled lime sweets with chocolate inside? Yum. Not as salty as Lindt sea salt chocolate, but still has a little salty taste to it. I like! :)