Start of September…Back to Pumpkin

Am I ready for the end of Summer – both the school holidays and the sunny weather? No.

Am I, nevertheless, starting to look forward to Autumn? Maybe.

I was doing a bit of online window shopping last night and, instead of bikinis or cute summer dresses, I found myself lusting after hoodies and chunky jumpers.

And I may have opened one of my (many) tins of pumpkin that has been lurking in my larder since last Autumn. I actually opened it on the 31st August, but shhh, we’ll keep pretending that my taste buds are super in tune with the seasons!!

So on Friday I made a Oh She Glow’s pumpkin gingerbread smoothie – one of my favourites from last year.

Delicious, but too strongly spiced for Toby, and perhaps a bit too fall-like for me just yet.

So this morning I cut out the spices and molasses, added in the all important peanut butter (!), and made a mellowed down pumpkin smoothie that is perfect for adult and children taste buds alike!

Peanut Pumpkin Smoothie
(makes 2 large portions)

• half a tin of pumpkin (200g)
• 2 frozen bananas, chopped before freezing
• 500ml milk (I used organic cows but you could use non-dairy if you want this to be vegan)
• 50g oats
• one huge heaping tbsp smooth peanut butter (prob about 60g?)

1. Put the milk, oats and pumpkin into the blender jar, and leave in the fridge for a few hours/overnight. This isn't essential, but will help you get a smoother result.
2. Add the bananas and peanut butter when you are ready to eat, and blend until smooth and creamy.

I prepped this first thing this morning and put it in the fridge whilst Izzy and I went swimming. Exactly what we wanted when we got home a few hours later

Thumbs up from Izzy (despite the face, ha, I think she still had a mouth full of smoothie!!)…

And Toby gave it his version of a thumbs up too…

Divine. I think I possibly even prefer this version to the spiced one – it has a lighter flavour whilst still being super thick and creamy. Definitely more “appropriate” while the sun is still shining…the perfect transition into pumpkin season!!

Are you ready for Summer to be over yet? Thought about eating pumpkin? I love summer, especially the recent (for England) heat we’ve been having – beach, iced lattes, sunbathing etc are my idea of bliss. I’m also sad that schools start back next week, however it is never too early to start eating pumpkin!! I’m pretty sure I was still eating it into Spring this year, but I have seemingly now had a long enough break from it to start wanting it again! I might stick to this smoothie for now though – pumpkin oats can start happening when the weather gets cooler again, which wont be long I’m sure!

Mish Mash Wednesday

I was planning to write a WIAW post today, but I haven't blogged for so long that I have too much to share - so you get a random post of lots of different things today instead!

This week has been a bit hectic on the children front - Toby moved into a "big boy" bed on Sunday night:

which has meant him (and us!) getting a lot less sleep than usual. That plus his pushchair breaking yesterday (and him therefore being in a new-to-him pushchair that I borrowed from my friend) led to him having a full on meltdown on the seafront yesterday! :( luckily the pushchair was easily fixed by buying a new inner tube for the tyre, so I thought we were back to normal this morning until Izzy, despite having had a brilliant walk to school no problems etc, decided to cling to me and burst into tears when I dropped her off at school this morning. Gah. Sometimes I feel that I'm in a battle that I'm definitely not winning (!) but just got to keep trying each day!!

I've been trying to keep myself feeling positive with some "me time" - lots of nail painting has been going on around here! First they were pink...

At the moment they're purple/lilac...

And in a minute I will hopefully have time to paint them green as the purple has chipped already! At least I enjoy painting them...I may have bought 3 new nail polishes this week, but I used my Boots points for two of them so that doesn't count right?! ;)

Toby moving into a big bed also prompted us to finally give Izzy her new bedding (which was meant to be a housewarming gift to her, oops!). It is quite simple bedding - designed to look like a piece of lined paper - but it came with a pack of washable pens...I wrote "I [heart] Izzy xxx" on the first line but she still couldn't believe that she was actually allowed to draw on her bed, haha, one very excited little girl once she understood!! :)

I [heart] Izzy was quickly followed by the same with Mummy, Daddy and Toby and she then added pictures to each one. Apparently every time we wash the bedding I "have" to put the top line back in as she loves it so much, bless her, at least someone appreciates me!! ;)

Moving onto food. At the weekend I was sent a loaf of Burgen Sunflower and Chia Seed bread and asked to come up with a healthy recipe using it to enter into a competition. I first wanted to try the bread, so had some for lunch on Monday toasted with a peach and some mozzarella...

I've been eating so many peaches lately - love summer fruits! I also really enjoyed the bread, it didn't have as many chia seeds as I'd expected but had a overall balanced nutty/seedy taste.

So the recipe. As you will probably know, I have a big sweet tooth so my first thought was bread and butter pudding. But this recipe was meant to be healthy, and I've been trying to incorporate more vegetables into my diet lately so I decided to try making a savoury bread and butter pudding. I have also been loving Costa mushroom and emmental toasted sandwiches lately so used that as a starting point and this is what I ended up with. I got rid of the word "pudding" as that was confusing Liam - he really liked the dish, but not when he was thinking of it as a pudding!!

Mushroom and Pepper Savoury Bread Bake
(serves 8, easily halved)

• 4 peppers, chopped
• oil
• 500g mushrooms, halved (I used half button, half chestnut)
• 10g butter
• 600ml milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 eggs
• 8 slices Burgen sunflower and chia seed bread
• 40g emmental cheese

1. First roast the peppers in a little oil (I use a spray bottle to just lightly cover) for 30 minutes at 180C.

2. Next, cook the mushrooms in a pan with the butter, over a low heat for approx 10-15 minutes. Drain the cooking liquid off the mushrooms and set aside.

3. To make the "custard", gently heat the milk adding salt and pepper to taste. At this point I also added extra emmental cheese, but to be honest it all seemed to get left behind in the sieve so I would skip that part next time. Or maybe make the custard without heating the milk and sieving...hmm. More thought needed. I was just basing the method on how I make sweet bread and butter pudding and it did work really well, but I might try a different method next time to see if it works even better!

4. Add the eggs to the warm milk and whisk to combine. Strain custard mixture through a sieve.

5. Time to get your dishes ready - for this I made two bakes - one in a traditional bread and butter pudding dish, one in a loaf tin. As written above, you could easily half all the ingredients and just make one.

6. Cut all the slices of bread into 4 triangles. I didn't butter the bread - just put it into the dish to cover the bottom, then layer with vegetables, more bread, more vegetables and a then a final layer of bread. I used 4 slices of bread per dish. In the pudding dish I did two layers of mixed vegetables, in the loaf tin I did one layer of peppers and then one layer of mushrooms, although to be honest it still didn't turn out as prettily as I'd hoped!

7. Finish the dish with a layer with finely grated emmental cheese. You could also put some cheese in between the layers. I didn't this time as I'd been hoping that the custard would be cheese flavoured, but next time I definitely would.

8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 40-45 minutes.

We ate this on its own, but it would be perfect with some green veg or even just some salad. We all really enjoyed this - Izzy had seconds and Liam has taken some of the leftovers to work today. Liam loved the peppers and the crunchy top layer best, but my favourite part was actually the cooked mushrooms with the softer middle layer, haha, a dish that caters to both our tastes = win! :)

I could not get a pretty photo no matter how many I took - it tasted a lot better than it looks!!

I also enjoyed a slice of the sunflower and chia seed bread for my lunch today, topped with two eggs scrambled with leftover roasted peppers, mmm. Now I need to decide what to have for my 5pm "meal" before spinning tonight. My 16 year-old sister is coming along tonight for the first time, and my other sister can make the same class as me this week too so all 3 of us will be going along!

Oh and final positive note to end the post, I'm just back from my last ever trip to the old house for a "check out" visit, and the estate agents were really impressed with how clean it was thanks to Liam so hopefully we'll get the majority of our deposit back, phew! We were so relieved to hand the keys back on Monday - the need to clean the old house has been hanging over our heads for the last two weeks, so one or both of us has been over there most of the time. At least now we can concentrate on unpacking the last of the boxes and getting our new house in order.

Have you ever tried Burgen bread? Or baking with chia seeds? I love Burgen soya and linseed bread - one of my favourite seedy breads as it's full of seeds without being too heavy. I don't usually like chia seeds but my friend has gotten really into them recently and has tempted me to give them another go. She's been making them into a gel and then putting the gel into juice (so possibly similar to the chia seed drinks you can buy in the US) but she also wants to bake bread with them so was interested to see how Burgen have done it!

Sesame Tofu + Egg Fried Rice

Today I want to share a recipe with you. I hadn't planned to share it, but last night's dinner was so delicious that I feel it deserves its own post! Of course I didn't realise that until after I'd started eating it so I don't have a huge amount of photos for you...I guess that just means you'll have to go make it yourself right?! ;)

Sesame Tofu with Egg Fried Rice
(serves 3)

• 225g rice (I prefer brown, but for Liam this I used white basmati)
• 1 block tofu (I use Cauldron which is just under 400g)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp tahini
• sesame seeds
• oil
• 150g frozen peas
• 4 eggs

1. Start by preparing the tofu. For this I sliced it quite thinly (into about 10 slices) and then cut each slice in half. Next press the tofu to get as much of the excess water out as possible. I do this by placing the tofu in one layer between two chopping boards, both with tea towels on the inside of them, and then putting heavy things - a full kettle, bottles of squash etc - on top! Leave the tofu to press for about two hours if you have time.
2. Next make the marinade by mixing 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp tahini and a little hot water to thin. Place the pressed tofu in a dish (I find a baking tray easiest so the tofu can stay in one layer) and cover with marinade - leave for about half an hour.
3. Cook the rice according to the instructions. My white rice takes about 12 minutes so that is what the following times are based on, but if your rice takes longer to cook then wait a while before following the rest of the steps.
4. Once the rice has started cooking, place the tofu in one layer on your grill pan. Sprinkle sesame seeds over each slice of tofu and grill under a high heat for 8 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn't burn too much!
5. Flip your tofu over, sprinkle sesame seeds onto the second side and grill for another 8 minutes.
6. This is a good time to make your sauce. Really simple - just mix 1 tbsp honey with 2 tbsp soy sauce and enough water to thin it down. Set aside until ready to serve.
7. When the rice is cooked, place a little oil in a wok and heat to medium high. Add the rice and the peas and stir fry for a few minutes.
8. Move the rice/peas over to one side of the wok to make space for the eggs. Scramble the eggs into the wok and let them start to cook. Once they are about half way cooked stir them in through the rice and continue cooking until the egg pieces are set.
9. Serve the egg fried rice onto three plates, top with the cooked tofu and pour over the sauce. Enjoy!

Despite the slightly lengthy instructions, this isn't actually difficult to cook. The egg fried rice is something I cook regularly as an easy Friday night meal. It is also good with garlic/sweetcorn/spring onion added in, I just was all out as we were doing a food shop today. I also usually cook my tofu under the grill, but I've never added sesame seeds to it before and they went fantastically - Liam and I both agreed that I will be adding sesame seeds every time I cook tofu from now on! The honey sauce was also a winner - it brought the whole dish together and added a sweet touch to an otherwise savoury dish. This was loved by all of us - clean plates all round!

What is your favourite way to cook tofu? When I first started cooking it, I would stir fry it, but I never do that now. I do occasionally bake it, which I suppose is easier as you don't need to stand over it watching to make sure it doesn't burn, but I definitely prefer the texture when it is grilled. I always try to set aside time to press it first too - makes such a difference!

Hope you're all having a nice weekend! :)

Raspberry Chocolate Orange Porridge {Recipe}

When Toby life chucks a smoothie at you...

Mean Mummy taking a photo...I had to laugh or I'd have cried as well!!

make porridge instead... (luckily there was enough smoothie left in the jug for Izzy and Toby, so I made this porridge for me when I had more time after the school run!)

Raspberry Chocolate Orange Porridge
(serves 1)

• 35g oats (feel free to increase the oats and milk quantity - this is my Slimming World amount!)
• 175ml milk (next time I would use the juice from the orange as part of the liquid)
• 100g frozen raspberries
• approx 20g cocoa powder (adjust to taste)
• stevia/sugar, to taste
• 1 tbsp chocolate orange spread (or just chocolate spread if you haven't been to Sainsbury's!)
• zest of half an orange

I cook my porridge in the microwave, but you can make it on the stove if you've got more patience. Just mix the oats, milk/juice, raspberries, cocoa powder and sweetener together and cook until the porridge has reached your desired consistency.
Top with the chocolate orange spread and orange zest, and enjoy.

This isn't exactly a complex recipe is it?! But it was such a delicious combination that I wanted to record it so that I remember to make it again. Plus I needed something good to come out of the blender incident - not the greatest start to Monday morning!

I normally refuse to make smoothies for breakfast on school day mornings as in my head it takes too long to make/eat. But as the chocolate pb banana smoothie doesn't have any frozen fruit in it, I figured it would be quicker. Unfortunately I made the fatal error of taking the lid off to taste it, deciding it needed to be sweeter so going to the cupboard to get some maple syrup (all out of agave, sad times!), and in those few seconds Toby decided to press the 'pulse' button, getting smoothie everywhere!! As you can from the photo, he clearly shocked himself as well, poor little guy! I nearly didn't take a photo/post it as it did feel a bit mean, but I had the camera there already so it only took a second and, like I said, if I didn't laugh/turn it into a blog post so that there was some "point" to it, I'd have cried too!

I sent my Mum a text after I'd calmed Toby down, and her response was "the morning can only get better" but no, next minute - while I was tying Izzy's hair up - Toby decided to pour the whole glass of Liam's squash on to the carpet. Aaargh!! Bless him, he had conjunctivitis last week and he still isn't quite himself...well, either that or the 'terrible twos' have well and truly hit!!

Any other Monday morning disaster stories to share? Go on, writing it down might make you feel better!! I always struggle on Mondays to get back into routine after the weekend, and little "set-backs" like this one definitely don't help! Miraculously we still just made it to school in time to change Izzy's books before registration - success! And now Toby is having a nap, maybe the day really will start getting better!! ;-)

WIAW - Broccoli Frittata

Hello! Happy What I Ate Wednesday! Thanks as always to Jenn! This is the last WIAW in March - aka Green month - I haven't eaten quite as many green vegetables this week, but over the course of the whole month it has definitely inspired me to try some new green combinations.


I'm a bit late writing this post today - now that the evenings are lighter, the children have been going to bed later, so Liam and I have lost at least an hour of "sit down time" once the children are asleep, the washing up has been done etc! Oh well better late than never...this is what I ate yesterday. The day didn't start off too green, so I put my meals on green plates/dishes instead...that totally counts right?!! ;)

Breakfast yesterday was amazing - so good in that that I had it again today! Chai banana porridge:

This was just oats, milk, mashed banana and 20g spiced chai powder. So good that it didn't even need a topping - the chai adds sweetness and extra flavour. Yum!

My sister started her new job today, so yesterday she came over for a couple of hours to spend some time in the garden. Izzy was off school as well, so I made Sarah Izzy and Toby macaroni cheese for lunch. I didn't fancy that though - it was way too hot to have a hot lunch! I had an iced latte instead (mmm!) and then when Sarah left I had some raw carrots with lemon coriander houmous:

I had planned to have a 2nd part to lunch, but I hadn't realised how late it had got - it was already 3pm by the time I ate this! Instead I had one of my current favourite snacks to keep me going until an early dinner - Greek yoghurt mixed with cocoa powder and vanilla stevia...

I've been eating this a lot this week - either eaten like this just with a spoon, or spread on toast. I also love it mixed with berries but I haven't got any in at the moment (Toby easily eats a punnet of blueberries in a day so as soon as I do buy them they disappear!!).

Liam's Nan was transferred from the local hospital to a nursing home today. Great news for her, but it does mean that she's now a half hour drive away instead of just down the road. Liam only found this out on Monday so he went to see her straight from work last night. Liam not at home for dinner = a chance to eat something he dislikes. I'd really fancied a frittata as my 2nd part of my lunch so I decided to make a large one for me and the children to have for dinner instead. Liam used to like frittata, but has recently gone off the texture of the eggs apparently. And he hates broccoli so this was perfect! ;-)

Broccoli and Cream Cheese Frittata
(serves 3)

• 200g tenderstem broccoli
• oil
• 6 eggs
• small pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 50g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia original)

1. First chop the tenderstem broccoli (I chopped each stem into 3 pieces) and lightly cook in boiling water just for 2-3 minutes.
2. Crack all the eggs into a bowl and mix with salt and garlic powder.
3. Add a small amount of oil to a frying pan and bring to a medium heat. Add the broccoli and then pour over the eggs. Mix around to get the broccoli evenly dispersed across the pan.
4. Cover the pan with a lid and cook on a low to medium heat for approx 4-5 minutes (until almost cooked)
5. Blob the cream cheese across the frittata and put under a medium-high grill for a minute or two until the frittata is thoroughly cooked/lightly browned as you prefer. Slice in the pan and serve with salad and/or buttered bread.

I sliced our frittata into 7 slices - 2 for me, 2 for Izzy and 1 for Toby to have for dinner with salad...and 2 more for me to have cold later as an evening snack - Liam was disgusted but I love it almost more cold than I do hot!!

When Liam came home from seeing his Nan, he brought a whole 4 cheese pizza with him!! He tried to persuade me to help him out by eating a few slices, but I resisted. I'd already eaten dinner and really didn't need it, so instead I ate the above two slices as my evening snack. It did strike me that the frittata would make a great pizza base. Not a new idea by any means - I've seen quite a few other people using omelettes as the base for pizza before - but one I definitely want to try sometime soon.

And that was the end of my WIAW - at least it ended on a green note!

Do you like frittata/Spanish omelette/tofu scramble? What would be your ideal fillings/toppings? My Grandma makes a traditional Spanish omelette with garlic, onion and potatoes which is gorgeous. I'm always too impatient to wait for the potatoes to cook though, so tend to just use whatever vegetables I have to hand instead. I do like blobbing either Philadelphia or goats cheese on top as well, gives it a nice texture contrast and different flavour. I also quite often mix smoked paprika in with eggs as well, not sure why I just stuck with garlic powder this time but it was still delicious!

Splashy Saturday!

Happy Saturday! Are you all having fun? Ours has been...splashy?!!

Splash #1 occurred early in the morning - I went swimming as soon as the pool opened at 8am. I was meant to be going with Mum but she cancelled at the last minute so I went on my own. Not my best workout to be honest - I only did 30 lengths (of a 25m pool) instead of my usual 40. I normally alternate between breaststroke and front crawl but my sciatica is really bad today, and was worse when doing breaststroke so I did almost all front crawl, but then that made my left ankle play up. Gah! I really hope the podiatrist can do sometime to help the pain when I see her on Friday! Still, 30 lengths in 23 minutes...better than nothing I suppose.

I got through the last few lengths by promising myself a trip to Costa afterwards. Skinny latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup for the walk home:

The sugar-free syrup wasn't as nice as my normal choice of sugary gingerbread syrup, but better than no sugar at all. I can't decide which is best - it seems such a waste of calories to have the sugary syrup, but then I don't really like the idea of artificial sweeteners. Meh. Either way the coffee is good!

After I got back from swimming, Liam took Izzy to gym club and I had breakfast. Mashed banana porridge with homemade cinnamon raisin peanut butter...

I haven't told you about the peanut butter yet have I? I made it on Thursday but with the minor stress of yesterday, I forgot to take any daylight photos until today.

Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter

• 500g unsalted raw peanuts (I used redskin ones but I don't think it really matters)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 30g brown sugar, to taste (I used half each of demerara and soft brown sugar but next time I would just use soft as, whilst the demerara does mimic PB&Co's grittiness, I don't actually like that texture!)
• 100g raisins
• 2 tsp oil (if needed)

1. First, dry roast the peanuts at 160C for 20 minutes, stirring approximately every 5 minutes.

I used a second tray to roast the rest of the peanuts to keep them in a flat layer

2. Once the peanuts are roasted, put them in a food processor and process for 15-20 minutes until they reach a drippy peanut butter stage. Mine started going peanut butter-like at about 15 minutes so I processed for another few minutes to get nice and drippy. Stir as needed whilst processing to break up the clumps.

3. Now it's time to add your mix-ins. A little salt, cinnamon, sugar and half of the raisins (50g). This is where, for me, things got a bit clumpy so I also had to add 2 tsp of oil to get it to the right consistency. You may or may not need this.

Not as pretty but still really tasty!

4. Finally, add in the remaining 50g raisins and just pulse to combine so that they remain whole within the nut butter. Decant into a jar and store in a cool dry place.

So good! I love making my own nut butters, I enjoy the process as well as (obviously!) enjoying the finished product. This isn't as sweet as the PB&Co version, but I like that as you can really taste the peanuts rather than it being more like a sweet spread.

Anyway, back to this morning. As soon as Izzy and Liam got back from gym club, we all headed out to the hairdressers. Toby had his haircut, which requires me and Liam to be there - he sits on Liam's lap while I distract him!

Before:

After:

It's so short now! He looks all grown up :( Toby really likes it though, I think he was getting a bit fed up with constantly having hair in his eyes!

After Toby had finished having his hair cut, Liam took the children into town (to buy me a Mother's Day present I think, yey, Izzy was so excited to go shopping!!) and I had my hair cut. Not a huge difference really, mainly just a trim/re-shape. It was a different hairdresser to usual and I think she's put more layers in than I usually have, although it's hard to tell until I straighten it.

Before (post-swimming so I look a bit of a mess!!):

After:

Bad photo - blame Liam!

Like I say, not how I would normally style it, but I'm glad to have some shape back in my hair.

After a quick lunch - baguette with lots of different cheeses - we went for a walk to meet my Mum and Colin, and Colin's grandson. They didn't stay long though as Colin's daughter was coming back to pick up her baby soon, and no cuddles as the baby stayed fast asleep the whole time! After they'd left we had some fun down by the river...

Until Izzy fell in...whoops...splash #2!!

Bless her. She was fine, but a bit shaken up (and cold!) so we headed home for a change of clothes and hot chocolate! Now Toby is having a nap and we are watching Aladdin DVD...a quiet afternoon after a busy morning! :)

How have you spent your Saturday? Ever fallen in a river?? Liam was trying to make Izzy feel better by telling her about a time when he (after lots of alcohol) fell backwards into the sea...mobile phone and all! Apparently the tide had crept in whilst he and his friends had been having a BBQ on the beach, and Liam hadn't realised so lent backwards!! I don't think I've ever had an experience as wet as Izzy's - a few times I've fallen into rivers/wet patches on the moors up to my knees, but Izzy was soaked all the way up to her chest...poor little thing! She's fine now though, snuggled up watching one of her favourite Disney films = happy Izzy!!

Raspberry, Lime & Coconut Pancakes {recipe}

Happy Shrove Tuesday! Do you remember last year when I ate pancakes for every meal? I wasn't planning to eat that many again this year, but I've eaten 2 batches of these pancakes so far as the first batch was too thin/spread all over the pan into a, still tasty, mess. Just for you (!), I changed the recipe and made them again...and I'm so glad I did as the 2nd batch was perfect! More pancakes this evening, which I'll come back and tell you about later, but for now - go make these!

Raspberry, Lime and Coconut Pancakes
(serves 1 - makes 3 pancakes)

• 75g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 20g desiccated coconut
• 15g sugar
• 1 egg
• 15g oil (or melted butter)
• juice of half a lime
• 30-35ml milk
• 12 raspberries

1. Place a small amount of oil in a frying pan and place on a low-medium heat.
2. First combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, coconut and sugar) in a bowl.
3. Add the egg, oil and lime juice and mix.
4. Add the milk slowly - you want enough milk to "wet" all your flour etc, but you want the batter to still be quite thick.
5. Place the batter into the pan in three sections. Put 4 raspberries on top of each pancake and press down gently.
6. Cook the pancakes until they start bubbling. This will take a few minutes - be patient! Cooking the pancakes slowly gives a nice fluffy inside without a burnt outside.
7. When the pancakes start bubbling, gently flip them over and cook on the other side for another minute or two until golden brown.
8. Serve with more raspberries and coconut, and syrup if you'd like. Enjoy!

I'm not having much luck with my pancakes so far today. As I said above, the first batch I made spread all over the pan - the batter was way too runny so I ended up with 1 giant pancake mess! I adjusted the ratios for the second batch and these were perfect, but only 2 of them successfully survived the flip. Oh well, they tasted amazing. I'm not overly happy with any of the photos I took but they'll have to do - I'm way too full to consider eating any more pancakes until Izzy gets home!!

I suppose the third pancake wasn't too ugly - looking at these photos, they all seem to be rather misshapen anyway! Haha, taste over appearance, right?!! ;-)

These tasted perfect - all fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They reminded me more of biscuits than breakfast! The tang of the raspberries and lime juice cuts through the sweetness though - delicious. They were loosely based on my strawberry and coconut pancakes but I didn't want oats in these so I changed the recipe around a bit. That's where I went wrong with the first batch really - oats seemingly absorb a lot more liquid than flour so I had to increase the flour and decrease the liquid in second batch. These are great now though, and you could change up the flavours with different fruits etc. My go-to pancake recipe when I'm only cooking for myself now I think! :-)

Have you had any pancakes yet today? Or are you planning to? I've already had texts from a couple of family members this morning - my littlest sister ate 8 crepes before going to school and my Dad had American pancakes with bacon and maple syrup in a cafe. I didn't have time to make the children pancakes before school (I don't know how my Mum does it!) so I just gave them shop-bought Scotch pancakes and will make "proper" ones later. Izzy's having pancakes for pudding with her school lunch today too...we'll all be pancaked-out by the end of today...just how it should be!! ;-)