Apple Crumble Baked Oats

I've been meaning to write this recipe post ever since I had it for breakfast on Thursday, and again on Friday. This morning I ate something different, but only because Liam offered to make French toast for me and I couldn't turn down the chance of someone else doing the cooking!

When I saw Maria's Apple Crumble Bars, I loved the sound of them, but I didn't need to make any more baked goods at the moment (muffins, cheesecake and brownies have all already been made this week!) so I turned the idea into breakfast instead...

Apple Crumble Baked Oats
(serves 1)

• 40g oats
• 90ml milk (the second day I made this with tinned coconut milk which worked even better)
• 15g agave
• cinnamon
• 25g sultanas
• brown demerara sugar, a sprinkle of

Apple layer:

• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 15g agave
• cinnamon (the second day I accidentally tipped loads of cinnamon into the apples, so missed it out of the oats - use however much you like)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C.
2. Place the apple, agave and cinnamon into a microwave-proof dish, loosely cover with clingfilm and microwave on medium for 3 minutes. Mash roughly with a fork - the apples don't need to be perfectly smooth.
3. Next, mix together all the oat ingredients.
4. Spray/grease a little baking dish (I used a silicone mini loaf pan)
5. Put half the oat mixture into the baking dish and spread out.
6. Cover the oat layer with the cooked apples, before putting the rest of the oat layer on top.
7. Finish off with a sprinkle of brown sugar and bake for 20 minutes.
8. To serve, I ran a knife around the edges, tipped onto one plate and then transferred back to another plate so that the crunchy brown sugar was still on top. A bit of a faff, but it worked!

Inside, there is a lovely hot apple layer running through the middle...

On Thursday, I topped the apple crumble oats with apple and blackberry yoghurt...

...and on Friday I topped it with spiced plum jam (that I found in Lidl - I haven't tried the strawberry rhubarb one yet)...

...but it would be equally delicious on its own. It has a subtle sweetness, and the slightly firmer texture of the oats goes wonderfully with the softer cooked apple. A delicious breakfast for the colder months ahead...I will be making this time and time again I'm sure!

What are your favourite cold weather breakfasts? I love porridge with all its toppings, but baked oats are rapidly becoming a favourite - I find the texture of them more interesting than regular porridge. They're great too as they're easy to prepare so I make them up while Toby is hovering around my legs, then he usually goes for his nap while my breakfast is baking, so that I can eat in peace! (alternatively he sits on my lap and shares mouthfuls, but that isn't quite so enjoyable for me!!) At the weekends, I often have things like French toast, pancakes and poached eggs on toast...I can't seem to find the enthusiasm for smoothies as much when the weather gets colder, so I'll have to think of a different way to get lots of fruit and veg into me!

Wedding Photos - Drinks Reception and Group Photos

It's that time of the week where I get back to look back on our wedding again! :) I nearly didn't manage to post today as my laptop is very much on its last legs. I managed to revive it this time by taking the battery and charger out, and holding down the power button to reset it, which is what the repair man on the phone always says to do. Then my laptop ran "start-up repair" and, for now, it seems to be working again...a new laptop is definitely top of my Christmas list this year, I just hope this one lasts til then!!

Anyway, moving on to happier times! Last week, I wrote about all the food we served at our wedding, the first round of which was served at the drinks reception 4.30pm-6pm ish.

After the ceremony, Liam and I went to get our drinks first and then, although not planned, we ended up waiting in the archway between the two rooms, chatting to everyone as they passed through. It was really nice to get a chance to speak to everybody - that was one of the things I wanted to make sure I did as it would have been too easy to get caught up in the day and not actually have time to speak to everyone who had travelled to share our day. So this worked well, although admittedly it did mean that it took quite a long time for everyone to make their way outside. Here are a few photos from when we were still inside:

Lots of people getting drinks

Izzy pretending to drink champagne!

Me with Liam's Uncle Chris

Us with Liam's Nan

My friend with her daughter - I love that expression!!!

We then went outside, where some people drank more than others...!!

Haha, sorry Marion, I couldn't resist! :) This is my youngest sister's Godmother (and a very good friend of my Mum's)...apparently the 2nd glass of fizz was Olivia's!

Izzy had a fantastic time playing with my cousin...

So much so that she's not in half the group photos, and those she is in, she's looking wistfully over towards the fun!!

The only photo of the 4 of us and she's not looking at the camera!

Paul, our waiter for the day, handed round more nibbles...

And after a while, Paul, the photographer, started taking group photos. I won't share all the group photos with you as they're probably less interesting, but here are a few of them:

Us with Liam's brother - the best man - and my sister Olivia - a bridesmaid

All the siblings, and children (with Izzy not looking at the camera!)

With my parents

With Liam's parents

The "boys"

The "girls"

Everyone

After the group photos, we had a confetti throw...

And then I also threw my bouquet (there was no space to throw it inside later on)...

Liam's sister, Danni, caught it...

People asked me afterwards if I'd thrown it at Danni on purpose, but my only aim had been to throw the bouquet as far as the line of people!!

After this we all went inside for speeches, food and dancing...but I will save those photos for my final wedding post next week :)

What would be your choice of drink to serve at a wedding? Or, what is your favourite "special" drink? We went with pink fizz, but if it had been purely up to me we would have had Pimms. Pimms is my favourite summery drink, and we've been to a couple of weddings where they did serve Pimms - including the wedding we went to this August. However, we decided that, as the drinks reception was being manned by my Mum's friends, having Pimms would have meant more work for them. I don't really like wine or fizz so I stuck to the fizzy elderflower cordial in the afternoon, and then the venue manager made up a jug of Pimms to have behind the bar especially for me in the evening so I still got to have my favourite drink! :)



WIAW - Liam's Last Day Before New Job

Evening everyone! Sorry I've been absent the last few days - Liam started his new job yesterday and so has out the house for about 12 hours each day. Toby has also decided to wake up at 4.30am the last two days...suffice to say that the last few days have consisted of lots of this...

Coffee + ice + almond milk + vanilla stevia drops. Despite Toby's wishes, I don't let him have any! You wouldn't think that would need stating, but on Saturday I went shopping at Waitrose (last shop with staff discount!) and Liam left the kids at his Mum's house to come and pick me up. When we went back to get them, Liam's Mum commented "Oh, Toby keeps looking at my mug of tea, I was just about to go and make him one." Shudder. I quickly said that he still only drinks water or milk and juice when he steals Izzy's drink at the moment!!

 Anyway, mini-rant over, today is, of course, Wednesday, so it's What I Ate Wednesday time! Thanks, as always, to Jenn for organising the party :)

These photos are actually from Monday as the last couple of days I've only managed to photograph about half of what I've eaten - I need to get back into some sort of routine rather than constantly snacking! Monday though - Liam had his last shift at Waitrose on Sunday, so had Monday off before starting his new job. Once we'd dropped Izzy at school, Liam, Toby and I headed into Exeter. First stop, breakfast at Starbucks.

I still haven't managed to try the mini "Magic Bar" (some kind of coconutty thing apparently?) but that didn't feel very breakfasty, so I went with the fruit loaf, and a caramel latte. The fruit loaf was amazing! It was thick and doughy in some places, and thin and caramelised in others, with sultanas and dried cherries (from what I can remember) in it, yum!

We then did some shopping. We first took Toby to get his feet measured, but as his feet haven't grown at all over the summer, I declined the shop assistant's offer to buy a pair of £32 shoes in half a size up "just in case"! I'll take him back to be measured in a few weeks instead! We did find him a nice rain jacket though - we looked in a few places first before eventually getting one in BHS. All the other stores seemed to just have navy or black coats for boys, which seemed to grown up for our little baby (!!), the bright red one we got in the end suits him much better :)

It wasn't long before my stomach started rumbling for lunch. I really wanted to go back to the vegetarian restaurant we went to before, but as it was "Liam's day" I gave him the choice and he wasn't feeling hungry enough to cope with their huge portion sizes! We went to Wagamama instead. We shared a vegetable summer roll from the specials menu to start...

This had raw veggies and noodles inside. I'd never had a rice paper roll before - I wasn't expecting it to be gummy!! The flavours were good though, apart from the coriander - I'm really not a fan of coriander :(

For my main, I went for my favourite - yasai yaki soba...

Delicious as always - you can't go wrong with noodles, egg and veggies in my opinion, especially when someone else is cooking it for you! I love stir fries but hardly ever cook them at home - partly due to all the veg chopping that's required, but also because they never seem to taste as nice coming out of my kitchen!

Toby was really good at lunchtime - we're always a bit nervous taking him out to restaurants, but he sat really well in a highchair eating bits of our food and drinking milk.

I think having a straw to himself was a bit of a novelty - normally he just tries to steal Izzy's!

Once we got home and had picked Izzy up, I had a snack of apple and peanut butter (which Liam randomly made into a "flower"!) as...wait for it...I was planning to do exercise that evening!

Yep, for the first time in 2.5 months - since the Monday before our wedding - I went to Circuits! I actually wasn't feeling great - my stomach started killing me in the afternoon - so I nearly didn't go, but one of my Mum's friends was staying with her for a couple of days and was also planning to go to circuits, so I felt I needed to go to show her the way, as Mum was meeting us there straight from a meeting. So I went. It was a much harder set-up than the last time we went, with a few killer ab exercises which I am still feeling today! It didn't make my tummy any worse at least, so I came home and ate my planned meal - leftovers. The original meal on Sunday night looked like this...

Paneer and pea curry, quinoa and naan bread. Monday's leftovers didn't look quite so appealing though, especially with the poor late night lighting - just a big bowl of curry with a couple of unpictured slices of bread to mop up the sauce...

Still delicious! I love homemade curries so much more than takeaway...I just sometimes struggle to find the energy to make it! Paneer makes for a much quicker curry than vegetables though, and everyone else loves it too - Izzy calls it "squeaky curry"!

After I'd eaten, it was time to relax - a couple of chocolates from the box I'd given Liam to say 'good luck' were consumed...

Liam and Izzy had been at them while I was exercising!

and my new hot water bottle was filled to try to soothe my tummy...

Haha, I love this. I'd had my old hot water bottle for 10 years, and it was actually recalled by the shop a year or so after I was given it! It still worked fine, but it was beginning to smell quite rubbery, so I decided it was time to treat myself to a new one :)

Oooh, not related to today's post but I've been meaning to ask you all:

Do you have any suggestions for packed lunches please?? With Izzy I have a little 'formula' that may be slightly boring, but is nice and easy - sandwiches/leftovers + fruit + veg + yoghurt + cheesestring. But with Liam, a) he needs more food than that as he takes breakfast and lunch, and b) he gets bored of having the same thing each day. I made a batch of cheese and chive muffins on Monday, so he has been taking two of those for his breakfast, then two rounds of sandwiches, banana, apple, juice carton, iced gems and biscuits for lunch - as I tweeted on Tuesday, he eats way more food, and especially sugar, than Izzy does!! I need more ideas though! I made a frittata earlier which Izzy is going to take cold for lunch tomorrow, but he's not keen on the idea of that. His work has a fridge and a kettle, but he's pretty sure no microwave or toaster. So what can he take each day that is filling but isn't just sandwiches? He struggles to think of food he wants to eat until he's actually hungry, which is obviously no good with packed lunches, so I'm on a mission to think of lots of ideas that he finds appetising!! :)

Pumpkin's Back!

Well, nearly. Before Liam stopped working at Waitrose (last shift today, whoop whoop!!) I asked him to find out something very important. Are they going to start selling Libby's tinned pumpkin again soon? The answer is YES! Apparently my local store is going to start stocking it again in a few weeks...I hope it's the same for other stores as I know some of you have also been having trouble buying it.

This means I can start using up the tins of pumpkin I've had stored in my cupboard since last winter - I didn't want to use them up too quickly until I knew I'd be able to replace my stash!

When I saw the rain pouring down this morning, one thing came to mind - Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

This was great, I loved having a different flavour to regular coffee, and it was less sweet than I was expecting from the recipe. As Averie suggests, I made a double batch of the pumpkin milk so I'd have more for coffee refills later...haha, yeah right!

I'd tried the pumpkin milk on its own as well and it was delicious, so I decided to pour some out to share with the children...

Needless to say, once the children tried this, I didn't get a look in!

As you might be able to tell from the above photos, Izzy didn't exactly get her fair share of the pumpkin milk either - Toby was very possessive of the glass/straw!!

So once Toby had gone for his morning nap, I used the last of the pumpkin milk to make Izzy and I some drinks - chocolatified! I'd left the pumpkin milk in the blender jug, so I re-blended it with cocoa powder and some agave nectar (plus a random splash of gingerbread syrup I had lying around) to make chocolate pumpkin smoothies...

I think I even preferred this to the coffee version...chocolate anything is usually a success!

Thanks for your well wishes for Izzy on my last post. She wasn't right at all on Friday - she even took herself off for a nap rather than having lunch which is definitely unusual for her! But she woke up on Saturday morning back to her normal self, and is now looking forward to going back to school tomorrow :) I don't know what caused it - she was only sick first thing in the morning, then just had a tummy ache all day - but I'm glad she's better now - I'll take bouncy, full of energy Izzy over quiet, poorly Izzy any day!

What are your favourite pumpkin recipes? Are there any other seasonal items you look forward to coming back into the shops? Next on my list for pumpkin recipes is pumpkin butter. I don't think I've ever tried any fruit butters before, but this recipe looks great, and pretty easy too. I do also love all the gingerbread type treats that Lidl seems to stock near Christmas. I noticed the other day that they've already started selling chocolate Santas, but I'm not ready for Christmas foods quite yet!

Cheer Me Up Chocolate Pancakes

I was meant to be meeting up with an old school friend today, who I haven't seen in 7 years. She lives in Germany now but is visiting the UK for a bit and was going to be in Exeter for a few hours today, before catching a train to London.

So we arranged to meet. I was going to drop Izzy at school and then Toby and I were going to get a bus to go meet her. I was really looking forward to it. Until life got in the way.

Toby woke up at 4am, and then again at 6am when he refused to go back to sleep. Not ideal - he might have been a bit grumpy, but he would have eventually fallen asleep in his pushchair.

Izzy came into me at 7.30am complaining of a stomach ache - actually not that unusual for her, it usually just means she wants a cuddle. When she was still complaining of a stomach ache downstairs I gave her some calpol and was still planning to send her to school.

Then, as I was putting the calpol back in the kitchen, I heard a horrible noise and rushed back into the sitting room just in time to see Izzy being sick all over the carpet, for the second time. That's when I knew that I was defeated.

I sent Izzy to get changed out of her sicky uniform into comfy clothes, and I texted my friend to cancel and apologise.

After being sick, Izzy did immediately feel a lot better, but as she still had a stomach ache I played it safe and only gave her toast with a smidge of jam for her breakfast.

I, however, needed a more special breakfast to cheer me up. I was feeling really down about not getting to catch up with my friend, and of course, for me, food is always a good way to make me feel better. So once Toby went for his (early) morning nap, I set about making breakfast.

Chocolate Pancakes with Black Forest Sauce
(serves 1 hungry person)

Pancakes:

• 30g oats
• 40g plain flour (I originally used 30g flour like normal, but had to add more as batter was too sloppy - so judge this yourself)
• quarter tsp baking powder
• 10g cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 15g agave nectar
• 10g coconut oil
• 55ml milk

Black Forest Sauce:

• 100g frozen black forest fruits (or other frozen berries)
• 15g caster sugar
• splash of water

1. Start off the sauce by putting the frozen fruits, sugar and water into a pan. Bring to the boil and then simmer whilst cooking the pancakes.
2. For the pancakes, first mix all the dry ingredients then add all the wet ingredients and mix. Adjust flour/milk as needed to get a spoonable batter.
3. Heat a little more coconut oil in a pan and spoon the batter in. Due to adding more flour, my mix made 4 pancakes so I had to cook the last pancake separately as my pan isn't big enough.
4. Once the pancakes are bubbling (after a few minutes) flip them over and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side.
5. At this stage, if this sauce isn't thick enough, boil rapidly for the last couple of minutes.
6. Serve the pancake with the sauce, and other toppings as desired. I used Justin's chocolate peanut butter, delish.

When life messes up your plans, make pancakes. It might not makes things better, but it does make them easier to deal with.

Right, time to go - Toby's already had his morning nap, which was way too short considering how early he woke up this morning. So I've got a grumpy, over-tired boy and an irritable, almost better therefore bored, girl on my hands today. The fun never stops (!!)

What is your favourite way to cheer yourself up when life doesn't go to plan. Do you, like me, rely on food, or do you have other, perhaps healthier, ways of making yourself feel better? Food is usually my first choice, but cuddles with the children - when they're not screaming - is a good option too :)

Wedding Photos - The Food

Evening everyone! It's time for another wedding photos post...this week I'm going to focus on the food! You can see what I personally ate for breakfast and lunch on our wedding day in the post about getting ready. This post will take a look at all the food we shared with our guests...I hope you enjoy it!

Immediately after the ceremony, we had a drinks reception. The food and drink was laid out in a side room, and then everyone went outside after they'd grabbed something, which gave us a nice chance to talk to everyone as they filed through. My Mum's friends - the waitresses and waiter - prepared all the canapes and drinks themselves on the afternoon of the wedding so it was all really fresh...thank you so much!

For the canapes, they made blinis with smoked salmon and sour cream, and blinis with blue cheese and fig pate...

It's only looking at these photos that I've realised that the vegetarian blinis weren't kept separate from the fishy ones, whoops. There were also bread sticks for the children - we decided those would be the least messy things!!

I ate one of the blue cheese blinis, but didn't get a chance to eat anymore as I was too busy talking to people and then being in photos!

There were also drinks - pink fizz, elderflower cordial with sparkling water, and fruit shoots (wouldn't be my choice of childrens' drinks, but the venue had ordered a load in for a previous function and wanted to use them up!)...

Not the most attractive photo of any of us, but it shows the drinks! I had a glass of sparkling elderflower as I'm not a fan of fizz, plus figured that starting drinking at 4.30pm wasn't the best idea on my wedding day!

The drinks reception went on for about 1.5 hours - including lots of group photos - and then it was time for the evening reception. Speeches first (which I'll cover in a future post) and then the meal. We had formal seating arrangements at tables, but the food was a, mainly cold, buffet catered by a local caterer. Some photos of the main course...

Cold meats, poached salmon, coronation chicken, quiche, quinoa stuffed peppers with goats cheese and lots of salads - mango & beansprout, couscous, quinoa, coleslaw, beetroot, tomato mozzarella & basil, and by the looks of it one other but don't know what that was!

I only took two photos during the wedding - of my plates of food!! I had two stuffed pepper halves, coleslaw, quinoa salad, mozzarella & basil (no tomato, yuck!) plus a couple of hot potatoes with butter...

As well as the potatoes, the stuffed peppers were also served hot, and delicious! I was a bit worried when I first spoke to the caterer as she'd never heard of quinoa (*gasp*!!!) but, bless her, she bought some and experimented and it was really tasty. I don't think she really believed me that people actually ate quinoa though - she still did a big couscous salad but also did a small quinoa one to keep me happy! :) She also did a separate stuffed pepper without the goats cheese for one of our guests who is vegan, and kept it separately for her. Overall, I was really pleased with how the food turned out, and I've only heard good things since so I hope everyone else liked it too!

For dessert, the caterer gave several options - some that she made herself, some bought in.

Raspberry roulade, lemon syllabub, chocolate lumpy bumpy cake and profiteroles. I think it was only actually the lumpy bumpy cake (coincidentally my sister's favourite!) that she didn't make herself. I had a lemon syllabub and one profiterole...

These were really good, although I wish I'd had some raspberry roulade (as well!) - it looks fantastic!

We ate the buffet from about 6.30-7.30pm, then about 9pm it was time for cake...

We cut the top layer - which was just a Victoria sponge - for the photos, but actually served the cupcakes. The purple ones were lemon sponge, and the white with purple flower ones were coffee sponge...

I had a lemon one, which had a lovely texture but was a little bit too sweet. Luckily there were lots of leftovers (more than are pictured below) so we took some on the car journey to the airport the following day (Liam's sister drove us) and I got to have a coffee one - by far my favourite!

It was great that there were some leftovers as Izzy took one in for her teacher on the Monday, Mum gave some to her friends who were waitresses etc - she managed to give away/eat all but one coffee one by the time we got back from Barcelona...and I quickly ate that one!! :)

What food do you like to have at weddings/special events? Or what would be your ideal "event" meal? We went to our friends' wedding last month where we had a delicious three course meal and then a buffet. The vegetarian option was really tasty and it was really nice to have the choice of desserts etc. I liked our buffet too - I think (hope) there was a wide enough variety to cater for everyone and there was certainly plenty of food - the quiche was also vegetarian, but I didn't even think to take any of that as there were plenty of other (tastier in my opinion) options :)