Belly warmers...

Late again - not sure what is going on at the moment but my early morning blogging appears to have been sidelined by dog duties, chores etc. 

Breakfast was a rather large bowl of porridge this morning. I love porridge!  To save time in the morning, I usually soak the oats in hot water (from the kettle) and a bit of milk in a saucepan overnight - that way, I just have to heat it up with a bit more milk in the morning.  Sometimes I just fancy it plain but this morning I added a handful of raisins to it.  I think my favourite is apple, raisin and cinnamon :-)  I love how this type of breakfast really sets me up for the day and warms me through and through.

Talking of apples, raisins and cinnamon, I have a lovely recipe for muffins that are just too yummy for words.  I made a small batch of these just the other day, putting half in the freezer for another time.  I have had these warmed up with vanilla ice cream for a cheeky dessert or just plain without anything added. Either way, they are very tasty!

Food for a busy day

Happy International Women's Day!  I wonder if there is a men's day as well...if not, I think there should be! :-)  A friend of mine is organising a fundraising event for Oxfam nearby, so I will go over there at lunchtime with a batch of jam doughnut muffins.  I hope it will be really successful as she has put a lot of work into it.

I've started having a good sort out at home.  Unbelievable just how much stuff we have :-(  It's not all our fault though because we basically inherited a house full of stuff and then had to move the contents of my flat into it.  Bursting at the seams comes to mind and I can just see some stuff ending up on Freecycle where you give things away for free.  What a great invention that website is - if you haven't come across Freecycle before, why not have a look if there is one in your area?

So, it's busy busy at the moment and food will have to be quick today.  I will have one of my favourite things: red lentil stew.  Well, this can be a soup or a stew really and you can have it on its own, on top of rice or with roti flatbreads.  I use red lentils for this as they don't need soaking beforehand which makes it a lot quicker.  I love the warming curry flavours in this and the bits of sweetcorn and I usually top it with a dollop of plain yogurt (although the stew is not overly spicy - I just find it adds an extra dimension to it).  I can't wait to tuck in... :-)
Have a wonderful weekend!

Of famished food bloggers and muffins

Now, this will make you laugh:  yesterday was a busy day with one thing and another - so busy in fact that in the afternoon I started to feel sick.  What happened?  It turns out that I had forgotten to eat!  How silly is that - a food blogger who forgets to feed herself? :-)  It did make me laugh (once I felt a bit better).  I think it was because I spent most of the morning in the kitchen, preparing food, having little tastes here and there and I just didn't feel hungry when it came to mealtime.  I won't let that happen again!

One of the reasons I was busy was that I was making a batch of muffins for our local community centre.  I think you will like these too - they have been inspired by the German cake "Donauwelle" ( = waves of the river Danube) which is normally baked as a tray bake.  It's a lovely mixture of marble cake, cherries, cream or cream patisserie (basically custard) and chocolate.

I needed the cakes to be portable and easy to eat, so I chose to make muffins and instead of a thick layer of whipped cream, I dug a little well into the muffin and filled it with creme patisserie.  A cherry on top, a light sprinkling of melted chocolate and a dusting of icing sugar...job done!

I'd probably call these "Black Forest Muffins" as they remind me of a Black Forest cake - what do you think?

Have a break...

...and grab a muffin? Or doughnut?  Or how about both rolled into one?

I came across a couple of recipes for exactly that recently: jam doughnut muffins!  And they are just the perfect treat on a Sunday afternoon or on a Monday in your lunchbox if you need to cheer yourself up at the beginning of the new working week.

We love these, especially since they are a lot lighter than your average greasy doughnut.  You can vary the jam filling according to what you have in the larder...ideal for scraping the last bits out of jam jars.  I used raspberry and strawberry jam for these.

I hope you'll have 5 minutes to yourself today and time for a little treat!