A WHOLE LOTTA SUNSHINE

Recipe: Wholesome wholegrain pancakes with sunny scrambled eggs

Time taken: A hour (if you’ve readymade your batter)

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 125g wholemeal flour, 300ml milk, 1 teaspoon of oil, 1 tablespoon of crème fraiche, a little butter, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.

Hi readers!

It’s SUNDAYYYY. And my opinions have not changed! This is still by far the best day of the week. On Sunday, everything slows down to a steady pace, and the world expects nothing of you.

Dressing? Very optional. Exercise? It’s the ‘Day of Rest’. Opening letters? No sirree! In the words of Vernon Dursley… “There’s no post on Sundays”.

 

And you can just CHILL. I know it’s January and we’re all buzzing with New Year’s Resolutions and brimming with our Good Intentions and all. Like yesterday I jogged! And had fun doing it! But c’mon we all need a rest from time to time. Take it easy today. This one’s on me.

And have fun! Because Sunday is…

That’s right! Now I got a yoga class DVD for Christmas (!!!). One which guides you through a practice and combines traditional yogi moves with sort of a ballet twist? For added grace? And I’m not sure how this is going to go but it sounds to me like A LOT OF FUN. So I’ve saved this for today to try out, as my End of the Week Treat to Me! And I’m excited to give this a go later. Do you have a treat lined up for yourself today? Surely you do! How can you make today a little bit more special for yourself? Give that one a think. Because I sense you deserve something special going on today.

 

For now though… I must reveal… exactly what’s got me in such a good mood today. And it’s a superstar recipeee! Mexican wave!

 

So this, basically, was my most awesome breakfast this morning. And if you do one thing today I encourage this to be that you check your cupboards (GO RIGHT NOW) and make sure you have all the ingredients so that you can make this for your breakfast tomorrow. And thus fill your belly with sunshine! I know tomorrow is a big day for a lot of people…

…Putting on proper clothes for work or the library…

…Where you’ll be reading things…

…Writing things…

…Using the power of your mind…

… And so you need one hell of a breakfast to kickstart this big day! And what are you eating? On the menu we have: Wholesome wholemeal pancakes with sunny scrambled eggs. :)

 

 

So, today, I’m feeling a lot like Matilda. You may have noted. As many of my generation were, I was raised with the magic of Mara Wilson and her special powers as Matilda. This girl could read the whole library and she could make things fly using her special powers. She was the best. Childhood hero. And whenever I’m using my brain powers for the good of geography deadlines, I channel my inner Matilda in order to power through my workload!

And I thought I would share this with you because A… why not channel your inner Matilda, too? Do it! And B… Matilda is a big believer in a good breakfast. No word of a lie…

…The girl does crazy things with cereal…

…And she can whip up some bloody good pancakes!

 

So basically you have a big day tomorrow and you need to make magic happen. When Matilda makes magic happen she starts the day with a superstar breakfast.  Therefore, you need one too.

And so here’s how you go about making your wholesome wholemeal pancakes…

1. Measure 125g wholemeal flour into a bowl along with a pinch of salt.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I found wholegrain rye flour in our cupboard and went with it. With success to follow! This leads me to believe that any flour involving a variation of ‘whole’ should do the trick. I’m talking wholemeal… wholewheat… wholegrain… you name it!

2. Make a well in the middle of your flour and pour 300ml milk into this.

3. Crack an egg into the well and add a teaspoon of oil.

4. Whisk it all up! This is your batter now. You have to leave this to stand for at least half an hour.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I did steps 1-4 the night beforehand and left my batter in the fridge overnight, just so I’d have less hassle on a hungry belly in the morning. The batter seemed fine for having been left overnight, so I recommend this plan.

5. Make sure the radio is on playing some tunes! Heat your oven to a low temperature (like 100˚C) and from your cupboard take out 3 plates and both a saucepan and a frying pan.

6. From your cupboard take out your crème fraiche, butter, eggs and pancake batter (if it’s been chilling in there while you caught some zzz’s).

7. Heat a little oil in your frying pan and then add 2 tablespoons of pancake batter to the pan.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I was using a mould-type thing to make my pancakes into duck shapes. So, if you have one of these too, set it in your frying pan and then pour your batter into the middle of the mould. Otherwise, just pour your batter into the middle of your frying pan.

8. Leave the pancake to cook for a couple of minutes until solid and golden underneath, then flip it over so the second side of the pancake can cook (removing your mould if you were using one).

9. When this side of the pancake is golden too, scoop your pancake onto a plate to cool.

10. Pop some more oil in your pancake and repeat until you have 4 pancakes cooling on your plate.

11. Then, go on to make 4 more pancakes. But this time when they’re ready stack them on a plate in the oven rather than out on your counter, so that they stay warm while you’re making the last of your pancakes!

12. As you’re making your final couple of pancakes, you want to heat a little butter in your saucepan until it melts. Meanwhile, crack 2 eggs into a mug and stir them together with a fork, so that they form a yellow yolky mix.

13. Pour this mix into your saucepan along with a glob of crème fraiche and a pinch of pepper.

14. Use a fork to stir this all together, until your eggs cook and scramble!

15. Take your stack of 4 warm pancakes out of the oven and tip your eggs over the top of them. And there’s your breakfast, baby!

ChefBeHere Top Tip: When the other 4 pancakes you made are fully cooled, you can pop them in a Tupperware to keep to eat up soon. I’ve popped a little piece of kitchen towel between each one to separate them, incase they were thinking of sticking together. Not on my watch!

And here’s my plate of gorgeousness from this morning :)

I know, right? This came together so well! How did I make this in my kitchen??? It looks really impressive on the plate and this recipe tasted INCREDIBLE. Like, I know I’m more enthusiastic about eggs than your average girl, but this recipe tasted like the bomb. Pancakes… WITH EGGS. Now I have a new way to eat eggs! I love them more than ever. This is good because GUESS WHAT I HEAR…

Unbelieavable. And, as well as this recipe tasting like nothing on Earth, it’s super healthy. It’s got whole grains and protein and sunshine in it! And this plateful will fill you up to no end, I promise. Gah.

So, I compel you all… go make this. Get out of bed half an hour early and you will not regret this. And THEN share with me your thoughts on wholegrain pancakes! Did you like them? How did they compare with regular pancakes for you?? Are they any match? And what would you liken the taste of these babies to?

I thought they tasted… like pancakes. And a bit like brown toast, maybe. I read online that you can eat these babies with sweet toppings as well as savoury, so when I reheat my pancakes I have left I’m going to top em up with fruit n honey. Mmm. On that note…

Flip safely all,

Hayley


 

PORRIDGE POWER

Recipe: Peanut butter and jam porridge

Time taken: 5 minutes

Ingredients: Half a LEGO cup of porridge oats, a big splash of milk, some blobs of jam and some blobs of peanut butter

 Hiya chefs!

How are you all today? I imagine you’re kicking back and enjoying your weekends. That’s what we’re all up to here! Newcastle’s looking a little cloudy I’d say and we’re still a whole 33 days away from Christmas, but today’s a Saturday so no one can complain. Last night I got 8 hours sleep!! For a stressed out student this is a big, big achievement! I feel like this warrants a display of fireworks and rapturous applause, my parents crying on the sideline. A small awards ceremony.

I’m feeling really well rested and today I feel the theme of my blog post today should be TIME. My absolute favourite thing about the weekend is that time is very different to the week. Suddenly, you have more of it. And you’re not measuring things by an hour until the next lecture… or five minutes before the next metro… or fifty minutes taken to transcribe ten minutes of interview. Gah. You can measure things by when your favourite shows are going to be on TV… and how far through your book you are… and whether it’s light enough to take a walk.

 

And you definitely have the time on the weekend to cook something unreal. You’re not tired, you’re not rushing out the door, and hopefully you’re not too stressed to enjoy tasting your food for once! I think that half the time we cook things which sensibly use up ingredients that are near to expiring, and we eat them so that we stop feeling hungry, and we tick the meal off in our head as another thing done on our to-do list, and we forget to enjoy the food!! This is such a shame.

So today, I woke up of my own accord with NO ALARM, I padded about getting ready, and I decided to get creative with my breakfast! I’m often a breakfast bore. I like warm, belly-filling porridge. I know exactly how to make it and it always does the job. It gives me a glow like the boy in the ReadyBrek advert and I spring out the door on my imaginary glowing trampoline, like he does. A morning person, ready to face the day.

And porridge is SO CHEAP. Really, I worked out this morning that I use 60g of oats each time and, as a 1 kg bag costs 75p from Asda, that’s 16 servings per bag and it costs me less than 5p per serving. Then the only other ingredient is milk. A 2 litre carton of milk costs £1 and lasts the week so, on top of a lot of cups of the coffee, it makes me 7 breakfasts. So maybe 14p for milk each time I make porridge. SO A BOWL OF PORRIDGE COSTS LESS THAN 20P TO MAKE. Students, listen up.

I make my porridge and stir in a tablespoon of honey and, since my health kick I’ve been chopping up a banana on top. This is a taste sensation. My Instagram is filled with loving shots of my beloved daily, oaty delight.

But, until I’m allowed next week’s food shop money on Monday, I’ve got no bananas and no honey. It’s terrible! This morning I needed a new porridge topping. My flatmates have been telling me for a loooong time that it’s crazy that as a certified nut-loving squirrel I haven’t tried peanut butter. They can’t believe it! So I’ve had a jar in my cupboard waiting for an occasion to try it. And I thought… PB & J porridge?? It was on!

Here’s how you can make yours in ten simple steps:

1. Pour oats into a cup until it’s half-full. I use a plastic cup with LEGO holograms on that I believe came with a McDonald’s Happy Meal. You need about 60 of oats.

2. Pour your oats into a bowl.

 

3. Add milk to this bowl until the bowl is about half full and your oats are swimming.

 

4. Give the porridge mix a good stir and pop in the microwave.

5. Heat on full power, uncovered, for two minutes. You may notice that as it cooks the porridge will start to swell around the edges and it’s like a vortex because a big dip begins to form in the middle. Don’t be alarmed; this is ok.

 

6. Take it out. Stir it up. Put it back in again and heat on full power for another minute.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep an eye on it this time, because your porridge might start to swell so much that it reaches right to the top of bowl. If so, stop the microwave early.

7. Using a tea towel to cover your hands, lift the porridge out of the microwave to safety.

8. As it deflates, dot the top with your peanut butter and jam.

 

9. Stir like crazy! Make sure your PB&J reach the porridge right at the bottom of the bowl.

10. Serve piping hot and, if you like, with a refreshing glass of orange juice.

 

And tuck into something that looks a little like this! Well done!

What do you think of your porridge? Is it filling you with a warm glow? Do you feel full? Do you feel fuelled for the day? Did the recipe work in your microwave without it exploding?

I hope you are truly in love with porridge now. Because it’s healthy, it’s easy, it’s cheap and it’s SO GOOD. And I can’t abide people who buy silly, expensive porridge sachets that make you about four sad spoonfuls of thin, rubbishy non-porridge. Just make the real deal, people! It isn’t hard!

And I loved PB&J as a topping! I didn’t really put enough jam on. I definitely under-jammed, sadly. It sort of was lost when I swirled it all together at the end. MORE JAM NEXT TIME. And oh there will be a next time! For indulgent days, this is surely my new porridge topping of choice. It’s lick lipping good. Very mmm. Rather more-ish. Go give it a try!

Start the day safely,

Hayley