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


 

A RESTFUL RECIPE

Recipe: Scrambled eggs and tomatoes… on crumpets!

Time taken: Quarter of an hour

Ingredients: 2 crumpets, 6 little tomatoes, 2 eggs and a dollop of crème fraiche (plus, a little butter and a sprinkling of black pepper)

Hi Readers,

It’s Thursday! And today’s been such a good Thursday! How has your day been?? Awesome? Awe-some? Awesome-a-rific? Awesomified? AWESOMMMME??

My day’s been good because, well, because last night I went with my dad and his girlfriend to see Ben Howard at Manchester Apollo. So much excitement for his gig.

Ben Howard!

But I didn’t eat and I haven’t been sleeping well (3rd year life), then the heater in the car on the way there dried my contact lenses out, then there were lots of flashing lights at the gig… and I fainted. My first ever faint! It was awful. I dropped my phone… I was on the floor… my shoe came off… strange men had to pick me up. Also, I was NOT CONSCIOUS.

But then, things got better. I sat down with some water and then caught the end of the gig, which was SO GOOD. We got McDonald’s Christmas treats. We drove home and I got to sleep in my home bed (ten times better than my uni bed). And TODAY I’ve been resting up. In a heated home. Full of food!

And hasn’t it been wonderful! As is exemplified, I feel, by my lunch. Remember my ‘Breakfast for Tea’ post in November? Inspired by this but lacking croissants, I found something new to pair the timeless scrambled egg with… it's crumpets!

Here’s how it works:

1. Turn on your grill and put a couple of crumpets in the toaster, but don’t toast them quite yet.

2. Take a handful of little tomatoes and chop them each in half using a sharp knife.

3. Arrange them however you like in an ovenproof dish and put this under the grill.

4. Crack a couple of eggs into a glass and whizz them up using a fork.

5. Heat a saucepan over a medium heat with a little butter inside. 

6. When this has melted, tip your eggy goo into the pan. Add a dollop of crème fraiche.

7. Set your crumpets on to toast and pop a plate beneath your dish in the grill, so that the plate warms slightly.

8. Stir your egg mix vigorously. Watch the eggs scramble! Tip a pinch of ground pepper over them, if you have any.

9. When your toaster pops, take the plate and tomatoes out of the grill and turn it off.

10. Serve up your crumpets and butter them, if you like. Tip your eggs over the top and add your tomatoes on to the plate. Tuck in!

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I usually tip my eggs out onto some kitchen towel first, to absorb a little moisture from them so that they don’t soggy up the plate. This is just me, though.

And voila! Scrambled eggs and tomatoes… on crumpets!

Readers, where do you stand on these? My eggs were dreeeeameeee. And really yellow! I don’t know why, my dad must have bought especially yolky eggs. They tasted sublime. And as for eggs on crumpets… I like it! I’d maybe still choose croissants if I had them, and toast of course never loses its charm as the traditional option, but crumpets work too! Would you agree?

Also, I was fancying a warm, effort-free pudding. So I cut up some brownie bites and a cookie. Put them into a ramekin and put this in the oven for five minutes while I did the washing up. And this made for an extremely tasty treat! Go forth, readers.

Gig safely and egg safely,

Hayley

Breakfast for tea?

WHAT CAN THIS BE?

Recipe: Croissants with scrambled egg and tomato

Time taken: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 2 croissants, 3 free range eggs, 1 dollop of crème fraiche, 2 tomatoes, a little oil, a sprinkle of black pepper, and a few scrapes of butter

Hi there readers,

In my second (ever!) blog post, I’m going to tell you about my tea today. To clarify, by this I mean the evening meal. I’m northern English. Should you call the evening meal something else, like 'dinner', sub your word in whenever you see ‘tea’. You’ll be ok.

So today readers I'm typing with pretty weary fingers. I had another long day of uni to tackle today, like I did yesterday. It's been a fierce start to the week! Being on campus 9am-6pm takes it out of a girl... with travel that's ten whole hours away from your bed. :O

This evening I made it through the door finally, in a mood fit only for comfort food. BUT I STAYED STRONG. Health-kickers everywhere… I did not order takeaway. I did not go to the freezer. Instead, slumped by my food cupboard, I decided that what I really wanted most was breakfast food. This is undeniably my favourite genre of food. It's THE BEST. Breakfast is the bee’s knees. Totes. But is it appropriate at seven in the evening? My belly thought so!

I consulted my Morrison's Christmas Magazine (the new Bible), leafed through some recipes and found one that I remembered mentally bookmarking, for scrambled eggs on croissants! I've never EVER literally never put egg on a croissant before. Never in my life. But it was a warm, home-cooked healthy-ish option. Cheap, quick and easy… IT WAS ON.

So, my magnificent Morrison's had put salmon on their creation. I prefer my salmon still swimming, preferably somewhere in the wild in a raging ferocious river, leaping over rapids and evading the jaws of crocodiles. Alive and free! Bursting over the tops of a waterfalls and soaring through the skies. Landing safely in the river again.

Like this hero!

Basically, I don't enjoy salmon as food. Also, this recipe was notably not contributing to my 5-a-day (I was only on 4 at the time) so I decided to sub tomatoes in for the salmon. With this new, improved plan of action... I cracked on.

Here's how to replicate the magic that followed, in ten easy steps:

1.      Heat your oven to 180˚C.

2.      Cut your tomatoes into quarters.

3.      Place your croissants on a baking tray. Make a little boat out of tin foil and sit your tomato chunks in the boat. Place this on the tray next to your croissants (the boat is to stop any tomato goo leaking and giving your fluffy pastries soggy bottoms).

4.      Pop the tray in the oven to warm for 10 minutes.

5.      Meanwhile, crack your eggs into a small cup and whisk them together using a fork.

6.      Heat a splash of oil in a saucepan and then chuck in your eggs.

7.      Add a dollop of crème fraiche and use your fork to mix this all together.

8.      Season with black pepper and continue to stir until the egg scrambles.

9.      Safely take your baking tray out of the oven. Use your hands to split the croissants in half and then use a knife to spread them with some butter while they’re piping hot, so that your butter melts into the pastry. Mmm.

10.  Plate up your croissants with the scrambled eggs and warm tomatoes on top.

ChefBeHere Top Tip… When my eggs began to cook, I popped a plate in the oven for a couple of minutes to take the chill away from it! I think that serving food onto a warm plate helps to keep your food warmer for longer, so you can eat at a leisurely pace while you’re browsing my blog. :D

Here’s how my tea turned out!

 

What do you think?? I thought eggs and croissants together made a magnificent combination. If you haven’t tried this taste sensation already, then I vote you get your life together and get yourself to a kitchen! I will say, I’m doubtful as to how I can possibly class buttered croissants as part of my health kick, they tasted FAR TOO GOOD. But oh well. I regret nothing.

 

Cue a food porn close up... gah so good. 
I miss my tea already. Gone too soon!

 

Soooo have a go! Let me know how you get on with the recipe, what do you think? Did it work? And did it taste how you imagined? Honest feedback people. I hope this post inspires someone out there to try something new in the kitchen.

If you're not digging the breakfast-for-dinner movement, make it 2 eggs, 1 tomato, 1 croissant and a bit less of everything else, and it could just be breakfast. But where's the fun in that?

Scramble safely,

Hayley