Recipe: Cereal bars for all

The other day I realised we had too much crispy rice cereal left and no cereal bars so I decided to make some. Everytime I try to follow a recipe I end up following 3 and in the end I make it so the recipe I ended up using is based on what I basically had in my pantry. So here it goes:

Ingredients:

-1 cup of porridge oats
-1 cup of chocolate crispy rice cereal (or more depending how chewy you want them)
- a handful of walnuts crushed
- 1/2 cup of honey or maple syrup or golden syrup (I used golden syrup and honey)
- 1/2 cup of tahini or peanut butter (i used tahini)
- mixed dried fruit

Method:

- Heat the golden syrup together with the tahini until it bubbles
- Mix the rest of the ingredients together and place in a tin
- Flatten it down until it is even. Place pan in fridge to let the bars chill/set. 
- After about 30 minutes in the fridge, cut them into bars, then wrap them up in foil and store back in the fridge for easy grabbing! These bars make great gifts, too.

Enjoy!!

Pancake day!

These were ours and this is the recipe we followed: taken from BBC food 
We tried them with lemon but my favourite is honey and cinnamon!

Ingredients

For the pancake mixture

• 110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
• 50g/2oz butter

To serve

• caster sugar
• lemon juice
• lemon wedges

Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs - any sort of whisk or even a fork will do - incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.
2. Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don't worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.
3. Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you're using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It's also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it's tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
4. Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.
5. To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. Serve sprinkled with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.

My flapjack recipe

It is the last few loooong unpaid  days of my maternity so now i am going through the cupboards trying to find good healthy food. I am not going to do crisps and rubbish just because i am not very rich at the moment.

My diet is not particularly out there. I am not a vegetarian though i usually eat veggie food at functions, i am certainly no vegan and (even though i tried) I don't do diets anymore. My diet is a good Mediterranean diet with English and travel influences.

Since my family is from Crete i have learned to cook following the main Cretan principles ie using loads of olive oil that my dad makes, small quantities of meat, fish and dairy (i have milk intolerance anyway), loads of veggies and fruit (including horta ie wild greens) and loads of carbs and bread and sugar but only the wholemeal and brown version or honey. The English diet has a lot of nice recipes but loads of saturated fat so where possible we replace these with olive oil. 

Anyway, today's venture was making flapjack so here is the recipe i follow: 

100 gr of butter

100 gr of olive oil

350 to 400 gr of oats (depending how soft you want it)

200 gr of golden syrup or honey
200 gr of brown sugar
vanilla

Poppy's flapjack

Enjoy!!