Granola Recipe

One of the things that I did at the weekend was to make home made Granola.

Dave loves a good granola after buying some from a farmers market which I have to agree was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately at £4.99 for a 475g bag, buying this just doesn't fit into a frugal lifestyle.

Making granola... ahhh now that's a different matter. It's easy and compared to buying ready made it is cheap.

I used quite a high proportion of seeds and nuts, but that's because Dave likes his granola nutty a bit  like himself, But you could make it cheaper by adding less and increasing the quantity of oats. Some recipes I've seen don't add any seeds or nuts and just use oats, which would take the cost right down. You can also add dried fruit once the granola is cooled and ready for storage, though we prefer it without dried fruit.

Recipe

All the dry ingredients measured and ready.

Ingredients

5 cups rolled oats

1 cup seeds - any you like I used sunflower because that's what I had in.

1 cup chopped nuts - again any you like, but I had brazil nuts and almonds in stock.

1/2 cup of oil - I used an organic cold pressed rapeseed oil, but it doesn't really matter unless it's a strongly flavoured oil that you don't like - I've even seen some recipes that use melted butter.

1/2 cup of honey or soft brown sugar - used honey this time, but have used the sugar before.

1/2 tsp cinnamon - add more or less, substitute for another spice or even leave it spice free.

1/2 teaspoon os sea salt - don't be tempted to leave this out, in the grand scheme of things it's not a lot of salt per serving and it does make a difference to the flavour.

Mix all the ingredients together - I just do it in a large roasting tin, but if you do it in a bowl, spread it out onto baking tray/s.

Bake at 150C/130-140C fan oven/ Gas 2 for about 1 hour. Stir every 20 minutes and when it has all turned a golden brown remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray. Break up any large lumps as it cools. If you want to add any dried fruit do so now. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Winter's Return

When I picked up my granddaughter on Friday my two daughters were sitting outside in the garden wearing summer vests and enjoying the rays.  Yesterday I was sat snuggled up next to the fire watching a blizzard outside. 

This was the view from my front window, and it just continued to snow...

...and snow

...and snow.

(Scroll down to see how much!)

The menu plan had been to use up some fish from the freezer and make home made fish cakes served with salad. 

Hmmm seeing the snow this didn't feel like a good option at all, so plan B.

Pop down to our local Co-op (only about 20 yards from my door, or I wouldn't have ventured out) and purchase a bottle of real ale. 

No!! getting drunk wasn't the plan. Beer batter was.

The new menu:

Beer battered fish with home made real chips (not oven baked - comfort food was called for after all!) and mushy peas. Followed after a break to let everything settle, so to speak, with home made apple crumble and "real" custard.

Now the reason I put "real" in them there quotation marks is that it is my version of real custard - it does contain egg, but does away with the long slow constant stirring and risk of curdling. The reason I do my custard this way is all to do with my dislike of additives, colourings and such  - I refuse to contemplate those packets of lurid instant stuff. 

My recipe for "real" custard

Serves 2

1 egg yolk

1 level tbsp sugar

1 level tbsp cornflour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 pint milk

Put the first 4 ingredients into a bowl and mix to a smooth paste with a little of the cold milk. Bring the rest of the milk to the boil then pour onto the paste, stirring well. Tip the mixture back into the saucepan and place back on the heat - stir vigorously until the mixture come up to the boil and thickens - Voila custard!

I'll leave you with a picture of the snow this morning as it was on the road coming out of the village of Stanley Crook, on my way home from visiting one of my daughters.

Babies galore!

Well that's it, as there has been no luck on the jobs front I am now officially unemployed. Now ordinarily being a teacher I would be on holiday at this time anyway, but it feels different knowing that I don't have a job to go back to. I'm also finding it a bit galling that because last year I took a short term contract covering maternity leave, rather than redundancy I am no longer entitled to any redundancy payment so my pay for March has to last as long as possible. I knew when I took the post that this was the case and a years work was preferable to the small redundancy payment I was due, so I shouldn't really be letting it bother me.

Soooo...  never one to shirk a challenge, I have set to with a will making sure that I am as frugal as possible and making every penny stretch. To be honest I think we are actually eating a lot better because I have the luxury of time.

On Saturday we took our granddaughter to Hall Hill Farm. Now ordinarily I would have just tootled off and bought our lunch in the cafe there. Not this time - I thought ahead and made some of those mini pizzas I told you about in this post. I made them just before we left and wrapped them in foil so they were still warm when we ate them - just as well because it was freezing!!! I also took some hot water in flasks and some camomile tea bags, and as a treat some 1/2 price mini Thorntons caramel shortbreads - yum yum.

It doesn't look it but it was bitterly cold.

Despite the cold and watching the pennies we had a lovely time. There were loads of lovely babies to hold and to see.

Baby chick held by little Flic.

Spotty lambs.

Bottle fed lambs.

How cute is this?

If you look closely at the pouch of the wallaby that is sitting down you might just be able to make out the head of the joey that was peeping out!

Flic had a great time and I think she actually preferred having a picnic even if it was in the cold!

I've been making lots of other rather nice things to eat too - but I'll leave them for another post.