Let's be a 'Can Do It"!

22nd March 2015

Embrace your individuality.  Love what you love without worrying about judgement.

I had a sore throat when I got up yesterday morning and by the time I left my meeting at eleven I felt yak, I managed to buy a few bits from Sainsbury's but I was in pain, everything ached from my head down to my feet so I went home and put my pjs on, spent the read of the day watching tv. How easy would it have been to use my cold as an excuse to overeat, I contemplated it a few times I won't lie.  Mmm bread and butter to cheer my mood, custard creams to lift my spirits, cake to act as a painkiller to sooth my aching bones.  Instead I drank mugs of tea and realised gaining weight from overindulgence today wasn't going to improve my situation at all!  It wasn't going to make my cold go away, nor make me feel better longer than it took to eat the food, so I cooked salmon on my George, microwaved a packet root mash and opened a tin of peas and that sorted the hunger out. 

I did enjoy a few glasses of wine and fished my day off with a slug of Night Nurse, which I can now thank for my 12 hours of sleep and the fact I feel a lot better this morning than I did yesterday lunchtime, my body doesn't hurt so much, I could still be full of the medicine I guess but I don't think so.  I know you probably shouldn't mix the two but I'm not driving anywhere today so I'm not over any limit ;)

I'm going to relax today I can't be having a cold when I need to work, I'll get my bit of paperwork done, then more chilling.  Loved watching Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday, could really do with a couple more really good films to view, will have to see if there's anything on Sky I haven't seen.

If I'm up to it I want to bake, I fetched the ingredients for the lemon and lime crunch cake in the Cook it Your Way book and I want to do banana and custard muffins, mom told me she preferred that idea to rhubarb.  I've searched my archives and found a couple of recipes, here's the muffin one;

Spicy banana muffins 4pps each, makes 10

50g (1 ¾ oz) low fat spread (5pp)

200g (7oz) plain flour (19pp)

2 teaspoons baking powder

100g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar (11pp)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 bananas

juice of 1 lemon

100ml (3 ½ fl oz) skimmed milk (1pp)

1 egg, beaten (2pp)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 / 200 oC / fan oven 180 oC.  Put 10 paper muffin cases in a muffin tin.  Melt the low fat spread & leave to cool slightly.  Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Mash the bananas with a fork & 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice.  Mix together the remaining lemon juice, milk & egg.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones & stir very carefully – do not over mix.  Gently fold in the mashed banana & then divide the mixture between the paper muffin cases.  Cook in the preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes until golden.  Cool on a rack or eat slightly warm!

I will put readymade custard in the middle as I put the mixture in the oven, might try a couple with custard, a couple with jam, a couple with chocolate spread and a couple with lemon curd.

I haven't got any weetabix but I did find out this one from an old document I had that I thought a few of you might like, it's really tasty too;

Weetabix pudding 2pp per slice (12 slices)

2 Weetabix (3pp)

100g sultanas (8pp)

150 ml skimmed milk (1pp)

150 ml water

100g self raising flour (9pp)

1 teaspoon Mixed Spice, 

1 teaspoon artificial sweetener, (optional)

1 medium egg, beaten (2pp) (or use a banana instead for 1 of your 5 a day)

Preheat oven to 180c, 350f or gas mark 4.  Put Weetabix and sultanas in bowl, pour milk and water over the top and soak up all the liquid.  Stir in flour, mixed spice, sweetener and beaten egg.  Spoon mixture into (1lb) lined / non-stick loaf tin and bake for 1hr 15m until cooked.  Cool on a wire rack before serving, and then cut into slices.

It has the texture of bread pudding. Delicious, and for a desert why not add a bit of custard for extra points treat.  For me it's a bit like breakfast pudding.

Lastly I found this one which is a delicious cross between fruit cake & bread pudding and really easy to make.

Fat Free Fruit Cake

(5 Propoints per slice - total points 64) serves 12

250 g self-raising flour (22pp)

50 g light brown sugar (5pp)

1 medium egg(s) (2pp)

450 g Dried Mixed Fruit (35pp)

1 tea bag, 1 mug of black tea

Easily makes 12 slices, if not more!  Soak fruit overnight in mug black tea. Mix fruit, sugar, flour & egg together. Put into large cake tin & bake for 2 hours on gas mark 2.

I may be poorly but I'm staying on track, too long I've been using any old reason as an excuse, my favourite one being "I just can't", well you know what, it's day 14 on track and actually "I just can!"

Let's be can do it's today BeYOUtiful.