Breakfast – Page 3 – Bit of the Good Stuff

Our Wildlife Garden & Summer Fruits Energy Shake (‘Breakfast in a Glass’)

Published on September 20, 2013 by Sharon5 Comments

What a glorious summer we’ve had this year! After a spell of wet, overcast summers, it was such a refreshing change to have blue skies and sunshine for pretty much the whole of July and August. I absolutely loved it and took every opportunity I could to be outside, making the most of it ♥

The plants and insects clearly loved the weather too! This year, I decided to let the failed ‘veggie’ patch grow wild and turn it into a little haven for wildlife.

The whole summer it’s been a hive of activity, filled with all manner of bee, butterfly and beetle. We’ve also had baby toads and slow worms living in there too!

Does anyone know the name of the yellow plant below? I think it’s beautiful and it doesn’t get munched at all. As soon as I know its name, I’ll add it to my list of slug and snail resistant plants 🙂

We’ve also had success growing raspberries in the patch 🙂 A generous friend gave me six plants earlier this summer, and by late August they were already producing fruit. This raspberry is golden yellow in colour, which seems to make it less appealing to the birds. While the leaves of the plant have been munched, the fruits haven’t been touched at all!

Normally at this time of year, I would be out on my bike foraging for blackberries, but this year there was no need. By leaving the garden wild, we ended up with our own bumper crop!

In the mornings, I’ve been enjoying energy shakes for breakfast, made with a cup of freshly picked blackberries. By adding in some oats, ground almonds and chia seeds, the shake becomes a very satisfying ‘breakfast in a glass’. The additions make the shake so filling that I don’t get hungry all morning!

This shake also makes a fantastic post-exercise recovery drink and after-school ‘snack’ to revive energy levels. I find they’re especially useful as a filling, energy booster on weekday nights when Lil’ L has after-school activities and dinner is going to be served late.

These smoothies have been a great way to encourage Lil’ L to eat berries. He still won’t go anywhere near whole berries (it’s a ‘texture thing’) but he’ll happily gulp them down in a shake. When he was little, I used to blend the berries and milk first, then strain it to make it completely smooth before blending in the remaining ingredients. These days, he’s happy to drink the smoothies straight up, pips and all!

Here’s how we make them:

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Summer Fruits Energy Shake

Makes 1 large drink
Hands-on time: 5 minutes Ready in: 5 minutes

Ingredients
240ml / 8 fl oz / 1 cup fortified soya milk (or other non dairy milk)
4 tbsp soya yoghurt (or other non dairy yoghurt)
140g / 5 oz / 1 cup fresh summer fruits* (blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, tayberries)
1 TBSP rolled oats (use certified GF oats, if needed)
1 TBSP ground almonds
1 TBSP chia seeds
1 TBSP maple syrup (or agave syrup)
Ground cacao nibs (optional, for nutrient boost & garnish)

*You can use frozen berries to make a thicker, ice cream-style shake

Method
Place the ingredients in a high speed blender. Pulse to break up the fruit, then blend on high speed until smooth. Taste test and add more sweetener, if needed. Pour into a tall glass and serve.

Notes
To make a smooth, pip-free shake (which might be more appealing to small children), first blend the milk and berries on high speed for a minute. Pour through a sieve to catch all the pips. Return the shake to the blender, add in the remaining ingredients and blend on high speed for a minute or so.

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And to make to even more scrumptious, I like to top off my shake with some ground cacao nibs 🙂

The Good Stuff ♥
Blackberries – Fantastic immunity boosters, packed with antioxidants, including vitamin C. Also a great source of dietary fibre, vitamin K, and manganese
Fortified soya milk & yoghurt – Good source of protein, calcium, vitamins B12 and D, yoghurt cultures
Oats – Provides slow-release energy
Almonds – Provides protein. Rich source of antioxidant Vitamin E, riboflavin, manganese and magnesium
Chia seeds – Good source of protein and dietary fibre. Rich in calcium, manganese, phosphorous and omega 3 fat
Cacao Nibs – Packed with nutrients, including lots of antioxidants. Check out my raw chocolate post to find out more.

Products used in this recipe
Alpro soya milk and plain soya yoghurt (available in all major UK supermarkets)
Mornflake Superfast Oats (available from Tesco and Asda)
Chia seeds (available from health food stores and online. I purchased mine from Earthfare)
Duronic 1200 1.8 litre Jug Blender, available from Amazon
Cacao nibs – available from health food stores and online. I use the Elements for Life Cacao Nib Grinder

Have you had any success growing fruits or veggies this year? Do you ever go foraging?

Maple Pecan Granola Clusters

Published on April 26, 2013 by Sharon17 Comments

Today, I’d like to share one of Lil’ L’s all-time favourite breakfasts.

I started making home-made granola about five years ago in response to Lil’ L’s dislike for the dried fruits that appear in shop-bought granolas. After a week of picking out the raisins from a granola before serving it to him, I decided that life was far too short to waste time picking out dried fruit and that I would have a try at making my own granola instead! By making it myself, I would be able to tailor the granola to suit all our tastes. Lil’ L loves nutty granola, I love a mix of nuts and dried fruits, while Mark will eat anything.

By making our own, we could also omit the refined sugars and oils that are found in shop-bought granolas and replace them with healthy, natural alternatives.

For breakfast, we love serving this granola with non dairy milk or yoghurt.

It is also delicious layered with yoghurt and berries in a parfait (we use frozen berries as they turn the yogurt a beautiful colour as they thaw!) These can be served as breakfast, dessert or even a post-school snack.

Please note that the recipe below has been updated in 2018 to bring it into line with the recipe that appears in the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook.

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It’s so simple to make your own granola. In fact, with very little assistance, the kids could easily make their own! Lil’ L prefers his granola to be “chunky cluster” and we’ve found a simple method of doing this which we’ve set out below.

Makes approximately 5 cups (10 servings)
Hands on time: 10 minutes Ready in: 60 minutes

Ingredients

300g / 3 cups rolled oats (use GF oats, if needed)

100 g / ½ cup buckwheat groats* (washed and drained)
40g / 4 TBSP fine wholemeal (whole wheat pastry) flour, chapatti flour or gluten-free flour
30g / ⅓ cup dessicated coconut

60g / ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped

30g / ¼ cup flaked almonds

30g / 3 TBSP coconut sugar or unrefined caster sugar

½-1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

¼ tsp sea salt

150ml / ½ cup maple syrup (or other natural liquid sweetener. I use Clarks Original Maple Syrup which is a carob and maple blend)

3 TBSP virgin coconut oil, melted

*I add buckwheat to my granolas as it’s a great source of protein and adds another dimension of texture. In the UK, it’s available in the wholefoods section of Tesco and from health food stores. If you can’t get hold of buckwheat, you can substitute with another ½ cup of oats or other grain.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C (130C fan) / 300F. Line a large baking tray (38 x 26cm / 15 x 10 inches) with non-stick baking paper. If your coconut oil is solid, place it in a heat-proof howl in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt it (be careful when you remove it as the container will be very hot!)

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, buckwheat, dessicated coconut, nuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the maple syrup. Pour in the coconut oil and stir until the grains are thoroughly coated.

3. Spread the granola out evenly on the prepared baking tray and press down hard so that the mixture sticks together as if you were making a thin granola bar. Bake for 40 minutes, until the granola has lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool (it will firm up as it cools).

4. Break up the granola into clusters. (Don’t worry if the pieces from the centre of the tray feel a little soft as I find they firm up over time). Stored in an airtight container in a cool place, the granola will keep for weeks.

5.This granola is delicious served with non-dairy milk or yoghurt, and a sprinkling of your favourite dried fruits, nuts and seeds. I often add a sprinkling of chopped walnuts and ground linseed for an omega-3 boost and goji berries for vitamin C.

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Pin for later ⬇️

Last Christmas, I thought I’d treat Lil’ L to some “luxury” shop-bought granola. I bought two different brands for him, both of which included a selection of his favourite nuts and no dried fruits. It turns out he didn’t like either of them as they were “way too sugary”! Instead, he asked whether he could have some of our home-made granola. Since we’d run out, he was even prepared to postpone his Christmas Day breakfast for 45 minutes until a fresh batch was baked! I wasn’t expecting to be making granola on Christmas morning but I was happy to oblige. Thank goodness it only takes a few minutes to prepare! We won’t be buying shop-bought granolas any more. Home made is best by a long shot!

And if you like chocolate, how about trying our chocolate clusters? Totally scrumptious and perfect for breakfasts, snacks and desserts 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone xx

Do you make your own granolas? If so, what is your favourite flavour combination? If you have any published recipes, please do link up below.

Apple & Cinnamon Dough Balls (Healthy ‘Monkey Bread’)

Published on March 2, 2013 by Sharon20 Comments

When I first started blogging, I recall there was a wave of health food bloggers posting recipes for ‘Healthier’ Monkey bread. I had absolutely no idea what ‘Monkey bread’ was or why it had such a funny name!

Wikipedia soon filled me in…

Monkey bread, also called monkey puzzle bread, sticky bread, African coffee cake, golden crown, pinch-me cake, bubbleloaf and monkey brains is a sweet, sticky, gooey pastry served in the United States for breakfast. The bread is made with pieces of sweet yeast dough which are baked in a cake pan after first being covered in melted butter, cinnamon and sugar. It is traditionally served hot so that the baked segments can be easily torn away with the fingers and eaten by hand.

Sounds yummy doesn’t it? However, traditional Monkey Bread isn’t particularly healthy. It contains A LOT of fat and sugar. In contrast, the ‘healthified’ versions often use bread or pizza dough as their base, and are glazed with healthier alternatives to butter and refined cane sugar.

One Sunday, I decided to have a go at making some Apple and Cinnamon-Spiced Healthy Monkey Bread as a ‘special breakfast’. It was a huge hit with Lil’ L and M and, I must admit, I’m rather partial to it too.

The ‘authentic’ way to serve Monkey Bread is to invert it onto a plate…

However, we prefer to eat it straight from the pan. Hands get less messy, and you can use the balls to mop up any syrup left in the pan. 😉

If you’re lucky enough to have a breadmaker, then this recipe requires very little effort at all. You simply throw all the dough ingredients in the machine and press a button. I’ve had my breadmaker for a couple of years now and it’s been fantastic! I reckon it’s easily paid for itself in terms of the amount of times we’ve chosen to stay in rather than going to Pizza Express!

Today, I made some Monkey Bread as an after-school treat for Lil’ L and his friend, and I made it by hand to see how it compared to the bread-maker version. To be honest, making dough by hand doesn’t require THAT much effort. It takes less than 15 minutes, which isn’t too bad at all. Plus kneading dough is great exercise for the arms.

Below I’ve given instructions for making the Monkey Bread by hand and in a breadmaker. If you’re planning to eat it for breakfast, you can easily prepare the dough the night before and chill it in the fridge. In the morning, simply remove the dough from the fridge about 20 minutes before you need to use it.

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Makes 18-20 dough balls (serves 3-4)
Hands-on time: 10-30 minutes (depending on whether you make the dough in a breadmaker or by hand)
Dough resting time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes

Dough
½ tsp fast action/easy blend yeast
300g / 11oz / 2¼ cups wholemeal (wholewheat) bread flour or chapatti flour (I use the latter)
½ tsp sea salt
170ml / 5¾ fl oz / ¾ cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp olive oil

Cinnamon Sugar
1 tbsp coconut sugar (or use granulated sugar)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Apple Cinnamon Syrup
1 organic apple, cored and chopped (I keep the skin on)
2 tbsp virgin coconut oil (or you could use non dairy margarine, like Pure)
2 tbsp maple or agave syrup (I often use Clark’s Original Maple Syrup)
1 tbsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Prepare the dough.
– In a breadmaker: Throw all the ingredients in the pan and select ‘pizza dough’. The programme should take around 45 minutes. When it signals that it’s ready, leave the dough in the machine for a further 20 minutes or so to rise.
– By hand: Place the yeast, flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm water and oil. Mix well with a spoon, then bring it together with your hands until you have a sticky dough. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea cloth or oiled cling film (plastic wrap), and leave in a warm place for about an hour until it has doubled in size. If your house is cool (like ours) then cover with oiled foil and leave in the oven at 40C / 100F for an hour. When the dough is ready, remove from the oven, knead for a couple more minutes then set aside.
Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F / Gas 6. Brush or spray a 23 cm / 9″ loose bottom pan with oil.
Prepare the cinnamon sugar: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.
Prepare the apple cinnamon syrup: First blend the apple into a smooth puree. I find the easiest way to do this is to place the apple pieces in a bowl and use a hand blender (stick / immersion blender). Place the apple puree, coconut oil, syrup, sugar and cinnamon in a small pan and gently heat until the oil has melted.
Pull off small amounts of dough and roll them into balls about 2½ cm / 1″ in diameter. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar and place in the oiled pan. Repeat until all the dough has been used. Evenly space out the balls in the pan (they will expand when baking). If you have any cinnamon sugar left over, add it to the syrup pan.
Spoon the apple cinnamon syrup evenly over the top and in between the dough balls. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 25-30 minutes.
Serve warm, either inverted onto a plate or straight from the pan.

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I hope you enjoy it as much as this little monkey 😉

Good Hemp Seed Giveaway Results!
Before I go, I’d like to announce the winners of the Good Hemp Seed Giveaway. The eligible entries were placed in chronological order and 3 winners were randomly selected using Random.org.

I’m delighted to announce that the winners are…

1. Emma
2. Samantha
3. Penniless Veggie

Please email your postal addresses and I’ll arrange for the gifts to be sent to you asap.

Have a great weekend everyone! xx

Bluebells Galore! & Lil’ L’s Top Eats of the Week

Published on April 25, 2012 by Sharon4 Comments

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great week so far 🙂

We’re doing okay, although the weather is a bit of a drag. It’s just rain, rain, rain here 🙁 I mustn’t complain though as we’ve had beautiful weather for weeks and the country’s got a water shortage.

Although I definitely don’t fancy going out on my bike in this weather, I am happy to walk about in the rain. In fact, it can be pretty refreshing. I love the smell of fresh rain and, providing you’ve got a big umbrella, it can be quite cosy and fun.

On Saturday, we decided to take a trip to West Woods in Wiltshire to check out the beautiful bluebells. It rained on and off, but that didn’t matter.

If anything, it made the trip even more magical as we were pretty much the only ones there. It was so peaceful!

The bluebells were truly stunning!

We noticed that there were quite a few bridleways through the forest so, as soon as the tracks dry out, we’ll take our bikes for a ride round.

The market town of Marlborough is not far from the woods so, after our walk, we popped there for a coffee. It was market day so before we headed home, we managed to bag ourselves some great value fruit and veggies, including 10 bananas for £1!

WIAW – Lil’ L’s Favourite Eats of the Week

Since our return from Lanzarote a week and a half ago, I’ve been enjoying cooking some of the family’s favourite meals. Just for a change, for this week’s WIAW party, I thought I’d ask Lil’ L to list his favourite breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert that he’s eaten since we’ve been home.

Here’s a rundown of his favourite eats:

Breakfast – Banana Pancakes
I made a batch of these on Saturday morning and Lil’ L had them for breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday. These are his number one favourite pancakes. I’ve recently updated the recipe to bring it into line with my other pancake recipes. They are so simple to make; you just throw all the ingredients into the blender and pulse it a few times.

At the weekend, we topped the pancakes with chopped pecans, walnuts, sliced almonds, ground linseed and a drizzle of agave syrup.

Lunch – Scrambled Tofu Pitta Pocket
Since returning from our holidays, we’ve been on a mission to liven up lunch boxes. Lil’ L mentioned that he would love to try scrambled tofu in a pitta bread for his school lunch. On Sunday, we made scrambled tofu on toast for our lunch and then saved some for packed lunches on Tuesday.

This time round, in addition to the tofu and spices, we added a few veggies – finely chopped red onion, red pepper, sliced mushrooms and flat leaf parsley.

Lil’ L absolutely loved the scrambled tofu pitta pocket and said it was one of the best packed lunches he’s ever had. We’ll definitely be making this one again!

Dinner – Home-made Pizza, Mexican Fajitas & Vegetable Korma
Lil’ L had difficulty choosing one favourite dinner as we’ve had three of his favourites this week, so he asked whether I could feature all three.

On Sunday we had the home made ‘confetti’ pizza (which we ate whilst watching the very bizarre film ‘Coraline’)

On Monday, we had Mexican veggie fajitas. This dinner only takes 8 minutes to make! It’s perfect for Monday nights when Lil’ L has to eat an early dinner before cubs.

To make them, I stir fried bell peppers, courgette (zucchini), mushrooms, baby corn, avocado, julienned carrot sticks, roasted broccoli (a left over from the weekend) and pumpkin seeds in a little oil and a sprinkling of fajita spice mix. I also added half a packet of Fry’s Vegetarian Chunky Strips (bought from Holland and Barratt). We served them in warmed tortillas, and M and I chose to spice ours up with a drizzle of Linghams Chilli Sauce. Delicious!

Yesterday, my mum came to visit us for the night, so we decided to cook one of the family’s current favourite meals – Veggie Korma with home made chapattis. This time round, we used 7 different vegetables in the curry – red onion, garlic, celery, carrot, parsnip, savoy cabbage, and mushrooms, along with cashew nuts and sliced almonds. Lil’ L enjoyed it so much that he asked for seconds!

Dessert – Chocolate Banana Chia Pudding
This was our dessert from Monday night. Another really simple recipe which takes about a minute to prepare, providing that you’ve remembered to pre-soak the chia seeds.

It’s been another week of great eats 🙂 We’ve had lots of old family favourites and I’ve also been trialling some new recipes which I’m looking forward to sharing with you…. especially the home made veggie pasties, which are totally lush!

Right, time to head over to the WIAW party to check out this week’s delicious eats. Thanks as always to the lovely Jenn for hosting this great event. I hope to see you there! 🙂 xx

Mothering Sunday, a Visit to Lacock and a delicious Veggie Korma!

Published on March 21, 2012 by Sharon20 Comments

Hi everyone! Hope you’re having a great week so far!

For this week’s WIAW party, I’d like to share our eats from last Sunday, which was Mother’s Day here in the UK. According to the results of a nationwide survey, what most mothers really want on Mothering Sunday is a lie-in and a home-made card. Well, I can happily report that I got both, so I was one very happy mum indeed! 🙂

Check out what Lil’ L wrote inside the card. It’s really sweet (and amusing)! People that know me will laugh at pretty much all the qualities he listed, especially the last one! The only one I can relate to myself is no 3. Isn’t it wonderful though that, at the age of 8, our kids still think of us as superstars! I wonder how long that will last!

Last weekend, M’s parents came to stay, so Mother’s Day was doubly special. After our lovely lie-ins with cups of tea and coffee, we all opted to have different breakfasts. Cereals and home-made pecan & maple nut granola for M’s mum and dad, porridge for M, and pancakes for me & Lil’ L. However, when M saw how nice the the pancakes looked, he decided that he’d like some as well. Luckily, I’d made a huge batch so we had a couple spare 😉

This Sunday, we had blueberry pancakes (recipe here) made with the new Alpro Almond Milk (delicious!), topped with organic strawberries, pecan nuts, ground linseed and a drizzle of agave syrup. Both Waitrose & Tesco are selling organic strawberries half price at the moment and they are super sweet and totally scrummy!

Lil’ L was put out at first when he saw the strawberries on top, but he was willing to give them a try, with the response “I’ll give anything a try if it’s on top of a pancake”. I must remember this 😉

He ended up eating the whole lot, which is fantastic for this former fruit dodger. That’s another fruit to cross off the ‘won’t try/don’t like’ list 🙂

After breakfast, we went to visit Lacock, a village in Wiltshire just a few miles from where we live. This ancient village is a pretty special place, and has the most incredible old houses.

Lacock Village High Street (c) Ian Petticrew

It’s been used as the backdrop for a number of films and TV series, including Cranford and Pride & Prejudice. Lacock Abbey is also the setting for a number of the interior shots in the Harry Potter films.

On Sunday, there were lots of little craft shops open for us to browse, as well as a craft fayre in the village hall. For lunch, we stopped at the village bakery for a delicious veggie pastie.

We had a lovely afternoon at the village and are planning to return in early summer with M’s parents to visit the Abbey and its grounds. From the photos I’ve seen on the web, it looks absolutely stunning!

For dinner, we had leftovers from Saturday night’s meal, which had been so delicious that we didn’t mind eating it on two consecutive nights. We had veggie korma, coconut dhal with butternut squash, brown rice, chapattis (made by M!), and mini poppadoms.

The veggie curry was really well received by M’s parents, which was a relief as I often wonder whether M, L and I have different taste buds to people that eat ‘typical’ Western diets. I think veggie curry is a great dish to serve when you have guests (whether they’re veggie or meat eaters) for these reasons…

With the simple addition of chapattis, poppadoms, naan breads, the curry can turn into a delicious feast.
Pretty much everyone I know loves curry, and as long as you don’t make it too hot, then it’s fine for the children too. When Lil’ L was younger, I simply used to roughly blend the veggies so that they were less chunky and blended into the korma sauce.
The dishes can be prepared in advance (big advantage in my book as I don’t want to be slaving in the kitchen when we have guests!) The dishes can even be prepared the day before and simply heated through on the stove.

The veggie korma we made on Saturday included my all-time favourite combination of veggies for curries. It’s quick and incredibly simple to make. Here’s the recipe:

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Veggie Korma

Serves: 5-6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1-2 TBSP korma curry paste (I use Patak’s korma paste)
400 ml / 14 oz can coconut milk
1 onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
2 medium parsnips, sliced
1 medium courgette (zucchini), sliced
4 white cabbage leaves, chopped
2 handfuls of spinach (or other leafy green), roughly chopped
240 ml / 8 fl oz / 1 cup vegetable stock
80g / 3 oz / ½ cup cashew nuts (or sub with cooked chick peas if you wish)
35g / 1¼ oz / 1/3 cup flaked almonds

Method
Get prepared:
Prepare some brown basmati rice.
Chop the veggies.
Prepare the vegetable stock.

Ready, set, go!
In a large, heavy bottomed pan, mix the curry paste and coconut milk together over a medium-low heat. Add the vegetables (except the spinach) and stock, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender. Add the cashews and spinach, and continue cooking until the spinach has wilted. Season, to taste.

Meanwhile toast the flaked almonds in a dry frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat, stirring continuously until lightly browned.

Serve in warm bowls on a bed of rice and a sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds, for garnish.

Any leftover curry can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or for weeks in the freezer.

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For dessert, we had mango hedgehogs 🙂

So that’s what we ate on Mothering Sunday. We didn’t go out to a restaurant and pay the inflated Mother’s Day prices, but instead we stayed in and ate one of the tastiest Indian meals I’ve ever had 🙂

It’s now time for me to pop over to Jenn’s site and check out all the delicious WIAW entries. A big thank you to Jenn for hosting this great foodie party and for all the inspiration for new eats.

I’d love some more ideas for dishes to serve for a mix of veggie and non-veggie guests. I often end up serving veggie lasagna, Mexican burritos/ fajitas/ enchiladas, or veggie curry. What dishes would you recommend? I’d love to hear your ideas and please do send links to recipes if you have them.

Happy Wednesday everyone! xx

Banana Pancakes and Bike Adventures!

Published on July 26, 2011February 27, 2023 by Sharon3 Comments

Sunday’s special weekend breakfast was one of our all-time favourites … banana oat pancakes. I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for a while now, but Lil’ L has always managed to eat the pancakes before I’ve got round to taking the photo! This time, I made a huge batch so he could be happily munching his way through three pancakes while I took a photo of the others. 😉

We like to serve these pancakes with pecan nuts, blueberries and a light drizzle of agave syrup.

Not only are these pancakes delicious, they’re also super healthy and highly nutritious. Lil’ L describes these pancakes as ‘glorious!’ and gives them 5 stars. 🙂 The recipe can be found here.

We’ve finally got round to buying a roof rack for the new car, which means we can start going on bike adventures further afield again. Hurray! This Sunday, after our fill of pancakes, we loaded the bikes onto the car and decided to go to Longleat in Wiltshire.

We parked the car at Nockatt Coppice car park (love that name!) The trail starts up high, with a beautiful view of Longleat House and grounds.

There was an interesting sculpture that was just begging to be laid on. 😉

Let the adventure begin!

There are many trails round Longleat. The one we chose today took us through an amazing woodland. Lil’ L’s reading Enid Blyton’s ‘Folk of the Faraway Tree’ at the moment, and he said that this tree was exactly how he imagined the Faraway Tree to look. 😉

Apparently the next section of the wood looks just like the Ewok’s forest in Star Wars.

After following the trail through the woods, we popped out by the lake at Shear Water. There was a very cute cygnet with its mum and dad.

After consulting the map, we were pleased to find that there was a cafe less than a mile away. Bike rides are always more fun when they involve stops at cafes. 😉

The cafe turned out to be a very cute tearoom in a thatched house.

My beloved Marin took a well-earned rest on the grass.

We had our fill of beans on toast and coffee, then we headed back to Nockatt Coppice. It was a great day out! I’m already looking forward to our next bike adventure. 😉