Almond Cookies (Dairy Free, Egg Free, Vegan)

After one of the coldest Springs on record, the weather is finally starting to warm up.  Like us, the garden is loving it!  The Aquilegias (‘Granny’s Bonnet’) are out in full force…

Aquilegia - June 2013

and the peonies have started to bloom.

Peony May-June 2013

We had zero fruit on the apple and plum trees last year due to the poor weather conditions, but things are looking better this year.  Even the tiny apple tree growing in our rockery is covered in blossom.

Apple Tree & Peony - May-June 2013

Hopefully we’ll have lots of homegrown apples come September 🙂

Apple Blossom - May-June 2013

The weather is still very patchy at the moment though.  One day we have glorious sunshine and it’s warm, while the next day it can be cold and dark, with non stop rain.  I don’t know when (or if) the weather is going to settle down this year, so we’re just going to have to make the most of the sunshine when it appears.

This morning, before heading out on our bikes, Lil’ L and I decided to bake some Cinnamon Fruit Loaf and Almond Cookies.  As soon as the cookies were baked, we headed out into the garden to enjoy them along with a cup of raw hot chocolate.

Lil L, Almond Cookies & Hot Choc in the Garden 1

In fact, it was so sunny this morning that we needed to wear sun glasses!

Lil L, Almond Cookies & Hot Choc in the Garden 2

The almond cookies were really yummy!  Straight from the oven, they were crunchy on the outside with a softer centre.  We used chapatti flour which is so fine that you wouldn’t even guess that these cookies were wholegrain!  To boost the almond flavour, we added a little almond extract which gave them a hint of marzipan.  Next time round, we’re going to toast the almonds first to see if we can boost the almond flavour even more.

Vegan Almond Cookies

Here’s how we made them:

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Makes: about 18 cookies

Ingredients
140ml / 4¾ fl oz / 2/3 cup rapeseed (canola) oil
155g / 5½ oz /¾ cup unrefined caster sugar
60ml / 2
fl oz / ¼ cup soya milk (or use almond milk)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g / 7 oz / 1½ cups fine wholemeal (wholewheat) flour (I use chapatti flour)
1 tablespoon semolina
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ teaspoon salt

100g / 3½ oz / 1 cup flaked almonds

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4.  Line 2 large baking trays with non stick baking paper.
  2. Place the sugar, oil and milk in a large bowl and use a fork to whisk the mixture until it is smooth and caramel-like (about 2 minutes).  Mix in the almond and vanilla extracts.  Sift the flour, semolina, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the bowl and stir until fully combined.  (If your wheat flakes are too big to be sifted, simply whizz them in a grinder, food processor or mini chopper until they are fine).  Mix in the flaked almonds.
  3. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of dough and place on the prepared baking tray.  Press down to flatten the dough slightly.  Repeat with the remaining dough, placing the cookies about 5cm / 2 inches apart on the tray (they will spread as they cook).  Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned round the edges.  Remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  When completely cooled, store the cookies in an airtight container.

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Fuelled up from our ‘elevenses’, we headed out on our second bike ride of the weekend, this time along the beautiful Kennet & Avon Canal…

Riding along the Kennet & Avon Canal Towpath

passing through the lush green countryside and wildflower meadows round Monkton Coombe, followed by a ride through the Bath Two Tunnels (it was so cool in there!)

Two Tunnels

then onto Bath city centre for cappuccinos & smoothies.    It was absolutely glorious!

I hope you had a lovely weekend too and I wish you all the best for the week ahead 🙂

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings – Comfort Food for a Snowy Weekend!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

It’s been snowing here in Bath. Yay!

Snowy Bathampton Meadows 500

Snow is something of a novelty here. Last year it only snowed for one afternoon!

Lil’ L was so excited when he awoke on Friday and saw the snow. Not only did it mean that he got a bonus day off school, but it also meant that he would finally get to use the sledge that his grandparents had bought him two years ago!

He quickly gulped down his breakfast, threw on some warm clothes, and was out the door!

Lil L Snowy Bath January 2013 1

With all this freshly fallen snow, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful!

Snowy Tree in Snowy Bath January 2013

As lunch time, M came for a spot of sledging. The boys had a huge amount of fun!

Lil L sledging in Snowy Bath January 2013

They were moving so fast that I only just managed to catch a shot of them. Can you spot them? They’re behind the tree!

Lil L sledging in Snowy Bath January 2013 3

I’m a big scaredy cat when it comes to things like this, so I’m very happy to watch from the sidelines.

Lil L Snowy Bath January 2013 2

As well as sledging, we’ve had some beautiful walks this weekend, including one along the Kennet & Avon Canal into Bath City Centre.

Snowy walk along the K&A Canal - January 2013

Upon arrival, Lil’ L suggested we warm up with a veggie pasty from our favourite pasty shop  (Pasty Presto) by Bath Abbey 🙂

Lil L at Pasty Presto Bath

Back home, we’ve been warming up with lots of hot chocolate. Our current favourite blend is the Elements for Life Raw Hot Chocolate. It’s totally lush! (check out my review here). To make it into a filling, nutritious snack, I’ve been throwing a bunch of ingredients in the blender (1 cup Alpro Almond Milk, 1 tbsp raw hot chocolate powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds & 1 tbsp ground almonds per person) and blending it on high speed before gently heating it through. It’s delicious, thick, creamy and leaves you feeling totally full up 🙂

Lil L drinking hot choc

I’ve also been making lots of comfort food. For the second Sunday in a row, I’ve made a Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings.  We absolutely love this dish and it’s perfect for this time of year.

Chestnut Casserole with Herby Dumplings

N.B. Recipe updated 1/3/18 to match the recipe in the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook.

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Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings
In my book, this is comfort food at its best! I’ve ‘healthified’ the dumplings as much as possible by adding in some wholegrain flour and olive oil instead of suet, but I think they taste as nice, if not nicer, than regular dumplings. 

Serves: 4
Hands on time: 30 minutes   Ready in: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Casserole:
1 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely diced
1 large sweet potato (400g), peeled and chopped into small bite-size pieces
2 medium carrots (150g), sliced into thin disks
200g / 2½ cups chestnut (or crimini) mushrooms, diced
1 tsp each dried rosemary, sage, thyme
1 tsp sweet paprika
480ml / 2 cups vegetable stock (broth)
2 TBSP tomato purée (paste)
180g / 1 heaping cup cooked (ready to eat) chestnuts (I used 1 packet of Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts)
3 TBSP mixed seeds (e.g. sunflower, pumpkin, shelled hemp seeds)
1 TBSP cornflour (cornstarch)
salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Dumplings:
90g / â…” cup fine wholemeal (whole wheat pastry) flour or chapatti flour
90g / ⅔ cup plain (all purpose) flour
1 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp mustard powder
½ tsp salt
40ml / 3 TBSP olive oil
80ml / â…“ cup soya milk

Method

1  Gently heat the oil in a large casserole or heavy-bottomed pan. Add the vegetables, dried herbs and paprika. Cover with a lid and leave to sweat for five minutes. Stir in the vegetable stock and tomato purée. (To begin with, it may look like you have too many vegetables, but they will reduce down). Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2  Meanwhile, prepare the dumplings: Place the flours, baking powder, herbs, mustard powder and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the oil and milk and stir with a fork until it starts to come together. Finish bringing the dough together by hand. It should be a soft, slightly sticky dough, so add a touch more liquid or flour if needed to attain the right consistency. Divide the mixture into 12-16 equal pieces and roll into balls.

3  Slice the chestnuts in half and add them to the casserole, along with the seeds. Mix the cornflour with 1 TBSP water until smooth, then stir it into the casserole. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange the dumplings on top, cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.

4  Ladle into warm bowls and serve. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for three days.

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For a Gluten Free version, you could serve the casserole with a root veg mash or add an oaty crumble topping.

Have a great week everyone! Stay warm!

 

 

Is it snowing where you are?
What are your favourite Winter warming comfort foods?

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Festive Holiday Highlights 2012

Lil’ L returned to school today which means that the festive holidays are officially over in my house. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly these two weeks pass!

Before I fully immerse myself in the new year, I’d just like to share a few pics to show what we’ve been up to these past couple of weeks.

Christmas Tree 2012 - 500

We were really fortunate that M was able to take the full 2 weeks off work, so we had lots of quality family time together (which I absolutely treasured!)  I was also extremely grateful that we managed to avoid the flu and stomach bugs that so many people sadly suffered from this Christmas. I really felt for them. I wish  I could have waved a magic wand and made them all better. Oh to have such powers :/

Christmas Tree 2 2012 - 500

Our Christmas was very chilled out, which was wonderful after all the busyness of the preceding weeks.

Obviously there was lots of excitement on Christmas morning when Lil’ L discovered that Santa had delivered a sack of presents for him (Lego was a popular gift again this year 😉 )

Christmas 2012_7 500

Christmas 2012_1 500

Christmas 2012_4 500

As well as having lots of fun playing with new toys, we also enjoyed playing my Dad’s old board games, watching movies on the TV and trips to the cinema. Have you seen Life of Pi yet? It’s such a beautiful film!

Life of Pi - 500

There’s been a fair amount of eating going on over the holidays too 😉 I did eat a lot more calories than usual (who doesn’t at this time of year?) and most of the extra calories came from the vast quantity of Christmas pudding, mince pies and Christmas cake that I consumed. Thank goodness I only eat them for a couple of weeks of the year!

Christmas Cake 2012 - 500
I finally got round to decorating the Christmas Cake on Boxing Day!

To help burn off the extra calories, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day I went for morning jogs along the canal, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Since the weather was so mild (and fairly dry later in the day) the three of us also enjoyed taking evening strolls to Bath city centre.

Evening Stroll in Pultney Street Bath Jan 2013 - 500

These past few years, it’s become a tradition for us to welcome in the New Year with a visit to the coast and a stroll along the beach.

This year, we took a trip to Weymouth on the South Coast.Weymouth 1 - 500

This is where the sailing took place for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Weymouth - Lil' L & Wenlock 500

All that space on the beach…

Weymouth Beach 1 - 500

… and look where Lil’ L has to walk! As per usual, he seems determined to get his feet wet!

Weymouth Beach 3 - 500

We also took a trip to Chesil Beach. This really was invigorating!

Chesil Beach 1 - 500

I can’t imagine how many pebbles there are on this beach. There must be millions!

And where’s Lil’ L? Yep, you guessed right. Down at the water’s edge chancing his luck.

Chesil Beach 2 - 500

This time round he only just managed to escape getting soaked (which is an improvement on last year 😉 )

Chesil Beach 3 - 500

So that’s another year over! Time to move on!

I wish you all a wonderful 2013. I hope the year brings you everything you desire xx

p.s. What was the highlight of your festive holidays?
Have you set any New Year’s solutions? 
I haven’t set any yet… except for my wish to be a better human being… this has been my New Year’s resolution for as long as I can remember 🙂  However, I’m thinking that maybe it would be a good idea for me to set some short term goals and milestones for 2013. This might help me to focus a little more and stop wasting time 😉

Bath Lantern Parade & Christmas Market 2012

This week we’ve had heavy rainfall and high winds, and many areas within Bath are now flooded. Bathampton Meadows (pictured in my top banner) has turned into a lake and our garden is completely submerged under water. It’s an amazing spectacle! I’ve posted some pics on my FB page if you want to see for yourself.

However, these adverse weather conditions weren’t going to put us off attending the Lantern Parade and opening of Bath Christmas Market last night. It was raining and blowing a gale when we first ventured out. Fortunately, by the time the Parade kicked off, the rain had reduced to a fine drizzle. Good thing too as I don’t think the paper lanterns would have lasted very long in a deluge 😉

The Lantern Parade started at the Holburne Museum and made its way down Pulteney Street to the sound of Bath Samba Band. Everyone was in high spirits despite the weather.  I noticed that lots of people (me included) couldn’t help but add a little samba strut to our step as we made our way into the city centre 😉

The Parade ended at the Abbey, the site of the Christmas Market.

I just love visiting the Market at night. The sight of all those little wooden sheds lit up is so inviting 🙂

And who are these two characters? I’m not exactly sure but they were very entertaining. Lil’ L ‘high fived’ the … Snow Queen?

In addition to the parade, there were some awesome animated light projections on the Holburne Museum and Bath Abbey. These were the work of Transient Graffiti, a local community development project.  We enjoyed the animation whilst warming ourselves with veggie pasties from Pasty Presto (by far the best pasty shop in Bath in our opinion!)

It was a great night out and I’m so glad the rain died down so we could all enjoy it. About an hour later the torrential rain started again so we were very lucky indeed!

Just before I sign off for the weekend, I must announce the winners of the Raw Hot Chocolate Giveaway.

The 3 lucky winners are…

Julia
Denise Williams
Kathleen Hooper

Congratulations guys! Please email me your postal addresses (Sharon at BitoftheGoodStuff dot com) and I’ll post the prizes to you next week.

If anyone of my other readers would like to try some of the Elements for Life Raw Hot Chocolate, Dan & Paula have given me a discount code that entitles you to 10% off any of the individual hot chocolates, mugs and hot chocolate gift sets.  Simply order before 1st December 2012 and enter the code BOTGS1112 at the checkout.

If you live in the South West of the UK, you’ll be able to find Elements of Life raw chocolate goodies in a number of retail outlets. The full list can be found here.

I’ll be running another chocolatey giveaway in December and this time it will be international.  I’m excited already. I love giveaways 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone! Stay safe & stay dry xx

 

Birthday Celebrations

On Friday, Lil’ L celebrated his 9th birthday. I’m still in shock that he’s 9 already. Where did all that time go???

For the first time in his life, his birthday actually fell on a school day. He wasn’t too impressed about this to begin with, but it turned out to be a really fun day. It was the last day of the term and and they spent the afternoon making Victorian cam toys.  It sounded really cool!

He’d decided to save most of his presents until he got home from school, and he was just so excited and delighted about everything he opened. I loved watching his facial expressions as he ripped the paper off.

Check out his face when he discovered that his Nan had bought him the Nerf Supersoaker Scatter Blast Water Gun!

I couldn’t believe how many presents he’d been given. That boy was seriously spoilt 😉

Reading is still one of his passions and he’s recently got into graphic novels, which are inspiring his imagination and artwork.

He’s also loving the Tom Gates series. From what I can tell, it’s along the lines of The Wimpy Kid but with more graphics.  Here’s the ‘blurb’ (as Lil’ L calls it)….

“Brilliant comedies from a Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning series.  Tom Gates is a master of excuses, expert doodler, comic story writer extraordinaire – and the bane of his grumpy teacher, Mr Fullerman. And in his wacky journals, you’ll find all sorts of comic craziness to make you groan with glee! Tom’s battered homework diaries are crammed with his scribbles, stories and cartoons – as well as comments from the long-suffering Mr Fullerman. What with his awful big sister Delia, his band Dogzombies (rock stars in the making) AND the school disco, Tom’s life isn’t always easy. But it is laugh-out-loud hilarious!”

 

(If anyone’s got a 9-11 year old that would enjoy these books, I’ve spotted a great deal on the Scholastic site, where you can buy 3 Tom Gates books for £10. Here’s the link).

Once the presents were opened, it was time to light the candles on his cake and sing Happy Birthday 🙂

I tried a new vegan chocolate cake recipe for this year’s birthday cake. It was okay, but not outstanding. However, what I did love about the cake was the topping and filling. I could have just eaten a plate of those and skipped the cake 😉  Both were made without any refined sugar and they tasted scrumptious! I will definitely use them again. Here’s how I made them…

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Chocolate Date Fudge Cake Topping (dairy-free / can be made raw with no refined sugar)

Ingredients
26 dates (about 1 cup’s worth), soaked for 1 hour in water to soften, then drained
100g / 3.5 oz / 1 bar of good quality dark chocolate or 1 cup of dark choc chips (you can make this topping raw and sugar-free by using raw chocolate. I make my own and the recipe can be found here.)

Method

  1. Gently melt the chocolate using a bain marie. Place the dates in a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Add the melted chocolate and process until completely smooth, pausing now and then to scrape down the bowl.
  2. Use a knife to spread the date fudge on the top of the cake. It will firm up slightly when cool, giving it a lovely fudgey texture.

Raw Chocolate Cashew Cream Cake Frosting / Filling
(raw / no refined sugar / dairy free)

Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight), then drained
3 tbsp raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder will work too)
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil, gently melted into liquid form
2 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method

  1. Place the cashews in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth, pausing now and then to scrape down the bowl.
  2. Using a knife, spread half the mixture onto each of the cakes, then assemble the cakes, one on top of the other. Gently press down to secure the cakes together.

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In the evening, for a third birthday in a row, Lil’ L chose to go to his favourite Indian restaurant, Rajpoot in Bath. We all had onion bhajis, mango chutney and poppadoms as starters, then Lil’ L and I chose to share three side dishes as our main course…
– Dall Roshun (Mosur Lentils seasoned with garlic)
– Bagun Bhajee (gently spiced aubergines)
– Mushroom Bhajee
… along with some boiled rice. Lil’ L also had a naan.
M chose to have the Navaratan Pulao (a nutty, fruity vegetable pulao).
All the food was absolutely delicious!

And, to top it off, the staff gave Lil’ L an amazing chocolate ice cream dessert as a birthday treat. Check out the huge sparkler that’s stuck in it.  It was awesome!

The birthday celebrations continued all weekend long. On Saturday, he went to the cinema with his best friend to see Madagascar 3. We let them go into the cinema alone (a first for Lil’ L… he was so excited!) while M and I enjoyed some time together in the foyer coffee shop 🙂

The cinema trip was followed by a picnic on the lounge floor, a Lego Star Wars film, then lots of lego building, general larking about, book reading in their sleeping bags and then, at nearly midnight, there was silence as the boys finally fell asleep 😉

Lil’ L had such a fantastic birthday weekend and thank you so much to everyone for all the kind birthday wishes, cards and presents he’s been sent. The ‘thank you’ cards are in production 🙂

Take care everyone!

I hope you’re having a great week so far 🙂 xx

Dharma 4 Kids Festival 2012 & A Chocolate Giveaway!

Hi everyone!

Here’s a few pics that I wanted to share from this year’s Dharma for Kids Festival. We went to this festival for the first time last year and enjoyed it so much that we decided to go again. Lil’ L had been looking forward to it all year!

The festival took place at the beautiful Nagarjuna Centre in Kelmarsh, near Northampton (about a 3-hour drive from Bath).

This place has such a relaxed atmosphere. It’s got a fantastic cafe with an outdoor seating area, where M and I love to sit, chat, and drink cappuccinos while Lil’ L’s busy having fun with his friends 🙂

The theme of the festival was ‘You Before Me‘ and, over the course of the weekend, there were workshop sessions, meditations and activities arranged for the children and teenagers based on the theme of ‘kindness’.

There was a dedicated art marquee where the children could make objects that they would like to see in a ‘Kind World’.

They made marzipan tormas and mandala sets out of paper and coloured rice. Here’s the results of Lil’ L’s torma making…

There was table football, table tennis, a karaoke marquee, bouncy castles, and gladiators.

And lots of opportunities for general larking about.

On the Saturday morning, I got a surprise call from my friend Nicky to tell me that her family were ditching their original plans for the day, and were going to join us instead 🙂 They got in their car and drove for 2+ hours simply to spend the afternoon with us (what total stars they are!) Seeing them at the festival made the weekend even more special for me. I wish I’d taken a few pics but I was way too engrossed in the chat. At that point, photography was the last thing on my mind!

We paid for day passes to the festival (M, Lil’ L and I stayed overnight at the nearby Travel Plaza) and I was happy to find that the passes included all meals. The food was fantastic! All veggie of course, which saved us having to sift through the buffet 😉

On the Sunday afternoon, the children had the option of taking part in a drama session, where they enacted ‘The Giving Tree’. I’m sure my American readers will be familiar with this story, but I’d never heard it before.

Lil’ L’s only encounter with the book till that point had been through reading one of the Wimpy Kid books. Apparently the Wimpy Kid is terrified of the author on the back cover. I have to say, I know what he means! You should have seen Lil’ L’s face when he realised that it was that book!

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‘The Giving Tree is one of those special stories that has very few words, yet leaves a great impression on the reader. I’m sure everyone that reads the story will have their own take on what it’s all about. Seeing that I tend to read everything from a Buddhist perspective, for me, the story is first and foremost a lesson in where happiness truly comes from. I’m sure there’s also some environmental messages in there. Anyway, I’d be interested to know whether you’ve read this story yourself and what you think of it.

The children at the Buddhist festival acted out the story beautifully. Last week I thought that I’d try it with my Wednesday Workshop kids too. We first read the story using a powerpoint version I found on the Internet, then we watched an animated version from YouTube (there’s many version of the story on YouTube but I thought that this one was well suited to the kids in my groups).

We then acted it out. It was a bit manic but the kids were so enthusiastic and had a whale of a time. We decided that a more suitable title for our version would be ‘The Crazy Tree and Mad Boy’!

Since then, we’ve followed on the ‘giving’ theme in our Wednesday Workshops and, this week, after a beautiful meditation, the children made bookmarks to give to a friend or relative, and I gave each of them a cookie 🙂

It’s Giveaway Time!

Continuing with the ‘giving’ theme, I think it’s about time that I gave something away to you, my lovely blog readers. It’s been a while hasn’t it? Does anyone fancy some of my home-made raw chocolate hearts? You do? Well, I would be very happy to share some with you!

There are four ways that you can enter, and each way counts as a separate entry. So, if you enter all four ways, you’ve quadrupled your chances of winning. Happy days!

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Leave me a comment below
  2. Follow me on Twitter (@Goodstuffsharon) and leave a comment below to let me know
  3. Tweet the Giveaway and leave a comment below to let me know
  4. Follow me on Facebook and leave a comment below to let me know

The giveaway is open to everyone, regardless of where you live.

I’ll select a winner at random on Friday, 5th October.

Good luck everyone!

And have a great weekend xx