Breakfast Muffins
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
Breakfast is intrinsically difficult. I find it hard to eat early in the day and yet I know that a good healthy breakfast is essential to a good healthy day. The breakfast products available seem to fall into 3 categories. Type 1: So full of sugar, fat, salt and refined stuff that I’d hesitate to eat them as a meal. Only for high days and holidays. Type 2: Pretending to be healthy. May have whole grains but still containing a lot of sugar and salt. Tends to be the sort I buy. Type 3: The genuinely healthy, but almost inedible at that time of the day. Shredded Wheat is what I’m talking about here. My other problem with cereal products is that to feel full I need to eat at least twice the recommended portion size.
Sugar free muesli is fine. Porridge is healthy and tasty but I do like to pour on the syrup. Also I’m not good at preparing it right and I really hate cleaning up the pan and bowls after. Between muesli and porridge, breakfast at home is manageable. But I’ve really been trying to come up with something a bit different that would fill me up and also feel like a treat. I love muffins for breakfast, but with the butter and sugar (and *gasp* chocolate chips!), they’re not good for me. Plus I’m hungry and cranky and hour later after the sugar buzz wears off.
So I’ve been messing around with a muffin recipe to see if I could turn it into a breakfast muffin with a difference. I cooked up the first batch last night in readiness for this morning. And for a first go, they were good. Almost-fat free (I had to grease the pan), almost sugar-free (I forgot to check the apple sauce til after), and wheat-free too. Tasty and filling. A good breakfast treat. Much denser than a sweet muffin, but not chewy like bread. And still moist the morning after I made them. I’m going to stick what’s left in the freezer and see how they hold up.
To come up with it, I looked at recipes I already used and some I had when I was on a diet a few years ago. I used American cups to measure because I wanted it to be a quick to make recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup of wholemeal spelt flour (you could try something else if you need it to be gluten free)
1 cup rice flour
2 tsp baking poweder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup of sultanas (but it could be anything you like here)
1/4 cup ground almonds (could be any ground or chopped nuts)
1/4 cup dessicated coconut (but could be any ground or chopped nuts)
1/2 cup apple sauce ( I forgot to check if it was sugar free – it wasn’t! Next time I can make it myself or buy sugar free)
1 cup of milk (but I’m thinking this could be apple juice if it needs to be dairy free)
1 egg
honey to taste (I used 3 dessert spoons)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp mixed ground spice (next time I’m going to try lemon zest)
To make:
Heat oven to 180 degrees
Oil a deep muffin tray (the American type, not the fairy cake type)
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in the other bowl.
Add the try ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine.
Fill the muffin tin so each is pretty full up.
Bake for about 18 minutes.
Tip on to a rack and let them cool.
Guilty.
06 May 2012 4 Comments
in sew Tags: Moon Munkie, mystery make
I seem to have lost my Makery Mojo somewhat recently. Just lacking in inspiration, and creativity. I think I’ve probably contracted some rare tropical disease because I’ve been focusing on cleanery and laundery(!) rather than makery. For people that know me, this is serious… I’ve never met a duster I liked.
So my house is sparkly but my sewing machine is gathering dust. Along with the dust, once nebulous feelings of craft guilt are starting to coagulate in a thick patina on the inside of my skull. And this post is a shameless attempt to break through. So here is the list of things I’m feeling guilty about right now.
- Not posting about the Mystery Makery that is going on world wide. It’s taken off well. I just haven’t been keeping up with it.
-Not completing my own Mystery Makes from the Seek Speak (who is doing a very cool giveaway at the moment!) and Modern Vintage Cupcakes (go and see how cute she is with her baby bump, it will make your day.)
-The incomplete cardigan I started at Christmas for Moon Munkie. Just one sleeve left. Why can’t I pick it up?
-The large bag of dress making fabric bought at a whim and stroked lovingly many times. But as of yet uncut.
-Map bunting for my classroom
-Final hemming of the hallway curtains.
-Blackout curtains for Moon Munkie’s new bedroom
-I haven’t written in Moon Munkie’s journal for a couple of months either. Which isn’t officially makery, but it comes from the same bit of me that isn’t working at the moment. Wish I could locate that spot and give it a prod.
I could go on, but it’s not really helping. I’m just feeling worse. So I’m going to post a picture of the only makery I’ve been up to in a fortnight. Some small eco-systems for my classroom. The little growing plants make me happy. I hope that Year 8 are happy too when they make theirs. I’m especially fond of the tall one which has a pond eco sytem at the bottom linked to a soil eco system at the top. I found the idea here. I love it but I couldn’t bring myself to introduce live animals and insects to such a small environment. No point in starting my own version of the Hunger Games.
Moon Munkie has planted a whole trough of her own plants too. She came running inan hour later to see if they’d grown and her little sad face broke my heart. A hard life lesson to learn there.
Antipodean Mystery Make
17 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
So cunning is Kat of Modern Vintage Cupcakes! She has taken a length of yarn I sent in the Mystery Make package and designed it into her blanket for her soon-to-be baby. Take a peek here at the rest of the squares for the blanket. What a privelege it feels to be a teeny-tiny contributor to that blanket. Keep an eye on Kat’s blog as her little one grows and also at the AMAZING outfits she makes and wears. That baby is going to be the best dressed child in the Southern Hemipshere!
Moon Munkie Mystery Make Update.
15 Apr 2012 5 Comments
in Giveaway, sew Tags: mystery make, sewing, winner
Oh, look! The MoonMunkie Mystery Make!
JMdayis super talented all round. Is there anything she can’t turn a hand to? I doubt it. And inspite of not loving the colour combinations I’d sent, she still managed to produce a fabulous book cover. It’s gorgeous. Look at the way she cut the fabric and restitched it to turn straight lines to zigzags! I want to make one just the same for my Bible, with a little pocket to put my notice sheets in.
And Seek Speak is 
working on several smaller projects using Moon Munkie Mystery Make materials. She’s designing pretty things for a baby shower in May. I love both of her projects so far. These little sweetpea blossoms are amazing. What an imagination that lady has. I’m also loving the twisted vine lettering. Lucky mummy-to-be!
And now a confession. I haven’t started my own mystery make project which I reveived from SeekSpeak. And even worse – I received surprise packet from Modern Vintage Cupcakes. I really wasn’t expecting it at all. It was full of awesome stuff. And I haven’t even had time to photograph it all yet, let alone begin making anything. I’m so sorry. Maybe this week…. maybe next week.
And I should also confess now, while I’m on a roll, that the pretty booties I made for the babies last week ARE TOO SMALL!! For both babies! I have no idea what happened. Perhaps the babies of Cardiff have anomolously large feet, although they both looked perfectly proportioned all over to me. More likely my tension was bad and chopped necessary milimetres off the length of the booties. Better try harder next time.
Teeny tiny baby boots.
04 Apr 2012 3 Comments
in Baby Shoes
This is what I learned to do at Stitch and Craft 2012! It turns out tha
t I have preciselythe prerequisite number of thumbs for knitting in the round. Inspite of everything I was worried about. These tiny Greemy Baby boots were so easy to whip up and the pattern was free from Ravelry. I crocheted 2 little flowers, also a new skill this week. I think I may cut them off again though as a dear friend has had a little boy and I’d like to give them to him.
These were my first attempt at Mariam Bootees also from Ravelry. These were made with aran weight wool, perfect for keeping tootsies warm. I hope Nia will like them. I can’t wait to meet her.
These are also Mariam Bootees but knitted with fingering weight wool on smaller needles to make them small enough to fit a newborn. I can’t wait to meet Tamsin either!
Complete Surprise
25 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Giveaway, sew Tags: competition, fabric, gift, mystery make, sewing, upcycle
I received an complete surprise in the mail yesterday. I had 100% forgotten that I was one of 5 winners of Seek Speak’s Moon Munkie Mystery Make. And yesteday a wonderful packet arrived. It was HUGE! And crammed full of goodies, all wrapped in a gorgeous brown scarf. I don’t think I’m going to be able to cut that. It might just have to be worn as it is.
Here’s what was inside.
- A beautiful blue vest top with a beaded top.
- A length of the softest pink gingham with a floral motif
- A length of white lace curtain
- A piece of batik in browns
- A suns and stars fabric in blue and bright yellow
- 5 gorgeous origami papers and a heart cut out of a similar design
- A metre or more of 1 inch elastic in pwder blue
- A metre or more of a dainty lace trim n yellow and white
- And my favourite item: a dress pattern. It’s a lovely long dress and even better, it has the words EASY across the top. So I might even be able to make something I can wear.
- A white plastic grid thingy (bottom left of the photo). I have no idea what this is. It’s divided into small squares and they are sectioned off in larger squares. It’s very flexible. Maybe for a tapestry? If you know what it is, do let me know!
Oh, how exciting. I have 420 ideas just now, but I don’t know where I’ll eventually go. Do please give me your ideas in the comments
Close-knit village
21 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Are you tired of hearing about my trip to Stitch and Craft 2012? Well, I’m only half done with telling you about it, so go and make a cup of tea and get a biscuit before you start with today’s offering.
I have to confess I’m a sucker for a model village. I know it’s a 1890s thing to like, but then I’ve always been an old fashioned girl. This is my favourite. I love imagining what’s going on inside the little houses. The tiny lives of tiny people. I love the intricate detail that the designers capture in minute replication. As a kid I loved the feeling of being a giant as I walked along the streets and stepped over the roof tops. I guess my love of Gulliver’s Travels, The Borrowers and Alice in Wonderland all stem from this same delight. And of course, any stories that take place within a dollshouse, 5 Dolls in a House by Helen Clare being top of my list. [Note: How I wish I still had my copy of this book from childhood. It's out of print now and too expensive to buy again.]
So, just imagine my pleasure when I discovered a model village at Stitch and Craft 2012! And all completely knitted. Participants in the competition had applied in advance to make a particular village feature and then once it was made, brought it to the show. It was so wonderfully produced and with such humour. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Do you Zentangle?
20 Mar 2012 4 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Zentangle
Did I mention I went to Stitch and Craft 2012 at the weekend? No? I felt sure I must have dropped it into conversation once or twice over the last month. My bad. Anway, I went and it rocked. I came back with sooooo many ideas and new things to try. And I’ll be writing more on those later in the week. But for today I want to talk Zentangle.
I had never hear of this. It’s not sewing or knitting or crochet or textile based. In fact, between you and me I think it’s probably classed as art. But I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. It’s hard to explain what it is without using the word doodling. But that hardly covers it. This method of drawing enables even the most thick-fingered, dunder-headed, pencil-monkey like myself to produce a quick doodle that is half way decent. Here is my first try, which I did almost as soon as I got home. It’s not brilliant. I’ve done a couple more since and I’m getting increasingly better.
It began as a form of meditation or mind relaxation. I can’t say for sure that I feel more relaxed after, but it certainly is a lot of fun. You take a piece of paper 9cm x 9cm and draw a “string” across it. This is essentially a line or two of any shape or direction to give your doodle basic structure. Then begin to fill the spaces with smaller repetitive patterns and lines. The next spaces seem to suggest themselves as the doodle grows and becomes more intricate.
It’s super fun and super quick too and there’s no equipment to buy to start. Although if you google Zentangle you’ll come up with some great books and recommendations of the type of pens and papers to use to make it look awesome. I did mine in pencil and it’s no way as beautiful as the ink ones. Go and Google now, or take a look at these sites. And don’t forget to drop me a comment and tell me how you’re getting on. I’d love to see your work.
Zentangle – This is the official home of Zentangle and a great site for learning about the background of this craft, the people who created it and some of the meditative techniques associated with it.
How To Zentangle – This page gives you a step by step example of how to create a simple Zentangle.
TanglePatterns- This is an excellent reference library of the “official” Zentangle patterns and how to draw each one. Personally, I’m not sure I want to get this far into it, but it’s nice to know it’s there!
Crazy Craft Ladies
18 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Craft Fairs Tags: craft fair
I got off the tube at Earl’s Court yesterday and it felt like an ordinary Saturday morning in London. As I waited for the next train, I started to realise that it wasn’t a run of the mill day at all. If you weren’t part of it, you probably wouldn’t've spotted it. But as I stood quietly on the platform I began to notice some tell tale signs that something unusual was happening.
It began with a handmade accessory here and a quilted tote bag there. Then I realised I realised that almost every person on the platform was female. As I got on to the train I started to count handmade made dresses and skirts, knitted gloves, scarves and cowls. And a closer inspection of their luggage showed that these women had plans. Boxes on wheels. Empty suitcases. Huge shopping trolleys. All suspiciously empty. The climax came as we stepped off the train at Olympia and 50 Cath Kidston umbrellas mushroomed in defiance of the insidious rain that signifies spring in Britain. Either I was an inadvertant participant in some form of flashmob performance art (oh, I wish, I wish. Maybe one day …) or I had indeed arrived ay my destination. Stitch and Craft 2012.
Oh. My. Goodness. It was crazy. Brillant but crazy. Craft ladies are scary if you get between them and a bargain. And they seem to have more elbows than regular people. My main impression of the day were the colours. Everywhere you looked there were yarns, quilts, threads, fabrics, papers, buttons, ribbons, inks, pens and everything else you can think of that might be even tangentially linked with makery. It’s going to take me all week to tell you about the amazing things I saw and learned. But for now, have a look at some of the gorgeous colours.
Jubilee Craft Fair, Bury St Edmunds, June 2nd
14 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Craft Fairs, Uncategorized Tags: craft fair
I’ll be hosting a craft fair in Bury St Edmunds Town Centre on June 2nd at the St. John’s Centre. Lots of hand crafted and not-on-the-high-street items made by local people.
If you’d be interested in having a stall, please email me jemmachan@yahoo.co.uk. It should be a great day for it as there are lots of other Jubilee events going on which will bring people in to town.
Hope to see you there!
