Flapjack Idea for the Little Lunchbox

Hello, 

I am always on the look out for lunchbox ideas for my girls attending playschool, I am sure other parents are too.  Everyone loves something nice after their lunch and as parents we are encouraged to only give healthy lunches. I have been experimenting with flapjacks.  I recently made these and they were a hit.  These are very simple to make and contain protein and fibre.  I store them in an airtight container. 






Ingredients

360g Oats
2 Bananas
6 tbsp Honey
6 tbsp smooth peanut butter
4 tbsp coconut oil plus extra for greasing

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 fan.
Place the oats in a mixing bowl.
Mash the bananas with a fork and add them to a saucepan with the honey, nut butter and coconut oil.  Allow to simmer until a smooth paste forms.
Pour the liquid over the oats and stir well so that they are fully covered.
Grease a baking tray with some coconut oil.
Transfer the flapjack mix into the baking tray, press it down firmly with a spatula so it is compact.
Bake for 15-20 mins until the top starts to brown.
Once it is cooked remove from tray, leave it fully cool before slicing into flapjacks.

Enjoy!!

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Thanks for reading,      

Orla Xx

Invested in some porcelain cookware, check out my first recipe...

Hey Guys,

So recently I decided to invest in some really good porcelain cookware from a brand called Revol.  Check out their website here;

 http://revol-porcelaine.fr/en/materials/from-white-porcelain/

It is of very high quality and due to this has great performance, dinners I have tried so far taste great when cooked in them.  The modern design and colours used by Revol appealed to me as I felt they fitted well with the modern style kitchen that I have.

The first recipe that I tried out in my new Revol Tagine was 'Moroccan Lamb with Sweet Potato and Raisins'. Recipe below. If you don't have a Tagine a normal casserole dish is perfect to use. Give this a go, fabulous dish to indulge in on a Sunday!

Here is the new cookware;

Ingredients

1/4 cup of Olive oil
700g diced lamb
3 red onions, 1 sliced and 2 chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
1 Bay Leaf
A Can of Tomatoes 
375g or two small sweet potatoes into 3cm chunks
4 tbsp Raisins
4 tbsp chopped Dates
500ml of Chicken Stock
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bunch of Chopped Coriander 


Method

1. Coat the bottom of the dish with olive oil.  Spread the sliced red onion on the base of the Tagine. 

2. In a bowl, combine the lamb, spices, remaining red onion, chopped coriander, garlic and remaining olive oil, mix well. Season this with salt and pepper. Pile into the middle of the Tagine.

3. Arrange sweet potato in the dish.

4. Pour in your can of tomatoes and stock and sprinkle over fruit (Dates and Raisins)

5. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer for 3 hours or until the lamb is tender.

Then serve, we used pittas and Greek yogurt. Cous Cous would also go very well with this.

It was just Yum!! :-)
Give it a go!

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Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri X

Store Cupboard Tuna Salad

Hey Guys,

This is a great and easy dinner to prepare.  All ingredients are pretty much store cupboard essentials or easy to purchase foods.  I do my big shop in Aldi each week and nearly all ingredients can be bought there. Cheap, cheerful and so easy to prepare. It's a salad that my husband loves too and it actually fills him :)

The intense flavours of sun dried tomatoes and pesto can transform a tin of tuna into something really special.  You can make this 2 to 3 hours ahead- store in the fridge until ready to serve.

I make this every week and I hope you give it a go xx

Ingredients

4 tbsp chopped sun dried tomatoes

2 x 400g tins of mixed beans drained and rinsed

4 small spring onions, trimmed and sliced at an angle

120ml olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp pesto

2 x 185g tins of tuna, drained and broken into chunks

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a bowl mix together all the ingredients apart from the tuna, then carefully stir in the tuna keeping it in chunks. Season with salt and pepper to taste then serve. Serve with nice crusty bread if you desire. This will feed 4 to 6 people and take about 5 minutes to prepare!

Thanks for reading! Do you have any great salad recipes? Love to hear x

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Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri X

This Sunday you have to try this!!

Baked Creamy Leeks

This is an absolutely fabulous accompaniment with any Sunday roast chicken dinner. I'm thinking I might even make it on Christmas day! My leeks are ready in my raised beds so I used them to make this dish.  It was beautiful and easy to make! Not for those counting calories! But sure what you eat on Sunday doesn't count ya?! ;-)

  

This serves 4-6 people

How to make it?

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Get 800g of Leeks.  Peel back the scruffy leaves, trim the ends and discard, then quarter the leeks lengthways and roughly chop them.  Put them into a sieve, give them a really good wash to get rid of any dirt. Then drain them.

Peel and finely slice two cloves of garlic.

Put a large pan on a medium heat and add two knobs of butter, a lug of olive oil and the garlic.
Pick the leaves off the 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, discarding the stalks.  I have the thyme growing in my raised bed also.

Just as the garlic begins to take on the smallest amount of colour, add all the leeks and thyme leaves and give them a good stir.

Turn the heat up and cook for about ten minutes until the leeks have softened.

Grate 100g of cheddar cheese.

Remove the pan of leeks from the heat and season with a good few pinches of salt and pepper.

Add 200mls of single cream and half the grated cheese.

Mix everything up and transfer into an earthenware dish.  I used my Chasseur Dish. It is perfect for this. 





The leek mix should be about 2.5cm thick in the dish.

Sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 20minutes until golden and bubbling.

Enjoy! I did!

A Leek soup is next on my agenda, anyone got a good recipe?

Don't forget you can keep up to date with Countryside Mumsie on our social media accounts facebook and instagram.


Thanks for reading,

Orla & Kerri

Try this!! Italian Vegetable Soup

Italian Vegetable Soup

                                                                                                              

                                                                                                             

This is such a nice soup, it went down well with the girls and my husband, give it a go! Full of goodness xx

Ingredients

• 2 each of onions and carrots, chopped
• 4 sticks celery, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 2 bay leaves
• few sprigs thyme
• 3 courgettes, chopped
• 400g can butter beans, drained
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1.2l vegetable stock
• 100g parmesan or vegetarian equivalent, grated
• 140g small pasta shapes
• small bunch basil, shredded

Method

1:Gently cook the onion, carrots and celery in the oil in a large saucepan for 20 mins, until soft. Splash in water if they stick. Add the sugar, garlic, purée, herbs and courgettes and cook for 4-5 mins on a medium heat until they brown a little.

2:Pour in the beans, tomatoes and stock, then simmer for 20 mins. If you’re freezing it, cool and do so now (freeze for up to three months). If not, add half the Parmesan and the pasta and simmer for 6-8 mins until pasta cooked. Sprinkle with basil and remaining Parmesan to serve. If frozen, defrost then re-heat before adding pasta and cheese and continuing as above.

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Thanks for reading

Orla & Kerri xx