Banana, Sultana and Chia Drop Scones

Ever since we watched, well repeatedly watched the trailer for the next Minions movie we seem obsessed with the word bananas, said in a Minion dialect to the point we seem to entirely communicate with Minion language. This should be somewhat embarrassing for two thirty-something's but alas, we do not care! It can surely only get worse when the film does get released... Fortunately we are rather fond of bananas but even at the rate we eat them there are often a few 'deaded' ones come the weekend and as much as I adore making banana bread, it takes time, however these pancakes takes minutes in comparison!

 

For many years I have been making drop scones aka mini pancakes and had fairly stuck rigid to the recipe, after all there is the if its not broke why fix it theory... but then my friend C made me some of her mothers recipe banana pancakes, stupidly I mislaid the recipe but decided to play around and made these Banana ones, with a nutritional boost of chia seeds and a handful of sultanas to make them a little more complete, and satisfying too! I have admitted now to her I mislaid it - after I let her try mine, luckily she enjoyed my version too!

 

We have been enjoying the drop scones with all sorts of different toppings over three weekends of experimenting! B's favourite undoubtingly was to smother them with Nutella! Though I am rather fond of my homemade Spiced Kiwi and Apple Jam, which I really must get around to blogging about!

These jumbo sized ones came about after Bruce spotted some biggish ones in ASDA and wanted to buy them-  I quickly tutted and plotted to surprise him with these frying pan sized ones instead!! Needless to say he was pretty impressed!! Also size is purely optional - the mixture makes about 12 palm sized ones. 

Makes 12 Drop scones
Easy

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 large egg
150g self raising flour
150ml milk
1 tbsp. chia seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
25g sultanas
1 heaped tsp sugar
pinch salt

Butter/ spray oil (I like lately the Lurpak spray but its quite pricey!)

Method

Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt and sugar into a bowl. Break the egg into the middle, use a fork to beat together, adding the milk slowly to form a batter.

Stir in the mashed banana, sultanas and chia to form a thick-ish batter.

Heat a thick based frying pan with a good spray of oil/ butter or a knob of butter - if you don't have one just use a general one but be careful with the heat as they can burn quickly!

Use a large spoon to add the batter to the pan, smoothing over lightly if needed. Flip when little bubbles start appearing and cook for a further minute.

Remove to a warm plate, cover with kitchen paper to keep them warm, and repeat with the remaining batter, greasing a little in between batches.

 

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Here is one of the batches - these were cooked in my lighter based pan and as you can see they got tanned quicker so be cautious! They were still of course all eaten! I have found turning the heat down after the first batch helps to keep the temperature in range - I do use a hideous ancient electric hob which has questionable thermometer levels at the best of time so cooking is always a challenge!

This was my second favourite topping - mocha spread! I have about 1/4 left in the prized jar which is brilliant as I am the only one who loves it, and I am eeking it out slowly as I doubt I will be able to find it again! As you will also notice my drop scones are not exactly perfectly round - there is really no need to aim for perfection, just enjoy them!

 

 

Overall I adore these drop scones so much! The thicker the better really and don't worry if you have a lumps of banana - they are all the better for it! I think if anything we purposely over buying bananas now to ensure we have deaded ones to make these at the weekend!

 

As my drop scones used up some super manky bananas I am sending them over to this months Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary's No waste Food Challenge - see if you can spot the 2nd banana in the picture!!

 

 

And as they saved money by not throwing away the bananas, plus they made a very tasty and cheap breakfast I have also sent these in to this months Credit Crunch Munch - also held by a very busy Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for February, which was set up by Camilla of Fab Food 4 All and Helen of Fuss Free Flavours to promote making tasty dishes from cheaper cuts, leftovers and more!

 

 

 

 

 

*This post is no endorsement of Minions, we just are huge fans!*

Sticky Toffee and Orange Pudding

This week has passed in a M25/ A40/ Back streets of hell kinda blur and its only Thursday! I am typing this after 250 un-glorious miles since Monday entirely considering getting a dash-cam, as living out in the sticks I had become amused by the odd bad bout of Surrey drivers but oh my gosh the stuff these past few days has left me shaken and entirely grateful I had picked up a bottle of red in the weekly shop, if only to soothe my fried nerves upon flopping onto the sofa home! Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of this joyous saga...

Anyway I have squeezed in a little blogging and tonight with consent I give to you my Sticky Toffee and Orange Pudding! Quite amazingly up until Christmas just past I had never baked Sticky toffee pudding, and I am now a convert! I had originally made a rather delicious and rich Sticky Toffee Pudding from a fellow lovely blogger Sue over at Mainly Baking for our works Christmas party (and kindly gave me permission to re-produce here), and it was super popular but a few weeks later, a few odd things lying around post Christmas and the creative brain cells kicked in and I tweaked the recipe into a Sticky Toffee Orange Pudding, and I must admit it is glorious and the little bit of orange just lifts it into something heavenly! It is not at all diet friendly and never will be but you can eat in moderation. It is not for those lacking a sweet tooth!

The dates as always are bought from a late night grocery kinda place near my dad, Turkish owned. They are gorgeously gooey, almost toffee like on their own. Sue recommends blending the fruit mixture but I skip this stage as they go all lovely and smoodgy on their own. If you have regular dates and it doesn't look puree like then by all means blitz them.

Our ovens thermometer is still slacking but I guess approx. 180/160 fan in a working oven!

Makes one brownie sized tray - 8x8inch ish.

Ingredients:

175g dates, stoned and chopped - buy the best you can!
50g Dried mixed fruit - including mixed peel
1/2 juice of one orange
175g ml boiling water
1 teabag
100ml milk
2 tbsp black treacle
175g self raising flour
140g light muscavado sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 medium eggs, beaten
85g butter

Sauce:
175g light muscavado sugar
50g butter
225ml double cream
1 tbsp. black treacle
1/2 orange juice
1 tbsp. orange zest

Zest a 2 inch piece of the orange and put to one side - before you cut in half! Add half the juice to the dried fruit mixture below.

Place the stoned, chopped dates, mixed fruit and teabag in a bowl. Pour over the boiling water and steep for ten minutes, discard the teabag.

Pre-heat oven to 180o.

Grease a 8 inch square tin (I swear by Dr Oetker Cake Release!)

Instructions based on a stand mixer:
Cream together the butter and sugar in the mixer. Sift the flour and bicarb together. Add a little egg to the butter sugar mix, then a little of the flour mix, repeat in two more stages. Beat in the milk last, then fold in the prepared fruit mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level. Bake in the middle for 35-40 minutes or until it springs back to touch and a skewer removes clean.

Meanwhile make the sauce -

Heat in a medium saucepan the butter, sugar and half of the cream until nicely mixed and the sugars dissolved, when boiling add the treacle and remaining orange juice and gently bubble for about 4-5 minutes or until starting to thicken, remove from the heat and stir in the cream.

Oh to bathe in sauce!

When the cake is cooked, stab the surface with a skewer and gently pour over a little sauce too fill the holes, allowing it to sink in until you have used just under half. Keep the rest to serve with the pudding and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before eating, with more sauce!! Sprinkle over the reserved zest.

Eating time!!

It is undeniably rich, and sweet but has everything a good baked pudding needs! You could easily add a swirl of custard or scoop of vanilla ice cream too accompany this and the sauce alone is worth making, the gentle orange hint makes it fabulous!

As my pudding used up a leftover Christmas orange (from making red cabbage - we don't eat oranges), a long neglected tin of treacle and a carton of just-gone-by-due-by-date cream donated by a bemused friend I am sending this over to Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary No Waste Food Challenge, one that I firmly believe in too - I hate waste and always get upset even over tiny amounts of food!

Many thanks again to Sue for letting me play around with her lovely recipe and I hope you like my version of it too!!

Boozy Mincemeat and Marzipan Puff

So I have relented on the word 'Puff' following my recent strudel post. I’ve decided it doesn't have to mean that I have indeed baked dragons (or worse!) and as this was a folded filo parcel kinda pudding puff it shall remain, as it really wasn't strudel like. Well sort of but not really. Maybe I need to invent a new word, something catchy like Strupuff or Puffdel perhaps? Yeah, me neither.

Anyway I digress, this was one of those emergency puddings after realising I had half a packet of Filo pastry leftover from baking the strudel, which kinda needed eating 24 hours earlier but a quick sniff and visual check I deemed it was fine, fortunately I had wrapped it in damp paper towel which had kept it moist enough too, as filo is rather evil and dries out so fast! Whilst I had already made a cake for the impending family visit that evening, they are all good eaters and I thought they wouldn’t mind an extra pudding or two! I did joke it was my gigantic size cheffy man size trio of desserts!! I think with my boyfriend being away at the time I was missing cooking for two and it was lovely to have my dad and brother over to feed! 

The pudding was purely made up as I went along throwing nice things together quickly– the marzipan was leftover in the fridge from when I made the GBBO Swedish Princess tortlettes, the beloved Polish cocoa is always in the store-cupboard and the mincemeat was from a half opened jar at some point earlier this year... I do like a recipe that uses up odds n sods! Oh and the brandy was ‘borrowed’ from my dearest’s special imported bottle from South Africa…shh!

Serves 4:

Ingredients:

210g mincemeat
70g marzipan, roughly chopped into ½ cm chunks
10g cocoa powder
2 tbsp brandy
50g butter, melted
4 sheets filo pastry
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 210o.

On a larger sheet of foil or parchment paper, lay out a sheet of filo at  a landscape angle and brush with melted butter, repeat with the remaining 3 sheets, to form a thick rectangle.

Combine the mincemeat, cocoa, marzipan and brandy until nicely mixed. Spoon the filling down the middle of the pastry, leaving an inch from the ends. 

Fold up the left and right sides inwards, brush the top half of the filo with butter, fold up the bottom half and gently tease over the top sheet to overlap. 

Brush liberally with butter and sprinkle over half the icing sugar. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden and crispy, dust with remaining icing sugar and serve sliced up with lashings of hot custard.

Overall the pudding was very highly received - the slightly boozy, fruity nutty and chocolately filling inside crisp buttery sweet pastry was heavenly and its a definite 'keeper' of a recipe!

It’s also really quite acceptable the next day too cold if you have a spare piece!

As this lush puff used up all sorts of odds n ends I am sending it over to the December No Waste Food Challenge at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. Over the year I have really enjoyed taking part and hosting challenges and gained some amazing recipes along the way! Bring on 2015!!

Turkey, Pecan and Cranberry Strudel

Trying to come up with this dishes name was initially easy in my planning process but after actually making it did Strudel still fit the bill I wondered? Strudels tend to be more of the sweet variety but in a restaurant for lunch the other week I had a roasted vegetable and goats cheese one so I think I can happily borrow the name for this occasion! I did momentarily consider the word puff that makes me just think of dragon's which is obviously just plainly wrong! Plus it might be rather tricky catching one....

When it comes to leftovers, I really do enjoy making them into something new and always relish the challenge! With Christmas approaching faster than Santa's sleigh it is most probable you might just have quite a few leftovers from the big meal to play with - and Sainsbury's asked me to create something using leftover Turkey. Now Turkey leftovers and Christmas makes me think of turkey curry and boxing day, something a bit of a joke nowadays - yes it does make a rather nice curry but there is so much more you can do with it too! Its usually a very lean meat, and whilst most people go for the white breast meat I am much more fond of the slightly gamier tasting brown meat, usually the thighs or legs and chances are you might have that in particular leftover, though this dish would work well with either so don't worry too much if its only a small joint like a crown you have leftovers from.

Whilst I may fold the pastry a little differently next time, overall it was a great success and I really enjoyed having our pre-Christmas dinner last Sunday complete with fairy lights! My strudel was a great use of leftovers - the cranberry sauce left from who know's when and a handful of pecan nuts added a tasty crunch to the mixture too! You could probably use walnuts equally well if that's what you have leftover instead. The sweet, slightly tangy cranberry with the lovely pecan crunch and sweet turkey meat was really tasty, definitely a keeper of a recipe!

Turkey, Pecan and Cranberry Strudel

Serves 3-4 adults, fairly easy

Ingredients

200g cooked brown Turkey meat, shredded

50g butter

100g cranberry sauce

50g pecan nuts

6 sheets of filo pastry, by Sainsbury's

30g plain flour

30g unsalted butter

200ml milk

1 tbsp poppyseeds

Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 190o.

Place the pecans on a heavy baking sheet, cook for about 5 minutes until lightly toasted - do not forget - they burn super fast (as I found out the hard way!) remove from the oven and lightly break up into smaller chunks.

In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and whisk together thoroughly, slowly add the milk bit by bit to form a thick roux, until all combined and simmer for about 5 minutes or until it coats the back of the spoon well. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper and stir through the turkey.

In a small pan melt the butter and keep warm.

Unroll the filo sheets gently, place one on a flexible baking sheet or parchment paper in a rectangular shape, brush with butter thinly all over, repeat with a further three sheets. You need to work fast as filo dries out fast - if needed dampen some kitchen paper and place on top of the open sheets.

With the prepared pastry, spoon over the prepared turkey mixture down the middle, allowing an inch gap on the sides. Spoon over the cranberry sauce, butter the exposed pastry and place a new filo sheet over the top, pressing out any air gently. Repeat with a further sheet over the top.

Fold up the opposite ends, inwards, brushing again with butter to seal. Using sharp scissors, make horizontal slashes about an inch apart but not through to the filling, and brush again with butter. Fold up the slashed pieces of filo in an alternate pattern. Cover liberally with remaining butter and sprinkle over the poppyseeds.

Lifting the sheet onto a heavy based baking tray, bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden. My oven is questionable as to its temperature but you want a fairly hot oven!

Slice into portions and serve with roasted baby potatoes and a green vegetable medley, I sauteed leeks with courgettes and it went very well together! Oh and lots of gravy!

With thanks to Sainsbury's who provided vouchers to cover my time and ingredients.

As I used up some neglected cranberry sauce, leftover Turkey meat and the last few pecans I am sending my festive recipe over to Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary's No Waste Food Challenge which is being held by Slice Off Me this November!

Nectarine and Almond Yoghurt Cake slices

My dad turned up the other week with a silicon cake pan, my heart sunk a little admittedly as I already have way too many pans vs available space, plus it was silicon, which is not my most favourite bakeware item… however maybe, just maybe I am being swayed by the lure of silicon as I have to admit the cake slices came out perfectly from the pan, and it cleaned so easily for once! Something which had deterred me from others that would not clean for all the tea in China... Though I did admittedly give the pan a quick spray of Dr Oetker's cake release spray just to be safe!

Anyway, Sunday night came around and I was getting a little fidgety in the kitchen, impatiently waiting for something else in the oven to eventually decide to bake (it does help if you properly convert the cooking temperature from overseas recipes!) and my mind started wandering.. bad timing as I actually had a job interview the next morning and instead of reading up and rehearsing things to say other than 'hire me' in a squeaky voice, I was erm sorting through the baking cupboard and peeling manky leathery skinned nectarines – I think procrastibaking is the best term here!! I must of got some rehearsing done as I actually did get hired! Somewhat of a relief after having to change career due to my wonky knees and a few months of worry!

Now referring back to the manky leathery skinned nectarines, I really hate wastage but all four of them had ripened at the same time and I just didn’t manage to eat them when they were just right, you know that special time between 02.30 and 02.31 on alternate Tuesdays! I half heartedly peeled them and whilst they were a little mushy they were not fortunately mouldy and I decided to bake something with them instead… the cake pan happened to also still be in the kitchen and I thought well sod it, lets have a go…what's the worst that can happen...

And I am glad I did, as in the process of rooting through the cupboards I discovered a forgotten bottle of some rather lovely bitter almond essence and they worked a dream together! It has a lovely, almondy amaretto like taste and a little goes a long way! 

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar

80g soft butter/ margarine

140g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp flaked almonds

2 eggs weighing 120g

50g greek yoghurt

½ tsp Bitter almond essence

2 ripe nectarianes, skinned, de-stoned and chopped into small  pieces

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Beat in eggs and essence, then the yoghurt, flour and baking powder. Stir through the nectarine chunks.

Spoon into your prepared mold or cake tin, sprinkle the almonds over and bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned and a skewer comes away clean.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin/ mold and gently transfer the slices onto a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container when fully cooled down.

The resulting slices were light and airy, the gorgeous aroma of almonds hits your nose as soon as you open the tin and they roughly lasted about 24 hours! I am sure you could substitute the nectarines for any other stone fruit successfully too.

As my cake slices used up the last two, slightly leathery but not quite mouldy nectarines up and the last few spoonfuls of some yoghurt, its my second entry into Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary's 'No Waste Food challenge' which is being hosted by the lovely Vohn's Vittles for October! You can see my other entry - a fruit gratin here.

Fruit Bowl Gratin

Now its starting to get a bit chillier and the nights are drawing in pudding starts becoming a warm or hot pudding and in typical style all the fruit in the bowl was super ripe and ready at the same time - and there is really only so much fruit we can eat in one sitting! I have in the past made jams or the odd upside down cake but apples are not something I bake often with, especially the weeny size gala's we had lately! Also really not enough fruit to justify a jamming sessions!

Whilst trying to decide what to make with it all I spotted this Apple and Pear Gratin recipe on the Baking Mad website, who had also got in touch with me recently about recreating one of their recipes and this fruity gratin dish popped up. It sounded intriguing, we had everything in or near enough and decided to make it together for pudding! 

It was really good to add something easy to the pudding repertoire and it will be a keeper recipe for next time everything ripens at once! I think it could easily be scaled up or down to feed how many need pudding! It might just well feature next time my dad's over for dinner as those nights have to involve pudding and it can be a bit of a challenge getting everything ready after work but this gratin was so easy to make and can fairly easily fit around whatever you are making, adapted to what needs using up in the fruit bowl!

When it comes to buying eggs I will only ever buy free range at a minimum - I usually pick up the mixed weight trays in Sainsbury's which are a bit cheaper compared to pre-sized trays and guess by eye their size! When baking sponge cakes I always start by weighing the eggs anyway, so it doesn't make any difference to the recipe anyway! Buying cage free is important to me, I can't bear the thought of chickens kept in cages, with nowhere to move and certainly no life for the poor birds kept in those conditions. I am sure you have seen the videos and as I mentioned before, buying eggs in larger and mixed quantities helps keep the price down - I paid £2.40 for 15 free ranger's in Sainsbury's which is more than affordable. We go through a lot of eggs here and can go through a tray a week easily!

As my fruit was odd shapes and sizes, I made up the difference by adding plums to the apple and pear mixture, which went deliciously well together! I do love discovering a recipe that I can play around with and it also stops any waste! All of the above fruit was so ripe it was about to leave home by itself so its great to have a good use to it!

Recipe adapted from Baking Mad

Serves 4

You will need a large baking dish or 4 individual ones

Ingredients:

250ml milk
1 dsp butter
1 cinnamon stick
4 free range eggs
3-4 apples
2-3 pears, conference
2 plums
16 tsp golden caster sugar

Topping:
4 tsp Light muscovado sugar

Method:

Melt the butter in a large saute pan, pre-heat the oven apx 200o/ Gas mark 6

Peel the fruit, remove cores and cut into large chunks, add to the pan along with the cinnamon stick and 8 tsp of the caster sugar, gently cook for about ten minutes or until the fruit is starting to soften

Beat the eggs, add the milk and remaining sugar.

Remove the cinnamon stick and place the fruit along with any juices into a suitable baking dish (note it will need grilling, best to read this bit first!) and make into a even layer

Pour over the eggy mixture, bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden and set.

Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle over the muscovado sugar. Place under the grill on high heat, and caramelise the sugar - about 2-3 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and serve. A nice scoop of ice cream would be welcome but we sadly have none in but a splash of Devon dream was lovely, though in all honestly its rather delicious by itself!

Despite some reservations over what the finished result would be like, afterall we don't often combine egg and fruit together in the same dish, we actually loved this pudding so much! Its sweet, fruity and really very tasty! The egg sets to form a souffle type texture and the caramelised sugar on top makes it that bit more special! I had to wait for my portion as I had dashed out to my pilates class but I came to back to 3/4 empty dish so my boyfriend clearly approves of this recipe! 

As I saved the fruit from being wasted, I am sending this over to Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary's 'No Waste Food challenge' which is being hosted by Vohn's Vittles for October. 

Disclaimer - I received a  package of sugar and flour from Baking Mad and personally chose this recipe to make and received no payment, images remain the property of Annes Kitchen. 

With thanks to Sainsbury's who provided vouchers to cover my ingredients and time making a Free range Egg recipe.

Spicy Chorizo and Egg Fried Wholegrain Rice

Fried rice in some sort of variation is a staple meal in our household. Fitting easily into a busy lifestyle, its also a great way to use up odds and ends from the fridge too! I really hate wasting anything so it’s a perfect mid-week meal and whilst having spare cooked rice is very handy, it also if not properly chilled and stored can harbour bad things that we really don’t need to eat and whilst it’s a bit of a cheat the Veetee rice trays are a great store cupboard standby! Its quick and easy to make a meal using them and most importantly delicious!

Veetee sent me a box full of goodies (along with some stunning rice bowls that have left me coveting the rest of the range, shown in the last image below!) with the challenge to create a meal using either their Wholegrain or Egg Fried rice trays. Brown rice can be somewhat, earthy and rather too wholesome I find but theirs was surprisingly light and very tasty, stir frying in two minutes meant dinner was on the table in under ten minutes! Very welcome after a late afternoon spent baking all sorts ahead of the weekend to be able to produce something tasty and fuss free!

Now its not often I confess that I have bought ready cooked rice, I find rice so simple to cook anyway its really no bother, plus previous ready versions I have found can be a bit unpleasant texture wise and even worse when they have gone cold. However I was very pleased to discover that the Veetee rice tasted just as good as home cooked rice, exactly as it should be. Its also produced safely and so you can trust that the rice is safe to be re-heated. Cooking for yourself is one thing but when serving to friends and family of all ages you have to be certain of these things! I had heard through friends about Veetee's rice products before how good they were, so it was great to get play with them myself!


Spicy Chorizo and Egg Fried Wholegrain Rice

Serves 2

Quick and Easy

Ingredients:

1 x Veetee Wholegrain rice tray

60g Chorizo, halved lengthways and sliced ¼ cm pieces

2 Spring onions, finely sliced – separate the greener bits into one pile and whitey bits in another pile

½ orange pepper, chopped finely

1 egg

½ green chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp coconut oil

S&P

Beat the egg lightly with a pinch of salt and pepper, stir through half the green sliced onion.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until melted, add the beaten egg quickly swirling around the pan to form a flat thin omelette. Remove onto a chopping board and roll up tightly.

Meanwhile heat the pan with a little more oil if required and stir fry the chorizo slices, spring onion white parts and pepper for 4-5 minutes or until the chorizo has released its lovely oil and the vegetables are lightly browned and stir through the rice and chilli. Heat through, season to taste and toss together for 2-3 minutes and serve in your pretty bowls or one big pasta plate for your man!

Slice the reserved omelette finely and sprinkle over with any remaining spring onion to garnish.

Mr B's serving bowl!

My pretty serving bowl!

As mentioned at the beginning of my post, fried rice is great for using up leftovers and odd's n ends and this took care of two neglected spring onions, half a pack of abandoned chorizo and the last lonely egg from the fridge and so I am sending it over to Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary No Waste Food challenge, held by Laura over at 'I'd much rather bake Than' this month. (You can see my July round-up here).

As my rice dinner was also super quick to prepare and cook, plus it stretches out a small amount of Chorizo, I am also sending it over to this months Credit Crunch Munch, created by Camilla and Helen, and held by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for August.

Many thanks to Gemma and Harriet at Phipps, and to Veetee for my samples.

Disclaimer: The recipe and images remain the property of Anne’s Kitchen and must not be reproduced without written consent. I received no payment and all opinions are my own.

No Waste Food Challenge - The July Round Up!!

The lovely Elizabeth from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary handed over her No Waste Food Challenge reins last month and I have been spoiled by a heavenly looking host of delicious recipes to tempt you all with and most importantly give inspiration so that no food goes to waste! Something I care passionately about and avoid at all costs!

July's challenge opened with my Rocky Road using up lots of neglected ingredients and now I get to share with you all the treats that have been dropping into my inbox!

I have had a whopping 22 fabulous entries into the challenge and discovered along the way a wealth of new food blogs to drool over and some dishes that I had never heard of either! 

So here we go with the round -up!

  

Kate at Gluten free Alchemist - Date, Apricot & Coconut Flapjack

These wholesome gluten free flapjacks look so gorgeously golden, enriched with an assortment of dried fruits and nuts – they are great for using up any stray ingredients and turning into and making a delicious treat!

Allotment 2 Kitchen - Spiced Coriander and Carrot Hummus

I love hummus at the best of times but Shaheen’s Spiced Coriander and Carrot Hummus really tickles my taste-buds! Its tempting orange hue and whole chickpeas decorate the hummus beautifully!

Michelle at Utterly Scrummy Food for Families - Banana Chocolate Chip Swirls

Michelle’s blog features lots of family friendly recipes and she has entered these heavenly looking banana and dark chocolate swirls, we often have leftover bananas and I have a small repitoire of banana recipes so its great to add something a little different to the regular banana bread!

Lancashire Food – SurpriseTurnip Soup

I always think of turnips being a rather unfashionable vegetable but Linzi has given the one she found randomly growing in her garden a lease of life in this creamy looking soup

Fab Food 4 All – Camilla - Wholemeal Cheddar and AppleChutney Soda Bread with Cider

Camilla has given us her lovely looking rustic Wholemeal Cheddar and Apple Chutney Soda Bread with Cider, which came about from not having any bread in for lunch! Perfect when time is short and it saves you having to venture out!

Chris – Cooking Around The World – Vatapa from Brazil

Vatapa is a completely new dish on me – it heralds from Brazil, very of the moment following the World Cup! This eye catching bowl of spicy, creamy fish with my favourite cashew nuts in looks delicious and salvaged some abandoned red peppers! Chris reminisces about being 20 – golly what a lot of time has passed since I was 20, not sure I would want to be 20 again but would too like the energy of myself back then!

Johanna in Melbourne hosts Green Gourmet Giraffe – Mashed Potato Chocolate Cake

Johanna gave us her intriguing sounding chocolate ring shaped cake using leftover mashed potato, which heralds from her fond childhood memories causing her siblings to shudder in horror! I think it actually looks quite tasty, I use leftover mash in welsh cakes so chocolate cake isn’t really too horrifying!

Onions and paper – Canellini bean hummus

Jane at Onions and Paper gives us our second NWFC Hummus in the form of her creamy looking cannellini bean hummus, topped with fragrant herbs and spices. I often have half a tin of beans going spare so hummus is a great idea to save them from the waste bin!

English Girl Canadian Man - Slow cooked vegetarian lamb and Chinese braised tofu

I must admit ‘Vegetarian Lamb’ is a new one on me but Holly's Slow cooked Vegetarian Lamb and Chinese braised tofu using up leftover veggies does look rustic and tasty!

I’d much rather bake than..Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream

We have another fabulous leftover banana recipe in the form of Laura’s 3 ingredient Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream. I am not a fan of peanut butter on its own but this ice cream sounds delicious!

Onions and Paper – Bottom of fridge Minestrone

Jane has been busy using her leftovers this month and gave us another recipe – this is her bottom of the fridge minestrone using an assortment of odd’s and ends – soup is a great way to give neglected veggies a hearty send off!

Family Friends Food - Courgette and Potato Tortilla

Helen used up some delightful sounding smoky barbecue potatoes in this delicious looking Courgette and Potato Tortilla – I love using up leftovers in these fab Tortilla aka Spanish Omelettes, yum!

I’d much rather bake than..  Double chocolate cake pop truffles

Laura has also been busy in the kitchen and gives us her second NWFC entry in the form of these heavenly Double chocolate cake pop truffles, made from leftover Chocolate Chilli Loaf cake that she had stashed in the freezer. Both the original cake and resulting cake pops look so wonderful and anything bite sized is always a winner!

Johanna in Melbourne hosts Green Gourmet Giraffe - Smoky Cheese and Barley Nut Roast

Johanna celebrated Christmas in July, and made us also her second NWFC entry in the form of a delicious looking Smoky Cheese and Barley Nut Roast, using up leftover seasoned crumbs and cornflakes. I feel I really must give nut roast another try as I’ve only tried it twice and didn’t really like it but Johanna’s looks so tasty it is tempting me!

Helen @ Family Friends Food - Lemon, lavender and almond cake

Wow another repeat offender, hehe only joking – Helen is also working overtime in the kitchen to reduce their waste and baked us a gluten free cake – using some of a neglected bag of potato flour up from Passover, she made an elegant looking Lemon, lavender and almond cake.

The Lass in the Apron – Hydrox Cookie Sundaes with Raspberry-Espresso Hot Fudge

Alexandra is a girl after my own heart and thoroughly agrees that ice cream is not just for summer! She baked us Hydrox Cookies and made these glorious Sundaes with Raspberry and Espresso Hot Fudge, admittedly I had no idea what Hydrox meant but Alexandra assures us she didn’t know before either, they are the original Oreo cookie!

Eat Your Veg – Instant chocolate and Banana ice-cream

We have another banana recipe in ice cream form, yay! Its made by Lou, from Eat Your Veg and its ready in a flash using frozen bananas and a blender! I do like the sneaky malteasers on top too! Banana’s are great to keep stashed in the freezer for quick and tasty desserts! I often keep ripe ones stashed away for banana bread too!

  

The Lass In The Apron - Molasses Flapjacks

Another repeat offender! Alexandra is clearing out her cupboards in advance of moving house – and continents – and gives us her gorgeously wholesome looking sticky Molasses Flapjacks.

Tales from the Kitchen Shed - Swiss Chard, Mushroom and Potato Frittata

Sarah was spoiled with a basket full of eggs from a kind neighbour and made this delicious Frittata! Eggs are great for making a handful of ingredients into a meal!

Chocolate Log Blog Fasulye with Dukkah Roasted Tofu

Cornish girl Choclette made us a Turkish influenced tofu dish with her home made cocoa laced Dukkah, which she has kept stashed in the freezer since last year!

Madhouse Family Reviews   Corned Beef Rissoles

Mashed potato is a fab leftover ingredient and these corned beef rissoles are a great idea for something different! I can't remember the last time we had corned beef but its always a handy ingredient!

Madhouse Family Reviews - Fruity Summer Rolls

We have another second entry – Fruity summer rolls which use a combination of leftover dried and fresh fruits and rice paper to wrap them in, such a novel idea for a sweet ‘spring roll’!

Wow! I am hungry now after typing all of that up and drooling over your photos! Many thanks to all my wonderful entries!

Anne

xxx