We woke up this morning to a light and patchy covering of snow.  Oh my gosh it was cold!  I was going to make a fresh vegetable juice for breakfast but was too cold to do more than dismiss that as a bad idea.  So we had porridge and at Harvey’s request, I left out “those seeds”.  I had mine with coconut nut butter and coconut chips.

30 g oats ( 3 WW points)
100 ml coconut milk ( 1 WW point)
100 ml water
½ a banana
1 tbsp coconut nut butter ( 3  WW points)
1 tbsp coconut chips (2 WW points)

4 of us and our coach braved the icy weather and played tennis this morning.  Are we crazy?  Yes, probably but it was good to get out and hit some balls and run around.

After tennis I went to visit Kath and Matt in Smarden.  I am partly making the most of them before they leave for NZ but today I had a particular mission.  Kath gave me her slow cooker!  It is the only piece of kitchen equipment I have been thinking about buying (well, apart from upgrading my blender).  I love the idea of coming home after a long day out to find a warm meal ready for you.  Now I have one :-).  It even has its manual and a recipe book with it.  Thank you Kath.

Smarden is such a pretty village.  It has 2 pubs in the centre: the Flying Horse

and The Chequers.

As you approach the centre, you get this view of these red rooves, which are beginning to look very old (as indeed they are), as if they are sagging.

you pass this lovely curved wall

which leads to the high street.

The parsonage and cemetery is on the left as you drive by.

I love the variety of architecture there and how old and wibbledy wobbly some of the buildings are.

 

I have seen a lot of recipes recently for buckwheat, which I do not think I have ever had before.  I have been looking out for some raw buckwheat groats for a few weeks and then I found them.  On my doorstep in Vegetare in Cranbrook.

According to the healthy living blogs, you should use raw buckwheat rather than roasted, which is more commonly available.  So having found my buckwheat, I enjoyed searching for a recipe.  One of my favourite blogs, Ashley’s  The Edible Perspective,  has loads of buckwheat recipes and I chose to make the Savory Veggie Buckwheat Bake.  I followed the recipe almost exactly but I used a different cheese.  I did not have any apple sauce either so I chopped up an eating apple and gently steamed it for a few minutes in 2 tbsp water until it softened.  I decided to leave the little chunks of apple as they were, rather than making them smooth like an apple sauce.

To make the buckwheat flour, I used a coffee grinder.

The flour was ready in a matter of seconds.

Cheese and Vegetable Buckwheat Bake

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1 large apple
• 2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce (or one apple chopped up and steamed until soft)
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 45 g buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp raw buckwheat groats
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 mushrooms, chopped in to small pieces
• small handful of kale, chopped finely
• 1 – 2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
• 1 large tomato
• 50 g goats cheese or strong cheddar

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 ° C.
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg with the apple and milk.
• Stir in the buckwheat flour, groats, chia seeds, baking powder, salt, garlic and black pepper and mix until combined.

•  Stir in the mushrooms, kale and basil.

• Grease the sides and base of a small baking dish.  I used a small pyrex bowl.
• Pour the mixture in to the dish.

• Top with slices of tomato.

• Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Remove the dish from the oven and place the slices of cheese on top of the tomato.
• Bake for a further 17 – 20 minutes.

This meal has 15 WW points.

I served mine with a mixture of lettuce leaves.  I bought a box of growing salad which I leave on my windowsill and I can snip leaves off as and when I need them.

This was a really lovely lunch and I enjoyed every mouthful.  It tasted of cheese, apple and garlic.  The texture was of a nutty bread and it was moist but not wet and the outside was slightly crunchy and chewy.  The best thing about this recipe is that it will be easy to adapt it to what you have in the fridge.  For example you could use spinach, feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes instead of the kale, goat’s cheese and mushrooms.  Or make a sweeter version with raspberries and blueberries in it and serve it with Greek yogurt for breakfast.  Or apple, raisin and cinnamon.  I liked the chunks of apple but I will also try it with smooth applesauce to see how that is.  There are so many possibilities. Thanks Ashley for another fabulous recipe 🙂 .

Supper was a stir fry.  I chopped up carrots, an onion, a red pepper, broccoli and tenderstem broccoli.

I fried the veg, added 3 tbsp of Wagamama Sweet Teryaki Sauce, added the raw king prawns and continued cooking for about 5 minutes.   Quick and easy to make and it was ready.  5 WW points.

The sauce was really sweet.  Too sweet for me but the veg and prawns were lovely.  Harvey enjoyed it and he had his with soba noodles.

I definitely preferred the buckwheat I had for lunch.

Daily WW Points

Breakfast = 9
Lunch = 15
Supper = 5
Extras (milk in tea) = 2

Daily total = 31