Happy Pancake Day!

Hello!

Tomorrow is no ordinary Tuesday… it's Shrove Tuesday! Yay, pancakes for all! :)

Of course, this post has to be based around the festivities! Well today I bought a packet of Pancake Mix and was thinking what toppings to put on the pancakes tomorrow, and incase you're in the same situation, here are some intriguing ideas that may help:

Go Fruity

Adding Fruits of your choice with a bit of Golden Syrup or Honey on top will be lovely! I love the combination of Strawberries and Banana.

Nuts & Custard

The idea of warm custard drizzled on the pancake sounds amazing, with a bit of cinnamon and some nuts on top would be perfect for a comforting pancake

Jam it Up

Jam is so sweet with a fruity flavour too, top that on your pancake for a nice spread - if you want a PB&J version, add some Peanut Butter!

Nutella, Duh! 

What's a crepe or pancake without some Nutella? The world's favourite chocolate hazelnut spread…. on a pancake… on Shrove Tuesday… yumm 

Granola Pancake

Crunch form the granola and a soft pancake sounds so well-fitting! 

Ice-Cream and Fruit

Ice-Cream with Fruit and honey/golden syrup is the perfect pancake. Add a drizzle of Nutella and that's heaven for ya.

What's your favourite Pancake Topping? 

image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

BerryHealthy: Homemade Granola - No added Sugar

Hello!

How are you all? Are you looking forward to fall? I know I am! Fall brings the more hearty food back to life. That means hot drinks, warmer dinners and for the morning: Granola. I showed my homemade granola that I made the other week in my Weekly Roundup Post here.

Making this granola is so very easy! Literally, all you need is some oats and anything you have in your pantry. By that I mean there are no real SET ingredients that you need to add to your granola - you can add anything your heart desires - as many or as little nuts, seeds and dried fruits as you wish!

Actually, I made this granola myself because I had a lot of oats in my cupboard by which I wasn't eating. Well, I love porridge, but during the summer time I don't tend to lean towards it for breakfast as I normally don't fancy something hot in the morning. This way, I was using the oats and introducing it to my summer meals, and with fall coming Granola will be even more fun to eat! haha! Actually, we were roasting peanuts, almonds and cashews for a trail mix that we made, and I thought that I'd take the opportunity of the hot oven to make my yummy granola - and I'm glad I did!

Said Trail Mix

Store bought granola tends to have added sugars and ingredients that we do not realise - and to be quite honest, do not want! A lot of the time they make the cereal sound so healthy, yet it actually isn't as there are about 10 teaspoons of sugar in every bowl (exaggeration.) - but I mean I have seen some granola that has more sugar than a bowl of Frosties, yes, that's a lot of sugar! This way, making it at home means you know exactly what is in your granola and its made to your tastes!

Ingredients:
- Oats
- Almonds (chopped)
- Peanuts (whole)
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Dried Apricots (chopped)
- Raisins
- Dried Dates (chopped and pitted)
- Honey

Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius
- Gather oats, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds into a baking tray
- Pour some honey into the mixture and stir until evenly distributed (add honey as you desire, taste a bit to see if it's sweet enough to your tastebuds!)
- Place tray in the oven (you can add some raisins to roast too but not right away as they don't require that much time and can burn)
- Mix together dried apricots, dates, and raisins in another bowl
- Every 3-4 minutes stir the ingredients in the oven
- Take out once golden and cooked, leave to cool
- After cooled, add ingredients in the oven to dried apricots, dates, and raisins and stir
- Taste to see if sweetness is desired, if you need more, add honey

That's it! As you can see there were no real set measurements that I had but just did it 'by eye'. You can get more ideas from the pictures I have taken to what it should/could (depending on ingredients used) look like! You can then have granola on your favourite yogurt with berries, with milk or even on ice-cream! yum!
Well, this was a requested post, and I had fun writing it! If you have any requests let me know!

What do you like to eat with granola? Leave it in the comments!

Weekly Roundup #3

Hello!

Welcome to the THIRD of the series of Weekly Roundup, where I roundup my week for YOU. Does that remind you of all of the lawyer shows out there when they say 'We'll fight for YOU.' anyway...

This week was quite eventful in the kitchen for me... I made a bunch of things I had never made before such as Chili Con Carne, Cheese and Onion Pasties and.... *drumroll*

GRANOLA! I really like oatmeal/porridge but in the summer I tend not to lean towards it but more towards the cold cereals, granola includes a range of dried fruit, nuts and seeds as well as cooked oats. The way I made this was by layering oats and some nuts and seeds in the oven and 'stirring'/mixing it around every couple of minutes until the oats turned a golden brown. I then added some honey and let to cool. It turned out quite nicely, but next time I think I'll add the honey first. I actually received the idea from the Sorted Food boys, who are so fun to watch on YouTube! This granola included pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, dry dates, raisins and cashews - a range of vitamins and minerals which is great for your body. As well as that, there were no added sugars other than the natural sweetness of honey - unlike shop bought granola, this is very healthy for you. If you would like a full post on this, let me know!

Speaking of health benefits, I was scrolling through my twitter feed and found this image:

Image from HERE

It lists the benefits of certain types of teas! I LOVE chai tea lattes - which is Black Tea with spices - I had no idea that it is great for those with diabetes! This may seem a little weird but I am SO interested in diabetes, production of insulin and all that, although nobody in my immediate family is diabetic, other than my uncle, who I don't see everyday. Come to think of it, he does drink black tea 3-4 times a day, hmm, maybe that's why! Anyway, I have been having my chai tea latte fix almost everyday this week, maybe I should have feautred that in this weeks roundup! Oh well, maybe next time? If you haven't tried Chai tea latte, you should! Honestly, you will not regret it! It also has a range of health benefits from various spices as well as the black tea base itself. I've heard the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte with soy milk is good!

Finally this is me with a face mask on.

I haven't done a face mask in a VERY long time, and oddly enough, I decided to do one at 2am in the morning. Basically we went to a party and I came home at 2am but wasn't sleepy. So when I went to do my usual face routine, instead of putting on my moisturiser, I put on this face mask and left it on while I read my book. It was quite relaxing yet very odd of me to do so at that time of day - well, night. Anyway, it was fun! haha!

Well, that was my weekly roundup - don't forget to check out last weeks roundup featuring cute animals, moustaches and yummy food/treats!

Keep blooming, berries!
xoxo, BerryBloomXO