Saturday 28 November 2015

Winter Breakfasts

Since I am very much stuck under a sleeping, wheezing toddler this evening, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share with you a couple of hot winter breakfast recipes that we have been making a lot recently.

The first is our beloved breakfast oaties. As usual for me, not so much a recipe as a general suggestion! Mix a mashed banana or stewed apple with enough oats to make a stiff mixture, add chocolate chips or cinnamon if they take your fancy, and bake for five minutes, until the tops start to look brown. These are, I have to tell you, the bees knees when it comes to easy breakfasts. My boys love them!


The second is my dairy-free, gluten-free, no added sugar tropical rice pudding. This has measurements, so pay attention! Mix in your slow cooker:

1 tbsp coconut oil
50g pudding rice
1 can coconut milk
fruit (I use frozen mango and pineapple designed for smoothies)

Cook on high for about one hour to 90 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed into the rice. This is very much a hale and hearty, rib-sticking breakfast for sending the family out into a cold day. It also does good service as a hot pudding!

Enjoy!

E

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Lurgy

We are all sick this week, so there has been little knitting and no reading. I do however have this delightful Finished Object to share with the Yarn Along this week:


The pattern is the Christmas Morning Vest by Jennie Santopietro of A Lovely Homemade Life. I am sooo pleased with this, it will definitely be my go-to sleeveless jumper pattern from now on.


This was my first attempt at duplicate stitch, and I thought it was pretty bad. I'm going to label it "rustic" and run with it. The Harry Potter font charts are rather magical!


I found two tiny matching buttons in the button jar, so this was yet another project knitted entirely from stash. It's for Bob (what, you thought his name was Robert?), and it will be just the thing for him to wear to a wedding in Yorkshire next week. I have no idea what I'm wearing, but that's a whole other kettle of fish, right?


Hoping you have all managed to avoid the germs!

E

Thursday 5 November 2015

A Quiet Moment

Shh! Bob is asleep next to me, worn out from his swimming lesson and eating an enormous lunch. I have knitting, coffee, chocolate and my laptop, and a few moments to connect with myself and the outside world before he wakes up and I dive back into our busy, crazy playtimes together. Sausages has started to do a few full days at school, and Bob and I are indulging our own little romance. Yesterday we spent a happy hour assembling and disassembling a four piece jigsaw of an elephant!


This little top for him is coming on quickly, although it has not been my priority project. I had to switch down needles to get gauge, and the fabric is dense, but I like it more and more as I knit it up. I'm looking forward to getting it on him!


This has been my priority project. It's the Gilded Flicker shawl, released yesterday. It's a pleasant knit, and I love the patterning and yarn, but I think I may be a bit too tired at the moment to knit lace. I keep making silly mistakes and having to rip back and reknit. Which is making me angry! It's going to be delightful when finished though, so I will persist.

I have just about finished Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves. The biggest thing I have taken from this book is the prompt to stop before responding to a tantrum, put my own immediate frustrations to one side in order to deal with my children in the way I really want to. It has also raised a few issues for me regarding my own upbringing, and I hope this will help me to understand myself and raise my children to be free from my foibles. I'm thrilled to be reading Why Perinatal Depression Matters next, a subject close to my heart.

Pop over to Ginny's Yarn Along too see what everyone else is reading and writing. It's a great place to discover new books and projects!