Author: Annie

Three ingredient ‘cookies’

Annie Food, Homelife, Recipes 0 Comment
Three ingredient ‘cookies’

If you are currently struggling to acquire flour but you fancy a chocolate chip ‘cookie’ – these are very simple to make and pretty healthy.

There are lots of similar recipes around for these ‘cookies’, so I have just taken a ‘mean’ of them all and have come up with this one that seems to work. The three ingredients are always available in my house, and these can be thrown together and baked in 20 minutes. 

Really they are more like an oat bun than a cookie – but I suppose if you made them smaller and squashed them down they could be more cookie-like. I prefer the larger version. 

They are especially great for those of us who do a fair bit of exercise, oats and bananas having excellent variable energy releasing properties – to keep you going through a hard workout or for some instant energy pre-workout. The chocolate element just makes you happy throughout!!

Ingredients

160g Porridge Oats

100g Plain chocolate, chopped into small (or chunky) pieces or choc chips, or milk chocolate or in fact any chocolate you have lying around!

200g (peeled weight) ripe bananas, mashed

Method

Mash the bananas, add the oats and mix well, add the chocolate pieces and mix. 

Make 9 equal balls of mix and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet

Bake for 15 minutes at 180ºC fan. Cool on cooling rack. Eat immediately or at your leisure!

Each cookie – approximately 140 calories, 22g carbs and 2.6g protein. 

Enjoy

 

Super Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Annie Food, Homelife, Lifestyle, Recipes 0 Comment
Super Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Over the past few weeks I have made three different variations of these cookies. They are delicious and fantastic with a cuppa any time of the day. I have to admit they are also pretty calorific, but any weight gain will be shed hopefully in the late summer months when we are all allowed outside again. 

I have been making this recipe for many, many years on and off, and if you like a gooey cookie then this will be perfect for you!

I am pleased to say that all three of my sons have also been baking these recently with varying degrees of success. Harry seems to have mastered the recipe and I think he is basically living on cookies. He also knows the recipe off by heart which indicates to me that he’s used it a lot 😉 

       

Ingredients 

85g unsalted butter/cooking marg/plant-based spread
(I have been using the plant-based spread and it works brilliantly)
85g caster sugar
85g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
170g self-raising flour
Dash of vanilla extract
Pinch of salt (not necessary unless you have used unsalted butter)
100g chunks of chocolate

Options – the chocolate can really be anything, I have made these with chopped up Cadbury Dairy Milk, Fudge, Twirl, plus basic range chocolate from the supermarkets. Try to have a mix of big chunks and smaller chunks. You can use more than 100g if you want more chunks in each cookie. If you don’t have both types of sugar this will also work with granulated sugar.

Method

  1. Cream the butter and the sugars with the vanilla until light and creamy
  2. Beat in the egg
  3. Fold in the flour and salt (if using)
  4. Add the chunks of chocolate and stir in well
  5. Prepare several baking trays with parchment paper
  6. Add overloaded teaspoon size blobs of mixture to the trays – space well (see picture) because the mixture will spread
  7. Bake at 170ºC (Fan) for 10 minutes – do to overtake. The cookies will still be soft. Gently pull the sheet of parchment onto a cooling rack without moving or touching the cookies
  8. Allow to cool before moving the cookies. Then make a cup of tea and enjoy!!

            

I’d love to know if you make these and how/if you have adapted the recipe. Please let me know in the comments. 

It’s good to be back!!

Annie Homelife, Lifestyle 6 Comments
Orchids on windowsill

Well, I haven’t posted on here since 2016 – but I have been paying for ‘bananafitz.life’ all that time. Seems silly right? Just like when you pay a gym subscription but never go to the gym (I did that for almost a year too!).  

So hello… if anyone is reading this I would be very surprised, but also very happy. You are most welcome. We are living in very strange times and I suddenly find that I have some time in my life to sit here and spout nonsense!

I have actually been baking a lot lately and people have been asking me for recipes so that is one of the main reasons for my return. Over the next few days I hope to add some of my new (and old) favourites – unfortunately very few of them are good for the waistline, so I recommend a little exercise every day to help counteract the calorie intake. In the UK we are currently allowed out once a day to partake in exercise, however I tend to use my indoor static bike or run around the garden (I discovered 51 laps is 5k). More on this in future posts. For now I just wanted to say hello and i’ll be back soon. 

Pic of the weekend (weekday)

Annie Lifestyle, Photography, Pic of the Weekend, Travel , , 0 Comment
Pic of the weekend (weekday)

Well it feels like the weekend because it’s in between Christmas and New Year and no-one here is at work this week. I am adding several pictures here for you to enjoy! These were taken on 28th December 2016 on Wotton Hill in Gloucestershire, looking south.

Sunset silhouette
Sunset silhouette
img_4551
‘Looking for our house’
img_4526
Enjoying the winter sunshine

 

Tiffin treat – perfect for parkrun milestone celebrations!

Annie Food, Lifestyle, Recipes, Running , , , 0 Comment
Tiffin recipe
Tiffin recipe
Tiffin

This is a recipe for Tiffin – or chocolate fridge cake, I found the recipe on BBC Food website, and with todays announcement that BBC Food is going be axed, I thought I had better get it written down quickly!

This is an extremely easy recipe and it needs no baking, so could be a good one to make with children. I will keep it in mind for 2 or 3 years time when my grandson is old enough!

The ingredients are all highly fattening though and I’m afraid due to the biscuits, it is not gluten free either, however the recipe is very adaptable and some of the ingredients can be changed to suit taste.

 

Ingredients

250g/8oz digestive biscuits (or use half & half digestive/rich tea)
150g/5oz milk chocolate
150g/5oz dark chocolate
100g/3½oz unsalted butter
150g/5oz golden syrup
100g/3½oz dried apricots, chopped (optional)
75g/2½oz raisins (I usually use more raisins and no apricots)
I have made these with added Smarties – nice for bit of colour

Method

Use cling film to line a 20cm (8in) shallow, square-shaped tin. Leave extra cling film hanging over the sides. Put a sheet of greaseproof over the clingfilm to stop the mixture getting stuck to it.
Bash the biscuits into pieces using a rolling pin. (Put them in a plastic bag first so they don’t go everywhere!)
Melt chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally.
Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the broken biscuits, apricots (optional), raisins and pecans (optional).
Spoon the mixture into the tin. Level the surface by pressing it down with a potato masher.
Leave to cool, then put the chocolate mixture in the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.
Turn out the cake and peel off the cling film. Cut the cake into 12 squares and enjoy! (Cut into smaller pieces if this is for one-bite treats)

Recipe Tips
Marshmallows, Smarties, honeycomb and meringues all work well as alternative fillings – just chop them into small chunks and mix in with the melted chocolate mixture. In fact any kind of confectionery should work fine!

I tripled (I think) the recipe and made 120 squares for the 100th parkrun at Chipping Sodbury.
I doubled the recipe on the two occasions that I made them for the staffroom cake sale at son #3’s school. He is raising money for his World Challenge Expedition in 2017.

 

Tiffin for staff room cake sale
Tiffin for staff room cake sale

 

 

 

 

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