Our menus don't seem to change much between the seasons though I suppose we avoid the more robust casseroles with dumplings and sponge puddings with custard during the warmer months. But I've been trying several new recipes lately including this sweet potato and mango salad. I added a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds for a bit of crunch and used coconut oil instead of olive, and, I must say, it made a deliciously tangy and colourful lunch.
Then there was this chocolate peanut butter banana bread, for coffee breaks in between sweeping the ever present piles of dead leaves in the garden, which, predictably, I cut into long before it had cooled and, believe me, melting vegan marg just isn't the same as melting butter.
To use up some of the bargain blueberries I bought yesterday in the excellent fruit and veg shop next door to my hairdresser's salon, I tried yet another muffin recipe, though left out the cinnamon, subbed almond extract for the vanilla (because almonds and blueberries are perfect partners), added a sprinkling of lemon zest and demerara and made them full-sized rather than mini. I find I'm using coconut oil in most recipes these days, both savoury and sweet, and am getting through jars of the stuff. If you haven't tried it yet, it comes in the form of a white solid but quickly melts to a clear liquid and is so subtly flavoursome. Great as a moisturiser, too.
(That isn't the world's largest lemon in the picture, by the way, just a teeny weeny Christmas cracker gift grater.)
Of course, the Boo hasn't been left out and his usual bone shaped treats have turned into fish. Oven baked with Edam and Gouda, according to the bag.
And that's about as exciting as it's been here lately.