Pumpkin Spice Latte

Last week was pretty tiring, pretty much every waking minute I was cooking, baking or packing photos. We’ll skip over the fact that I actually spend a large portion of my time dancing while in the kitchen and I was also re-watching supernatural while I was packing photos but it was still a lot of late nights and it shows, it looks like I’ve been punched in both eyes with a fat lot of no sleep. I managed to spend a lot of time starting things and not having time to finish them, my mid week bake was a flop and just fell apart, literally, some ended up on the floor...and then I accidently trod in it, yes it was one of those kinds of weeks. I mean it tastes bloody fantastic, although we might be eating it for about a week, it just didn’t withstand gravity or the test of time, I’ll explain what actually happened when I brave re-making it and get it right but I was not all too pleased that my day of slaving in the kitchen was a waste. Thankfully all the orders are finished; printed, packed and given back to the schools, apart from the last few straggler orders but I’m just ready to curl up with a coffee, copious amounts of cookies and watch action films for about a week, if only I had the time to do that.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Bacon, Pecans & Butterscotch Sauce

I just got my head screwed on straight and realised it's November in two days TWO DAYS! It’s like I blinked and October is over and now I'm having a mini meltdown because there are so many things to do and such little time to just enjoy the excitement of Christmas coming. Its school photography season so I’ve been what feels like ridiculously busy the past couple of weeks. It might be a little manic this year but I actually really enjoy school photography season although maybe that’s because I only have to deal with all the spreadsheets, order forms and photo packing for a couple weeks out of the year. Having to deal with all that on a daily basis sounds horrendous. I spent the beginning of my week editing and re-sizing hundreds of photos, is it inappropriate to mention I had to edit bogies that were dripping out of someone’s nose. So it might be Friday but better late than never right? Because this idea has been running round my head for over a month and only now have I got around to making it. This is pretty much the perfect autumn breakfast, although I will say I'm usually entirely too sleepy to make pancakes in the morning but at least I can fantasise about it.

Berry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Crumble

This is a little bit of an odd one today. I made this recipe over a year ago and I am 90% sure I posted it, I have no idea what happened to it I just realised a while ago that it was sitting in my drafts folder with a title and nothing else, the post was completely blank. I’ve kind of been putting off re-writing this, not that I’m really sure why but a year on I think it probably deserves to see the light of day and it’s strangely coincidental that in my last post I used the same bowl. Anyway, enough about my potential incompetence and on to this delicious crumble recipe. The whole point of this recipe was to turn (probably) my favourite cookie, oatmeal chocolate chip, which I actually made a couple months ago on here, into crumble, maybe I was just looking for an excuse to eat cookies for dessert and make it seem entirely acceptable because in my head crumble is healthy, doesn't matter what you add to it. Obviously fruit is always healthy so we have a winner! Perfect for autumn or fall and still perfect for summer although it’s definitely a lot more like autumn here especially as the ground is covered in leaves which sadly were soggy today due to the rain so you didn’t get that satisfying crunch as you walked over them it was more of a squelch. I like that word, squelch.

Soy, Tomato & Garlic Marinated Chicken with Rice and Crunchy Veg

I’ve been having some....digestive problems? Let’s go with that. Is this too much too talk about on a food blog? Basically a lot of stomach aches, a lot of feeling sick and not a lot of want to eat food. I’ve basically been living off hot chocolate biscuits and chicken and rice, don’t judge me! I imagine these are all completely the wrong things to eat with an upset whatever but that’s just how it went down. I’m still not really all the interested in food but may I grace you with the presence of the recipe that has kept me alive for the past 1-2 weeks. Don’t get me wrong this may or may not be the best thing to eat with a stomach upset, I guess you have to figure out for yourselves what to eat, but basically what I’m saying is don’t judge the recipe on my stomach upset. Trust me, it's even yummier with a tip top digestive system. I could quite possibly live off of this meal! This is one of those dishes that are tasty hot, but the leftovers are just as good, if not slightly better because you don't even have to cook to eat! And better still the flavours intensify over night, so double the recipe, triple the recipe, put the chicken in your sandwich the next day, this chicken is your oyster!

Healthy Cranberry, Coconut & Pumpkin seed Oatmeal Cookies

I feel like this recipe is a PERFECT excuse to have cookies for breakfast. It’s basically porridge in a cookie. I made this recipe over a year ago when I was doing a month of no processed sugars and wanted to improve on it and well...honestly I just wanted cookies. They may not be the prettiest cookies you’ve ever seen but for what they lack in looks, they make up for in flavour, although my mum saw these in the kitchen and actually asked me if they had cheese in them, nope, definitely not. I’ve been trying to be a little healthier and add more protein into my diet due to my lack of meat consumption recently, I wouldn't really call these protein cookies but they have the ingredients with every intention of giving you a bit of a kick in that department, does that make you feel better about eating them? Also, did I mention there's no processed sugar or fat in these YOU'RE WELCOME!