Blueberry Pancakes and Country Walks...

Shorne Woods Country Park

This weekend the sun finally came out providing the perfect opportunity for a country walk. My husband and I decided to go to one of our favourite places – Shorne Woods Country Park. It’s a beautiful place for a walk and has a good mixture of trails from gentle and easy going to slightly more rigorous ones including the infamous Cardiac Hill. It really was a joy to be outside in the fresh air listening to the bird song and watching dogs happily retrieving sticks for their owners.

After a lengthy hike our appetites were in full swing. What better way to ‘celebrate’ our walk then by going home and having freshly made blueberry pancakes with a generous helping of Canadian Maple Syrup. A pot of freshly brewed Kicking Horse Coffee on the side made this a real North American treat.

Here is the Blueberry Pancake recipe I used courtesy of the BBC GoodFood website.

American Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 200g self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 egg

• 300ml milk

• knob butter
• 150g pack blueberries

• sunflower oil or a little butter for cooking

• golden or maple syrup

Method

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Beat the egg with the milk, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter, and gently stir in half the blueberries.

2. Heat a teaspoon of oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7.5cm across. Make three or four pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter. Serve with golden syrup and the rest of the blueberries.

Enjoy!

Shorne Woods

Canadian Maple Syrup

Blueberry Pancakes

Rocket Fuel: Healthy Iced Coffee With A Kick!...

A few years ago my husband and I were visiting my sister in Toronto. As a special treat she took us to a wonderful restaurant called Fresh and what a treat it was! This has become one of my all time favourite restaurants. Whenever we are back in Toronto a trip to Fresh is always top of our list.

The first thing I ever had at Fresh was one of their speciality espresso shakes called ‘Rocket Fuel’. This is a healthy (and much tastier) alternative to those incredibly sweet full fat iced coffee drinks you can get now at most coffee shops.

The original recipe calls for vanilla soymilk but as I was unable to find any I used a chocolate oat based drink instead. Although it does have a different taste to the Rocket Fuel I remember the addition of chocolate is never really a bad thing – is it?

So here is my slightly altered version of their recipe. This has been a much needed kick in the pants for my husband and I during these cold dark UK mornings.
(Please keep in mind this for 2 people so I have doubled everything.)

Ingredients

2 dbl. shot espresso or brewed coffee (My favourite is Kicking Horse )

10 oz Oatly Healthy Oat Chocolate Drink

2 bananas, peeled

2 tsp maple syrup (Canadian is best!)

1.5 shakes cinnamon

5 ice cubes

Directions

Brew up the coffee.

Add the oat drink and bananas to the blender.

Start the blender on a low setting and gradually add the coffee, maple syrup, cinnamon and ice cubes.

Put blender on a higher setting for 1-2 minutes to make sure all the ice is blended.

Pour into 2 tall glasses.

Enjoy!

About my first Visit to Fresh:

On that first visit I noticed a cookbook for sale by the main till. It was called Fresh At Home. I loved the variety of healthy recipes it offered and the photos were gorgeous! Unfortunately worries about being able to fit it in my luggage with everything else I had accumulated kept me from buying it. Damn my sensibleness! It was a decision that would haunt me until we returned to Toronto 2 years later. Sadly the book was no where to be found in the restaurant so I enjoyed my meal and put thoughts of the cookbook out of my mind.

Bring on Christmas and Santa had a very special treat for me this year. There, waiting under the tree, was the newest addition to the Fresh library – simply called Refresh. It has some of the old favourites as well as plenty of exciting new recipes to try. I am looking forward to getting stuck into some seriously healthy food!

If you’re interested in the original Rocket Fuel recipe from Fresh follow the Directions above but use the following ingredients instead. (Please note this is for a single serving)

1 dbl. shot espresso or brewed coffee

6 oz vanilla soymilk

1 bananas, peeled

1 tsp maple syrup

1 shake cinnamon

6 ice cubes

And of course – Enjoy!

If you are planning a visit to Toronto or you live in Toronto and haven’t been – then put Fresh on your to do list. You won’t regret it! Check out their site here for more information.

Rocket Fuel: Healthy Iced Coffee

These are a few of my favourite things.