Memories

The hedgerows are rich in memories at this time of year; memories I can touch and memories I can taste.  I can watch my daughter run to me with a sycamore seed clutched in her hand.  I can show her how it spins in the golden autumn light, nature's helicopter, inducing the dizzy, giddy joy of watching them fall from the sycamore tree outside the crumbling Victorian school I attended as young child.  I can see her excitement too and I recreate the memory in the current time.

Purple stained lips, purple stained hands, we seek out blackberries together and I am her as she crams them into her mouth.  And I am me, scratched and battered, reaching for the biggest, ripest berry beyond the highest thorns in the thickets of brambles that filled the field at the end of the housing estate where I grew up. The field is gone, more houses stand in their place, but the memories live in the here and now, in my daughter and in hedgerows.

'Sneaky' Breakfast Smoothie

Second blog post, more food.  There is more to my life than that and I'm sure I'll get around to it sooner or later but in the interim I have a typically fussy 3 year old and there's only so much pasta and sauce (with blended in carrots, onion, mushrooms, peppers and celery) you can feed a child as a means of getting some veg into them.  I'm veggie and my husband's veggie so it grates a little bit that our daughter would probably live off fish fingers and bread if given half a chance!  No point in getting too concerned about it though as I remember clearly enough disliking a lot of veg when I was little (celery, broad beans, brussels sprouts.....) while my husband pretty much refused anything but raw carrots for a while (according to my mother-in-law).

However, a lack of overall concern doesn't mean I'm not going to attempt to get some vegetable goodness into her, I'm sure every mum has their sneaky way of doing this (I've been told using pizza is a favourite - blend up some extra veg in the tomato sauce and hide a bit more under the cheese.  Sadly my daughter doesn't like pizza either!).  This here is mine:

'Sneaky' Breakfast Smoothie - looking worryingly like the tofu custard pudding ;)

It does look a bit speckled which is down to the berries I used and the fact I currently only have a cheap little stick/hand blender.  It would be a lovely chocolate brown minus speckles if I had a super duper jug blender that costs two weeks pay but this'll do for now.  And yet again, easy as pie....well smoothie.

• 1 large ripe banana
• 4-5 dates (stones removed)
• A small mug full of berries (e.g. strawberries, blueberries, blackberries - I use frozen mixed summer berries or forest fruits that I've defrosted.  Cheaper than buying fresh)
• Milk (we use soya milk at home)
• Large handful of fresh baby spinach or 3 blocks of frozen spinach that's been defrosted (3 blocks of the frozen spinach we buy is about 80g or 2.5oz give or take - this morning I used fresh baby spinach as that's what we had in the fridge).
• Around about a teaspoon of cocoa powder

I haven't given exact measurements because I don't tend to use them - I'm a bung-it-all-in-and-see-what-happens sort of cook.

First off I blend the spinach with a good splash of milk (not too much) until I have a bright green liquid - I do the spinach first as it can be a bit stringy and I want to make sure it's properly pureed.  Then I add the banana, dates and cocoa and blend some more until I have a dark green unappetising-looking sludge (sounds good doesn't it?!).  I finally add the berries, give it a good whizz and the purple/red with the sludgy green turns a nice chocolate colour.  I then add a drop more milk just to get it to a consistency we like, which is normally around that of a thick milkshake.  I don't need to add any sugar as the banana and dates tend to make it sweet enough (even for my daughter!) although if I've put in a lot of blackcurrants in with the berries I'll add an extra date or two to balance the tartness.

Nice and tasty start to the day, and my daughter loves it  - and heres the proof.......

The proof is in the pudding smoothie
(Although I'll be in trouble if she ever actually sees me adding the spinach!)

Chocolate Tofu 'Custard' Pudding.

It's coming around to the new moon, as it happens that also tends to coincide with the hormonal shifts that cause me to alternate between weeping into my keyboard and eating cake; lots and lots of cake.

Today, I have no cake.  In the past that wouldn't have been a problem as I would have made a microwave mug cake - 3minutes to cake-y perfection.  Unfortunately, we recently freecycled the microwave as it took up a lot of room in the kitchen and was very rarely used (bar occasional heating of baked beans and the monthly mug cakes).  I never considered the long term consequences of my decision!

A rummage around in the kitchen came up with few options but the packet of firm silken tofu in the fridge gave me a brainwave as I remembered making a tofu-based pumpkin pie last year.

Ta da....Chocolate Tofu 'Custard' Pudding....

Ok, so it's not cake, but it's sweet and it hit the spot.  And it was about as easy as easy gets.

• 1 packet of firm silken tofu
• 3tbsp honey (that's all I had in the cupboard and I've no doubt agave nectar, maple syrup or old fashioned granualted sugar will do the job)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsps cocoa powder

Put all ingredients in a blender, whizz together, done.  It had the consistency of thickish custard so I poured mine into a glass and topped it with a dollop of coconut milk/cream (I'd had the remains of a can sitting in the fridge) and some blueberries and strawberries so I could fool myself it was healthy.

I imagine it might firm up a bit if placed in the fridge but I'm neither that patient or that concerned with the consistency. 

Yum.