Quick & Easy Breakfast - SKIPPY Peanut Butter Banana Wrap #AD

The school term is upon us once again, and for many it's the first time their children have been back in the classroom since March. My two school age children have been lucky, and were in the year groups that welcomed pupils back before the end of the summer. My youngest is starting high school and will be catching the bus just after 8am, which will be a bit of a shock to the system after weeks of late nights, lay ins and leisurely breakfasts. I'm pretty sure that after a few early nights he'll settle into his routine and once again be an early riser, but I'm not so sure about myself. Leisurely mornings have been lovely, and some days I take full advantage of not having to start work until midday.

Some days, when there's not enough time for a bowl of cereal or toast, we might just be in need of a grab & go breakfast. I absolutely love love love peanut butter, and so do my kids (the husband says he can't stand it but manages to eat my home made chocolate peanut butter ice cream without any trouble!), so peanut butter is a go-to quick breakfast or snack for us, whether it's on a cracker, sliced apple or with a banana (sometimes spooned straight from the jar into the mouth!). When we have a little more time we love peanut butter on toast or crumpets with sliced apple, banana or strawberries on top - I can see you turning your nose up at this, but you seriously have to try it! Check out my TikTok which will be sure to make your mouth water!

@thecrazykitchen

SKIPPY Peanut Butter on crumpets 3 ways ##AD ##fyp ##foryou ##foryoupage ##SKIPPYPeanutButter ##strawberry ##apple ##banana ##peanutbutter ##breakfast

♬ Level Up - Ciara

On those rushed mornings, we will sometimes have a SKIPPY Peanut Butter banana wrap, as they are so quick to make, taste great, and are also very portable, so great for grabbing to go, especially if you make them the night before and keep them tightly wrapped in the fridge. They are so simple that I feel a bit of a fraud calling this a recipe, but sometimes some of the simplest ideas are a revelation to others, so I'm going with it. In this recipe I've added strawberry jam, because that PB & J combo really is good, as is ground cinnamon instead of the jam.

SKIPPY Peanut Butter has been enjoyed by millions of Americans for more than 80 years, and as the Super Chunk and Smooth varieties can be now found in most major UK supermarkets the UK can go nuts about SKIPPY Peanut Butter too. SKIPPY Peanut Butter is made only with high quality sweeter peanuts from the USA, and is a really good source of protein, providing 22.1g per 100g.

SKIPPY Peanut Butter Banana Wrap

1 Tortilla wrap

SKIPPY Peanut Butter - extra smooth or extra crunchy

Strawberry jam or cinnamon (optional)

Banana

• Lay the wrap on a plate or chopping board
• Spread generously with your chosen SKIPPY Peanut Butter
• Spread with strawberry jam or sprinkle with cinnamon, if using
• Lay your banana across the middle of the wrap - you may have to straighten it out a little
• Roll up tightly around the banana, using the SKIPPY Peanut Butter as glue to hold the wrap in place
• Slice in half at an angle 
• Warm up in the microwave for approx 20 seconds if you want the peanut butter to ooze out
• Drizzle with warmed peanut butter & EAT!

You can find more great SKIPPY Peanut Butter recipes on their website here.

Recipe commissioned by SKIPPY Peanut Butter

Sweet & Salty Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween!

Many of us have been getting creative and carving up a pumpkin or two with the kids. We did ours yesterday as it was inset day, and decided to go quite simple this year with a scary pumpkin face with plastic glow in the dark teeth, and a simple 'Boo!'. 

This year I downloaded my template from The Pumpkin Lady, where you can find over 700 free templates, from simple ones (like my Boo!) to the more complicated for the creative ones among us. In the past I've definitely spent more time on my creations, including these Hello Kitty and Trick or Treat pumpkins, but this year we left it quite late to get the pumpkins and only managed to find some relatively small ones.

One thing that I always find time for is roasting the seeds from the pumpkins, as they make a great snack. In the past I've made spicy ones, as well as simple salted ones, but this year I tried sweet & salty, and they turned out just as I'd hoped. Instead of turning the oven on to roast a few seeds I cooked them in the Actifry this time, which seemed to work better than the oven, as they toasted evenly without the need for turning (especially useful if you have an oven like mine that bakes unevenly).

The seeds had the flavours of sweet & salty popcorn (which we love here), and didn't last long!

Chocolate & Banana Pinwheel Pastries

School holidays are a time when the kids eat us out of house and home. They seem to be always hungry and as they all get up a different times here, the kitchen is being used constantly to prepare food. Despite having plenty of food in the fridge and cupboards they're always complaining that there's no food, yet what they really mean is that there's no 'instant food', apart from toast, cereal & fruit, which they live off mostly when they have to fend for themselves.

These pinwheels can almost be classed as 'instant food' as they take very little time to prepare. They're also pretty simple to make so the kids can make them by themselves, and as the recipe makes so many of them there may even be enough to last a couple of days!

Enjoy a couple of these for breakfast with your morning cuppa, have a couple more with your picnic lunch, and then finish off the day with a couple of warm ones with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Jalapeno and Tomato Hummus

I absolutely love hummus - or is it houmous? Does anyone actually know how to spell it? I've searched online and there seems to be a divided opinion. Supermarkets and the Jamie Oliver website use 'houmous', but recipes on the BBC website seem to favour 'hummus'. If you search Wikipedia for 'houmous' you're presented with the result for 'hummus', so it's all a bit confusing. Whichever it is, I love it anyway, and I'm sticking with hummus, as it's nice and straightforward.

Hummus is not only tasty, but is also very cheap and easy to make yourself. A can of chickpeas costs around 40p but if you use dried chickpeas (with an overnight soaking and a 30 minute boil) it's even cheaper, and makes a LOT of hummus. The beauty of making it yourself is that you can add whatever you like to it, depending on your taste preferences. I like tangy flavours, and this Jalapeno & Tomato hummus is given an extra tang with the addition of lime juice and pickled jalapenos. You can also add as much oil as you like, or replace it completely with lemon juice or water - I've even used a little coconut milk too! I drizzled this hummus with a little lemon flavoured olive oil, to give it even more tang.

If you don't like garlic or don't want to have a stinking garlic breath, then just leave it out, like I did here.

Served with a flatbread and veggie sticks this makes a great protein and veggie packed lunch.

3 Ingredient Cheesy Pesto Twists

My kids at the moment are constantly after food. The minute they walk through the door after school they're foraging in the fridge looking for something that takes their fancy, but strangely enough that something never seems to be fruit. Not unless I've peeled and chopped it and put it in a bowl for them.  If there's not a freshly baked offering on the side they then turn to the biscuit tin, which is usually empty.

Earlier in the week I remembered I had some pesto in the fridge, leftover from a pasta dish one night, and not being one that likes throwing food away I decided to put it to good use. I usually keep a roll or two of puff pastry in the fridge or freezer ready to make into something tasty, so thought I would combine the two and make a snack ready for when the kids came in from school.

This simple recipe requires only 3 ingredients, and makes use of that half a jar of pesto, along with hard cheese and a sheet of puff pastry - I go for the ready rolled as it makes life so much simpler!

I USE MY MICROPLANE GRATER FOR EASY GRATING OF HARD CHEESE

These twists are a great accompaniment to a pasta dish, for the kids to snack on after school, or to enjoy with a glass of wine at the weekend.

3 Ingredient Cheesy Pesto Twists recipe by Helen Jessup on Scribd

Baked Camembert with Spicy Cranberry & Rhubarb Chutney

For many of us, Christmas is all about eating and drinking. The kids love tucking into their chocolate Christmas morning, and when I was their age I loved nothing more than scoffing a box of Hazelnut whirls, which, in my opinion, were the best ones from the Roses jar - remember Roses jars? no plastic boxes in the 80's, it was quality glass jars all the way. In fact I still have one. 

These days I'm more into savoury delights, especially cheese. To enjoy cheese to its fullest there also needs to be chutney. Upon checking my pantry for my stash of home made chutney I was horrified to find that I only have one jar left - it's unlabelled so I'm not quite sure if it's Asian Chilli or Caramelised Onion, but either way I needed to rectify the situation immediately.

I needed to empty some excess from the freezer & found some cranberries and rhubarb in there so decided to put them to good use and make some spicy chutney. You can make chutney out of pretty much any fruit or veg so if you don't have exact ingredients don't worry, just replace them with something else - extra onion, courgettes, carrots, peppers, butternut squash. Anything with a bit of substance to it, otherwise it will end up like a smoothie. 

Once I'd made the chutney I wanted to try it out immediately, so I bought a camembert, and lunch was sorted.

Spicy Cranberry & Rhubarb Chutney - makes approx 3 jars

2 onions

2 apples

375g rhubarb

3 tomatoes

1 red pepper

175g cranberries
2 red chillies

2 cloves of garlic

300ml white wine vinegar

350g granulated sugar

tbsp mixed spice

• roughly chop the onions, apples, rhubarb, tomatoes & pepper, and add them to a large saucepan
• add thinly sliced chilli, crushed garlic, vinegar, sugar & mixed spice
• bring to the boil and simmer for approx 30-45 minutes, until it's thick
• pour into sterilised jars

Baked Camembert

1 whole camembert

home made chutney

olive oil

sprigs of rosemary

• remove any plastic packaging from the camembert
• if it comes in a wooden box place it back into it & onto a baking tray, or into a suitably sized ovenproof dish
• using a sharp knife, cut a crosshatch pattern in the top of the camembert
• drizzle with a little olive oil & spoon some chutney on top
• stick a few sprigs of rosemary into the cheese
• bake in a preheated 200C oven for around 10-15 minutes, until the cheese has melted

Serve with bread or crackers, a few rocket leaves and some balsamic roasted tomatoes

Perfect as an appetiser to share, as a lunch, or just because.

If you're looking for a really impressive way to serve your camembert, then you must see this beaut from Jenny - it's her very aptly named Bad Boy Brioche.

No Bake Healthy Cocoa Orange Date & Almond Bars

I'm having a bit of a 'healthy episode' at the moment, and trying to cut out as much sugar as I can, which is a bit ironic really, when I'm making marshmallows almost every day! It dawned on me this week that Spring is approaching, and next month I have two weekends away, including one to Portugal with the girls, which will involve getting my floppy white body out & subathing - nothing like leaving the bikini (who am I kidding!) diet until the last minute!

With working from home I've always been a bit of a leisurely breakfast eater, and sit down to a coffee and a bite to eat around 10am, after a few chores have been completed. Now I'm working away from the home three mornings a week I have to be a little more organised to squeeze breakfast in before the school run. I'm often not very hungry though so something like these Date and Almond Bars are perfect to enjoy with a cuppa, to tide me over until lunchtime.

Similar bars to this can cost around 75p each to buy in the shops, but these work out under 40p for the same size bar (and taste just as good, in my opinion).

No Bake Healthy Cocoa Orange Date & Almond Bars - makes 10

175g Medjool dates, pitted

175g almonds

zest of 1 orange + 1tbsp juice

10g cocoa powder

• Add all the ingredients apart from the juice, to a food processor and blitz it resembles coarse sand
• Add the orange juice with the motor running, until it all comes together
• Press into a lightly greased tin, to approx 2cm thick
• Cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge for around 1 hour before slicing into 10 bars

Chilli & Lemon Hummus

On the quest to find snacks and light lunches that are both portable and suitable for a [mostly] clean eating diet, I've been making hummus (or is it houmus?). If you've got a powerful blender (I have a Nutribullet) then it's easy, otherwise it could take a lot of mashing and elbow grease.

I buy dried chickpeas, soak them overnight & then boil them. They can either be used within a couple of days or I freeze them on a tray and bag up once frozen. This saves soaking and boiling a batch whenever I need them. You can always buy canned chickpeas, which are much more convenient, but dried are a lot more economical (plus there are no additives that may have been added at the canning stage).

I decided to make this batch of hummus with some chilli olive oil that Pomora kindly sent me as part of their adopt an olive tree scheme. It's by far the best chilli oil that I've come across, as not only is it a vibrant colour, but it also has one hell of a kick! If you can't get hold of this, then any good quality extra virgin olive oil will do, and you can then add chilli flakes to suit your taste.

Chilli & Lemon Hummus

275g cooked chickpeas

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

juice of 1 lemon

75ml Extra virgin olive oil

30ml chilli olive oil

+ cold water as required

• Add the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice & olive oils to a blender and process until smooth, adding cold water as necessary, until it reaches your desired consistency

Avocado Pate and Salt & Pepper Scottish Oatcakes

Wherever I can I like to eat clean as much as possible. Yeah, yeah, I know my blog is full of cakes and sweet treats, but, y'know, a little of what you fancy and all that.  Sometimes life gets in the way a little though, and it's easy to reach for the beans on toast for lunch and pasta for dinner, but when I do take a little time to think and create, I'm usually pleased with the results I come up with, in not much more time than it would take to pop a jacket spud in the microwave.

This avocado pate is delicious, and so easy to make. It does contain cream cheese, which I'm sure is frowned upon by many in the clean eating world, but as long as you're not cutting out dairy then I think a small amount is fine - it's not as though you would eat the whole pot in one sitting or anything daft like that *ahem*.

I absolutely love Scottish oatcakes and really should make these more, as they're so simple, need very few ingredients, and you can flavour them how you want. Unlike many regular crackers, they are also gluten free, and go perfectly with the avocado pate.

Avocado Pate 

1 ripe avocado

juice of 1/2 a lime

100g full fat cream cheese

pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Add all the ingredients to a blender (or you can mash for a more textured pate) & blend until smooth
• Spoon into a ramekin, cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge until needed

Salt & Pepper Scottish Oatcakes

150g oats

freshly ground black pepper

sea salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Add the oats to a food processor and blitz until finer
• Add the salt & black pepper (to taste)
• Add the olive oil and pulse until the oats come together
• Roll out onto a sheet on clingfilm until the thickness of a £1 coin
• Cut discs and place onto a baking sheet
• Re-roll and cut the remaining mixture until used up
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 20 minutes, until crispy and slightly browned
• Allow to cool on a wire rack & store in an airtight container

Minion Sweetcorn Fritters - #greengiantminions

Everywhere you look there are little yellow mole type characters wearing goggles and blue overalls, better known as Minions. Later this month (26th June to be precise) the new Minions movie is coming to cinemas, and Green Giant Sweetcorn have teamed up with Universal to celebrate the launch.

I've been invited to create a fun Minions themed snack recipe that kids will love, and I definitely think they will love these tasty Minion fritters. Fear not, as no Minion has been harmed in the making of these fritters, as they're packed so full of juicy Green Giant sweetcorn that there's no room for any pesky banana eating creatures.

These fritters can be eaten warm or cold, and taken on picnics - and if you have a fussy eating Minion fan then they could be a great way to get some extra veggies in their diet. I achieved the great yellow colour by using a pinch of turmeric, so no need for any artificial colourings.

Minion Fritters - makes 6-8

165g can drained Green Giant sweetcorn

75g buttermilk

50g plain flour

pinch of garlic granules

pinch of turmeric (to give them the great yellow colour)

olive oil

black & green olives

• Mix the sweetcorn, buttermilk, flour, garlic & turmeric together until well combined
• Heat a little olive oil in a pan
• Spoon some of the batter into the pan, ensuring it's as round as you can make it
• Add some rings of green olive & strips of black olive for the goggles
• Cook for a few minutes over a low heat before carefully flipping over and cooking the other side (making sure that the olives don't move out of place) - cooking over a low heat will ensure that they cook through without browning too much & ruining the great yellow colour
• Serve warm or cold with a little ketchup or sweet chilli sauce on the side for dipping.

I received payment to cover the cost of ingredients

Simple Summer Salsa

Sometimes at the weekend, when we have hungry house guests passing through, and I've not even thought about what we're having for dinner, I bring the tortilla chips out. As you can't eat tortilla chips without something to dip them in, I like to rustle up a fresh tomato salsa and an avocado salsa.

Tomato Salsa

6 ripe red vine tomatoes, chopped

2tsp caster sugar

1/2 red onion, chopped

tbsp chopped red chilli

tbsp chopped coriander

• Mix everything together

Avocado & Mango Salsa

1 avocado, chopped

1 mango, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

tsp caster sugar

tsp chopped red chilli

tsp chopped coriander

• Mix everything together

This particular time I also put together some individual bowls of cheesy nachos with mixed grated cheese with sliced jalapenos on the top.

The making of the salsa's was made much easier with the use of Daregal chopped and frozen herbs. The herbs are grown and harvested in France and Spain, and then washed, chopped and frozen for consumer convenience. They are perfect for using in Salsa as I've done here, as well dressings, marinades, soups and sauces.

I was provided with samples free of charge