507/1038 - Bread-and-butter pudding

It's "clear out the fridge and pantry" time in my house, and this fabulous dessert was one of the outputs of this productive endeavour. 

If we are going to nitpick, the truth is that my execution technically turned out a cake-and-butter pudding rather than a bread-and-butter pudding...but really, sultana brioche (which is the "bread" listed in the recipe) is practically cake too, so I am calling this the same thing.

My mum made a sultana cake the other day and my stepfather deemed it too dry and wouldn't eat it. This was good news for me as it meant she had plenty to give away!

Apart from the brioche/cake substitute, the only changes I made to this recipe was to substitute all sugar for coconut sugar and to use vanilla paste instead of extract.

While it looks like you have WAY too much liquid when this goes in the oven, I promise it all turns into a thick and lovely custard.

This was yum, yum, yum. Amusingly, the boys turned up their noses at the title of the recipe, but of course loved the taste.

...and now my fridge/pantry is devoid of cream and cake. Win, win, win! 

506/1038 - Home-made yoghurt

I eat yoghurt every day and I eat a LOT of it; usually around one kilogram per week of the big fat Greek variety. 

Given the quantity I consume, of course it made sense for me to try my hand at making my own. And let's face it, it's in the book so it's not like I really had a choice. The process was simple enough, pouring warm milk over a spoonful of yoghurt in a thermos and leaving it overnight to do its thing. Not rocket science.

In order to create a lovely thick consistency, I would have had to strain the yoghurt with muslin and while I love my yoghurt good and thick, I simply couldn't be bothered with this (optional) step. My thought was that if there was any chance of me actually making my own yoghurt week in, week out, it would need to be a very simple process!

So for the first time in I don't know how long, I ate my morning concoction runny, over banana and topped with muesli. The flavour was quite nice on day one and absolutely fabulous by day two; quite tangy and yet much smoother than the bought variety. 

The verdict: I really liked it and will definitely make it again, but more than likely not on a weekly basis. I make most of our food from scratch but even I have limits x

505/1038 - Quinoa with roast cauliflower

The reaction to dinner tonight went from, "What do you mean we're having cauliflower for dinner?" to, "Goodness, this cauliflower is fabulous!"

I almost didn't make this as I had everything except the goats cheese and I knew the flavour just wouldn't be interesting enough without it. Enter Greek yoghurt and lemon! Mixed with chopped fresh garlic, chives and toasted pine nuts, this was the perfect finish to what was already a lovely mixture of flavourful cauli and quinoa. 

We all nibbled on bits and pieces after dinner, but after a fairly big week of eating this was almost enough to satisfy the four of us. 

LOVED the Greek yoghurt and lemon as a way to lift the flavour; I will be using that one again! x