I love Sunday

Hello!  It feels like AGES since I’ve posted… I think it has only been 4 days, but it feels like longer…  The reason?  Well, sadly my holidays finished (*sniff*) and I’ve been filling my days with classes… practical placement hours… WORK!  I’ve got a very busy few weeks coming up, with class 5 days a week (9-3.30, just like school!), practical work and my job thrown in for good measure.  So not so much wooly goodness will be happening, but I’m sure I’ll squeeze in some time for creative pursuits!  In fact, this Wednesday, I am attending my first ever meeting of “the crafty foxes,” a group of creative wonder-women who meet in the city twice a month.  I’m so excited, and will tell you all about it on thursday!  And once those few busy weeks are up, a week of wonderful exciting happiness will begin which I’ll tell you all about in good time!

It’s sunday again, my favourite day as I work on friday and saturday, so am very ready for a day off on sunday!  Plus, its vege market day, so I was there in the near-dark again this morning, stocking up on all my fresh goodness!  I’ve been cooking up a storm this morning, getting dinners for the week ready and freezing them, enjoying all the fresh produce I purchased today!  When I was leaving the market, I still had some coins, and as I walked past the plant stall, I spied these!  I was so greatly inspired by Vanessa’s lovely garden post yesterday, it made me yearn for some flowery prettiness at my house!

I bought a few and brought them home to put in a pot, they’re living on my lounge table right now, and they make me feel happy every time I see them!  And at $1.50 per plant they were a steal.  After the market, I saw them in the supermarket for $3.97 per plant… such is the difference between market and “super”market in Wellington!

I really really really hope they live… I’m the world’s worst gardener, which upsets me, as I want to grow things, and confuses me because my moon is in Taurus and Taureans are meant to have green thumbs… (to find out your moon sign click here!)  I have been known to kill a parsley plant which lived on my windowsill… ) So wish me luck, because they are just so pretty!

Enough blathering… I’m going to share today, my dairy-free healthy cake recipe.  *GASP*  I swore I would never ever share it, because I bake one for every event I go to and people LOVE it because it’s healthy and delicious!  But I’m sharing it now because I get so much inspiration from my lovely lovely blog friends, and the depth of sharing in this community has blitzed any baking selfishness I have suffered from!

It’s my own secret recipe, and it’s hard to share, because I have no recipe, and I never measure the ingredients, and it changes every time, but I’ve done my best!  So get a pen and write this down!

I use the same recipe whether I bake cakes or muffins, it’s very multi-purpose!

Either grease your tin with marge, or make some muffin tin liners with greaseproof paper… I’m doing muffins today because I can’t be bothered scrubbing a cake tin.

Into a bowl, add 1 free range egg, 1 cup of raw sugar and 1/3 cup of oil.  Olive, rice bran, as long as it’s not that vile canola, you’re good!  Then add 3 heaped teaspoons of cinnamon.  (yes it’s heaps but tastes so good!)  Mix together well.

Now for the fruit.  Use anything that needs using.  In these muffins I’ve put 2 bananas (because my frozen banana stash in my freezer is getting out of control!) and I’ve grated 3 apples.  Put in heaps of fruit because these are meant to be healthy muffins to be enjoyed a lot!  So maybe 1 1/2 cups of fruit?

Now add a cup of other stuff.  This can include nuts, dates, sultanas, dried apricots, linseeds, sunflower seeds, just whatever you have in your cupboard that needs using.  I’ve added nuts because I cleaned out my cupboards yesterday and found about 5 packs of nuts with about 4 nuts left in each one ha ha, and dates because I LOVE dates!  In the last batch I made I added sunflower seeds that I’d had in my sprouter, and they were GOOD! 

Then add 1 cup of rolled oats and 1/2 cup of bran.

If you’re thinking, wow, this is going to be a big cake, you’re right, but that’s the point!  So, mix all that in, then add 3 heaped teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 cup of plain white flour and 2/3 cup of wholemeal flour.  Then wet the mixture with soymilk until it is reasonably sloppy, it needs to be nice and wet so the cake stays moist.

Add to cake tin or spoon into muffin trays!  Embellish with some dark chocolate if you’re lactose intolerant, if you’re a milk drinker, add a big dollop of cream cheese, or chocolate YUM!  And bake at 180 degrees C until baked.  I didn’t time these, but when they look cooked, pull them out 🙂

Wait until they have cooled!  You must!  They taste so much nicer cool!

I took 2 muffins as a gift for my downstairs neighbour… she came to the door with Raymond in her arms, so I won’t see much of him today!  She uses her heater more than us, so he much prefers visiting her!

So now I’ve done my cooking and baking mission, I have the rest of the day to begin about 4 different assignments, do some yoga and continue with my latest WIP!

I’m making that beautiful touchyarn my mum gave me into a hat for ME!  Yes yes… it’s on straight needles, I am not skilled with circular needles and sew up seams flawlessly!  Please enjoy the colours!  I am!  After I’ve had a go at that, I’m going to begin a crochet scarf in a cool new fan stitch… watch this space!

Have a lovely and wonderfully magical day!  I’m off to make a coffee and eat a(nother) muffin!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I love your visits and comments, you’re all just the best!  Love and blessings from Alice and Raymond XX