The oats with the most

On Saturday, I made Blueberry Oats, or Blueberry Porridge, inspired by Ashley at Edible Perspective with a few modifications because we didn't have any ripe bananas. 


Disappointingly, I used Tesco Frozen Blueberries, which turned out to be not very sweet and also had a strange texture compared to most blueberries. The skin was thick and chewy and the taste was not so great. 


Blueberry Stuffed Oats 

• 1c rolled oats
• 1.5c almond milk (I used coconut milk. It was on special)
• 1 banana (next time!)
• 1c water
• 1t vanilla
• 1c blueberries (we only had frozen, which weren't that great)
• pinch of sea salt
• 1-2T chia seeds
• 1tsp [heaping] cinnamon

1. Add oats, milk + water to a pot set over medium heat.
2. Stir in a thinly sliced banana.
3. Add in chia, vanilla, salt, + cinnamon and bring to a simmer until desired consistency is reached.  ~5-8min  [Ashley said she only stirs a few times during the process]
4. Take the oats off the heat, stir in the blueberries and then pour the oats into a bowl. (as I used frozen (left at room temperature and rinsed to defrost, I put these in a bit early so it wouldn't make the oats drop too much in temperature)

Chuck the oats, milk and water into the pan over a medium heat

Chia seeds!

The Chia seeds helps the porridge get nice and thick

The controversial blueberries.

I DO NOT recommend Tesco frozen blueberries. They mustn't freeze them on the day they are picked. Better to get fresh and freeze them yourself. Best to pick them, but we can't all be so lucky. 

After stirring through the blueberries, the oats turned a pretty blue colour.

Ashley recommends topping with Maple butter and maple syrup. Sadly, we don't have maple butter in the UK. I tried to make some myself and let's just say it ended up lumps of butter with maple syrup. 


Ashley also gives her fabulous looking recipe for almond maple butter. Yum, it sounds mad, I love it. But if you are feeling a bit lazy and you don't trust your food processor, you could just mix together a teaspoon of almond butter and some maple syrup. Just saying... 


It was nice, but the blueberries were quite a let down. It's not a fail, it's a first attempt. Next time I will make sure I use fresh blueberries and hopefully have a ripe banana on hand. 

Welcome and weekend eats

Welcome to our blog. Shmatt equals Siobhan and Matt together. This is a blog to document the places we go, the food we make and the things we like.

This Saturday, I decided to try out a new recipe, and make my own healthy muesli bar. The recipe is from Oh She Glows. However, my version didn't really work out. I think maybe our dates were too small because they fell apart.

But here's how to make it anyway.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of almonds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 9 medjool dates, pitted
• 4-5 dried apricots, chopped
• 2 tbsp cacao nibs
• 1/2 tbsp pepita seeds (pumpkin seeds)
• Pinch or two of sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp almond butter (optional)

We didn't have any medjool dates so I tried to use normal dates, and a bit more apricots. However the mixture still came out too crumbly. I got creative and threw in some almond butter, but the cookies didn't really 'bind'. They still taste pretty good though, and I'm looking forward to eating them after the next work out.

Next time, I'll get bigger dates and I may grind everything up.

Grind up the dates and the almonds in a processor.

Add a tablespoon of Chia seeds. I'm a recent convert to chia seeds and have been trying to sneak them into Matt's meals, because they are so good for vegetarians. Also throw in some dried apricots.

And all the other ingredients and mix. Form into mini cookies or balls. Makes 8 mini cookies.

I failed to photograph the finished product because they didn't form balls and my hands were covered in goo, so you'll have to check out the ones at Angela's blog.

Then we went down to check out a local cafe that has just opened in our area. Such good food!

Pizza!

This was cherry tomatoes, rocket lettuce, parmesan and mozzarella.

Matt ordered the panini:

This was super tasty. Check out the cheese.

And the coffee was to die for. I had the espresso machiato.

Delicious. We will return. After lunch I bought 2 new dresses and a lovely silk top and shorts. But those photos are going to have to wait until another post.