Home made food hourglass oatcakes

Today I made oatcakes. I find I have been using oatcakes quite often but they often contain fats that are not too good for us and wheat flour which is quickly absorbed by the body. Today I mixed equal quantities of medium oatmeal and buckwheat flour with rape seed oil, and the result was very good. They are also very good for you! Here is the recipe.

Hourglass oatcakes

100g medium oatmeal
100g buckwheat flour
50g rape seed oil
Small amount of water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sea salt crystals
Pinch bicarbonate of soda
1 egg

Mix the oatmeal and flour together and add the oil, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Mix in enough water to give a soft but not sticky dough.

Roll out using buckwheat flour on a board and cut into circles with a scone cutter.

Place on a lightly greased baking tray and brush with beaten egg. Thinly scatter with sea salt crystals. Cook in a pre heated oven to 180 degrees C, 160 degrees C fan, or gas mark 5 for about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack and eat with cheese, pate, sliced tomatoes or use in place of bread to accompany soup.

My food hourglass Pickering traction engine rally

We set off early for Pickering traction engine show this morning, with Robs daughter and partner and their two little boys. The sun shone in a breezy sky and the clouds scudded. I was prepared as we would be out all day, and food in a show ground is not cheap, and virtually never food hourglass compatible. So I packed a salad of mozzarella, home grown tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint and carrot sticks and dressed it with rape seed oil and lemon. I also put in a pack of blueberries, walnuts, dark chocolate, and an orange for each of us, with lots of water.

We must have saved a fortune on drinks and snacks. Every other stall was selling doughnuts slathered with chocolate, candy floss, biscuits, fluorescent ropes of liquorice or hot dogs spilling onions in soft white baps. We avoided these and sat on a landing stage by a pond to eat our pack up. It tasted beautiful in the sunshine with the sound of the fairground and the smell of steam from the traction engines.

We saw glorious machines, shining like new, belching smoke and steam like fiery monsters, with whole families camping in gypsy wagons, living vans and an assortment of caravans and converted horse boxes.

It was a day to remember. In the late afternoon we lolled on straw bales in a big old tent and drank a pint of cloudy cider each as a treat.

Tomatoes in season with pumpernickel

Just eaten the most glorious lunch. I drizzled olive oil onto pumpernickel and let it to soak in a little bit, then I microwaved a big handful of tomatoes straight from our plants in the greenhouse. These tomatoes are tiny, yellowish and each mouthful is a burst of sweetness. Once the tomatoes were soft I mixed them with hard boiled eggs and mashed them together. Then I piled the result onto the bread and it tasted beautiful. Washed down with Pukka cardamom and ginger tea, this was a lunch to remember!

We have lots of Kale which needs to be used up. It is growing too fast to keep up with. Anyone got any kale recipes which can make this great yet difficult to make interesting vegetable appetising and different? Am struggling to do something inspired with it! 

Food hourglass mixed day

Oh I started out well. I had a dollop of oatmeal flavoured with cocoa, accompanied by blueberries and walnuts. Then at 10.30 I had a slice of pumpernickel with tomato. At lunch time I had two hard boiled eggs with more tomato and a peach. Then I was asked out for tea. I had salmon, carrots and Swiss chard (so far so good) a glass of red wine (great), then they served potatoes ( not so good but manageable). After this we had pear tart with ice cream (disaster but tasted heavenly), I also had another large glass of red wine (now not so good). 

I am home now, having enjoyed every minute of our evening, planning how to say no to the extra wine, the potatoes and pear tart the next time...maybe there are just some times you have to say yes.

Food hourglass and mushrooms

I've been re reading the Food Hourglass section on mushrooms. Mushrooms are apparently a really good anti cancer food. If you eat just a few mushrooms a day you dramatically reduce your risk of developing cancer. If you combine eating mushrooms with drinking green tea the cumulative effect reduces the risk further.

Just as a quick example, a woman can reduce her chances of developing breast cancer by 89% if she drinks green tea and eats a few mushrooms every day. If a tablet could be proved to do that we'd pay a fortune for it.

Fish and chips

I have just one thing to say today. Fish and chips out of paper, looking over Sandsend Bay. It was a moment of madness.

The view on the other hand was spectacular, the sea a deep green under threatening cloud and the sun cutting across like bars of gold.

Health benefits of juicing

I have been going mad with the juicer. Juice every day, usually a great mix of fruit and vegetable. My favourite veg juices are beetroot, carrot and spinach, but they are enhanced by the addition of apple or orange juice with a half lemon for sharpness.

The only problem with drinking fresh juice every day is that according to the bible that is The Food Hourglass, once I have liberated the juice from the fruit, the fibre is gone, and the sugar absorption rate shoots up.  Therefore it is not such a good thing? I am a bit confused about this. Perhaps I need to up the veg element and tone down the fruit. Perhaps also I need to make sure I eat something with fibre in it at the same time as drinking the veg juice.

It seems that some foods are better for us when they are consumed whole. So although the juicer is great, it's better still to eat the whole fruit. Vegetables which have a lower sugar content however are fine when they are separated from their fibre, so juicing them is good and they can be a great source of nutrition.

Still such a lot to learn!