Energy Bites

The other week I wanted to make a healthier snack and I had a couple of No-Bake Energy Bites recipes pinned on Pintrest recipes board, so I looked at them. I didn't have some of the ingredients they needed in the house at the time though, so I had a look for some similar recipes and found one that only needed 4 ingredients (peanut butter, oatmeal, vanilla and honey). I added some golden syrup because I don't like honey that much and I couldn't use vanilla extract because mine had gone mouldy! lol. So I used peanut butter, oatmeal, honey and golden syrup.

 Here's a link to the recipe: http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2014/04/peanut-butter-and-oatmeal-energy-bites.html?m=1

They came out quite nice. I don't have a food processor so I just mixed them by hand. I'd like to make them again in the future with the vanilla this time! lol.

 I would recommend energy bites as a good snack because they don't take long to make and are healthier than other things. These are good in particular because they don't require hard to find ingredients. I'm planning to try more recipes in the future. :)

Madron

It was Madron last Tuesday (23rd September) and I celebrated by making a gingerbread cake. Madron (also known as Mabon) is the Autumn Equinox and one of the Wiccan/pagan sabbats.

The date of Madron varies but it's celebrated around 21st September. Like Oestara/the Spring Equinox, at this time of year day and night are of equal length. Since Litha (Midsummer/the Summer Solstice) the days have been getting gradually shorter and the nights longer (although not as noticeably as in autumn and winter). At this point they are equal and from now on the days continue to get shorter and the nights longer until Yule (Midwinter/the Winter Solstice) in December. (In the southern hemisphere this is all reversed, so they have their Spring Equinox around this time). From this point on the difference will be more noticeable. My favourite time of year is summer and I also like autumn, but I don't enjoy it when it  gets dark at 4pm in the winter! lol.

Like Lammas, Madron is a harvest festival. It's a time of balance, healing and letting go, a time to look back on what has gone before, forgive yourself for any mistakes you might have made and think about your future plans. Other themes are justice and releasing prisoners.

The past couple of years I've celebrated by making gingerbread (like I do for Lammas) but this year I wanted to do something slightly different, so I made a gingerbread cake. I found the recipe on Pinterest. The original recipe has a Creamy Gingerbread Frosting but since I wasn't sure if we had some of the ingredients for it in the UK (like vanilla instant pudding mix and frozen whipped topping), I decided to use Betty Crocker cream cheese icing instead.

Chocolate Drinks

Last month I made a couple of chocolate drinks using recipes from Sam Stern's Student Cookbook. I made a chocolate milkshake and hot chocolate. I thought now was a good time to post about them both, since the weather has still been warm but it's getting colder at night, so you might feel like both kinds of drinks. :)

I made the chocolate milkshake first but I was disappointed with it, so I decided to make the hot chocolate a few days later, lol. I'll still include both on here though.


First here is the chocolate milkshake:

Chocolate Milk Shake (Power Drink for 1)


Ingredients

A few chunks good dark chocolate
250ml/9fl oz cold milk
2 scoops best chocolate ice cream or 1 choc and 1 vanilla


I don't have the recipe to link to but here's a similar recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143456/chocolate-chocolate-milkshake/ (Updated link as of Sept '25)

And another one with melted chocolate in: https://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/09/askinosie-chocolate-malt-milkshake.html

The problem with this was that because you're just putting hot melted chocolate straight into milk, it goes hard straight away. So I ended up with hard bits of chocolate instead of it blending in properly! (That's a bit of chocolate on the top in the picture). I don't know if I was doing it wrong or what, lol. (My mum didn't know how to stop it doing that either). Maybe it works better if you have an actual blender but I don't, so I just mixed it in a bowl. Maybe it was because I didn't mix it in quick enough by hand? Never mind! You also can do this with drinking chocolate and I expect that works much better.

I used Tesco Plain Chocolate and I think both chocolate and vanilla ice cream.



And here's the hot chocolate:

Hot Chocolate Treat for 2


Ingredients

110g/4oz 70% cocoa solids chocolate
425ml/15fl oz any milk


This recipe isn't online here but here's a link to a similar one that involves melting chocolate: https://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/308/Hot-Chocolate


The hot chocolate came out a lot better because it was melted chocolate going into hot milk. I used some chocolate I had left.


Hope you enjoy them if you make them and that if you make the milkshake it comes out better for you! :)

Beach Pics

I went to the beach the other day and took some pictures as part of the Facets of Joy I Believe in Magic Summer Sampler. I thought I'd share a couple here. :) They were taken at Lancing Beach.

 

 

  

Lammas

On Friday (1st August) I celebrated Lammas/ Lughnasadh (pronounced something like Loo-nass-a) which is another of the Wiccan/pagan sabbats. Lammas takes place around 1st August and is about marking and celebrating the first of the harvest. In the old days, this is the time when villagers would harvest their crops and then celebrate.

Lammas/Lughnasadh is the festival of the Celtic Sun God Lugh (pronounced Loo), who died and was resurrected (which sounds similar to Jesus). A central theme is sacrifice and people would make a Corn King out of corn and then slay him. If you prefer not to do that, a gingerbread man can also represent the Corn King! Also the Goddess has taken on her Mother aspect now and is pregnant with the next Sun God.

Lammas is also known as Loaf-mass and many people make a loaf to celebrate. The colours of Lammas are gold, yellow and orange (for the God) and red (for the Mother/Goddess) .

I made a loaf when I first started celebrating the sabbats in 2010 but I haven't for the past few years. I didn't this year but may have another go next Lammas. I've made Cornish pasties before and I made one again this year for my lunch. I've also made gingerbread the past couple of years and decided to do it this year as well. Cider is a popular drink now. I have had it at Lammas before but didn't this time.

Here's my Cornish pasty:

Update 20/7/20: This is actually a Cornish style pasty since I'm not from Cornwall! :)

The recipe is from The Real Witches' Kitchen book by Kate West.


Cornish-Style Pasties

12oz finely cut steak
4oz peeled diced potato
1 finely chopped onion
Pinch salt
Black pepper
12oz shortcrust pastry

That's all I can copy out of the recipe but here are some links to more pasty recipes:

https://www.goodto.com/recipes/hairy-bikers-the-people-s-cornish-pasty

https://www.thespruceeats.com/traditional-cornish-pasty-recipe-435042 (Link updated, formerly BritishFood.About.com)


These recipes are for making the pastry as well but I used ready made (Jus' Roll). I also had carrot in mine and used salt and paprika.

Litha

Yesterday (21st June) was Litha, otherwise known as Midsummer, which is another of the sabbats. It's the Summer Solstice, the time of the longest day and shortest night, and takes place around 21st June each year in the northern hemisphere. (In the southern hemisphere it's reversed and yesterday was their Yule/Midwinter). :)

From now on the days will get shorter and the nights longer (although it won't be really noticeable for a few weeks yet) until Yule/the Winter Solstice (around 21st December) which is the shortest day of the year. After that the days will gradually get longer until we get to Litha again. (If you live in the southern hemisphere, it's the other way around, Yule is around 21st June and Litha around 21st December). :) 

Despite being called "Midsummer" which makes you think it's the middle of the season, Litha is seen as the first official day of summer. (Although Beltane marked the beginning of summer season). The Goddess is pregnant with the God after conceiving at Beltane. The Sun God is at the height of his power now. At Yule he will be born again. The colours for Litha are yellow, gold, blue and green.

As I mentioned in my Yule post, a Wiccan belief is that each half of the year is ruled over by the Holly King or the Oak King. Since Yule, the Oak King has ruled over the lighter half of the year and now he does battle again with the Holly King and loses. The Holly King now rules over the darkening year until Yule when they do battle again.

It's traditional for people to rise early to greet the sun at Litha and Stonehenge is very popular at this time of year! Also some Wiccans re-enact the battle between the Oak and Holly Kings. This is also a good season for picnics.

I had salad to celebrate Litha, tomato, chopped up carrot sticks, cucumber and lettuce with some potato salad, coleslaw, chicken and hard boiled egg. Then afterwards I had some ice cream with crumbled up digestive biscuits (as suggested in The Real Witches' Kitchen book). The ice cream was a "No Churn" one that I made a few weeks ago. I'm planning to do a post on ice cream in the future. Here's a link to the site where I found the recipe (I made the Funfetti Cake Batter one): https://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2014/04/amazing-no-churn-ice-cream-6-flavors.html

I had some cloudy lemonade to drink. I thought afterwards it would have been good to make some lemonade myself, especially because I don't like the Tesco cloudy lemonade so much these days. I don't think it used to be no added sugar. Maybe next year I'll make some Hello Kitty lemonade which I've made in the past. :)

Salad

Nutella and Peanut Butter Flapjacks

A couple of weeks ago I felt like baking something so I made some flapjacks. They're based on Sam Stern's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Flapjacks but I put Nutella in with the peanut butter and didn't put milk chocolate on the top. They came out quite nice although they got a bit burnt when cooking!

Before they were cut

The recipe was from Sam's Student Cookbook. Here's a link to a recipe for Jammy Flapjacks on his site which includes the chocolate peanut butter version: http://www.samstern.co.uk/recipe/jammy-flapjacks/

So if you want to make them with Nutella, just put it in with the main mix. :) (Think I put about a tablespoon in). I won't make the jam ones because I don't like jam but I know a lot of people do, lol. Hope you like whatever version you choose to make! :)