Tulips

I love having flowers in the house.

Doesn't it just make you feel better about everything?

Ham and Cheese Muffins

I am on a roll.
Muffins - sweet and savoury.
This week it is ham and cheese muffins.
I thought they would be a good breakfast for the kids.
And I was right.
Plus you can freeze them :-)

Of course the recipe called for buttermilk which I did not have. In fact, I never have buttermilk. Like ever. Luckily there is a way to simulate buttermilk and it is dead simple.
Add one tablespoon of lemon juice in a one cup measure and fill up with milk. Let it rest for 5 minutes and you will have curdled milk a.k.a buttermilk substitute.

The muffins are perfect kids food - go on, make some!

Here is a link to the site where I found the recipe and here is a copy:

TIP: make sure you use cheddar cheese or an aged cheese!!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup ham, chopped fine

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the first 5 dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, oil and maple syrup and stir to combine.
4. Add the buttermilk to the egg mixture and stir.
5. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour and stir until just combined.
6. Fold in the cheese and ham.
7. Scoop the batter 2/3 of the way up into greased muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes (15 minutes if using mini muffin cups).
8. Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Weekly Menu

DWZI - Hof van Saksen

The good news is that Stella seems to have recovered and is finally sleeping through the night again.

The bad news is that I will probably never catch up on my sleep... but that's to be expected when you have kids!

We managed to get away for a few days and went to Hof van Saksen in Drenthe. It was great!!!

Luxury accommodation, lots of indoor activities for the kids and good food. What more could we want?

Well, a little sunshine would have been nice :-)

I really was pleasantly surprised by this holiday park. We stayed in a kids friendly chalet and it really was kids friendly. A gate at the stairs, toys for the kids and even a night light in Heidi's room.

There is a big indoor kids entertainment centre where they even have little academies for kids with edutainment activities. Then there is the indoor swimmingpool where we spent most of our time.

Now it is not exactly cheap. But I found us a last minute deal with a big discount. They have a lot of restaurants in the park as well as a little supermarket but I would suggest taking your own groceries because it was  expensive to eat there.

I'm definitely going to try and go to Hof van Saksen again in a warmer season so we can enjoy more of the outdoors in Drenthe.

Have a lovely weekend!!

You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Deze week zag ik is iedere vrijdag een blik op de afgelopen week. 

Vegetable Pot Pie

There is nothing better than enjoying a vegetable pot pie in the middle of winter. It is warm and comforting and just makes me happy.

In essence I chopped up a whole lot of veggies, added vegetable stock and let it simmer for a while. Think potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, onion and a courgette. Then I stirred in maizena mixed in cold water and let it thicken a little on the heat while stirring. Dish out all the veggies into an ovenproof bowl. Next you need to cover the whole bowl with pastry (see pastry recipe below).

Place it in the oven for about 35 minutes and serve!

I found the pastry recipe on this site.

Here is a copy of the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ tsp. salt
4 Tbs. cold soy margarine, cut into pieces

Whisk together flours and salt in bowl. Cut or rub margarine into flour mixture until no large pieces remain. Stir in 3 to 4 Tbs. cold water until smooth dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill while making Filling.

Simple muffins

I can't decide whether to call them muffins or cupcakes... but they made the kids very happy.
It was a Friday afternoon and Heidi had a friend over.
How could I resist baking muffins with them?

They helped me all the way, and left a pretty messy kitchen in their wake but I think they had a good time doing it and that's fine with me.

We added a few finely sliced strawberries on top and placed them in the oven.
The kids could hardly wait the 25 minutes it took to bake them!

I had to do everything in my power to distract them while I let the muffins cool for a few minutes. The TV is pretty good for that ;-)

In the end they devoured their muffins, every little crumb so it must have been good.
Me on the other hand just looked at them eating the muffins because I'm on a diet.
I enjoyed them with my eyes :-)

Here is the recipe and a link to the page where I found it:

Ingredients:
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C or 160° fan-forced. Place muffin papers in one 12-hole muffin tray.

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.

In a jug, mix egg, milk and oil.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

Pour 1/3 cup measures into muffin liners and smooth over top.

Bake for 22-25 minutes. Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

DWZI - Enough already

I'm trying very hard to stay in control of my life.

Really, really, really hard.

Stella has not slept well for one whole week now.

She cries uncontrollably and is generally unhappy.

It is mentally and physically exhausting.

In the meantime I drive to work every day and once I get there I try to focus.

But I am so tired.

And work is, well, not easy.

Right now I need to be mentally alert to solve some big problems.

Do I sound mentally alert to you?

No?

Am I going to survive this craziness?

Will Stella get better and let me sleep?

Does anyone have any ideas on how not to lose my mind???

Here's wishing you a restful weekend.

You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Deze week zag ik is iedere vrijdag een blik op de afgelopen week.