I Like Dessert Humm(o)us. Really.

Been rainy and dreary here lately, it's hard to imagine that spring will come. PB is waiting on test results so we can nail down what the exact issue is and I'm struggling on the see-saw of fibromyalgia - do too much, suffer but do too little, suffer and so on - but I'm trying to flow with it even though pacing is something I find so difficult. I can be quite impatient when I've set my mind to something! 

We're hoping to get some things done around the house this year, we bought it a couple of years ago (at very short notice) and we're slowly working towards getting things replaced/repaired/redecorated. Of course, that all costs money and so I turn to our food budget and pantry stocks to see where we can claw some away for the house fund. 

Pantry stocks revealed a big bag of dried chickpeas which I bought...the second half of last year? Maybe. Which calls for hummous! I love the stuff. On toast, as a dip, as part of a little mezze plate for myself...PB isn't so keen but that's okay, more for me!

My favourite savoury recipe is from 'How It All Vegan' entitled 'Holy Moly Hummus' there's also a store brand named as such but this homemade version is much better!

1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves minced garlic
splash of olive oil
2 1/2 c. chickpeas
3/4 c. tahini
1 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 c. jalepeno, chopped
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. salt

I typically leave the jalepeno out, sometimes I use a roasted bulb of garlic (no such thing as too much garlic!) and I have subbed the tahini with sunflower seeds which I've blended all together with great results. 

Fry the onion and garlic until onion is soft and translucent then dump everything into a food processor and blend to your desired texture. Delicious! 

Sweet/dessert hummous wasn't really a thing when I delved into the vegan lifestyle (many, many, many moons ago!) and I remember people reacting very skeptically to the idea - Chocolate Covered Katie was an early (maybe the first) blogger to produce a cookie dough hummous which was met with some derision on snark forums - but now it seems pretty common place and there are plenty of results that pop up on google. 

It seems like any cake/cookie dessert can be hummousized! As illustrated by A Virtual Vegan with her snickerdoodle hummus. I made this yesterday and had some with a sliced up granny smith apple - really yummy! I'm not going to argue that it's a health food but surely it's better than a pack of five cookies from a supermarket bakery? 

I've tried cookie dough hummus in the past - From My Bowl has a great recipe - and now I'm curious to try other kinds. Maybe a brownie one next?  

This week has been homemade pizza that I had with a dijon carrot slaw, changing my daily porridge to a banana and cinnamon topping and just keeping on with trying to incorporate better habits/choices. With my fibro, it's very much one step forward two steps back at times, but life is very much like that too and we continue, the best we can.  

  

Oh No, Bland!

So, the health issue husband was struggling with as mentioned in my last post is looking like an h pylori infection alongside a possible ulcer. It seems to be one of those lots of people have it, sometimes it becomes an issue type thing. It is treatable with medication (although anecdotally it sounds proper rough...) and diet changes can support healing which is a great outlook for recovery. 

However. This means bland. Bland food. This is difficult for my husband who loves flavour, spice and everything nice (he married me, didn't he?) but I've decided to wait for the test results before I pull the trigger on the dreaded bland. I'm still miffed about spending all that time and energy filling the freezer with spicy food before Christmas...argh! 

I've been logging my meals for the past few weeks, more for personal insight and to be more accountable, since my weight is problematic and I need to focus on positive changes for the future. 

Calorie counting can be a bit mentally challenging given I have an disordered eating past but I'm happy losing weight slowly and mindfully, gotta build that positive habits house brick by brick, right? At the end of two weeks logging, I had lost 1.5 pounds which is great. 

I'm not intending to talk much about weight loss on this blog. It's really quite boring, y'know? I just log my meals and hydrate as much as possible with my Emotional Support Adult Sippy Cup at this point. No pizazz. 

Interestingly, giving up coke zero has reduced my hand pain which makes me wonder if food logging will reveal any other trigger foods for my fibromyalgia. 

Anyway, my main health goal for the year is building stamina and endurance which is going to be another slow process but that's okay too. 

In cooking news, not too much to report - I made the turkey meatloaf from NYT Cooking which was a delightful introduction to that most American of dishes, made a small batch of cranberry and white chocolate cookies and a leek + bacon strata that used up a bunch of odds and ends from the fridge. 

Breakfast has been cinnamon porridge with a small handful of dried blueberries and I'm kinda obsessed with it right now. Just so good! 

2026: The Year I Will Be Making Many Recipes from NYT Cooking

So, this is the new year...and what have I done?

I defrosted the freezer early December last year then prepped a couple of dishes: feta and sweet potato enchiladas and a chickpea curry from recipe tin eats. Great! Actually, no. The husband had been dealing with some stomach pain/acid reflux for a while though we couldn't figure out what was triggering it specifically. Off to the doctors we went and he was diagnosed with an ulcer (need ultrasound to pinpoint it but sounds like an intestinal one...) and sent off with some medication and strict order to give up carbonated sugary drinks. 

Now, it's no secret that our neurodivergent household loves its fizzy trash water and I decided to also give it up in solidarity but I tapered while my husband quit cold so we didn't have to throw out what we had in house. Withdrawal was a bit rough for each of us but I'm glad to have done it. Even when buying lidl's own brand, we were spending nearly ten pounds a fortnight on it and honestly, there's better stuff to spend that money on. We're always working towards a mindset of quality over quantity and this mission fit that aim.

As husband worked through the medication, we pinpointed that oily/fatty foods and spicy foods where bothering him so we're had to cut back on that...now, what did I spend time just before Xmas doing? Filling the bloody freezer with spicy food. Sigh.  

As to the post title, for Xmas I treated myself to a subscription to NYT Cooking which was heavily discounted to nine pounds (which I've kinda paid for by giving up coke zero! Hurrah!) and so far there hasn't been a bad recipe in the bunch. The slow cooker chilli with beer has been very adaptable to making it a bit milder but still flavourful and the sheet pan mushroom parma is also highly recommended. 

Would I pay full price for the subscription? Hmm. For nine pounds it is a bargain and not such a loss if I end up not cooking regularly from it but at full price? I think I would have to be making a few new recipes a month from it to justify it. As I've bought this subscription, I've banned myself from buying any foodie/cooking magazines so we'll see how it goes. 

Today I had the energy for some baking so made the biscotti recipe from Budget Bytes which turned out okay. It lacked some of the steps/instructions I'd expect from a biscotti recipe and it's definitely a more American take on it. It took a while longer in my oven and I still ended up leaving them to dry out a bit more in the cooling oven. I added 1/3 cup each of sliced almonds and dark chocolate chips. Next time I'll probably try the King Arthur biscotti recipe which has some neat tips and tricks for getting a better result. That said, the budget bytes one is a good pantry basics recipe. 

Hopefully this week I'll have enough energy to make some marmalade - cheating a bit by using Ma Made as the base - but making preserves was such a fun past-time for me before fibromyalgia became undeniable so if this helps me return to it, I'm happy. I'm going to fancy it up some with a splash of our wedding whisky and give some jars to the people who were there...a little under a year ago, it feels much longer!

 

Christmas Market Season Begins!

Yes, I know they've already started in many areas but for me, they don't really start until the last week of November - this year I was hearing Christmas songs on the radio on the 6th! That's way too early! And I am a self-admitted Christmas lover - so today we headed off to a market at the schmancy Hoghton Tower. 

As usual, lots of lovely things! We bought some gourmet sausage rolls and limencello and PB very sweetly treated me to a beautifully handmade mohair rabbit who he named Delwyn. He's Welsh, naturally! 

As a bribe  nice thing to do for my husband considering he'd rather be locked up with a hungry xeno than go to a Christmas market, I decided to have a fancy breakfast on Saturday (it's hard to plan to do nice, more effort stuff with fibro but I crossed my fingers and was super strict on my pacing) and since I've been enjoying flicking through the wartime issued version of The Joy of Cooking, I thought I'd try one of the variations on baked eggs.

As an aside, isn't it nice in old recipe books when they list lots of variations? I easily found a recipe that fit my pantry stock but had ideas if I wanted to ring the changes when I make them again. I suppose that might be down to the war and rationing making substitutions and variations necessary for all. 

The recipe I chose was one of the simpler ones, where cheese is optional...except in this house where it is always mandatory. 

Baked Eggs

Ingredients: 

4 eggs
1/2 cup of grated cheese 
1/2 cup of double cream (I suppose you could use single here without much issue to be fair)
Breadcrumbs
Butter

Seasoning suggestions: white pepper, smoked paprika, nutmeg, cayenne, etc. 

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 200 or 180 if a fan oven.

Take a baking dish that will accommodate the four eggs once cracked open and butter throughly then line with breadcrumbs (the amount needed depends on the size of the dish). I used an enamel pie dish which fit the four eggs in quite snugly. 

On top of the breadcrumbs, crack each egg into the dish taking care not to break them. Season to your taste on top of the eggs then sprinkle over the cheese and drizzle the cream over the top.  

Place in oven and bake until eggs are firm. I ended up baking them about twenty minutes. In the grand tradition of old recipes, no fixed time is given so it's definitely a breakfast for a leisurely morning that you can spend keeping an eye on the oven while having a cup of tea. 

 And yes, it was an ideal bribe. That and the sausage rolls. 

 

Chilly Days + Cake for Breakfast

Me and PB are currently emptying the freezer as much as possible so we can defrost it then restock in anticipation of the festive season which isn't difficult, just quite slow - with it being two of us, the meals we make from the freezer last a few days while if we were a larger family, we would have finished by now. I'm looking forward to the restock phrase - prepping things for easy dinners later on really does feel like a real life cheat code. 

I'm in the starting to feel better part of a flare at the moment* so I managed to put a chunk of gammon in the slow cooker (along with water, carrots and some bay leaf) which we had with potatoes and swedish cabbage (I won't share the recipe as I wasn't entirely happy with it.) and the leftover gammon will be going back into the slow cooker tonight as part of a split pea and ham soup. 

Yesterday, I managed to bake something I've had my eye on for a while - blueberry breakfast cake - which turned out well though I think the flavour is lacking a bit of zing...perhaps adding lemon juice and/or zest would help next time. This sorted breakfast for the week, feels very decadent to eat cake for breakfast but I was very generous with the blueberries at least...

I also prepped some frozen falafel (air fryer sorted these) and a batch of lemon herb couscous where I subbed parsley for thyme (no fresh thyme on hand) and left the nuts and dried fruit out so I can change it up a bit each day. Today for lunch I had some the salad as is with falafel, yogurt sauce and cucumber. Very yummy! Definitely will be going on my rotation of lunch prepping. I have some sweet potatoes that need using up so I'll probably roast them in spices to go with lunch tomorrow. 

Coming out of a flare makes me feel a little uncertain and hesitant about things as it sometimes feels like anything can push me back into a flare no matter how well I pace myself, etc. Heading into a busy time of the year, I'm wondering how I can manage it better than last year and I'm finding I don't have many answers since fibromyalgia is such a tricky, shifting condition. I suppose all I can do is try to treat myself kindly and enjoy the glimmers of everyday life as much as possible! 

 

*the lifecycle of the flare is less a circle and more a confounding mess of squiggles as it isn't ever predictable, having a nasty tendency to veer way off past experiences just for giggles, I guess.  

Baking As Self Care

Is there anything nicer than warm, fresh from the oven, homemade cake? I'm not sure. Even a simple vanilla scented cake that has been baked in a domestic kitchen beats a mass made cream bun from a chain bakery. My two favourite baking books are Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi (found here) and the River Cottage: Cakes book by Pam of Pam the Jam fame. I haven't baked much this year apart from the epic muffin making session a little while ago and that seems quite strange considering me and PB like our sweets. So I made the Spiced Honey Cake from Snacking Cakes today which I topped with the optional flaked almonds (an addition that may well be a necessity going forward with this recipe) and substituted yogurt for the buttermilk...it just isn't a real thing here, unfortunately. 

What I enjoy most about Snacking Cakes is that they're mainly one bowl, simple ingredients, basic process recipes that taste great, much better than you'd expect for the low effort and as I'm going through a severe spoon budget reduction right now, it's nice to feel that warm sense of having done something that will lift the spirits of yourself and the people you love. 

With that in mind, I flicked through my copy of Yossy Arefi's follow up: Snacking Bakes which brings cookies, bars, brownies and blondies into the mix. I think the Date and Pistachio Coffee Cake Bars are up next for baking - I found a bag of pistachios and some dried dates that need using in the baking cupboard - which seem perfect for the chilly, rainy weather we're having. 

When I'm not resting/flaring, I've been crocheting hats and things to send to Ukraine and reading cozy stories that seem to mainly involve animals in human clothing being very humanlike. Hopefully more cooking will be happening soon - a cabbage in the fridge seems to be suggesting it is destined to become swedish brown cabbage... 

 

 

Farewell Spooky Season!

Healthwise I've haven't been puttering along so well the past week - flares and C-PTSD flashbacks/night terrors are a horrible combination - so food hasn't been remotely fancy, in fact, one evening last week we had McDonalds (trying out world heist menu stuff which was fine) and then Monday night we had it again. It's not ideal and I tried to make best choices possible but I'm not going to keep beating myself up about it. This happens incredibly rarely considering we're a neurodivergent, chronically ill household. 

It didn't help with good decision making that we were low on easy frozen options such as prepped burritos, etc so after the fast food extravaganza I made some bean, cheese and brown rice burritos using the pinto beans and brown rice recipes from Amy and Jacky. 

I find my rice turns out better with a 1.25 cup of broth/water but otherwise follow the recipes as they are. The pinto beans in particular are great and a low-cost meal option - we use them for burritos, enchiladas, burrito bowls and nachos. 

PB assembled sixteen burritos and ten went to the freezer, six to the fridge. The freezer is very full at the moment but mostly with meal parts rather than all-in-one stuff and it's a chest freezer which makes organising/meal planning a bit of a pain. One day we'll be able to remodel the kitchen and bring in our beautiful american style fridge freezer combo in from the garage...

Feeling a bit naughty after our fast food/eating out spree, I remembered I wanted to try the Bistro Broccoli Chowder from Appetite for Reduction which is an excellent cookbook for anyone wanting to increase their veggie intake. It read like it would be very flexible and easygoing so I raided the fridge, roughly chopped and threw everything into the slow cooker on low for eight hours. 

Originally it's prepared on the hob but spoons are in short supply so slow cooker it was. I used dried dill instead of rosemary, dairy milk instead of vegan and less potatoes/more parsnips because that's what we had on hand. It is incredibly difficult to go wrong with a basic veggie soup though - and a soup this did become thanks to my immersion blender - my chunky chopping was too chunky for a pleasant chowder anyway. Really wholesome and warming, we had some baked-at-home rolls and sliced cheddar with it on Wednesday and there's plenty in the fridge ready for the rest of the week. 

Heading into the chilly times now...