Cooking a little healthier, a little more gluten-free: Sarah's Big Comfy Sweet Potato and Simple Gourmet Granola

I'd say I eat well 80% of the time, and the other 20% is basically cakes, biscuits and chocolate. I tried giving up the latter for January and got about half-way through. At least I joined the masses with that one! But I've noticed that I'm basically a bread-and-cheese girl at lunchtimes and that my breakfast is the time of day I most crave healthy, bolstering food. And coming from a family afflicted with various gastro-malfunctions, I figure these two meals are ripe for a bit of a nutrition punch. The chocolate in the evenings, well, that'll have to wait!

This is a preamble to me introducing you to the My New Roots website that I recently discovered (via an oblique reference on instagram). I don't think I could eat this way all the time but I'm up for a lot of it for breakfast and a fair amount at lunch too. I've actually been feeling really inspired on the food front recently. You may know that I cook from recipe books about 95% of the time for dinner, and for a lot of our weekend lunches too, but while it's always nutritious and homemade it can often involve less healthy fare (beef pie anyone?). We've eaten mostly wholegrain and wholewheat for years but it'll do us good to rely less on the wheat family. And I hardly ever go to the recipe books for breakfast or my weekday lunches with the Tiny One. So it's nice to have a new focus to reinvigorate my recipe love. I'll keep you updated.

(Top picture, My New Roots Big Comfy Sweet Potato for lunch; and bottom picture, My New Roots Simple Gourmet Granola, out of the oven and waiting for the raisins to be stirred in - or whatever other dried fruit you prefer.)

Saturday baking: pumpkin (or butternut squash), parmesan and olive bread

It's drizzly outside, the leaves are on the turn and autumn's settling in. Shall we do some weekend baking? Do you fancy some Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Bread?

There are only so many bog standard cheese/ham/bread lunches a family can take. We reached our limit a month or two ago. I've been trying to mix it up on our weekend lunches, bringing a bit more creativity to the table to make the weekend lunch - that lovely, languid thing - a little more special.

Today I made Pumpkin, Parmesan and Olive Bread. It takes about 10-15 minutes prep, 45 minutes in the oven, and a few minutes resting - the perfect ratio of low time/effort to high impact/taste.

I ate mine plain and buttered, still steaming warm, and it was lovely. The lovely husband adorned his with cheese and chutney. I'd have thought a bit of ham would be nice too. I added the olives at the end, folding them into one end of the loaf, leaving the other end olive-free to suit the younger boys. And they asked for seconds.Would you like the recipe? It's from our Abel & Cole cookbook, page 121. 

Pre-heat your oven to 190oC/375oF/gas 5. The whole recipe uses a mug to measure - just pick out a standard-size mug from your collection and stick to the same mug all through.

Mix 1 1/3 mugs of self-raising flour in a large bowl with a pinch of sea salt, 1 mug of grated raw butternut squash or pumpkin, 1/2 mug of roughly grated parmesan (or a cheaper alternative - I used Grana Padano), a handful of chopped black olives and 1 tbsp chopped rosemary.

Once your dry ingredients are combined, whisk 2 large eggs with 1 tbsp milk in your vacated mug then add to your mixture and mix until you've got a sticky ball (I used my hands - fun, quick, but messy.)

Drop your ball of dough onto a greased baking tray, form into a patty, and sprinkle a little extra flour and grated parmesan on top. Bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 45-50 mins. When done, the bottom of the loaf will make a hollow sound when you tap it. Let it cool a little for 10 mins before serving. But, trust me, it's best served warm.

This loaf will feed four as part of a lunch spread, or two greedy people (ah-hem) with a bit of butter and cheese. Leftovers are delicious toasted, as the butternut squash caramelises slightly in the heat.

Wishing you and yours a lovely, restful weekend.

It's time for lunch

Most days lunch a deux (me and my Little One, while the world is at work) is hurried and usually involving sandwiches. Some days I have a bit more time, a bit more cooperation, and look what happens!

I made myself a Jamie Oliver-inspired, dill festooned Greek salad. And it was delicious. The Little One had a deconstructed, diminished salad - tomatoes, olives, avocado and cucumber. He enjoyed eating half of it and squishing the rest.

I am off to peruse Nancy's list for a bit of inspiration for next week.