The wonderful versatility of oopsies

Isn't it great when you find a recipe that works great as a base with which to experiment, adding things, changing things, and generally freestyling it? Since me and sis discovered oopsies we have had them as sandwiches, burger buns, chocolate cake, chocolate muffins... And the other day I decided to try them as pancakes. And yes, they were delicious! As I'm not much of a breakfast eater I tend to get really hungry around ten, and these are perfect as a filling brunch.



After googling some lchf pancake recipes I settled on adding some coconut to my oopsie recipe (which doesn't use all the yolks to avoid a too "eggy" flavour) and replacing half the cream cheese with double cream. In the end the recipe looked something like this:

2 egg whites
1 egg yolk
30 g* cream cheese
2 tbsp* double cream
3 tbsp dessicated coconut*
pinch of baking powder

Whisk the egg whites with the baking powder until stiff. Mix the other ingredients in a separate bowl. Put a spoonful of the egg withes in the cream cheese mixture and fold it in then dump it all into the egg whites and fold together. Many recipes recommend using a metal spoon for folding, I like a rubber spatula. Either way, you want to be careful so you don't knock all the air out, but not too careful as it will take ages and the egg whites will start to break down. Fry dollops of the batter in lots of unsalted butter, I got five but it all depends on how big or small you make them. They will puff up in the pan, so if you want flatter, thinner pancakes press down with the spatula after turning them.
These make American style pancakes and I'm sure they'd be nice to eat with bacon (if you like that sort of thing and eat meat, neither of which applies to me), I eat mine with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Enjoy!

* I don't really measure or weigh my ingredients when I make this so these are estimates. I blitzed my coconut in a blender to break it down into smaller pieces but that's all about preference.

Yesterday is but today's memory...

Used, discarded,unloved. It has served its purpose and been forgotten about. And there it hangs. No-one even cares enough to take it down. What was once bright and new is now sun bleached, rain washed and windblown. Time marches swiftly on and it is no longer relevant.


Bunting from the diamond jubilee.

Liar liar pants on fire!

Yesterday I spotted something which struck me as odd: the menu from El Camino (which I wrote about the other day) said el Camion. After some googling I realised that the latter is in fact the correct name of the restaurant. I fired off a text to my sister, the one who introduced me to this culinary gem, and she replied saying she knew this but always called it El Camino anyway because it used to be called that before it changed its name.

What?! I have been deceived!

I feel dirty. I feel betrayed. I feel... I don't know how I feel...

Ok, bit of an exaggeration. It's a funny story though. I'm going to take a leaf out of my sister's book and keep calling it El Camino. Because that's what it's called in my head. Also because, as anyone who knows me can attest to, I'm never wrong!

Life through a lens

The other day me and sis walked past a bush in full bloom. There were different flowers around it, all of them in pink hues. Immediately we both stopped and pulled out our cameras. 





As bloggers, we don't stop and smell the roses. We photograph them!

Breakfast of champions

Boiled eggs with creme fraiche/mayonnaise/cream mixture and some chives. Yum.

Lazy days

Yesterday was spent with my two favourite people:  my gorgeous sister and her equally gorgeous daughter.

After I babysat my niece, while my sister went to the gym, we all went for Mexican food.

El Camino is a lovely little place close to where my sister lives. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is great. Not to mention the charming decor!

My sister is obsessed with Cholula hot sauce and was a bit disappointed to only find the chipotle version.

I, on the other hand, was overjoyed as chipotle is one of my all time favourite foodstuffs!

I love hanging out with my girls!

All change

I have mixed feelings about my life at the moment.
I'm happy and relieved that I've finished college (with acceptable grades) and survived the nine months of working and studying. At the same time it feels sad to think that I'm never going back there again. I did have fun and I met so many wonderful people and while I know for a fact that I will stay in touch with many of them, many others are going to unis in other parts of the country and others are not the kind of friends I hang out with outside of school but spent a lot of time with in college and whom I will miss.
I'm happy to have some actual free time now, and I get so bored with all this time on my hands.
I'm so excited about going to university in September and my knees turn to jelly when I think of this big step. Will it meet my expectations? Will I make friends? Will I be the old fart surrounded by bright eyed 18 year olds?
I'm looking forward to finally getting on and moving forward with my life, and I'm reduced to tears when I think of leaving the children I have looked after for so many years and whom I have seen grow up.
I can't wait to have my own home and no longer be a live-in nanny, but I worry about how I will manage financially.

Mos

My head is spinning. I know it will be fine. I am constantly freaking out.

Grey

I am only wearing white, grey and black today (yes even socks and underwear). This greyscale look was not a conscious decision, probably more of a reflection on the predominant colours in my wardrobe.

Today is the last time my class is together at college. A bit sad, if I'm honest. I've brought a cake to celebrate the fact that we've survived and to mark the fact that we are now on our way to even bigger and better things!

Take two for uploading photo!

Low carb chocolate muffins

Today, while my sister was at the gym and I was babysitting my favourite Una, I decided to experiment further with oopsies. We had been talking about making them as chocolate muffins so I thought I'd surprise her, ambitious I know! Even though Una woke up I managed to pull it off. I followed the recipe for basic oopsies and chucked in some extra stuff. I don't have an exact recipe as it was very much a case of tasting and adding more but these are the broad strokes:

2 egg whites

2 egg yolks

60ish grams plain cream cheese

2 tsp honey

1-2 tbsp cocoa powder

1-2 tbsp ground almonds

Dark chocolate

Beat egg whites stiff as if making meringue. In a separate bowl mix all the other ingredients, tasting as you go. Fold a spoonful of the egg whites into the mixture then fold the mixture into the eggwhites. Dollop into a muffin pan, mine made nine, and finely grate some dark chocolate over the top.

Bake for about 30 mins on gas mark 2/150 degrees then turn the oven off and leave the muffins to cool in the oven with the door propped up.

I served mine with a dollop of whipped cream and some fresh berries. Delicious!

Last night

My sis' friend is here and last night we went for a little night out. First stop Mexican food, second stop hula bar, third stop home. It was short but sweet!

Pill-popper

My evening snack tonight consisted of antibiotics, paracetamol and ADs.

I freaking hate swallowing pills and I'm really rubbish at it too...

I finished off with a swig of cough medicine.

Today, after 4 days of fever, my temperature has been normal. Yay for that! I don't know if it's the ABs or just the chest infection running its course. I just wish the cough would go to...

What did you do last weekend?

Egg (Mc)Muffin

Had 3 for lunch whilst working on the presentation I have to give on Monday.

The egg muffins were delicious, the work was less nice. My presentation is on gender equality since WW1 (actually since Victorian times) and I know the stuff like the back of my hand, both because it was part of my research project and because I'm a rabid feminist. My worry is that I'll get really nervous, forget it all and start stammering.

The egg muffins were easy and part of my new low carb high fat approach to life.

I just beat together 2 eggs, a glug of double cream, a bunch of grated cheese and a pinch of oregano. It made enough to half-fill 3 muffin cases which I baked at 180 degrees fan for about 20 minutes.

And then I ate them all!

P.s. I don't know if I'm back. The whole working+studying+being an aunt is hard work and very time-consuming...

It's a free bag innit?!

Went to Goldsmiths university for an applicants day today. It lasted from 12-5 pm and of that I'd say about 2hrs were spent in any productive way. I was actually quite unimpressed by the whole thing. When I went to the open day at Queen Mary uni I came away with a great feeling about the place. A real "yeah, I want to study here" kind of feeling. Didn't get that from Goldsmiths.
I did get a canvas bag and various bits of chocolate. So the day wasn't a complete waste!

I can be organised if I want to be

I like to tick things of my to do list/hand when they're done.

Number one!

After a lot of waiting and a delivery that perhaps did not go as smoothly as my darling sister had hoped, her beautiful daughter, my niece, finally arrived at 03.02 on Friday the 17th.
And she promptly stole my heart.
She is the most perfect thing I have ever seen, and so fascinating even though she doesn't do much.

I still can't quite get my head around my sister being a mum. When she says things like "my daughter" I think "You can't possibly have a daughter, you're just a baby yourself!" It feels a bit surreal, like it's all just pretend!

And my heart aches every minute I am away from this miracle. It has now been 3 days since I last saw her, held her, stroked her soft skin. And with this cold/flu/black death that has taken hold of my body it will be a while before I see her again. I am counting the minutes!

Breaking the fast

I confess, I have jumped on the smoothie bandwagon. Mainly because I'm not very good at eating breakfast (as in I don't) so on the days I'm at college I always find myself starving just before my first lesson and end up buying a chocolate croissant or similar. So in an effort to be more healthy and save some pennies I have started making smoothies that I can take with me and drink on my way there or during the morning lesson.

I just blend some fruit, natural yoghurt and a scoop of protein powder. That way I get some of my 5 a day, calcium and protein. And they're also really filling!

I am still in the process of trying out flavour combination, one of the problems being that I don't like bananas. Today's smoothie is apple and kiwi. I also added some apple juice for a bit of extra sweetness and to make it less thick.
Yum!

The wall

I have hit it...

With renewed motivation (aided by a couple of uni offers) I have attacked my coursework full on. All day has been spent on my laptop writing and rewriting essays, source analyses, overviews etc. I actually started around six in the AM, not by choice mind you. I had been tossing and turning for over an hour trying to get back to sleep, but to no avail. So I made myself a cup of tea and got to work. Around nine I managed to nap for about an hour, around two I watched some Sons of Anarchy (that show was made for me!) and at 4-ish I went out and got myself a veggie delite from subway. Apart from that it has been all work...
And now my brain has stopped working.
I still have to write up the answers to my interview questions and then analyse both questions and answers. And I was hoping to get a bit more of my literature essay done to try and avoid an all-nighter tomorrow.
So I'm going to allow myself a little break. Maybe some trash tv, liquorice allsorts, salty sticks, caffeine free diet coke and snus will reinvigorate my tired mind.

At least my printer is working again. That shit was doing my head in...

Stress and stuff

Everybody deals with stress in different ways.
This seems to be how my body deals with it (without my consent): massive acne outbreak threatening to turn me into pizza face; left shoulder + neck suddenly, and without warning or reason, spasming and seizing up, causing almost unbearable pain and an inability to move left arm or head + shoulder.
I'm now on my third day with neck/shoulder pain. It has gradually gotten a bit better, for instance I no longer need to keep my left shoulder pulled up and my head tilted to the left to keep from crying in pain (yay!) and I can move my head and arm relatively freely. Still hurts like a bitch. Ibuprofen and heat patches are keeping me sane.

And now I have to crawl back into the cave of never-ending schoolwork where I have spent the last week or so. And try not to cry...

Hey Ho Hey Ho

Off to school I go. New literature unit starting today. I can't remember if it's poetry or Shakespeare's Macbeth. Should be fun either way. I just wish they'd stop ruining the fun by making us write essays!