The Official Retirement of Mint Peonies PLUS New Blog/Website

Hey fellow readers of Mint Peonies!

Thank you for continuing to follow this dormant blog of mine for the last couple of years!

I just wanted to let you know that I actually have a new blog/website that I started after finishing my yoga teacher training last year.

You’ll still find great recipes and natural beauty and lifestyle tips so if you’d like to keep in touch please do subscribe on my new website here: http://stephmatthews.com/

You can also find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Hope to see you over there and thank you again! x

Baking Bread

I don’t necessarily follow any sort of diet, i.e. gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc. However, if I can manage to make something that I really enjoy and it happens to be so, I’m all for it. I like the challenge of finding new ways to take old recipes and attempt to make them taste the same as if they contained one or all of the above. I do try to limit the amount of processed foods and extra sugar floating around everywhere. I try to focus on filling my body with healthy, nutritious, organic food for the most part but don’t refrain from the indulgence of treats. Because I don’t believe in that.

All that being said, bread is big thing I’m working on bettering. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find it hard to have just eggs for breakfast without some sort of bread on the side. It doesn’t seem the same. And I love a fresh loaf of white bread as much as the next person but I don’t think it constitutes as a great thing to have everyday. I came across Sarah B’s recipe for a fabulous bread recipe and I’ve been making it ever since. It’s my new go-to bread and the one I have with my breakfast eggs.

I made mine with pumpkin seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds. And along with the psyllium husks I added a tablespoon of Maca powder. First few times I made it, as I was without a silicon pan, I spent intervals of time scraping off the parchment until I could get it back in the oven for its second bake. A silicon pan does work best, from my experience. And it’s true what she says- it really does make the best toast ever.

PSB Pasta

PSB for Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

I don’t think I ever fully appreciated the local farmers market in my area until I began juicing (more on that subject in future) Of course, I always enjoyed wandering around it and checking out the local stalls. It’s the perfect place to stock up on lots of fresh fruit and vegetables for the week ahead. It also provides an opportunity to pick up the sort of produce I wouldn’t necessarily be able to find at my usual shop. And it means I can buy local produce which I like to purchase whenever I can.

I’d seen a recipe using PSB as the star ingredient in a cookbook by Abel & Cole and knew I definitely wanted to try it. So I was very excited (never thought I’d be getting excited over broccoli!) to come across some of the purple veg when I last visited the farmers market. There’s something to be said about buying something fresh and eating it that very same day.

Cookies N Beans

Cookies and beans? Yes beans! Black beans. I’ve seen them numerous times amongst brownie recipes out there but now, here they are in chocolate, fudgy cookies.

I was sceptical of how these were going to turn out, especially upon opening up my can of black beans and thinking they smelt more like cat food than the desirable chocolate cookies I was aspiring for. But upon adding in the cocoa powder and vanilla, they were well on their way to becoming a satisfying cookie dough.

I used this recipe and made a couple of variations subbing out the dried cherries and chili for walnuts and raw cacao nibs. I have to say, they turned out pretty well. I think upon making these a few more times I could end up making them into the perfect base for a gluten free and even vegan cookie. No flour, no sugar, and they can be made with no eggs; whatever you fancy.

Pancake Day

Pancake Day, otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday. I always loved this day because as a kid it meant I could have pancakes for breakfast and dinner.

This day dates back to centuries ago with the main traditons still being upheld. It falls the day before Lent begins and during Lent, you “fast”. In school growing up, we were always encouraged to try and “give something up” for the duration of Lent. I always found this difficult to maintain or even really to attempt to begin.

The basis of the day, regardless of religion or traditions, is to eat up the rich, fatty goodness of pancakes and the foods surrounding pancakes (eggs, dairy, sugar) on one last night prior to a period of sustaining.

I’m meant to be sustaining from all things sugar at the moment which is proving incredibly difficult. Even naturally occuring sugar counts and sugar is in everything– if you didn’t know!

So perhaps this comes along at a good time… I will definitely be having pancakes tomorrow (which will likely be gluten-free, dairy-free, all-fun-gone-free) and then maybe this time I’ll be able to sustain from the sugar on the basis that I’ve “given it up” on my own accord.

Whole wheat apple pancakes topped with melted coconut oil

Chocolate pancakes I made and posted about a while back

Those are a couple examples of some pancakes I’ve recently made.
Being Canadian, I’ve of course always eaten them with maple syrup. Here in England, they sprinkle them with icing sugar and lemon juice. I made some really nice ones a couple of weeks back with bananas and pecans. I think I’m feeling like some classic buttermilk pancakes for tomorrow.

What kind of pancakes will you be making?

Apple Crumble

Crumble is by far one of the easiest and quickest things to make. It’s also pretty versatile in the fact that you can throw in whatever you have on hand- whatever’s in season. I made this particular one with a mixture of apples I had sitting in the fruit bowl and all gluten-free.

I found a great recipe a little while back for a streusel topping that I used from Ina Garten on a cake (see here) I decided to try it out on a crumble once and I’ve never looked back. No more rubbing the butter to pea size bits!

The streusel topping is super easy, super crunchy, and super tasty. I add that on top of my fruit which has been tossed in a little lemon juice, sugar, flour, and vanilla (this creates a bit of a thickened “sauce” underneath the streusel topping) It is such an inviting smell when this bakes up. There’s something very comforting when you take it out of the oven and you see it bubbling away underneath that lovely topping.

Works a treat every time.

Halloween Treats

Besides carving out a few pumpkins for their delicious seeds, I’ve been making other goodies in celebration of Halloween this year.

Cupcakes are always fun to make and there are so many things you can do to make them your own. I started by making a batch of super chocolately cupcakes (gluten-free!)
For decoration, I chose to make some as ghosts and some decorated with orange buttercream frosting with a star tip nozzle. The best part however, was a cool trick I saw online recently: the centers of the cupcakes have been filled in like the shape and colours of candy corn. I hope when I give them a go tomorrow, the candy corn goodness inside has turned out well!

What are your plans for Halloween? Do you have any wonderful treats or recipes you’re trying out or stick to each year?

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite things about carving pumpkins out for Halloween is that you get to pick out all the seeds to roast in the oven. And whilst Halloween isn’t celebrated the way it was when I was little, I still enjoying getting a pumpkin each year, solely so I can consume it and it’s entirety!

It’s a tedious task but completely worth it, and if you’ve made the seeds fresh, you know what I mean. As a kid, I loved it when we finished hollowing out a pumpkin, as I knew my mom would be delivering fresh, warm, yummy seeds from the oven.

I usually make them savoury, but this year I’m also going to try to make a sweet version using coconut oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

For the savoury ones:
Once I’d taken all the seeds from my pumpkin, I made sure to rinse them really well and then dried them overnight on a sheet pan. When I was ready to toast them, I simply added some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and tossed to coat them. I baked them at 350°C for about 8-10 minutes.

It’s that simple! Not only are pumpkin seeds healthy for you (they’re full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) but they make a tasty snack 🙂

The Best French Toast

French toast is one of the easiest things to make ever. It’s great for breakfast, and even works for dinner or a snack. There are so many things you can do to vary it up. You can make it gluten-free as well by substituting the bread for gluten-free bread.

2-3 slices of bread
1-2 eggs (free range and organic if you can)
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
2 tsp coconut oil
maple syrup (it really is the best, if you can’t get that, you can use golden syrup)
icing sugar and berries

In a bowl mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the slices of bread and coat both sides. Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the bread slices to the pan. Let it cook for a couple minutes then turn it over. If you like it a bit soggy, leave it on for another two minutes but if you prefer it cooked well throughout, leave it on longer. Remove from the heat and plate up.

I usually cut the squares in half to triangles and line them up on my plate. Scatter the berries; add the maple syrup, and a tiny sprinkling of icing sugar.