Sunday morning

I often think there's little that sets the day up better than an early morning bake followed (or accompanied) by a hot mug of coffee.  Yesterday I made the chewy oat cookies and, I am pleased to say, they are delicious!  Today it was the courgette muffins that I intended to make yesterday but didn't get around to actually doing.  Now the house smells wonderfully sweet and delicious and I feel virtuous!   And hungry!  Mind you, the use of the word 'courgette' in the title is a bit misleading given how little courgette is used.  50g in the whole recipe - and that's hardly one of your five a day.  'Very tasty muffins with a little bit of grated courgette' would be a better title.  I think I am going to pop over the the Frugal Girl's blog because I'm sure she posted a recipe for courgette bread that used more courgette.

Next on the list is the fruit mixture for the blackberry and apple crumble and following that I will be preparing the veg for the lunchtime pizzas.  I'm going to use a wrap (or two) for the base of the pizzas - one will be vegetarian, one not.  I picked up the idea of using a wrap as a base a while ago and it works well for those of us who like a very thin base with a goodly pile of topping.  Those who like a deep pan base would be sadly disappointed, I fear!  I cheated yesterday and bought a pot of cool salsa.  Part of it went into the courgette bake I had last night and most of the rest will do for the pizzas today.  Then the vegetarian one will have a heap of vegetables (yes, DD, probably a few cubes of courgette too) while the other will have some veg and some strips of ham.  OK, so maybe I ought not to call them pizzas really but whatever they are, served with coleslaw and a mixed salad, they will be scrummy.

I spend yesterday morning watching the four Hairy Biker programmes back to back.  I don't know if you've been watching them, but I missed them, one way or another.  How to love food and lose weight is the title and I watched all four back to back through the morning and early afternoon (which is why I didn't get the muffins made).  It was inspirational in parts.  Not the losing weight, although for two big men who dearly love their food, they did amazingly well, but the way they took delicious and substantial food and made it less calorific/more healthy without, it seems, sacrificing any of the taste.  One canny idea was using a pizza base mix instead of pastry for a pie - I'm trying that one because, with accompanying veg, you have a very substantial meal for a very reasonable number of calories, not to mention a snack in hand for a lunch on the move.  And I can't wait to try the korma and the sweet and sour chicken.  And the idea of using opened up leek leaves instead of sheet lasagne is very well worth a try.  My kind of cooking, without a doubt.

I've ordered the book!