Friday Favourites

Huh?  It's Friday again?  How on earth did that happen?  Has your week rushed past in a blur, too?  Will I ever stop asking questions?

Mercifully the second week of school has been a bit calmer; we've more or less settled back into the school run routine, and I'm getting used to waking up at a sensible time again.  The house is still an absolute pigsty, so maybe I should collect a series of household organisational tips for next week?

Favourite Breakfast: Primal Smoothies!

(Found on Facebook--original source is www.alifebalanced.com)

I have been trying to ease my way back into Primal eating.  (AKA the caveman diet or paleo).  It's proving hard to resist the lure of bread and sugar--it always is in the first week--but I am doing my very best to resist their siren song.

This morning I made Lucas and I an amazing Cherry & Cashew smoothie for breakfast.  It really was epic!!  To save time in the mornings, I think I'm going to try making my own smoothie packs so that I can just dump pre-measured ingredients into the food processor, add liquid, and blitz away.  Good for those dozy, half-asleep mornings!

Cherry & Cashew smoothie
makes 1 large glass and 1 middling-size glass

1 portion shelled hemp seeds (30g)
about half a bag (200g-ish) of frozen dark cherries
1 small banana
a heaping teaspoon of cashew butter
1 portion of vanilla protein powder
about 250ml of unsweetened almond milk

Put the hemp seeds and peeled banana in the food processor and blitz until the hemp seeds have broken down a little.  Chuck in the cherries and cashew butter, blitz until smooth.  Add the protein powder and pulse in, then lastly pour the almond milk in while the motor is running until you've got the consistency right for your tastes.

Friday fun: 6 alternative careers for Minions

Minions!  Image from myfitter.com

Like many, many other children, Lucas loves the Minions from Despicable Me (and Despicable Me 2).  He spent most of the summer holiday speaking in "Minion", which led to a lot of blank stares on my part.  I will admit that they're super-cute and quite funny...I think I'm probably going to make him a 3D Minion birthday cake--shhh!

So, without further ado...here are six other jobs that Minions would be perfect for!

Can you think of any other suitable careers for them?

Favourite Cakes and Bakes to drool at: Your Bakes at the Great British Bake Off site

Minion Cake submitted to the GBBO Bakes section

Is there anyone who isn't absolutely glued to The Great British Bake Off?  The only finer cooking show on TV is Masterchef: The Professionals or the creme de la creme... Masterchef Australia.  (I can't wait until Masterchef Australia returns to our screens!!  George and Gary are far more credible as chefs than John Torode.  As evidenced by the blank looks and lacklustre whooping when Torode "guest starred" in the Australian version last year.)  Whoops...I've gone off at a bit of a tangent--sorry!

I've been thoroughly enjoying flicking through the "Your Bakes" section of the GBBO website. There are some very talented cake decorators and bakers out there!  I might upload a couple of cakes from my previous cake-laden post to the gallery, but I'd be devastated if no one liked them!!

Also on the subject of Bake Off...the lovely Jenny from Sunny Sweet Pea has put together a fabulous list of Great British Bake Off Essentials.

Lastly... this weekend is Heritage Open Days Weekend--thanks to Louisa from Duck in a Dress to alerting me to this.  I had no idea it was a national event.  I'm used to Bristol's Open Doors Day, which we are sadly missing because it clashes with a birthday party and the Somerset Air Tattoo!