A very quick post from me tonight as I want to document my favourite overnight oats/bircher recipe. I've been searching for the perfect breakfast combination for years and it was only after feeling inspired from subscribing to the Deliciously Ella app fairly recently that I mixed a few of her recipes together and rehashed them to make this. I always make a beeline for bircher muesli whenever we stay or go somewhere for breakfast but it's often REALLY sweet and made with apple juice. Don't get me wrong, I have the biggest sweet tooth, but if I start my day with something sugary then I've got no hope. Or often they're too yogurty which I don't always fancy. I'm not a full on vegan but we have been eating a lot more plant based meals of late. Anyway, this is just what I've been looking for, it takes just 5 minutes to throw together when the baby is in bed and then you have a healthy breakfast ready and waiting for you in the morning, if you scale it up then you're set for the week! Lots of you have requested the recipe too so I hope it's helpful.

I have a MILLION blog posts to catch up on, and I'm hoping to get our trip to NYC and a post about my breastfeeding journey so far up soon, perhaps a little Christmas gift guide too. But for now I wanted to share the best apple cake recipe I've ever made. I know we're past peak apple season now but I hope to make this throughout the year - apple cake is one of my ultimate favourites and I've searched high and low for a recipe like this! The icing is heaven too.

Here's the thing about my relationship with banana bread. I hate bananas. I hate banana flavoured things like banana ice cream/sweets. Yet I LOVE banana bread. I think it started with our local coffee shop serving this incredible banana and pecan loaf that I've become addicted to - warmed up, as an occasional mid morning snack if I'm meeting a friend for coffee there. It's vegan so it doesn't feel tooo unhealthy. And to me, it just tastes like heaven, even though I don't like bananas?! And since entering this second trimester of pregnancy, now that I'm out of that savoury sausage roll, cheese or pickled onion weird craving stage, all I've wanted everyday is banana bread. Or some kind of soft, homemade cake of some kind. Before we went to California, my spending on cake at a coffee shop each morning was getting ridiculous. We then went to California and it didn't get much better, either hunting out banana peanut butter chocolate chip cake out there {amazing} or wanting a cookie of some type everyday. When I got home, I vowed to actually make my own banana bread at long last. So that's how I discovered this recipe. And I feel like it will become a weekly bake in our house, until I have the baby and realise I probably don't have a good excuse to just want cake all the time anymore. You probably make banana bread allll the time but this was my very first time in making it. I didn't even like peeling the bananas {yuk} but I did enjoy eating it afterwards. There are a million recipes online but I liked the look of this one as it was for one bowl, and didn't require any fancy ingredients.

I took this to a friend's coffee catch up last week, cutting a slice before I went just to test it - which by the way if you want to do this, you can cover it up by wrapping it in baking paper and tying it with some pretty ribbon. But I think it's time I made another, and maybe slice and put it in the freezer this time so I can quickly defrost a bit whenever I feel like it. And it has bananas in, so it's basically one of your five a day, right?! 

Are you beginning to feel festive yet? I, completely unashamedly, am! And last week I hosted an early Christmas gingerbread decorating party with three of my best friends to get us into the spirit. It was such a fun evening and a huge thank you to Hobbycraft for being the experts in all things Christmas crafting/baking.

My parents got a pizza oven this summer {although I should note that it's not just any old pizza oven, it's a Morso Forno Danish designed pizza oven!} and we've been having some fun, family pizza nights ever since. I posted a photo of this on Instagram the other night, and so many of you were interested in finding out how easy it is to use and what we think of it. I also wanted to share notes on our favourite pizza recipes for us to look back on after a few weeks of trial & error... 

Do you remember back in July when we visited Belmond's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire {which just got named The Sunday Times Best Hotel in the World {!!}} for a day at gardening school? We'd always wanted to come and eat dinner, and stay, at the two michelin starred restaurant {a restaurant high on our bucket lists!} but that day back in the summer confirmed it even more for us. Seeing that connection between the two acre kitchen gardens, the passion of the head gardeners who work so closely with the chefs, and of course it's all overseen with such fervor by Raymond Blanc. The way that everything is organically grown and for pure flavour and taste, the way that the menus are designed around what will be ready & at it's very best that day, let alone week. So on Sunday, it really was such a special treat to be able to go and stay at Le Manoir for the night with luxury & service like no other and have an unforgettable dinner in the restaurant which will be very hard to beat from now on. I'd love to share some snaps from our stay below, if you'd like to see.

Last week I took Ben for a bit of a different date at Belmond's Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire. It's somewhere that's been on our bucket list for a long time with our love of both food and gardening. Famed for Raymond Blanc of course, the two michelin starred restaurant and expansive kitchen gardens which were way ahead of their time before the trend for growing your own produce came about. As well as the restaurant and it's famous Raymond Blanc cookery school, there's also the Gardening School which we were there for to learn more about growing our own vegetables and make the most of our allotment plot.

It's that time of year again where our allotment is suddenly producing overtime. We're inundated with courgettes and kale which I have to keep coming up with recipes for. I love it, it forces me to come up with new things and use our produce straight out of the ground that we've spent time growing. I promise to get an allotment post up soon! One of my favourite summer recipes when we have a glut of beetroot is to turn them into chocolate brownies. At the weekend we were hosting a BBQ and these were perfect, and I almost prefer them to regular brownies? They're not exactly a health food with butter, a block of chocolate and sugar added but delicious, and you feel like you're getting some beetroot at least... 

Happy Friday! I did one of those Insta polls the other day asking if you'd want me to share the recipe for the overnight oats I've been making for breakfast recently, and 98% of you said yes! So here it is... including my secret ingredient.

A little bit of a different post from me today, I'm no nutritionist or expert but have been asked by lots of you via Instagram stories to share my thoughts on Symprove so here goes... 

The change in season gives me so much new enthusiasm for cooking and coming up with new salads, fresh easy BBQ food and summery desserts. There's so much to celebrate food wise at this time of year too with asparagus, the first of the courgettes, Jersey Royal potatoes, summer berries and warm, al fresco evenings to enjoy it all. It's not just about the food though, I'm always on the lookout for serving dishes and platters to share it all with friends & family when entertaining - naturally I turn to The White Company. This weekend we hosted the first BBQ of the season at ours and I wanted to come up with something different to the usual burgers and sausages that we'll all no doubt do to death this summer. After a little reciple planning I created a feast and it was SO delicious - if I do say so myself. Lots of you were asking for the recipes so I've shared all the food below;  {this is part two of three in this outdoor living collaboration with The White Company}.

Seeing as you all asked so nicely for the recipe of this lemon cake that I made for my Mum's Birthday this week I thought I'd share a few cake baking secrets before the long weekend in case you're in a baking mood... 

 

What have you been cooking recently? With the changing seasons I'm feeling more inspired to switch up some recipes and have been particularly inspired with a couple of new cookbooks. At the weekend I made this rhubarb & ginger crumble which lots of you requested the recipe for...

What a week! I go all out for Birthday's and this year combined it into the Easter long weekend too. It's been a flower, sugar, blossom, cake, bunting, chocolate egg, bunny filled week spent with my very favourite people, a mix of family & friends. Time spent at home and wandering around London. I've shared all of the photos below, for me to look back on, if you'd like to see.