Apple Porridge Pancakes

So Autumn is here - my favourite season. I love the crisp sunny mornings, the colours of the leaves and of course I love the food that is around right now. So as a little break from all the pumpkin recipes floating around in the internet at the moment, let's use up some apples! I'm afraid this recipe isn't completely vegan as I really haven't found a good substitute for eggs in the UK. If you know of one, use it instead. The yoghurt can, obviously, be non-diary.

Ingredients
30g wholewheat flour
50g rolled oats
1.5 tsp of baking powder
1 egg
Ground cinnamon
Half an apple, cored and grated
60ml fresh apple juice
50g natural yoghurt

Method
Grind the oats in a food processor until they resemble coarse ground flour. Mix with the flour, baking powder and a couple of pinches of cinnamon in a bowl.

Whisk egg and add it to the flour mix

Whisk the yoghurt and apple juice together until you get a smooth batter about the consistency of double cream

Add the grated apple

Cook like fritters in a frying pan. Make sure the oil is really hot before you start.

They make the yummiest breakfast - served hot with some honey (or syrup for vegans!)

Tip of the Week: The wonders of white vinegar

White vinegar is a godsend to have around the house. If you use the homemade laundry detergent I gave the recipe for last week then you'll already know that in hard water areas it makes a great fabric softener. But what else can you do with it?

Firstly make a 50/50 water/vinegar solution in a spray bottle and use it for:-

• cleaning out the inside of the microwave.
• as a final rinse when cleaning out the fridge to stop mildew developing.
• as a final wipe down after cleaning the oven to get rid of the oven cleaner residue.
• the best way ever of getting rid of that black mould that grows between bathroom tiles. Give a good liberal spray, leave for 10 minutes then go back and scrub the grouting with a nailbrush and it'll just come off easily -- just rinse everything down with the shower head.
• To polish mirrors and windows (wipe with newspaper to stop smearing)
• cleaning sinks and taps.

Neat vinegar is a great descaler -- of taps and sinks (just soak a cloth in the vinegar and scrub), of kettles and coffee machines (half fill and boil - make sure you do at least two boil rinses though if you do not want your tea tasting of vinegar), to use instead of rinse aid in the dishwasher and you can also use vinegar (along with a spoonful of borax) to scrub out the loo.

Probably the most versatile kitchen cleaner ever!!

Rachel's Vegan Banana Date Muffins

Ingredients

60z/175g of wholemeal self raising flour
1.5oz/40g organic caster sugar or demerara sugar
2oz/50g vegan margarine
4fl.oz/125ml soya milk mixed with about three tablespoons of water
1 mashed banana
2oz/50g chopped dates

Method

Mix flour and sugar together in a bowl.

Melt the margarine in the microwave and add to the flour/sugar mix along with the soya milk/water mix and stir it all up.

Add the banana and dates - mix it up!

Divide the mixture into paper muffin cases in a muffin tin (should make between 6 and 9 depending how big you like your muffins!) and bake at 180 degrees C/350 degrees F/Gas Mark 4 for 25 minutes.

Will take you about 5 minutes to whip up a batch of these -- they are low fat and great for breakfast.

Tip of the Week

This week - making your own laundry detergent - environmentally friendly and much less costly than shop bought!

Boil 4 litres of water in a big pan on the stove. Meanwhile grate a bar soap (any soap you like - if you want a specific fragrance, buy a nice soap but you can just use plain unscented white soap).

When water is boiling add soap and stir till melted (careful not to let it boil over)

When soap melted, take off heat and stir in half a mugful of washing soda crystals (you can find them in the laundry ailse of the supermarket - sometimes just called soda crystals). Stir.

Leave pan overnight - it will set to jelly like gloop. When it has, stir it up and pour into a big enough container with a lid to store.

To use put a tablespoonful in the drum of the washing machine and then put the laundry on top. Don't put it in the dispenser drawer or it will block. Don't use fabric conditioner. Put a teaspoonful of white vinegar in the conditioner compartment instead. It won't smell I promise!

If whites start to look a bit grubby put a spoonful of Ecover Laundry "Bleach" in the dispenser drawer as well.

Two Months!

Two months without posting. Unforgivable really!

So to get me back into the swing of things we're going to have a Vegan Recipe of the Week each week and a Tip of the Week.

And over on the scoliyogi blog, we're going to have a Asana of the Week -- specifically focussing on back problems and scoliosis!

So let's go!