Weekend eats - Alex's banana muffin recipe

Here's the thing about me - I'm a terrible baker. It's just not my thing. So I'm afraid I'm not the mum who's always got a fresh cake in the tin ready to go. If that's even a thing any more. So it was with great excitement that our bare cake tin became filled this last weekend when Alex did some baking. He made a batch of banana oat muffins which were a) delicious, b) blimmin filling, and c) very easy to make, so I've been assured. One of these muffins was enough to fill each of us up until lunch for a busy morning, and they're made with lots of good stuff like oats, banana, and walnuts, so I'm sharing the recipe here as it's a real winner.

Here's what you need:
Dry ingredients
2 cups plain flour
1 cup porridge oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup (if you don't have any, you can use another 1/2 cup of brown sugar instead)
A handful of walnuts, roughly chopped (or any other nuts you fancy. Or indeed, no nuts either, if you're not a nut fan)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
Wet ingredients
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (which is roughly 3 bananas)
2 eggs (medium or whatever you have)
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine, unsalted
1 tsp vanilla essence or extract (not sure what the difference is. You can see why I'm not a baker!)

And here's what you need to do:
1. Pre-heat the oven to about 180ºC / 375ºF (we set ours to 200 because it's a bit rubbish and always slightly cooler than we need it to be)
2. Put all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix well
3. Put all the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl and mix well
4. Add the contents of the wet bowl to the big dry bowl and fold together gently
5. Spoon the mixture into muffin cases - it should make about 12 - and sprinkle some extra chopped walnuts on top for texture
6. Bake for 15-18 mins - start watching from about 12 mins. You're looking for nicely risen, golden muffins that aren't sticky in the middle when you pop a sharp knife in to check
7. Cool for as long as you can wait for, while the lovely smell wafts round the house, and then wolf one down.

They are particularly good for brekkie with coffee - we packed ours up with a thermos and headed to the beach to have ours. Enjoy!

Where we walked this weekend #5 - the beach picnic edition

We've been having some  productive old weekends round here lately, I honestly don't know what's gotten into us. The morning after the clocks went back, because we were all up even more ridiculously early than usual, we found that we had got ourselves ready, had breakfast, mowed the lawn and made a batch of banana oat muffins all before 9am. I'm aware this makes us sound like we've really got our shit together, but in fact this is the OPPOSITE of what our weekends usually look like, when it takes circa three hours just to coordinate getting all three of us out the door and ready to do something. So wanting to make the most of the extra hour, we got our wellies on, made a thermos of coffee, packed up the muffins and headed for a beach picnic (was toying with calling it a beach-nic, but I don't think that really works, so I'll refrain). The sun shone, Arlo chased seagulls, we contemplated a paddle (too cold) and then sat on the slipway, with tin mugs of coffee and a muffin, and just felt a bit bloody lucky to live in this lovely place, to have Sundays to ourselves, and to get an extra hour of family time every once in a while.

Where we walked this weekend #4 - the beach edition

We spent a nippy but sunny hour or so on the beach this weekend, strolling, paddling, drawing in the sand. Our little tradition of a walk each weekend is becoming one of my favourite parts of the week because we get to visit a different bit of the island each time. This time it was a far away corner we haven't visited since Arlo was a teeny tiny bundle in a baby sling. This boy's getting so big lately I feel like I can't keep up, it's like we're on fast-forward. If anyone can remember where I left the remote please tell me. I wouldn't mind pausing for a bit and staying as we are for a while.

Where we walked this weekend #3 - the 'sorry it's late' edition

When I talked about our intention to go on a family walk every weekend this Autumn, each time to somewhere different so we'd see and appreciate more of the Island, I did it on here so that we kind of had to stick to it, and that's why I'm so keen to show that we're actually doing it - because we are! In fact, this walk was from a few weekends ago now, but things have been so busy around here that I've not been quite up to date with posts and things so I'm playing a bit of catch up now.

So this walk involved a walk down a hill, past a lighthouse, and down to the prettiest little bay with barely anyone on it. We ate a picnic at the bottom of the hill, looking out at the handful of people in floating around under the sun in their canoes, wishing we were too, then went to investigate rock pools, which Arlo loved. The beach (or more accurately, "beesh", as he puts it) is his absolute favourite at the moment, which is pretty lucky considering we live on an island that's totally surrounded by them. Of note: the weather was totally amazing, summer's not over yet! Plus, we marched all the way back up the hill in one go without having to stop for a little rest (the usual option), which we were pretty pleased about. Planning for future walks to be less uphill where possible.

Where we walked this weekend #2: The Cumberbatch edition

Slightly later than I'd hoped this week (MEGA busy week happening over here!) but better late than never, I wanted to share some pics from our latest walk - we're trying to fit in a different walk every weekend to see more of the beautiful place that we live, because let's face it, it's easy to forget sometimes.

So this weekend we headed over to Mottistone, which is famous for two things; Being the site of the Long Stone, two standing stones (one no longer upright) that mark the spot of an ancient burial ground, so legend has it. It's a bit magical and one of the most visited spots on the Island and sometimes druid gatherings happen there in a stone-henge-solstice kind of way. The other thing it's (now) famous for is being the spot where Benedict Cumberbatch got married earlier this year on Valentine's day, and closed all the roads so the locals got annoyed but brought lots of celeb pals with him so we all got a bit excited like when my mum's friend said she was sure she saw Keira Knightly in the Freshwater charity shop on the morning of the wedding and I said I wasn't sure because it's a pretty rubbish charity shop as charity shops go, but she swore it was her and she was having a good rummage, but then I saw somewhere that she couldn't make it because she was in LA filming but really wanted to believe it could be true and told people anyway.

But I digress. Cumberbath conubials aside, it's a pretty magical place, one we've visited for years and years since I was little, so I was pleased to take Arlo along for an explore. On the walk up through the woods to the standing stone, we discovered all manner of things that kept him busy - shiny iridescent beetles, flowers, lots of blackberries for picking, soft feathers and sticks of various sizes (Arlo currently pronounces 'st' as 'd'. Imagine the lols).

On the way back, we heard the faint sound of the Bestival coming over the hills and for a second I felt a little pang as I remembered that was me about 8 years ago, having fun in a field wearing a pirate hat or something ridiculous, and now I was here, wearing sensible walking shoes (Alex made me buy them. I still maintain that Converse All Stars are adequate footwear for any terrain, but he kept going on about 'ankle support' so I caved and bought some. They're so ugly, but strangely comforting to wear, it's like my ankles are being cuddled, quite nice). But that pang went very quickly as I looked down at a muddy little child, holding  a squishy handful of warmed blackberries. He closed his eyes and started to count to three, to let me know he wanted to play hide and seek with me. So I hid (badly) behind the closest tree, listened to his giggles and waited to be found. It was honestly more fun than I ever had at any Bestival.



Oh, and there's an INTERESTING FOOTNOTE to this post: after the walk my sis excitedly told me that the Cumberbatches had been back in Mottistone on that very day, to christen their son at the same church (no road closures this time I'm happy to report)

Where we walked this weekend

There's nothing like missing something to make you appreciate it, is there? Since we got back from our holiday in Wales, where we did lots of walking and general appreciating of the scenery, it's like we have a new-found love for this island we live on. Just like when we lived in London we hardly ever went to the museums, we realised we don't spend enough time out appreciating all the lovely bits of the Isle of Wight. So our plan for Autumn is to do a different walk each weekend, to take in the scenery and appreciate this place we live. This was our first walk, in Newtown, where you walk along a long long jetty to get to a harbour filled with lots of sweet little boats. On holiday we would've sought this out, loved the walk and said things like "oh imagine living somewhere as pretty as this!" turns out we do - we just needed to look.