Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeals Bars

I love finding recipes for snacks and desserts which are healthy, low in calories and tasty! Thankfully we live in the world of Pinterest now and finding such recipes is much easier than it ever was. I also love to find recipes made and tested by the real people - not professional chefs - I just trust them more and I know it will be less tricky to find all the needed ingredients! Yesterday we decided to make something on a whim and the results were tasty and healthy - enjoy! You can taste a hint of peanut butter and bananas and the bars are not very sweet (I guess you can add more sugar or peanut butter if you want them sweeter). They are great post-workout snack full of protein and fiber, and low in sugar and fat.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon. 

Add in the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix the ingredients together.

Then add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all of the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 8 inch metal baking pan. Bake at  180 C degrees for around 35 minutes (we baked them for an hour, because it turned out that our pan is too big and we made an extra mixture).

Cut into squares and enjoy! (We left it overnight in a pan and took it all out in the morning, so they could cool off and be easily cut into squares.)

First spring stroll in the park...

Finally in April we can see some signs of spring... We just took a walk down the Green Park, St James Park, The Strand and Covent Garden. All my favourite places. The tourist season has begun and from the looks of it, a lot of Londoners were out and about being happy that the sun is shining and it's a little bit warmer.

Some yummy treats from Whittards

Something to celebrate those cold spring days... Smelling and tasting amazing!

New cute cushions

Seriously, how cute are these cushions?! I'm melting every time I see them! Both are from Primark - fox was reduced from £6 to £3 and pug costed £4! If we'd have our own flat in London I think it would overflow in cute cushions.

Pecan Pie

Kacper absolutely loves Pecan Pies and wants to eat it every time he has an opportunity. I also really like it! Besides the yummy and sweet taste it also reminds me of one of my favourite book series: The Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood source material) where Sookie eats her grandmother's pecan pie after she died and savours every moment with it. This pie turned out to be amazing and we were so eager to dig into it, I didn't even had a chance to make a photo of a whole pie!

Ingredients:
1 Pre-Made Pie Crust, fitted in a 9” pie plate
1 cup of Light Corn Syrup
½ cup of Brown Sugar
½ cup of Granulated Sugar
1 ¼ cups of Chopped Pecans
1 1/2 Tbsp of Corn Starch
1 Tsp of Vanilla Extract
3 Eggs
½ tsp of Salt
1/3 cup of Unsalted Butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180 C. Place your pie plate on top of a large baking sheet and set aside.

Scatter the pecans in the bottom of your pie crust.

In a large bowl, whisk together all the remaining ingredients and pour the batter over the chopped pecans. You can decorate the pie, by gently placing whole pecans on top.

Cover the pie gently with some foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes or until it’s no longer super jiggly in the center - we baked it for 30 minutes with foil and 40 minutes without foil.

Allow it to cool completely before serving (the hardest part!).

Polish tradition on Holy Saturday

This is our basket this year

This is basket from last year decorated by my mum - flowers are from our garden!

One of the Easter traditions in Poland is blessing of the Easter baskets. Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood, the typical Easter evergreen. It is a great fun to prepare a decorative and tasteful basket with crisp linens, occasionally embroidered for the occasion, and boxwood and ribbon woven through the handle. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved to see the creativity of other parishioners - some have little fluffy chickens and others some eggs decorated in a beautiful patterns (pisanki).

The foods in the baskets have a symbolic meaning:

• eggs - symbolise life and Christ's resurrection
• bread - symbolic of Jesus
• salt - represents purification
• horseradish - symbolic of the bitter sacrifice of Christ.

The food blessed in the church remains untouched according to local traditions until either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.

Some new scented candles and oils

I love when the flat smells yummy and fresh, especially since living in a big city can deprive you of nature and long walks in the countryside (or dashing to your garden for some fresh flowers). 

I am an avid user of The Body Shop fragrance oils - I love cranberry one during Christmas time and fresh lemon and green tea for spring. I recently ran out of these two and I was overwhelmed by the vanilla one left, so I went for a little shopping. I've bought lavender smell - perfect for Kacper, who is an addict (no judgement please!) and pomegranate & raspberry for me - I love this fresh, fruity smell!

I also bought for the first time ever Yankee Candles and even though I still haven't unpacked them, I am already impressed! The beach flowers smell is very summery (much needed for this wintry London weather) and I think I'll stuff a couple of these tea lights in my wardrobe! The whole pack was on offer in Clintons - 25% off, so I paid £5.06 for them - they have monthly offers of different scents, so I'll be on a lookout next month!

Last, but not least is this amazing Air Wick candle smelling like purple blackberry fig. I LOVE the smell of blackberries and I think this candle will be my new addiction! I don't care if Air Wick is more associated with cleaning products, for £2 I cannot wait to buy another one! It's a heavily scented, so definitely not aimed for those looking for a more subtle scent.