Things have been a little out of whack lately. Well, not lately exactly. Let me rephrase that: things have been a little out of whack for the past eight months or so and it's all because of my husband. Well, ok, that's not really true. It's all because of my husband's work schedule — he works nights and I work in the day. He works Sundays through to Thursdays and is off on Fridays and Saturdays. I work Mondays through to Fridays and have the weekends off. This kinda makes eating together an impossibility on most days. It kinda makes cooking meals a huge pain as well. And grocery shopping. The only day we have off together — Saturday — we spend catching up or catching a movie.
The result is a pantry filled with instant noodles, muesli bars and cereal: easy-fix meals for the man to eat when he wakes up at noon or to snack on when he comes back in the early hours of the morning. I used to have a hot meal waiting for him for supper but, well, I've been remiss of late and haven't had the time or energy to be quite the doting wife. Yeah, I know I could cook ahead and freeze meals but I've been too busy and he finds operating the oven too much work anyway. So, to the dude who invented instant noodles, big thank you!
This weekend I decided to make a huge batch of Almond Oat Cookies for him to eat for breakfast, tea or whenever.
Biscuits for breakfast? Am I kidding you?
These babies are nutritious. No, really. They're like cereal, actually. Sure, there's a fair amount of sugar in them but there's sugar in them muesli bars too, right? Plus, they are packed with oats and almonds ... now that can't be all bad, right?
More importantly, they're lovely to have with a cup of coffee or tea or a glass of milk. They're nice and chewy with a little crunch, thanks to the almond bits.
And, most importantly, they're real quick to whip up and they fill you up real fast — three cookies at a go is all I can manage. This is good news because three dozen cookies will go a long way ... at least till next weekend. I hope.
And if not? Well, there are still about a half-dozen packets of instant noodles!
1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shaved/sliced blanched almonds
2 tbsp cream
2 tbsp golden syrup (or honey/light corn syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup melted butter
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Whisk the butter, corn syrup, cream and vanilla till well incorporated.
Mix the dry ingredients together: the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, oats and almonds.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir till it becomes a soft dough.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the batter on a lined baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Flatten the mounds gently with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 8-10 mins. Let them cool slightly before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.
