Buckwheat Cheese Souffle Blinis

What is more glorious than weekend brunch? The slow, easy pace. The comfort food, allowing the day to fold out around you. The vast amount of culinary possibilities allowable; sweet or savoury, lunch or breakfast.

I have to say, it's one of my favourite meals. We try not to go overboard but sometimes a little indulgence in the middle of the day is wonderful.

This is a Sophia Dahl recipe I found on the BBC with a few alterations of my own. When I first saw the title and the chef attached, I assumed I'd have to make massive alterations to increase the healthier properties but it's surprisingly restrained. Really high in protein and quite low in calories, considering.

Topping possibilities are limited to your imagination. We had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on ours. Stewed apples, poached eggs and hollandaise, ham and applesauce, etc. etc. Let me know if you try something else on yours!

170g Buckwheat flour

2tsp baking powder

salt & pepper

290ml milk

2 tsp mustard powder

75g low-fat cheddar cheese

75g low-fat onion and chive cottage cheese

4 egg whites

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Add mustard powder, cheddar and cottage cheese. Mix well.

Whisk eggs whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter gently.

Heat skillet pan over medium high heat. These can be cooked with a knob of butter, little olive oil and just some non-stick spray.

Pour batter into hot pan. I use a 1/3 cup to scoop out the right amount. The batter should be enough to make 8, which serves 4.

Cornflake Macaroons

To slide along with the healthy theme this blog has taken as of late, I've also started toying with recipes that fit in with certain dietary needs, partly to insert a little variety, partly to challenge myself and partly as an effort to be healthier.

It's just the next step as well. There are only so many recipes where I can substitute wholegrain flour for plain or applesauce and oil for butter. So I'll make a play at differernt things.

As many explanations as I can make, macaroons don't really fit the above bill, do they? These are slightly healthy, low in calories and sugar but still high in white sugar.

But they are wheat free, which is what I've been into lately.

Pancake day left me so uncomfortable and achy I started playing with the idea of wheat sensitivities, etc.

So we'll jump right in, flour-free.

2oz cornflakes

2oz chopped almonds

2 egg whites

7oz caster sugar

1 tbsp honey

3oz coconut

1/2 tsp almond essence

Preheat oven to 300F/gas 4

Crush cornflakes. Set aside. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold sugar into egg whites. Fold in leveled tablespoon honey with cornflakes, coconut and almond essence.

Pile onto greased or lined baking sheet by tablespoon-fulls about 1 inch apart. Spread flat if you want them more cookie-looking. I left mine in mounds which made them stand out in my cookie platter more.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Don't overcook as darker bottoms really alter the flavour of these.

Sorry I don't have a picture. They were quickly piled onto a baked goods platter for a church social event then quickly demolished.