Flahavan’s Peanut Butter Protein Balls for snacking in between meals to maintain energy and concentration levels

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If you (or someone in your house!) is sitting exams this month, think smart about snack time and try to choose healthier options in between meals to maintain energy and concentration levels. Oats are the perfect ingredient when preparing healthy snacks ahead of time. Try our recipe for Peanut Butter Protein Balls – easy to prepare, tasty and ready-to-hand whenever you need a healthy energy boost! ✨ #FlahavansOats

INGREDIENTS:

150g quick oats
100g mixed nuts & dried fruit
3 tbsp. chia seeds
2 tbsp. Honey
2 tbsp. peanut butter, melted
2 scoops of whey, vanilla or chocolate
Few drops of milk, about 50ml
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon of coconut oil

METHOD:

1. Add all the dry ingredients (except the chocolate) to medium sized bowl and mix well, then add honey, melted peanut butter and mix well.
2. Vital step, add the milk bit by bit slowly and mix well until the mixture becomes clumpy. Don’t allow it to get too wet.
3. Then using a table spoon and your hands form the mixture into medium size balls.
4. Place on a plate then when you have formed all the balls.
5. Melt the dark chocolate with a tsp of coconut oil then roll each protein ball in the chocolate and place on a lined plate.
6. The last step is to put into the fridge to allow the balls the to set 👍
Tip – if the mixture gets too wet then add some more oats, it will make it less sticky!

August 31, 2025

Odlums Fruity French Toast & Rowse Honey

Ingredients

4 Slices of Bread

2 Eggs (beaten)

4 Tablespoons Milk

1 Tablespoon Caster Sugar

Butter for frying

Topping

Rowse Honey

Punnet of Blueberries & Raspberries

50g/2oz Shamrock Walnuts (roughly chopped)

Method

Beat the eggs, milk and sugar well in a bowl, then transfer to a large shallow dish (so you can easily dip in a slice of bread)
Dip each side of bread in the batter and allow to soak for a few seconds.
Heat a knob of butter in a pan over a medium heat. Fry both sides of the bread until golden brown.
Put 2 slices of hot toast on a plate, cover with sliced banana, drizzle with maple syrup or honey and sprinkle with the walnuts.
If serving a large number keep the toast warm in a preheated oven 130°C/250°F/Gas ½!

Note

The toast can be used for both sweet and savoury recipes! If savoury, omit the sugar and add a pinch of salt and pepper.

This is a great way to use up stale bread!!

http://odlums.ie/recipes/fruity-french-toast-rowse-honey/

August 29, 2025

Friday night Italian pizzas @flahavansoats

flahavans

No Friday would be complete without a seriously delicious pizza. Check out how easy these gorgeous pizzas are to re-create at home (using our very own Progress Oatlets), and you’ll be making your own Italian fakeaways every Friday night. Ciao! #FlahavansOats

Serves 2 pizza bases|Takes 15 mins

Ingredients:
For the Pizza Bases:
85g Progress Oats
1 large egg white
½ tsp salt
Optional – 1tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1tbsp grated parmesan or 1tsp nutritional yeast
For the tomato topping:
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tsp honey
1 tsp sea salt flakes
Couple of grinds of black pepper

Method:
For the Pizza Bases:
Pre-heat the oven 200C
Combine the oats, egg white, salt and season in a high-speed blender and blitz for 2 minutes until completely blended.
Heat a small heavy based frying pan over a medium heat.
Add one tsp of vegetable oil.
Spread half the oat mixture over the pan and cook for 2 minutes until the mixture firms up.
Move the oat base onto a lined baking sheet and spread over the toppings and bake for 5 minutes until the pizza is cooked through

For the tomato topping:

Drain the tinned tomatoes through a sieve over a bowl, pressing with the back of a ladle until about most of the juice has drained.
Tip the sieved tomatoes into a bowl and stir in the tomato purée, herbs, sugar and plenty of salt and pepper.
Pour the tomato mix into a high-speed blender and blitz for 1 minute.

August 26, 2025

Hearty and zingy, this Thai rice soup is perfect for in-between weather. @RTEfood

Donal Skehan’s Thai rice soup

Donal Skehan

By Donal Skehan

Celebrity Chef

Ingredients

Serves: 4

Time: 35 minutes

1.5ltrs good chicken stock
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
2 lemongrass stalks
1 lime, juice and peeled zest
2 – 4 Thai Birds Eye chillies – depending on your spice tolerance!
50ml fish sauce, plus extra to season
3 cloves garlic
pinch ground turmeric
6 chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
500g cooked white rice
pinch white pepper
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 red onion
Sesame oil, to serve
Handful of coriander leaves
Handful of mint

Method

First, get the chicken stock into a pan. Slice half of the ginger, chilli and lemongrass and add to the pot. Peel the zest off a lime then bring to a boil, and season with the 25ml of the fish sauce. Turn down to a simmer whilst you prepare the rest of the dish.
Finely chop the remaining ginger, chilli and lemongrass and place into a bowl. Grate in the garlic and add the remaining fish sauce. Chop the chicken thighs into inch pieces and add to the bowl along with a pinch of turmeric and mix everything together.
Get a wok over a high heat and add the oil followed by the chicken pieces. Cook, stirring, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
Scoop the aromatics from the broth and discard then add the rice to the broth and warm through for at least 5 minutes.
To finish, slice the red onion finely and season the broth with some white pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and some extra fish sauce if needed.
Add the rice and broth to your bowls then top with the chicken, followed by the sliced onions. Garnish with extra sliced red chillies, if you can handle them!, and lots of coriander and mint.

Darina Allen’s Sea Spinach Soup @ballymaloecookeryschool

Sea spinach is at its sweetest and most delicious at present…. I absolutely love it and really want you to know about it so if you live near a rocky strand, look out for it – the shiny green leaves are unmistakable. It is, in fact, the ancestor to most cultivated varieties of beet, from beetroot to spinach beet. It can be cooked exactly like garden spinach and used in the same way, for example, try serving it in Middle Eastern style with raisins and pine kernels and a touch of cinnamon. Not surprisingly, because sea spinach is washed by the tides, it is full of iodine, minerals and other trace elements and it has an addictive salty tang. Sea spinach is tougher and slightly stronger in flavour than garden spinach, so it takes a little longer to cook.

The trick with these green soups is not to add the greens until the last minute, otherwise they will overcook and the soup will lose its fresh taste and bright green colour.

50g (2oz/1/2 stick) butter

110g (4oz/1 cup) onion, chopped

150g (5oz/1 cup) potatoes, chopped

600ml (1 pint/2 1/2 cups) homemade chicken stock, vegetable stock or water

425-600ml (3/4-1 pint/2 – 2 1/2 cups) creamy milk (1/4 cream and 3/4 milk)

salt and freshly ground pepper

225-350g (8-12oz/3 cups) sea spinach, destalked and chopped

Freshly ground nutmeg

‍

Garnish

2 tablespoons (2 American tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) whipped cream (optional

Freshly chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When it foams add the onions and potatoes and turn them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Add the boiling stock and milk, bring back to the boil and simmer until the potatoes and onions are fully cooked. Add the sea spinach and boil with the lid off for about 3-5 minutes, until the sea spinach is tender. Do not overcook or the soup will lose its fresh green colour.

Liquidise and taste and add some freshly grated nutmeg. Serve in warm bowls garnished with a blob of whipped cream and some chopped parsley

Ballymaloe Cookery

@BallymaloeCS

August 24, 2025

Poached Eggs on Tomato and Mushroom Toasts @BordBia with a glass of milk 🍼 #protein

Ingredients

Olive oil
2 large flat mushrooms, thinly sliced
Pinch of salt & black pepper
1 tablesp. white wine vinegar
4 eggs
4 thick slices of good bread, toasted on one side
4-6 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced
4 slices cheese

To Cook

Heat a little of the olive oil and sauté the mushrooms for a minute or two and season.
Set aside. Bring a shallow pan of water to simmer, add the vinegar and salt. Break one egg onto a saucer, stir the water to create a whirlpool, tip in the egg and leave to cook for 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, lift on to a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Keep the water hot.

Heat the grill to high, arrange the mushrooms on the untoasted side of the bread, cover with the tomatoes and then the cheese, grill for 5-6 mins until the cheese has just melted. Place the toast on warmed plates. Slide all the eggs back into the hot water and leave for 30 seconds, lift out and drain on kitchen paper, then put one on top of toast. Season and serve.

Nutritional Analysis per Serving

Protein: 16g

Carbohydrates: 25g

Fat: 16g

Iron: 2.2mg

Energy: 292 kcal

http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/recipes/eggs/pages/poachedeggs.aspx

August 22, 2025

A Pancake Extravaganza by Rachel Allen

Tuesday is pancake time. In all their shapes and forms, they are a real favourite in our household. It isn’t just our children who get excited – I adore pancakes and love an excuse to make a real feast of them. There’s something so pleasingly simple, so supremely comforting about a perfectly browned pancake, unchallenging and uncomplicated, but always delicious.

We’ll make all different sorts of pancakes on different years, and often on the same day. I love thin pancakes – they’re called crepes in France, where they’re usually made with some buckwheat flour. I like to eat them rolled up with lemon and sugar, or the perennial favourite, Nutella! We like to make thin pancakes as a savoury treat too, omitting the sugar and making a creamy mushroom filling with bacon and perhaps some Gruyere cheese.

If you’d like to make your pancakes a little more elaborate than just a squeeze of lemon and sugar, you can try this divine orange butter recipe, opposite, that we often make at the cookery school.

At other times, we like to make big, fluffy American pancakes, served with rashers and plenty of maple syrup. I’ve written recipes for blueberry and lemon pancakes in these pages before, as well as in a number of my cookbooks.

The Italian recipe here is a totally different take on pancakes that I’ve made on Pancake Tuesday in previous years. It was inspired by a conversation I had with the great Italian chef, Aldo Zilli. He told me a wonderful story about his mother using light pancakes as an alternative to pasta in certain dishes, and I’ve discovered that they work wonderfully with rich tomato sauces. The Italian baked pancakes with tomato sauce recipe, opposite, uses the pancakes in place of lasagne sheets, which adds a fluffiness to the dish. It’s a perfect family dish and would make a great centrepiece to a Shrove Tuesday dinner table.

Tip

Adding melted butter to the pancake batter will make a real difference to the pancakes’ flavour and texture. It also makes it possible to cook them without having to grease the pan every time.

Pancake Recipes:

http://www.rachelallen.com/blog/pancake-extravaganza

August 21, 2025

Saffron, Honey and Ricotta ice cream .🌹

Haughton Honey‏ @HaughtonHoney Apr 20

This Saffron, Honey and Ricotta ice cream isn’t too sweet – perfect for after a big meal http://ow.ly/JzY8309yutW #honey #icecream

Ricotta adds an interesting texture here, and the saffron makes it wonderfully fragrant.

Serves 6

500ml/17 fl oz whole milk

1 tsp of saffron threads

5 egg yolks

200g/7oz sugar

250ml/8½ fl oz double cream

500g/1lb 2oz ricotta

2 tbsp honey, plus extra to serve

2 handfuls of toasted pine nuts, to serve

Bring the milk and saffron to a simmer and keep warm.

In a large bowl, combine the yolks and sugar and beat until pale.

Add half the warm milk to the egg mixture and whisk again until combined. Pour the mix into the saucepan along with the remaining warm milk. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens into a custard and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and whisk in the double cream, followed by the ricotta and the honey, until blended.

Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve sprinkled with toasted pine nuts and a little extra honey.

August 19, 2025

Rachel Allen’s Baked Mushroom Risotto #Ballymaloe

Serves 2-4.

You will need:

50g (2oz) dried porcini mushrooms

400ml (14fl oz) boiling water

800ml (1pt 9fl oz) good-quality chicken or vegetable stock

50g (2oz) butter

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

400g (14oz) risotto rice, such as carnaroli or arborio

200ml (7fl oz) white wine

8 tablespoons grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

100g (3oz) butter, soft, cut into cubes

4 tablespoons marjoram or parsley, chopped

Good squeeze of lemon juice

2-3 tablespoons mascarpone (optional)

Directions

In a heatproof bowl, combine the dried porcini mushrooms and boiling water. Soak for 20 minutes or until soft.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas 3. Place the chicken or vegetable stock, whichever you are using, in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and bring to just under a simmer.

Add the butter to a large saucepan or casserole dish with a lid, and place on a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and the chopped garlic and cook for 6-8 minutes until soft.

As the onion is cooking, drain the porcinis but reserve the soaking liquid. Roughly chop the porcinis and set aside, then strain the soaking liquid and add to the simmering stock. Season this liquid with salt and pepper.

Add the chopped porcinis to the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 1-2 minutes. Next, stir in the risotto rice and cook for two minutes, stirring gently. Add in the white wine, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes until it has evaporated. Pour in the simmering stock, stir to combine, place a lid on top and put it into the oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes until just al dente.

Remove the risotto from the oven, add the grated Parmesan and cubes of butter, then use a wooden spoon to beat everything together. Stir in the marjoram or parsley, whichever you are using, lemon juice and mascarpone, if using.

Serve immediately with grated Parmesan on top.

http://www.rachelallen.com/post/baked-mushroom-risotto

August 15, 2025

Neven Maguire’s Pan-fried Hake with Lemon and Herb Butter Sauce @BordBia #macneanhouse

Of course this recipe is great with just parsley but experiment with a combination of soft fragrant herbs sauce as parsley, chives, tarragon or chervil depending on what’s available.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 x 175g hake fillets, skin on and boned
1 tablesp. olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
50g butter
½ lemon, pips removed
1 tablesp. chopped mixed herbs (parsley, chives and tarragon)

To Cook

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the seasoned hake fillets, skin side down. Cook for a couple of minutes until the skin is just beginning to crisp, then add little knobs of butter to the pan around each hake fillet and cook for another couple of minutes until the skin is crisp.

Turn the hake fillets over and cook for another 3-4 minutes until cooked through. This will depend on the thickness of the fillets. Transfer to warmed plates while you make the sauce.

Add the rest of the butter to the frying pan and allow it to gently melt over a moderate heat. When it has melted, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the herbs, swirling to combine. Season to taste. Spoon this sauce over the hake fillets and serve with steamed broccoli and some sautéed new potatoes.

Serving Suggestions

Steamed broccoli and sauté new potatoes

Tips

Above all be careful not to overcook the fish. To check, gently prod the thickest part of the fish with a small knife. If it is cooked, the flesh will look opaque and the flakes will separate easily. If it isn’t done yet, it will still have the translucent look for raw fish.

Other fish you could use: Whiting, haddock or trout fillets

Nutritional Analysis per Serving

Protein: 39g

Carbohydrates: 52g

Fat: 26g

Iron: 2.4mg

Energy: 644kcal

http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/recipes/fish/pages/panfriedhake.aspx

Tag: Food

Flahavan’s Peanut Butter Protein Balls for snacking in between meals to maintain energy and concentration levels

Odlums Fruity French Toast & Rowse Honey

Ingredients

Topping

Method

Note

Friday night Italian pizzas @flahavansoats

flahavans

Hearty and zingy, this Thai rice soup is perfect for in-between weather. @RTEfood

Ingredients

Method

More stories on

Darina Allen’s Sea Spinach Soup @ballymaloecookeryschool

Sea Spinach Soup

Poached Eggs on Tomato and Mushroom Toasts @BordBia with a glass of milk 🍼 #protein

Ingredients

To Cook

Nutritional Analysis per Serving

A Pancake Extravaganza by Rachel Allen

Pancake Recipes:

Saffron, Honey and Ricotta ice cream .🌹

Rachel Allen’s Baked Mushroom Risotto #Ballymaloe

Neven Maguire’s Pan-fried Hake with Lemon and Herb Butter Sauce @BordBia #macneanhouse

Of course this recipe is great with just parsley but experiment with a combination of soft fragrant herbs sauce as parsley, chives, tarragon or chervil depending on what’s available.

Serves 4

Ingredients

To Cook

Serving Suggestions

Tips

Nutritional Analysis per Serving