Monday Mix : Garden Birds, Fat Cakes and LC Blueberry Muffins

I think at times we can all be guilty of 'walking around with our eyes closed', we have things on our mind and we rush from one place to another ... But if we take a moment to look around us we may just spot and hear something that we 'missed' the other day.

This weekend in the UK has been the RSPB Garden Bird Watch and it is usually very well supported both in the home and at schools. This survey is important - more than a quarter of British bird species are now in urgent need of help to ensure their survival, conservationists have warned – up from just one-fifth of birds in 2009.

blue tits

A colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognisable garden visitors. In winter, family flocks join up with other tits as they search for food. A garden with four or five blue tits at a feeder at any one time may be feeding 20 or more.

blackcap 

A distinctive greyish warbler, the male has a black cap, and the female a chestnut one. Its delightful fluting song has earned it the name 'northern nightingale'. Although primarily a summer visitor birds from Germany and north-east Europe are increasingly spending the winter in the UK.

pied wagtail

A delightful small, long-tailed and rather sprightly black and white bird. When not standing and frantically wagging its tail up and down it can be seen dashing about over lawns or car parks in search of food. It frequently calls when in its undulating flight and often gathers at dusk to form large roosts in city centres.

Part of the words above from here

Birds love eating fat balls, sometimes called fat cakes, and at this time of year they're just what they need to give them energy and keep warm. But the feeding balls needn't be shop bought; you can use all sorts of kitchen scraps such as cheese and dry porridge oats. Just mix with melted lard or suet and set in the fridge overnight. It is important to use lard or suet ... why not read more helpful hints here.

... and after a nice walk bird watching perhaps you may appreciate a sit down with a cuppa and a delicious low carb cake. How about one of these Blueberry Muffins, made with almond flour...

Ingredients:

(makes about 10 muffins, 4.8g carb per cake):
2 eggs
Equivalent of 100 g of sugar (I used 8 tbsp. splenda)
4 tbsp. melted butter
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
240g almond flour (or ground almond)
150g fresh blueberries
2 tbsp. milk 

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Mix dry ingredients (almond flour, lemon zest, sea salt, baking powder and fructose) together.
3. Add wet ingredients (eggs, milk, vanilla extract, butter) and mix well together.
4. Add blueberries and fold in gently.
5. Divide the batter into muffin cups. The batter is quite firm so you will need to use a little spoon to level the batter nicely. The muffin cups should be filled to the top as the batter doesn’t rise much.
6. Bake about 20-25 minutes until lightly browned on the top.

This lovely recipe is on Ewelina's blog, she is a Type 1 Diabetic, see more here

Hope you've enjoyed my Monday Mix ... thanks for reading.

All the best Jan