Weekend Cooking: Good Mood Food
Good Mood Food: Simple Healthy Homecooking
by Donal Skehan
Genre: Cooking
Publisher: Mercier Press
Publish Date: March 16, 2010
Format: Paperback | 288 pages
Simple, healthy homecooking is exactly what you will find in Good Mood Food. The recipes are simple with easy to understand instructions and beautiful pictures. They use fresh, healthy ingredients and most are readily available.
The book is divided into sections such as breakfast foods, main dishes, snacks and desserts. I liked the layout. Each recipe was on one page on the right with a full color picture of the finished recipe on the left page. Turn the page and you move on to the next one. Unfortunately the type of binding used does not allow the book to stay open. A perfect cookbook, for me, is one that will lay flat on the table so I can reference the instructions and ingredients while I’m cooking.
This book was published in Europe so I had to translate temperature and measurements but that was not a problem and shouldn’t deter anyone from trying these recipes. I used one of the many conversion sites on the net, Traditional Oven is one of my favorites, to convert the measurements.
There are a number of recipes that I want to try. The first one I choose was Apple and Oatmeal Muffins. I made a few modifications substituting cow’s milk for goat’s milk and added a little more cinnamon. (I know goat’s milk is healthier but I didn’t have any in the house.)
Apple and Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
2 eating apples, grated
100g / 3½ oz raisins
90g / 3½ oz rolled oats
105g / 5 oz wholemeal flour
90g / 3½ oz brown sugar
200ml / 7fl oz goat’s milk
1 egg
2½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F
- In a large bowl mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the egg and milk to the center of the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon gradually incorporate the dry ingredients to form a thick, wet mixture.
- Fold in the grated apple and raisins.
- Spoon even amounts of the mixture into baking cases in a muffin tray.
- Sprinkle with a little rolled oats and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Makes 8 to 10 muffins.
- These can be frozen. I put a few in individual baggies for breakfast during the week and they came back perfectly.
The author has a blog, The Good Mood Food blog, which is worth checking out. Lots of recipes with great photos of the finished dishes.
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Participation is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.
Under My Apple Tree 
Oh do these muffins look delicious!!!
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Wow — I bet they would be wonderful for breakfast. I love the ingredients! And I can get local goat’s milk at the farmer’s market. Yummmm.
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hmmm…No, no goat milk in sight here. not even at the local farmer’s markets in the summer. at least not that I have seen. but otherwise, they sounds yummy. I mean, raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar, oatmeal…how could they not be good?
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I made them with cow’s milk and they tasted fine. There’s probably goat’s milk somewhere around here but I’ve never come across it.
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I’ve not heard of this author or book, and am so pleased that he is Irish. I haven’t read much about Irish cooking, and I look forward to this. Thanks for the review.
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This sounds like my type of cookbook.
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Love that title! It immediately calls out to me 🙂 Just wondering though, doesn’t goat’s milk have a more pronounced flavor than cow’s milk? I think I may try subbing soy milk when I give this recipe a try. (Adding the cookbook to wishlist anyways :D)
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I’m not sure if there is a difference in taste but I know goat’s milk is easier to digest and better for humans than cow’s milk.
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Oooo…another muffin recipe to try. Awesome!
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