Pear, bacon and brie grilled cheese

This pear, bacon and brie grilled cheese with caramelized onions is sweet, salty and cheesy, the ultimate grilled cheese.
You know how people experience weight loss plateaus? They’re eating right but the scale doesn’t budge for weeks on end. Well, I’m currently experiencing the Crossfit version of that right now.

Monday we did Karen: 150 wallballs. For you non-crossfitters that means picking up a 14 pound medicine ball, squatting with it and throwing it 10 feet in the air against a wall, catching it and repeating 149 more times as fast as you can. My time was 9:26. I got home, wrote it down in my little book and then looked back to see what my last time was. 9:25. Sweet, no progress.
Yesterday we did max height box jumps. Last time we did this was in October, I got 34 inches. What’d I get yesterday? 34 inches and nicely bruised shin attempting 34.5″.
When it comes to putting a barbell over my head, I’ve been stuck at 108-113 pounds for months. Push press, push jerk, thruster, split jerk, over head squat…all the same. Stuck, stuck, stuck.


Just like a weight loss plateau, I’m showing up, doing my thing and seeing no progress.
I’m annoyed.
The only thing that’s missing is my diet. I could be way more on point with that than I am but then things like pears, brie and bacon float around in my head and I decide it would be a good idea to sandwich them with some caramelized onions between two pieces of sourdough bread, eat it and tell you about it.
Bacon > barbells.
But seriously, 115 pounds overhead would be nice.

Ingredients

• 2 slices sourdough bread
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• 1 tablespoon butter, divided
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• 1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
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• 1/2 tablespoon chopped rosemary
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• 1/2 a ripe pear, thinly sliced
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• 4 large slices of brie
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• 2 slices bacon, cooked until crispy
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Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Melt butter and add onions and rosemary. Cook, stirring only a few times until caramelized, about 20 minutes.
2. Butter one side of each piece of bread.
3. Lay half the cheese on the non-buttered side of one slide of bread.
4. Add half the caramelized onions on top of the cheese.
5. Add the pear slices on top of the onions.
6. Add the remaining cheese slices and then the bacon and remaining onions.
7. Top with remaining slice of bread leaving the buttered side up.
8. Place the sandwich in a large skillet over medium-high heat, press down firmly with a spatula or heavy object to help brown the bread and melt the cheese. Cook on one side for about 3 minutes, flip and do the same on the other side.
9. Cut in half and serve warm.

Recipe Type: sandwich

Rhubarb & star anise sorbet

Rhubarb & star anise sorbet

A stunning homemade pink sorbet with vibrant and sweet forced rhubarb, add a cheeky nip of vodka to make this a little more grown up

Ingredients

 

• 700g thin forced rhubarb
  , trimmed, rinsed and cut into 2cm/ ¾ in-long pieces
• 140g golden caster sugar
• 3 tbsp liquid glucose (I used Dr Oetker)
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 star anise
• juice 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp vodka

Method

1

 Put the rhubarb in a saucepan and add the sugar, 75ml water and the liquid glucose. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add to the pan (with the pod) along with the star anise.

2

Place over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat slightly and cook for 15 mins until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit is soft and starting to break down. Remove from the heat and fish out the vanilla pod and star anise. Purée in a blender.

3

 
Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, removing any remaining stringy bits of rhubarb. Transfer to a jug and stir in the lemon juice and vodka, if using. Cover and put in the fridge until fully chilled before churning in an ice cream machine, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Scrape the sorbet into an airtight container and freeze for at least 3 hrs before serving. Will keep, frozen, for up to 1 month.

Guest Recipe: Blueberry Porridge Squares

 

Ingredients

• 300g of jumbo oats
  
• 225g of blueberries added to the blender + 60g of blueberries stirred through
  
• 225ml of oat milk (or any other plant based milk)
  
• 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla powder
  
• 115ml of maple syrup
  

  Method

  Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a brownie tin with a small amount of coconut oil
  Add all the ingredients to a food processor except for the 60g of blueberries, which are to stir through later. Pulse everything a few times until the mix is nicely combined, but not totally smooth. 
  Transfer the mix to a bowl and stir through the extra blueberries. Then pour everything into the greased tray 
  Bake the mix for about 15 minutes, until the middle is cooked- you may need an extra few minutes
  Leave to cool, before slicing into squares.
  I absolutely love all of Livia’s recipes, every time I go to hers I seem to munch my way through her entire kitchen! These blueberry porridge squares are one of my absolute favourites though, so I’m really happy that she’s shared them with us as her guest recipe. They’re wonderfully simple, with only 5 ingredients, and they’re so great if you’re busy and on the go a lot. I’ve made lots of these before to have for breakfast when I’m in a rush and they’re an absolute life saver!