50th party blog guest - Heidi Rice

I’ve known Heidi Rice ever since she sold her very first Modern Heat back in 2006-7. Luckily we’d been chatting on email loops before I actually met her, or I would’ve been really intimidated, because our Heidi is seriously glamorous and stylish. She reminds me of a 1950s film star. (And I might point out that she’s even been photographed for a proper coffee table book. She's the only person I know who's ever been photographed like that!) When I go to London, I try to meet up with her for coffee. She cycles (across London – I mean, how brave is that?) to meet me, and she always looks cool and fresh and elegant, whereas if yours truly had been doing the cycling I would be red-faced and sweaty and looking as if I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. I have no idea how she does it. I can’t even hate her for that, because she’s so nice!

Heidi makes me laugh for all the right reasons. She’s great fun and she’s also a total film buff – if I want to know whether it’s worth going to see a film, I’ll always go straight to Heidi, because she’ll know. She’ll also come up with an alternative suggestion if it isn’t the sort of thing I’d enjoy. And if you want to know about gorgeous men… Heidi is most definitely your woman!

Anyway. Over to Heidi.

Thanks so much Kate for inviting me to your blog party…. To celebrate your 50 books!!! So cool!

Now I was going to do a blog post on Hero Inspiration - basically as an excuse to post lots of pictures of uber-gorgeous men (not that I usually need an excuse!). But then I got to thinking about the lovely Kate and all the mouth-watering recipes she’s often telling us about on our loop. So in honour of Kate Hardy the Foodie Queen (instead of Kate Hardy the Uber-Hot Hero Writer!) I’d like to share one of my favourite recipes.

Basically, it’s for my home-made granola, which I have every morning to start my writing day off right (not that it can’t go wrong soon afterwards, you understand).

Heidi’s Dead Simple Home-Made Granola

Ingredients:

1 cup Cashew Nuts
1 cup Pecan Nuts
1 cup Desiccated Coconut
I cup Sunflower Seeds
½ cup Sesame Seeds
5 cups Rolled Oats
½ cup Honey (loosen for pouring by popping in the microwave)
½ cup Sunflower Oil

Instructions:

Put all the ingredients together in a large bowl, stir until all the dry ingredients are coated in oil and honey, then pop into a non-stick baking tray and bake in the oven on a medium-low heat (ie Gas Mark 4) for about 30-45 mins, turning every 10 minutes or so until the mixture is a lovely golden brown colour all over.

Cool in the tray and then put in a large sealed container to use when needed. It should last about two weeks, but to be honest it never lasts that long in our house.

Top Tips

• Cups are of course a US measurement, but I use a large mug. As long as you use the same cup to get the proportions right, that’s fine.

• I like just a sprinkle of granola with fresh berries and a dollop of plain low-fat yoghurt in the morning. My kids love a whole bowl with milk - but be warned they’re teenage boys so they can get away with it! This is quite calorific when eaten in large quantities. But great for giving you protein, fibre and nut oil nutrients when eaten in small ones.

• Feel free to mix up the nuts with ones you prefer. I just happen to be a real sucker for Pecans and Cashew Nuts.


So there you have it, Heidi’s Granola… Not quite as tasty as a picture of Antonio Banderas nekkid! But almost.






Also, to celebrate Kate’s 50 Brilliant Books, I’m giving away a copy of my new 2-in-1 PS I’m Pregnant to one lucky commentator. What's your favourite breakfast?

You can find out more about Heidi on her website http://heidi-rice.com, her blog http://heidi-rice.blogspot.co.uk, talk to her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/heidi.rice.524 and follow her on Twitter @HeidiRomRice