This is a good granola recipe to adapt to suit whatever dried fruits you like best. It is also a good one to get children involved in measuring the ingredients for you.

You could use honey instead of maple syrup if you prefer.

In our restaurant here in Blacklion we are using organic gluten-free oats from Merry Mill in Stradbally, Co Laois. I first met Kevin and Jenny Scully from The Merry Mill at Bloom.

They have a great range of products and their website is worth a visit.

For natural yoghurt I love Killowen Farm near Enniscorthy. I visited them a while back on a trip around the many great food producers in Wexford.

These buttery flaky bacon and egg filled croissants are always good at breakfast. I usually make extra and freeze some while the relish is very useful for sandwiches and wraps. Call me biased but personally I think that Simply Better do some of the best frozen all butter croissants which are produced for them in France. Well worth trying if you are not making your own.

Happy cooking,

Neven

Natural yoghurt with crunchy granola

Makes enough granola to fill a 500g (1lb 2oz) Kilner jar

150g (5oz) porridge oats

100g (4oz) mixed seeds (such as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds)

50g (2oz) bran

50g (2oz) wheat germ

2 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

100g (4oz) ready-to-eat dried fruit, such as chopped apricots, banana chips, golden sultanas or dried cranberries

25g (1oz) linseeds (optional)

small natural yoghurt pots, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas mark 6).

2 Put the porridge oats, mixed seeds, bran and wheat germ into a non-stick roasting tin.

3 Drizzle over the oil and maple syrup, tossing until evenly coated, then bake for 15–20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until crisp and crunchy.

4 Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

5 Stir the ready-to-eat dried fruit into the cooled granola with the linseeds, if using, and store in a Kilner jar or an airtight container until required. This will keep very happily for a couple of weeks.

6 Pack natural yoghurt pots into lunchboxes with small portions of the crunchy granola in a separate small container.

7 Sprinkle the granola over the yoghurt just before serving.

Smoked bacon and egg croissants with red pepper relish

Serves 4

8 rindless smoked streaky bacon rashers

4 butter croissants

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 eggs

For the red pepper relish

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, finely chopped

1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped (from a jar or tin)

2 spring onions, finely chopped

2 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

large pinch of caster sugar

good pinch of dried chilli flakes

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 To make the roasted red pepper relish, place the tomatoes, red pepper, spring onions, basil, vinegar, sugar and chilli flakes in a saucepan and cook for 10–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened. Season to taste and leave to cool.

2 Preheat the grill to medium. Arrange the bacon on a grill rack and cook for 5–6 minutes, until crisp, turning once.

3 Slice the croissants, open them out and place the crispy bacon inside.

4 Heat a large frying pan and add the oil, swirling to coat the base evenly.

5 Break in the eggs and cook for 2 minutes (longer if you prefer your eggs less runny), gently spooning excess oil over the yolks to help them cook.

6 Using a fish slice, carefully lift the eggs into the croissants. Top with a spoonful of the relish to serve.