Banana and Coconut Smoothie

 

 

We are all guilty from time to time or not taking a moment to stop and reflect. Modern life can feel like one big whirlwind that picks us up and whizzes us around before dropping us off sometime in our 60’s/70’s leaving us to a hopefully peaceful retirement. Or at least right now that’s how it feels to me…

On the 1^st of January everyone was full of hope and excitement for what the New Year would bring; fresh starts, new challenges and the like. For me however I had important exams, exams like Solicitors Accounts and Professional Conduct and Regulation – really fun sounding exams… I took these on the 3^rd of January and told myself that me “new year” would come a little bit later. I tried celebrating around Chinese New Year when I posted my Tea Smoked Duck and Rice Noodle Salad and although things had calmed down a little, with another set of important exams just around the corner I never quite got the chance to take a step bake and reflect.

I still haven’t quite got there. After a couple of half-hearted attempts to “spring clean” and the odd weekend away I still haven’t quite cracked the art of me time. In the week I am an LPC student, I attend roughly one networking event a week at the firm, on Saturdays I work 9-6 in a shop for a few extra pennies and on Sundays I catch up with family. There really aren’t enough hours in a day or days in a week!

I have however got the hang of mornings… This may sound a little strange, but until recently I’d been a firm believer in waking up at the latest possible moment, getting ready and getting out of the door. It only takes me 45 mins from bed to car so the morning is just another part of my fast paced life. However, recently I have been taking time out to make myself a morning smoothie.

I decided to get back into smoothies after I had a horrible cold. When I have a cold the last thing I want is fresh fruit and veg so instead I gorged myself on carbs. Carbs are not my friends. So with the cold gone I’m back to stocking up on all the good things in the morning.

I take out my fresh fruit and veggies (more on green smoothies in a week or so) chuck them in my blender and off they go. For once it’s not me whizzing around but the fruit! I get 5 mins to simply stop and knowing I’m doing something positive for my diet at the same time is a big plus!

Now this won’t initially strike you as the “healthiest” of smoothies, but it is certainly one of the tastiest!

Smoothies often use bananas as a base as they offer a subtly sweet, creamy base on which to build other flavours. However, I for one LOVE bananas, and I can’t always get my fix in banana bread!

Bananas may also be better for you than you think! IncredibleSmoothies.com lists a number of benefits of including bananas in your smoothies, from being a great source of energy, promoting cardiovascular health, their natural antacid effect, and immune system support thanks to vitamin B6 to name just a few!!! So with all of this in mind I decided to come up with a smoothie recipe that made the banana a star.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is dedicated to a rather special niece of mine!
Phoebe, I hope you enjoy cooking these with Daddy.

Forgive me for not calling this something super exciting. You may think there’s not much razzle dazzle in a recipe simply called Chocolate Chip Cookies, but this recipe my friend, does what it says on the tin!

In the UK at Christmas we tend to leave out mince pies and brandy for Santa Claus, other countries however seem to think Santa would prefer milk and cookies... I thought this year I would give him the option and so I set about developing a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies that were fit for the big man himself – Father Christmas!

America to me is the home of cookies. Any American food blog will have a wide variety of cookie creations, from the plain and simple, to those bedecked with sprinkles and glitter, some will have grown up flavours, and others will be jam packed with kid’s favourite sweets. I needed a happy medium.

America also has one great advantage over England in the cookie stakes, and it’s something I’m seriously envious about...Green and red chocolate chips! When making a chocolate chip cookie for Santa, I didn’t want to just use plain chocolate chips, and after a day or two trawling the internet discovered I would have to have festive ones shipped in.

I appreciate for all of my English readers, paying a fortune for chocolate chips to be flown over from America is far from ideal, or even a realistic option, so feel free to substitute in ANY chocolate chips you feel like! I have tried this recipe with every chocolate chip going and they taste amazing no matter what.

Once my American chocolate chips had arrived to the party, it was simply a case of making them...easier said than done when it’s Christmas Eve and you have been at work since 7am, still have to make the Christmas Day starter, stuffing, mince pies, home-made ice cream and MORE!

But hey...Santa deserves the best!

I took another tip from America when baking these cookies and this time it wasn’t advice on the type of chocolate chip to use, it was about the baking method.

In the past, I have tried spooning my mixture on to the tray and letting the cookies cook somewhat “free form”. But higgledy piggledy cookies won’t suffice for Santa. They had to be perfect rounds. So here’s my tip, from America and me to you. Roll out an inch of the cookie mix into a ball in your hands, and place on your cookie sheet (or baking tray) roughly 1-2 inches apart and bake! You might be thinking – “but I don’t want cookies balls” – but as they cook they will sink down and spread out into perfectly circular cookies. Genius!

Once you’ve given them their cooking time (don’t be tempted to cook for longer than golden brown) and they have been left to cool, you will be presented with the perfect chocolate chip cookies, fit for Santa (or any other guests for that matter...)

Gingerbread House

There are two types of people that reveal themselves at Christmas: those who are painfully organised, have their presents bought in August and have all of their Christmas baking finished before Christmas eve and those who have ribbons and bows attached to their clothes, burnt cookies in the oven and friends and family unexpectedly knocking on the door.

I usually fall in the latter category!

I must admit...it’s Christmas Eve Eve and I am still yet to finish one of my parents’ presents, wrap ALL of the presents I’ve bought, make truffles for my Grandad, bake two different batches of cookies, make ice-cream for dessert Christmas Day, make the starter for Christmas Day, BUY and write Christmas cards to my family, and I have to complete all of this on Christmas Eve when I will be working from 7am. Can anyone spot a problem?

Despite all of this, I did manage to do something pretty damn impressive at the beginning of the week. I made my first ever gingerbread house.

It was so much easier than I first thought, though I’m not going to lie to you, it is time consuming.

So, if you are one of these super women who was planning on pouring herself a snowball and watching it’s a wonderful life tomorrow, I challenge you to instead bake yourself the ultimate of Christmas table centre pieces – the ginger bread house!

The basic premise is that you make a ginger flavoured dough, roll it out, cut out the various shapes, and stick together with royal icing before decorating with all sorts of yummy sweets and chocolates.

Easy peasy right?
 
Well hopefully, by following this recipe you will find making your gingerbread house just as easy as I did.

Spooky Rocky Road Bars

It’s Halloween and despite feeling rather pants due to a sinus infection (boo hoo) I am very excited! We still get a lot of trick or treaters, so forgetting the fact that I have ZERO spooky plans tonight, I will be enjoying giving sweeties to all the cute kids in my street! Hopefully the obligatory spooky films will also be on TV so I won’t feel like I am completely missing out – I remember when I was younger that channel 4 would always air Hocus Pocus! An absolute classic!

I have still yet to carve my pumpkins too. That’s right pumpkins – plural. Jon’s Dad bought us one to carve and so did mine, so it will be battle of the pumpkins later this evening! Until then though, I’m continuing to get in the Halloween mood by doing Halloween Themed Bakes like these Spooky Road bars.

I must admit, I had NEVER made rocky road until yesterday. I have most certainly eaten my fair share but had never actually made it myself and now I am wondering why on earth not! It was so quick, so easy, so adaptable and so rich and yummy – what’s not to love. I had my first foray with shortbread last week, and I only first made flapjacks in my last year of university! I am starting to question what kind of childhood I actually had?!

Now, I bet you’re wondering what exactly makes these rocky road bars spooky. Well, as I said, rocky road is extremely adaptable, so adapt them is exactly what I did. In the spook road mix, you will not only find the regular digestive biscuits, but also gruesome blood red cherries which ooze with red goo, but also chewy ghosts and ghouls floating out of the bars instead of the usual marshmallows. I also topped mine with some ectoplasm (that’s green icing to you and me) to give them a bit of extra colour!

Pumpkin Cake Pops

It’s nearly Halloween! The only time of year where I can dress up as a Goth again and not feel guilty! For those of you who don’t know, I used to dress rather “alternative” – I still listen to rock and heavy metal, in fact I’m going to Warped Tour in just over a week, but it’s no longer acceptable to dress all in black. A shame I know! But, Halloween’s more than just a good excuse for fancy dress, it’s also a great excuse to do some themed baking, and this year is no exception.

Today I’m bringing to you Pumpkin Cake Pops. I hope no one is disappointed, but they are NOT made with pumpkin puree, instead they are ginger cake with orange flavoured candy melt coating! A really fun flavour combination. (See also my top tip just below the recipe for making this recipe a little more “adult”.)

The idea was simple...make cake pops on a stick that looked like pumpkins; they would be perfect for Halloween parties being thrown all over the world. However, there were a few hiccups along the way. First of all, the flavour combination although DELICIOUS meant for a rather heavy cake pop and they simply wouldn’t stay on the stick no matter what I tried. So, rather than being on a stick, I simply made stand alone pumpkins which are just as cute and fun!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Right, if you haven’t notice I’ve been rather busy of late! Law school is in full flow and I’m trying to keep down a job at the same time, as well as having a thriving social life. Oh yeah, I’m so cool I have a thriving social life! I think I’m actually going out even more than I did at uni; between hanging out with my boyfriend (yay no more long distance) being close to university friends, new friends and old friends, as well as all of Jon’s work friends, we have more than enough play dates to keep us occupied.

Nevertheless I HAVE still been cooking! It’s just taken me a little while to find the time to share the recipes with you.

But, as I’ve been super busy at law school, I thought it was appropriate to share one of my more student friendly recipes – Chocolate Shortbread. Super cheap it only requires 4 ingredients – 3 if you don’t fancy going all out and adding in the chocolate!

Chocolate Bread with Home-made Chocolate Spread

The smell of freshly cooked bread wafting through a house is perhaps one of the most comforting aromas. I am sure everyone would agree. But, have you ever been lucky enough to have the smell of chocolate bread wafting through yours?

 Chocolate and bread seems such an alien combination yet such a match made in heaven at the same time! The French have 'pan au chocolat' and everyone will remember having chocolate bread and butter pudding at least once in their childhood, but yet actual bread that is made of chocolate seems such a bizarre idea!

My boyfriend and one of our mutual friends was meant to be coming to stay this weekend and we were all going to go and see a football match today. But unfortunately it was cancelled due to a frozen pitch. I had cooked the chocolate rbead on Friday, I thought it would be the perfect breakfast warmed with the chocolate spread on Sunday morning, but our friend decided to stay back in Stevenage. Luckily for Mr Kitchen Goddess (in training!) this meant he got the chocolate bread all to himself!

Chocolate Pots

A couple of days ago I posted a recipe for Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Lemon-Med Veg! You'll notice that the recipe calls for a single egg white - as a student I was not content with putting the yolk straight in a bin, so instead came up with this recipe for chocolate pots!


Why not combine the main with this dessert for a romatic meal this Valentines Day? It's never too early to think about what you're going to cook!


Here's the recipe!

After Dinner Cupcakes

At Christmas we get through a mountain of After Eights and Matchmakers. Everyone loves a dark chocolate filled with mint after their dinner. So when we ran out, I though why not make an after dinner cupcake! A chocolate bun with peppermint icing and sprinkled candy cane on top!

By tweaking a standard cupcake recipe I was able to make these delicious after dinner cupcakes!

Banana and Choc-Chip Muffins

Both my housemate and I have had a rough couple of days with family in and out of hospital, and as a result I thought I would whip up a quick batch of something naughty but nice to cheer us up!

Banana and chocolate chip muffins – keep the chocolate as dark as you dare, and the banana will provide the perfect sweet balance to keep your taste buds excited.

Best served warm!

Basic Flapjack Recipe

This is a perfect recipe for students, very cheap, very tasty, and the perfect dish to help you make friends during freshers week!

It's extremely versatile so you can add any extras - fruit if you're feeling healthy, chocolate if you're feeling naughty, and much much more!

So put the kettle on and whack some flapjacks in the oven!

Food Trends #2: Macaroons (Le Macaron)

This is my second post on a series of food trends; first I posted on cake pops, and today I am writing about macaroons.

Basic Tiramisu

My lovely boyfriend offered to cook me a candlelit dinner last week after 3 hard days of interviews for Training Contracts with law firms in the city.

He cooked a delicious summer vegetable risotto with home-made cheesy garlic bread.

I was in charge of the pudding.

So, on my way back from the train station I popped into Tesco's and hey-presto I had the ingredients for a basic tiramisu!

Here's the recipe!

Food Trends #1: Cake pops

The more I immerse myself in the underground world of food blogging, the more I am coming across a series of food trends; cake pops, macaroons, and whoopie pies to name but a few. I am going to do a series of posts, one on each, outlining what they are, where the trend sprang from, any special kit you'll need to make them, a basic recipe, and any extra tips and tricks! I'll also post pictures of my attempts at making them!

What is a Cake pop: A cake pop is essentially a lollypop made out of cake and butter cream. Their texture is that of a truffle, they taste sweet, and make perfect gifts. They can be decorated for a variety of occasions, from making faces of people, or animals, Christmas cake pops, baby shower cake pops, and many more. Wedding cake pops are becoming particularly popular!

Mocha Cake

It's been a while since I last posted on here, but it's been very hectic with my boyfriend finally finishing his final exams and him coming to stay!

At the end of last month it was his 21st, but due to exams we couldn't celebrate on the day! However I promised I would bake him a cake nonetheless, and he requested coffee cake!

This is my recipe for a super-indulgent coffee and chocolate celebration cake! There are 4 main elements, the cake itself, a chocolate ganache which fills the cakes, a coffee frosting and then the chocolate top.

This is the finished product!

As you can imagine it hasn't lasted very long! There is one lonely piece left! I wonder who will be the lucky one to get it?

Simple Bread and Butter Pudding

One of my all time favourite desserts is bread and butter pudding!


I don't have any sentimental, nostalgic stories about my Nan or Mum cooking it on a Sunday, or anything quite as special...instead, I had my first taste of bread and butter at a very posh wedding! It was one of the nicest things I'd ever had! My mum found it so funny when I came home, telling her about this 'super-posh-must-be-hard-to-make-dessert' that she taught me there and then!


It's brilliant when you have left-over stale (possibly even mouldy) bread...(don't forget to pick the mould off!) AND I think it's a brilliant way of getting one of your five a day as a student!


It's cheap as chips, and this is my quick and easy students version.

(I apologise for the low quality of the photo I did not have my camera to hand!)