Noodle recipe with zero noodles

Noodles with spinach, broccoli, garlic, quorn mince, eggs and sweet chilli!
I made these with zero noodles but any noodles will do really. I have recently been trying zero noodles as an apparently healthier version on regular noodles. They claim to be calorie, sat fat, carb, sugar, wheat, gluten and soy free and also organic. To be honest, I’m not really trying to avoid any of those things but I thought I’d give them a go anyway. I’ve heard that these noodles are supposed to absorb the flavour of what they are cooked with. This is what I made up for my dinner this evening and it ended up tasting goooood.

Ingredients:
1 block frozen spinach
Few florets of broccoli
2 cloves ginger chopped or crushed
Tablespoon olive oil
Half a bag of zero noodles
1/2 cup quorn mince
1 egg beaten with pinch of salt and pepper
30ml sweet chilli sauce, I used Blue Dragon
Sprinkle of chilli powder

1. Boil spinach and chopped broccoli
2. In the meantime, either chop up really finally or crush the garlic and add to a pan with the olive oil, stir fry for 30 seconds.
3. Add the drained veg to the pan and stir fry for a few minutes then set aside in a bowl
4. In the pan, add the quorn mince and cook in a low- medium heat for a minute or 2 continuously stirring.
5. Having rinsed the noodles under cold water and drained them, add to the pan with the quorn and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.
6. Add the veg back into the pan and stir well.
7. Push the contents of the pan to one side and add the egg and cook, breaking it up into small pieces
8. When the egg is cooked, stir all the contents of the pan together.
9. Add the sweet chilli sauce and sprinkle of chilli powder and combine into pan contents
10. Cook and stir fry on a low heat for a further couple of minute, then serve.

This is a quick, easy, delicious and healthy meal…..enjoy! 🙂

Beautiful banana pancakes

Hi everyone

Today I want to share with you my banana pancakes. They are a relatively new creation but one that I have whipped up many times already. I made up this recipe but the amounts of ingredients I tried turned out to be perfect first time! These taste great with maple syrup.

For 1-2 people( to be served with something else e.g. Ice cream) or 1 person for breakfast:

1 ripe banana mashed
1 egg
1 tbsp self raising flour
Splash of milk
1tbsp honey

Double up the quantities for 2-3 people 🙂

Simply mix and fry on a low heat on both sides. Simple, healthy and delicious!

Have a healthy and delicious summer! Plus strawberry and banana smoothie

When it comes to summer, I eat less( I think this is due to the temperature, being more active so having less time to procrastinate[eat], the weather being nicer so being happier and less inclined to turn to food for comfort….) and also preferring lighter, fresher and healthier foods. I love this about summer, I feel more in shape from getting out and enjoying the great outdoors and eating less of the heavy or greasy foods although I do generally try to eat well.

I have been trying to ‘eat clean’ for the past few weeks. For me, I am not health expert so what this means for me is trying to eat less processed foods and sticking with simpler foods with ingredients and production process I understand, and of course plenty of fruit and veg. I have also been sipping various teas throughout the day to keep my hydration up and sweet cravings at bay. I drink green tea with jasmine, peppermint tea, mango and strawberry tea, mango and lychee tea, blood orange and cranberry tea and many other fruit teas daily. Twinings mango and lychee tea has been a firm daily favourite of mine. It smells delicious and I was surprised that it actually does smell like lychee and has a very subtle taste, so like drinking water plus. I don’t like it when teas are too sickly so this is perfect for me. I have also been cooling the fruit teas for delicious ice tea! a lot healthier than drinking fruit juices or cordials as the teas are all natural ingredients and have no added sugar! I drink a lot of peppermint tea as I am lead to believe that this helps with digestion? I had some bloating recently, I am not sure what it was being caused by. Some suggest, too much fruit and veg, some say wheat, some say porridge…… I don’t know. Anyway what I’ve found has helped is eating snacks throughout the day so that I am never feeling hungry, rather than having 3 larger meals, drinking small cups of tea and I have also been using Optibac Probiotics-For a flat stomach( previously ‘anti bloat’) for a week (one sachet a day) which I think might have helped too. No bloating this week at all. It is recommended that this is used for a week a month, but could be used daily if necessary. It normally costs and £7-8 for a weeks worth which is not cheap, however I did manage to get it on amazon for £5 ish. I will be sticking to one week a month I think.

When I am home from university, I feel very tempted by all the delicious foods my mum makes. I think it’s fine to eat some of everything, as long as I resist and don’t eat more than I need to. One thing that I do appreciate about living and feeding myself when I’m at uni is that I can control exactly what I want and should eat and can plan around my days activity.

Anyway, super quick recipe today; I have been enjoying whizzing smoothies up in the blender. I posted a no blender smoothie recipe below whilst I was still at uni, but back home I have a handheld blender. 3 ingredients:
-5 strawberries
-1 banana
-some milk to taste/ consistency

Simply whizz up and enjoy, serve with a strawberry on the side and a straw if you want to be fancy about it! A quick, easy, and healthy snack/ dessert/refreshment, et voila.

Twinings mango and lychee tea, cooled and served with ice.

Enjoy your summer! X

Easy, delicious ‘pizza’…..

This is a quick and easy snack or even light meal. Simply take a tortilla spread some ketchup or a combination of ketchup and tomato purée, sprinkle on some grated cheese and some mozzarella works wonderfully. I sometimes add ham. Maybe add some pineapple if you’re a fan of Hawaiian pizza. Then bake in the oven until cheese is melted and the whole thing is golden and crisp. Slice and serve, perfect with a summery salad. Enjoy 🙂

Amazing garlic and herb french fries!

I had a craving for fries yet I’d kind of had enough of plain fries so I thought why not make some with a flavour? I love garlic and I had some mixed herbs so I thought they would go well together….. I think I ended up making one of my best food creations to date. I served these fries with pink sauce( ketchup and mayonnaise) which were the perfect dip.

Ingredients:
Some Potatoes( I used 5-6 Charlotte potatoes because that was what I had in)
Olive oil and or olive spread
3-4 cloves of garlic (or more depending on how much fries you are making)
Mixed herbs (I used dried italian herbs from Tesco that come in a jar)

1. Preparation- peel the potatoes and chop into fries. Mince the garlic using a garlic crusher or just chop it by hand using a knife.
2. Boil the potatoes for about 5mins, drain, soak up any excess water with paper towel and set aside
3. Put in a pan the minced garlic, some olive oil and/or olive spread (I used probably 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil then 3-4 tablespoons of olive spread which gives more of a buttery taste) and some herbs (I used about a tablespoon)- with the quantities, I have no exact measurements, just go with the flow….. Anyway, let the flavours infuse whilst on a low to medium heat for 5-10 minutes
4. Enjoy the aromas of heaven
5. Pour the garlic mixtures over the fries and combine until the fries are well coated
6. Take a non stick baking tray and spread the fries all over, preferably in a single layer, and then pour over any excessive garlic mixture
7. Bake in an oven at 230 degrees C for about 45-60 mins, flipping the fries occasionally, until they are crispy and a little browned. As you go along, remove any fries that are ready faster than others to avoid burnt fries and ensure maximum amount of fries to enjoy!
8. When the fries are done, soak of any excess oil with paper towel and serve them immediately with ketchup and mayonnaise dip!
9. Foodgasm

I really hope you try these and enjoy them as much as I did! X

Garlic and herb fries, honey roasted chicken breast, pink sauce and broccoli 🙂

Easy, add- what- you- like- to it, quiche

I love this quiche, delicious hot or cold and with whatever fillings I fancy… And really simple to make. I’ve made this recipe by considering quantities from various recipes I have come across and I have adapted ingredients so that only the most basic and easily obtainable ingredients are required!

(Horrible university accommodation work surface….)

For the pastry:
175g plain flour
75g butter
Pinch of salt
Water

For the basic filling:
2 eggs (medium/large)
150ml milk
4 tbsp double cream
Fillings of your choice! See below… (I used grated cheddar cheese, broccoli, ham and onions)

I use two 7inch wide, 1 inch deep round tins- sprinkle these with flour

1. Crumble together the flour, salt and butter into a crumb mixture
2. Add cold water gradually until a firm dough is formed
3. Leave the pastry to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
4. Split the dough up for the two tins, and using you fingers press into the tin and around the edges, trying to keep a consistent thickness
5. Return to the fridge until cooled through
6. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C
7. If you have some of those ceramic pea things(the name escapes me right now!) you can put these on some baking paper onto the pastry base, if not dont worry as I don’t have any of those when I’m here at uni….. It just means there might be a little air bubble in the centre of the pastry. Place the tins of pastry into the oven and bake for 20 minutes
8. During these 20 mins, whip up the filling by whisking together the 2 eggs, the milk and the cream and some pepper if you wish. For my filling I used an onion( which I had sliced and gently cooked in a pan with olive oil and a sprinkle of pepper until soft earlier on) and grated cheese and these two I think are essential in quiche! Broccoli (pre chopped and boiled) and ham went perfectly with this combination too. Add these to the egg mixture and combine. Divide into pastries when 20 minutes is up
9. Turn down the oven to 160 and bake the quiches for about 30-60 mins, this timing can actually vary a lot, just keep an eye on the quiches in the oven and look out for the perfect browned top.
10. EAT!

Filling ideas:
Cheeses
Ham
Onions
Broccoli
Sweet corn
Peppers
Peas
…….etc, be creative!

Enjoy X

Chunky, no blender required, strawberry and banana smoothie

The past week or so, the sun has been out and this has been reflected in my eating habits; lots of juicy fruit, crunchy veg and salads and refreshing drinks. I seriously craved a fruity smoothie today but lacking a blender or food processor, I just made up a recipe, here it goes:

2 or 3 Strawberries– mashed into a puree like substance
1 Banana– mashed into a puree also
8-10 tablespoons Milk
2-4 tablespoons Vanilla yoghurt (but you can use any flavour you think will go)
* additional * 1 tablespoon strawberry flavoured Angel Delight or Nesquick or anything similar

Basically, mash up the banana and strawberries the best you can with a fork- takes a little muscle! (Of course if you have a blender, great! A not so chunky smoothy you will have!) Mix in the yoghurt and milk- the amounts for these can be varied depending on the consistency and dairy-ness you are going for. The angel delight I added gave a little (even more!) thickness to the smoothie and also blunted the sharpness of the strawberries a little (strawberries at this time of year are still a bit sour).

This smoothie is delicious, packs in a whole banana (the less ripe the more beneficial) a portion of strawberries (so that’s 2 of your 5 a day), some milk and some yoghurt ( good if you use probiotic/ bio-live, low fat, organic, natural ingredients, low sugar, etc, etc kinds). Furthermore it is filling. For an even chunkier but even more filling smoothie, you can add some oats or grains…. that kind of stuff. Whatever floats your boat really.

Hope you enjoyed this quick and tasty, sunny and fruity, nutritious and healthy smoothie recipe 🙂

Easy peasy, super speedy, kinda cheating cheesecake!

Hello there,

First blog post, I thought i’d start with something simple 🙂

Today I tried something new, I used a cheesecake mix. I have made cheesecake from scratch before( well not totally from scratch, I mean by crushing biscuits, using cream cheese etc, you know what I mean) but I had never considered using a mix before.

I used Green’s Cheesecake, ‘Velvety Topping on a Crunchy Biscuit Base’ (I can’t say ‘biscuit base’ without singing this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IfeyUGZt8nk …). However, I made it my own by making the cheese cake into a zesty lemon flavour and topped it with strawberries.

I bought the Green’s cheesecake mix from Tesco for a very decent 88p, that is £0.88. A lemon costs about 30p and I used about a third of a box of strawberries. The only other ingredients necessary to make up the cheesecake were a small amount of milk and butter. As you can see, a very low cost dessert we have here.

The cheesecake mix consists of a packet of biscuit base and a packet of the cheese bit.

Lets take a look at the cheesecake mix:

Okay so lets talk about what I did:

Zesty lemon cheesecake topped with slice strawberries with the help of Green’s

What you need:
1x Green’s cheesecake mix
75g unsalted butter
12 tbsp milk (box instructions say 235ml….I will explain below)
1 unwaxed lemon, zested (that is the grated skin) and all the juice squeezed
Strawberries

I mostly followed the instructions on the box, but a couple of small changes…
1. I made up the biscuit base as in the instructions on the box by melting 75g of unsalted butter in a pan and then stirring in the biscuit crumbs. I then pressed this into a spring form cake tin that I had lined at the bottom with some baking parchment( draw around the tin on some baking parchment and cut out). Leave this in the fridge to harden.

2. Lemon. Grate the skin of a lemon with the finest grater you have, I used a fine grater intended for Parmesan cheese. Then slice this lemon in half and then squeeze out as much juice as possible. Set the juice and zest aside.

3. Onto the cheesy bit. Put the cheese mix into a mixing bowl along with 12tbsp of milk. Now, this is a little less milk than stated on the box, however as I am adding the juice of one lemon( about 2 tbsp comes out of that) I am cutting down on the milk a little to prevent the cheese topping from being too runny. Whisk by hand or machine until the mixture is thicker and fluffier, this should take a few minutes. Then add in the lemon zest and juice and continue whisking until blended well. The mixture may not be as firm as if you hadn’t added lemon juice, but it is only the texture that is affected slightly (it will still stand) but now you have the bonus of some lemon-y tastiness!

4. If the biscuit base has hardened by now( it should have, but if not hang on in there) go ahead and spread the cheesy lemony topping on the biscuit base and set in the fridge to cool and firm. After about an hour (in this time, wash up and start slicing those strawberries!) you can decorate the cheesecake with the fruit. As you can see, I am not much of an artist with strawberries!

Although this wasn’t the tastiest cheesecake I’ve ever tasted, it is fantastic for what it is. I think using this cheesecake mix as a base is a great way to be creative and it really didn’t take long to make at all. Try out combinations of fruit, chocolate, nuts etc. Greens suggest on the back of their box a banoffee version of the cheesecake by adding a caramel layer, I think this is a great idea!

Please share any cheesecake ideas you come up with!

Happy cheesecaking 🙂

G

Ps. “I like the base, base, base, base, I like the buttery biscuit base….”