Graze

I have been avoiding revision at all costs and during my procrastination I spied an advert  that Graze were offering a free box, and the second half price, these boxes come through your post box on a fortnightly, weekly or even twice a week, depending on your grazing. They contain  treats chosen at random from the ones you like (you can choose which ones you don't on their site) but seeing as this was my first I was going in blind.

They come in a letterbox friendly size and there was great excitement once my parcel was popped in the post box for me to come home to after a day long art exam(one of three!)

My tasty box included a "herby bread basket", "sweet popcorn", "very nori-sh" and "shangri-la", everything is under 200 calories and the only thing knew I'd like was the sweet popcorn so I couldn't wait to try them.

Apparently this has garlic croutons, mini basil breadsticks and oregano rice crackers.

 

On the back of this it says you only need to pop (sorry, couldn't help it) in the microwave for 40 seconds... Revision food in 40 seconds?! Yes please!

 

I was really excited about these, I love any kind of oriental crackers, these are Japanese seaweed rice crackers.

 

This one was a complete surprise, it could be either hit or miss, I'm saving it to take into my exam tomorrow, it has lingonberries, pineapple, slice of almond and pumpkin seeds... Iiiinteresting..

If you go onto the Graze website and pop this code: 24P7V9C into the discount bit, you'll get your first box free, it may not be the most student friendly thing in the world, but it's really exciting to get, at least I found it exciting but that could be due to me being greedy.

Apricot Tagine

A little while ago my mum went to Morocco and tried all sorts of things.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, she tried sheep brains, served in the skull, now while this doesn't appeal to me, the tagines that she tried there do.

When she came back she found some goat meat at the farm shop where I work and despite having tried all sorts of odd things (squirrel!), goat wasn't one of them... Until today that is..

 

To serve four:

1 tsp of each- ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and ground ginger

1/2 tsp of each- smoked paprika and ground chilli/cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper

750g goat meat, cubed (you could use lamb or beefb)

1 finely chopped onion

2 crushed cloves of garlic

1 can of chopped tomatoes

50g chopped dried apricots

1 cinnamon stick (or a dash od cinnamon, like me)

Stock or water

Zest and juice of half a lemon

1 tbsp of honey

First put all of the spices in one bowl and add the meat, mixing well.

 

Heat a little olive oil in a large pan, then add the chopped onion, allowing it to sweat for 1 minute, then add the meat and garlic to brown.

 

When all the goat has browned stir in the chopped tomatoes, apricots and the cinnamon stick.

 

Add just enough stock or water to cover the meat.

 

Bring this to the boil, then reduce it to a slow simmer, leaving it to cook for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Add more liquid if it becomes too dry, but if it becomes too watery, drain off the excess liquid into a saucepan and reduce until thickened then return it to the meat mix.

I served ours with piles of cous cous and a bowlful of spinach and baby leaf salad!

 

Personal Pizzas

Its Easter half-term for my sister and I, and my mum is lucky enough to be able to work from home meaning she gets to spend more time with us during the holidays, which has its downsides when you're trying to get out of revision.

I was feeling creative and offered to make everyone pizzas, the base of the recipe I actually nicked from Rose, but I've changed it only slightly to make it a little healthier.

500g wholemeal flour
1 tbsp salt
1 sachet of yeast
1 tbsp golden sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
330ml tepid water

Sift the flour, salt and yeast into a bowl then add the sugar, make a little well in the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients and combine.

Knead really well and leave in a warm place for about an hour, or until it has doubled in size.

Once rolled out add a tomato sauce, a basic pizza topping should be avaliable from your local supermarket but here's one if not:

1 can tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Drain the juice from the tomatoes and put in a food processer, add the seasoning and oregano and blitz it!

Then it's up to you as to which toppings you'll have, my sister plumped for mozerella, chedder and chorizo,

Mum went for chedder, tomatoes, mozzarella and pesto,

Then I made my own healthier one with mushrooms, onion, parmesan and some spinach, which didn't add a lot to it.

Pop them in the oven for about 20 mins, my oven is really hot so it only took about 12.

This recipe makes about 5 personal sized ones, but this was just for a light lunch, I'd have preferred to make mine bigger!

Rabbit Food

This time last year I was eating pretty badly, I was eating unhealthy food and in large quantities of, for example, Exhibit A.



The Baconcake.
I work minimum 6 hour shifts with no time to eat, and I find it hard to find something that will fill me up for that length of time, and unfortunatley for my waistline, baconcakes seemed to be the answer, until I had the common sense to take a pancake recipe and adapt it, making it marginally healthier, and make my conscience feel a whole lot better on a Saturday morning.

To make one hungry ganet portion:

135g flour
2tbsp honey
125ml milk (I use soya light or coconut milk)
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp melted butter
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

This is just a picture of the cake I made for my boyfriend J's 18th with M&Ms and Skittles on top. But I've swapped eating this for this (below).

I had to put these in because they are probably one of the best healthy snacks I have found, sweetened pineapple.
The fact that they're chewy and really sweet satisfies most sugar cravings but much healthier than tucking into that family bag of Skittles or Malteasers...

Albeit a weird one to have with soup, I really enjoy it instead of bread (my weakness), as I have not been known to demolish a baguette in less than 1 hour. I do actually prefer the corn cake versions of these, they taste a bit like popcorn, but Tescos didn't have them so I'll made do.

Nearly everyday in my packed lunch I take a carton of soup with me, that big appetite has to be filled with 2 portions of soup, but seeing as the ones that I devour are quite healthy there are no qualms.

My absolute favourite is by the New Covent Garden Soup Co. who do the most delicious soups, most I would be happy to swim in, but this is the best, it's a thick chicken soup with mustard, apple sauce and mushrooms... Mmm... (Lentil and smoked bacon is a close 2nd!)

I try to eat healthily, and by the rule 80/20, 80% of what I eat is nice and healthy and the other 20% is made up of baconcakes, chocolate fudge cake and chocolate chew balls....

Lazy Sunday

I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment and am trying to get a bit more into shape before the sun comes out, so no Chocolate Fudge Cake for me.
One of my favourite breakfasts is pancakes, the best pancake being Baconcakes by Rose, while these are absolutely delicious and I could live on these, despite the fact I wouldn't live very long,but they're not exactly healthy.

So let me introduce the two and a half ingredient pancake (fanfare):

The ingredients below make a filling batch of about seven small pancakes.

You will need:
1 ripe banana
2 large free-range eggs
1/8 tsp baking powder

First mash your banana until it's as smooth as can be, mine had a few lumps, nevermind. Then add your eggs and whisk them together.

 

 

Once they are combined, add a small amount of baking powder, this is optional, but personally I like my pancakes fluffy, if you like your pancakes dense, leave it out.

 

 

 

Once everything is combined, heat a greased frying pan and add your batter,

 

 

 

 

Cook on either side until browned, and watch the stack grow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing as they're so healthy you could probably use any topping you like, I love peanut butter and banana, but beware this isn't for banana haters!

 

 

A perfect lazy Sunday morning breakfast, or in my case Brunch!