For the Love of Salad!

If you know me well, or are an avid reader of my blog, then you'll relaise that I hate salad. Nothing screams 'CAAAAAAARBS' more than a severe deficiency of bread in favour of bowls of leaves and cucumber.

Well, that was, I did hate salad but after creating my own 'special recipe', I've fallen in love.

I first got into salads having delivered them in my job. Goats' cheese, lentil and butternut squash is my lunch of choice, a new recipe of the company.

I can't really remember when or why I decided to make my own salad but I think it partly came from the fact that salad is 0 propoints on WeightWatchers. So here's what I do:

Of course, my salad isn't 100% healthy. It's got a bit of protein and a staple of life: cheese.

Wash a handful of spinach leaves and place in a bowl. Dice some large tomatoes and place on top of the spinach. Dice, finely, one yellow bell pepper and add to the bowl. Crumble around 40g feta cheese on top. Now, finely dice 2 rashers of smoked bacon. Add this to the bowl and toss everything together. Add 2 tsp dijon mustard and serve. 

I don't know why but I absolutely LOVE this! My favourite mouthful is the last one, where the feta becomes soft and coated with mustard then you pick up a little hint of everything. The smoked bacon is just beautiful and particularly scrumptious if it is slightly crispy.

If you fancy spicing your salads up, give this recipe a try!

Overambitious baking

I am fairly ambitious with my baking, trying new things that I expect to turn out brilliantly. Needless to say, I am sometimes disappointed.

Today I made a chili and lemon bread - which should have turned out as a baguette but instead came to be an over-sized roll. I also made, probably more successfully, a blackberry and coconut cake taken from this recipe from the BBC Good Food site. I followed it to the 'T' so I can't claim any credit for this.

Mine didn't look quite as good as there and I feel like 1 hour might be slightly too long baking, so if I tried again I would probably have it going for 40 minutes instead and then giving it a quick check.

However, and I admit that it wasn't a complete disaster, I had a lot of fun baking which is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, I reckon that it's a lot more calorific than it makes out but small slithers will make it last longer anyway!

RECIPE: Peach Cakes

At the moment, peaches are my FAVOURITE fruit and one of my favourite flavours. So, as promised ...

Here's the recipe for these sweet and delicious peach cakes! (Taken and adapted from BBC Good Food)

Makes 6
Set oven to 200 degrees C

1) Whisk (by hand) 3 eggs with 100g brown sugar and a drop of vanilla essence until the mixture is combined and foamy (but not pale)

2) Melt 25g butter and pour into the above mixture

3) Whisk until combined

4) With a wooden spoon, fold in 100g wholemeal flour (or plain flour), 1 tsp baking powder, 25g ground almonds and a pinch of salt

5) Line a muffin tray with 6 paper cases (though, if you oil the dish well then you will not have to use paper cases - I found that the mixture stuck to the paper, but it could possibly stick to the dish too.)

6) Divide the mixture evenly between the 6

7) Place a heaped tsp of peach jam in the middle

8) Then, thinly slice 1 large or 2 small peaches and place about 3 slices on top of the cake mixture and jam

9) OPTIONAL: Sprinkle with flaked almonds (I forgot this step but it tasted good all the same)

10) Bake for 20 minutes until golden and fully cooked (insert a spike into the middle of the cake. If it comes out dry then the cake is fully cooked)

11) Remove from the tray and cool (You can also have this warm with ice-cream - vanilla - which I think would taste delightful! But, equally, as good as a cooled muffin)

TOP TIPS: Try this with various different fruits. Try strawberry jam or plum jam with sliced plum on top OR marmalade. The possibilities are endless!

Carrot Soup Recipe

Soup most probably isn't something that you want to be eating on a boiling hot summers day but, for me, it beats a salad. Personally, all that a few lettuce leaves, tomatoes and cucumber says to me is: "WHERE are my carbs?!?!" This usually ends with me going on a bread rampage afterwards which almost defeats the purpose of having not having a sandwich.

Soup, however, does it for me. There's something about a load of blended vegetables that makes refraining from a ham sandwich a good thing.

So I've decided to share with you my FAVOURITE carrot soup recipe. It's my favourite for a number of reasons but namely it's super-duper easy, tasty and makes for great snacking. 

"Slap-dash" Carrot Soup
To serve 4

1) Peel and slice 4 carrots

2) Boil 600ml of water and, once boiled, pour into a jug

3) Dissolve one vegetable stock cube in the boiled water

4) Then, place the carrots in a deep pan with the vegetable stock and boil on a medium heat until the carrots are soft (15-20 minutes)

5) With a hand blender (or a sieve should work just as well) purée the carrots until you have a smooth orange paste

6) Now, top this purée up with boiled water until you have the amount of soup that you want (perhaps another 300ml of water)

7) Add finely chopped coriander, a pinch of salt and pepper and blitz once more (or, if you don't have a hand blender, simply stir)

8) Then, serve!

Simples! And it tastes absolutely lovely.

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Have Your Cake, And Eat It

Baking is one of my passions in life. Watching a pasty mixture turn golden brown and mellow is one of the most satisfying things. But when your passion adds more weight to your middle than your life, it was inevitable that I would go on a cake detox.

It, however, wasn't really by choice. When I moved to uni, I envisaged baking thousands of things to share with my flatmates. But, on seeing the size, and later, the state, of our kitchen, I decided otherwise and indulged on victoria sponges made by Marks and Spencer and cookies of volumes larger than the whole nation of America would consume.

When your kitchen looks as 'clean' as your desk on a daily basis, nothing is getting done!!

Writing, then, took over. I've always loved writing and it is passion equal to my love of baking. Baking and writing should strike quite a nice balance. When you don't write, bake. And when you don't bake, write. But I've found it that much harder to do than say it.

I'm tight. I can't deny it. I try to save my money in all areas I can, and so the last thing I want to be doing is spending my student loan on flour and sugar - although I wish I did. I've gotten better at spending (and I still manage to save!) so hopefully next year should see some more baking creations.

Writing takes alot of time, but I've decided to dedicate more time to baking this summer, especially as I'm going to be working selling sandwiches until September.

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You won't find a yellow banana in our house, most days, so before holiday the black ones went straight into the freezer and a banana and carrot loaf. 

I don't know why it should be like this, but I've never actually done a cream cheese topping like this. It was so easy and spread like a dream. Usually I don't get a lot of texture in my icings. They are either too runny or spread smooth like a glaze - good for somethings, but I'm all about volume! 

So I thought I'd share it with you, though - to be honest - if you do any cooking at all, you've probably already got this in your baking bible! 

Simply mix 150g cream cheese (philly - straight from the fridge) with 2 tbsp lemon curd. Go quick, but avoid over-beating, then spread straight away!

That's all for now! :D