Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream

I keep seeing bloggers around the internet posting about the most delicious sounding ice cream - chocolate coconut, I think this is the actual ice cream.

Dark chocolate and coconut is one of my favourite flavour combinations and I love that this ice cream is vegan too.



Ingredients:

150g dark chocolate (I used lindt)
400ml coconut milk
50g coconut butter or creamed coconut*
1 tsp amaretto, kahlua or malibu

Method:

Melt dark chocolate and coconut butter in a bowl set over a pan of boiling water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl

When the chocolate and coconut butter has melted, whisk in a can of coconut milk and a teaspoon of liquer. Kahlua, tia maria or malibu would be especially nice but I used amaretto. You can't taste the liquer, but it just helps the ice cream to not freeze into a rock hard, solid block

Add to an ice cream maker and process according to the instructions, otherwise put it in a lidded container in the freezer and stir every 15-30 minutes until it reaches ice cream consistency

It's ridiculously easy and insanely good. It's a good job I wasn't making this for a special occasion because I ate half of the tub already. I forgot to freeze the bowl of my ice cream machine so just did it in the freezer, and I'd eat a spoonful every time I went in to stir ;)

So I urge you to make this. I promise you won't regret it!

*In the past, after being unable to find it in the UK, I purchased a jar of coconut butter from the US and paid a small fortune for it. I loved it, but didn't have the spare cash to buy more. Then I discovered creamed coconut (I used Pataks brand; it cost me about £1.50 from Tesco and is basically the exact same thing!)

Pickled Onions

Let me ask a question - does any other country eat pickled onions, or is it a British thing? I can't remember if I ever saw them when I spent some time abroad, but to be honest, although I've always liked them I've only recently become obsessed with them!

If you've never had them, or even heard of them, they're definitely something to try if you like onions. Tart, crunchy and ever so slightly sweet, they go perfectly with a salad, sandwich, cheese or just as a quick snack - popping one straight out of the jar and into your mouth ;)



Pickled Onions

Ingredients:

500ml jar
300g pickling onions (or just tiny onions - these were about 1" diameter at the most)
1 tbsp sugar
White wine vinegar

Method:

1. Sterilise your jar. I just boiled mine along with the lid for about a minute.
2. Prepare onions - cut off the bottoms, and then make a slit in the side and peel off the skin and top layer of onion.
3. Put the tbsp of sugar into your jar, and add just enough boiling water to get all the sugar to dissolve.
4. Add onions to jar.
5. Add vinegar, ensuring that all onions are covered.
6. Store in a cupboard or pantry until ready to eat, leave them for at least two weeks so they can properly pickle themselves, but they will last for ages. My Mum used to always make hers at the beginning of October to eat at Christmas, and they'd last us for months.

'Tis the Season

During this time of year, with the holidays fast approaching it's a good idea to have some party food ideas that don't take long to put together. Friends and family tend to stop by with only a moments notice and stay for a drink or two, and I always like to have something to serve them when they do. Not only that, but it's the season of parties and whether you're hosting or attending them, it's always good to have a plate of something delicious to take with you!

During December, I'm going to be posting lots of wonderful recipes which are perfect for the holiday season.

Starting with these: Candied Nuts! They're perfect as a last minute thing to throw together while your guests are on their way over. Just four simple ingredients which you'll probably have in your cupboards anyway, and they take about 10 minutes to make!



Ingredients:

1 cup of whole nuts - any kind you like!
Knob of butter or margarine

¼ cup sugar
Splash of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Line a baking tray with greaseproof/parchment paper
2.. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. You don't need a lot of butter, just a little and you could even omit it completely if you wanted.
3.. Add nuts and sugar.
4. Stir to coat the nuts in sugar, the sugar should start to melt and turn a light brown colour. Keep stirring to coat fairly evenly.
5. Add splash of vanilla and stir. The vanilla will cause the mixture to sizzle up but that's fine.
5. Tip out onto prepared baking tray. Try to spread them evenly so they don't stick together too much.
6. Leave to cool, then break up any that have still managed to stick together, and serve!

Note: These are especially good while they're still slightly warm, and you might want to double or even treble the recipe depending on how many guests you're having as they're so more-ish!

The finished product!

My dried apple rings are ready!



I made these for a Christmas hamper that is to be raffled off for work, so I tried to package them up nicely! I put them in a clean, sterilised jar then tied a square of fabric around the top with wool. I hope whoever wins the hamper enjoys them (I snuck one out to try and they're lovely)!

Amazing Pasta Sauce

I'm a big fan of pasta. When I was younger and still lived with my parents, my sisters and I would eat it every single day. It really fills you up and I think it's quite healthy too. Unfortunately, the sauces that come in the jars or pots that we would eat it with are not. They're usually full of sugar and oil and chemicals. Over the years I've tried to make my own pasta sauce with varying degrees of success - from the edible to completely inedible. And you know what? I think I've finally got it.

Amazing Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

500ml passata
1 tsp dried oregano
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tbsp sun dried tomato (or regular tomato) puree
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of sea salt
Black pepper

Method

Add all the ingredients to a pan, stir well and simmer gently for about five minutes. That's all!

The sauce is so versatile; I originally made this as a sauce for lasagne, and it really was just delicious. I saved some leftover sauce, and reheated it the next day to stir through hot pasta. I let it simmer for longer so it would be thicker, then stirred it through hot spaghetti. So good! I could just eat another bowl full now!

Syns: Less than ½ per serving!

Stuffed Red Peppers

I snagged a couple of organic peppers at the supermarket a little while ago, and they needed using up quickly. I also had some leftover rice in my fridge, and so the following creation was born!



Ingredients:

Red pepper, cut in half

One cup of cooked rice per red pepper half

Tomato, diced

Half an onion, diced

Half a chilli, finely chopped

Garlic clove, grated

Mozarella ball, diced

Seasoning of choice (I used black pepper to taste, about a tsp dried coriander/cilantro, pinch of paprika and dried chilli flakes)

Mix all the ingredients together apart from the red pepper halves. Spoon into the red pepper halves, and pop into a preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes.

These were delicious, and so quick and simple to throw together! I loved the addition of mozarella but you could omit it for a vegan version.

What are you favourite quick and simple but still healthy recipes to put together when you're short of time or don't feel like spending much time cooking?

Have a good weekend!

When the cat's away...

Now before I say it, I just want to make one thing clear: I love my boyfriend to bits. He's lovely, and I love spending time with him, and I hate it when we're apart.

The only one thing I quite like about not having him around at dinnertime is the fact that I've only myself to please, and I can make something that he would think "weird" that I might not make myself normally, when I'd tend to make a meal that we could both enjoy.

Take today for example; I'd had a long day at Uni - the school year is coming to an end and this is my last week of classes but I have three assignments plus a presentation due by Friday! So I've been camped out at the library all day. When I came home, I wanted something quick yet nutritious, and there was a recipe I'd had my eye on for a while - Anne's black bean and spinach burgers.



I followed Anne's recipe almost to the letter but I substituted kale for spinach, oat flour for wholemeal and about half a fresh chilli in place of chilli powder.

These were so good - so good in fact that I didn't snap a photo of the finished burgers! The only thing with them was, I started by cooking them in a pan but found they were a bit wet still so I put them on a baking tray and into the oven for ten minutes and then the texture was perfect!

Another amazing recipe that I made recently but didn't manage a photo of - Oh She Glows Salt & Vinegar Chickpeas!



Oh and don't forget - Chocolate Covered Katie's Vegan Bake Sale is tomorrow!

Are you donating or bidding on anything?

Healthy crisps & tzatziki

So the plan was to try and keep the vegan marshmallows for as long as possible to see how they would last and if it would be possible to ever ship them overseas, but that didn't last very long. Adam came back from work yesterday and before I even had chance to say "save one for me" they were all gone! I don't really mind though; I love to see people enjoy the food that I've made!

I got in yesterday after a particularly gruelling day; I'm swamped with Uni assignments at the minute, and was really hungry after a session at the gym! I didn't want to spoil my dinner though, and was really fancying some crisps. Instead of grabbing a packet out of the cupboard, I decided to make this healthier verison.



Healthier crisps

Preheat oven to 180C. Thinly slice one potato (you can use regular white potatoes, or sweet potatoes!). You can either slice them with a normal knife or if you want them to be really thin and crispy you can make the slices with a vegetable peeler. Season with salt, black pepper and/or dried rosemary.

Spray a baking tray with cooking spray and arrange the slices in a single layer. Put them in the oven, then keep an eye on them as they cook fairly quickly depending how thinly you sliced them. If the slices are a little on the thicker side, you might want to flip them during cooking.

Tzatziki

Half cup fat free or very low fat natural yoghurt

Half clove of garlic

One inch piece of cucumber

Black pepper to taste

Pour the half cup of yoghurt into a bowl. Grate in a small amount of garlic, I used half a clove but you don't want it to be too overpowering so maybe grate some in, stir it and taste. When you're happy with the garlic level, grate the cucumber into the yoghurt mixture and stir well to combine. Add a little ground black pepper to taste.



These were delicious, and really curbed my craving!

Do you have any healthy alternatives for your favourite junk food?

Orange and blueberry smoothie

I've been on a massive smoothie kick lately. They're a great way to get extra fruits and veggies into you, and they can actually be suprisingly satisfying! I've been making a big effort to eat more vegetables over this winter, and it's paid off to the extent that I've only had one cough/cold this year! Last year, I was ill pretty much all of the winter! In fact, I'm just getting over said cold right now and I think it's because the week before last I didn't get a chance to go to the market and didn't eat hardly any fresh fruit and vegetables. Coincidence? I think not! Here's what I was drinking this morning:



Orange and Blueberry Smoothie

2 medium oranges

Half punnet blueberries

Half cup apple juice

Half cup water

Throw everything into the blender, and off you go! Looks weird, but tastes delicious! The smoothie I made was based off this one by Kristen Suzanne.

What's your favourite smoothie recipe?

Something to read:

While googling what are the most nutritious greens to add to my smoothies, I found this list of the top 10 most nutritious greens, and was suprised that dandelion is the most nutritious! I have loads of this growing in my garden as a weed, but at least now I know what to do with it - rip it up and throw it into my smoothies!

My first green smoothie!

I haven't posted for a while, and I've been really missing it! Things have just been a bit hectic around here lately, but hopefully now I can get back to a semi-regular posting schedule!

This weekend I visited my local market to pick up some fruit and veggies. We used to buy them from the supermarket, but they are much better value for money from the market, not to mention tastier! They also aren't packaged as much as they are at supermarkets either so less waste! Here's what I got:


Cauliflower, carrots, broccolli, sweet potatoes, spinach, iceberg lettuce, mangoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, apples, cucumbers, pineapple, blueberries, chillis, grapes, strawberries, red pepper, limes, bananas and butternut squash. I felt a bit bad about getting the more exotic fruit as I prefer to eat at least somewhat seasonally and locally but I really feel like I needed them! I've already frozen most of the fruit to use in smoothies over the next few weeks. Smoothies a bit like this one:


This smoothie was so delicious, and it had:

• One kiwi
• Pineapple
• Half a lime
• Big handful of spinach
• Apple juice
• Four grapes

This was my first time trying spinach in a smoothie and to be honest I couldn't tell it was there! This was really delicious, definitely going to be making it regularly!

Graze

Look what was waiting for me when I got in yesterday!



I was so excited to get it! Graze is a company that I recently stumbled across thanks to a friend. They offer natural treats, sent to your home or place of work every week. I think it's a really nice idea - better to have this delivered and snack on wholesome food rather than biscuits!



When you open it up, you get four sections of individually packed treats, and what I had inside looked so nice! Here's a close up:



It included fiery cashew nuts, honeycomb flapjack, dark chocolate, rasin, cherry and almond mix and orange infused rains, hazelnut, and dark chocolate mix. When I ordered it, Adam was really sceptical and thought that if it could fit through a letterbox, it must be tiny. But it's actually a really good size!



If you'd like a free box (and your second box half price!) just sign up at graze.com and using voucher code: PGB7YW5N. The only downside is I think this would only be available to UK residents!

(Just so you know, this isn't a sponsored post - I'm buying these boxes myself! When anyone signs up using the code above, I receive £1 which I will be donating through the website to the Uganda school of farming!)

What's your favourite healthy treat?

Pickled Red Cabbage

When I was little, around September/October every year, my mum and Grandma would always make lots of different types of pickles for us to open up when Christmas came and that we would enjoy over Christmas and long into the winter. My favourite thing that they would make was always pickled red cabbage.

Tangy and sharp but delicious, it makes a great accompaniment to lots of dishes. If you've never had it before and can't imagine what it would be like, the closest thing I can think of is sauerkraut. It can be added to salad, and as a side on pretty much anything you can imagine! My favourite thing to have it with though, has to be a simple sandwich.

You need to make it in advance, and keep it in airtight jars for at least two weeks, but it will last for months afterwards. The recipe couldn't be simpler, either.

Pickled Red Cabbage

Ingredients:

1 head red cabbage
White wine or apple cider vinegar (appox 1 litre)
Salt
2x 1 litre sterilised glass jars with airtight lids
1 tsp sugar (optional)
Boiling water - just enough to dissolve sugar

Method:

Remove the outer leaves of cabbage and the stalk and finely slice - long, thin strips are best. Put in a big bowl and add the salt, mix it all together and then leave overnight. The next day, if using, add 1 tsp sugar to just enough boiling water to dissolve it - usually about 1/4 cup. Leave to cool completely. Rinse the shredded red cabbage in water to get rid of all the salt. Pack into your sterilised glass jars - you can pack it in quite tightly. Pour half of the sugar water into each jar, and then fill up with vinegar. You want the vinegar to go right to the top of the cabbage. You can use a fork and push the red cabbage just underneath the line of the vinegar. Close up the jars, and then store in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before opening up and enjoying!

Strawberry Picking

Last Sunday, I did something I haven't done since I was a child, but that I've been dying to do for a while - went strawberry picking! It was so much fun; the strawberries were delicious and cheap! And the smell of them... It was heavenly, and like no strawberry you can buy in the supermarket! I've grown quite a few of my own this year, but I couldn't get enough as I needed. I'll be eating strawberries for a long while now - just finished off the chocolate covered ones tonight!

Onion Bhajis

Adam and I bought a house a few months back, but it needs a lot of work doing to it. We've stripped it back completely to just bare bricks, and that's how it is at the moment. Adam's been down there today, as we've got a few different workmen coming down - they're making the door from the kitchen into the dining room a double door, and then we've got some people there sorting out our drains as well.

Adam works so hard, and I feel guilty for not helping out down at the house more, but at the moment there's not a lot I can do to help, being too girlie for manual labour! Went it gets to the decorating stage, it'll be over to me. So I thought tonight I'd make him a lovely romantic meal as a thank you.

One of our favourite types of food is Indian food, we love curries and anything spicy. So I'm making a curry for dinner, and for starters I'm serving these:



Onion bhajis!

They're one of our favourite starters when we go to a restaurant, and I've always wanted to try to make them at home, but struggled to find the main ingredient; gram flour. I was in the local Tesco picking up some ingredients for dinner though, when I actually found some! They're delicious, and easy to make if you can get gram flour in your local area. Here's the recipe:

Onion Bhajis

2 medium onions, finely sliced
225g/1 cup gram flour
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chilli powder
1 green chilli
Oil for deep frying
Enough water to form a paste

Combine all the dry ingredients, and add the water a little at a time to form a paste. Stir in the green chillies and onions until thoroughly coated. Heat the oil until hot, and drop spoonfuls of the mixture into it until cooked.

Garlic Mushroom Fried Rice

Is it me or does there never seem to be anything in the cupboards at this time of year? It seems that after all the food of the holidays there's nothing left now, and even if there was people are so sick of eating after all the Christmas goodies that they wouldn't eat it anyway!

This was my dilemma the other day when I was trying to find something to have for dinner. My search through the pantry, fridge and freezer seemed fruitless at first, but then I noticed the almost empty, overlooked bag of rice tucked away behind another box of yet to be eaten mince pies. A second look in the fridge reminded me of a half pack of mushrooms and an idea began to form...



Garlic Mushroom Fried Rice

I cooked the rice, and then left it to cool for a while. I heated some oil in a wok, then added three cloves of garlic (crushed) and the mushrooms. I let the mushrooms soften for a couple of minutes, then added the rice and some dark Soy sauce and stir fried it all together. When it was done, I tipped it into a bowl and added some crushed chilli flakes to the top, coz I love everything I eat to be really spicy!

A really simple and quick meal (especially if you had some already cooked, leftover rice), but definitely very tasty!

Negative Vegetarian Press

... although to be honest, what other kind of press would a vegetarian diet get in the mainstream media?

I've just come across this article when I was browsing the recipes on Closer magazines website. I think the first comment underneath sums up my thought pretty much perfectly. I'm so tired of reading articles about vegetarianism which portray it as being difficult, or even unhealthy, when it's blatantly not. Why don't we ever get an article about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, when there is so much research proving just how healthy a meat-free diet is?

I didn't want to start my new blog out on a bad note, but... too late!