Energizing RedBull and Fruit Smoothie

Ok, I know some of you are thinking, "RedBull? In a smoothie? Have you lost your mind? That sounds disgusting." But you would be wrong, very wrong my friend. This was delicious. Of course, if you know me, then you know that I'm definitely partial to a bit of RedBull here and there. I tend to buy the sugar free version when I know I have a stressful few days ahead or if I need an instant boost in my energy levels.

Fresh from the blender

This recipe occurred when I wanted to have a smoothie for breakfast but didn't have any juice left in my fridge. I've been pretty terrible about food shopping lately due to a complete lack of appetite so things are getting a little desperate in my poor fridge. So, after surveying my options, I wondered if RedBull would be a worthy substitute. A quick search online told me that I wasn't the first to happen across this combo so I thought I'd give it a try.

Pretty!

I used fresh banana and frozen blueberries because, again, that's what I had on hand but you could easily adapt this to whatever is in your pantry. While you can still taste a bit of the RedBull, it's definitely masked by the fruit and the yogurt gives it a creamy consistency. Give it a try if you're in need of a boost and want to throw a few much needed nutrients in.

Prep Time: 1 min

Cook Time: 1 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

1/2 can of sugarfree RedBull
1/2 cup low fat natural yogurt
1/2 a banana, sliced
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Method: 

Mix all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Enjoy! 

Spicy Chana Masala

This is one of my favorite dishes in Indian restaurants and something I've been wanting to try at home. After ordering some amchoor powder off Amazon, I thought this was the perfect time to give it a go. This recipe is based on one from Smitten Kitchen, but of course I couldn't resist messing with it.

Ingredients

So many spices!

Ready for the pan

I thought that the amchoor powder added enough of a sour note that I didn't need the lemon juice that she included. However, if you don't have any on hand, you can definitely substitute the juice of half a lemon. I also neglected to notice that she included cumin seeds after they had been toasted and ground. Instead I threw them in whole and it was actually very tasty so I've kept them that way in this recipe.

Nearly ready...

Ready to eat!

I like the fact that this recipe not only makes TONS of food but it also is pretty quick and actually fairly cheap since chickpeas and chopped tomatoes are hardly the world's most expensive ingredients. And when I say this makes tons, I mean it. I've estimated you could get 8 servings from this but I really think it could even be more, especially if you're having it as a side dish. I served this with some store bought paratha, yogurt, chutney, some lemon roasted new potatoes, quick sauteed mushrooms and a sprinkling of fresh coriander. Delicious!

Finished dish

I highly recommend this as a dish that you could make on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy all week!

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Serves: 8

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp oil
2 medium red onions, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1 green chili, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp amchoor powder
2 tsp paprkida
1 tsp garam masala
1 can chopped tomatoes
2/3 cup water
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt

Method: 

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Allow to heat through and begin to become translucent before adding the chili. After a few minutes, add the spices and saute to allow the spices to heat through and become fragrant. Next, add the remaining ingredients and leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Feta Avocado Dip

Just a quick post today with a tasty and easy snack before I head out to meet my lovely friend Katie for lunch. This is basically a quasi-guacamole with feta instead of the tomatoes onion that you might usually find. I was mainly trying to find a way to use up the last bit of my feta and this worked really well. I served it with some carrot batons and slices of red pepper. Delicious!

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: N/A

Serves: 1 

Ingredients: 

1/2 an avocado, mashed

1 tbsp Greek or natural yogurt

15g feta, crumbled

1-2 tsp lemon juice 

Salt 

1 carrot, sliced 

1/2 red pepper, sliced

Method: 

Mix the avocado, yogurt, feta and lemon juice and season with salt to your preference. 

Serve with carrot sticks and red pepper slices. Enjoy! 

July Food Challenge: Black Bean Quesadillas with Raspberry and Fig Salsa

It's that time again! Unfortunately, I was swamped with work during the last two food challenge months so I'm really excited to share my recipe for July. The food draw landed us with a slightly strange mix of ingredients with black beans, raspberries and figs so I started thinking about how I could incorporate them while keeping things appetizing. I love black beans because they're so filling and versatile so in the long run, I'm glad they were in the mix. I definitely wanted to do something savory because I thought it would be easier to bring the raspberries and figs over to the savory side than it would be to make black beans sweet.

Beautiful Raspberries! 

Dried Figs

This recipe is based on my favorite quesadilla recipe from Economy Gastronomy - a television show from a few years ago that seriously needs to be revived. It was a brilliant show that demonstrated how to get the most out of you groceries and therefore how to save money on your weekly shop. THis included things like roasting a leg of lamb and using the leftovers for shepherds pie or using a quick saute of minced beef to make tacos, lasagna and chili. Obviously, as a poor grad student, I loved this show!

Onions and Chili

Bean Layer

Ready to crisp!

Anyway, I've added to the basic premise of the show's quesadillas and simply adapted my usual, go-to pico di gallo recipe to include the fruit. I also served these quesadillas with a simple guacamole and some sour cream. Delicious!This was a super quick recipe and actually surprisingly tasty! Give it a go if you're feeling adventurous...

Crispy!

Ready to eat! Quesadillas, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Yum!

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients: 

2 cans of black beans in water, drained and rinsed
1 red onion, chopped finely and divided
1-2 green onions, chopped finely
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green chili, deseeded and chopped finely
3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and divided
1 tbsp chives, chopped
200g cheddar, divided
8 flour tortillas
5 tomatoes, chopped
1-2 limes, juiced
1-2 tbsp jalopenos, chopped
4 dried figs, chopped finely
150g raspberries, chopped

Method: 

To make the salsa: Mix the tomatoes, 1/2 of the red onion, lime juice, jalopenos, figs, raspberries and 1-2 tbsp of the coriander in a bowl and set in the fridge to let the flavors mix. Add salt to taste.

For the quesadillas: Saute the other half of the red onion, green chili and the green onions in a splash of oil over medium heat. Add in the red pepper and continue to saute over medium-low heat until the ingredients are fragrant. Add the black beans and saute until they have warmed through and softened slightly before adding the rest of the coriander and the chives. Stir thoroughly and use a masher or the back of your spoon to mash the beans so that half of them are mashed and the other half are still solid. Finally, add in 3/4 of the cheese and mix until melted. Spoon a few tablespoons of the bean mixture on to a flour tortilla and spread out in an even layer (about a cm thick) across the tortilla, leaving a small border around the outside. Sprinkle with a little of the remaining cheese, top with a second tortilla and paint with a little oil before popping into a pan over medium heat. Allow the first side to crisp while painting the second side before flipping. This stage will only take a few minutes so keep an eye on them! Also, while waiting for each side to crisp, press lightly on the tortilla to encourage the two sides to stick to the filling. When both sides are ready, remove from the heat and allow to sit for a few seconds before slicing. Enjoy!

Herby Egg White Omelette with Spinach, Feta and Scallions

Today's recipe is probably my go-to breakfast option when I need something that will keep me full for a while without too many calories and that's relatively quick and easy. I saute the spinach and scallions first and then add them back in later but you could keep them in the pan and make a quick scrambled egg version of this instead if you prefer. Either way, less than 10 minutes to a tasty breakfast means this would work well on either a work day or a leisurely weekend.

Ingredients

Feta, Spinach and Scallions

Ready to mix!

Finished!

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 3 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

Whites of 2 large eggs

Tsp skimmed milk

Handful of spinach, stems removed and roughly chopped

1 green onion, chopped

15g feta, crumbled

Olive oil 

Dash of dried mixed herbs

Pepper

Method: 

Sauté the scallions for 30 seconds until they're sizzling. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Remove from pan and set aside. 

Whisk egg whites, milk, dried herbs, and pepper. Add a tiny bit of oil to the pan if needed before pouring in mixture. Heat over a low flame until the bottom has set. 

Next, layer the spinach and scallion across one half of the omelette and top with the crumbled feta. Shake the pan to loosen the omelette before flipping the unadorned half over the filling. 

Sauté for a further 30 seconds before flipping. Leave for 30 seconds again and serve. Enjoy! 

Hummingbird Chocolate Cupcakes

You know, sometimes you just want a cupcake. And nothing makes my day more than realizing that I have all the ingredients for the item I'm craving already in my pantry. Brilliant! This recipe was super easy - the most time consuming bit of the prep is literally just measuring out your ingredients, which takes all of three minutes. If you're in the mood for a tasty cupcake that isn't oppressively sweet, then this is the recipe for you. 

I'd seen this recipe on the Good Food website as well but wanted to give the credit to Hummingbird via Tesco because Good Food sneakily neglected to give any credit to the Hummingbird Bakery! Naughty, naughty. The following recipe hasn't been altered at all because there wasn't anything I'd do differently. I've changed the serving size from twelve to nine because that's all I could get out of the amount. Strange since my cupcakes weren't massive or excessive...

Finally, this recipe has a bit of a weird method where, instead of creaming your butter and sugar first, they just pop everything in together and then add the liquid ingredients. Strange, no? But it worked really well and made the whole recipe really time efficient.

Recipe via http://realfood.tesco.com

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20-25 min

Serves: 9

Ingredients:

100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
40g butter, room temperature
120ml milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Beat the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and butter with an electric whisk until it has the consistency of sand and is well mixed. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract before slowly adding to the dry ingredients.

Line your muffin tin with paper holders and fill them two thirds of the way up.

Bake for 20-25 min, decorate and enjoy!

Beat the Heat Summer Salad

Tasty salad!

Hello! I'm back from lovely Rome to scorching heat here in London. With only my small desk fan for company, it's been absolutely baking all day both inside the flat and out. After running a few errands, I was ready for a tasty treat that wouldn't require too much energy and wouldn't add to the heat! Although this recipe does require the use of an oven, it's only for five minutes. Plus, I recommend doubling the kale and enjoying it as a snack later. I also cooked all six vegetarian sausages so that they'd be ready to go next time so that I wouldn't have to use the stove more this evening.

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 5-10 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

2 handfuls of chopped Kale
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 beetroot, cooked and chopped
1/4 red pepper, chopped
1/2 an avocado, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 veggie sausage
2 tbsp hummus
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp honey

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix the kale, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and tip out onto a baking tray. Pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the kale is crispy. Set aside.

Saute the veggie sausage for 3 minutes in a dash of oil until it is browned on all sides. Slice into disks and set aside.

Whisk the hummus, vinegar and honey into a dressing. Add a splash of water if it seems too thick. Finally, assemble the kale, sausage and remaining ingredients in your salad bowl and drizzle with the dressing. Enjoy!