Category: Uncategorized

Apple, Raisin & Blueberry Pots

img_9691I think the majority of my recipes are healthier vegan, or vegetarian versions of my childhood and this recipe is no different: apple, raisin and blueberry crumble.If you are a Brit and had school dinners at primary school, then I’m sure you’d have had some sort of crumble along with custard, as your ‘afters’ too. I loved it. Which is why I decided to make some myself.Processed with Snapseed.

The apples I used are just standard apples from the store. Although, I can’t wait until the autumn when I can get some fresh cooking apples from my aunties next-door neighbour, to bake with. The crumble topping was taken from my vegetarian protein peach crumble squares here and modified to make it vegan.

Ingredients 

  • 4 Medium Apples
  • 1/4 Cup Raisins
  • 1 Cup Blueberries
  • 1 Cup Rolled Oats
  • 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
  • 30g Vegan Butter (koko dairy free spread)
  • 1/2 Cup Sweetener
  • 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  • 1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Directions 

Pre-heat oven to 170c (fan assisted)

Blend half of the rolled oats in a food processor, to form a flour/powder, then add the oat flour, coconut flour, cinnamon and sweetener into a bowl and whisk together to remove any lumps.

Next, peel, core and finally chop the apples into small chunks, before placing them into ramekins or an oven dish; along with the raisins and blueberries.

Add 1/4 cup of water to the fruit, cover the dish with foil and place into the oven for 40 minutes.

When the fruit has cooked, drizzle with the maple syrup and add the crumble topping, be sure to push the crumble on to the fruit with a spoon or your hands and then pop back into the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until the crumble has browned.

Now all that’s left is to serve with some vegan custard or coconut cream. You can even switch out the apples, blueberries and raisins for some summer berries or whatever your little heart desires.

For more vegan ideas follow me on Instagram

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What Does Social Media Mean to you?

A lot of people join social media for many different reasons; to interact and stay in contact with friends and family, for business purposes, blogging and fitness, etc. And it can be a very powerful tool when utilised correctly, especially from a business point of view; it just opens up so many doors and there are so many different types of social media networks to choose from.When I first signed up for Instagram about three years ago, it was a personal account. I didn’t fully understand the concept and it was far different to Facebook. I was confused. But, after a few weeks I slowly started getting in to it and eventually started adding the odd food post. image.jpeg

I can’t pinpoint a time when it fully became a food account, but I enjoyed Instagram far more when I first joined. I would post whatever I wanted; food, photos of my dog, my gardening skills, random objects; I loved it.image

 But, for the last year or so, I’ve noticed a huge change in the way people operate on Instagram and I’m tired of it. It’s just become filled with bullshit, people liking and spamming with their comments; just to get likes, comments and follows on their own account. It’s tiring. Personally, I only tend to comment on other posts if I have something to say, but even I notice that sometimes I have too much to say and then I worry that people will lose respect for me, the way I have with many on there. I feel people like that have just taken the fun out of Instagram for me and have turned it into some sort of competition on who can get the most followers and likes, yada, yada, yada. Because of that, I took the weekend off from blogging and Instagram, to try and recollect my thought process and what I wanted to achieve from it. I still have no idea. I think it’s become more of a habit in my life, but it is also a great way to direct traffic to my blog: just one popular post from Friday has attracted over 600 followers to my blog since; so Instagram has become a huge part of my blog too. It’s also a place where I can write quick reviews for products that I know people will see.

What does social media mean to me?

For me Instagram has always been my support network and a mere comment like – this looks incredible – from a respected follower can put a cheesy smile on my face and make me feel all sorts of different feelings. I don’t often have people around me trying to uplift or make me feel good about myself and when it does happen, it makes me physically uncomfortable. So, it’s always a surprise when people I’ve never met are supportive to me every day. I think I love Instagram so much because as sad as it may sound, it is something that I have for myself; it may not be a house or a posh car, but just talking to people every day has given me confidence in my own life and has made accepting rare compliments from people easier. Granted, I’m still socially awkward and shy in person, but I’m nowhere near as uncomfortable in public as I once was and I do believe that is down to the support from Instagram. The same goes for my blog; they are both steady and stable things that I have in my life and at the minute the only good things that I have which I can call my own. They are both platforms where I can express myself to a point and have people acknowledge me and I appreciate all of that immensely: every like, comment and follow is always an unexpected comfort to me.

Both my blog and Instagram have given me opportunities that I never thought someone like myself would ever be handed and while I don’t get paid to write blogposts or product reviews for companies, I still enjoy it. I mean don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy writing and thinking of blogposts twice a week and it is very time consuming at the least: this blogpost has taken me over 2 hours already; so I’d be lying if I said that it wouldn’t be nice to benefit and earn some income from my blog. Especially as I don’t have a steady income from elsewhere at the moment and I don’t have the money to put into bettering my blog and making it more aesthetically pleasing with a logo. However, none of those things are as important to me or as gratifying, than when I see people have viewed my post and I realise my hard work hasn’t gone to waste after all. I get even more elated when I receive comments off people who have read it and can relate to whatever experience I have gone through and decided to share. It always warms my ice cold heart when I learn that people actually read what I write. Although, it surprises me more than anything, because my written skills aren’t the best and my grammar and punctuation are a work in progress too. But, none of the support goes unnoticed by me. To say I take a lot from social media would be an understatement. I learn from peoples photography, social skills and a lot more. It’s definitely taught me a lot about myself too and the way I communicate with people – which I haven’t always done well.

There aren’t always positive things that can come from social media though and it can be a dangerous territory if you aren’t careful, especially for the vulnerable and naïve. The more attention I pay to Instagram, the more I realise how toxic it can be. But, I do think that it all comes down to what you can take away and benefit from it and whether it makes you a better person in the long run. I feel when you have that mind-set, it can be a pleasant place to hang out and learn from.

What does social media mean to you? It would be awesome to hear. Do you benefit from the support or is it just an outlet for you? 

For more recipes, reviews and ideas you can follow me on Instagram, where I ramble and waffle a bit more.

Photo cred: Maizermedia.com

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Where Do You Get Your Protein From?

What do you do at 12.30am on a Sunday morning, when you can’t sleep? Me. I think of blogposts that I can write and then write said blogposts, even though I have numerous other blogposts that I have a.) Not finished or b.) Finished, but haven’t posted. All done while watching repeat episodes of Gogglebox. Although, my best recipe ideas are often created late at night on a hungry stomach, so hopefully this post will be just as successful on little sleep. Continue reading “Where Do You Get Your Protein From?” →

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Gift Ideas for the Home Cook, Foodie & Meat-Head

I’m not one to steal ideas usually, I take pride in coming up with my own recipes and ideas, but when I saw cooking with a wallflowers post, I just had to steal it and write my own version. I’ve seen loads of baking accessories and ideas over the internet that I would love and I think they would make incredible gifts, but being a home cook and foodie myself, I guess that’s obvious. Even so, it never crossed my mind to share these gift ideas with, well all of you. So thank you Cooking with a Wallflower for the idea. You can check her Christmas gift guide out here.

I don’t often struggle to buy gifts for people, I’m actually a very good gift giver in my humble opinion and I enjoy it, but I know for most people ideas don’t come as naturally and I frequently see people stressing over what to buy. I think over the years gift giving has become more of a competition and the tradition has become lost among the masses; I feel if you aren’t given diamonds, cars or other expensive gifts on a special occasion, then it’s simply not good enough. So I can see and understand why it can be stressful. For me, I like a gift to be thoughtful and something that I or the person I’m giving the gift to, will appreciate or use for years to come. I think it says a lot about a person when they put thought into a gift rather than just splurge on material things that the other person probably wont appreciate as much. With that in mind I have compiled a top 5 gift idea list for the home baker, foodie and meat-head.

 

Continue reading “Gift Ideas for the Home Cook, Foodie & Meat-Head” →

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Five – A – Day Scotch Eggs

Processed with VSCO with wwf presetScotch eggs were always a favourite of mine when I was a kid, until I learned what they were actually made of and while Quorn do vegetarian scotch eggs, I have to eat the whole pack just to feel satisfied. So, last night I wrote this recipe with monster scotch eggs in mind and they certainly were huge – the size of my palm. Now I know what you’re all thinking, these are going to be complicated with weird ingredients that you don’t have in your cupboards and I would have to disagree with you all because you should have these ingredients in your cupboards and if you know how to use a food processor, you’re half way there.

The reason I called these Five – a- day scotch eggs is because they are made with beans and pea protein which are both considered one of your five a day, plus there are mushrooms and onions in there too. So not only will you be reliving your childhood when you bite into one of these delicious scotch eggs,  you will also be getting vital vitamins and minerals too. I will add that these scotch eggs are much nicer warm, but I like my food to be hot, so it could be down to personal preference.

Ingredients

  • 1 Can Beans (I used butter beans)
  • 4 Free Range Eggs
  • 1 Free Range Egg White
  • 100g Mushrooms
  • 60g Red Onion
  • 35g Pulsin Pea Protein
  • 1 Garlic Clove
  • 2 tsp Mixed Herbs
  • 1 tsp Chilli Powder
  • Salt to taste.

Directions

Start buy boiling your eggs in a saucepan of cold water for 10 mins. When they are cooked run them under cold water for 5 minutes, peel and dry them and set aside.

Pre-Heat an oven to 175c (fan assisted)

Drain the can of beans and empty the contents into a food processor, blend until the beans are puréed and put the beans into a separate mixing bowl

Add the garlic, mushrooms and onion to the food processor and finely chop the vegetables, before adding them to the beans with the mixed herbs, chilli, salt and protein powder and combine the ingredients well.

I will agree that at this point the mixture doesn’t look very appetising, but take a heaped dessert spoon and place the mixture into the palm of your hand, add the egg to the centre and add another heaped desert spoon of the mixture over the top of the egg and secure it tightly around the whole egg. If the mixture doesn’t stick to the egg, roll it in some pea protein or flour. Continue this method until you have used up all the mixture.

Blend the bread in a food processor until it is breadcrumbs. The scotch eggs should be sticky enough for the breadcrumbs to stick to, if not you will need to dip the scotch egg in egg white before rolling in the breadcrumbs.

Pop the scotch eggs into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. I tried frying these and they stuck to my pan, so I would advise baking.

And that’s it. I told you it was simple.

For more recipes, reviews and ideas follow me on Instagram: Happy.Hungry.Healthy and please tag me in any of my recipes that you try, I would love to see what you create and whether they could do with any improvements.

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2 Ingredient Creamy No Churn Ice-Cream

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

Ice-cream is one of my favourite dessert foods, it goes well with everything: brownies, cake and cookies and just like the majority of the world I’ve always wanted to make my own ice-cream. But I just don’t have the space in my kitchen for another gadget, which is why this no-churn ice cream recipe is a firm favourite of mine. It’s 2 ingredients and tastes absolutely phenomenal.  Continue reading “2 Ingredient Creamy No Churn Ice-Cream” →

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