Food update for the week!

Hola! Sadly I've been unwell for the past week or so, crazy fever, cold, flu and so on, so my body has been exhausted. However, I don't seem to be the only one! It looks like a nasty bug is going around at the moment and everyone is getting hit in some way or another :(. Having filled up on fruit, herbal tea and lots of water, I'm finally feeling back on track, yay. But oh wait, I have 4 hours of exams tomorrow! Hopefully all goes well.

It has now been a month since I've started my job and my attitude towards food preparation has altered greatly! Daily 9-5s, trying to fit in seeing friends and the gym, I always find myself with hardly any time to devote in the kitchen. So having managed to whip up some quick dishes with what I had in store, I'm really pleased with the results! Recipes for spinach 'wraps', bulgar wheat salad, quick beef chilli/ stew and healthy crispy chicken bites will be posted as soon as possible, but for now a long night of revision awaits.

               

Xx

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Chicken, carrot and lentil stew

This is just one of those very easy to put together dinners. Perfect for a week full of serious studying. I somehow was not ready for what ICAS had in store for me! A year's worth of University material covered in about a week studying for this qualification. Although challenging, learning all this material has made me even more exciting and eager to start hands on work with clients in the Audit department.

CHICKEN, CARROT & LENTIL STEW

• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• About 6 chicken breasts, cubed
• 0.5 tsp paprika 
• Pinch of chilli flakes, optional
• 0.5 tsp cinnamon 
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 200g red lentils, washed
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 vegetable stock cube, dissolved in about 1 litre of water

1. In a large saucepan, heat up some coconut oil and fry the onion, garlic and cumin until fragrant and the diced onion has softened.#
2. Add in the chicken cubes, lightly frying until opaque and just cooked through. Stir in the paprika, cinnamon and chilli flakes.
3. Add in the chopped carrot pieces and leave to slightly brown for 1-2 minutes.
4. Pour in the stock as well as the chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the red lentils and let the dish cook for at least 30 minutes on low heat, adding more water and stirring as required.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
   

Xx

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Chickpea frenzy!

My cooking mojo is finally back! Travels now feel like a distant memory, my new career has kicked off and I've finally had some time to myself to play around in the kitchen. I've gone back to that phase of focusing on one ingredient and just trying to make and create as many dishes as possible out of it. Today's focus was on chickpeas because they are so cheap and are also a good source of protein. I managed to make some pretty decent muffins as well as a great crunchy snack, perfect for catching up with the Great British Bake Off.

CINNAMON SPICED CHICKPEA AND RAISIN MUFFINS

These muffins are packed full of fibre, low in fat and the chickpeas bump up their protein content. Makes about 10 muffins or 6 large ones.

• 100g whole wheat flour
• 50 g oats
• 35 g desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 50 g raisin 
• 1 400g can of chickpeas, rinsed, drained and blended
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 egg
• 70 g honey
• 2 tbsp olive or coconut oil
• 100 g milk
• 2 tbsp chia seeds, optional
• Small handful of dark chocolate chips, optional
• Handful of sunflower seeds to top, optional

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, raisins, chia seeds and choc chips if using.
2. In another bowl, mix the blended chickpeas, egg, honey, vanilla, and oil until smooth. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and roughly combine. 
3. Slowly add in enough milk to form a cake like batter. Do not over mix.
4. Spoon into muffin cases and top with sunflower seeds. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees Celsius until golden brown for around 15 minutes.

CRUNCHY CHICKPEA SNACK

I have always seen pictures of these on Instagram but never really realised how easy they were to make! This is such a simple and easy to make snack, definitely worth the effort. You can spice them as you wish; salt and pepper, cinnamon, cocoa, curry and so on... Perfect movie munching snack or just as nice used to top salads and soups.

• 400 g can of chickpeas, drained and dried
• Seasoning, I used 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp olive oil

1. Once you have rinsed the chickpeas, drain and dry with paper towels. Completely drying the chickpeas is key and will reduce required cooking time. 
2. You will find that most of the outer skins will fall off which is perfectly fine and will actually also speed up baking time.
3. Place the chickpeas on a metal tray and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Remove the tray, add oil and seasoning, give it all a good shake and bake for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy and hopefully I will be back to updating the blog on a weekly basis :)!
Xx

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Cold buster smoothie

Finally, it is so good to be back home! Although it was an amazing trip, nothing beats coming home to home cooked food, a warm bath and the most comfortable bed!

Lack of sleep, hours of travelling and not the best of living conditions all probably contributed to my mild symptoms cold and flu. Therefore the perfect start to the day was a cold buster smoothie! When feeling poorly, the body absorbs more of vitamin C then it usually would when healthy. So a vitamin C and antioxidant packed smoothie was in need!

VITAMIN C SMOOTHIE

• About 150 ml green tea, chilled
• 1 orange/mandarin 
• Large handful of frozen mixed berries
• A few teaspoons of honey

1.Blend everything together until smooth and thick. Add more frozen fruit if a thicker consistency is desired. 

Xx

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Eurotrip

Hello!

Wow I can't believe that it has been over a month since I've properly blogged or posted any sort of recipe! As I am currently travelling around Europe, it will sadly be a week or two more until I get back into the swing of posting.

Nearing the end of my trip, it has become clear that food has played a major role in our discovery of different cities! We tried to steer away from touristy eateries and sample the most authentic and traditional dishes.

Brussels 

This was a great place to start our travels whereby we indulged in daily waffles. The waffles here are out of this world! Thick and sugary yet still light, fluffy and slightly chewy- definitely the best ones I have ever had! On a rainy afternoon we decided to have a big pot of moules et frites which really hit the spot! We then sampled and bought some Belgium chocolate which were so smooth and amazing (which I sadly forgot at one of the hotels along the way). We finished off the trip at the Delerium bar, world famous for it's extensive list of about 3000 beers. Not a beer fan myself, I managed to find a few great beers, namely the cactus beer and the delerium red (berry beer) and have taken a new liking to this beverage.

Amsterdam

As hard as we tried, it seems like Amsterdam is not known for it's food! However, it was nice to see that people are relatively healthy with juice and salad bars all over the place. I don't actually remember seeing a Macdonald's here, so that's a plus! We did sample some streetfood, namely their croquette: fried stick filled with creamy ragout and their frikendal: a spiced sausage covered in curry and onion, delicious!

Berlin

Although Berlin was a great place to visit with respect to it's history and culture (if visiting, I highly recommend the daily Sandermans free walking tours as well as the concentration camp tour), the food was rather disappointing. Germany is known to have the most types of breads in the world and although we didn't try many, their bakeries and their extensive range of goodies were impressive! We gave in to a huge cheesy pretzel, usually sold by street vendors all around town.

Prague

Prague was a great place to visit with such charm to it, after our 12 hour train journey from hell (4 changes and a 4 hour wait outside a station at 1am!), I really wish that I had an extra day to visit the place. Food was much cheaper here so it was hard not to try abit of everything! Plum upside down cake, tripe soup, sour mushroom soup, pork knee and the list goes on, we certainly managed to get a good glimpse at Czech food within the one night we had in Prague!

Vienna

Arriving on a public holiday and only spending one night in this beautiful city, we didn't manage to sample much of the food. For dinner we did sample a traditional schnitzel, which was perfectly crispy yet still juicy. The flee market was also great with lots of fresh fruits and snacks.

Budapest & Zagreb

Budapest has been my favourite place of the trip so far! Such friendly people, so much to see and do and very reasonable and tasty food. We first went for one of their traditional sweet breads, Kurtosh which was amazing! Cooked fresh when bought, this sweet cinnamon flavoured bread is very light and perfect as a snack as you walk around town. The bakeries are packed of interesting looking cakes, all of which are rustic, full of flavour and far from the usually overprocessed sugary treats sold in the UK.

Our stop in Zagreb was rather short and rushed therefore not leaving much time to try any local specialities. However, we did notice that most streets had corn on the cob vendors which were a great healthy snack!

Italy

Without a doubt, Italy has been the most exciting to our taste buds! The thought of pasta and pizza would not usually appeal to me, however do not rule out these dishes until you have tried the authentic homemade kind! Three nights in Florence was far from enough to try out all that we had planned to, but so far nothing has dissapointed! It was also a great plus to have a temporary food market right outside of our hotel. From mushroom tagliatelle, gluten free chickpea flour farinata, bruschetta, baby octopus, grilled squid, chestnut flour trofie, bistecca and croquettes, melon & prosciutto ham, cannoli, gelato and so, so much more!

Now off to explore Rome followed by a couple of days in Athens!

Xx

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Sweet potato and spinach bake

I am officially a University of Manchester graduate! Graduation was such a memorable day with great weather, lots of alcohol and picture taking. Sadly, it also led to many goodbyes as all of my course mates started heading back to different parts of the world for further studies or to start their careers.

                                

Having Tom and mum here has led to lots of eating out but we've still managed to cook some nice and healthy meals in the frenzy of things. I decided to make a healthy type of veggie bake with the sweet potatoes and spinach that we had in the fridge and it turned out to be super delicious and the perfect accompaniment to our lamb steaks.

SWEET POTATO AND SPINACH BAKE

• 250g peeled and thinly sliced sweet potato 
• 200g fresh spinach
• Rosemary or thyme
• About 50 ml non fat milk
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• Salt & pepper
• A few tbsp of light cheese, grated

1. In a frying pan, lightly pan fry the spinach with some crushed garlic and season.
2. In a greased baking dish, form a layer of sweet potato slices on the base, season with salt and pepper. Top with a third of the cooked spinach.
3. Continue layering the vegetables, seasoning as you go along. You could add a little cheese between each layer if desired.
4. In a small saucepan, heat the milk, herbs, mustard and garlic until simmering. Strain and pour over the sweet potatoes.
5. Top with a little cheese and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy! Xx 

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Simple octopus salad

So my holiday has now come to an end. Time to head back to a sunnier Manchester(hopefully!) to graduate and start my new job at EY! These four weeks have been a good relaxing break before going back to the hustle and bustle. Having eaten out quite a bit whilst on holiday, I've come across a few new lovely restaurants and my favourites were Selfish in Pointe aux Cannoniers and Izumi at Port Chambly. Selfish is a small and homely restaurant mainly serving seafood. Their sushi dishes are based on Mauritian flavours such as guava and tamarind and are a nice tasty twist on traditional sushi. Izumi serves traditional Japanese food and we had a delicious teppanyaki celebration meal when I received my final University results.

As a yearly tradition, my mum hosts a lunch for her tennis group and this time round I offered to cook all the food. I made lots of different 'salad-y' dishes including octopus salad and a trio of desserts to finish.

Octopus can be a tricky thing to cook as it can easily become super chewy and hard to eat. My dad taught me the trick to perfectly tender octopus and mentioned that the most common mistake was to boil it, big no no! On to the recipe.

OCTOPUS SALAD

• 1 kg of octopus
• 1-2 tomatoes, diced
• A large onion, finely diced
• Large bunch of coriander, chopped
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice

1. To clean the octopus, scrub with lots of salt and wash throughouly.

2. In a large saucepan, add in a little oil and the whole octopus, (only chop it up once cooked). Stir around for a couple of minutes, lower the heat and cover to cook.

3. Check the octopus every 5 to 10 minutes stirring it around as it releases it's own juices and pricking it with a skewer. Once tender after about 20-30 minutes, the octopus is cooked.

4. Once cooled, chop the octopus into fine slices.

5. In a large bowl, combine the octopus slices, diced tomatoes, diced onion and chopped coriander. Season with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.
 

                                              

Enjoy xx 

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