Tag: Recipe

Homemade peanut butter

4 Comments

Making your own peanut butter is so easy and yet so rewarding – I would recommend it to anyone looking who gets through inordinate amounts of peanut butter and wants to reduce the amount they have to buy. This can be made in large batches (I put mine in old 1kg peanut butter tubs) and lasts for a lot time (or not, if you’re anything like me).

I find most recipes on the internet recommend blanched peanuts, peanut oil and honey, but unless you really enjoy ‘Skippy’-style peanut butter, ditch the honey. Vegetable oil works fine – the roasted peanuts is where all the flavour comes from anyway, and using peanuts with skins on gives the peanut butter more texture (not to mention nutrients).

IMG_4447

Peanut butter and cinnamon on soda-bread – heavenly!

 

Ingredients

  • 1kg peanuts (you can use blanched if you prefer a smoother texture, but I like redskin peanuts, or a mix)
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • Pinch of salt

Method

  • Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
  • Pour the peanuts onto 2 baking trays, ensuring they are are evenly spread out. Cook for 10 – 12 minutes.
  • Check the peanuts after about 6 minutes and give them a stir to ensure none get burned (this can happen very suddenly so watch out!).
  • When they are cracking and browned, remove them from the oven. The longer you cook the easier it will be to get a smooth nut butter, but you don’t want them burned or it ruins the taste.
  • Carefully pour 75% of the nuts into a food processor (if you want crunchy peanut butter, otherwise add them all) and blend for around 5 minutes until it is the consistency of couscous.
  • Pour in the oil and salt, mix around the blended nuts and blend for a further 5 minutes, or until smooth. If need be, add some more oil.
  • To make crunchy peanut butter, now add the remaining 25% of the peanuts and blend on a low speed until they are roughly chopped – this should take less than a minute.
  • Spoon out in to a jar and you’re all done! Enjoy 🙂

 

If you decide to give this recipe a go, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram so I can see!

 

Advertisement

Gingernut biscuits

1 Comment

I made falafels that ended up looking like ginger nut biscuits and then I wanted ginger nut biscuits so I had to make these. After looking at a few complicated recipes online, I decided just to make my own super easy recipe so here goes! These are the perfect mix of crunchy and chewy – enjoy!

20190202_153808

Ingredients

  • 50g vegan margarine
  • 150g muscovado (or dark Demerara) sugar
  • 25g vegetable oil
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 150g all purpose flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 3tsp ground ginger
  • 1tsp all spice
  • Dash almond/soya milk (around 1 – 2 tbsp)
  • White sugar, for rolling

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a tray with baking parchment
  • Put all the dry ingredients (save for the white sugar) in a bowl and mix
  • Mix together the margarine, oil and muscovado sugar
  • With your fingers, mix the margarine/sugar mixture into the flour to form crumbs
  • Add a dash of milk (not too much!) until the mixture starts to stick together. It shouldn’t take more than 2tbsp milk to bind
  • Make walnut sized balls of mixture and roll in the white sugar. Place on the baking tray and press down with a fork.
  • Make sure the biscuits are placed evenly apart (they spread during cooking) and place in the oven. Cook for around 12 minutes (a little more if you like them very crunchy)
  • Once cooked, remove and leave to cool before eating. Enjoy!

 

Vegan Gingerbread

3 Comments

This recipe is perfect for Christmas (and honestly any time of year yes please), and is just so easy to make! This makes so many biscuits and they’re perfect for storing and having as a mid-morning snack. Let me know if you make these – I’d love to see your creations!

IMG_0925

Ingredients:

  • 1tbsp chia seeds
  • 300g plain flour
  • 100g coconut flour
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 150g muscovado sugar
  • 2tbsp ginger
  • 1/2tbsp cinnamon
  • Sprinkle of ground cloves
  • 100g coconut oil
  • 100g dairy free margarine
  • 50ml dairy free milk

IMG_0928

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees
  • Mix the chia seeds with 3tbsp water and leave to thicken
  • Mix together the flour, coconut flour, baking powder, sugar and spices in a mixing bowl
  • Heat the margarine and coconut oil and mix together. Mix in the chia seed mix with a fork until incorporated
  • Pour oils into the dry mixture and mix.
  • Add the milk slowly and mix in until the mix is holding together
  • Leave to thicken before rolling out on top of clingfilm (it will be easier to do in 2 batches)
  • Cut out whatever shapes you like and place on a tray with baking parchment (or foil)
  • Place in the oven and cook until browning at the edges, 10-15 minutes (depending how soft you like them)
  • Let cool and ice (or not) as desired!

IMG_0937

Vegan pad thai

Leave a comment

I whipped up this recipe the other day simply because I had a bunch of ingredients that worked together, but it was amazing and whilst it’s not the traditional pad thai, it worked well and was absolutely delicious! And so many of you asked for it, so here it is 🙂

Some pad thai is quite bad for you because of the amount of sugar, oil and salt present, but in this recipe the quantities are reduced (just because I don’t think you need it all) and veg content increased (because veg). If you prefer wholewheat noodles go for those (as I did), but white rice noodles work well too. Play around with it! Tofu works well as an added bit of protein.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 150g of rice noodles (I used wholewheat)
  • 2 white cabbage leaves
  • 2 spring onions
  • 60g bean sprouts
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • Chopped ginger, to taste
  • Handful of peanuts, chopped
  • 1 lime
  • 1tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1tsp mirin (or rice wine vinegar)
  • 2tbsp soy sauce
  • Chilli (optional)

Method:

  • Heat the oil in a large wok until very hot. Thinly chop the cabbage leaves and start to fry.
  • Chop the spring onions and place in the pan with the bean sprouts, ginger and garlic, tossing constantly.
  • Once softening, turn the heat down slightly and cook the noodles according to their instructions
  • Mix together the soy sauce and mirin in a small bowl
  • Once the noodles are cooked, add them to the wok and stir, adding the soya sauce mixture last
  • Serve and top with a generous squeeze of lime and handful of nuts (and chopped chilli, is using).

    20180616_195607

    Please excuse the poor quality photo – I wasn’t expecting to write the recipe up!

 

Flapjack

Leave a comment

I didn’t know what to call this recipe because ‘flapjack’ doesn’t really do it justice. It’s reduced sugar (because I find syrupy flapjacks almost unbearable) and vegan, and also is more nutrient dense than ‘normal’ flapjacks, thanks to the addition of prunes and seeds and the use of unrefined sugar rather than golden syrup. It’s slightly crumblier than most flapjack recipes but I’m working to fix this. Either way, it tastes bloody good!

Let me know if you make it and I can share on my instagram.

DSC_0386

Ingredients:

  • 250g oats
  • 3tbsp linseeds/seeds of choice
  • 1 heaped tbsp flour of choice
  • 100g vegan butter (I used vegan Flora for this)
  • 25ml oil
  • 50g dark brown demerara/muscovado sugar
  • 3tbsp honey/syrup
  • 5-8 prunes, chopped
  • 1 heaped tbsp peanut/almond butter

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade
  2. Put the oats, flour and linseeds in a large mixing bowl
  3. In a saucepan, heat the butter and oil until melted
  4. Add the honey and sugar and mix in the peanut butter. You may need to remove some of the lumps
  5. Add the chopped prunes and mix, before pouring into the mixing bowl with the oats
  6. Place in a small dish lined with baking parchment and pack down hard (I do this with the back of a metal spoon)
  7. Cook for 30 minutes until browning at the edges
DSC_0382

Perfect with a nice cup of coffee

Miso quinoa buddha bowl

1 Comment

This recipe is the perfect dinner for two, including carbs, plenty of veg and protein. Double or quadruple the recipe and you have some great lunches throughout the week, as this tastes just as good cold. These flavours taste amazing together but equally, if you have leftovers lying around just chuck them in – that’s the amazing thing about grain bowls.

DSC_0348

SUCH YUM

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas
  • 1 pakchoi
  • 250g cooked quinoa (approx 80g uncooked)
  • 150g cabbage
  • 1/2 large avocado
  • 1/2 block tofu or tempeh
  • Paprika
  • Chilli powder

Dressing

  • 5tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1tbsp soya sauce
  • 1tsp miso paste
  • 1tsp ginger paste/lazy ginger

Method:

  1. Head the oven to 60 degrees (to keep the ingredients warm)
  2. Start by cooking the chickpeas. Pour a drizzle of sesame oil in a non stick pan and add the drained chickpeas
  3. Sprinkle on the spices and toss. Cook until browning (about 5 minutes)
  4. Pour into a bowl and keep warm in the oven (at 60 degrees)
  5. Quarter the pak choi lengthways and place in the frying pan with more sesame oil
  6. Cook for around 3 minutes on each side, until browned and soft. Place in the oven to keep warm.
  7. Dice the cabbage and cook in the frying pan with a dash of sesame oil
  8. While the cabbage is cooking, cook the quinoa. If it is the ready-cooked quinoa this should take just a few minutes
  9. Fry the tofu/tempeh in a pan whilst the cabbage and quinoa is cooking
  10. Dice the avocado half
  11. Make the dressing by whisking together all the ingredients with a fork
  12. Make up the buddha bowls by placing in all the ingredients into 2 bowls/plates and pour on the dressing

DSC_0337

Almond biscotti

1 Comment

These little biscuits are something you should always have in your cupboards at home or desk at work. They’re small, satisfying and healthy, and go perfectly with a cup of coffee for mid-morning slumps. The almonds make them filling, while the slow-release carbohydrates mean you also get energy. Most importantly though, they taste great (and are suitable for vegans)!

 

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups flour of choice
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (muscovado works well)
  • 1/2 cup dates chopped (approx 10-15)
  • 3/4 cup whole almonds
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup or agave nectar (or honey)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2tsp almond essence

 

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
  • In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients
  • In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients slowly, mixing with a wooden spoon as you go
  • The mixture should become very hard to mix.
  • Form a ball with the mixture. It should stick together easily. If it cracks, add a little more water. If it is too gloopy, add a little more flour.
  • On a floured surface, roll the mixture out into one or two long sausages.
  • Flatten the sausages slightly and scour diagonal cur marks into the tops with a serrated knife (to cut through the almonds). Do not cut all the way to the base.
  • Cook the sausages on a tray for 20-30 minutes
  • Remove from the oven and let cool.
  • Cut the sausage into individual biscuits and lay flay on a tray. Cook for another 20 minutes until browning and hard.
  • Let cool and enjoy!
DSC_0754

Scour the sausages diagonally so they look a bit like French baguettes

DSC_0815

Enjoy with a delicious cup of coffee!

Beetroot hummus

2 Comments

This dip is a great variation on the classic hummus, and a great vegan side with pitta bread to share. It’s one of the easiest recipes to make and requires basically no input! All you need is a blender, the ingredients and 5 minutes. Simple!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cans chickpeas
  • 1-2 cooked beetroots (if you buy the ready cooked ones, make sure they’re not preserved in vinegar)
  • Juice from 1/2 a lemon
  • 1-2 garlic cloves
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp tahini (optional)
  • Pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Add to a food processor or use a hand blender to blend until desired consistency. Easy!

DSC_0836

DSC_0826

 

My year in review – 2017

3 Comments

I like to take time around Christmas to think of the things in the past year that I’m proud of. Reflection on your achievements can help you appreciate even the smallest of things: contentment at work, good times with family, new skills learned – the list goes on. With that in mind I thought I’d do a little summary of the things I’ve achieved this year. Whether you write yours down or just think of them in your head, it’s something I’d really recommend doing!

 

Social media
This is the year I grew from 10,000 followers (25 December, 2016) to my current 57,000. Whilst follower number isn’t everything, I think this year’s growth has been a true reflection of the pride, time and effort I’ve put into my content. Creating weekly blog posts, including recipes, thoughts and advice is tiring but something I’ve learned to balance in my life – it helps that I love doing it! My aim of creating weekly content has been upheld (most of the time!) and it’s so worth it when I’m able to help people in more than the length of an instagram captions or twitter’s 280 characters (another new thing this year!).

In January I signed to W model management, an agency that I had applied to (twice) and been rejected from (twice). For them to approach me and ask me to be on their books as a ‘fitfluencer’ and model was literally a dream come true. The extra help allowed me to focus on my finals and dissertation at university and build excellent relationships with brands that probably would never have noticed me on my own. It’s been a strong learning curve for me – from having to reshoot campaigns 5 times to learning when to say no to collaborations, this year has taught me a lot about working with people. Most of all, it’s shown me that the best people to work with are those who are really, really passionate about sharing what they do, and that’s something I’ll be aiming to do more of next year.

My Twitter has grown from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand followers, but in reality I’m still just a little confused about twitter. My favourite thing is that whilst instagram is all ‘highlight reel’ and sometimes makes you super depressed, twitter is where people seem to head when they want to complain about life, which is strangely refreshing. I like twitter, but I still don’t really get it.

This year has been a whirlwind year in regards to social media. It been amazing to have the opportunity to share my voice and (hopefully) help others along the way. I’m so excited to see what 2018 will bring for the brand ‘food fitness flora’, and I hope all of you will still be here to share it with me!

See my most popular recipe and blog post of this year.

DW-FoodFitnessFlora-20170914-IMG_0628

Personal life
This year was a great year for family and friends. Without going into depth, it’s been so interesting to realise that some people are always there for you no matter what, and others are along for the highlights and mysteriously disappear when things get tough. It’s also been so lovely to meet a bunch of new people, through countless events and various things in common. I am forever grateful for social media – who could have known that instagram would lead to some of my closest friendships (Maiken I’m looking at you, even though I know you never read this).

I moved back to London after my degree, and have been living at home while I’m getting on my feet. It’s been so nice after 10 years of boarding school and three years of university to finally be able to spend some time with family – there really is nothing that can replace it! Shout out to my sisters for still being as crazy this year as last. You are all wonderful and the variety of things you all do and succeed in (and the ones you don’t) never ceases to amaze me.

I can’t write about my personal life without mentioning my wonderful boyfriend, Fiann. Fiann and I have been together for over 2.5 years now, and without wanting to sound soppy, I am forever grateful for everything he does. For anyone who loves a nerd and pretty rocks as much as I do, check out his instagram (and look out on BBC One at 8pm on the 7th Jan for a great surprise!).

DSC_0638

He’s not bad really

 

Education
This year I graduated from Bristol University, where I was doing a bachelors in Biology. It was really tough (as anyone who has done/is doing a degree will know!), but something I’m so proud of. I loved the subject throughout the three years, which I’m learning isn’t all that common, and when I left with a strong 2:1, I was happy. My academic performance wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be, but I also learned that at university, grades really aren’t everything. The experiences I had at uni are worth more to me than any grade I could have got, and I hope that anyone else struggling to achieve what they were aiming for will still make the most of the experience. For me, university was about learning to balance 7 million different things – friends, work, sports, music, social life, family life etc – whilst finding who you are as a person. It wasn’t easy, but boy was it worth it.

20292795_10207938926745455_18525771667924588_n

Graduation

Work
In my last year of university I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (work with scientists and journalists turning science into terms everyone could understand), but didn’t know if that was even a job. After finding out that science media and communications was definitely a thing (and a very important thing at that), I set out to find myself some work experience. After leaving uni in June, I got an unpaid internship at the Society for Endocrinology in Bristol over the month of August. I loved the work but struggled staying in Bristol when all things blogging were based in London. Half way through my internship I got called in for an interview at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, for a job as ‘media and PR officer’. Upon arrival at the college I was filled with amazement at how beautiful the building was, followed shortly by terror, because I felt massively under-qualified for a real job in the real world. After a very fun interview I was convinced that they were looking for someone more professional (and probably older) than I was, which is why I was unbelievably surprised when the very next day I got a call back offering me the job. I’m now working at the RCOG, working with scientists and journalists debunking pseudoscience, making sure everyone is in the know about women’s health and keeping engaged with the public via social media. The blogger work/work work balance is a hard one to get right (this last week has been 15h day after 15h day), but it’s made so much easier when you love everything you’re doing. People ask me why I don’t work full time as a blogger, but helping women throughout their life through education and information is literally a dream come true for me, and that is exactly what I’m doing.

IMG_5418

Work Christmas party (you can see why I fit right in)

This post is as much for me as anyone else – the last year has been a total whirlwind of change for me, from leaving uni to starting a new job, all whilst focusing on my social media accounts too. Always make time to celebrate your successes, no matter how big or small, and learn from your mistakes so you can succeed next time. Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy this time to reconnect with family and spend some time away from social media.

 

“Celebrate your success and find humour in your failures. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Loosen up and everyone around you will loosen up. Have fun and always show enthusiasm. When all else fails, put on a silly costume and sing a silly song” – Words to live by from Sam Walton.

5DS_1119

That’s me over and out for the year – have an amazing christmas everyone! 

Gooey chocolate cake

3 Comments

This recipe is totally vegan but for anyone who’s not vegan, don’t be put off – the gooey interior will please any dessert lover, and it’s rich enough to only need one slice (although who would stop at that). The recipe is also super easy and requires minimum ingredients, dishes and time. The best!

Ingredients:

  • 180g dark chocolate
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 70g flour
  • 3 heaped tbsp cocoa
  • 150g dark sugar (Demerara, golden caster or muscavado)
  • Pinch of salt
  • Vanilla essence
  • 230ml almond milk
  • 5tbsp sunflower oil
  • 100g pecan or walnuts (optional but recommended)

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
  • Melt 150g of the chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of water
  • While it’s melting, add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix
  • Warm the almond milk slightly and add it, the oil and the melted chocolate to the bowl with the dry ingredients in
  • Chop the remaining 30g of chocolate and pecans and mix in (the mixture will start off quite liquidy but start to solidify as it cools)
  • Pour into a lined cake tin and cook for 20 minutes.*

*This leaves a slightly gooey centre – if you prefer it more gooey or solid, adjust the cooking time by 2-3 minutes more or less (depending what you like). Remember it solidifies more as it cools.

DSC_0823

This cake is the perfect dessert when you’re short of time but want something to please everyone