Soup Season #1

Summer is over.......booooooooooo, BUT that means Soup Season is here................ yeahhhhhh!!!  So here is a quick and easy soup recipe to kick start the season of all things warm and delicious! Special thanks to SB for this recipe.

SB's Slow Cooked Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 1/2 x Butternut squash - cubed
• 2 x Sweet potatoes
• 1 x Onion (diced)
• Vegetable stock
• 1.5 tbsp x Ground cumin
• 3 x Cloves of garlic

Method (.....wait until you see how easy this is)

1. Put everything in a slow cooker on the low heat setting.
2. Cook for 8 hours. (you could have it on overnight, or while your at work)
3. Blend.

Yup..... that's it!

If you don't have a slow cooker fear not, you can just cook in a normal soup pot until veg is soft and blend!

Salad Selection

Salads are great for lunch.  It is an easy quick way of getting on your way to your 5 a day. Saying this, the classic lettuce, cucumber and tomato combo soon gets dull to say the least. Well help is at hand.  Please find below two quick easy and exciting salads that will have you counting down the minutes to your lunch break!

Salad #1

The first one is wilted spinach, cherry tomatoes, cress, fresh mozzarella and soy sauce.

Salad #2

The second one is wilted spinach (in soy sauce), mozeralla and avocado, all microwaved together and plenty of Cajun spice over the top.

How To: Keep An Avocado Fresh?

The Avo-saver! My New Favourite Kitchen Gadget

Introducing my new favourite kitchen gaget...... the AVO-SAVER!  A handy wee tool for keeping that unused half avocado fresh until I use it the next day!  No more avocado going brown, no more wasted avocado going in the bin.  I LOVE THE AVO-SAVER!

So what is it and how does it work?

I like to think of the avo-saver as a little avocado hammock.  This plastic tool basically hugs half an avocado so tight it keeps it fresh!

You simple add half an avocado, with the stone in, into its bed.

You then pull over the stretchy plastic avocado seat belt.

This then clips in.  Because there are different "belt holes" and because it is stretchy you can make this nice and tight no matter what size of avocado you have.  One size fits all!

And that is that!!!!

Horray for the avo-saver!

What are your favourite kitchen gadgets and gizmos?  We would love to hear about them!

Clean Eating Peanut Butter Oat Bars

So it was a "cake and coffee" day at work.  This means the staff room is full of sugary treats all trying to temp you.  Although they taste lovely, being full of refined sugar means they will give a spike in blood sugar levels, leading to a wee boost in energy........... before the crash.  That sluggish feeling is not nice and makes the rest of the working day much harder.

So this recipe is filling and contains protein and best of all is only sweatened using natural sweeteners.  This means that they will give longer lasting energy and will avoid that spike and crash pattern.

They are so easy to make...... we are talking under 10 minutes.  They don't involved any baking, but just set in the fridge.  So a good one to do the night before and leave in the fridge overnight. SIMPLES!

Ingredients

• 3 x cups of porridge oats (if you need the recipe to be gluten free just get gluten free oats)
• 1.5 x cups of peanut butter (look at the ingredients - lots of peanut butters contain refined sugar.  Try the "wholenut" ones - they usually do not have added sugar)
• 3/4-1 x cup of honey
• What ever you want to add in.  This could be nuts, seeds, dried fruit, shredded coconut.  Try different combinations!

Method

1. Add the peanut butter and honey to a pan and gently head while mixing together.
2. Once all combined and softened a bit pour into a bowl.
3. Add the oats slowly mixing as you go.
4. Once the oats are all coated in the honey and peanut butter mixture add your extra ingredients.
5. Line a baking tray or a tupperware tub with grease proof paper.  Pour the oaty mix in and press down.
6. Drizzle a small amount of honey over the top.
7. Leave in the fridge to set (over night if you can - but less is fine if your short of time)
8. Cut into pieces and enjoy - GUILT FREE!

Marscapone Courgetti / Zoodles

Courgetti ("spaghetti made of courgettes") or Zoodles ("noodles made of zucchini") is something we have heard about for a while now, yet never tried.  Luckily my sister has a Spiralizer.  This is a machine that can cut vegetables (e.g. courgette or carrot) into noodles. This means you can take your favourite spaghetti or noodle dishes and take out the carbs, replacing them with veggie goodness.

Now you may think that the £25-£30 for a the Spiralizer machine is a bit steep until you know you would get your use out of it.  Well we have just found this alternative, which is a hand held version for under £5.  We have just purchased this, so will give it a go and let you know.

So here is a cheesy Italian dish that used "courgetti" as it's base!

Ingredients (for 3 people)

• 3 Courgettes

• 1 onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• A couple of handful peas

• 5 sliced Mushrooms

• Mascarpone

• Halloumi

• Oil of your choice

 Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan. Slice the halloumi cheese and fry until nicely golden brown on each side. While the halloumi is cooking finely chop the garlic cloves (feel free to use more or less than me- I like things garlicy!!) and slice the onion.
2. Once the halloumi is cooked take it out the pan and place to the side (I also chopped it up at this stage into more bitesize pieces). Then add the garlic and onion to the pan and keep on a medium heat for around 5-7 minutes. Add the peas (if frozen, if not then add them at the same time as the courgette) and the mushrooms. Keep cooking for another 5 minutes or so- until the onion is about 80% cooked.
3. While the onion and garlic is cooking away spiralizeyour courgettes ready to add in.
4. Once the onion, garlic, peas and mushroom mix has cooked to the 80% add in the courgette (and peas if they weren’t added in step 2)
5. Keep this on a medium heat for another 5 minutes or so- until the courgette has heated through and then reduce the heat to a low temperature. Add in the mascarpone and mix until the mascarpone has turned in a sauce. Add the halloumi back in a keep on a low heat until everything is heated through and cooked to suit you.
6. Serve straight from the pan and add some parmesan cheese on top.

A lot of the ingredients in this can be swapped/missed out so it’s very easy to make it suit your own taste. Also the quantities are to your own preference. In general I would do at least 1 courgette per person and around 70-80g of mascarpone cream per courgette. However having too much mascarpone is never a bad thing. I think it would also be great with broccoli, asparagus, spring onion and peppers so it’s a great recipe when you need to use things up in the fridge.

Mediterranean Beans with Lime Kale

Sadly summer seams to be over.  The nights are getting darker and the days are getting colder.  This is the time when I don't know about you..... but I feel the need for comfort food. This inevitably lead to stodgy carb heavy meals that probably are not hitting the highs in terms of nutrition.

So is it possible to get hearty warming comfort food that is still good for you?

Well....... we like to think this recipe hits that brief.

This bean stew is filling and hearty, the spices in the sauce make it lovely and warming.  It is served with lime marinated crispy kale which is packed full of nutrients and adds a crispy texture!

Ingredients

• 2 x tins of beans of your choice (we did cannellini and butterbean)
• 1 x onion
• 1 x red pepper 
• 1 x passata (or a tin of chopped tomatoes would do)
• Sun-dried or sun blushed tomatoes
• Pitted olives (we have used black but green or mixed would also work)
• Kale
• 1-2 x lime
• Smoked paprika
• Chilli powder or Cayenne pepper (decide which you prefer according to your spice likeness)
• Salt and pepper
• Tahini (optional - but this makes the sauce seem creamy - without cream - amazzzing! this really gives that comfort food feel)

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to about 190 celcius.
2. Chop the onion and lightly fry.
3. Chop the red pepper and add to the pan.
4. Once the veg is beginning to soften add the beans and the passata.  Once bubbling, reduce heat to a light simmer.
5. Add in your spices and seasoning.  Spicing is to your taste, we like it quite smokey and spicy so we would go for 2 teaspoon of paprika and the same of chilli pepper.
6. Add in the olives and the sun-dried tomatoes.
7. Simmer gently to allow the flavours to develop.  For around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. While your waiting get the kale and take out any thick stalks.  Put the kale in a sandwich bag.  Add some olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice of 1-2 limes.  Hold the end of the bag closed and "massage the kale" through the bag.  This sounds weird.... but this means the citrus from the lime will break down and soften the kale.
9. Lay the kale out on a baking tray and put in the oven for 5-10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it, you want to take it out when it has just started to go crispy.
10. Serve together in a big bowl and enjoy!!!