Smoothie & pumpkin seed hype

So I am a massive fan of making smoothies and although they're not always super 'healthy' since they are loaded with sugar from fruit, they are still a great way to get some good nutrients in and I love that you can put absolutely anything you want in them!

Below I have linked two smoothie recipes I have posted before, the pineapple and spinach one I particularly love and it is nearly always the one I go for when making a smoothie. It has such great, tangy flavour from the pineapple and you get all the goodness from the spinach and oooof just is too good.
http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pineapple-and-spinach-smoothie.html
http://eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/peach-and-raspberry-smoothie.html

My boyfriend has got a new blender recently which he is obsessed with so we've been making a lot of great smoothies. One of our favourites has had pumpkin seeds in which I've recently discovered and love (what have I been doing this whole time!?) - they make smoothies more filling and add a new dimension of flavour. Plus they are a great source of fibre so you can't really go wrong. I also expected them to be quite pricey since nuts and seeds tend to be, but I got these from Lidl and they weren't bad at all and they seem to last ages so I would definitely pick some up. You can also use them in baking, add them to cereal or yogurt etc.

Makes 2
- 2 bananas, broken into smaller pieces,
- big glug of almond (or soya) milk 
- 4 heaped tbsp of low fat natural yogurt
- big handful of frozen berries
- big handful of pumpkin seeds
- big handful of spinach (optional)

(Sorry nothing is very specific - the good thing about smoothies is you can add as much of anything as you want)

Another one we tried was a garlic smoothie which was a shock to the taste buds as you can imagine. Lets just say it kept the vampires away... But, garlic is really good for the immune system as well as many other things, so eating it raw is the best way to benefit from it. We used the same recipe as above but just added two cloves of garlic (one each) and a bit of honey as well. It was so strong! So I wouldn't recommend it if you want to sit back and enjoy your smoothie, but if you want a good detox, health-kick smoothie then that is the one!

I also made a garlic smoothie recently but replaced banana with pineapple hoping it would mast some of the garlic flavour but I was very wrong...

Hope you try out some of these ideas and jump on the pumpkin seed bandwagon! Just to prove how much I love them, here is a picture of the breakfasts I've been having

It's bran flakes, dried fruit (raisins, sultanas and cranberries), pumpkin seeds and soya milk - so delicious!

Enjoy :)

Banana loaf cake

I had never tried banana cake until someone home-made it for a BBQ dessert last summer, and I absolutely loved it. I like bananas but don't usually like banana flavoured things, the exception being this cake of course. I used the recipe in Lisa Faulkner's cookbook, which worked really well. The good thing about it is that it requires very ripe bananas, so you don't have to waste those black bananas in your fruit bowl anymore! It's quite a dense cake but super moist and full of sweet flavour which is what I love most about it, and the end pieces taste particularly good, I don't really know why, it must be the change in texture? I grated some dark chocolate on top before baking, and next time I will probably put dark chocolate chips in to improve the texture and balance the sweetness with a more bitter taste - who doesn't love chocolate chunks in a cake!? If you like bananas, I would definitely recommend trying this recipe, don't be sceptical - it can be just as yummy as a victoria sponge or chocolate cake, it has lots of potential! I also always think of this as quite a British cake so would be the perfect treat to whip up for the jubilee weekend if you are having a party or spending time with family.

For a 1kg cake - serves 8-10 (I halved it)

- 125g butter or margarine, softened

- 75g soft brown sugar

- 75g caster sugar

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 3 ripe bananas, mashed

- 250g self-raising flour, sieved

- 2 heaped teaspoons honey

- dark chocolate, grated

(How cute is this egg box!? I'm sure they're just normal eggs - I don't think the fact that they're called 'baking eggs' changes anything, but they were really large eggs and the best value at around £1.20 for 6! I got them in Tesco)

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Grease a loaf tin.

2. Cream together the butter and the sugar until soft and fluffy. Whisk in the beaten eggs and the mashed banana until fully combined.

3. Fold in the flour, then stir in the honey.

4. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and grate the dark chocolate on top.

5. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until golden on top, and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

6. Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wired rack and leave to cool. Serve on its own or with some crème fraiche, mm mm.

Enjoy :)