Sweet potato fries

 I made some 'tapas' dishes this weekend (well, my version of tapas) which included these honey glazed sweet potato fries which were the star of the show. Super easy to make and taste delicious.

Perfect dipped in garlic mayonnaise, tzatziki, and salsa (on separate dippings of course!)

Serves 2

- 1 large sweet potato

- olive oil

- seasoning (salt, pepper, paprika, dried herbs etc.)

- squeezy honey

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees and place a baking tray with a generous amount of olive oil inside.

2. Peel the sweet potato and slice into thin chip shapes, or wedges if you prefer.

3. Take the tray out of the oven when the oil is heated and place the chips in the hot oil, turning and shaking to make sure they're evenly coated (drizzle extra oil on top of needed!)

4. Sprinkle on some seasoning and drizzle honey over the top. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, checking and turning half way through.

5. Check that they are soft in the middle, then remove from the oven and pour the chips out onto some kitchen roll, and dab with more kitchen roll to remove any excess oil. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then serve!

Enjoy :)

Healthy banana pancakes

Try these guilt-free pancakes for pancake day this year - or any day!

With just two main ingredients that you will most likely already have in the house, these moist, fluffy pancakes are so delicious, high in protein, and gluten-free. I actually prefer these to normal pancakes.

Very easy to make for a nutritious, delicious breakfast, brunch or dessert, and the best part is that you can top with whatever you like. I went with honey & blueberries, but anything else like natural yoghurt, cinnamon, raspberries, or even chocolate chips would also taste amazing.

There is absolutely no reason not to try these! (Unless, of course, you don't like bananas...)

Serves 1 (makes 6-10 pancakes depending on thickness)

- 2 eggs

- 1 ripe banana

- 1 tbsp milled linseed (optional)

That's really all there is to it ^

I chose to add this linseed, gojiberries, sunflower & pumpkin seeds mix from Aldi for extra nutrition.

1. Mash up the banana until smooth, beat the eggs, then combine together.

2. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan then, using a ladle, pour a small amount of mixture into the hot pan.

3. Cook for a minute or until golden brown like below, then flip to cook on the other side.

4. Then place on a heated plate to keep warm, and continue the process (making sure to oil the pan each time) until all the batter becomes lots of lovely pancakes.

5. Once all finished, top with whatever you wish and tuck in to some guilt-free pancakes that don't even taste healthy!

Enjoy :)

If you want something naughtier then try my mouth watering blueberry pancakes!

Rocky road

I didn't know whether to call this rocky road or refrigerator cake - but either way it's biscuity, chocolatey goodness. I didn't put raisins in which I would prefer, and there are no nuts either since I'm not that keen, but the good thing about these is that you can basically add anything you want to them. They're so quick and easy to make with no baking at all!

Makes 8 squares

- 50g butter

- 100g milk chocolate

- 1 tbsp runny honey

- 100g dark chocolate digestives, crushed

- handful of marshmallows, chopped

1. Simply melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over a low heat. Stir in the honey.

2. Mix in the crushed biscuits and chopped marshmallows.

3. Line a baking tin with grease proof paper and pat down the mixture into it. At this stage I decorated it with edible glitter and chocolate hearts.

4. Refrigerate for about two hours then cut into squares. 

Enjoy :)

Honey and lemon glazed chicken

I found this recipe in my friends cookbook (Good food 101 cheap eats) which was perfect since I'd just bought 4 chicken drumsticks in Sainsbury's (for only £1!) I don't like citrus but I love lemon in sauces and this makes a perfect sticky glaze over the chicken and potato wedges. It has amazing flavour - you can taste the lemon, the honey and the garlic all at the same time. It's so quick and easy to do, you just make the sauce and bung it all in the oven for 45 minutes. The sauce makes the chicken so moist and the wedges soft - I transferred the wedges to a clean baking tray 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time to crisp up. This is a really good student meal if you want something a bit more special and tasty, yet chicken and potato are still cheap to buy in the supermarket. The original recipe used fresh rosemary, but I didn't want to buy a whole bunch so just used dried mixed herbs instead.

Serves 1

- 2 chicken drumsticks
- 1 large baking potato, cut into wedge shapes
- 25g salted butter
- 2 tbsp runny honey
- 1/2 large lemon
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- sprinkling of dried mixed herbs
- fresh spinach leaves, to serve

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees / gas mark 6
2. Place the chicken drumsticks and wedges in a deep baking tray
3. For the sauce, melt the butter in a pan and add the honey. Squeeze the juice of the lemon and add along with 3/4 of the crushed garlic clove (you can use the whole clove but it will be quite strong). Add some dried mixed herbs and stir together.
4. Drizzle the sauce all over the chicken and potato, turning everything until coated. Sprinkle with some more herbs then bake in the oven for around 30 minutes. Turn the chicken drumsticks and remove the wedges from the pan onto a clean baking tray so they can crisp up. Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the wedges are soft.
5. Serve with fresh spinach leaves or vegetables of your choice

Enjoy :)

Moroccan Lamb

I made this meal a few weeks ago in an attempt to make two lamb steaks a bit more interesting. I looked up various Moroccan lamb recipes and most of them were slow cooked and different cuts of meat so I had to make quite a few adjustments. I nearly always use smell to decide what I should put with what, and this is especially important when adding spices in this dish, but I had a blocked nose at the time so cooking this was a bit of a nightmare. It also meant I couldn't really taste it  very well when eating it - all I know is that it was very hot in my mouth (spicy hot), but I am a massive wimp when it comes to spice so if you enjoy spicy food this will probably seem very mild. My mum said it had a lovely flavour so I'm trusting her and sharing this with you guys! The honey and apricots will add a sweetness to counteract the spice, which will go perfectly with the warm cinnamon and tomato flavours.

Serves 2
- 2 lamb steaks
- olive oil
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 300ml lamb/beef stock
- handful of dried apricots, quartered
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- handful of pine nuts
- handful of parsley, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 / 160 degrees. Rub oil on the lamb steaks.

2. In a dish, combine all the spices, and rub the lamb steaks in the mixture until coated. Keep in the fridge for half an hour.

3. Fry the onion and garlic in a large pan until soft. Add the lamb steaks, browning each side. Then, add the tinned tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has started to reduce.

4. Next, add the apricots, pine nuts, honey and parsley and stir.

5. Return the mixture into the dish and cover with foil. Cook in the oven for about an hour, or until the meat is tender and the sauce reduced. Serve with rice and vegetables!

Enjoy :)

Soy, honey and garlic salmon

This marinade was a bit of an experiment, and it worked out really well. The sweetness of the honey with the salty soy sauce went perfectly well along with the garlic which I didn't expect! The salmon was incredibly moist and tender - I wished I had someone to share this with! I was just cooking for myself, since my mum doesn't eat fish. So please try this and let me know what you think. I wasn't very hungry at the time so I just served it with broccoli that I stir fried with sesame seeds, but this would be lovely with wholegrain rice.

(Sorry for the lack of posts - can't believe I only did 7 in June! I have been on holiday recently as well so quite a lot of these recipes are from a few weeks ago that I just haven't had the time to post. Hope you enjoy and sorry again for being so silent recently)

Serves 1

- 1 salmon fillet 

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp honey

- 1 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 clove of garlic, crushed

1. In a small dish, mix all the above ingredients half an hour before cooking to allow time to marinate.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees / gas mark 4. Wrap the salmon in foil and place on a baking tray in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through and flaky

Enjoy :)

Fruity flapjacks

I have never made flapjacks before today, in fact, I was never really that keen on them before either, but these have completely blown me away! I looked up a few different recipes and decided on the ingredients that I thought would work best (and with what I had in the house!) These are prune flapjacks, but the prunes can easily be swapped for apricots, dates, cranberries etc. They are incredibly moist, yet still crispy and crunchy when you get an edge piece. I used mainly margarine so I was shocked that they tasted so satisfyingly bad for you and buttery - obviously they're still not particularly 'healthy' but the marg does help a bit... I nearly always say this about the recipes I post, but these really were so easy to make as well! A brilliant treat to make if you're having friends or family over, everyone's bound to love them. I would probably modify the recipe if I was making chocolate flapjacks because the textures would be different, but you could always try just swapping the dried fruit for chocolate chips although I don't know if the texture would be as perfect! I will definitely stick to this recipe in the future and make these again and again - hope you like them as much as me.

Makes about 9 flapjacks

- 125g margarine, plus extra for greasing

- 50g butter

- 75g soft, brown sugar

- 55g runny honey

- 100g dried prunes (pitted), chopped

- 40g mixed dried fruit (raisins, saltanas etc.)

- 1 tsp sesame seeds

- 1 tsp golden linseeds (flax)

- 225g oats

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees and grease a square or rectangular tin (e.g. 10.5 x 6.5 inches)

2. Over a low heat, melt the margarine, butter, sugar (leaving a little bit left) and honey in a pan, stirring until fully melted and the sugar dissolved.

3. Stir in the prunes, dried fruit, seeds and oats until fully mixed and coated.

4. Spoon the mixture into the tin, flattening with the back of a wooden spoon. Sprinkle over the remaining sugar and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

5. Remove from the oven and cut into squares/rectangles, and leave to cool in the tin.

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 :)

Easter nest crispy cakes

 These are really quick and easy Easter treats to make! Everyone has probably eaten or made a chocolate crispy cake before but I thought I would post a recipe that I used today so you can all whip these up tonight or tomorrow to finish off the Easter weekend nicely. They are not just for Easter however, these are yummy treats all year round, with or without the mini eggs. I used cornflakes but you can use any cereal really, such as rice crispies, special k etc. I used some summery cupcake cases to brighten these up and get in the Easter/spring spirit!

Makes about 8
- 30g butter
- 50g milk chocolate
- 25g dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp runny honey
- few handfuls of cornflakes (or other cereal)
- Cadbury's mini eggs, to decorate

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat.
2. Once melted, turn off the heat and stir in the sieved cocoa powder and honey.
3. Stir in handfuls of cornflakes at a time until completely coated in the chocolate mixture.
4. Spoon into cupcake cases, placing a mini egg in the middle of each.
5. Refrigerate for half an hour or until solid!

Enjoy :)

Chocolate smartie squares

Do you have a particular food that you associate with your childhood? Well, these are mine! My mum used to make these for parties and other special occasions, and I practically begged her for the recipe today. As a kid you can imagine how chocolate squares with bright smarties on top can be so exciting - and they still are... They are no-bake cakes - just need to set in the fridge so are really simple to whip up. They are great for making with children because they are easy and fun. They are also perfect treats for Easter if you don't want to splash out on a ton of expensive shop bought cakes and eggs. For Easter celebrations you could top with cadbury's mini eggs instead of smarties. If you're making these for a party or event with a large number of people then I would recommend doubling the recipe because they don't last for long! (In fact they're so good, my mum was reluctant to give the recipe away, haha)

Makes 16 squares

- 50g margarine

- 150g dark cooking chocolate, broken into pieces

- 2 tbsp runny honey

- 250g digestive biscuits, crushed

- 16 smarties

1. Line a square tin (7 inch) with grease proof paper, and grease with margarine. (make sure the paper sticks up out the sides of the tin as you will need to use this to grip when removing the squares from the tin)

2. Melt the margarine, chocolate and honey in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring occasionally.

3. Remove from the heat and add the biscuit crumbs, mixing thoroughly until coated.

4. Spoon into the tin and push down, smoothing the top. Mark into 16 squares with a sharp knife, and place a smartie in the centre of each.

5. Leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours, then break into the squares and serve.

Enjoy :)

Blueberry pancakes

These American-style pancakes are a perfect breakfast treat, or make a great brunch. I had never even eaten blueberry pancakes before today, so I was a little weary about making them, but everything went fine and they were delicious. The blueberries poking out of the batter in the pan makes it harder for the pancake to cook through, but if you squash them down it isn't a problem and the blueberries go warm and jam-like mmm. This recipe made about 10-12 pancakes so I heated the oven to keep them warm as the stack got higher and higher. I am ashamed to say that my boyfriend and I ate all of these between us with no struggles (food blogging is stretching my stomach!) I served them with a drizzle of honey and topped with some extra blueberries. We also had blueberry jam and crème-fraiche - the cold cream went perfectly with these warm fluffy pancakes, and it was the Sainsbury's 'be good to yourself' version yay. I definitely recommend making these! 

 Makes 10-12 pancakes
- 250g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 250ml milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 50g butter/margerine, melted - plus extra for frying
- 100g blueberries

To serve:
- honey or maple syrup
- blueberry jam
- blueberries
- crème fraiche

1. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

2. Combine the milk, eggs and melted butter in a jug. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together. Stir in the blueberries.

3. Heat a frying pan and add a small knob of butter. Ladle some batter into the pan and flip when the underside starts to go golden brown. 

4. Repeat until all the pancakes are done; keeping them warm on a plate in the oven until you have a huge stack of them.

5. Drizzle with honey or syrup, top with blueberries, and serve with crème fraiche.

Enjoy :)