Delicious, nutritious smoothie

January is a great time to whack out the blender and detox with nutritious and delicious smoothies (but beware they do contain a lot of sugar) - and lucky for you, this one doesn't contain spinach or kale like my other recipes - although if you want a green kick then feel free to throw some in for extra nutrition!

I'm using Juice Plus Complete vanilla shake powder in mine as a nutritional supplement, so if you are a Juice Plus user then this is a great smoothie recipe for you, but most of you who don't have this, this smoothie is just as fab on its own and has a lovely sweet flavour - with four different fresh fruits, what could be a better way to start your day, or as a nutritious snack!?

Makes 1 large smoothie (about 500ml)

- 3-4 spoonfuls of low fat natural yogurt

- 1 banana, sliced

- 2 pineapple rings, chopped, plus some of the juice (use tinned pineapple)

- handful of blueberries (fresh or frozen)

- handful of raspberries (fresh or frozen)

- half a scoop of Juice Plus Complete vanilla flavour (optional)

- about 100ml of cold water (depending on how thick you like your smoothie)

1. Add the yogurt to the blender, then add the banana, pineapple (plus some of the juice) and the berries.

2. Add the Juice Plus powder if using (or any other supplement like protein etc.)

3. Top off with the cold water then blend for a minute, or until completely smooth!

Enjoy :)

Peach and raspberry smoothie

 It can be really difficult to get your 5-a-day - I know that I've noticed that most days I'm only reaching 3 and some days none at all! I used to be really focussed on eating lots of fruit & veg, but recently it has slipped my mind. I was really craving a sweet, fruity drink and since we didn't have any fresh fruit in the house I had to improvise. So there was no banana, no natural yogurt, no fruit juice - all the ingredients that always make up the base of my smoothies. Instead, I used an Activia fig yogurt, some milk, frozen raspberries and tinned peaches, and I'm glad I did, because it was scrummy! Really thick and sweet. It wasn't the healthiest of smoothies, since the Activia yogurt wasn't low fat, but you can use low fat yogurt if you choose. This only contained 2 of my 5-a-day, but with sweetcorn at lunch and two different veg with dinner I am there! And I will try to keep this up, will keep you all updated...

Makes 1 large smoothie
- dash of milk
- 100-150g frozen raspberries (not entirely sure of quantities!)
- 1 Activia fig yogurt (or any flavour, any brand etc.)
- 1/3 tin of peach halves


Simply blend everything together in a food processor, and pour into a glass! Drink, or use a spoon.

You can blend the raspberries from frozen, but I let them defrost for about 20 minutes first so there weren't bits of ice in my drink. Using frozen is perfect for getting the smoothie refreshingly cold.
Taste the smoothie as you make it, and stir to check the consistency - this way you can add any other ingredients to change the flavour or texture. For example, if you have plain natural yogurt you may need to sweeten the smoothie with some honey, or if it is too thick add some water or juice!

Enjoy :)

Chocolate creme oreo brownies

I very rarely bake brownies because I can never seem to get them the right texture or consistency. I baked some for a friends birthday and was adamant that they weren't cooked so I kept putting them back in the oven. Once cooled we were practically eating rocks - delicious rocks but still, the texture clearly wasn't right! Another time, I made some chocolate and raspberry brownies with my friends, which again, were delicious, but were far too gooey.

So anyway I decided to try and give it another go, but again, I struggled a lot with the consistency/texture of the brownies. I did turn the oven down but still I was left with sponge round the edges and goo in the middle. However, this is how most people like brownies and it is brilliant for a dessert hot out the oven with ice cream. But, it isn't the sort of brownie that can be easily cut up into squares and eaten over 2 or 3 days! Maybe I should stick to cupcakes...

**okay just realised the oven had broken halfway through cooking and I didn't even realise - long story! - these will cook fine in that case... oh student kitchens...**

Here is the recipe I used:
- 100g chocolate (I used cadburys milk chocolate giant buttons)
- 100g unsalted butter
- 200g caster sugar (soft brown sugar would have probably been better)
- 3 eggs
- 200g self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 pack of chocolate creme oreos, crushed

1. Melt the chocolate and the butter in a pan over a low heat.
2. Take off the heat and stir in the sugar and beaten egg.
3. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder and crushed oreos.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased baking tin.
5. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes - mine took so much longer so maybe turn the oven temperature down and adjust cooking time accordingly.
6. Leave to cool in the baking tin.

If you use soft brown sugar instead of caster, maybe some dark chocolate instead of milk, and your oven doesn't break halfway through then these would be perfect!

Enjoy!

Marbled meringue nests (Valentine's Day dessert)

Marbled Meringue Nests

Served with whipped cream, raspberry coulis, raspberries and blueberries, and a chocolate lattice

Mmmmmmmmmm is all I can say. I haven't made meringues in years but this was a success! I made everything from scratch; even whipping the cream, and it was all worth it. The raspberry coulis was particularly excellent.

Meringues (makes 4): 3 egg whites, 165g caster sugar, pink food colouring

- Whisk the egg whites until stiff, gradually add the caster sugar still whisking, until stiff and glossy

(Make sure you have an electric hand whisk or mixer because my hand even started to cramp with one; can't    imagine what hand whisking it would have been like!)

- Dollop the meringue mixture on to a baking try lined with grease-proof paper.

- Using a cocktail stick, swirl pink food colouring into each meringue to give a marbled effect.

- Cook for 40 mins on gas 1/2 and leave to cool in the oven once turned off (always cook more than you need because meringues are very fragile, they will crack!)

I also made my own raspberry coulis (just raspberries pressed through sieve with icing sugar), whipped some cream, added raspberries and blueberries, and made some chocolate decorations (i'm improving!.. i think) but you can do whatever decorations... this is what it looked like, I was so pleased :)

Oh and this is what the table looked like in the end:

Hope you enjoy the recipes! x