Raspberry & Lime Yogurt Loaf

I was sitting bored one day, just browsing through different blogs and I came across The Goddess’s Kitchen and a yummy recipe for Blackberry and Cinnamon Yogurt Loaf.  So I marched off towards the hedgerows to pick myself some blackberries.  Unfortuately, someone else had found my secret spot and picked most of them before me.  Down but not out, I was determined to make this recipe.  So I headed back to the kitchen and raided my cupboard’s to come up with some alternatives.  There is a credit crunch going on people, we now need to excel in resourcefulness and creativity

So here is the result of my little experiment and very nice it was too!

Ingredients
125ml (4fl oz) sunflower oil, plus extra to grease
175g (6oz) plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
200g (7oz) fresh or frozen raspberries

125g (4oz)  caster sugar
4 tbsps of Lime Juice

4 tbsps of  dessicated coconut
125ml (4fl oz) Greek Yogurt
3 medium eggs, beaten
Icing sugar to dust (I didn’t do this because I was putting it into the freezer for another occasion!)

How to:

·         Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan over.  Grease a 900g/2lb tin

         (I use the 1Cal Sunflower oil spray to grease tins)

·         Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.

·         Whisk together the caster sugar, oil, eggs, coconut, yogurt and lime juice

·         Add the flour and baking powder and whisk until mixed through

·         Pour in the raspberries and mix (fold) with a spoon, being careful not to crush them.

·         Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 55 mins 

        (cover lightly with foil if the top is browning too quickly – great tip from The Goddess)

o   Lizzy’s Hint – how I know that my cakes or cupcakes are done is that I hold the tin up 

to my ear and if I can still hear a bubbling noise it needs a wee bit longer in the oven.

·         Allow the tin to cool and then remove from the tin

Lizzy's Rating - 3 out of 5

Chilli Prawns

I have a freezer full of food and I’m trying to cook with what I have, so on Friday night I used my cookery lifesaver BBC Recipe Finder.  This is a brilliant website.  You basically put up to 3 ingredients into the search engine and it gives you recipes with those ingredients in it.  It’s fabulous!

As I’ve been going through a bit of a prawn phase, here’s another fish recipe!  I didn’t have every ingredient in the BBC recipe, so here is my version of it.  It is not too spicy, but my “not too spicy” could be your “drinking gallons of water” spicy, so just change it to suit yourself. 

Sorry also for lack of pictures, it shows my lack of faith in how good this recipe was going to be.  If you make it, take a picture and send it to me!

Lizzy’s rating: 4 out of 5

Ingredients:

3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves, crushed

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped into wedges

Handful of frozen green beans
½ tbsp of ground ginger
1 tbsp of chilli flakes
200g/70z of cooked, frozen prawns
400ml/14fl oz hot vegetable stock
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp of lime juice
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water

 

To serve:

Brown Rice – follow instructions on the packet (jasmine rice would go better, bu I didn’t have any in my cupboard)

Method
1. Heat a wok over a high temperature and add the vegetable oil
2. Add the garlic, onion and pepper and stir fry for 30 seconds.
3. Pour in the hot vegetable stock.  Add the ginger and the chilli flakes and bring to the boil
4. Add the ketchup, light soy sauce and brown sugar and mix well.

5. Add the prawns and green beans and cook until hot
6. Add the lime juice and the blended cornflour. Cook until reduced and slightly thickened – about 5-8 minutes.
7. Ladle the prawns onto two serving plates and accompany with a portion of jasmine rice each. Garnish with a few sprigs of coriander and a wedge of lime (for the fancy pants among us!)

 

I made this when I had a really bad cold and it really helped – tasty and medicinal!

Little Gooey Chocolate Pots

It’s hard having no time, especially when you invite people around for dinner and need to cook them something you already have in your cupboard.  Recently I had friends over for dinner and wanted to make them a dessert that would knock their socks off them, but consisted of what I had already had in my kitchen.  No small task.  But the result was a sublime, chocolately, simple dessert that surprised even me!

Lizzy’s Rating: 1 million out of 5!

Ingredients

100g butter, plus extra for greasing
100g golden caster sugar (white caster sugar should also be fine)
100g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
2 Large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp self-raising flyour
icing sugar for dusting
1)    Grease 4 ramekin dishes and coat with caster sugar.
2)    Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof
vanilla ice cream, to serve
bowl and put into the microwave at a low setting until melted. Stir until smooth.  Leave to cool.
3)    Place the eggs, vanilla essence, caster sugar and flour in a bowl and whisk together
4)    Stir in the melted chocolate. Pour the mixture into the ramekin dishes and place on a baking tray
5)    Either put into the fridge until you are ready or place dishes in a pre-heated oven @ 200C for 12-15 minutes, or until the mixture is well risen and set on the outside, but a bit gooey on the inside.
6)    Set to the side for a 2 mins to cool, then dust with icing sugar and serve with ice-cream.

Voila! You are fantastic!

Mango Fish Curry

Hey Foodies

Sorry for the disappearance, I had a few technical problems, but I’m back with some delicious recipes. First up Mango Fish Curry. This is so simple to make, lower in fat and such a crowd pleaser!

Lizzy’s rating: 5 out of 5

Ingredients

4 small shallotts

1-2 tbsp Green Cutty Paste

200 ml of light coconut milk (if you don’t care about the calories use regular)

200ml Vegetable Stock

4 frozen white fish portions

King Prawns (cooked)

1 Large unripe mango

150g Green Beans

200g Jasmine Rice

How to …
1) Fry the shallots for 2-3 mins in a Wok or large frying pan
2) Add the curry past and cook for 1 min on a low heat
3) Add the coconut mil and bubble for 3 – 4 mins
4) Add the stock, fish, mango and green beans. Cover and cook for 10 mins or until fish is cooked and starting to break up.
5) Cook the rice according to the packet instructions
6) Uncover the curry and add the cooked Prawns. Cook for about 2-3 mins to allow the prawns to heat through.
7) Serve the curry with rice

Ham, Mozarella & Pesto Pizzas

Want to impress party guests with great finger food or a fabulous starter? This is for you. Every time I’ve used this recipe, people have been ultra-impressed and they’ve left believing I am a real-life Domestic Goddess (watch out Nigella!!) This is low prepartion, cooking, effort but high in taste and praise!

Lizzy’s rating: 5 out of 5

Ingredients

8 mini pitta breads
1 mozzarella ball
1 jar of Green Pesto
1 packet of wafer thin ham
Black Pepper

How to make this dish

1) Turn the grill to high, put the pittas under the grill and heat for about a minute on each side
2) Slice the mozzarella into 8
3) Spread 1 tsp of Green Pesto on each pitta and then top with a slice of mozzarella
4) Place the ham on top. Don’t lay it out flat, but make it look ruffled, to impress your guests even more
5) Grind black pepper over the top of each pizza
6) Return to the grill for 3 – 4 minutes until the cheese is melted
7) Serve and revel in the praise heaped upon you!
Disclaimer: This is not my recipe, I found it in a Good Food book that I bought in Waterstones.

Mango Chutney Chicken

It is amazing what you can make when the cupboards are bare and all you seem to have is a random collection of food that you think would never go together in a million years!!

This main dish is really tasty!! I like my Indian food to be sweet e.g. Korma, Tikka Masala etc and Mango Chutney Chicken is like an Indian version of Sweet and Sour. You can make this as mild or as hot as you like, depending on who you are making it for! This is a no-hassle dish to make, with a preparation and cooking time of under 40 minutes.

Lizzy’s rating: 3 out of 5

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 boneless Chicken Breasts (cut into chunks)
1 Jar of Mango Chutney (buy whatever
½ cup/125 ml Dry White Wine
2 gloves garlic (crushed/finely chopped)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp curry powder
3 tbsp All-purpose/Plain flour
2 tbsp Sunflower Oil
Rice – about 50g per person (basmati rice will add more flavour)
Naan Bread (optional – you can buy mini ones in the supermarket that you pop in the toaster for a couple of minutes)

How to:
1) Put the flour onto a plate and lightly coat your chunks of chicken in flour
2) Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan over a medium heat
3) Add chicken and cook until each side starts to go golden brown (about 3 – 4mins)
4) Mix the chutney, wine, garlic, salt and curry powder in a bowl
5) Pour chutney mix over chicken and reduce your eat to low
6) Cook chicken for 25-30 mins or until it isn’t pink in the centre. While the chicken is cooking, cook the rice, following the instructions on the packet (it really is that easy)
7) When both chicken and rice are cooked, serve to your impressed guests!

Easy as that. Let me know what you think.

There’s always time for treats

Modern life can take its toll on a girl.  All that working, socializing, volunteering, exercising and partying.  It’s hard but it has to be done.  This can take it’s toll on our over-worked bodies, especially when we add in a diet of eating out, take out and ready-meals.  

This blog is dedicated to fueling our hectic lives with fresh, nutritious, uber-tasty food that will not take too much out of our schedules.  These are tried and tested recipes, using ingredients you should be able to find in a normal supermarket and explained in terms that don’t require you to enrol in advanced cooking.

On the right-hand side of the blog, you will find classifications that will make it easy to find a little of what you fancy.

So tear up the take out menus, get off the couch, get into the kitchen and get cooking. In no time you will have cooked up a meal that will explode your taste buds and keep you going for another day!

Lizzy