12 days of Christmas: Day 12, The Healthy Recipe

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's day one of sticking to New Years Resolutions so here is a healthy juice recipe to keep up with my goal: 'Be More Healthy'. This one is full of antioxidants which boost your immune system... no I'm not lying, Google it. I'll keep this one brief as I'm sure you're all tired and/or hungover. And also I don't think I need to tell you how to slice fruit.

You can also substitute the water with milk (skimmed for a healthy option) or fresh orange juice - but in case you missed the post on Day 10, I can't have milk any-more - and we didn't have any fresh orange juice in the house - so I'm using water. Ingredient measurements will vary depending on the size of your cup. I used a small Nutri-bullet container and this is what I used:

Ingredients:
1 banana
1/2 reed grapefruit
1 satsuma
100ml water/milk/juice
Ice (optional)

Method:
1. Cut it up, throw it in, blend and drink.

I hope you've enjoyed 12 days of Christmas 2015. Should I do it again next year?

Merry Blogmas and a Happy New Year!

12 days of Christmas: Day 10, What I'm Most Excited for 2016

THE PAST IS IN THE PAAAAAAAST, LET IT GO, LET IT GO...

Yep that's right, no more reflecting on 2015. It's time to look forward to the future and I'm starting with a list of things that I'm most excited for in 2016.

1. New job
I start my new job as a Marketing Intern on the 11th January. I'm so excited to be able to put all the theory I have learnt at University into practice. The internship may only be 12 weeks long but it puts my foot in the marketing door for when I graduate next year. This is like REAL life.

2. Return to University
Once the internship is over I get a loooong summer before I return to University in September for my final year. We just signed for our house for the year and it's SO nice! I'll also be taking my new car with me which will make the chore of food shopping a lot more bearable. I said this before and I can't believe I'm about to say it AGAIN but I actually can't wait to go back. Despite the stress and losing my head a few times, I'm very very excited to go back - because what's University if you don't have a few (a lot) of Hades moments? For those of you who don't know Hades:

photo source: disney.wikia.com

3. Adam and I have booked our first trip abroad (AHHHHHH!)
ERMAAAHGHERRRD. We literally only did it last night but Adam and I have booked our first trip abroad! We'll be visiting Deutschland in March to celebrate our one year anniversary. We have a bunch of stuff to look forward to before, including going to London to watch the fireworks for New Year but going AWAY AWAY together is  definitely what I am looking forward to the most.

4. Baking baking baking.
I GOT AN ELECTRIC MIXER FOR CHRISTMAS!!! The problem is... we did so much baking for the big day we still haven't eaten it all! Because of this, I haven't used it yet but I can't wait to get started, eeeeek. As well as the addition of the electric mixer, I have also recently developed an intolerance for dairy products (goodbye chocolate) which means my baking will have to adapt! It's kind of frustrating but it's made me SUPER excited to get experimental with some healthy bakes for 2016. I can't wait to share my recipes!

5. The Unknown.
Of course there will be so much more going on than the above but these are the main events so far. As the year goes on and new plans are made I'll be just as excited for those plans too! Life is what you make it.

I hope the more recent posts have let you know a little more about me. What are you most excited for in 2016? Tomorrow's post contains my New Years Resolutions, I wonder if I'll stick to them...

Ciao for now xo

12 days of Christmas: Day 2, The Christmas Bake

Love Christmas but not a fan of the Christmas pud? No problem. These no-bake Oreo cake pops are just the thing you need to tingle those taste-buds! Because Christmas is a time where we all have the lowest bank balance, with just two ingredients, these scrummy cake pops won't break the bank either. AND because Christmas is also a busy time for all of us, these cake pops are one of my quickest 'bakes' yet - ruling out the chill time, they take less than 30 minutes.

ALTERNATIVES:
If you don't have the cake pop moulds, sticks, or holders, don't worry, you can leave them as they are for the perfect Christmas party finger food. There are other alternatives for this recipe too - I usually make them with cream cheese but as these were for dessert for my boyfriend and I - and as Adam doesn't like cheese (who doesn't like cheese?) - I substituted the cream cheese with double cream. Another alternative is that I separated the Oreo biscuit from the cream in an attempt to make it a little less messy - it's not totally necessary if you don't have the time. Finally - you can put the Oreos in a food processor or blender - but for me 'it was my moms in the eighties' and the noise it makes terrifies me.

Here are the photos from this weeks bake:

Separate the cookies from the cream (optional)

Bash the cookies into crumbs

Add the crumbs to the Oreo cream before adding the double cream or cream cheese

 Mix into a paste

WARNING: It gets MESSY

Tah-dah!

RECIPE:
Ingredients:
24 Oreos 
100ml of double cream (or about half a pack of cream cheese)

Icing sugar
Water

Method:
1. Separate the Oreo biscuit from the cream. Place the biscuit in a strong clear bag - like a freezer bag - and seal (or in the blender). Put the cream into a mixing bowl for later.
2. Using something solid - I used a rolling pin - bash the biscuits up into fine crumbs (or blend into fine crumbs).
3. Pour the crumbs into the mixing bowl with the Oreo cream and add the double cream or cream cheese.
4. Roll the mixture into small balls and place in the fridge to chill - if your balls are too big they will fall off the cake pop!. They should chill for a minimum of two hours but probably best to do this overnight.
5. Once they have cooled, use the icing to replicate a Christmas pudding - for the holly leaves I cheated and used Regal Icing - you can make your own or similar to my blood-filled Halloween cakes - use an inedible decoration.

Halloween Bake on a Budget: Blood-filled Cupcakes

Having a Halloween party tonight? Don't worry, there's still a little time for a last minute bake! Taking inspiration from Tanya Burr's chocolate cupcakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49WvunWX7mc) I decided to try my very own blood-filled bake and have written it down which will hopefully make it easy for you to follow. Having done pretty bank-breaking-bakes previously, I tried to make this as cheap as possible and have also added a few 'cheats' for a quicker process and less washing up...smiles all round! Disclaimer: The spider is not edible. 

Here are the photos from this weeks bake:

 The finished product! The spiders are from Hobby Craft and are £1 for 50.

 CHEAT! for less washing up, use an apple corer for your 'blood'.

 Oops... Maybe there was more washing up than I first thought!

Ingredients:
Cakes:
225 g butter (softened)
225 g brown caster sugar
225 g plain flour
4 eggs
2 caps vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Filling:
12 tsp Raspberry Jam

Icing:
200 g butter (softened)
400 g icing sugar
2 caps marshmallow flavouring
1 pea sized scoop of orange food colouring

Method: 
Cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C (170 C fan oven). Place cupcake cases into tin.
2. Stir together the butter and sugar to create a soft mixture. Add the flour and the eggs.
3. Mix in the vanilla extract and milk and stir out any lumps leftover.
4. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
5. Leave to cool for about an hour.
6. (This is the cheaty bit) Following the pictures above, take an apple corer and 'de-core' your cake - be careful not to hit the bottom or the blood will fall out the other end! Spoon some blood (raspberry jam) into the hole and place the top back on to hide the spook-tacular surprise! Alternatively, if you don't have an apple corer, place the jam in a piping bag and pipe the jam inside the cakes.

Icing: 
1. Place the butter in a bowl and stir until smooth. 
2. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and mix together. If you're adapting the recipe in any way, make sure you always have twice as much icing sugar than butter - this will keep the shape when it comes to piping!
3. Add the food colouring and stir until evenly covered and a smooth texture.
3. Pipe on your icing in a circular motion and top with spooky decoration!

Trying this recipe yourself? Don't forget to tag me in your photos! Happy Halloween.

PETA: The Great Vegan Bake Off - Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie Jars

Peta are running the Great Vegan Bake Off for the third consecutive year and after succeeding in making my own recipe for Orange and Cranberry crinkle cookies (see this month's posts) I decided to try it again to demonstrate my support for the radical animal rights charity! 

As an avid chocolate lover, plain chocolate was the first thing I could think of when pondering vegan foods and after finding Lindt Coconut Excellence on the chocolate aisle, I decided to base my recipe around the little bar of lusciousness. To further emphasise the coconut flavour, I added coconut oil as a substitute for butter - I even made my own flour by putting oats in a food processor my parents received for their wedding 25 years ago (can you believe it still works???)

I chose to make the cookie jars individually as in a rush of excitement I bought (non-oven-proof) glass jars... oops! So to check that the glass wouldn't explode in the heat, I made them one by one. If you want to try them for yourself, the recipe below provides ingredients per jar so if you want to make one for an evening snack you can... or if you want to make 50 for a party you can just multipy the measurements by 50.

Ingredients (to make one jar):
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. caster sugar
45g ground almonds
85g oats
2 tbsp. coconut oil
40g lindt excellence dark chocolate coconut squares

Method:
1. Mix together the baking powder, caster sugar and ground almonds.

2. Weigh the oats and pour them into a food processor to grind into a flour consistency and add it to the mixture.

3. Stir in the coconut oil to make into a sticky dough and add the chocolate.

4. Put the mixture into oven-proof jars or make into teaspoon size cookies (optional).

5. Bake in the oven at 160 C for 20 minutes. Eat up!

                  

Orange & Cranberry Crinkle Cookies

'Lemon Crinkle Cookies' aren't really my thing but when I came across a recipe for them on cookingclassy.com they sounded too delicious to ignore... so I switched a few of the ingredients and made my own version - Orange and Cranberry Crinkle Cookies.

Aside from the obvious changes to the recipe (lemon = orange and cranberry) I also switched from granulated sugar to brown caster sugar. This is mainly down to personal preference - but I'm going on holiday in 3 days and will be wearing a bikini most of the time so brown sugar > white sugar (every little helps).

This was the first time I have ever used 'cups' as a form of measurement - it didn't go as badly as I first imagined... but a little bit of the ingredients were lost each time you transferred containers and I used the same 'cup' each time so I had to clean it each time I added something - it was a lot of faffing basically! For this reason, I think I'll stick to more precise measurements and a weighing scale in the future - or maybe purchase some proper weighing cups so I don't have to keep washing up? Mason Cash have some really cute ones, hmm...

Here are a few snaps from this week's bake - add me on snapchat to see more baking blunders: oh_annah.

I made sure I took a photo before they went into the oven because my 'cookies' always turn into 'cookie pie'. 

As well as turning into a cookie pie... this time the 'pie' also went a little crispy round the edges -  so I attempted to save the soft centre while still making them look pretty with a heart shaped cutter.

Ta-dah! Despite the many dramas, while baking, these cookies made the whole house smell like Christmas (the cranberries were coated in cinnamon). 

Give them a try for yourself... do you know how to keep your cookies 'cookies' and not 'cookie pie'?  I have translated the measurements from cups to grams to hopefully make it easier for you to follow.

Ingredients:

160 g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

150 g unsalted butter

250 g caster sugar

5 tsp orange extract

2 eggs

1/2 vanilla extract

10 g cranberries (approximate)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan oven) and lightly coat your pan with low-fat butter

2. Separating the 'wet' and 'dry' ingredients: in one bowl mix together the plain flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the butter, sugar and orange extract until the mixture becomes pale and smooth.

3. To avoid curdling - add one egg to the 'wet' ingredients, and one to the 'dry' ingredients before stirring the two mixtures together. Add the cranberries.

4. Using a teaspoon, scoop the mixture onto the baking tray to make little cookie dough balls. Bake at 180 C for 20 minutes until golden. Eat up!

Easy as 1, 2, 3 Lemon and Honey Face Mask

The weekend is almost here... and what better time to revive your skin than after a long week at work?

With a mini weekend break coming up myself, I want to look and feel as good as possible - which can be a little difficult after a few early shifts at work! A pamper night was a must... but half-way through the night I discovered I had used all my face masks (whoops). Not wanting to interrupt relaxation time with a trip to the store - and with a tight budget - I thought I might as well have a go at making one from scratch.

I took a risk and decided to improvise and make my own recipe. To keep things simple, I selected just 3 ingredients: honey, lemon and sugar. As well as relieving the symptoms of a bad cold, honey and lemon also make a fabulous skin soothing combo: they're both proven to clear acne - and lemon also has a tonne of vitamins which illuminate the skin and even reduce the appearance of scars. The sugar, on the other hand, is purely for exfoliation purposes - coffee grains are also really good for this, but I didn't think the smell would blend so well with the honey and lemon.

Admittedly it wasn't as good as a good shop-bought face mask - it was a little runny and expectedly sticky - but the recipe is so simple and after the face mask, my skin felt a lot smoother and it genuinely left me feeling a lot more lively than my 5.30 am start would imply.

Try the face mask for yourself and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:
 (relaxed measurements)
1 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Lemon
1 tsp Sugar
2 slices cucumber

Method:
1. Pour the honey in a small container and heat until luke-warm
2. Add the lemon and sugar
3. Apply a generous layer to your skin
4. Cover each eye with a slice of cucumber for extra revitalisation (and a tasty post-pamper snack!)