My new smoothie maker

Yesterday I was invited over to a friend's house for a "wii and juicing" party on the same night as the very first social of the year at university. It's obvious which option I went for. After having a glass of the juice she whipped up I decided that following our exam results, due to be released the following day, I would treat myself to a slightly cheaper smoothie maker that I had set my heart on. Unfortunately the results were delayed by three days, but I decided to buy the smoothie maker anyway because I was so desperate to try out some recipes!

The two that I have tried out so far are a cucumber, mango and ginger beauty, the other a peanut and banana smoothie. Both are super duper.

The quantities are for the 600ml smoothie maker I used; you may need to adjust accordingly! A lot of the quantities are halves of fruit BUT if you chop up the lot you can freeze it ready for the next time you want to make it! I'm excited already!

For the cucumber, mango and ginger juice you will need:
1/2 small cucumber (mine was home-grown which I felt added to my juicing excitement!)
1 cup frozen mango
A thumb sized piece of ginger
1/2 apple
1/2 pear
Squeeze of half a lime
A good splash of water

With my smoothie maker you need to add all the "soft" ingredients first and the harder ones nearer the blade, which attaches at the top. Blitz and enjoy! If you want to cool it more then you can throw in some ice cubes to create a slush as the juice is blended.

For the banana and peanut smoothie you will need:
1 banana
1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 tbsp full-fat greek yogurt
A good glug of milk
Handful of ice cubes

Throw all the ingredients into the blender and whoosh it up - using a nice peanut butter really adds to it too.

Comments

Beetroot soda bread

This is a super-simple loaf to make when you don't want to wait hours for it to prove. I love the pink-hue you get from adding beetroot to this loaf. It is a good loaf to make to use up the dregs of bags of flour. Beetroot soda bread Makes 1 loaf 300g beetroot (I used vacuum packed) 1 tsp fennel seeds 100ml plain full-fat yogurt 400g flour (I used 300g plain white and 100g wholemeal flour) 1 tsp sea salt 2 tsp baking powder 50g seeds (I used sesame) Preheat the oven to 220C. Puree the beetroot with the fennel and yogurt in a food processor until smooth. Mix the flour with the sea salt, baking powder and seeds. Fold the liquid beetroot mixture through this. As it comes together you can form into a ball with your hands but do not work too much or the finished loaf will be tough. Scatter some flour on a baking tray and place your ball of dough on top. You can add some more seeds to the top. Dust with flour and cut a deep cross into the top of...

Frozen yogurt breakfast bowl

I feel as if Instagram and Pinterest are awash with photos of breakfast bowls containing ingredients I just can't get my hands on in Wales (mail order acai berries anyone?) I did want to jump on the trend bandwagon however and so have been enjoying frozen yogurt breakfast bowls instead (sprinkled with some homemade granola of course - this batch has cashews rather than ginger in though). I make this in my smoothie maker - anything with the ability to blitz frozen fruit will do. I can thoroughly recommend this as a breakfast to get you kick-started in spring! To make 1 portion of frozen yogurt breakfast bowl you will need: A handful of frozen berries - the major supermarkets do this really well 1 banana 1 tablespoon of greek yogurt A splash of milk From experience of multiple attempts at this, you need to order the ingredients in the blender so that the banana and yogurt are nearest the blade (to create a kind of paste) with the frozen berries ...

Chilli chocolate birthday cake

On Wednesday it was my lovely friend Danny's birthday. I was invited to spend a long weekend with him and my favourite person, Emily, in Swansea. Danny's only request for his birthday cake was that it was "new flavours", which led to me and Emily baking Danny a chilli chocolate cake until 1am on Saturday morning. Little duckling sheltering from the Welsh weather The cake was enjoyed on Saturday evening with everyone and it was super - the chilli isn't spicy at all but just gives a depth to the chocolate flavour that makes the cake taste extra special. The icing doesn't have any chilli in either so it just makes for a lovely celebration cake! It's important to use a good quality chocolate with a high cocoa content as it is so much more delicious than a cheap slab of chocolate; this cake deserves that sort of quality. The recipe is based upon one you bake in a Le Creuset but we instead baked it in a cake tin and it turned out perfectly. By al...

Classic Caggs

Search This Blog