Friday Favourites: Healthy Recipes!

As you can imagine since starting my diet last Monday, I have been looking high and low for healthy recipes for Tim and I to eat. When looking for recipes I'm looking for things with a lot of fruit, vegetables and meat in there as we are allowed as much (within reason) as we like. Then maybe with a few extras (cheese) that we add onto our weekly pro-point count.

Pinterest has become my saviour when it comes to finding healthy recipes and I have already found so many that I will be able to use, and some I've already made. If you saw last week's Sum Up Sunday post then you will know that I made Banana pancakes, and also banana and oat cookies to help keep our sweet cravings away, and they were some of the nicest recipes I have tried. So this week I thought I would share with you some of my Pinterest healthy recipe finds!

Skinny Orange Chicken

The image above is the Skinny orange chicken, and don't you just want to dive in and eat it. Everything in this recipe is free for Tim and I to eat, so we could have a plate of this without jeopardising our diets, and plus we love food like this!

Mozzarella Dippers

I believe it was McDonalds that first got me hooked on Mozzarella dippers, and now every time they bring them out I have to have them as much as I can... Well, I used to... When I stumbled across this on Pinterest I squealed, now I can have healthy(er) Mozarella dippers without feeling guilty. Unfortunately neither of the 2 ingredients used in the making of these are on my 'Filling and Healthy' list, but I would happily spend a few pro-points on them!

Chimichangas

My god do I love Mexican food... These Chimichangas look so glorious, I practically dribbled when I saw this pin. I haven't had a chance to read the recipe for these yet, but I am assuming that I would only have to count the cheese in them towards my pro-points, because every thing else in the picture looks like it would probably be on the list.

Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls

Another mouthwatering picture, am I right? I love Chicken, I love it in breadcrumbs, and I love melted cheese, throw these three things together and you've got a winner for me. As soon as I saw this pin, I knew I would have to try it out. I would probably serve this with a small jacket potato and a side salad, and that would make the perfect (almost pro-point free) meal for Tim and I. 

Boiled Eggs

Technically it's hardly a recipe but I have been really craving boiled eggs... I've never even really liked runny yolks, but I want them so much. I hate to say this but I have never actually boiled an egg... If like me you haven't then Egg Recipes has some boiled egg recipes you can follow.

Banana Oat Cookies

Finally I thought I would share with you a recipe that I have already tried. One night last week Tim and I were desperately craving chocolate, so I whipped up these cookies, and at 1 pro-point each you cannot go wrong!

What your favourite recipe that you have ever stumbled across on Pinterest?

**Disclaimer: I own non of the photos in the above post, please follow the links provided to see the original content

Wishlist Wednesday: Recipe Books

Now we all know that I love baking.. I bang on about it enough, right? Well I was talking to a colleague today and she recommended a baking book to me, and I realised, I haven't had a look to see what baking books are on the market in a long time. One cheeky look later, and this wishlist was born.

1. The Great British Bake Off: Big Book of Baking: I love GBBO, I already own one of their books, so why wouldn't I want this one?
2. Mary Berry's Baking Bible: Mary Berry is my absolute baking idol, I seriously love this woman, I want every single book she has ever written. Seeing as this one is called her 'baking bible' I assume it's a must have!
3. Crumb: The Baking Book: To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of Ruby on last year's GBBO, but after seeing the 'Where are they now?' episode showing her book, I've been intrigued about it.
4. The Hummingbird Bakery: Home Sweet Home: I was recommended the other Hummingbird bakery book on this list by a work colleague, as mentioned above, so I thought why not put this in my list too.
5. The Great British Bake Off Christmas: Do I really need to explain this?
6. No-Bake Baking Book: This one really grabs my attention... as it's a baking book. containing things you don't actually have to bake... It blows my mind.
7. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: This is the book I was recommended by my colleague, and she says every single recipe she has tried from this book has turned out perfectly. Strong claims, so I think I need to try this one out for myself.
8. Mary Berry 100 Cakes and Bakes: 100 recipes from my baking idol? Yes please.
9. Peek-a-boo Cakes: This is another book that intrigued me. Recently I made a hidden chessboard cake, and it's made me want to try and make other cakes with hidden surprises. This book would certainly help me achieve that.

#BEDM 16: Schwartz Flavour Shots: Spanish Paella

Ever since I first tried the Flavour shots I have wanted to write about them, they are too good not to share, and I know that after reading this you will all rush out to grab some! 

The best thing about these flavour shots, is they all come with their own recipe inside! For this recipe you will need...

• 1 Schwartz Spanish Paella Flavour Shot
• 1 Onion, diced
• 100g Chorizo, sliced or diced
• 450g Chicken breast diced
• 325g Paella or rissotto rice
• 1 Litre of Water
• 1 Red Pepper, diced (Tim and I prefer sweet peppers)
• 100g Frozen peas

Firstly you have to stir the flavour shot and then spoon into the frying pan over a medium heat. The mix of spices already contains oil, so you don't need to add any.

Next you have to fry the onion and chorizo in the frying pan until they have been softened and brown lightly.

Then you need to add the chicken and fry it for 2-3 minutes, or until it's browned on all sides.

Then add the risotto rice and fry for a further minute, until it is covered in the spices, and is mixed thoroughly with the chicken, chorizo and onion.

Add the pepper and peas to the pan, stirring thoroughly to mix them. Once done, add the water to the pan and then bring to the boil whilst stirring regularly. Once boiling, turn down the heat, and then simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Once completed the paella should look something like this. You can serve it with a nice salad, or you can just serve it as is, which is what I tend to do, as it is so filling...

Let me know in the comments if you have enjoyed today's post, and whether you would like to see recipe posts in the future!

#BEDM 2: 5 Favourite Posts

Hello again all! Thank God it is Friday, I have a five day weekend this week, and I couldn't be more excited to not have to get up early on Monday morning!

Today's prompt is all about my favourite posts that I have written on this blog, and I really struggled to find just five to write about... but alas, here they are, in no particular order

1) Getting Personal: Heartbreak Hotel

I wrote this post when I was admitting to myself that I was struggling with a break-up, for someone that I had been holding on to for a long time. In fact I didn't really truly let go of them until I met my current boyfriend Tim. Even then I struggled. This post got quite a good response from other bloggers in support of everything I was talking about. So if you are struggling through a break-up then please give this a read.

2) Treasure Trails

This post was all about something a little bit nerdy, that I started doing last year with my Uni friends. The treasure trials are mysteries that encourage you to search out clues in whatever town you are in to solve the case. If this sounds interesting to you then please go and check out the post!

3) Easy Peasy Ice Cream

This is one of my favourite recipes that I ever made, but I haven't had a chance to make it again since! I will definitely have to get a shift on and do this again. It only has two basic ingredients, and then you can simply add what you want to flavour it with. My version was a snickers one!

4) #BloggersHalloween

I attended my first proper Blogger Meetup, and met lots of lovely girlies! As you may be able to guess by the photo above, it was a fancy dress party, and I went as a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who. I actually also won the costume contest, and won a Zombie experience for two, which I have yet to book actually... Don't worry I haven't forgotten! This was also around the time I started up my Youtube channel again (which I NEED to get back into), so there is a video accompanying this post.

5) Bliss in Bristol

This was one of my favourite posts to write.. Mainly as it's all about the first weekend away that Tim and I spent as Girlfriend and Boyfriend. We went to Bristol for a weekend, and got up to all manner of things, you'll have to read the post to see why it was such a great weekend!

So there we have it. My five favourite posts from my blog! I'd love to hear in the comments about what your favourite posts that I have written are...

Friday Favourites

Welcome back to my Friday Favourites, let's see what I've enjoyed this week!

I found this recipe for a microwave cookie for one on Tumblr... This is one of the reasons that I love the internet...

SMOSH posted an article to 24 awesome video game related Valentines cards... I especially love the Skyrim themed ones <3

Today I posted my first video on the Dynamic7 Collaboration channel that I organised! This weeks theme is Five Facts/Introductions. I'm going to be posting on the channel every Friday, so make sure to check that out!

My boyfriend got me this LED light for my birthday, that mounts onto my camera, and now my videos are looking better than ever! Next on the list is a microphone for sure!

Someone posted the cutest photoset on Tumblr of little duckies! It made my day when I stumbled upon it. Just look how cute they are!

Finally I stumbled across this super funny comic on 'How to pet a kitty'. Trust me you won't regret reading this...

So there we have it, those are the things that have been making me smile this week, I hope you enjoy those links! Please let me know what has been making you smile, in the comments.

Berkshire Bloggers do #SBBC: Favourite Recipe

via

One of my favourite things to cook is actually a recipe that I stumbled upon during my time as a vegetarian back in January. I found this recipe for Sweet Potato Risotto on Student Recipes, which I think is an amazing website for easy recipes, which are written by other students!

I've adapted the recipe slightly to suit my own tastes, so here is what you will need:

• Oil
• 1 Sweet potato
• Paprika
• 1/2 an onion, diced.
• 125g arobotio risotto rice
• White wine (half a glass)
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 300ml Vegetable stock
• 1/2 lemon
• Grated cheddar (as much as you like)

Method:

1. The sweet potato can roast whilst you cook the risotto. Chop it into bitesize pieces, coat them in oil, and stick them in the oven at 200 degrees. I normally set a timer for 20mins, as the potato is normally done by that time!
2. Heat some oil in a pan and add a little paprika, add the onion and fry.
3. Add the risotto rice, stirring continuously until it is coated in the oil.
4. Add the chopped garlic and stir.
5. Add the wine, and keep stirring until it has bubbled away, then reduce the heat.
6. Add the vegetable stock, little by little, waiting until the rice has soaked it up before adding more. (by this point the sweet potato is normally done, so take that out of the oven)
7. Keep cooking until all the stock is gone.
8. The rice should be soft, but it depends on how you like it!
9. Add the sweet potato and stir in the cheese.
10. ENJOY!

This recipe is so simple, and it really made me fall in love with risotto. Please let me know in the comments if you give this a go!

Easy Peasy Ice Cream!

I have always wanted to make my own ice cream, but I always thought you needed a fancy ice cream maker, and therefore have always been put off. I actually stumbled upon this blog post, from 'A Life of Geekery', and knew that I had to try it out straight away!

It's so simple to make, all you need is:

500ml Double Cream
400ml Condensed Milk

Also your choice of ingredients to put in it. I chose to put caramel and pieces of my favourite chocolate bars, Snickers!

Now to make the ice cream, just combine the cream and condensed milk in a bowl, and whisk until the mixture thickens. Then carefully fold in your chosen ingredients/sweeties. Finally place the mixture into a container and place in the freezer for about twelve hours.

As you can see from the picture above, instead of putting my caramel in the mixture, I marbled it throughout, mainly because I thought it looked pretty. My ice cream was set in 8 hours, and here's what it looks like:

I put a healthy dollop of the left over caramel on top, and it was good to go! A couple of things I would like to mention. Firstly, it is very sweet. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that it's sweet, but it may be too sweet for others. This can be remedied by using less condensed milk. Secondly, it's very hard to dish up straight from the freezer. I recommend that you remove it 10/15 minutes before you want to serve it. Other than that I was seriously blown away at how amazing this recipe is!

If you give it a go, feel free to tweet me pictures of your creations. I'd love to see them!