Food| Remedies for colds.

As you might have guessed from the title, I'm feeling a little under the weather,  Christmas/ New Year blues has given me a cold.
Now, thankfully, its not a streaming cold where I completely feel like death, but is definitely enough to make me want to have all my nutrients and anything to help shake it.
This is where the wonder medicine of ginger comes into play. Now I have not always been a fan of raw ginger, to be honest I never really gave ginger much thought until the last couple of months- but it has become my SAVIOUR whenever I feel groggy.
Two drinks which have really helped me shake off this cold are nothing new and innovative but nonetheless;


Hot Lemon, Ginger and Honey:

Simply take an inch of Ginger and put in a boiling jug of 300ml of water for about 5/10 minutes. You then add either a couple of lemon slices or lemon juice with about 1 teaspoon of honey (you might like it sweeter its entirely up to you) then stir till its dissolved. I then more the contents into a mug and drink. The temperature is hot to lukewarm which I think is more soothing for a sore throat. You also can leave the ginger and lemon in the mug while you drink it, which creates more flavour or when you more it you can use a sieve- completely up to you.



Carrot, Apple, Orange and Ginger Juice:

I take two oranges, two carrots, 1 red apple and about an inch of ginger and simply put through a juicer to create this juice, it makes approximately about 1 glass. Alternatively, you can use a blender by peeling the carrots, juicing the oranges beforehand, cutting up the apple and ginger into thin slices and then blending with a small glass of water added to it. Once it is all blended, just put the mixture through the sieve and it leaves the juice. Either way, it is super simply.


                                                                   Love Kelly xxx

Food| Healthy snack.

Apple and Almond Butter.

Now I'm definitely a snacker and it has always been by biggest weakness. When I was younger I would always reach for the chocolate bars or biscuits. However as time has gone on I have learnt to snack more intelligently.
Todays snack post isn't anything fancy at all and infant is super symbol to make- only 2 ingredients.
Apple with almond butter on. Yes my Almond butter obsession still rallies on today.

Literally all you need to do is cut up your Apple into slices either quarter or 8th's and put a generous amount of almond butter spread over the top- this takes literally 2 minutes and I usually make it when I'm super hungry and can't be bothered to wait for food!

Super simple and super easy to make- something about the sweetness of the apple with the  nutty almond butter just seems to work.

                                                                   Happy snacking!
                                                                     

Food: Breakfast-Poached egg. 
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Good evening everyone, I just thought I share my breakfast I had today. As you know I usually go for a porridge, but if I'm being honest I have recently got bored of it, I think it's because it came my staple breakfast throughout winter having it 4 days a week. Its now time to venture out.
So instead I had poached egg on brown toast with a side of fruit. 
It was very delicious and kept me full until lunch time, I usually have 2 poached eggs but I ran over of eggs for that this morning (sigh!)
I think having fruit of strawberries (love how they are back in season), raspberries and grapes was a perfect little touch to the dish. 
I have found if I don't have some sort of fruit in the morning I feel like my breakfast is not fresh and new.

Hope you had a lovely day

Kelly 

xox

 Food: Healthy Easting in the Past Week 
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As you know I prefer healthy food compared to junk food, I just find it makes me feel better. Over the past week, I realised I have been eating a lot healthier than I have in the past. I think this is important, not forcing yourself to eat healthy but slowly getting into a healthy routine through by first healthy snacking then healthy breakfasts, dinners, lunches. 
I have taken pictures of everything I have eaten over the past week, but the 2 spontaneous photos are of some of the things I have been eating. 

Breakfast:
I usually have porridge made with almond milk and topped with fresh fruit. 

Porridge. 

Lunch:
Either Ryvita's, wraps or a salad (these include chicken, pepper, lettuce, cucumber) 

Salad with chicken and smoothie 

Dinner:
Stir fry's with chicken or just a plain vegetable one, salmon and vegetables or a pasta with a homemade sauce (freshly made) 

poached egg on my stir fry

Stir fry and quinoa 

Snacks:
Bevita biscuits or fruit and yoghurt. 

yoghurt and fruit

 Hope you had a good day

Kelly 

xox

Baking: Tanya Burr's White Chocolate cookies. 
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I love baking on a Sunday and today I made Tanya Burr's cookies (minus the milk chocolate) However, even though they were so so so good, they came out so big!! But nonetheless it doesn't matter what they look like its the taste that is important.
They were meant to be milk and white chocolate cookies, but I didn't have any milk chocolate at home so I thought I'd just do all white! 
However, instead of doing 200g of White chocolate and 200g of milk I just did 200g of White on its own, as I found that 400g of white chocolate might be a little sickly.
Altogether though, they were such nice cookies, and the perfect Sunday treat, however I do feel like I should go for a run or something now!! 
I would also say, make the cookies half the size of the photo below, because mine came out MASSIVE, which is a good thing but means they go so quickly!! 

Ingredients:
1)200g of butter
2) 300g of caster sugar
3) 1 Egg
4)325g of self raising flour
5) Milk (I added it, but only a teeny tiny amount if the mixture looks dry)
6)200g of white chocolate

I added the video from Youtube, which shows Tanya baking the cookies. 

Have a good day 

Kelly 

xox

Food: Homemade meatballs and Spaghetti. 

Another food post- I seem to be loving my food recently!!! This is one of my favourite meals I like to make for my family, and was probably the first meal I made on my own and completely from scratch (such a chef!) Ever since I was a child, I have loved cooking and recently started being a bit more adventurous, although this probably isn't the most adventurous meal; however it is fairly easy to make and quick so thats a bonus. 
I loving making food from scratch as I then know exactly what is in it, and can always put the best fresh ingredients in to the recipe to get the best flavours and make it as nutritious and healthy as possible. 
This recipe came from a Comfort Food Cookbook, and consist of fresh basil, glaric, onions, parsley. 
I love cooking Italian food, as its probably the only thing the whole family eats (as we are all fussy in our own special way) But nonetheless it is a very yummy dish to make,and usually theres too much for all of us to eat, so I freeze half of the food to have another day; basically getting 2 meals out of one recipe. 

Ingredients:
The Sauce: 
2X 400g of Tinned Tomatoes 
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic gloves (although I have learnt to just put 2 in) 
1 large onion
 Fresh basil 
Meatballs: 
250g of beef mince
25g of parmesan 
2 eggs 
100g of breadcrumbs  
10g of chopped parsley 
3 tablespoons of extra virgin Olive oil.  

Method: 
1)Added the tinned tomatoes, extra virgin oil, chopped up garlic gloves and onion into a saucepan and simmer for 40 minutes. 
2) Add all the meatball ingredients together and stir together with a wooden spoon, create the meats balls into walnut size balls and cook for 10 minutes and then turn over and cook for another 8 minutes in 180 degree oven temperature. 
3)Boil your pasta for however long you usually do (I had fresh pasta- so it only took 5 minutes) and then it should all be complete! 

The Sauce- after all ingrediants are added

The meatball 'mixture' 

The meatballs

The finish product (I did try and make it look pretty!)

Hope you had a good day!

Kelly 

oxo

Food: Porridge

I absolutely love breakfast, it is my favourite meal of the day; no idea why!! 
My favourite thing to have for breakfast especially in the colder months is porridge topped with fruit. 
It not only warms me up by also keeps me full for most of the day, and when travelling around London all day everyday, I don't like lugging around loads of food.
I have found the best results for a creamy porridge is soaking the oats and water overnight and then in the morning adding the milk.

Ingredients:
1)Half a cup of porridge oats
2)Half a cup of water
3) Half a cup of milk (this time I used almond milk- New Obsession!!) 
4)Then top with the fruit of your choice I usually like Banana, blueberries, raspberries, grapes. 

Method: 1) Measure out half a cup of oats and half a cup of water and soak in a saucepan, covered up overnight- I usually put a plate over the top. 
2) In the morning, measure out half a cup of milk (of your choice) and pour into the saucepan with the oats and water. 
3) Put the stove on a low heat and gently stir. 
4) Cut up your fruit in preparation while your porridge continues to heat up (stop occasionally to stir the porridge) 
5)Once the porridge starts to come together to form a thicker mixture, and there is heat coming off it, then take it off the heat. 

Serve in a bowl with your fruit on top and then enjoy! 

Hope you have a lovely day 

Kelly 

oxo