Sweet But Savoury, Perfect Parsnip Soup

Well, I've found my new favourite thing and it's soup-a parsnip-y. Sorry, christ, that was terrible. But funny. There's definitely a time and a place for a soup-d up pun (wow, another...really?) rarely, granted. But there's a time and place nonetheless.

This soup is a little sweet, but mainly savoury and very, very consumable. Perfect with a little seedy bagel, smothered in a lashing of Dairylea. Just yum-all-over-everything.

Here's how it's done. Do it. It needs to be done, etc etc etc.

This recipe makes enough for 6 good-sized servings.

Ingredients:

1500g parsnips, chopped
2272ml semi-skimmed milk
5 tbsp of clear honey
2 large knobs (mwa-ha-ha) of butter

Method:

1.) Put your butter and honey into a large pan and melt. Once melted place your chopped parsnips into the pan (they don't need to be peeled, huzzah, peeling veg is the bane of my life and I love for it to be avoided wherever possible.)
2.) Leave cooking on a relatively low heat, stirring every five minutes, for approximately 30 minutes. Perhaps slightly less if you use less parsnips, but cook until your parsnips have softened to touch.
3.) Entirely cover your parsnips with the milk and stir until butter, honey and milk are well combined with the parsnips.
4.) Leave to cook, stirring occasionally, for approximately 40 minutes, until the parsnips have almost perished.
5.) Blend all ingredients together (I used my treasured NutriBullet) before putting the liquid back into the pan and adding more milk, until it has reached that desired soupy consistency.
6.) Add salt and pepper and perhaps more honey, to taste. Serve and enjoy.

The Nutrigasm Group

Good afternoon all, I hope your Bank Holiday Monday is treating you well. Mine has led to me sitting on my iPad in the sunshine, blogging about yummy smoothies - so all's well from my end.

After a fair few weeks of hasty throwing-in-of-kale and overly keen amounts of spooky things like wheatgrass, aloe vera juice and matcha tea powder; I think I've finally cracked it. AKA, my smoothies are finally edible, healthy and making a real difference to the way I feel.

To save you all some time buying the Nutribullet, scrambling around for fresh ingredients that ultimately don't work together and holding your nose while you drink said smoothie, I thought I would provide you with four of my showstopping recipes. These four recipes have earnt themselves a place in the rather selective Nutrigasm Group, a group that only allows in smoothies that truly bring pleasure to the lives of their drinkers. As part of this group, the smoothie is entitled to add 'gasm' to the end of their titles, and forever shall be known as such.

Some of the following recipes offer comfort, some offer a strict purpose and some are for those of us looking for a little something different. Pick out the things you like, change what you don't and guzzle down whatever combination leaves you with. 

Let me know all your thoughts and, if any of you have any contenders for the Nutrigasm Group, please comment them below and I will happily blitz away and do various taste tests (it's a hard life, but someone's got to do it…)

The Super Greengasm

 Ingredients:

One whole red apple, peeled and chopped
One whole pear, peeled and chopped
10 slices of cucumber
1 hunk of ginger (you may also refer to this as your ginger hunk)
A handful of kale
A shot of aloe vera juice (optional, depending on whether or not you think you're hard enough)
Coconut water to the max line

The Ultimate Peanut Buttergasm

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp raw cacao powder

2 whole bananas, peeled and sliced

2 Tsp of Meridians organic peanut butter

Almond milk to the max line

Black Forest Gateaugasm

Ingredients:

Half a cup of frozen, sliced strawberries
Quarter cup of frozen raspberries
Quarter cup of sliced banana
1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
Almond milk to the max line

The Berry Rose Watergasm

Ingredients:

Half cup of raspberries
Quarter cup of blueberries
Quarter cup of bananas
2 Tsp of rose water
Water to the max line

These little cups of joy are sure to spice up your mornings - I always look forward to mine at around 10:00, just after the first manic working hour of my day has gone by - and please do let me know how you enjoy yours and how these concoctions go down in your world.

Until then, blast on and peace out Nutribulleters.

Creme Egg Frosted Brownies

Presumably if you're reading this post then you've found this post  via a chocolatey hashtag, meaning you're in search of tasty, calorific inspiration, so welcome, friend. Please come on in.

Each weekend I try to have a bake off, something that is impressive visually, or tasty or that makes my house smell heavenly - if I reach all three, then I've had a truly successful day. Today was that successful day. A day where Cadbury's Creme Eggs and Hummingbird Bakery's Frosted Brownies came together in a beautiful, unspeakable-amount-of-calories-but-such-great-fun, unison.

I'm about to share my recipe with you, which differs a little from Hummingbirds original recipe and, from what I can see, is far simpler than recipes I found online which insist you used the dreaded bain-marie and sift all ingredients. Show me a modern woman who still believes that a microwave doesn't do the same job as a bain-marie in half the time and that things actually need sifting and I'll show you my resting bitch face. A face which shows my disbelief and disinterest.

There is one bit of advice I will give you for these brownies, a thought which crossed my mind in this exact way while stood in the supermarket earlier on, (while shovelling enough Creme Eggs into my basket to begin to wonder whether I should have chosen a trolley instead and loudly exclaiming that I have a lot of cousins to think about for Easter, so people wouldn't believe each one was for my own purposes), you're baking Creme Egg brownies, CREME EGG ONES. One, two or even four Creme Eggs simply won't do, we don't want to hint at Creme Eggs, we want to explode Creme Eggs all over whichever unlucky, clean plate we have chosen to eat it off. We want Easter all up in and around our mouths and we don't want to explain, worry or doubt it.

Please use no less than ten Creme Eggs for this fondanty, chocolately dream, blame whatever happens to the middle of your body on me. I'm alright with that.

So, the recipe. Firstly, you will need:

For the brownie:

10 CREME EGGS (incase not already noted)
5 normal boring eggs
120g plain flour
100g cacao powder (I used raw, organic cacao powder because I had to give a nod to my health somewhere in there.)
250g salted butter (the unsalted butter thing is also a myth. Next time you crack open a recipe book, have a look at the ingredients, you'll often find unsalted butter and salt listed as two of the ingredients.)
30g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

For the frosting:

200g icing sugar
75g salted butter
30g cacao powder
150g cream cheese

Here comes my slap dash, Jamie Oliver (minus the lisp) method, which saves you a bunch of time and gets you a whopping slice on your plate an awful lot quicker.

Head your oven to 170 degrees (based on a fan oven) and line a baking tray (33 x 23 x 5cm) with greaseproof paper. If it doesn't fit, which it never does, and you don't want ugly corners, then just cut a square into each corner and you'll find that the paper sits perfectly.

Beat ALL ingredients, aside from the Creme Eggs, together in a bowl until there are no unsightly lumpy bits, it takes a good three minutes for this to happen, don't be put off.

Once this is done, spoon all your mixture into the baking tray and flatten off, ensuring the majority is even. Don't stress too much about this, as it warms up it flattens off anyway.

Bake for 15 minutes and take this opportunity to have some fun cutting up Creme Eggs, ready for brownie sacrifice.

Once your 15 minutes are up, take the brownie out and push your Creme Egg halves into the top of it. Bake for a further 15 minutes.

Once done, leave to cool completely before beating all your frosting ingredients together and spreading over the top of your brownie, like the ultimate chocolate spread on the ultimate chocolatey toast.

Cut up and impress everyone. You will make new friends with a slice of this brownie. Cake makes you popular.

Enjoy!

Nutribullet

For months now I've been seeing photos people who are actually managing to get horrible things such as kale and spinach and raw beetroot into their systems, with what I had assumed to be ironic hashtags such as #Yum and #Delicious.  I thought it was high time to see if my friends were trying to make us all feel bad for not eating veg, or whether there truly is a way to make salad enjoyable, so it's time to step forth and take a bullet and see how I get on.

I'll be posting recipes I try, good or bad, and be genuinely honest about whether this is a money making scheme or a waist-shaping tasty invention and ALL your comments, words of encouragement (especially on days when I'm downing things that are lurid green) and also any tasty recipes you have tried, will be welcome.