Spiced Blood Orange Infusion

As much as I adore mulled wine I have been trying to cut down on my alcohol intake for a while now, so I need a good alternative for the winter.



You will need:
125g Blood Orange Pure Fruit Tea - The best is from Wilkinson's of Norwich.
1 Cinnamon stick broken into small pieces
1tsp Cloves, crushed
1tsp Black peppercorns, crushed
1tsp Cardomom seeds (not the green pods, the bits inside), crushed
¼ Nutmeg, grated

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, ensuring the spices are evenly distributed. Pack into a dry jar until required. A few weeks will allow the spices to mix an mellow a bit.
Allow ½ dessert spoon of tea per cup. Ideally make it in a teapot and allow to steep for 5 minutes before straining into cups or mugs. If you like a sweeter drink add a little honey or brown sugar and a drop of vanilla essence.

Tuna & Vegetable Couscous

Sandwiches can be so dull. This week I decided to make a Mediterranean inspired tuna couscous for me, the Mr and the kid to enjoy for lunch (even though we'll all be eating it in different places!) Sorry I can't give amounts, I always guesstimate.

Ingredients
Couscous
Vegetable boullion (I use Marigold, but Knorr or Oxo might do)
Aubergine
Courgette
Yellow Pepper
Mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes
Olives
Feta
Tinned tuna (I use Reel Fish because it's responsibly sourced and tastier than most other brands)
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Fresh mint
Lemon juice

Method

1. Pour as much couscous as you need into a big bowl with a teaspoon of boullion/stock powder and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak in for 5 minutes before fluffing up with a fork.
2. Cut the feta into chunks and add to the couscous along with the olives, fresh mint, a squeeze of lemon juice and the tuna.
3. Slice all your vegetables, brush with a mixture of olive and sesame oils and char on the griddle until tender. You'll need to do this in batches, and you'll need to open a window too as it can get quite smoky!
4. When the vegetables are cooked and cooled, slice them a bit smaller if you like before adding to the cous-cous.
5. Mix it all up, add a load of black pepper, salt if needed and perhaps a squeeze more lemon juice.
6. Delicious for lunch with a cup of peppermint tea.

Domestic Goddess in the Making

Embo Parko runs her own blog Swirlyface and also contributes to lifestyle site SinSins World. She's a domestic goddess in the making and bakes the second best cakes in the world. (OK, they might be the best but I'm Bunn The Baker, I've got to say I'm better!)

I was the least domesticated person I know. Yes, I cleaned and tidied up etc, but when it came to knitting/baking/domesticated things I was not ‘in the know’. I am a single woman of 29, completely independent, I don’t have kids to bake for either, so I basically felt like breaking the stereotype of the typical ‘at home baker’.

I made my first batch of cupcakes only a few months ago and they looked like this:

8 of the Healthiest Long-Life Foods Your Body Will Love

The team who work at Gracewell Healthcare know the importance of maintaining a healthy work/
life balance. However, they have also learnt that it's hard to keep up a healthy diet when you are
constantly on the move. It's for this reason that they've come up with this list of foods that are long
lasting, high in nutritional value and easily stored in different areas of the home or office.

Organic Oats – Pantry

The best way of starting a busy day is to enjoy a bowl of granola, with delicious organic oats. You can store this type of food in the pantry for anywhere up to 3 months. The beta-glucan fibre found within the oats will keep your levels of serum cholesterol down, so that you are at a reduced risk of heart attacks and atherosclerosis.

Flamenco Eggs

Flamenco /eggs

This meal is perfect for when you haven't got much in the cupboards. You can use any old left-over veg, just make sure to add plenty of paprika!

Tee-Total Time

Image Credit

I used to be quite a heavy drinker, I guess a lot of students are though. It always seemed perfectly acceptable to have a bottle of vodka before going out, shots and 99p bottles of fizzy e-numbers before somehow managing to make it home in one piece. I've had some close calls, I was beaten up by a rapist whilst drunkenly stumbling home in 2002, luckily a passer by saved me from what could have happened.

A few years ago I decided to really cut down on my consumption. Several nights where I could literally only remember the first two drinks then all's a blank until I woke up in bed, fully clothed, feeling like I was dying of death.

Since then I've still been drinking alcohol, and I've certainly had a few crazy nights and bleary memories. Recently I've started to notice just how bad my body feels even after just a few drinks. I get lethargic for days, headaches, dehydrated, tummy aches and really really grouchy.

So when @millwall_embo decided to quit drinking for the rest of the year I thought perhaps I'd join her for a while. For the next month (at least) I'm going to be a tee-totaler. I'm going to join some of the greats like Muhammad Ali, Brian Blessed and Catherine Tate. I'm not saying it's going to be forever, just for now.

Vegan Breakfast Smoothie

I'm not a big fan of eating in the mornings so a smoothie is the perfect option. This is my current favourite...

Ingredients
1 banana
handful frozen berries
a few leaves of chard (or spinach)
Soya/Rice/Coconut milk
Protein powder & instant oats (optional)

Method
Put all the ingredients in a blender and whizz. Keep adding soya milk until you get to the consistency you want - I like mine quite thick. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

What's so good?
Bananas - full of slow releasing carbohydrates for energy, potassium to keep your blood pressure down and loads of vitamin B6 to help boost the immune system.
Berries - packed with anti-oxidants for clear skin and vitamin c to boost your immune system even more.
Chard - loads and loads of vitamins!

Vegetable Lasagne

You can use whatever vegetables you like for this. I had a massive sweet potato hanging around which went beautifully with the (optional) sharp goats cheese on top.

Vegetarian Mince Stroganoff

This is a delicious veggie alternative to the gorgeous beef dish. Serve with rice or pasta for a filling evening meal.

Frugal Friday: Meal Plans

I get home, ask the Mr "What's for dinner?" and get the shoulder-shrugging response of "You tell me!".

Veggie Sausage Stuffing

Roast dinners can be tough when you're cooking for a vegetarian. Often the meat will just be replaced with stuffing, which is yummy, but doesn't really provide the required protein. So, yesterday I came up with a delicious vegetarian sausage stuffing. I used Linda McCartney sausages, but I think it would work well with others. Enjoy!

5 Easy Steps to Healthy Living

After deciding to ditch the chemicals in my cosmetics cupboard it felt a bit silly to not give my diet a bit of an overhaul too. I've never bothered much about what I eat, thinking Pot Noodle and a Diet Coke is a perfectly acceptable lunch most of my life. When I started to really think about things though, there's an awful lot of rubbish in what we eat. I remember looking at a flapjack in the local shop, made locally by a local company. It contained 23 different e-numbers. When I make flapjacks there's only about 5 ingredients.

So, I made some changes. And what have I found? I'm happier, my skin looks better and I have more energy. Here's how you can get those same benefits.

Striped Cake

You may remember me from previous cakes such as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake last year. This year I didn't really have the time to go all out so made a rich chocolate sponge which I sandwiched and covered with buttercream (no-where near enough of it according to the Mr) and then covered in stripes of fondant.

Linky Saturday: Petite Cake Balls

I had a beautiful tower of cupcakes at my wedding, but then, these days, who doesn't? I'll tell you who, anyone who's seen these! Petite Cake Balls make beautiful little golf-ball-sized cakes and decorate them however you like. They're great for weddings, baby showers, corporate events... anything! Very different and very cool. Browse their website to see some amazing designs. I love the Elmo & Angry Birds ones particularly.

Tasty Friday: Banana Oat Muffins

I wanted a special breakfast to make the mornings easier to bear so thought I'd try making some banana oat muffins.

Tasty Friday: Celeriac Soup

In an effort to be healthy and save money I've been taking soup to work in my flask every day, but I realised that tinned soups are just horrible. We got a celeriac recently in our Riverford veg box and after seeing a recipe for celeriac soup on the River Cottage site I thought I'd give my own version a go!

Tasty Friday: Pumpkin Cake

We get a lovely veg box each week from Riverford full of tasty, organic food. A few months ago we got sent a gorgeous big pumpkin (I'm not certain what variety it was, but similar to ironbark in the picture!) and recently I finally decided to make something with it.

Pumpkin Fact: Some varieties can last up to a year in storage! You can save them up and eat them at times other than Halloween you know...

Tasty Friday: Pickled Shallots

We get a vegetable box delivered every week and, sometimes, we manage to eat it all. Recently we were sent loads of little shallots and decided to pickle them.

Shallots - prepare to be pickled!

Tasty Friday: Hot Toddy Porridge

It's really cold isn't it?! Warm yourself up with my hot toddy porridge!

Tasty Friday: Mulled Wine

All you need on a cold winter's night is a big mug of steaming hot mulled wine.