Cheesy Spring Vegetable Quiche With Potato Crust

More Green than a salad (and much tastier)

Hellooooooooooooo friends,

I know spring is officially over and I should be posting about summer and ice cream and BBQs and smoothies but before all of that, just hear me out (there will always be time for BBQs). Whilst it may be June, the weather is still anybody’s guess. For those of you who aren’t in England, I’ll put it this way; early last week there was so much rain that a bunch of roads flooded making getting to work more like a trip down splash mountain yet by Sunday it was so sunny and hot that my friend Katy’s arms decided to sport a wonderfully bold shade of lobster red, meanwhile I sweated enough to potentially be classed as a contributing factor towards the Arctic’s rising sea levels. It’s not the melting ice caps, it’s me.

Sorry about that.

Hence, as we are still transitioning into summer, today’s little recipe is full of typical spring ingredients but fear not, if you fancy an attempt at a picnic or BBQ outside, this lightened up quiche will still be a perfect accompaniment.

Another reason that I’ve still got spring on the brain is actually because of a very special reason. Recently my parents (down in the distant land of Devon) made the joyous and slightly surprising decision to get a puppy! Well I say ‘surprising’ but Mum has wanted another dog for ages and we all knew it was just a matter of time until dad caved. In fact, when mum said that they were going for a viewing we basically told dad to kiss goodbye to the concept of half-hour long ‘plodding’ walks with tally (the mature canine of the family) along with both a urine-free living room floor and socks that haven’t been chewed into pulp.

In the space of only a week mum and dad went from pondering over pooches to proud puppy parents.

And here’s the little chap that’s joined the family, happily introducing Ziggy.

‘Hello, very nice to meet you, please allow me to jump around and vibrate with pure excitement before eating dad’s plants and attempting to face hug those cats’.

I actually have a frightening compulsion to bite his face, he’s just so cute, damn it!

But what has this got to do with spring?

Well, Ziggy is an English Springer Spaniel (just like Tally). Wheeeeyyyy! *nudge, nudge*

As the name suggests, this breed in particular are one of the most excitable, hyper, bouncy and energetic. However, we think Tally may be defective because even though she was slightly full of beans when she was younger, she now resides and head moody cow in my parents abode. She honestly makes Victor Meldrew look like a power puff girl. She’s still loveable though, albeit in her own sort of way.Hopefully Ziggy will be loveable too. I’m sure he will be but just to be 100% sure Tasha and I decided that the best course of action would be to take a brief road trip this weekend to visit the family and meet the little ball of marshmallow squidge ourselves.

Now, going to Devon for two days on a week’s notice just to visit a puppy may seem a little irresponsible to some, but I can justify it. In the space of a week, my parents actually contemplated visited, picked out and brought home a puppy. I actually think by comparison, I’m not too bad. I also made Quiche and if that doesn’t scream responsible adult/middle aged mother at a church fete than I don’t know what does. 

And speaking of responsible – let’s talk about this quiche

(Honestly, who writes this stuff? Well that would be me…)

This warm- weathered classic is made out of whole-food ingredients and has been lightened up a bit with a few undetectable subs. Firstly,  I  replaced some of the yolks with extra egg whites - not because yolks are bad, in fact they’re one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet and are packed full of healthy fats and protein but Grandad has to watch his cholesterol levels and there is such a thing as too much yolk when it comes to that.

Secondly, I passed on the fat filled pastry (despite it being oh so wonderful) and made the crust out of…wait for it…

…well you don’t actually have to, it’s in the title of the post…

…you could save time and just scroll up to see for yourself…

…it’s literally at the top of the page…

…ok fine I’ll say it again…

…Potatoes!!!

Yep, good old fashioned spuds, they worked wonders for this and were so easy to work with. I think sweet potatoes (one of my eternal loves) would also be amazing in this recipe.

Finally, to top off this the healthful aspect of this spring pie it’s also chocked to the brim full of vegetables. So, if you want your 5 a day without the bowl of salad or green smoothie, this is a great option.

Easy, vegetarian, fresh and lean, it’s the perfect way to see in the summer. Goodbye spring, hello springers! J

Cheesy Spring Vegetable Quiche

Serves 6

Crust Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Optional: any other desired herbs/seasonings 

Filling Ingredients:

• 2 whole eggs + 4 egg whites (you can mix it up here and use 4 whole eggs or 8 egg whites or whatever combination you fancy – I like a bit of yolky goodness so opted for a split)
• 1/3 cup almond milk (any milk will work)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 1 cup chopped asparagus
• 1 diced white onion
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 cup chopped rocket
• A small handful of chopped parsley
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 30g grated mature cheddar (you only need about 1 serving’s worth)

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).
• Grate the potatoes (you can save time if you have a potato shredder attachment on your food processor – I didn’t and used this as my ‘bicep training’ excuse for the day).
• Place the shredded potato into an old (but clean) towel and wrap it up tightly, twisting and squeezing to ring out any excess liquid.
• Place in a bowl and stir through your seasonings before spraying down a baking paper lined circular pie dish with either cooking spray or oil and pressing the potato into it. Try to make the layer even, covering both the bottom and the sides.
• Spray the top of the crust lightly with some cooking spray/oil and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden and starting to crisp at the edges.
• Whilst the crust is baking, you can chop up the veggies (if you haven’t already done so and sauté them in a sprayed pan over medium heat just till the peas are no longer frozen and the onion is translucent. Remove from the heat after 5 minutes or so and set aside.
• In a bowl, combine the eggs, almond milk, garlic powder, mustard powder and salt/pepper if desired. Mix the ingredients together well before adding in the slightly cooled vegetables.
• Remove the crust from the oven when it is ready and pour in the filling. Sprinkle over the cheese and return to the oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before cutting and devouring. 

Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble Tart

Ooooohhhh Tarty! 

Hello chums and happy June to you!

Shitake! It’s basically summer! I hope you’re all ready for holidays abroad, family BBQs and extensive trips to the beach…

…Oh you’re not? Well don’t worry, real life doesn’t allow for those sorts of things anyway – at least not all the time ;)

Actually that’s not entirely true. You see, once you reach the age of retirement you can pretty much do whatever you want and nobody can stop you. My Nan for example only has to walk onto a bus and cough for everybody to then throw themselves onto the floor, offering up their seats as if she were a great deity. She’s not a deity but she is a complete boss. Another perk of being on the planet for longer than most other people is that you can go on lots of holidays if you choose. And I mean Lots.  My grandparents are away for probably 1/3 of the year at least and are currently embarking on their annual trend of being away caravanning at least once a month, every month until the autumn comes.

I meanwhile have been left the confines of the bungalow (a harsh image of reality) and charged with watering the garden plants.

Super.

Oh I’m such a moaning Myrtle, it’s not so bad really and there are even lots of fresh strawberries and rhubarb currently on offer so I guess I have nothing to really complain about – except for the fact that something is repeatedly trying to dig them up. I’m not sure who the pesky fructose fiend is but my suspicions lie with the squirrel who used to taunt me on the washing line…Maude. Stick to your nuts Maude! Does he not know these are my my grandparent’s strawberries?

What a knob.

Anyway not to worry, I have a plan. I’m just going to start harvesting everything before he can get his squirrely paws on it, simple and what better time to begin fruit picking than when you have a good recipe in mind.

Crumble.

For those of you who don’t know. I love crumble – I think it’s deliciously warming, it’s comfortingly cosy and it’s so wonderfully simple to make that I have been known to go through an entire one to myself… in the space of three days. Is that too much crumble? No, there is no such thing.

In fact, I actually think it’s quite acceptable to have crumble for breakfast, especially when it’s made out of wholesome healthy ingredients.

Traditional crumble recipes with all the butter, sugar and refined flour are fine in moderation but as I like to eat it a bit more than ' in moderation' this wouldn’t really be fueling my body correctly. Over the years I have found a few tricks to lighten up one of my favourite deserts and now save my Nan’s buttery, sugar laden puds as treats for when I want to indulge in some classic guiltless comfort. Nout wrong with that!

Here are some of my top tips for crumbling (a term used by many to refer to the act of making a crumble i.e. the crumbler began crumbling away in the kitchen, for everyone knew that crumble was the most respected of all the puds):

• Use a healthy fat source be it coconut oil, rape seed oil or even clarified butter etc and then cut the amount down by ½- 2/3. Replacing the fat with a binder like unsweetened apple sauce can significantly reduce the amount required in a recipe whilst still keeping the crumble topping moist and crumbly preventing it from being too dry.
• Use oat, whole wheat, spelt, buckwheat, coconut or some other whole grain flour as opposed to refined white flour to provide added nutrients and fibre.
• Change how you sweeten up the crumble. I tend to use truvia (as I do with a lot of my cooking) which is a natural sweetener comprised of stevia leaf extract and erythritol (a natural sugar alcohol). It’s not an artificial/chemical based sweetener, is virtually zero calorie and has a much lower glycaemic index for consumers. Other low calorie alternatives to white sugar are xylitol, monk fruit extract or pure stevia extract. Some other more natural sugar alternatives are coconut sugar, maple syrup and raw honey, although bear in mind these have just as much sugar as the regular refined variety but you do get a whole host of nutrient benefits that the plain old white stuff simply lacks.
• Instead of corn flour/starch I now tend to thicken the fruit mix with chia seeds for added omegas, extra fibre (we love the fibre), B vitamins, minerals, protein… the list goes on. Eat chia seeds, they’re awesome.

There we go, we’re now all set to begin crumbling (yay). There is only one slight issue. This time of year when it tends to either get a bit sunnier or instead very muggy, crumbles can be a bit heavy as a desert option. Traditionally they’re more of a autumn/winter dish kind of thing.

Meep.

Don’t worry though, luckily for us crumble is also one of those great foods that can be eaten cold (just like pizza) and are sometimes even better then the warm counterpart.

Hence I decided to make this crumble into a tart/bar format which can be cut up and made portable for picnics and what not. Yes, this crumble is a summer-ised version.

It’s light but filling,

It’s comforting but not heavy,
And I have been most certainly having this for breakfast quite regularly.

I hope you enjoy this crumble, it’s a great way to use up any leftover seasonal fruits or in my case save them from dietary confused tree rodents.

Don’t get me wrong, I love squirrels.

But stay away from my fruit B****!

Ta-ra for now.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble Tart

Serves 6-8

Crumble mix ingredients:

• 2 cups oats flour (just grind up oats in a food processor till flour like, it’s so much cheaper than buying a shop brand) or whole wheat flour.
• ¼ cup truvia or granulated sweetener of choice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Filling ingredients:

• 300g chopped rhubarb
• 200g chopped strawberries
• ¼ cup truvia or sweetener of choice
• ¼ cup water
• 1-2 tbsp chia seeds

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan oven) – roughly 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Combine all of the dry crumble ingredients together in one bowl and all of the wet ingredients in another before pressing 2/3 of the mixture into a baking dish lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray or lightly greased with oil/butter. Set aside.
• In a saucepan over a medium-high heat, combine the water, rhubarb and ¼ cup of truvia stirring well for 5-10 minutes or until the rhubarb has softened and broken down.
• Add in the strawberries and the chia seeds before removing from the heat and allowing to thicken for 5 minutes.
• Top the crumble/dough with the fruit filling and press over the last 1/3 of the crumble on top. You have now made a crumble tart – congratu-well done!
• Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes (keep an eye on it – when the top goes golden brown and slightly darker at the edges, it’s time to pull it out).
• Allow to cool completely (preferably overnight) before cutting into slices/bars and nomming down on. 

Crumble hard my friends, crumble hard.

Three-Ingredient Pea and Mint Soup

Easy Peasy – no, like really, anyone could make this.

Hello all,

Good news, it actually is starting to get warmer in the UK. I no longer need to wear three layers at work and last Saturday I wore shorts – outside of the bungalow! And whist the sight may have made several small children cry and one elderly lady go into shock, it was still great to get the legs out and absorb some vitamin D. I’m now good to go for another week. I’m all charged up like a starfish.

Yes, summer is right around the corner and what says summer more than a light, refreshing, thirst quenching bowl of…

…warm soup?

Believe it or not I haven’t gone mad (despite what my work colleagues might argue) and in this state of transitional weather we are in, it is still perfectly acceptable to be dining on soup for lunch. It’s actually a written law, I’m sure it is. I just haven’t found where it’s written yet.

Whilst often considered more suitable for the colder months of the year, soup can be a perfect addition to any spring/summer lunch especially when made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. What’s even better is when said bowl of fresh, seasonal soup can be made with only three ingredients and take a mere 15 minutes to make.

The main player in this trio – peas! I suppose that isn’t really a surprise considering that it’s called pea so…

Frozen peas to be precise are what make up the bulk of this recipe and don’t be put off by the fact that they’re frozen. Vegetables that are frozen are usually done so close to the time of harvesting and hence will still contain high levels of nutrients. Frozen veggies are also usually cheap to buy and are long-lasting (providing they’re kept in the freezer of course) making them an easy way to get some added goodness into your meals. Me and my friends Amy and Katy always use peas as our staple veggie when eating round each other’s houses because 1) they’re easy to cook, 2) they taste good and 3) it’s fun to play ‘the peas may end up on your plate or they may end up on the floor due to their spherical shape and tendency to roll’. Tis a thrilling game.

High in fibre, B vitamins and vitamin K as well being a dense source of plant based protein; these little green wrinkly balls (don’t call them that) make a wonderful star ingredient. Chuck in some fresh mint leaves for aiding digestion and promoting oral health as well and you’ve got a classic combination of flavours that tastes amazing and also packs a nutritional punch.

Today’s mint comes straight from my Nan’s herb garden, harvested by oneself on an afternoon where the weather was in a particularly good mood. It’s not technically stealing because I ate said mint leaves after adding them into the soup so it’s actually more like active herbivory. If the caterpillars are going to do it then so am I!

The last featured ingredient in this soup is its liquid base which helps bind the peas and the mint together and combine their bold flavours. I use a vegetable stock by the brand Kallo for this recipe which according to the packaging was also organic. That’s nice.  

They say that good things come in three’s and I wholeheartedly hope you’ll find that this soup supports this saying. In fact, I would go as far to say that this soup could be used as evidence in court if that saying’s authenticity were ever to be placed under trial.

Other acceptable forms of evidence would be:

• Harry (peas), Ron (stock) and Hermione (mint – obviously as her parents were dentists)
• Sonic (peas), Knuckles (stock) and Tails (mint)
• Beyonce Knowles (peas), Kelly Rowland (mint) and the other one (stock)

Anyway, enough with the power of three already, here’s the recipe for this minted pea soup. Quick, easy and delicious, you’ll never need to buy a can of Heinz again.

Pea and Mint Soup

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
• 500g frozen peas
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

Optional: some almond milk, water or additional stock to adjust thickness

Optional: salt and pepper to taste (I found that because I was using regular stock, I didn’t require any extra salt)

Instructions:

1. Either add liquid stock straight into a saucepan over a medium heat or mix a stock cube with 500ml of boiling water and stir till dissolved before adding to a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil before reducing heat to a low simmer and then add in the frozen peas. Allow to cook for 5-10 minutes or until the peas are tender.
3. After peas are thawed, add the contents of the saucepan into a blender along with the mint and any additional seasonings if desired. Blend into a delightfully green (quite close to Grinch shade) smooth liquid and if the consistency is too thick for your liking free to thin it out with some additional milk/water.

Voila! Soup is served!!!

Oh look, it only took three steps to make as well… how completely coincidental. 

Eating Greece Part 2!!!

Part 2: Palouki  

Lovely Ellen with me in the guise of a tramp

 Yassas everybody! (Attempt at sounding Greek is now bordering into becoming offensive)

Hope you all had a good old fashioned lazy Sunday yesterday. I most certainly did… except for training legs – complete killer. Actually since exercising my lower body more I’ve had a lot more lazy Sundays based on the fact that I can’t physically walk anymore and I now spend a good deal of my time lying down, waiting for someone to bring me green tea and occasionally sobbing ‘my thighs….’

Anyway, you didn’t click on this page to hear about my sore groin and if you did thank you, I’m flattered but this isn’t that kind of blog. Hopefully you’re here because you’re interested about what me and my freckly friend Ellen got up to on the second half of our trip to Greece along with the bunch of the lovely things that I managed to stuff into my facial gullet during this time. If you’re not interested in that then please feel free to just have a browse around, maybe you’ll find something you like… Guilt free cookie dough per say? Naughteeehhh (not really though). Also if you haven’t read part 1 or would like to, it’s right here.

Right then, on with the Greek goodness!

Pre-warning there were both some huge food highs and lows over the three days we spent on the coast. Think the ride Stealth at Thorpe Park. 

Day 1 (or 4 if you’re counting the whole week)

Our final morning in Athens was started with an early fuel up of porridge (I am going to have to join an oats anonymous group as soon as possible) before making our way to the bus stop to begin the 4 ½ hour ride to Amaliada. This seems like quite long time I know but after travelling around Europe last year and spending an entire night crammed into a tiny, humid, sweaty train carriage with a bunch of irritated Croatian people and children that didn’t understand the concept of sleep, this bus journey really wasn’t too challenging.

Although, we must have looked really touristy (we did have a map and phrase book on display – the shame) because everybody of Greek Nationality kept offering us tons of advice, directions and guidance throughout the trip. Actually over the course of the entire holiday, I think all of the Greek people we encountered were extremely kind, courteous and helpful. Snaps for Greece.

However, despite being an easy ride the timing of our journey did mean that we missed lunch and I had to resort to snacking on some salted pistachios in order to stay alive. Luckily though we soon arrived and were greeted at the bus stop by our host’s mother Helen who was just the epitome of a lovingly loud and expressive Greek mum. She drove us back to the apartment in Palouki and explained a little bit about the area’s history/culture en-route (she was a fully qualified tour guide would you believe?) and by the time we pulled up to where we would be spending our last few days in the country, we were pretty clued up.

As you can see the apartments looked as if they had been stolen off of a post card and we were beyond smug. There were oranges growing in the garden along with lemons literally the size of my head… or maybe my head is just the size of a lemon; either way there was all of the citrus. I did in fact sample an orange and it tasted like what I would expect the blood of the xenomorph out of Alien to taste like – Sharp! Sadly my mouth rejected it.

We decided that it would be a great time to explore the area and trekked the 20 minute walk down to the beach to find a taverna to grab some dinner. This plan seemed to make wonderful sense in our heads except for the fact that we didn’t take into account that it was off-season and hence everywhere was pretty much abandoned. After a long day of travel and not eating a lot, the hanger began to set in but luckily I calmed myself by taking some pretty pictures. Simple things for simple minds they say.

Back at the apartment I went for a shower and whist doing so Helen brought over some bread from the local bakery along with a plate of homemade Easter Cookies also known as Koulourakia – an egg/butter/flour based fluffy biscuit. They were delicious! I had one of them immediately after my shower which set me into a great mood. Everything would be fine we had cookies! However,  our lack of other food supplies and isolated location meant that dinner had to consist of a bowl of my leftover porridge oats brought over from Athens (because I couldn’t leave them there like a normal person) followed by some plain whole-wheat linguine (also from Athens). I was getting poverty meal flashbacks from University all over again. After eating we went to bed, ready for an early start the following day.

Day 2 (or 5)

Breakfast this day was some bread, more pistachios and another cookie. Call me Carbara Streisand. We were given a lift by Helen and her husband (who didn’t speak English but continued to talk to me as if I understood him – I didn’t) back to Amaliada where we caught a bus to Pyrgos before getting another to Olympia. The trip took a few hours and we made a smart decision after exploring the Olympic village a little to sit at a nice café and order lunch before heading to the ruins.

I opted for a simple chicken salad which probably contained the entire cast of Chicken Run, it really was huge! 1 1/3 mutant chicken breasts (I left the 1/3) a bed of green leaves, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, olives, feta, olive oil, lemon juice – it was all of the Greek good stuff on steroids and it left me quite full if I do say so.

Finally we made our way over to Ancient Olympia and started with the Archaelogical museum. We gazed in awe at the metopes from the nearby temple of Zeus depicting the 12 labours of Herakles (Hercules is the roman name – feel like Disney lied to me a bit there).  My favourite was the depiction of the Cretan bull, like so dynamic. We also saw the temple’s ex-pediments, one showing a battle between Lapiths and some horny centaurs, and the other showing a scene before the infamous chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos. Spoiler alert – Pelops crushed it.

Olympia just as good as it was 10000 years ago

Super impressed with how big it was...

We then spent the cool afternoon in the ruins admiring the Temple of Zeus (which used to hold one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – a 13m tall statue of the main man himself), the temple of Hera, the gymnasium and of course the ancient stadium.  I’ll admit that once or twice I did break out into ‘Zero to Hero’ but luckily Ellen was on hand to prevent me from going for the whole rendition.  After spending a good few hours in Olympia we headed back to the bus stop where we met an adorable pooch, whom I christened Gert.

just the cutest face in history!

Finally we made it back to Amaliada several hours later but unfortunately despite being a fairly substantial city we couldn’t find anywhere to eat. We picked up some things from a mini market with all of  the intention of cooking, however when we got back to the apartment St Helen had saved us the trouble and had left us a traditional Greek meal of stuffed peppers and tomatoes with rice, aubergine and courgettes along with some potatoes sautéed in olive oil. What a Godsend! We paired it with some of the greens we got in town and it was a brilliant way to end the day.

Day 3 (or 6)

So our last full day in Greece arrived and we hadn’t really planned anything, well what we had planned was a lazy day, so that’s kind of what we did. Breakfast consisted of some more pistachios, a huge apple, some Fage Greek yoghurt (had to whilst I was there)… and another cookie. I was on holiday, no judgement please.

We explored the beach again and were pleased to find some other forms of life this time. In fact I was so pleased that I gave chase to a speedo-clad man whom I thought could be a potential husband… but he got away.

By midday, we had made our way back and took Helen up on an offer she made to visit her local church. Considering it was the Greek Orthodox Easter Friday, we thought it would be a great chance to learn a bit more about the culture. When we got there Helen explained a bit more about traditions revolving around this holiday (which is a much bigger deal than Christmas for the Greeks). On Friday, it is believed to be the anniversary of the death of Christ (similar to Christianity); hence an effigy in the church is adorned with flowers and black ribbons to symbolize mourning. On the Saturday evening these ribbons would be replaced with red ones to show Christ ascending to meet his father and then the celebrations would begin.

Ooooh I love a good old knees up me!

In all seriousness though, it was a lovely thing for Helen to share with us and although not religious ourselves, we each lit a candle and enjoyed the sentiment of the holiday and how peaceful the church and its people were on this special day of the year.

After this we returned home and made lunch which featured tuna sandwiches with sweet corn and salad before simply chilling out, enjoying the weather, showering and packing for the next day. A game of Cards against humanity may have also slipped in there at some point because we’re terrible people and before too long we cooked up a simple supper of orzo, sweet corn, onions, tinned chopped tomatoes and peppers - the mini market’s finest – and we got an early night as we had to be up at six. Well, at least we tried to get an early night as by this point a lot of the other guests had arrived late and were celebrating the Easter holiday like any good Greeks would – loudly ;)

There is not too much to say about the next morning other than we got up early and headed off in a taxi to the airport. Before we knew it we were back in England and our little adventure had come to an end. The week went by far too quickly but I enjoyed every second, even when I lost my wallet. I was also very happy that Ellen got to experience one of her favourite places in the world and that I was there to do it with her.

There is an ancient custom in Greece called Xenia (governed over by none other than Zeus – Guy has fingers in a lot of pies) whereby hosts must always act hospitably towards their guests. I think it’s fair to say that the help and kindness we were shown for the entire seven days whilst we were away was nothing short of this. All the people we interacted with (particularly Helen and her Husband) were extremely friendly and accommodating, most definitely doing the tradition of Xenia justice. I think it goes to show that even though a lot of Greece is in ruins at the moment (both in terms of its historical sites and current economical crisis) the traditions and values of its people are still standing tall and will most likely do so for a very long time.    

Greece, both I and my taste buds thank you.

Until the next time,

Antio.

x

Carrot Cake Smoothie!

All the taste of cake (in a cup)

Hi sorry it’s been a while since I last posted, I ermmm am getting back into the swing of work life still. Can I use that excuse again? Yeah, why not.

Today, I am sneaking in a little recipe before I post the second half of the recap about my trip to Greece. Holding off on a ‘part 2’ post? I’m such a naughty blogger or maybe I’m just an unproductive blogger - either way I haven’t finished writing the second Greece post yet hence today’s recipe. Don’t worry though it’s a good ‘un I promise.  

I also think today’s treat is reasonably relevant for those of you living in the south of England at the moment as you may have noticed that (dare I say it and curse us all) the weather has taken a slight turn for the better recently…

Kind of …

Maybe not…

Actually we don’t really know but it’s not as cold as it was about a month ago and that we’re certain of. I’m going to try and take a little credit for this as I believe that Ellen and I may have pulled a greater heist than the Italian Job and managed to steal part of Greece’s sun. What? They have it all the time; they won’t miss it for a few weeks. You know, sharing is caring and all that.

Anyway, with slightly warmer weather comes the appropriate time to start making smoothies (note: It is always an acceptable time to make smoothies) and since we are still in spring and not quite into the height of summer yet, I thought it would be the perfect time to share an Easter throw back recipe featuring some more seasonal goodies (carrots) and a personal favourite food (cake) amalgamated together into a refreshing drink that tastes just like decadent desert (but in a cup). Yes it’s the carrot cake smoothie!

Extremely easy to make and ridiculously wonderful to glug, this smoothie will put a bunny-like spring into your step at any time of the day. It literally tastes like cake; sweet, rich and creamy but somehow refreshing at the same time. Plus, as carrot cake is my favourite species of cake, I have no shame in saying that I’ve been having this daily. Every day is the perfect day for cake flavour.

Not to go on about all of the benefits from the wholesome, healthy ingredients in this magical elixir but in particular those carrots are packed with a bunch of beta-carotene and will hence provide a big dose of Vitamin A to:

• Enhance your eyesight (our mum’s weren’t lying to us)
• Promote your immunity function
• Improve your skin
• Aid your digestion
• And maintain your heart health

Ooooooh benefits!

Grab a blender, steal your rabbit’s carrots and prepare for cakey goodness (but still in a cup).

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice

1/2 frozen diced (ripe) banana

1 cup of washed, diced (and maybe peeled) carrots (roughly 2 medium sized ones) Smooth operator tip: use frozen carrots for a cooler and thicker textured beverage.

3 chopped dates or 1-2 tsp sweetener of choice e.g. coconut sugar, stevia/truvia, honey, maple syrup or agave etc. I find the fruit enough for me but make sure you sweeten to taste.  

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ginger (a teeny bit)

1/8 tsp nutmeg (a tiny bit)

Optional (not really optional) toppings: some chopped walnuts and desiccated coconut

Smooth criminal tip: add in some ice cubes to thicken your drink up even more! You can also bulk out your smoothie with oats, nut butters, yoghurt or avocado for maximum creaminess.

Instructions:

This can be a bit tricky but put everything (except the toppings) into a high speed blender and blitz them till combined.

Smooth radio tip: allow the frozen banana (and frozen carrots if using) to thaw for 5-10 minutes before blending and also add your milk in first. It just makes life a little easier for your blender and we all want an easy life don’t we?

Serve in your favourite mug, cup, glass or jar and sprinkle on any toppings you desire.

Drink and be grateful for spring… and cake.

Talk again soon ;)

   

 Fact of the day: Mel Blanc, the voice behind Bugs Bunny reportedly didn’t actually like carrots.

That’s basically sacrilege. 

Eating Greece!!!

Part 1: Athens 

Hi guys,

So I’m back from a wonderful week in Greece with my close buddy Ellen (a.k.a. The freckle of my life) and am pleased to announce that whilst we didn’t break any plates or yell ‘Opa!’ at any of the locals, we most definitely absorbed all of the Greek culture in the same way that baklava will soak up a slick of honey. I thought I’d run a bit of a recap about our seven days in this lively country and also focus on  some of the Greek Cuisine I managed to stuff into my face. That does mean no recipe for today but as this post will be in two parts, I’ll jam one in before putting out part 2 – that ok with you? We good? Good. Ok then without any further waffling (mmm waffles) let’s get on with what we did (and mostly ate) in Athens! Think of this as a Feed me Seymour Friday post but on a Monday…

…and featuring a lot more food.

Oh and its Greek food.

From Greece.

???

Let’s begin!

Day 1

As with a lot of things in life, the beginning events of our trip did not get off to the best of starts. An early Sunday morning (5:45 am) flight tempted us to decide that sleeping is over-rated and for the weak and hence we stayed up all of Saturday night.

It turns out I am weak and sleep is highly preferred if not essential.

We arrived at Gatwick airport around midnight and the next 5-6 hours were spent surviving off of coffee, nuts and fruit. As a result, I pretty much transformed into a squirrel on crack – a bit like Scrat out of Ice Age. To add to the fun of being oh so very tired, the strict hand luggage measures meant that we had to get rid of some of our toiletries so they would fit in the airport’s plastic bags and to say that these bags were probably only big enough to hold Donald Trump’s imagination paints an accurate picture of what little we had to work with. Honestly, they were tiny; I had bigger bags under my eyes.

During this predicament I was also confused for a woman (despite the beard) multiple times by the same guy. He even had the male chauvinistic audacity to call say ‘love, that won’t all fit in’.  Love!? I’ll give you ‘love’ sunshine, a load of love straight from my Doc Martin towards your jaw line!

*takes a few moments and eats a banana*

Any-who, once we got on the plane all was good, an attractive guy accidentally coughed in my face (my idea of a holiday romance) and I managed to get some sleep.

The view from our apartment balcony :)

When we arrived in Athens, for a brief moment everything seemed set up to go perfectly in the sense that the weather was ideal, the scenery was beyond picturesque and we managed to find our apartment without any problems.

Happy faces - so innocently unaware...

Unfortunately somewhere between arriving in the county and reaching our destination, I managed to either lose my wallet or get pick-pocketed by a crafty snitch monkey - logic or rather my lack of suggests it was the first option. A few hours of trying to get our phones to connect with a network, frantically using Facebook to ask the family for advice and sorting out cancelling my cards with the bank meant that come evening all I really fancied doing was eating (surprise, surprise) and napping. So that’s what we did and it was one of the best naps I’ve ever had. We cooked up some tuna pasta with whole wheat linguine, tomatoes, sweet corn, spinach, peppers and onions and it was nice enough to put me into a good coma for the night.     

Sometimes, basic bitch is the way to go with dinner.

Day 2

After a brilliant night’s sleep, we awoke and had breakfast at the apartment and if you know me, breakfast always makes me happy no matter what predicaments have occurred the day before. The evening prior we visited the local mini market and picked up some things for the week in order to help us not spend all of our money on eating out at every meal. I picked up a bag of oats which also had some cheeky dried blueberries, cranberries, goji berries and small shavings of dark chocolate mixed in. Cheekeeeeeh! I had this for a fair few of my breakfasts during the trip and topped it with either strawberries or plums (or both) because fruit is all of the health. There was also Green tea at the apartment. Praise!

We sorted out our bus tickets to Palouki for Wednesday (after about two hours of searching for the right place to buy them – nailing tourism) and then we went out for Lunch in Plaka at a place called Diogenes. After raving about Souvlaki in last week’s post I decided to see how this dish was served traditionally and hence ordered a very simple chicken souvlaki with potatoes, courgettes, peppers and carrots (in lots of olive oil and lemon juice) – Yum! It was simplicity at its best and surprisingly filling considering the portion was quite moderate. Plus it wasn’t too expensive either so, triple win!

After lunch we visited the acropolis museum before braving the ancient acropolis itself and managing to see all the ancient structures including the magnificent Parthenon dedicated to Athena, the Erechtheion dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon (said to be the housing place of the mythical fountain bestowed upon the people of Athens by the God of the sea himself), the theatre of Dionysus, the temple of Athena Nike and of course the grand entrance - the Propylaea.

Athena's pad

 

A piece of driftwood Me at the entrance of the acropolis

 

A view of the site from Areopagus Hill (the hill of Ares) - of which the climb nearly resulted in broken ankles/death

We then explored Plaka a little more, caught a glimpse of Hadrian’s Library because when we tourist, we tourist hard before returning our tired feet back to our apartment in Attiki and creating what can only be described as a carb-bowl featuring more linguine, spinach, roasted sweet potato and a sauce made of tinned tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, onions and oregano. Complete carbinal sin and I wasn’t even sorry.

A nice bit of street art in Plaka

Give me those carbs!

Day 3

On our last full day in Athens, we woke up (as you do in the morning) and I had the standard porridge and fruit breakfast. The fact that I actually went abroad and bought oats only reaffirms that I have a serious addiction/problem. I just love the stodge!

Anyway we visited the temple of Olympian Zeus with its lovely Corinthian style columns well as Hadrian’s arch before heading back into Plaka to find somewhere to eat. It wasn’t long before found a great restaurant with an outside seating area; it seemed rude not to try and make the most of the sunshine as physically possible. 

Zeus' crib

The waiter told us that as it was approaching Easter (a big holiday for Greek Orthodox followers) traditionally people didn’t consume meats and dairy etc until Easter Sunday instead relying more on vegetables, grains and fish – true Mediterranean style. We could of course have had whatever we wanted off of the menu regardless but I decided to go full on Greek and sample a culinary favourite, calamari stuffed with rice and vegetables served alongside some paprika potatoes, mixed leaves and an aubergine salad. It was probably one of the best things I ate this holiday and despite being Ellen’s idea of a nightmare on a plate – she doesn’t like whole seafood #hecklethefreckle - it was my idea of heaven.

Yep, the squid came whole

 

Wait are we in Greece or LA?

After this brilliant meal, we explored the beautiful National Gardens with its seemingly abandoned ‘zoo’ and escapee tortoises before going back to the apartment, getting all jazzed up and then returning to the restaurant Diogenes for a full three course Greek extravaganza! We snacked on olives with bread and tzatziki to start with before I attacked an entire grilled Sea Bream with steamed vegetables whilst Ellen took down the souvlaki and finally we shared a piece of apple pie and a traditional piece of Greek walnut ‘pie’ (it was more like a kind of cinnamon spiced carrot cake minus the carrot) all alongside some ice cream.

Loving the fish, this holiday

The sweetest thing since that picture of a tiny pig in boots

I am definitely a pudding-kind of guy but as the walnut pie/cake was saturated in honey, it was a tad bit sweet even for me. If you get off on a sugar rush though, then this is the dessert for you. We took a final stroll around the streets before getting some views of the Acropolis all lit up against the night sky. It was the perfect way to end our brief but thorough visit to this brilliant city and despite being assaulted by a stray cat during dinner, I’m quite sure that Ellen would wholeheartedly agree.

I should definitely be a professional photographer ... 

However, even though our time in Athens was over, it was by no means the end of the holiday. Our next destination would take us to a much more rural setting (literally the middle of nowhere) where we’d encounter the ruins of Olympia, a completely abandoned beach and wonderfully loud woman bearing cookies… cookies! But I’ll leave that for the next post.

See you next time or as the Greeks would say Antio! (Disclaimer: My Greek sucks. Greece will testify this).