I may be a little late with my banana bread recipe. During lockdown one everybody seemed to be making banana bread, and why not? For one it is a great way of using up bananas and two its delicious. There are very few foods I’m picky about eating, and bananas and avocados are two of them. I can’t stand eating a banana or avocado that has black spots, I do know they are perfectly fine, but I just can’t. So banana bread is just the way of using up those bananas. This particular recipe has a long time in the oven because I want it to get a deep coloured chewy crust. This is purposely cooked this way as it enhances the taste and texture.
CHOCOLATE CHIP & PECAN BANANA BREAD
This banana bread will keep for 3 days if stored in an air tight container or up to 1 week if stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator. To breathe fresh life in the banana bread pop it into the toaster and eat warm.
A quick dinner that is big on flavour. I use wholewheat spaghetti it’s nutty depth is perfect with the gutsy harissa prawns. You can of course though use regular spaghetti. By the time the spaghetti is cooked everything else will be ready to go meaning that you can have dinner on the table in 10 minutes. I hope you enjoy the recipe and have a great weekend.
I bought a slow cooker a long time ago and until recently it spent most of its time at the back of a cupboard. It is only recently I have come to get full use of this wonderful piece of kitchen equipment. I must confess however, I know that my slow cooker will inevitably be constrained to the winter and colder months as I find it best suited to braised dishes and that is usually not the sort of food I want to eat in the warmer months. But whilst the weather is cold, I am getting full use of my slow cooker I nearly always cook in large batches when using it when time and energy are in short supply. When I know I’m going to be busy and not have the opportunity to eat I go ahead and stick something in so I know when I get home, I will have a hot comforting meal ready. Most of the time it is only two of us eating so I like to come up with recipes such as my slow cooker ham that do provide several dinners but, the several other new dinners over the next few days come from these. From the leftovers of my slow cooked ham I make ham & Pea potato cake, my egg fried rice with ham or even just some simple stir-fried greens with a hefty slice of ham that is topped with a fried egg, runny yolk a must.
sticky date pudding
I have recently been adapting some of my dessert recipes for the slow cooker, which I will explain. The reason this idea came to meet was recently when at a friend’s house for dinner there was a little bit of a crisis due to the oven being in use with dinner itself and temperatures, which inevitably shouldn’t have been a concern, I would just pop pudding into the oven after take out dinner as I enjoy a little break between courses. This, however, got me thinking of ways of cooking hot pudding or desserts without having to use the oven. What other pieces of equipment are found in most kitchens I thought. Then it hit the ‘slow cooker’, I knew as soon as I had decided on the cooking appliance that it had to be a pudding and I came up with a few but my top favourites were easy and delicious. One my slow cooker STP (Sticky Toffee Pudd) and the other my chocolate pudding. What makes these both great is that they are super easy to make combine wet and dry ingredients and cook it in its own sauce in the slow cooker giving your pudding an incredible sponge much like that of a steamed sponge pudding. I share below my recipe for slow cooker STP.
Check back over the coming weeks for many more slow cooker recipes.
A bit late with this but, Happy New Year! I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed the festive period. I am jubilant to be back fully in the kitchen recipe testing, filming, editing & writing. I have a few exciting new projects in the pipe line for 2020. Details on which will be coming shortly. We are firmly back to reality with what is for most the month of restraint and diet. Although, I do myself eat a little better in January this is mostly not a conscience decision rather it just seems to come natural after all the over indulgence of December. Below I have listed some of my favourite go to recipes when in this mood, that may aid you through January as well as some of my favourite vegan recipes for anyone opting to do Veganuary.
I firmly believe that the key to success in any diet is balance and avoiding bad foods. In my opinion there is only one food type that falls into this category of bad food and that is processed foods that lack in nutrients and usually in flavour too. Living with a strict diet that completely restrains you from eating foods that you desire would be an unbearable existence. A balance diet must always have room for cake. The recipe below is one of my favourites that I make so often.
What are you favourite January or Veganuary recipes?
Don’t forget to check out RadioX Life Hakx Sunday Evenings, were I will regularly be contributing with recipes and foodie life hakx. You can also catch up with previous episodes by checking out the podcast here.
