Tag: fitness

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Flahavan’s Mixed Berry & Oats Smoothie Bowl #breakfast

Serves 1|Takes 10 mins
INGREDIENTS:
150g frozen mixed berries
1 sliced banana, frozen
100-120ml of Flahavan’s Organic Oat Drink (or milk of choice)
1 teaspoon of honey (optional)
45g/3 tablespoons of Flahavan’s Organic Porridge Oats
Optional: Milled Seeds
TOPPING:
Milled Seeds
Mixed berries
Cacao nibs
METHOD:
Put all the ingredients into a high speed blender and whizz until smooth.
Add a little more oat drink/milk if needed.
Serve immediately in a breakfast bowl and top with fresh berries, cacao nibs and your choice of milled/mixed seeds
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Molly Malone’s cockle and mussel chowder @rachelallen1

molly malones chowder

Info:

Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp sunfl ower oil
  • 110g (4oz) smoked bacon, diced
  • 25g (1oz) butter
  • 110g (4oz) leek, trimmed and very finely diced
  • 110g (4oz) carrot, very finely diced
  • 275g (10oz) potato (about 1 medium), peeled and finely diced
  • 1kg (2lb 2oz) mixed cockles and mussels
  • 300ml (11fl oz) dry white wine
  • 200ml (7fl oz) milk
  • 200ml (7fl oz) single or double cream
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 tbsp roughly chopped fresh parsley

Molly Malone was a beautiful girl who sold cockles and mussels and died tragically of a fever while still young, or so the song goes. Molly may not have been a real girl, but since at least the 17th century, there have been fishmongers on the streets of Dublin who sell ‘Cockles and Mussels, alive, alive, oh!’

Cockles, with their distinctive flavour and lovely curved shell, are traditionally eaten in Ireland with Oatcakes. If you can only find mussels, this chowder will be just as good.

Serve either as a substantial starter or with chunks of crusty bread as a meal in its own right.

Heat the sunflower oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and sauté for about 1 minute, until crisp and golden. Add the butter to the pan and melt. Then add the leek, carrot and potato. Reduce the heat to low and sauté gently for 4–5 minutes, until soft but not browned.

Meanwhile, prepare the cockles and mussels. Scrub the shells clean and discard any that remain open when you tap them against a hard surface. Remove the beard – the little fibrous tuft – from each mussel. Bring the wine to a boil in a large saucepan and add the cockles and mussels. Cover with a tight-fi tting lid and cook for 3–4 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until the shells have opened.

Remove from the heat, drain the shellfi sh in a colander, reserving the cooking juices, and discard any shells that remain closed. Return the shellfi sh to the empty pan to keep warm. Place a fine sieve over a measuring jug and strain the cooking liquid. You should have at least 600ml (1 pint); if not, add water to make up that quantity.

Add the pan juices and the milk to the bacon and vegetable mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6–8 minutes, until the potato is tender. Add the cream and simmer for another 2–3 minutes, until the soup is reduced and thickened slightly. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, remove half of the cockles and mussels from their shells and add them with the remaining cockles and mussels still in their shells to the chowder. Stir in the parsley and serve at once.

http://www.rachelallen.com/post/molly-malones-cockle-and-mussel-chowder

 

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These Apricot Jam Breakfast Muffins can be prepared the night before

apricot jam breakfast muffins

15m15 minutes ago

These Apricot Jam Breakfast Muffins can be prepared the night before and cooked to perfection in the morning –

These delicious treats can be prepared the night before and cooked to perfection in the morning.

Ingredients

  • 2 large free-range eggs
  • 150ml pot of natural low-fat yoghurt
  • 50ml rapeseed oil
  • 2 tblsp no added sugar apricot jam
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 4 tblsp clear honey
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 200g of wholemeal flour
  • 50g of porridge oats, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tblsp mixed seeds
  • extra apricot jam
  • a handful of flaked almonds, for sprinkling

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with 12 large muffin cases.
  2. In a mixing jug, combine the eggs, yoghurt, rapeseed oil, Apricot Jam, banana, honey and almond extract.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the wholemeal flour, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed seeds.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine until you have a smooth batter. Don’t over mix as this will make your muffins tough.
  5. Divide the mix between the muffin cases and place about half a teaspoon of Apricot Jam on the top of each of the muffins. Sprinkle with the extra porridge oats and the flaked almonds.
  6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden. Check that they’re cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle of one of the muffins. They’re done if it comes away clean.
  7. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. These will keep for 3 days in a sealed container but they taste best on the day of baking.

Notes

Recipe courtesy of Folláin

 

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Rachel’s baked eggs with tomatoes, chorizo, chilli and cheese

baked-egg-chorizo-cheese

(Serves 4)
Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 large ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped

Salt

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

A good pinch of crushed chilli peppers 
(dried chilli pepper flakes)

8 large eggs

8 slices of chorizo

50g (2oz) manchego or Parmesan, grated

4 slices of bread, toasted and buttered, 
to serve

 
 DIRECTIONS

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas 4. Put a frying pan on a medium-low heat, add the olive oil then add the skinned, chopped tomatoes, see my tip, above left. Season with a good pinch of salt and cook for about 15 minutes, until the tomato sauce is thick and viscous.
Remove from the heat, stir in the chopped parsley and the crushed chilli peppers. Divide the tomato sauce between four ovenproof ramekins and break 2 eggs into each dish. Place a slice of the chorizo on top of each egg and divide the grated manchego or Parmesan cheese, whichever you’re using, between the ramekins.
Place in the preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the whites are set, but the yolks are just ever so slightly soft. Just before the eggs are ready, toast the slices of bread and butter them.
Remove the eggs from the oven and serve with the buttered toast.

http://www.rachelallen.com/post/baked-eggs-tomatoes-chorizo-chilli-and-cheese