Warm Aubergine, Spinach and Avocado Salad

One of my favourite things to do for lunch at the moment is grab lots of fresh vegetables and other wonderful ingredients and throw them in a pan, cooking them with different things every day.
Today I made my favourite one yet, an aubergine and spinach warm salad with a hint of fresh pesto. So delicious!
Along with being super yummy and filling this warm salad is so nutritious; it's high in iron, fibre, vitamins and also healthy fats.

Ingredients

• Half an aubergine
• Red cabbage
• A handful of spinach
• 2 - 3 mushrooms
• Half an avocado 
• A sprinkling of pumpkin seeds
• Pine nuts
• Fresh pesto (I got mine from the co-op)
• Nigella seeds
• Mixed herbs
• Lemon juice
• Coconut oil

(Serves 1 person)

1. First start by putting a teaspoon of coconut oil into a pan. Let that melt and heat up before adding your ingredients. 
2. Chop up half your aubergine into cubed pieces and place them into the pan.
3. While the aubergine is cooking slice your red cabbage…this is one of my favourite ingredients! After the aubergine has cooked for a few minutes add in the cabbage.
4. Sprinkle some mixed herbs and nigella seeds into the cabbage and aubergine for more flavour, you could also add chilli flakes for more of kick.
5. Slice the mushrooms, I used 3 small chestnut mushrooms. Making sure you wash them first, as with all the other vegetables! And add them to your pan when the cabbage has cooked a bit.
6. Grab a large handful of spinach and add that to the pan as well, letting it wilt.
7. When all your ingredients look almost done add in your pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. These give the salad a delicious crunch.
8. Slice an avocado in half, scoop it out of the skin and cut into cubes while the other ingredients are cooking for a further few minutes and then remove the pan from the hob to add the avocado.
9. Stir in a teaspoon of pesto.
10. Add some lemon juice.
11. Enjoy!

Chia Seed - The Super Food

There's so much hype around all these different super foods recently - flaxseed, hemp seed, acai, and my favourite….chia seeds!
Chia seeds seem to have become a huge thing recently, everyone's talking about them, and I'm seeing them in more and more shops, but what's so great about them? What are their benefits? Are they worth the 'super food' title?

Chia seeds come from a flowering plant in the mint family that's native to South America. They're tiny, black or dark brown seeds that are pretty tasteless and can't really be eaten alone (they wouldn't taste terribly nice and they'd get stuck in your teeth, I wouldn't recommend it). However, when combined with other ingredients they're a healthy eating dream. My favourite things to do with them are to stir the seeds into porridge or make chia seed pudding.

• Chia seeds contain more iron than spinach, which is essential for carrying oxygen around the body.
• They're bursting with antioxidant strength, some studies show they're more antioxidising than blueberries.
• 10g of chia seeds (approximately 2 table spoons) is almost half your daily requirement of fibre, which is needed to eliminate toxins from the body, and provides a slow release of energy.
• These little seeds are the highest plant-based source of alpha-linolenic, a type of omega-3 fatty acid, which reduces joint pain and inflammation; essential for keeping the heart nice and healthy and lowering blood pressure & cholesterol.
• Chia seeds have the ability to absorb up to 10 times their weight in liquid when consumed, meaning they're fantastic at keeping you feeling fuller for longer.
• They aid muscle and tissue regeneration and help with digestive regularity.
• Chia seeds also contain a lot of magnesium, manganese, zinc and calcium, which boost the metabolism and keep the skin glowing.

Chia seeds may not be the cheapest, but there are definitely deals to be found online and in independent health food shops (avoid Holland & Barrett if you're on a budget), and even a small bag will last you a long time. With all those amazing benefits for the body they're well worth the money, and I think we can conclude that chia seeds are well worth their 'super food' status!

Quick & Healthy No-Bake Oat Bars!

I adore the granola bars and oat bars you can buy from shops, but the majority of them are full of sugar and other nasty ingredients that aren't good for you. So recently I've been making my own! They don't contain any gluten or wheat, no added sugar, no flour, nothing artificial!
They're extremely quick and easy to make, don't require baking and they leave hardly any washing up - bonus!

They don't require baking in the oven as they contain coconut oil. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but a liquid when heated up. It's a lot better for you than other cooking oils too. We also have honey in this recipe, which isn't the best thing in the world but I only use a bit and it's a hell of a lot better for you than sugar. These bars are so yummy, extremely moreish, gorgeously chewy and you don't have to feel guilty after eating them!

Firstly you need to mix 1 cup of a nut butter of your choice, I chose almond with a little bit of peanut butter too (I ran out of almond butter..oops), just under 1/2 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of coconut oil in a saucepan over a low heat until the mixture has melted and there no lumps left.

Then take the mixture off the heat and add 2 and 1/2 cups of rolled oats and any extras that you want!
I added seeds, shredded coconut, flaked almonds and cranberries to my bars! Dark chocolate chips, raisins or different nuts are some options.

Pour the mixture into a container, make sure you've lined it with greaseproof paper first!

Pop it in the fridge and leave it to set for a few hours.

Take out of the fridge, cut into pieces, share with family and friends, and enjoy!

INGREDIENTS -
1 cup almond butter (or any other nut or seed butter you'd like)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 1/2 rolled oats
1 cup of cranberries, seeds, flaked almonds and shredded coconut combined. 

1. In a saucepan on medium heat mix the almond butter, honey and coconut oil together until melted and free of lumps.
2. Take the saucepan off the heat and mix in the cranberries, seeds, flaked almonds and shredded coconut. 
3. Pour mixture into a greaseproof paper lined container, make sure it's all flat! Place it in the free for a few hours until fully set and solid.
4. Cut into pieces and ENJOY!

Have a wonderful Easter!

x

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Oreo Chocolate Cookies!

I love baking cakes, so I thought I'd branch out and make some cookies!

I saw a recipe for chocolate cookies on Tanya Burr's blog and thought they looked amazing! But I made little changes to make them more my own. Firstly I used less caster sugar than Tanya said, I used 250g rather than the suggested 300g and even then the cookies were incredibly sweet….so I'd recommend using a little less. People are far too obsessed with sugar!
I also used more than a 'little dash' of milk because I wanted to make sure they weren't dry.
Lastly instead of Daim bars I used an Oreo chocolate bar broken up, along with the plain chocolate and a bit of white chocolate too.

The recipe creates enough mixture for 10 large cookies. They're very yummy and I do want to make them again, but with less sugar and perhaps less cocoa powder so they're not so sickly sweet!