Soup series 4: Beetroot and sweet potato

The colour of this soup is so vibrant and bright. If your food is this colour, you can bet it has beetroot in (unless it's food dye). It's such a beautiful colour and definitely adds the wow factor! Asides from the colour though, this thick and creamy soup tastes delicious, although probably does turn your insides pink!

Superfoods: Lucuma / ice-cream & smoothie

So today I wanted to do another post on a superfood and I have chosen lucuma. This is one of the cheaper superfood powders out there and is known as natures caramel. Lucuma is a subtropical fruit native to Ecuador, Peru and Chile and has been used as a sweetener and base in Incan food for centuries. It is consequently known as 'gold of the Incas'. The flesh of the fruit is a gorgeous yellow/orange colour, which can be seen on my lucuma packet below. It is turned into a powder so that we, on the other side of the world, can benefit from this amazing fruit. It is dried at low temperatures so that all the nutritional value is retained, and then milled into a superfine powder. 

Chocolate orange cupcakes

These cupcakes are absolutely out of this world. They are bursting with a delicious zesty flavour with the perfect balance of rich dark chocolate in there too. They contain a surprising amount of flavour hidden in there. These are up there with the best cupcakes I have ever made. 

Soup series 3: Chunky Minestone

Here is the third soup from my series, which is chunky minestrone. The others in the series can be found here. A well known soup, which is vegetable packed and so hearty and filling due to the potato and pasta it contains. My version is quite chunky and thick, but you can easily thin it out as I mention later. This comforting soup is full of different textures, and is very low fat! 

American pancakes (plus 3 fruity toppings)

Pancakes are not something I make often, but when I do (usually as a treat) I really enjoy them. One of my all time favourite pancake toppings is lemon juice and sugar, but today I thought I would be a bit more adventurous and come up with 3 alternative toppings, seeing as Pancake Day (Tuesday 17 February) is creeping up on us.

[Coconut] Cakepops

It's Valentines day this Saturday (14 February), so I wanted to post something that you could make your loved one as a special treat, or perhaps you are having a night in with your friends, in which case, these would be great fun to all make and decorate together. Although of course, they can be made for any occasion. The mould I have actually contains 4 different shapes, one of them being a heart, which made them perfect for Valentines day, but any mould shape is fine - it is all in the decoration!

Superfoods: Cacao / Smoothie

'Superfoods' I am sure is not a new term to many of you. But if it is, then it just means a nutrient-rich food, which is highly beneficial to your health. These seem to be a bit of a craze at the minute, and I can see why.

Now I am not talking about your super healthy fruit and veg; blueberries, goji berries, beetroot and spinach to name a few. Don't get me wrong, these have exceptional nutritional value and are classed as superfoods. But what I am talking about are the ones you are less likely to have heard of; cacao, chia seeds, moringa, baobab, lucuma, spirulina, wheatgrass, maca, and many more.

All the ones I have mentioned come in powder form, which makes it super easy to get them into your diet. Due to the exceptional nutrient count they have, you have to be careful not to consume too much of some of them. If there is a daily limit, it will say so on the packet.

I am going to be doing a few posts, each will focus on one superfood powder, and also a recipe to go with it.Today I am starting with cacao, and will be showing you two cacao smoothies. To start with, I am going going to talk about what it is, and its benefits.

Soup Series 2: Chilli chickpea and red lentil soup

This is the second soup recipe in my soup series that I have decided to do over Winter. The first was roasted butternut squash and sweet potato chilli. This is another healthy soup, which is tomato based and thickened by lentils. It's packed full of spice and has a kick from the chilli. If you are not a fan of chilli, you can always leave them out. The flavour of this soup makes me think of Morocco. It's weird because I've never been, but it is exactly what I imagine the local food to be flavoured like.