Spicy chicken with black rice and sauted veg

Hey guys! This recipe is one of my own favourite quick mid week meals, I probably make it once a week. It's cheap for students and doesn't require much effort (which is good for me!) If you don't have the veg needed for this, substitute it for some frozen veg which I also love and it makes it even quicker! I really love the black rice in this, but you could use any type of rice you liked although it does make it less exciting (and a bit less tasty...) This recipe is also really good for you, is low in calories and is tasty. The chicken has a bit of a kick without being too overly spicy (unless you want more spice in which case go wild!) Just as a tip, you could use the rest of the courgette and the pepper with pasta and a tomato sauce for tea the next day.  Harrisa paste is my absolute favourite thing to add spice, I cover my chicken salmon lamb you name it in it, it's really worth having in as it gives food an amazing taste.

For one person you will need:
One skinless boneless chicken breast (I keep a bag in the freezer so I always have some, make sure it is defrosted by leaving it in the fridge for about 18 hours before)
100g black rice (I am using Thai black rice, follow instructions for your rice)
a small clove of garlic
half a courgette
half a large bell pepper (whole of a small one)
some small button mushrooms
3 tsp harissa paste
a teaspoon of paprika
a teaspoon of parsley
some pepper
some oil/ fry light.
a tablespoon of soy sauce

First heat the oven up to 200 degrees celsius. Mix the harissa, paprika, pepper and pasrly into the chicken and let it marinate for a little bit. Heat water in a pan and put the rice on, adding the soy sauce and garlic.

Put the chicken into the oven for 20 minutes.
In the mean time, chop up your vegetables.

Saute them for a few minutes using the oil. I am using coconut oil fry light but if you're not fussy any one you have is fine.
When the mushrooms have browned and the courgette is wilted a little, take it off the heat.

The veg may be done a little bit before the chicken and rice. Check rice instructions for how long it takes, my rice took about half an hour so it was on about ten minutes before I put my chicken in. Remember to always cut into your chicken to make sure it is white before serving, if it is not done put it back in the oven until it is.

Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Deliciously Ella's Hazelnut and chocolate tarts

Hey guys! This is the first bit of baking I have done from deliciously Ella's second book and I thought I'd share the recipe and tell you how it went! These tarts turned out really well for me although some of them were weird sizes so I only made 11 rather than 12. I absolutely love the base of the tart, it has a super lovely chewy texture which I adore. Ella used 12 tablespoons of maple syrup in her recipe and I used 4 tablespoons of honey and I found it was sweet enough for me but maybe its just personal preference!

For this recipe you will need:
150g of hazelnuts
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
300g of ground almonds (I used 250 of ground almonds and 50g of buckwheat flour)
14 dates pitted
1 avocado pitted
4 tablespoons of raw cacao power (6 of coco powder)
4 tablespoons of honey

Put the oven to 160 degrees celsius and roast the hazelnuts in a tin for ten minutes.

In the meantime, make the base. Put the coconut oil, ground almonds and dates into a food processer until it forms a sticky mixture.

Now press the mixture into a muffin tin so that it forms little cups.

Put this in the oven for about 13 minutes or until it is golden brown. Mine looked like this:

While the bases are in the oven, put the cooled hazelnuts into a food processor and whiz until it forms a nut butter. Be patient with this, the hazelnuts will go into a powder first but keep going and scraping down the sides.

Looks lovely doesn't it

Now add the avocado, honey and cocoa powder and whiz until all the avocado has gone and you have a nice creamy mixture.

Wait until the tarts are completely cool (you may need to go and distract yourself so you don't stand and eat the majority of the chocolate filling like I did) before adding the mixture on the base!

Hope you enjoy!
Eleanor x

meals for uni- Ainsley Harriott's Lamb pittas

Hey guys! Todays' recipe is one by Ainsley Harriott that is in his low fat meals cook book which is one of my favourite cook books and I would recommend getting! I am showing you this recipe because it is really easy and you could easily make it for university if everyone chipped in.

(for 4) For this recipe you will need:
1 tablespoon of harissa or a chili sauce
1 lemon juiced
handful chopped fresh mint
350g of lean lamb fillets
4 pita breads (I used six giving us an extra half each)
bag of rocket
reduced fat hummus

Mix the Harrisa, juice and mint in a bowl and put the lamb into it. Use your hands to make sure the lamb is covered in the mixture. Leave to marinate for about ten minuets

Now heat oil in a frying pan if need be, and when hot add the lamb and cook for about 10 minuets until browned on the outside and pink on the inside or a little longer if prefered.

You could use this pan to heat up the pittas, or just pop them in the toaster. Cut the lamb up into smallish chunks if not already.

Fill each pitta with rocket, and then the lamb. Serve with a blob of hummus! (or just pile a much hummus as humanly possible like I do.)

These are delicious, one of my favourite meals ever!
Hope you enjoy,
Lot of love
Eleanor x

la Tasca restaurant review

Hey guys! I have not done a restaurant review in quite a while but on Sunday me and my boyfriend were looking for somewhere to eat in the Trafford Center and we decided to get dinner at La Tasca. My boyfriend had never had tapas before so I was eager to introduce him to it. La Tasca is a Spanish Tapas restaurant and you order as many little plates of food as you like.

Me and Luke Shared 5 tapas plates, it recommends 3 per person but we found 5 was enough. We ordered the chicken wings, battered prawns, patatas bravas con alioli (fried potato) pollo marbello (chicken in white wine sauce) and the meatballs.

All five dishes were amazing and I would really recommend the battered prawns which were in an amazing San Miguel batter which was amazing and fried potato which come with a garlic butter sauce. Although the dishes are amazing, it is quite an expensive restaurant, each tapas can be little more than 6 pound although most are around £5 and if you get the recommended 3 plates each that's already £15 per person, it could potentially be over £18 pounds per person depending on the dishes got and that is not including drinks.

La Tasca is a really good way to introduce people to tapas, especially as there are many recognisable dishes on there, such as the chicken wings or  meatballs. There are many fish, meat and vegetarian options with a lot of gluten free options available too. If tapas isn't your thing there is lots of different piella dishes available too. The dessert options (my favourite part of s menu) look amazing but unfortunately we were too full to order any dessert options, for such tiny portions I am always surprised about how quickly I am filled up!

Overall I would recommend going to this restaurant, I love tapas as it is a little different to things you can get in other restaurant and you get to have lots of different things, not just one meal. There is also a kids menu with more kid friendly tapas inducing a mini burger, French fries and fish fingers. If you want to give something different a go I would say go for it, the dishes are amazing, so tasty although do watch the price of the tapas you are ordering.

Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Sweet potato and aubergine curry

Hey guys! This recipe I have been loving to make at uni because it's so healthy and you can make a lot of it and freeze it! It is also vegan and full of goodness! Coconut milk is so creamy and delicious and sweet potatoes are so good for you sp this recipe is a winner!

For two

1 can of coconut milk
three or four small sweet potatoes
1 aubergine
a can of plum tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
a can of chickpeas (I usually serve about 100g per person but however much you like)
brown rice

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Peel potatoes and cut potatoes and aubergine up into small pieces.

Put coconut milk and tomatoes in a pan and heat on a hob until boiling then add the veggies.

Put the pan in the oven for 30 mins. Then add chickpeas and cook for another 30 mins.

When the pan is in for the second 30 minuets, I cook my rice as I use brown rice which takes 25 minuets therefore will be done at a similar time!

And you are finished!
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

What I eat in a day 26.2.2016

Hey guys!  haven't done one of these yet but I thought I would show you what I eat on an average day. Perhaps I will do more of these in the future, I am also thinking about similar posts such as what I eat for dinner in a week, I love these kind of posts because I'm a) nosey, and b) to give me food inspiration! This was last Friday and on Friday's I am in university from 9-3 and then I went out at night so I had quite a busy day. I think this might be especially useful for students too.

Breakfast:

For breakfast I nearly always have porridge for breakfast. I love these little sachets as they're easy to make and I don't have to waste time measuring out a portion. I normally get the original ones and add a banana in for extra goodness, as I know the flavoured ones are high in sugar but it's what my mum bought and I am not going to waste money!

Lunch:

I made a packed lunch as I was in uni all day. I stupidly forgot to buy more salad and this is quite a bit smaller than normal. It consists of quinoa, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce leaves.

Friday treat:

This is not something I would normally do but I had some fudge during my lecture with my friend! On Fridays we always buy something a little bit unhealthy to snack on during our last lecture of the week to keep us going. Would definitely recommend this!

Afternoon snack:

At about four I always start to get hungry, especially as I eat my lunch quite early on a Friday. This snack is one that I have almost every day, a banana (unless I had one for breakfast then I'd have another bit of fruit) and some corn things which I adore.

Tea:

For my tea I had two black bean burgers which are a deliciously ella recipe from her new book with some veg.

Pudding:

I often have some yoghurt later on again if I get hungry.

"Drunk" food:

On a normal day I do usually have a sweet treat after my dinner but on Fridays I often don't as I have usually had something sweet earlier and I wasn't going to have anything on Friday as I had had the fudge. When I start drinking though I usually find I am starving when I get home, instead of having a burger or something in very high fat, I filled my junk food craving by having the sweet treat I would have had if I had fancied it earlier (I actually had a small dairy milk chocolate bar but forgot to take a picture- so here's the sweet treat I had after dinner a few days ago.)

Hope you enjoyed this post!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Healthy green soup

Hey guys! This is not the most beautiful meal in the world in fact it looks a little bit gross. It is a recipe I was influenced by and have swapped somethings round to make a delicious and incredibly healthy green soup, packed full of veggies and goodness! So don't be fooled by its boggy appearance, this will make you feel a 100 times better after a weekend of fast food eating and vodka shots and detox your body, plus it is so easy and quick to make.

For 4 you will need:

200g of kale
6 florets of broccoli
2 courgettes
1L of vegetable stock
thumb seized piece of ginger chopped
two cloves of garlic chopped
a tablespoon of rapeseed oil

First heat oil in a large pan and add garlic and ginger and stir fry at high heat.
Chop up corugettes and add them to the pan along with the stock and allow to simmer for three minuets.

Chop up kale and add this to the pan along with the broccoli florets

Simmer for a few more minuets before pouring into a blender or use a hand blender to blend everything up and then serve!

Lots of love
Eleanor x

Reviews of food everyone loves and I have only just tried

Hey guys! Long post title but this really is what it says on the tin! I have tried some trending food over the last few months that people seem to love and have given my opinions on it!

1) Ben and Jerry's Ice-cream
I know I know, I have never had any flavour Ben and Jerry's before and I finally tried one, "Cookie Dough" which is a lot of people I know's favourite flavour. No surprise I loved it and I am looking forward to trying more flavours!

2) Pumpkin spiced latte
This is another one that may shock some people! I did love it however!  i bit the bullet and went for a large on my first ever go and I was glad I did! I love anything cinnamony and this had a definite cinnamon taste which warmed me up.

3) Quest bars
They are really expensive and you can only get boxes of them so I had never had one. Luckily, someone kindly sent me a singular one of the new ish (I believe) mint choc chip flavour. I did not like it at all! I had it raw maybe I should have microwaved it? (I know some people like them warm) or maybe it was just the flavour of it? Either way I was disappointed!

Anything else you guys think I should try?
Lots of love,
Eleanor x

No cook healthy Prawn, grapefruit and noodle salad

Hey guys! Today's recipe is one I took from BBC good food and changed it around. The original recipe is here. This involves no cooking at all so it's really useful and tasty! I love prawns and have only recently come to like them so I am constantly looking for new recipes that incorporate's them in. Prawns are low fat and a healthy source of protein. They go lovely in this light dinner.

For 4 people you will need:
2x 150 pouches of rice noodles (I used amoy noodles)
2 containers of cooked prawns
a handful of cherry tomatoes
2 red grapefruit
1 tablespoon honey
2 carrots cut into matchsticks
half a cucumber cut into matchsticks
3 spring onions, chopped into small pieces
1 lime juiced


Put the noodles in boiling water from the kettle and leave for a while, as you prep the other ingredients.

Cut the carrots, cucumber and the spring onion.

Peel the grapefruit and segment it and juice the lime.

When the noodles have been in the water for at least ten minuets, drain them and put the tomatoes in.

Now add all other ingredients into the bowl and serve on plates!
Easy, quick healthy and delicious! Just as I like!

Lots of love,
Eleanor x

Butternut squash noddles with hazlenuts and sprouts (spiralizer recipe)

Hey! So recently I  bought a spiralizer which if you haven't heard of it, basically turns vegetables and some fruit into noodles/ pasta! I am a massive pasta lover but it's not always the healthiest of things and using this I can make pasta and squeeze in another portion of fruit and veg. I made this thinking it would be a main dish but it's actually more of a light dinner/ lunch or a starter. If you want to make it bigger I would use another butternut squash. This dish has sprouts in which is rather seasonal, and because it only uses the leaves, this is good to try sprouts without getting a full mouth of the taste if you are not a fan of them. Mixed in with everything else you can barely taste it! Making this dish was the first time I had made butternut squash noodles too and it's a bit harder than a courgette!

For 4 people you will need:
1 Butternut squash
3/4 of a cup of hazelnuts
a cup of Brussel sprouts
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
salt and pepper
a red onion
a garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon of chili flakes

First of all preheat the oven to 205 degrees celsius. Make the butternut squash noodles by cutting off the seeded end of the squash and then putting it into the spiralizer. shake over the garlic powder salt and pepper and put it in a lined dish in the oven for 8 minutes. Put the hazelnuts into the oven additionally but only in for five minutes.

In the meantime, thinly slice the onion and cut the bottoms off the sprouts and take the leaves off them.

chop the garlic clove and heat a wok or pan with oil. When it is heated on a high heat put in the garlic chili flakes and onion and stir on a medium heat. When the onion is wilted, add in the sprout leaves and cook for another three minutes,

Now you can add it all together!
Hope you enjoy!
Eleanor x

Best Christmas drink- Costa v Starbucks

Hey! So I am a massive Christmas drink fan and both Costa and Starbucks have some amazing Christmasy seasonal drinks and I have tried almost all of them (I know I'm very sad.) Here are my mini reviews on the ones I have tried!

Starbucks

Honey and Almond Hot chocolate= Probably my favourite Christmas drink from Starbucks. I got a large which was perhaps too big but it was absolutely delicious.

Toffee Nut Latte= Didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would actually, this time it wasn't as sweet as I expected somehow?

Costa 

White hot chocolate= bit too sweet for me! I knew it would be and ordered a medium and even that I found myself feeling a bit sickly after, unless you have a massive sweet tooth I would probably recommend a small!

Black Forrest hot chocolate= by far my favourite Christmas drink from both Costa and Starbucks! I love it, I don't find this too sweet or bitter, just perfect!

Caramel fudge hot chocolate= I don't know if its just me but I could not tell the difference between this one and a normal hot chocolate? It was nice but i felt like it wasn't different enough!

What is your favourite Christmas drink?
Lots of love
Eleanor x

Deliciously Ella's apple and blackberry crumble

Hey guys! Today's recipe comes from Deliciously Ella's cookbook that I have ever so slightly adapted! This tastes amazing and is so good when you have lots of people around, plus it's healthy, vegan, gluten free and full of good things.

For this recipe you will need:

For the topping:
200g of almonds
180g of oats
3 tablespoons of coconut oil
100 ml of maple syrup
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

for the fruit:
6 red apples (I used five large cooking green apples from an apple tree)
4 tablespoons of honey (If using green sour apples like me)
a tablespoon of maple syrup (if using red apples)
400g of blackberries

Put almonds in a food processor until a flour forms and add it to a mixing bowl with the oats. Melt the coconut oil in a pan with the syrup and cinnamon or pour everything on top if already in liquid form. Make sure the liquid completely covers the dry ingredients by stirring.

Now, peal and core the apples and cut the remainder into small pieces.

put this into a pan with the blackberries, syrup or honey and a little bit of hot water. Simmer for ten minuets with a lid on and pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

when fruit is soft, transfer into a baking dish and put topping on top.

Now bake for 25 minuets!


This is done! This is one of my fave puddings for a dinner party as it's not very time consuming and fairly easy!

Hope you enjoy!
Lots of love
Eleanor x

My healthy(er) chocolate brownies

Hey guys! I think it's always important to know a good brownie recipe, even better to know one which you can make vegan and gluten free and actually not all that bad for you. Scroll to the bottom of this recipe to find out why these ingredients are better than usual brownie recipes! This recipe is quick and easy and not packed with sugar!

Makes 12 small brownies. You will need:

170g of buckweat flour
four table spoons of coconut oil (plus extra to greese)
two tablespoons of honey
250g of dairy free dark chocolate (or normal dark chocolate if not vegan)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder (gluten free baking powder is available too to keep it gluten free)
2 teaspoons of raw cacao powder (or three of coco powder)
230 ml of almond milk (or milk of choice)
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Heat 150 grams of the dark chocolate over a simmering pan of water.

While this is happening, sift flour, baking powder and cacao powder into a bowl. Then sir in honey, oil, milk and vanilla essence.
When your chocolate is completely melted,

Add it to the bowl and mix until combined.

Then break the 100g of chocolate left into squares and stir them in too.
Now grease the bottom of a baking dish and put grease proof paper on top. Pour mixture in. Put it in the oven for 20 minuets.

When it comes out leave to cool and then cut up into pieces! Enjoy!

A note about the ingredients and how they are good for you...

Buckweat flour is a gluten free flour, it has no wheat in despite it's name. It controls your blood sugar levels and is good for the heart. It's health promoting potential is equal to fruit and veg!

Raw Cacao powder is darker and stronger than coco powder, so less is needed. It has less sugar and is better for you.

Dark chocolate and honey are the best sources of antioxidants on the planet.

Coconut oil is made from good fats and can lower your risk of heart disease.

Lots of love
Eleanor x