Strawberry and Raspberry Lemonade Recipe – This is the perfect recipe for my daughter as it involves Strawberries (she’s a total Fruit Bat) and fizzy drinks (what kid doesn’t).
Difficulty Rating: Easy Squeezy and great to do with the little ones.
What you will need:
2 Cups of Strawberries (maybe a few extra as they get stolen)
1 Cup of Raspberries
1/2 a Cup of Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
3/4 Cup of Caster Sugar
4 Cups of Water (Still or Sparkling)
1 Cup of water
Ice Cubes to Serve
Puree the strawberries and raspberries in a blender and put through a sieve to get rid of the little pips.
Put the cup of water and caster sugar in a pan and heat until the caster sugar melts and leave to cool until room temperature.
Once cooled, mix the strawberries, raspberries, lemon juice, and 4 cups of water.
Chill in the fridge and serve with ice cubes.
The lemonade was perfect to have alongside dinner in the lovely sunshine and we’ve also put some into ice lolly trays as it made quite a bit.
With a five-year-old and a seventeen-year-old we have to keep the fridge and cupboards full of ready-to-eat snacks. They both get bored of the same stuff day in day out so after a quick look around Pinterest I found a recipe for Blueberry Yoghurt Bites.
What you need:
Blueberries – you can use as few or as many as you want to make
Natural Greek Yoghurt (I’ve used Honey & Apricot and Strawberry)
You need to:
Wash the blueberries. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper (making sure that it will fit flat in your freezer). Using a cocktail stick to pick up a blueberry, dip in the yoghurt to that the blueberry is completely covered in yoghurt and then put on the baking tray.
Once you’ve dipped all the blueberries, put the tray into the freezer and leave to freeze for a couple of hours.
You should try them this Bank Holiday weekend. My two have decided that they both LOVE them. Next time we’re going to try blueberries as well as raspberries and strawberries.
Easter is upon us and everywhere you look there is chocolate to be seen. I love chocolate with dark chocolate being my favourite and when I was given the opportunity to try some Japanese-inspired Chocolate Truffle recipes I jumped at the chance. The flavours we’re going to make are:
Miso Caramel – think salted caramel with a twist
Shaoxing Rice Wine – a warm, boozy hit
Wasabi Furikake – milder than chili with the added crunch of sesame
Pickled Sushi Ginger – chocolate & ginger with the surprising tang of pickle
Yuzu – a hint of citrus
I have to be honest when I received a box of ingredients I was hard-pushed to imagine them paired with chocolate but here goes.
This is the list of items needed to make the truffles:
Good quality Dark Chocolate
Double Cream
Unsalted Butter
Truffle cases
Shaoxing rice wine warmed
Vermicelli
Yutaka Wasabi Furikake
Drinking chocolate
Yutaka sushi ginger
Cocoa
Yutaka Yuzu
White chocolate
Sugar
Water
Yutaka Miso
Pink salt crystals
Quite an interesting list of items, but this is to make five different flavoured truffles and will make approximately 30 – 36.
Chocolate Easter Truffles Recipe
200g dark good quality chocolate
60ml double cream
80g unsalted butter
Truffle cases
Method for all truffles
In a double saucepan (or a Pyrex bowl in a saucepan), place chocolate, butter, and cream. Heat through slowly until smooth whilst whisking. Remove from heat and divide into 5 equal portions, adding the various flavourings to each individual portion as below. Place in the fridge to set – overnight if possible.
Remove the various truffle mixes from the fridge and, with a teaspoon, scoop out a goodly amount. Roll into a ball and place on a plate (remembering to keeping the various flavours separate) and continue until all the mixture has been used.
Yutaka Shaoxing rice wine flavouring
2 tbs Shaoxing rice wine warmed
Vermicelli for coating
Yutaka Wasabi Furikake flavouring
2 tbs Yutaka Wasabi Furikake
Drinking chocolate for coating
Yutaka Pickled Sushi Ginger flavouring
2 tbs chopped Yutaka sushi ginger
Cocoa for coating
Roll the ginger truffles in cocoa and place in truffle cases. Roll the Wasabi Furikake in drinking chocolate and the rice wine truffles in vermicelli and return to fridge.
Yutaka Yuzu flavouring
2 tsp Yutaka Yuzu
100g white chocolate – gently melted for coating
Using a double boiler (or Pyrex bowl in a saucepan) melt the white chocolate over a low heat and, when removed from the heat & cooled slightly, spoon over Yuzu truffles until coated. You can use a cocktail stick pushed carefully into a truffle to help you turn and coat with the chocolate. This needs patience! Leave them to set on a plate.
Miso caramel sauce filling
75g sugar
25ml water
50ml double cream
1 tbs Yutaka Miso
100g dark chocolate – gently melted for coating
Pink salt crystals for sprinkling on the top
Miso caramel flavouring method
Put sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir and leave on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel in colour. Carefully add double cream (it will hiss a little) and whisk whilst off the heat, add miso paste and whisk thoroughly until smooth. Add 2 tbs of miso caramel sauce to the remaining truffle mixture. The remainder of the sauce saved and used over ice cream for a delicious dessert.
Melt the dark chocolate and coat the Miso caramel truffles using a cocktail stick pushed carefully into a truffle to help you turn and coat with the chocolate. Sprinkle a couple of pink salt crystals on the top.
We made up the five different flavours and left them in the fridge whilst we went out for the day. Three of them were fairly easy to mold into ball shapes, but the Shaoxing rice wine flavour and the Pickled Sushi Ginger were quite tacky still.
We thought it was quite fun smelling all of the ingredients and wondering how the truffles were going to taste. I thought that the Shaoxing rice wine smelt quite nice. We all agreed that the Wasabi Furikake smelt awful and Daddy and I had a taste of it neat which was a bit of an experience for the tastebuds.
These are our lovely-looking truffles all ready to be tried.
Miso Caramel – We all agreed that it was quite salty, but not in a bad way so this one gets the thumbs up.
Shaoxing Rice Wine – This one was up there as one of our favourites.
Wasabi Furikake – We were all very nervous about this one. We gave it to Ryan without telling him what it was which he wasn’t impressed by. For me this felt like attempting a ‘Bush Tucker Trial’ so I only had a very little taste. Now that we’ve ticked this off our list of tried and tested I don’t think we would go for this one again. Daddy is very keen to use this in savoury cooking though.
Pickled Sushi Ginger – I wasn’t too sure that I would like this one as it seemed like a lot of ginger, but surprisingly it was a nice hit of ginger.
Yuzu – This was up there as our other favourite. I think the white chocolate made this the prettiest one as well.
This was definitely a taste experience for us all which we enjoyed. Which one of the Japanese inspired Chocolate Truffle Recipes would you most like to try?
Lisa x
*We were gifted the ingredients by Yutaka for the purpose of this review but all the opinions are our own. This post may contain affiliate links which means that I receive a small payment should you click the link and make a purchase at no extra cost to yourself.
It’s that time of the month when the big shop is due so all you’ve got left is odds and ends. This is the time when having a kitchen know-it-all comes in handy and makes a Breakfast Mash-up.
I look in the fridge and see nothing.
Chris looks in the fridge and then hey presto we’re eating something scrummy and he’s basking in his culinary expertise.
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it!
This is what he used:
Chorizo cut into small pieces
4 New potatoes cut into small pieces
A pack of bacon lardons
1 Tin of Baked Beans
1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
1 Clove of Garlic, chopped
4 Spring Onions (sliced, separating the white from the green)
5 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika
Salt and Pepper
Oregano
Thyme
Barbeque Sauce
Cook the bacon lardons in a frying pan (no oil needed) and set to one side.
In the same pan cook the chorizo and then put to the side with the bacon lardons.
Add to the pan the cubed new potatoes, garlic with a sprinkle of thyme and salt and pepper. Once fried off remove from the pan with the rest of the cooked bits.
Put the white spring onion, tomatoes, and the baked beans into the pan and heat through. Season to taste.
Add in the paprika, a squirt of barbeque sauce, and a sprinkle of oregano.
Add in all the cooked items and keep on the hob for a few minutes, mixing through.
Put in a large ovenproof dish and make some wells where you will crack in the eggs and add the green of the spring onion.
Crack the eggs and season again (I know).
Bake in the oven for about 15 – 20 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.
We served ours with hash browns and mushrooms.
It was totally scrummy!
Lisa x
If you like what you see then check out our other Family Recipes.
*This post may contain affiliate links which means that I receive a small payment should you click the link and make a purchase at no extra cost to yourself.
These little pancakes are so cute. You can make a batch up and freeze, and then you can take a few out the night before for breakfast.
Pancake Kebab Recipe
Isabelle had her friend over to play today so it was the perfect time to test these out. Apologies for my none too professional maple syrup drizzle. I think I need a bit more practice!
To make the pancakes you will need:
135g Plain flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Caster Sugar
130ml/ 4 1/2 fluid oz milk
1 large egg
2 Tbsp melted butter, plus extra for cooking
You will also need:
Short Wooden kebab sticks
2 Kiwi fruits
2 Bananas
A few Blueberries
Approx 8 Strawberries
Maple Syrup to serve
To make:
Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl and add the salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg with the milk and melted butter.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together then lightly whisk until well combined and lump free.
Make this mixture a little in advance as it works best if you put it into the fridge for a while.
Melt some butter in a frying pan and if you’re confident put a small amount of mixture in small blobs to make small bitesized pancakes. If not you can either use a squirty bottle or a round biscuit cutter to get the correct size.
Slice the fruit ready for construction.
Once all the pancakes are made you can make up the kebabs alternating pancakes and fruit or you could give them to the kids to make how they like.
Spicy Carrot and Lentil Soup. The best bit of the cold weather are the scrummy soups, casseroles and home comfort food. I love a big bowl of soup, and it’s a great thing to make in advance, freeze and take out for work or a meal when you’re super busy.
What you will need:
600g Carrots, washed and grated
140g Split red lentils
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Litre hot vegetable stock
2 Teaspoons Cumin Seeds
Pinch of Chilli flakes
125ml Milk
Heat a large saucepan and dry-fry the cumin seeds and chilli flakes for 1 min, or until they start to jump around the pan and start to smell yummy.
Add the oil, carrot, lentils, stock and milk to the pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 mins until the lentils have swollen and softened.
Whizz the soup with a stick blender or in a food processor until smooth, but can be left chunky if you prefer and serve with naan bread and a dollop of yoghurt.
Really easy to make and totally scrummy.
If you like the sound of Spicy Carrot and Lentil Soup then have a look at all of our other tried and tested recipes, pop over to our Recipes Page.
Lisa x
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