home about me cooking baking crafts homeandgarden

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Recipe post- Vegan Avocado Pasta

Not long until the Bank Holiday and the Royal Wedding! I personally cannot wait- I love a good wedding!!! Here is a great taster Video from T-Mobile!



There is also the never ending list of things I need to get done. I need to also spend some time on the business admin and ordering supplies.

Today's recipe is a Vegan recipe but if you want you could add any extras in that you like. It's super easy and really versatile.

Vegan Avocado Pasta- Serves 1


Ingredients


Bunch of Pasta like linguine (however much you would normally serve yourself)
1 avocado
25g pine nuts (toasted)
Bunch of basil leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions

2. Meanwhile place all other ingredients into a blend and blend until smooth


3. Drain pasta and place back in to saucepan, pour over sauce and stir through over a low eat.

4. Serve and enjoy

Pretty easy so a good stand by for those evenings when you just can't be bothered to cook! It also works well if you add some chopped chilli

Please join my Facebook page

Jess xx

Monday 25 April 2011

Easter Fun & Peanut Butter 'Ice Cream'

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend.

I had the family round yesterday for a BBQ. And put on a little Easter Egg hunt for Connor. Cute.



Today me and Phil went on a walk along the canal. It was a lush day and we took some sandwiches with us for lunch.

Now who wants a super easy delicious dessert that is much healthier than normal ice cream and  is also suitable for vegans?

Peanut Butter 'Ice Cream'


Ingredients

1 banana frozen (I always freeze a few banana is 2 inch pieces each week)
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of agave nectar or honey (optional)

Method

Ok here it is- put it all in the blender for about 3 mins and serve!!!!! That is it.

You can do all sorts of combinations. Just try a few things. Just use banana if you want banana flavour. Or banana and strawberry. Add some nuts, or after blending add some raisins and a small amount of rum!


Friday 22 April 2011

Bank Holiday Weekend

Hope everyone is enjoying this amazing weather we are having here. I'm just hoping this doesn't mean the summer will be rubbish!

What is everyone up to this weekend?

Phil and I had a lovely lie in this morning, it was really needed. We have both been ill and mega busy so it was nice to have a good little sleep. We then had a little lunch with the Fam. Right at this moment I am a football widow so thought I'd do a quick blog post and then read a few magazines outside before cooking dinner.

This month I made a major decision. I have become a vegetarian. Quite a few years back I was veggie for 3 years but one day I stopped. But for me as I'm such an animal lover and trying to get involved in as many animal rights things I can I couldn't cope with the guilt any more. So you may see a few vegetarian and vegan recipes on the bloggy. However Phil would never give up meat so there will still be non veggie recipes too :-)

The plants in the garden are coming along nicely. Strawberries are flowering, potatoes are doing well and my little raised bed with carrots, sweetcorn, salad and radishes is flourishing. Hopefully we will get a few more things done this weekend.

Other jobs this weekend is to sort out drawers and clear out the junk and go through all of our clothes.

On Sunday my Sister, Ryan and my Nephew Connor are coming round for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Muffin and Poppy my two gorgeous house bunnies xx



Sunday 17 April 2011

All things baby

Hola, Hope everyone is ok. Loving the weather at the moment. I'm praying it stays for the Bank Holidays.

Today was my best friends baby shower so I thought I'd share a couple of pictures. We played a couple of games: Guess the baby food, cut a piece of yarn to fit around the mum's tummy and where you have 2 bowls- one with cotton wool balls in, the person is blind folded and they have to transfer as many balls into the other bowl in 30 seconds.

Baby Mama

Baby food- trust me it was not nice!


This weekend I also did a few cupcakes

So I have had a busy weekend. Not done much off the To Do list to be honest! Especially with being ill last week it's all piled up.

I've joined a book club, my first meeting is this Wednesday and the book is Nigel Slater's Toast. Really enjoying it so far. It meets once a month which suits me as I couldn't fit in a weekly one.

Anyway I need to get on a sort dinner. Making Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potato 

Jess xx

Monday 11 April 2011

Love the Sunshine!

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. We were without internet for a week as some pesky thieves stole copper from our local BT exchange.

Anyway last weekend (2nd) was my birthday. Me and Phil went to London for the day. We looked round the shops, on my hit list were Liberty’s, Selfridges and Harrods. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go to Fortnum and Mason so will have to go there next time!

When we arrived we had a well needed coffee and some baked treats (red velvet whoopee pie and Raspberry and White Chocolate cake)



Then we had lunch in China Town...I could easily live of Dim Sum


And got some birthday cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery. I choose red velvet and carrot cake.


I had some serious footwear issues though and my feet were totally destroyed after! Trainers will be worn next time no matter how much I look like a tourist!

This weekend was glorious! It was like summer! We spent most of it in the garden. Yesterday we had a picnic in the garden with my Sister, her partner Ryan, my nephew Connor and our best friends Cat and Tyler. A nice chilled out day with a bit of garden Jenga thrown in!


There are so many things on my To Do List at the moment which I need to go through but here are some:

*Sort through all clothes and shoes and take what we don’t want to charity.
*Make Taggie Blanket- this is a present for a friends baby
*Sort my business admin for Jessica’s Cupcakes
*Make a notice board for the utility room
*Re-stain the garden bench
*Find a small shed/wendy house that I’m going to convert into a large rabbit hutch as I want to get 2 more     rescue rabbits
*Set up another raised bed so I can grow some more veg

That is a snippet of my To Do list and it’s forever growing!

I've had a cold all weekend and feeling pretty rubbish today so my plan after work is to get home, water the plants then get in my Jammies and read some more of my new book which is amazing
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici: A Novel

Jess xx

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Sorry

Sorry I've not posted for a little while. I've been travelling a bit with the day job and our internet hasn't been working since the weekend! Hopefully I can get it sorted and get a post up!

Hope you are enjoying the sun! I'm in the garden with a glass of red wine as I type!

Jess xx
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device