Small Pleasures

This afternoon I busied myself trying out two new recipes that I couldn’t resist. Both of which wouldn’t have helped my waist-line, but hey, sometimes you’ve just got to throw caution to the wind and enjoy the pleasures that sugar and butter have to offer

The first recipe I tried was very very simple, it was one of Nigella Lawson’s recipes that I do believe I posted a video on in the previous blog post. I made her Raspberry and yoghurt swirl. The recipe does call for crushed up oatmeal cookies but I didn’t have any of that so I went without. I also used low-fat berry flavoured Greek yoghurt instead of full-fat, plain.

It’s messy (I’ve never put together a parfait before in my life) and doesn’t look like much, but HOLY DAMN it tastes like heaven in a glass!! It was shockingly good and I enjoyed every last teaspoon of that heavenly mixture. It’s so simple too! All you need is frozen raspberries, Greek yoghurt and icing sugar! I can’t wait to eat more of these in summer I think it would make the perfect treat on a hot summers day. Ice Cream? Pfffftttt, this is WAY better than ice cream. I seriously recommend you try this recipe, it’s killer!

2 teaspoons of icing sugar to every cup of raspberries I’d say and as much Greek yoghurt as you need. You can add crushed biscuits if you’ve got them (any biscuits would probably do the trick).

The second recipe I tried was the non-vegan version of Oh She Glows’ Soft Ginger Cookies.

Oh. My. God.

These biscuits are the most delicious thing I have ever cooked in my LIFE. I’m not even exaggerating, these are so amazing, it’s hard to believe that I managed to produce something so good! They’re like biting into a fluffy ginger cloud… Oh my gosh I get dreamy just thinking about it…

My only complaint is that the recipe calls for Himalayan sea salt… Although I can’t quite figure out why :/ It was rather unpleasant to be enjoying such a delectable cookie and then find yourself biting into a big, hard lump of salt It ruined it a little bit… Next time I wouldn’t add the salt.

Without the salt, they’re perfect!!

Anyway, the title of my blog “small pleasures” relates 100% to cooking (funnily enough ) and the way that such small things about it can give you such pleasure. As Nigella Lawon says: “There’s a lot to be said for mindless, repetitive action”. Couldn’t agree with you more Nigella! What I’ve come to love so much about baking and cooking is that you get such fabulous results from the work you put into it. It’s worth absolutely every second of the time you spend, and it’s come to be quite therapeutic for me. It’s my ultimate de-stressor, but unfortunately I’m bleeding our poor old pantry dry of ingredients. We’re out of Cocoa powder at the moment which is a pain because I have an amazing recipe for Chocolate Mint cookies from Nigella Lawson’s website.

One of the biggest small pleasures (lol) for me has to be the garlic roasted peanuts that Mum and I have started making.

They are so delicious and SO easy, it’s insane. All you need is a bucketload of peanuts, some peanut oil and about 7-8 cloves of crushed garlic. Mix it all in, pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stir and repeat until they’ve spent collectively 8 minutes in the microwave. See! How easy is that? And believe me, they are YUMMY.

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. Tomorrow’s forecast is terrible so I plan to spend the day making the vege broth I’ve been meaning to create for about 2 weeks now… Better late than never.

Night!

Nigella Lawson, Julia Child and Chocolate Spice Muffins

Sorry for being M.I.A as of late… I’ve been absolutely flat out, run off my feet all week and I’ve been too exhausted to do anything in mu spare time. I’m working at the local newspaper this week as a reporter and the hours are long and the work gets taxing. I enjoy it, but it is quite tiring.

I came home sick yesterday afternoon with a headache, nausea and a cold. I was glad I did, I passed out on the couch for two hours to help ease my headache and catch up on 4 days of lack of sleep. Once I’d risen I baked some Chocolate Spice Muffins from my Cupcakes and Muffins cook book. Unfortunately they weren’t so great by themselves, but I’m sure with some whipped cream and jam they would’ve been lovely.

Last night I was looking up cooking related videos on Youtube and I felt compelled to search for Nigella Lawson. I’m so glad I did! I feel so inspired by her and I love her food philosophy. Even though most of what she creates has your entire RDI of calories in one serve, her food looks like fun to make and would be great to serve at birthdays, Christmas and BBQ’s.

I would love to own one of her cookbooks but I’m too poor :/ They cost quite a lot, so I’m counting on a wicked trademe bargain to get one.

Another cookbook I’d LOVE to own is The Art Of French Cooking volume 1 and 2 by Julia Child. If you’ve seen the film Julie and Julia you’ll understand why this sounds like such a great cookbook. Also, Angela from Oh She Glows used this cookbook to recreate a vegan version of a beautiful food she ate while in Paris. That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Unfortunately these also cost a small fortune even on trademe, so until I find a paying job these will sadly be out of my reach

Last night I made pizza for dinner, the lazy and sick person’s answer to dinner.

Anyway, I’m not feeling well so I’m off now, I shall leave you with these amazing Nigella Lawson youtube videos to entertain yourself.

Ciao!

Daylight savings is finally here!

WOOHOOO! I am SO glad that it’s finally daylight savings I love a few extra hours of light in the evening, you can get so much done! I spent most of my day doing this:

My step dad and little brother have gone away to Hamilton today so Mum and I made a day of gardening and getting the garden sorted. I worked on that ugly patch of dirt with weeds and what-not (the photo was taken RIGHT at the beginning before I had time to make much of an impact) and around the back in the vegetable garden. I spent collectively about 2 hours gardening today and about 2 out and about shopping for things for the garden with mum.

We went to the garden centre and bought $10 worth of brightly coloured flowers for me to plant in the area pictured above as well and seedlings of veges to plant, potatoes to plant, compost and potato food. I also bought 2 new pairs of shorts because believe it or not I had NONE! I only had my P.E shorts which are way to small for me now.

I made fresh lemonade this morning so it would be there for us to drink this evening because I knew we’d be fairly parched after gardening. I was very pleased I did as well when we finally came inside at 6.20pm and I had the chance to scull back a cool drink. I absolutely love the flowers I planted, just check out the beautiful colours!!!

I pulled out all the weeds, got rid of the dead flower heads and pulled out some of the unruly plants that were taking over the space. It felt so good to see the garden looking nicer and cleaner with new, pretty flowers. I think I have a thing for gardening ^.^

I cooked the most delicious pizza for dinner, I used this recipe from vegweb.com. I was AMAZED at how it came out and it tasted sooo good! I cooked it for mum and I. I wasn’t vegan because I used cheese, but I didn’t mind.

It was so good and I would thoroughly recommend this recipe to anyone wanting something quick, easy and tasty.

Anyway, I’ve got a looong road trip tomorrow to Auckland and back in one day with mum to pick up my Granddad so I’d better get some rest. I plan to do some yoga in the morning to loosen up my joints (which will undoubtedly be very stiff) and prepare for a total of 8 hours in a car.

Ciao!