THURSDAY - WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

18/05/15

So if you follow me on social media, you've probably guessed by now that I have a love/hate relationship with pancakes.

Pancakes aren't the healthiest thing to eat, and so I'm often left with the choice to go all out on my pancakes and make the most beautiful breakfast/dessert I can, OR try and make a really healthy pancake that still has flavour, but I won't regret eating later. This morning I don't know what I chose, haha.

Eggless pancakes can go horribly wrong - just to make you aware. They'll look the same, flip the same, but they certainly do not taste the same - especially ones made with oat flour. In advance of blog dates I plan recipes to post, so I'll always be on time on Thursdays and Sundays. Now I usually have a few lined up, pre-written, but with spontaneity today I decided to scrap what I was actually going to post and post about pancakes instead because everyone loves pancakes.

But I didn't want them to be calorie-laden, so I opted for an oat flour, eggless batter (which I would come to regret later) and decided I would make them stuffed with Nutella, so when you cut into them, chocolatey goodness oozes out..

Long story short it didn't work. The pancakes tasted like porridge and the Nutella set rather than 'oozed'. But you know what - it was okay.

I appreciate when things go wrong in the kitchen because it just shows I'm learning. It's okay when things go wrong in the kitchen, trial and error is just on of the things that make cooking enjoyable. It's fun inventing recipes for you all, it makes writing this blog worthwhile. 

When I perfect this recipe I'll share it with you, but for now, enjoy the mistake that were these pancakes, haha.

This was my Thursday, see you on Sunday,

Christina x

'FULLY LOADED' SALAD

...or The Kardashian Salad...

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Around 15 to 16 years old, right before the start of prom season and the beginning of my year long health-kick, I became completely, head over heels obsessed with the Kardashians, or more specifically, their TV show - Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Excited watching them live their glamourous, drama filled lifestyle and finding it cool being the same age as Kendall (the thought of my 16 year-old, clueless self is making me gag), I tried to adjust my lifestyle in anyway I could to mirror theirs - looking back in retrospect, how ironic were the 'role models' I subconciously chose? Oh, little Christina, bless you.

In most of their episodes around that time, they were always eating these amazingggg looking salads. Which I of course envied. I was never really one for salads before this, they used to be the thing I scoffed down first on my plate, so I could actually enjoy everything else. Now I'm completely different. I love salads - the freedom you have with what goes on to your plate, all the accompaniments you could add and knowing that salads don't always start with lettuce leaves.

Now that I've started to adjust my diet, I've incorporated more and more salads into my week. I have one as a meal almost every day (if I can help it) and the above is usually what I end up making. As I usually have all the ingredients on hand.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 1)

Half a Tin of Tuna, Drained
Four Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
Half a Ripe Avacado, Sliced
One Egg, Boiled and Peeled
A Thumbs Length of Cucumber, Sliced
One Quarter of a Red Onion, Sliced Thinly
A Portion Of Cous Cous
A Handful (or Two) of Lettuce or Mixed Salad Leaves

Honey and Olive Oil as a Dressing

METHOD

Slice all the vegetables to your liking and arrange them in a bowl. Scoop some cous cous on to the plate, and add the halved boiled egg. Top the vegetables by flaking the tuna over it, then lastly dress the salad with your choice of dressing. Bam! - It's that easy.

 I hope you all end up making it, the salad is sooo filling and will definitely make you feel famous. ...Okay not really, but the salad's good, I swear.

Thank you so much for reading & Happy Fathers Day,

Christina x

P.S. Dont forget to subscribe! :)

MEALS IN PICTURES.

MAY/JUNE

While making a new banner for my Google+ profile..

5:23PM 16/05/2015

Tuna Pesto Pasta 

Made by Me
Birmingham, West Midlands

BANANA 'NICE CREAM' AND NUTELLA SWIRLS

Recently I haven't been feeling my best health-wise. I've found that I have become addicted to carbohydrates, sugars and fats - which have made up most of what I have been eating daily. And this has obviously taken a toll on my energy. Although they are all energy rich food groups, too much of them can leave you feeling lethargic, sluggish and bloated. So I've taken a new approach to how I eat in the day - Raw Till Four, and no Carbohydrates until 2PM. Why? I want my body to use any fat stored up from my carbohydrate bingeing as energy in the morning, as well as the fruit and other things I'll have for breakfast, whether that includes fruit juice, herbal tea, etc. Then for lunch, around 2PM, I will then introduce carbohydrates. Because I'll probably be the most hungry and likely lacking energy. And lastly for dinner, mainly vegetables, little carbs and a small amount of protein. Well, that's the plan anyway. So the next few recipes you all will see, are likely to be a lot healthier, more colourful, and much more nutritionally dense (salads versus toast).

I hope you all will like the upcoming recipes, the pictures I've taken look brilliant - if I do say so myself.

Anyway - here's the recipe!

I decided to have this for breakfast today! 'Ice-Cream' for breakfast? Thank God it's healthy, right?
Trying hard to refrain from carbs this morning, I opted for this because it would provide me with good, slow release energy that would easily last me the morning.

INGREDIENTS

One Very Ripe Banana, Chopped and Frozen
A Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
A Pinch of Salt
A Teaspoon of Milk
Half a Teaspoon of Cinnamon
A Teaspoon of Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread/Nutella (Optional)

METHOD

As easy as everything else I make, you just need to blend (or mash very well) all the above ingredients minus the Nutella. When well blended, scoop into a bowl and top with more fruit, granola, or nuts. I, of course, opted for Nutella. When you dress the top of the ice-cream with the spread, it starts to freeze and changes in texture. It becomes almost like chocolate sticks - still soft, almost semi-frozen, but insanely good. I then decided to top it all off with a pinch of sea salt, because it works so well with the sweetness of the chocolate.

I hope you all make this, it was amazing. And please do try other toppings, though I think nothing compares to chocolate, hazelnut and banana ;)

See you all on Thursday,

Christina x

I FORGOT MY CAMERA.

05/06/15

Today I decided to take a trip down to Brick Lane, in London. A straightforward trip from Essex, I decided to venture out on a trip to Rough Trade with my Dad for the day.

If you've never been, it's exceptional down there. Quality vinyl for £5, exotic street food from around the globe, quirky yet quality clothes that you likely won't find anywhere else. Amongst the pop-up clothes stores, street fundraisers and the occasional man asking for money, we stumbled across an underground vinyl sale.

As we wandered down the poorly lit steps into the initial darkness, we were then greeted by a bright underground marketplace which both excited and delighted me - it was exactly what I went to Brick Lane for. Something different.

After scouring the boxes and boxes of records for possible musical gems I would later treasure,  I came across a few Whitney Houston albums, records from the Jackson brothers (Michael was nowhere to be seen), Duran Duran, ABBA and Prince followed, but I decided on Cameo's 'Word Up' album, a compilation album featuring The O'Jays, Lou Rawls and Billy Paul to name a few. I love 80's music, so have started what will be a fairly large collection with a few classics.

After finishing up with purchases, and being 'gifted' a dodgy, heavily scratched reggae record by the shop owner, as we were walking out, I spotted some sunglasses at a little boutique that were everything. E v e r y t h i n g. I put them on, paid for them, and strutted out the shop - I must have looked like a mad woman.

I wish I could have taken pictures. I was so annoyed when I went for my camera and it lacked a memory card. I felt terrible. Like I had let 'everyone' down, haha - and that sort of made me smile, knowing I cared that much - it won't happen again, everyone, I was actually really disappointed in myself. I compensated for my mistake by 'borrowing' some snaps my Dad had taken. Thanks again Dad.

'The Lord Is Our Defence.' - Photo credit: Aerold Bentley

Afterwards we went up to Rough Trade and had a browse, but pretty much wanted to go home after the hour or two we spent in the underground record shop. On the way back to Aldgate East, we stopped at an cool, quirky cafe. I got a Flat White and a ham and cheese toasted flatbread. Both were delicious, and I really, really want to go back.

Take a trip to down to Brick Lane this summer.

Christina x

MUM'S DAY WITH ERIC LANLARD + FRENCH CHICKEN CASSEROLE

A while ago for my Mother's Birthday, my Dad, Brother and I bought her the opportunity to go to Cake Boy in London and be taught essential cake making skills by the one and only, Eric Lanlard. Mum's a busy person, so a year after receiving said gift, she was finally able to go.

Let me just say, Mum returned home a different person. She thoroughly enjoyed the day, loves Eric Lanlard, a l w a y s wants to bake, but more importantly - is much more experimental in the kitchen. While down there, Eric made all the students lunch, which was a French style tomato and chicken stew, with roasted seasonal vegetables. In her words "..it looked and tasted absolutely stunning". So of course, wanted to make it for the family at home. And I, of course, wanted to share it with all of you..

I, unfortunately, wasn't present for most of the process, I only prepared the whole chicken for sauté and left it for her to use. The rest was all Mum. And I must say, the end result was incredible. I've asked Mum to describe the process as best she can - what she used and how she cooked everything. So enjoy everyone!

Here's Mum! *Passes the keyboard to Mum*

INGREDIENTS:

6- 8 Portions of Chicken (Legs and Thighs preferably - skin on)
6 Cloves of Garlic
1 x 400g Tinned Tomatoes
10 x Plum Tomatoes (Small)
Red, Yellow & Green Sweet Pepper (1 of Each)
2 Sprigs of Rosemary
Handful of Basil
2 Tbsps of Olive Oil
25g Butter
500 ml White Wine (Dry)
3 Tbsps Balsamic Vinegar
10 Shallots or 2 Red Onions
1 - 2 Chicken Stock Cubes

PREPARATION

- Core peppers and slice
- Peel shallots, top and tail and leave whole/or if red onions, peel then thinly sliced
- Crush garlic
- Set aside along with herbs

Fill a large bowl with water and place chicken portions in gently. Gently wash (to avoid splashing) and remove excess water by patting dry in paper towels, as this will help reduce excess liquid in frying pan and help the skin to brown and become crispy. Discard the dirty water carefully.

COOKING:

Pour 2 tbsp of Olive Oil and a knob of salted butter (25g) into a frying pan. Make sure the butter is melting in the oil, as it will stop the butter from burning.

Place chicken pieces, skin down, in frying pan and gently fry for 4-5 minutes until skin begins to brown and crisp, turn over and fry for an additional 4-5 minutes. This is purely to seal and brown the chicken, as it will not develop much colour in the oven. When well browned, remove from the pan and place into an ovenproof dish, adding the remaining oil from the pan to avoid the chicken drying out.

To the chicken, add the crushed garlic, onions, peppers, half of the herbs (set some aside for garnishing) and whole tomatoes. Cover with a tin of tomatoes and add wine and balsamic vinegar. Add a chicken stock cube to 100ml of hot water to make a very concentrated chicken stock - pour this into the dish.

Cover (with foil, if you do not have a lid) and place in oven at 160C/320F for 90mins. When the chicken is cooked thoroughly, and the sauce has reduced to your liking, taste to see whether it needs additional seasoning... It doesn't? It's good to serve.

Best served alongside seasonal roasted vegetables.

Thank You So Much For Reading.

Happy Sunday,

Christina x

CHANGES...

Hey All,

A few changes have taken place around here..

First of all - I hope you all have noticed the better photography. I have made a real effort to take pictures with my camera, rather than my phone or anything else, because I want to provide the best posts for you all. I know I appreciate good photography on a website, especially when it comes to food, so I hope you all noticed the better image quality and the larger pictures. Let me know if you would like to see any changes...

You would have also likely noticed that previous likes and comments from the posts have disappeared. I'm really sorry about that. But the reason for the change is actually something really exciting - I bought a domain for the blog! The previous domain was elizaalauren.blogspot.com, and it now - thechristinabentley.com! It's a big step forward for me in terms of blogging, but I felt it was only right I take this much more seriously than I have been. I now upload content two times a week and have been doing so for a while, and want to continue to make this blog so much better than it is currently. I hope you are all okay with this change but trust me - it's for the better.

Hopefully you'll see some progressive changes in the coming month - I'm as excited about them as you are.

Happy Friday - See you Sunday,

Christina x

BANANABERRY 'THICKIE'.

I woke up this morning really craving a juice or smoothie instead of cereal. While I'm at home from university, I really want to take advantage of the fresh fruit and vegetables that are a l w a y s readily available in the house. (I can rarely afford lots of fruit while at university, haha.) Anyway, this week there were blueberries to use up, so I thought what better to have than a blueberry smoothie. Very random, very impromptu, but here's what ended up happening.

I placed two handfuls of blueberries into a blender alongside one frozen banana, a tablespoon of natural yoghurt, a squeeze of honey and a splash of milk.

I blitzed the mixture until it was smooth but it was quite thick, so I added some more milk and blended it again.

The end result was a 'thickie' instead of a smoothie, but it was good nonetheless. I poured it into a glass and ended up enjoying it with a spoon! Next time I make it I'll probably pour it into a bowl and top it with fruit and granola etc. That would be my suggestion if you decided to make this exact recipe. If you want the texture of the smoothie to be a little less viscous, I would suggest adding about 100ml of juice instead of milk and adding ice to help the fruit blend a lot better. 

Whatever way you decide to have this thickie, I hope you enjoy it, and please do tell me if you make it! Let me know in the comments below, share your pictures with me and subscribe to your right for more recipes like these! 

Thanks so much for reading, see you on Sunday,

Christina x

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