The Weekend Detox Soup

This week has been a very naughty week in regards to food for me. A ll I have been munching on is chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. I didn’t feel guilty so much during the week as I did this morning!  I had to eat something good for me, healthy and yet have a detoxing effect. 

I’ve always heard my Mum telling me and practically feeding me the goodness of green mung beans.  A natural cleanser, full of protein and a general all rounded nutritious bean.  Normally I cook them as an Indian Curry but that won’t help me with the detox side of things.  I took my large jar of mung beans and created this healthy dish.  Simplicity at it’s best!  Enjoy friends…

INGREDIENTS

1 cup mung beans
3/4 cups water
Vegetable stock cube
1 garlic clove crushed
Salt and chilli powder to taste
Fresh lemon juice

METHOD

Boil the mung beans in the water along with the vegetable stock cube, once brought to the boil place on a medium simmer for 15 minutes

Add in the crushed garlic, salt and chilli powder, simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the beans are soft and tender

Serve up in a large bowl and squeeze in a generous amount of lemon juice.  Start eating and let the detox begin!

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Wordless Wednesday

Have a beautiful day friends…Much love, D x

Wordless Wednesday

Beautiful St. Lucia ♡

Have a wonderful Wednesday friends! Much love, D x

Wordless Wednesday

From my best friend ♡

Have a blooming day!.Much love D x

The Red Velvet Birthday Cake

My first ever red velvet cake for my husband’s birthday!  He recently told me he liked it so that then became the cake of choice.  To compliment the flavour I wanted to smother the cake in a light chocolate buttercream frosting and to add a little acidity and sharpness the frozen summer berries came into play.
My 3 year old greased the cake tins with his favourite brush whilst I whisked up the colourful batter.

I used a tried and tested batter recipe as it being the first time and especially for an occasion.  However the buttercream recipe is all mine…
Extremely delicious and minimal work.  The fruit and chocolate biscuit fingers make it that more glamorous, until my little one decided to stick his toy plastic dinosaurs right in the middle with the candle!  Well, after all it was for his Daddy!

The red velvet sponge part of the recipe can be found @ http://divascancook.com/the-best-red-velvet-cake-recipe-easy-homemade-moist-with-southern-flair/

Light chocolate buttercream frosting

INGREDIENTS

70g milk chocolate melted
100g butter or low fat butter spread softened
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

Beat the butter and icing sugar together

Add the vanilla extract and melted chocolate and combine well

Spread on the top of the cake, also in the middle of the 2 sponges and then all over

Place some frozen berries on the top.  Stick chocolate fingers around the side of the whole cake

I’m taking some of this cake with me to Angie’s Fiesta Friday Party over at the Novice Gardener come join us!

Thought For Thursday…

This quote really spoke to me yesterday when I came across it online.  We do think about the generations that came before us but I haven’t done so in this way.

We are all made of love, nurtured, fed, looked after and so the cycle of love and life keeps turning!

Such a beautiful and heartwarming thought ♡

Have a peaceful and love filled day!
Much love D x

Wordless Wednesday

Have a beautiful day friends…
Much love D x

Fresh mint chocolate chip loaf

I just love mint and chocolate together! especially as a mousse (which I’m hoping to make soon) but in the mean time I remembered I still had some mint left over from my friend’s garden so I thought!…ummm why not put fresh mint in my chocolate chip loaf? So I did!  

The mint oil has really latched onto this cake batter and works incredibly! Different types of chocolate from cocoa to plain to white chocolate really makes this a chocoholic’s dream!

Thank god my little ones are napping at the moment or I wouldn’t have been able to take any pictures of a whole cake to show you but I would just have had a picture of the crumbs!!! Lol.

A very simple recipe to do when you’ve got some friends coming round for a coffee and thanks Anussha once again your mint has really transformed this cake! Come round I’ll have the coffee ready x

I’m also taking a few cakes to the Fiesta Friday over @ The Novice Gardener…where all of us get together and bring lots of delicious food, come on over!

INGREDIENTS

150g unsalted butter softened
170g granulated sugar
Handful of mint leaves and stems
Pinch of salt
140g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
100ml milk
4 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
50g chocolate chips
4 squares of white chocolate melted
4 squares of plain chocolate melted

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 160ºc/325ºf/gas mark 3. Blend the butter, sugar,salt and mint together until nice and creamy

2. Mix in all the ingredients apart from the chocolate chips. Make sure everything is combined

3. Fold in the chocolate chips and transfer batter to a lined and greased loaf tin and level out

4. Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes until poked skewer comes out clean

5. Let the loaf cool in the tin for a while and then transfer onto a large plate. Using a tablespoon drizzle the white and plain chocolate separately to create decoration.

Try and wait until the chocolate topping sets and then slice up yourself a big chunk and DEVOUR!!!!

I couldn’t help myself!!!

No not really 😉 ~

Lovely treats…

We are having a very busy weekend, lots of fun and festivities.  Wedding, dressing up, eating and shopping!  My kind of weekend!  I was lucky to pick up a few treats on the way…

Bargain buy £60 to £24! Wooohoooo!!! So pretty and a lovely light scent…

Lunch outside after a trip to the park.  Grilled halloumi cheese with salad encased in a warm flat bread and chunky chips!

And to round it off,  a crisp mint flavourful box of chocolates!  I’ve been craving mint and chocolate for a while.  I think it will satisfy me for now but I will have to bake something minty and chocolatey soon too!

Lunch, perfume and chocolates, feel like a princess! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, see you tomorrow, much love D x

Thoughts for Thursday…