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Christmas Sticky Pudding with Chocolate, Coconut, Apple & Cinnamon

This isn’t the version I’ll be using for Christmas Day, as I’ll be using the regular old full fat, toffee sauce version, but I wanted to try something different and see how it turned out, although on Christmas Day, we will have the apple and cinnamon added to the recipe here.

This came about, as I wanted to use something different from butter, and yes, I cheated in some bits for it…….  You’ll see where below.  Even cooled this is going to be very squidgy and lush, and also very coconutty.  Substitute with butter for a more traditional taste.  It could do with that squidgyness for the lack of soaking overnight in toffee sauce.  If you want a toffee sauce, go to my oaty sticky toffee pudding post.  I’ve said serves 6 – 12, as it all depends on your portion sizes. 🙂

Like all sticky puddings, this is much better on the day after it is made, or after it’s fully cooled, when you can re-heat.

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Christmas Sticky Pudding with Chocolate, Coconut, Apple and Cinnamon

Lesley Smith
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Dessert, Puddings
Cuisine Christmas
Servings 6 - 12

Ingredients
  

  • 120 g Chopped Apple
  • 50 g Self Raising Flour
  • 50 g Coconut Sugar
  • 2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
  • 100 g Medjool Dates
  • 100 g Coconut Oil
  • 50 g Oatmeal
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tbsp Black Treacle
  • 50 g Cream
  • 50 g Chopped Nuts
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
  • 1 Tin Chocolate Middle and Covering
  • Red Food Colouring

Instructions
 

  • Chop the dates into small pieces. Put them into a bowl and pour over a little boiling water and set them aside. Leave them to soak in until everything else is done or whizz them in a processor.

  • Put your oven on, to around 170C/160C (Fan).

  • In a mixing bowl, add your flour, oatmeal, bicarbonate of soda, apple, cinnamon, nuts and sugar, and stir it around. Melt your coconut oil, so that it’s easy to mix in, and add it, along with your beaten egg, and black treacle. Mix by hand, or use a low setting on a mixer, to ensure the mix isn’t handled too roughly. When the pudding mix looks slightly curdled, add in the cream and black treacle, and fold it in by hand. Don’t worry about the texture. At this point, it might resemble batter more than pudding mix. Just remember, that it isn’t a cake mix and doesn’t need lots of air added. Using a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl is a good idea.

  • Add your whizzed dates, or mash the dates into the water, then pour it all into the bowl. Fold fold in by hand.

  • Grease your baking tins and pour the mixture in. I used two moulds initially, but transferred them into one for the oven.

  • Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the pudding is cooked, and a skewer comes out clean.

  • I cheated by putting mine into a basin of cold water to cool mine quickly as the hordes were desperate to eat it, so mine came out mashed up a bit. Leave yours to cool fully, and it will co-operate much more nicely.

  • Add toppings and serve. I didn't make toffee sauce for this version, but cheated with a tin of chocolate Nestle, which I heated up before pouring on.

With the red food colouring added, it became a very very dark coloured pudding.

Drizzled with cream and raspberry sauce.  [fb_button]

 

 

 

 

 

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Skavi & Ray Alkoholfrei Prosecco and Lush Bahlsen Christmas Goodies

Thanks to Scavi & Ray, and also to Bahlsen for our Christmas samples.

Scavi & Ray Alcohol Free Prosecco

I have to say, that I haven’t understood the Prosecco thing.  I’m pretty much teetotal, but not through deliberate or sustained choice.  I’ve had times in my life when I’ve drunk alcohol, it’s just that it hasn’t been that often, and I rarely ever found a drink I actually enjoyed.

Wine for me, is a bit hit or miss.  I rarely drink it in company, as it tends to be either very dry, or to me, pretty bitter.  I’m usually a cheap fizzy wine girl when I choose to imbibe, as I have absolutely zero alcohol class, and because it’s rarely on offer, I usually say no.  I’d been quite negative around the Prosecco culture, but I hadn’t ever really tasted it, nor had I understood why it’s talked about so much.

Scavi & Ray asked me to try the Alcohol free version, so I gave it a go.  I also have to say, I’ve never understood the put the kids to bed and have a glass of wine thing that goes on in blogging circles. I’d rather have chocolate……  Perhaps it’s just the younger ones, but hey ho.  The times I do miss having a drink in my hand, is at the Christmas dinner table, or at New Year.  I usually end up having to drive, so it’s often fizzy grape juice, but you know how it goes, there’s often someone, who’s usually had a drink or two, and they’re trying to push ‘just one,’ glass on you.  It annoys me that they push, and it annoys them that I don’t take.

The bottles really do look like a real bottle of wine.  I received two sample bottles, in a perfect size, and immediately – my Xmas and New Year problem is solved on the fooling those who are drinking into my actually taking one.  Unless they scrutinise the bottles very carefully, they’re not going to know.

Tasting some of my wine, I realised it’s a sparkling wine, and is refreshing, almost as sweet as grape juice but it looks like the real stuff.  I have no idea if this tastes like the alcoholic version of Prosecco, as I’ve never tried it, but if it does, I understand why it’s popular.  I have also realised the attraction…..and it’s that many people who drank wine, used to pretend they like the other stuff…….   This non-alcoholic Prosecco is fizzy wine, and doesn’t have a name that’s frowned upon.  It’s also very easy to drink…

I don’t think I’d be persuaded to go down the alcohol version route, as I don’t fancy a hangover with my daily routine.  There are no days off when you have 2 people with disabilities in your house, and you need to be able to get up during the night when the need arises.  Available from Amazon.

Bahlsen Christmas Goodies

This type of Christmas food, is something else I hadn’t ever tried, so is the main reason for choosing to feature these on my blog.

Our samples were:

  • Lebkuchen Mischung – An assortment of spiced lebkuchen cakes with chocolate.
  • Mohn-Stollen – A Christmas stollen with a poppy seed filling.
  • Zimtsterne – Star shaped cinnamon spiced, hazlenut cakes.

My favourite is the Mohn-Stollen.  I honestly thought the crunch was nuts, but it’s the poppy seeds.  I don’t mind either way, as it was delicious.

The Zimtsterne and Lebkuchen Mischung tasted very similar to me, but with slightly different textures than I expected.  From the shape and size, I expected crunch biscuit, but they really are a cake like texture in the middle.   I believe Waitrose, Amazon, Ocado, Asda, Morrison and Tesco stock Bahlsen goodies.  The cakes tasted cinnamony to me, but my youngest is convinced they are ginger based.   I checked the packaging and I was right. That’s why I liked them, as cinnamon is my favourite spice of the season.

Sadly, I opened the Mohn-Stollen early afternoon, and it was half gone in less than an hour.  I can’t see this hanging around for long.

I hope you all enjoy your own pick of Christmas goodies when you go shopping this month.

(Affiliate Links Below)



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Review: Star Wars Interactech Rogue One Imperial Stormtrooper

The Hasbro Toy Tribe has been good to us once again.  The Star Wars Rogue One Imperial Stormtrooper arrived on our doorstep, and with an afternoon stuck in with a sore back, I decided to make use of my time.

When my kids look for toys to play with, I know they tend to first look at how many moveable bits there are.  Immediately, even before they open the packet, they’re feeling about and checking to see if the arms and legs move.  It’s a very important things for kids to know.

Being imaginative tends to put a lot of pressure on toys, to get into positions kids want them to, and that includes just being able to stand up on their own, without flopping over, or being propped up.

If you want to know how the Stormtrooper fared, for doll type toys, I look for the following:

Packaging

Really easy to get into, with simple elastic bungees holding down the figure.  Four snips and it was free.  The shield and gun took two snips each.

No huge and excessive packaging, so it’s a win win for this.

Moveability

Several moving parts.  Hands swivel all the way round, the head moves, and the legs move at the top.

When middler came home, he did express a little disappointment that the knees didn’t move, but he soon got over that when he realised it stood unaided, and with arms and legs in different positions.

Interaction

65 sounds and phrases that are motion-activated.  Pick up the stormtrooper for flight style sounds, and shake it for battle sounds.  On the front, there is a mode selector, which lets you choose attack or flight mode.  Buttons on the belt also activate for different sounds, as well as the realistic blaster sounds.

Extras

From Hasbro direct, download the Star Wars StudioFX App, to make videos with the toys.  There’s a code inside the pack.  It works with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and some Android devices.   Check starwars.hasbro.com for more information.

What Did Kids Say

Middler grabbed it when he came back from the footie match with his dad.  Sadly Aberdeen drew 0:0 with St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership match, so he came in with a long face, and instantly brightened up when he saw the Stormtrooper out of its box and ready to take away.  It had been sitting tormenting him on the counter for the last day or so, and I knew I’d have to do this review quickly, or I’d get no peace at all.

What Did I Say

Find out below.  I promise I will get better at videos, and I promise to do them in the daylight and with make-up on – well most of the time anyway.  Not that most of you care, but I’m new to this, so bear with me as I’m having to learn as I go – and that’s not an easy thing at my age.  Someone told me brain cells dimish for every year after the age of 20.  🙂

 

Where to Buy Star Wars Interatech Rogue One Imperial Stormtrooper

Prices correct as at 10th Dec 2016 and may be variable.

Tesco It’s currently and incredible £19 from Tesco, which is likely to not hang around long. Dec 16

Toysrus £39.99

Amazon (Affiliate Link) £30.49

Smyths £32.99

John Lewis £42.99

Argos £35.99

Disclaimer:  Thanks to Hasbro for our review Star Wars Interactech Rogue One Imperial Stormtrooper.  All opinions are my own.

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Review: Disney on Ice Frozen

We had the good fortune to be invited to Disney on Ice for Aberdeen, where it’s running until the 11th December, so if you want to see it, you better get your skates on..  See what I did there…..

As luck wouldn’t have it, we ended up being late for the pre-show, after I scratched my car.  Well, I wouldn’t call it a scratch, as I pulled off a side skirt on a friends fence and scratched two side panels.  I also ended up doing my back in, by pulling the fence away to stop more damage while I reversed, but at least it wasn’t until the next day when I really felt the burn.

After a horrendously long drive time wise, we ended up in rush hour traffic and missed the meet and greet we’d been invited to, which couldn’t be helped, but I did manage to snaffle the Princesses on the way from the meet and greet room, so bagged a picture for one of the boys to show their nephews.

I’m ashamed to say that it’s my first ever Disney on Ice show.  It’s one of those things I kept meaning to get to, but somehow never did.  I won’t make that mistake again.  I’m going to be finding every excuse under the sun to take my nephews with me next time it comes around.

The skating was amazing, and the intricacy of the steps phenomenal.  Despite having a car and friends fence to fix, I’m glad we made it in time.  At one point, I worried we wouldn’t get there at all.

The favourite part, by the reaction of most of the kids, seemed to be when the Trolls came out.  I have no idea why ghoulies and ghosties and all things trollish please children of most ages, but they do.

It’s the full story, live on ice.  And it’s not just for the girls.

There were groups of adults, plenty teens, and a fair few boys sitting around where we were.  Not to mention the two Aberdeen footballers beside us, who middler kept checking up on.  I’ve no idea who they were, but the kids did.

Disney says:

Whisk your family away to the wintry world of Arendelle as the entire heart-warming take of Academy Awared-winning Frozen skates into town!  Featuring never-before-seen characters, sensational skating and inspirational songs like “Let It GO”, treat your family to a dazzling celebration of love and friendship they’ll never forget!

The show is running in Aberdeen until the 11th December, 2016, and then onto the Sheffield Arena from the 14-18th December, and The O2 in London from the 21st to the 30th December.

We’re advised to arrive early to learn the snowman dance.

For more information and tickets, visit www.disneyonice.co.uk

On the way out, I heard someone say that it was “stunning.”  She was right.  It really is.

Disclaimer:  Thanks to Disney on Ice for our complimentary show tickets.  All opinions are my own.

 

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Personal Trainer or Not?

This is quite a personal post.  It’s pretty long, but I think it’s necessary to show how I’ve felt about exercise and my health.  It’s also as a very big thank you to people who have given me some very special time, and have recently been helping me enormously.

Ok, on with it.  None of us are getting any younger, well maybe Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz and Victoria Beckham are, but I’m traditionally ageing forwards, bulldozing my way towards retirement at a frightening speed.  I’m pretty proud of what my body can do these days though.  And that’s a decade and a half after entering menopause.  Yes, I did have the luck to enter mine early, in my thirties, so my worst days flew away with the cuckoo long ago.  It does mean that I’m more at risk of osteoporosis than everyone who hits hot flushes in their late forties or early fifties, so I’ve been desperate to begin taking care of my joints and bones.

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With my weight loss, I’m feeling better than I have for at least two decades, with the odd blip of two of a runny nose and sore throat, when those pesky kids of mine take home precious germs from school, just desperate to share them around.

So, the short story is, I can run….  Very slowly, as I keep telling everyone, but that’s so I don’t have to get embarrassed when a ten-year old whizzes past me in public, or I huff and puff my way up a new hill.

Back to what I’d planned talking about.  It’s a simple question isn’t it?  Whether to consult a personal trainer or not!  Or maybe it isn’t.  What do we even mean by a personal trainer anyway?  Shouldn’t it be someone who knows more than how to train us, or someone who knows about how fitness affects overall health?

Honestly though, it’s a potential mind blower…with all the terms and confusion.

I can imagine about a quarter of you who are reading, silently thinking, ‘no brainer,’ yet the other three-quarters might either be sniggering their socks off, or wondering what else the money could be spent on.

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All of the above, are actually valid reasons, as is the concern of hitting a gym full of late teens and twenty year olds, either pumped up or perfectly body beautiful.  In reality, few, if any, care about us oldies with wobbly bits, but how we feel, does often stop us from doing things that are good for us.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when I was young, I longed for skinny legs and the smallest clothes I could fit.  I’m eons more sensible now, having realised that being strong is infinitely more attractive to anyone with a bit of sense.  And that’s not on the outside, but on the inside, where it counts. Think about it. What we look like on the outside, isn’t going to help us age gracefully or healthily, if we’re thin but unfit, or overweight and wanting to do something about it, but can’t get up the courage to take the next step, or perhaps don’t know where to start.

That was me.  After I was asked to run the Race for Life, I just kept going, not having a clue what I was doing really, but just putting one foot in front of the other, and building it up slowly.  It was the right way to do it, and I’d read and read about strength training, but just hadn’t figured out how to go about it.  I knew I had a skinny fat type belly, and I knew I wanted to do something about it, but somehow, I still felt embarrassed.  I thought about using the gym, but thought I’d look like a numpty newbie.  Even worse…was that my husband bought himself a home gym in January, but has never used it, so I wanted to, but never felt I was doing anything constructive.

For a while now, one of my secret wishes, was to add strength training as my middle body is weak, and not in good condition.  I look fine, but I haven’t felt fine about it.

I’ve often wondered how to measure body fat percentage over the last year, but a body fat caliper seems to be very far out, as most of the fat I’m left with, is stored in one area.  It could throw those results off.

I had the opportunity to have an InBody test done at Temple Medical, by the lovely Jo, one of their doctors, and the reading pretty much confirmed what I thought.  The test, which measures our body composition, is fairly comprehensive and does far more than simply measure body fat.  I know my body water, protein, mineral and fat mass levels….  It’s an enlightening and very quick test to have done.  It’s also an eye opener.  Lots of people are telling me that I’m soon going to be too thin, yet the InBody test tells me I still have a lot of work to do.

Most of my fat is centered around my abdomen, and it’s not a great thing to have, considering my weight is inside the normal range, but I am only a smidgen under the line for dangerous visceral fat.  Yes, I have UK size 7-8 feet at just over 5 foot 4, so I’m never going to have a skeleton that lets me on the lower side of the weight scale without looking emaciated, and my InBody score came out at 72, which I am assured is fairly good.  Yet it’s not ideal either, considering that my body fat percentage came out at over 30%. That’s despite all the running and weight loss.  In other words, it was staring me front and centre, in black and white, that I’ve done nowhere near enough to be fully healthy.  I’ve had blinkers over my eyes..and stuffed cotton wool in my ears.  I knew this stuff, but whey hey, pretend it doesn’t exist, and I could fool myself that I was more healthy than I was.

Put that BFP into perspective.  In some places, they class people with over 30 BFP as obese!!  Compare that with the fact I take a UK size 8 jean in Next these days.  Usually 8-10 in most other places.

With a few tips from Jo about food, and advising me to eat at the level of 1300-1400 calories a day, with around 130g protein in 24 hours, and how to get that in, I set off to make a few changes, knowing I could ask her for more advice.  I don’t need to diet as such, as that would be daft, but what I do need, is to replace some of that BFP with lean muscle instead.  Yep, I’m back to strength training, aka weights, and lifting…

It’s laughable – lifting weights at my age, isn’t it?

Or is it?

Who doesn’t want to be strong?  I’m sure I do.  When I get to sixty, or seventy, if I make that, or even beyond, I still want to be able to climb stairs, go for walks, maybe even still run, chase around any potential grandchildren, and enjoy life to my potential max.  I’m never going to be ready for my pipe and slippers when I retire.  I’ll be blogging till I’m ninety….

Moving on, and back to the issue of personal trainers.  They’re scary…  Usually perfectly fit and able twenty somethings, who’ve never fought with life, weight, stress, or kids running around their ankles. That’s what I thought.  There are lots of gyms in Aberdeen, yet I wanted to talk to someone who’s had a bit of life struggle.  Someone who would understand that having a dodgy thyroid makes losing weight tricky, someone who had perhaps lost weight themselves in the past, and someone closer to my age. Regular personal trainers don’t seem to have that experience, even if they do have nutritional qualifications.  I can imagine they exist, but I hadn’t found them.

My one and only experience to date, a few years ago, was a very young lad, telling me to go longer and faster on an elliptical, which I hated, then onto a treadmill, where my legs wobbled like jelly and my heart felt like it would burst by the end.  I never went back.

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I found what I was looking for when I didn’t expect it at all, and it’s changed my life in a single session.

Tracy is the Health and Fitness Consultant at Temple Medical, and she was my next stop.

I have to admit to being a little anxious when I first met Jo and Tracy.  This isn’t even what I initially went there to review.  I was asked to review treatments, which I naively thought were all based around the face.  On my blog, they’d spotted my weight loss and let me come to talk about the service as part of their aesthetics treatments and weight loss management.  I’ll talk about it in another post, as I’ve begun the body contouring phase of their Alevere Weight Reduction Therapy programme, although I don’t need the weight loss segment.

As an overview, I took advantage of the session with Tracy, secretly hoping she’d be able to help me decide what to do with my pathetically weak belly.

Have a giggle at the wee time-lapse below.

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I felt fine with Tracy.  She’s around my age, has life experience, and knows about the difficulty of being fit, and struggling to find the nerve to do something about it.  In short, it seems I have lazy glutes.  Those backside muscles that seem to have withered away on me.  Honestly, there’s nothing back there these days.  I’ve got strength in my thighs and calves from running, but my mid section, glutes, and almost everywhere else, is pathetically weak.

home-gym

By the time I left that one hour session, I could have kissed her.  Really.  The introduction to exercise is tailored at our ability to cope, and can be built up slowly.  I don’t think I stopped talking all the way through, asking questions over and over..

In the studio, she introduced me to kettlebells, basic stretch exercises, and has given me a great idea for using the redundant weights machine in my house, by adding an extension to the front instead of needing a cross hook.

I’ve had a mat for years, that I’ve finally unrolled for my home gym (in the pic).  I’ve bought a couple of kettlebells from Amazon and I’m all the bash. I’ve no intention of joining a gym, but I would if I had to. I just can’t get to one often enough to justify the expense, and I like the idea of being able to go to my gym any time I want to.  Whatever we can stick to is what we should do, if we can.

I believe Temple Medical has classes and Tracy has invited me along to see one, so I’ll try to stop my joints popping before I mosey on along.

I’m back to see Jo in a month or so, to see how I’m getting on for a follow on InBody scan, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed I manage to make a little progress. Kettlebells and protein, here I come.

Temple Medical are introducing a new product, which includes everything I experienced, which runs initially until Christmas.

New Temple Body Health Assessment in Aberdeen

  • InBody Scan, ie Body Composition Scan and Results.  Find out your percentage body fat, protein, minerals, body water and more.
  • 30 minute session with Jo, Medical Doctor, to discuss InBody results.
  • 30 minute session with Tracy, Health and Fitness Consultant.

You get all of this for £99, initially until Xmas.  Call: 01224 869997 for current offers.

I’d often wondered how to get a full body scan done, and thought it would cost hundreds and hundreds to have it done.  I had no idea how simply and quickly it could be done and analysed.

Find Temple Medical at:

Temple Medical Ltd
6 West Craibstone Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6DL

Thanks to Temple Medical for my consultation and treatments.  All opinions are my own, based on my experience.  Other treatments available include light therapy, wrinkle relaxing treatments, skin rejuvenation, blemish removal, body contouring, ipl laser hair removal, and many more non surgical cosmetic procedures. 

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LVL Enhance – LVL Lashes – The Lash Lift

Anyone who knows me, knows my eyelashes have always grown to hate me.  Awful, rotten straight things they are.  I’ve spent years, and pounds on ways to get them to curl, even slightly, and then, when I got glasses, the blooming things bashed off my lenses.

I must have had awful straight lashed ancestors, with awful straight lashed partners somewhere down the line, for mine to be so terribly pathetic.  I ended up with curly hair on my head and these poker straight things on my face.  How unfair is that!

Anyway, I’ve tried heated lash curlers, pincer ones, and once spent a fortune on a pair that looked more like a surgical implement, and all they did was curl the very ends up enough to not hit my glasses, but I had to do it about three or four times a day.

I stand there squeezing the lash curler as hard as I can, trying desperately to bend the lashes at the bottom, and after about four tries, they stop hitting my lenses, until they fall that is, and that doesn’t take long at all.  And this is all that happens.  This.  Absolutely rubbish and nothing like everyone I see out and about with gorgeous and curled lashes..  Pathetic, it really is.  Even curled, they still look pretty straight, and flat.  There was no life in them at all.  Ever.

lvl-lashes

I have, on occasion, gone for lash extensions for a special occasion but I hated them.  They itched my eyes like mad and I always ended having to pull them out, like some whirling dervish, rubbing oil into my sockets to release the bonds.  Messy business.

I’ve tried lash perms and got nowhere.  Sat there with my eyes immobile for half an hour, with lots of expectation and nowt more happened to my lashes.  What a waste of money that was.  I’m cursed, really I am, with eyelashes from hell.

Look at these.  No mascara and no curling involved here.

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Now you see why they’re so awful.  Yup, vain…  Of course.  I don’t mind being a little vain now and then. I’ve got to the age where I’d like a little more help.

I gave it one more try.  And didn’t actually expect anything.  Half-hearted, I found my closest consultant and drove along there to get my patch test, which came back ok.

The consultant tried to explain that the small lash lift shield might raise my eyelashes too much.  I knew it wouldn’t, so in the end, although she was reluctant, I managed to persuade her to do the small shield, after getting them tinted a nice blue/black colour.

And when I’d sat there for what seemed like forever, I expected very little when I opened my eyes.  I did feel a little disappointed, as it wasn’t the effect I’d secretly been pining for all my life, but hey, they lifted, but they’d gone straight up from the roots.

I had a plan.

If the root was curled, them another session a few weeks later, would leave that already curled root further up my lash…  I’ve fairly long lashes, so mine probably hug the roots for longer than most people.  I went for it.

Only four weeks later, I rocked up to get them done again, this time on a medium shield, with the hope they’d lift the root, and leave the previously lifted roots to curl a bit at the ends.

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Hey hey hey, I feel like dancing.  Ok, close up they look a little straggly here.  I just need to brush them out a bit, but I’ve finally got the lashes I wanted, and they stay like that.  I even wake up with them like this, and it’s two weeks after this last treatment.

And with a little make up for a night out, I feel like a proper girlie, with proper eyelashes…….  For the first time ever.  Finding LVL Lashes in Aberdeen is fairly easy, so if you’re worried about it, give it a go.

Now if anyone had ever told me it was actually possible for me to achieve this level of lash lift, I’d never have believed them……  Noveau Lash Enhance is what it’s called for those of you, like me, who’ve given up on ever having eyelashes without the glue……

They’re so good, I’d love to be able to do them.  I might even take the course myself……

They straighten from the roots, rather than trying to curl lashes, which is ideal for people like me.  The lash tint also gives them a permanent mascara effect, so my lashes look fine with that for the first few weeks, when I begin to start needing mascara again.

They say 6-8 weeks for the regular lash lift, is about the time you’d need to go back.  To keep my straighties topped up, I’d likely need them more often than that, but I’m not complaining.  I know I lost some of my eyebrows and eyelashes when my thyroid messed up, but I’m hoping that some more grow back over time, as they do look a little sparse, but hey, I love them whatever.

And gosh, close ups are scary….

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Soup Maker Recipe: Christmassy Leek and Potato Soup

Sometimes, it’s nice to have something warming to eat when it’s cold outside, and soup is always one of my go to things to make for anyone.  This recipe is nice and simple, and gives a slight twist on the traditional leek and potato soup…  Enjoy.

Of course, you don’t need a soupmaker to make this.  It makes just as well in a pan, but you need to watch it a lot more and add some more water if it looks like it’s boiling off.

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Soup Maker Recipe: Christmassy Leek and Potato Soup

Lesley Smith
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Servings 4 -6 Bowls

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Potato chopped.
  • 100 g Carrot chopped.
  • 100 g Leek chopped.
  • 2 Teaspoons Rapeseed Oil.
  • 1 Vegetable Stock Cube.
  • Half Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon.
  • Half Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg.
  • 2 Tablespoons Light Soft Cheese - I used Philadelphia.
  • Ground White Pepper & Salt to taste.
  • Water.
  • 1 Lettuce Leaf Half Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon and a Teaspoon of Dukkah to serve.

Instructions
 

  • Chop your vegetables into smallish cube sized shapes.

  • Saute your chopped leek in the soupmaker with your rapeseed oil. After a minute or two, add the vegetable stock cube, your cinnamon and nutmeg, carrots, salt and pepper and continue to stir as they soften.

  • In another minute or so, add potatoes and continue to stir, to ensure they don't burn, then add a little water and your soft cheese.

  • Fill your soupmaker with water, and stir until the soft cheese has melted into your mix, making your water a cloudy white colour.

  • Ensure you top up with water, to below the maximum fill line and above the minimum.

  • Ensure you have mixed well.

  • Put the lid on properly.

  • Choose the smooth setting.

  • Serve as prettily as you like.
  • Serve with a chopped lettuce leave, a sprinkling of cinnamon and a pinch of Dukkah seeds.

Test