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Simple Fruit Pasty Recipe

Have you ever wondered what to do with those leftover bits from tins of fruit?

How about this…

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Fruit Pasty

Lesley Smith
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 Large

Ingredients
  

  • Half Tin Apples or 200g
  • 1-2 Pear Halves
  • 2 Peach Halves
  • 320 g Puff Pastry or 1 Puff Pastry Sheet
  • 1 Egg
  • 8 g Almond Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons Coconut Sugar

Instructions
 

  • Chop your fruit into smaller pieces, after draining as much fluid from them as possible. Sprinkle a tablespoon of coconut sugar on the top, spreading all over the fruit.

  • Roll your sheet out on a chopping board. I used a sheet. Slice into 4 portions.

  • Take each piece and roll it until it is a square.

  • Break an egg into a cup, add a tablespoon of coconut sugar and beat.

  • Mix the fruit and coconut sugar, which is likely to have broken down by now, until all mixed in, then add the almond butter and mix in.

  • Split your fruit into four sections. Put a quarter in the middle of each square, and then fold over, pressing at the edges to seal with your fingers.

  • Take a knife and slice some breathing holes into the top of each pasty.

  • Bake at 220C Oven, 220C Fan, Gas Mark 7, until brown on the top. Our ovens all vary, and for mine, it took around 20 minutes.

 

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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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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

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Chicken Dippers from Fresh Fillets

Making great chicken dippers at home is just so easy to do.  All it needs is a little flour, a couple of eggs, chicken fillets, or a few chicken breasts chopped up, and ending up with breadcrumbs or ruskoline to finish them off.

I haven’t added the actual method for this, as it’s pretty self-explanatory.  You can see it in the video, but simply crack the eggs, beat them, and dip the chicken first in the flour, then the egg and finally the crumb coating.

Cook how you prefer, either deep-fried, shallow fried, or oven baked, then sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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High Protein Sweet Stuff

This came about from sheer desperation to get lots of protein in, with only 450 ish calories left for the day.  64g Protein for 487 Calories.  Eat it at once, or split into two, for two high protein desserts.  Lush.

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High Protein Sweet Stuff

Lesley Smith
Prep Time 2 minutes
Total Time 2 minutes
Course High Protein
Servings 1 -2
Calories 487 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 200 g Skyr plain.
  • 200 g Skyr strawberry.
  • 25 g Vanilla protein whey.
  • 5 g Chopped nuts.
  • Pinch Flaxseed.

Instructions
 

  • Add the skyr, and whey to a bowl, and mix well. You'll need to mix to almost a whip for a while, to smooth out all those whey lumps for this to work.

  • Transfer to a pretty dish, slice the banana on top, sprinkle on the chopped nuts, and a pinch of flaxseed.

 

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High Protein, High Energy Balls

Making things ourselves, especially when it comes to protein bars is a no brainer.  Otherwise, they cost a fortune in the shops and your hard earned cash can disappear pretty fast.   Make these higher protein, by reducing the coconut flour and increasing the protein powder, or adding a little peanut butter.

I prefer the stronger coconut taste, and often take one of these, or some dried mango on a run with me, for energy over the 10k mark.

high-protein-high-energy-balls

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No Cook, High Protein, High Energy Balls

Lesley Smith
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course High Protein, Snacks
Servings 15
Calories 160 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 150 g Coconut Flour.
  • 150 g Myprotein Chocolate Protein Powder.
  • 100 g Chopped Nuts.
  • Approx 250ml Milk.
  • 6, or 120g Medjool Dates stoned and crown removed.
  • Extra Coconut Flour for dusting.

Instructions
 

  • Put 150g coconut flour, and 150g protein powder into a bowl. Add the chopped nuts.

  • Stir the ingredients until well combined.

  • Put 100ml milk into a bowl, and shred the Medjool dates into the milk. Mash down with a fork until well mixed. You might need to add a little more milk.

  • Add the mushed date/milk mix to your dry ingredients and mix well. Add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, and get your hands into the bowl to pull it all together, a bit like scone batter. Add enough milk to have all the mix formed into a large ball.

  • Dust your surface with coconut flour and form small balls with the large one. Roll each one in the coconut flour to give a lovely white surface.

  • Pop in the freezer for an hour, then keep in the fridge until ready to eat.

 

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Soupmaker Recipe: Cream of Pumpkin Soup

creamy-pumpkin-soup-750

Better Quality Video is the second one, but it is longer.

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Cream of Pumpkin Soup

Lesley Smith
Pumpkin Soup isn't just for Halloween. Enjoy it any time of the year.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Servings 4 -6 Bowls

Ingredients
  

  • 400 g Pumpkin chopped.
  • 100 g Carrot chopped.
  • 200 g Onion chopped.
  • 2 Vegetable Stock Cubes.
  • 200 ml Milk.
  • 1 Garlic clove or Garlic frozen cube.
  • Salt and Pepper to taste.
  • Water.
  • 2 Tablespoons Rapeseed Oil.

Instructions
 

  • Put your chopped onion and rapeseed oil into your machine if you have a saute version, or do the sauteeing on the stove. Lightly fry your onions until soft.

  • Add the garlic and stock cubes, and finish the saute, by adding carrots and pumpkin. Stir and switch off the saute button.

  • Add in milk, water and salt/pepper to taste. Ensure the level of ingredients and liquid is below the maximum and above the minimum fill marks.

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  • Stir well, and ensure the lid is on tight.

  • Select the smooth setting.

  • I served with a little parsley.