About ME!

HELLO!!

I'm Christine. I'm a busy mum to 5 year old twins, Robin and Evie and wife to Ian. I also run a property management company. We live in a small village in beautiful, rural Northumberland. I love spending time at home with my family, running and exercising and socialising with my fabulous friends.

When I'm not busy with work, family or friends, my favourite pastimes are cooking and eating (often a combination of family/friends and food). I particularly get so much (too much?!) pleasure from making healthy, nutritious meals from nothing (well, whatever I've got in the house!), making leftovers exciting and not wasting a thing. I HATE waste. I've wanted to start a blog for a few years but time just hasn't allowed it. But I'm very excited about getting it going now and sharing my passion for food with the world!!

I'm very health conscious and want to feed my family good food, on a budget. As you can imagine, time is not something that I have a lot of so my cooking has to fit in with my busy life. Weekday cooking has to be fuss-free and speedy but I still want it to feel indulgent.

I am also a keen vegetable gardener. There is little better than creating a whole meal from produce that you raised with your own fair hands. And in the British weather, it's not always easy. It makes you appreciate it even more though! I would urge anyone to have a go at growing their own. Even if it's just a few of your favourites in pots or some herbs on the windowsill. Do it!

I'm going to try and share some of the recipes that I create and any tips that I have along with general ramblings about food and the good life!

Don't expect fine dining, just homemade, tasty, healthy and wholesome food. Always on a budget! Maybe with the odd flashy, entertaining number thrown in for good measure. The budget won't go out the window though.

I'm very new to this so please bear with me until I find my feet!!

I hope you enjoy it. All feedback very much appreciated!!

Thanks y'all!

Thursday, 6 March 2014

Beetroot and Apple Soup - SO much better than you'll expect, I promise!!

Calories: Approx 138 per serving. Serves 4.

Bear with me on this one!  It is honestly the nicest soup I have tasted.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but I had some beetroot from the garden that I needed to use and I wanted a low calorie recipe.  

The vibrant colour alone is enough to brighten up any dreary day and it is warming and feel-good.  I've adapted a recipe by Allegra McEvedy.

I roasted the beetroot last night and popped it to one side until I had decided what I wanted to do with it so it was all ready today and it was super-speedy.




Ingredients

10g butter
Approx. 350g beetroot, roasted and peeled
3 Granny Smith apples 
1 1/2 Onions
1 stick celery
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 litre chicken stock
1 star anise
Pinch of dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper

Serve with a swirl of fat free natural yoghurt and some toasted seeds but make sure you add these to the calorie count, if you're counting! I only used about a tsp of each so we're only talking about 30-35 calories.

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the caraway seeds to the melted butter.

Whizz the celery and onion in the food processor. Add it to the pan with a pinch of salt and sweat over a low-medium heat with the lid on for about 5 mins.  Don't let the onion brown. 

While the onion is sweating, grate the beetroot (I used the food processor). Add the beetroot to the pan with the chilli flakes and pop the lid back on. 

Whizz the apples in the food processor (no need to peel).  Add them to the pan straight away.

Add the stock, star anise (PLEASE don't leave this out - it makes it!) and seasoning and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins.

Remove the star anise and blitz the soup in the blender. Add some water if it's too thick.

I swirled a tsp of fat free natural yoghurt into it and toasted some mixed seeds in a dry pan and sprinkled them on the top.

ENJOY!  And try not to eat it all at once!  It really is GORGEOUS!





No comments:

Post a Comment