RECIPE: Healthier Blueberry Muffins

 Hello!

"get a couple of ingredients... and throw them all together - simples :)"

The same question pops up time and time again, during this point in the week: What's happening in the weekend?! Well, here's an idea that is super fun and super yummy! If you're a total sweet tooth like me, you could never resist a chance at cake, and when you're offered a slightly healthier version - well, why not?

Click HERE to Download

There ya go! Just save a copy, get a couple of ingredients (most of which you may have at home) and throw them all together - simples :)

I hope you enjoy-  and what fruit/toppings would you put in?

5 Simple Strawberry + Chocolate Recipes

Hello!

British Strawberries - the fruit of the season, especially in the UK (I guess that goes without saying!). The thing with strawberries is that they don't last for very long - so simple recipes are perfect for when you want them eaten before they go to waste. Also, what better way to eat strawberries than with chocolate?

Here are 5 easy recipes which can be substituted with Raw Chocolate (1 cup cacao, 1 cup melted coconut oil, 4 tbsp agave syrup)  for a healthier version! Healthier White Chocolate recipe here.

This is a simple recipe which is easy to replicate (the whole idea of this post) and is so versatile as you can add things to it without much worry. You can add almond flakes or make it a coconut chocolate filled strawberries or whatever you wish! 

This is a little different but just as simple. If you use whipped cream, ensure that you eat it soon and not leave for too long!

This idea is another simple one. Sort of like the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups but with strawberries instead of peanut butter - not saying peanut butter cannot be added to it!

This idea I thought was totally different. I would have never thought of it yet it's such a lovely idea! You can add any fruits you want or any other toppings.

A little trickier but just as tasty and yummy as all the others, this recipe consists of an oreo crust and a strawberry and chocolate filling!

What's your favourite simple go-to recipe with strawberries?

image sources: 1//2//3//4//5

Who to be for HALLOWEEN - Costume Ideas!

Hello!

Halloween is the highlight of October, even though it's right at the end!
It's great fun dressing up and watching scary movies or going to costume parties but there's one problem... what to dress up as?!

When I was younger I had this Witch hat that was black with a purple velvet trim and a fake spider stuck onto it which I wore for like 3 years straight because I wouldn't want anything else. One year, I found these fake fangs which when you kind of press your teeth together it lights up, so going trick or treating at about 6pm with a group of friends and our mums when it's really dark, my teeth would guide the way! I wander what happened to them...

Anyway these are my top ideas and how to get the look!

source

Headband - Claires

Dress - ModCloth

Shoes - Karen Millen

Belt - Asos

The good thing about this is you can wear the dress, shoes and belt throughout the year too, so you know you'll get a lot of use out of it! Plus it's super cute! 

source: 1, 2 

Angels and Goddess's look quite similar yet you can go with the boho style for the goddess and buy a halo for the angel look! 

Dress: Oasis

Headdress: Asos

Shoes: Asos

So that's another outfit that you can wear again and not only on Halloween! 

I personally love the idea for something cute and girly this year for halloween and these are three ideas that you can go with! 

And if you're not really doing anything for halloween or planning to dress up, get with a movie, a chai tea latte and some cookies and wait until the first of November comes around - which sounds like just as fun! 

Recipe: My FAVOURITE Chai Tea Latte

Hello!

I am OBSESSED with Chai Tea. Not just any chai tea, but MY chai tea latte - with fresh flavours and all authentic-ness!

My family and I have separate teas in the morning - the same type of tea, just made differently. Loads of people find that extremely weird and at first my family did too! There are so many ways of making chai tea lattes - most of which I have not tried such as the Iced Soy Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks or Iced Chai Tea Lattes in general....

My Chai Tea Latte may seem like 'effort' to make but to me its worth it!

Recipe:
- 3/4 cups water
- 1/4 cups milk of choice (personal favourite: Almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon black tea leaves (or 1 teabag)
- little bit of Ginger
- 3 Cloves
- some Cinnamon
- dash Black Pepper
- smaller dash Nutmeg
- some Cardamon

Method:
- add water, boiled to make it quicker, spices (except cardamon) and tea leaves on stove
- let it boil and boil up a little, when it does, add milk
- add cardamon
- keep on stove until it boils up again
- then it's done!

Well, as you can see not all of the ingredients are very precise... that's because I just kind of throw things together - what I really like about this recipe is that it's very flexible. If I feel like having more cinnamon then I'll add more cinnamon, if I want more ginger, I'll add more ginger! It's very good that way (just make sure you don't add too much nutmeg and black pepper, it can go terribly wrong)!

You may find this not nice at all but I love it. To be honest, I don't use these exact measurements as I'm quite cheeky and make 2 cups out of this... yes, 2 cups JUST FOR ME! I love this and recently have been having it at least once a day (technically twice a day as I make it yield 2 cups - but I have 2 cups at once, so once a day? This is all way too confusing!). The way I make it 2 cups is by adding more water and milk but leaving the spices the same.


Anyway, now that it's autumn and the weather is colder, it feels even better to sip on this!

The way my family makes chai tea latte with 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk (cow's milk), 1 tsp tea leaves, 2 tsp sugar per cup (as well as a pinch of ground chai tea spice)! If you want to try that, its nice too - mine's just a little extra and has a lot of spices!

What's your favourite morning drink? Are you a coffee or tea drinker?
Leave a comment!

BerryHealthy: Homemade Granola - No added Sugar

Hello!

How are you all? Are you looking forward to fall? I know I am! Fall brings the more hearty food back to life. That means hot drinks, warmer dinners and for the morning: Granola. I showed my homemade granola that I made the other week in my Weekly Roundup Post here.

Making this granola is so very easy! Literally, all you need is some oats and anything you have in your pantry. By that I mean there are no real SET ingredients that you need to add to your granola - you can add anything your heart desires - as many or as little nuts, seeds and dried fruits as you wish!

Actually, I made this granola myself because I had a lot of oats in my cupboard by which I wasn't eating. Well, I love porridge, but during the summer time I don't tend to lean towards it for breakfast as I normally don't fancy something hot in the morning. This way, I was using the oats and introducing it to my summer meals, and with fall coming Granola will be even more fun to eat! haha! Actually, we were roasting peanuts, almonds and cashews for a trail mix that we made, and I thought that I'd take the opportunity of the hot oven to make my yummy granola - and I'm glad I did!

Said Trail Mix

Store bought granola tends to have added sugars and ingredients that we do not realise - and to be quite honest, do not want! A lot of the time they make the cereal sound so healthy, yet it actually isn't as there are about 10 teaspoons of sugar in every bowl (exaggeration.) - but I mean I have seen some granola that has more sugar than a bowl of Frosties, yes, that's a lot of sugar! This way, making it at home means you know exactly what is in your granola and its made to your tastes!

Ingredients:
- Oats
- Almonds (chopped)
- Peanuts (whole)
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Dried Apricots (chopped)
- Raisins
- Dried Dates (chopped and pitted)
- Honey

Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius
- Gather oats, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds into a baking tray
- Pour some honey into the mixture and stir until evenly distributed (add honey as you desire, taste a bit to see if it's sweet enough to your tastebuds!)
- Place tray in the oven (you can add some raisins to roast too but not right away as they don't require that much time and can burn)
- Mix together dried apricots, dates, and raisins in another bowl
- Every 3-4 minutes stir the ingredients in the oven
- Take out once golden and cooked, leave to cool
- After cooled, add ingredients in the oven to dried apricots, dates, and raisins and stir
- Taste to see if sweetness is desired, if you need more, add honey

That's it! As you can see there were no real set measurements that I had but just did it 'by eye'. You can get more ideas from the pictures I have taken to what it should/could (depending on ingredients used) look like! You can then have granola on your favourite yogurt with berries, with milk or even on ice-cream! yum!
Well, this was a requested post, and I had fun writing it! If you have any requests let me know!

What do you like to eat with granola? Leave it in the comments!

Weekly Roundup #3

Hello!

Welcome to the THIRD of the series of Weekly Roundup, where I roundup my week for YOU. Does that remind you of all of the lawyer shows out there when they say 'We'll fight for YOU.' anyway...

This week was quite eventful in the kitchen for me... I made a bunch of things I had never made before such as Chili Con Carne, Cheese and Onion Pasties and.... *drumroll*

GRANOLA! I really like oatmeal/porridge but in the summer I tend not to lean towards it but more towards the cold cereals, granola includes a range of dried fruit, nuts and seeds as well as cooked oats. The way I made this was by layering oats and some nuts and seeds in the oven and 'stirring'/mixing it around every couple of minutes until the oats turned a golden brown. I then added some honey and let to cool. It turned out quite nicely, but next time I think I'll add the honey first. I actually received the idea from the Sorted Food boys, who are so fun to watch on YouTube! This granola included pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, dry dates, raisins and cashews - a range of vitamins and minerals which is great for your body. As well as that, there were no added sugars other than the natural sweetness of honey - unlike shop bought granola, this is very healthy for you. If you would like a full post on this, let me know!

Speaking of health benefits, I was scrolling through my twitter feed and found this image:

Image from HERE

It lists the benefits of certain types of teas! I LOVE chai tea lattes - which is Black Tea with spices - I had no idea that it is great for those with diabetes! This may seem a little weird but I am SO interested in diabetes, production of insulin and all that, although nobody in my immediate family is diabetic, other than my uncle, who I don't see everyday. Come to think of it, he does drink black tea 3-4 times a day, hmm, maybe that's why! Anyway, I have been having my chai tea latte fix almost everyday this week, maybe I should have feautred that in this weeks roundup! Oh well, maybe next time? If you haven't tried Chai tea latte, you should! Honestly, you will not regret it! It also has a range of health benefits from various spices as well as the black tea base itself. I've heard the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte with soy milk is good!

Finally this is me with a face mask on.

I haven't done a face mask in a VERY long time, and oddly enough, I decided to do one at 2am in the morning. Basically we went to a party and I came home at 2am but wasn't sleepy. So when I went to do my usual face routine, instead of putting on my moisturiser, I put on this face mask and left it on while I read my book. It was quite relaxing yet very odd of me to do so at that time of day - well, night. Anyway, it was fun! haha!

Well, that was my weekly roundup - don't forget to check out last weeks roundup featuring cute animals, moustaches and yummy food/treats!

Keep blooming, berries!
xoxo, BerryBloomXO

BerryBakes: Vegan, Gluten-free, Sugar-free Cookies?!

Hello!
 If you're anything like me, then you love sweet stuff: cakes, cookies and candy floss - you name it! So, you want to eat it all but it seems kinda unhealthy... Solution? Sugar Free, HEALTHIER Cookies!
That seems a little like an oxymoron, but I put it to the test... and I like it!

My mum and I were actually making regular biscuits/cookies for my grandma (She's recovering from an operation and loves the biscuits we make and currently can't bake herself, so we made her some and she was full of smiles!), and I went ahead and took the opportunity of an already on and heated oven to make a small trial batch of sugar-free cookies (and it didn't take very long, so that was a plus)!

This is what they turned out like:

They were slightly crunchy on the outside and nice and chewy towards the middle, it tasted a little like coconut but the flavour wasn't overwhelming. It also had a nutty flavour due to the flour used and to be quite honest - I liked it! If I were to do it again, I'd add more sweetener, just because I like my sweet stuff, but the reason I think mine turned out slightly less sweet is because I used a slightly different type of Stevia than the one in the original recipe, yet the texture and overall flavour was lovely!

The original recipe stated that loads more would be made yet I only got to make 7-8 (maybe because I ate some cookie dough while rolling it out - whoops!)... yet they were nice!

Recipe (adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie):

• 1 cup almond flour (ground almonds in a food processor - I needed about 3 handfuls of almonds)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoon Stevia
• 1 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon milk (I used Almond Milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  - heat oven to 325 degrees F. (about 163 degrees C.) 

  - mix all dry ingredients together in one bowl and liquid ingredients in another

  - mix together the liquid and dry ingredients by adding about half liquid first, then stir, then add the other half (this will become a slightly chunky dough)

  - roll this into a ball and then pat out on a smooth surface until desired thickness is reached (the thicker it is, the chewier the cookies will be yet the smaller number of cookies able to make - or bake for a shorter time for chewier cookies)

  - cut cookies 

  - place them on a non-stick baking tray (or greased, if not non-stick)

  - place in oven for 10-15 minutes based on how chewy you want them (I left them in for about 12)

In the original recipe it states that you need to freeze the dough before placing in the oven, but my mixture was stiff enough already and I didn't feel the need to freeze it - feel free if you find you need to.

Also you could put in chocolate chips or glaze with icing if you would like to! 

This cookie recipe is sugar free, gluten free and easily lactose free (depending on type of milk used) - also it is vegan! Great! :D

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and let me know if you would like more tried and tested recipes!

I'll leave you with a picture of my half-eaten cookie:

xoxo,

your fellow foodie (BerryBloomXO)

PS. have you noticed the recent craze for Coconut Oil recently? I LOVE anything coconut - coconut scented candles, coconut water and even the food itself! Oh, and coconut oil is a great beauty product - I use it on my locks (let me know if you want a post)!