Tag Archives: honey

Beat that cold!

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Remedies

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A concoction for colds

A concoction for colds

Are you suffering from a terrible cold?! If so I have the perfect concoction that I make when I’m bunged up and feeling ill. Bear with me, I know it sounds a little unusual BUT I promise it actually tastes ok.

What you will need:
Half an onion or 1 small onion chopped in quarters
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
Half a lemon and it’s juice
3 to 4 cloves
About a thumb’s worth of chopped ginger
1-2 tbsp honey
2 mugs of water

Beat the cold

Beat the cold

In a pan add all the ingredients except the honey and bring to a boil. Drain the water into a mug and add the honey. Drink and hopefully you’ll feel better!

Get well!

Get well!

The benefits of the ingredients:
Onions have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties
Garlic has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties
Cloves have many properties some of them being antioxidant, antiseptic, local anaesthetic and anti-inflammatory (great for those sore throats).
Ginger is an antioxidant and has direct anti-inflammatory effects
Lemon has many properties, some of which are antibacterial, antiviral, and immune-boosting
Honey antioxidant, soothes and makes the whole drink taste that much better 😉

Violet infusion
If you have a bad cough or cold an infusion of dried violets can also help as they have antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic properties.

Get well!
Mel

Rhubarb Crumble

30 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in Desserts

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Individual Rhubarb Crumble

I work on Lower Marsh, a fantastic little street hidden behind the imposing Waterloo Station. If you’re ever in London it’s definitely one of those hidden gems that’s worth a visit.

The local fruit and veg guy, Dave had a pound of rhubarb for 90p so I though I’d try making rhubarb crumble. I used honey instead of sugar for the rhubarb.

What you need:
4 sticks/ 1 pound of rhubarb
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp water
2 tps cinnamon

For the crumble:
100g flour
80g brown sugar
50g butter
(optional crushed walnuts and cinnamon)

Heat your oven to 180C.
Cut your rhubarb into small chunks or small slices. I cut them into slices as I made small separate crumbles and thought they would look prettier, but this is really up to you. If you are making one big crumble then place your rhubarb in the oven dish you will be using to make the crumble. Add the honey, water and cinnamon and mix all together. Place in oven for 20 – 30 minutes, check every 10 minutes and stir if necessary. It is ready when they are tender and soft.

Rhubarb

When choosing what oven dish to use make sure not to use one that’s too big as the rhubarb shrinks as it cooks so you want it to be stacked up quite high.

For the crumble
In a bowl place the flour, cut up butter and sugar, and rub all the ingredients together until the mixture has a crumb like texture. You can add in cinnamon, crushed walnuts or any other (dry) ingredients you fancy trying. You will probably have some crumble left-over, it is perfect for freezing and takes minutes to reuse once removed from the freezer for any future crumbles you fancy making.

Once the rhubarb is ready place the oven dish you want your rhubarb crumble to be cooked in. Then sprinkle the crumble over. How much you sprinkle is really up to you.

Sprinkle the crumble

Place your dish in the oven for 30 minutes – it’s ready when the crumble takes on a golden colour. Serve hot or cold with a drizzle of fresh cream or custard.

Enjoy!
Mel

Lamb shank with a twist

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in Lamb

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Lamb shank

On Friday evening I went to Greensmith’s where there’s a great butcher. They have really good meat and it’s not over-priced. I decided to get some lamb shank and on Saturday we hade a nice roast. This is usually cooked with red wine but we didn’t have any, so I improvised. This is what I love about cooking, trying out new things, not knowing if it’ll work and when it does feeling proud of my new creation. Now I’m not saying my strange mixture is better than using red wine but it sure is a cheaper version and tastes pretty good.

What you need:
1 lamb shank per person
(the following amounts are for 2 lamb shanks)
2 sliced red onions
2 garlic cloves
4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs red vinegar
1 tbs honey
Herbs – I used rosemary and sage
1/2 cup of beef stock
1 tsp olive oil

Heat your oven to 200C
Cut you garlic in two and make holes in the lamb and put your garlic in the holes. Do the same with some rosemary twigs (2 per lamb shank). With some string tie your herbs together – to make a bouquet garni – they will be easier to remove.

I used a normal cooking pot but if you can use anything with a lid that can go in the oven. Put the pot on the hob and add the olive oil, then add the lamb and brown every side. Then add the onions until they start to brown.

Lamb shank

Reduce the heat and add the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, beef stock and bouquet garni. Keep on the hob until the liquid boils, making sure everything is mixed well. Remove from the hob and cover with the lid and place in the oven for 2 hours (if they are large 2h30m). Check the meat half way through.

Remove your pot from the oven and remove your bouquet garni and the rosemary from the lamb. If you want your sauce to be nice and clear (a little messy) you can use a colander to drain the sauce through into a bowl, then pick out and bits of herbs then add the onions to your sauce.

We had yummy cheesy mashed potatoes with this. It all went down a treat and was really easy to make.

Place you lamb shank on some mashed potatoes and pour the sauce over it. Very yummy!

Enjoy
Mel

BBQ pork ribs

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Pork

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This is one of my favourites, it’s easy to make and can never go wrong. The ingredients used sound a strange combination but for some reason it works!

What you need:

10 pork ribs
3 tbl ketchup
1.5 tbl honey
1 tbl soy sauce
1 tbl dijon mustard
1 tbl of lemon’s juice
Salt and pepper

(Though you can really use random amounts of ingredients, I don’t usually measure it)

Cooking time – 1:30 hours

Pre-heat your oven to 200C. In a bowl mix all the ingredients together to make the BBQ sauce. Cut the ribs and place in an oven dish, cover the ribs with the BBQ sauce (the best way to do this is to get your hand dirty).

Place in the oven for 1 to 1 and a half hours depending on the size of your ribs. You need to check on them every 20 minutes, turn them over and use the BBQ sauce in the bottom of the oven dish to cover the ribs.

You will know that the ribs are ready when they take a dark golden colour and all the sauce is gone from the bottom of the oven dish.

If you are in a hurry you can boil your ribs for 10 minutes beforehand.

Mel

Cherry Balsamic Vinaigrette

17 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by in Salads

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My husband brought home some cherries yesterday and they were SO sweet! I decided to add them to my favorite salad dressing and the result was delicious.

Here’s what I used:

30 pitted cherries (If you don’t have cherries, use strawberries instead)
2 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Honey
Salt & Pepper
1/4-1/2 Cup of Olive Oil (The amount varies depending on how aged your vinegar is)

In a blender, mix the cherries, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Mix until the cherries are invisible.
Then slowly add your oil. I would start out with a 1/4 cup and then taste it. This is when you decide if you need more oil or honey.
If you have added a 1/2 cup of oil and the vinegar taste is too strong, add more honey.
At that point, if you continue to add more oil, you risk losing the cherry flavor.

I put this over mixed greens, goat cheese and toasted walnuts. YUM!

Enjoy!
Joy

Cinnamon and Walnut Banana Cake

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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Two bananas have slowly been turning blacker and blacker on the top of my fridge. Now my flatmates are always happy when they see this happen as they know exactly what it means, it’s banana cake time!

My friend Claudia is the person who originally gave me her banana cake recipe but it’s different every time I make it now. I’ve realised it doesn’t really matter how much of anything you put in it as long as you have walnuts, cinnamon and honey.

This is a really healthy cake and is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I’m going to guess the weight of the ingredients I used, but please feel free to change them.

What you will need:

2 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better)
3 tbl of honey
50 grams of melted butter
150 grams of flour
½ tsp of baking soda
2-3 eggs
A big handful of walnuts
1 tbs of cinnamon powder
(you can also add raisins)

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. In a large bowl add the bananas and mush up with a fork and add in all the ingredients, there really is no order. You just need to make sure that you mix in the baking soda with the flour. Mix everything together with a spoon.

I usually use my bread tin but I couldn’t find it last night, instead I used a small ceramic oven dish and it rose more than it usually does, I’m definitely going to use that again.

Butter your dish and slightly powder it with flour, add you batter and leave in the oven for about 20 –  30 minutes depending how moist you want your cake.

PS: If your batter is too dry you can add a little milk

Have fun and let me know how yours goes.

Mel

Yogurt with a Punch

26 Thursday May 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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I have been making this for breakfast for so long that I forget that most people do not eat yogurt in this way. I kept adding more ingredients over the years so I realize that this may be a bit much for other people to enjoy.

However, I decided to share this with everyone because whenever I eat it, I stay full for about 4 hours. This is unheard of for me because I have always eaten every 2-3 hours. Anyone who is friends with me knows this is true because I carry food with me at all times and when I don’t they all remember the monster I turn into when I am hungry and have nothing to eat!

This recipe has helped me refuel after breastfeeding as well. Because it is high in Protein, Folate, Acidophilus, Potassium and Calcium, I also want to mention that this can be eaten for lunch as well when you are short on time.

Here is what you need:

1 cup Unsweetened Yogurt ( I use Greek, but you can use anything)
1 Tablespoon Honey or Agave Nectar
1 Tablespoon melted Peanut Butter (Has London imported an American brand yet? Please buy Skippy, Jif, Peter Pan, anything American!)
1 Tablespoon Wheat Germ
1 Banana (sliced)

Just combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and enjoy!

Joy

Eat Greek in 5 minutes

12 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in The Lunch Club, Uncategorized

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Most people who sit at a desk for their job acquire items in their drawer such as paper clips, pens or post it notes. I have those things too but always keep a whisk, olive oil and balsamic vinegar in my drawer. I like fresh salad dressing and I find it comes in handy. Today is a great example.
For lunch my co-worker brought in chicken she cooked at home and some pita pockets. I had brought some mixed greens, a handful of olives, a small tomato, 1/2 cucumber, about a quarter cup of feta cheese and a tablespoon of red onion.
We combined all of the ingredients (dicing up the cucumber and tomato), including the chicken. I whisked 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper and slowly added 3/4 cup of olive oil. Then added a little honey. We tossed all of the ingredients in the dressing and stuffed it in the pita pockets.

It was flavorful and easy to make. We wrapped our pita pockets in napkins and sat outside to enjoy the sunshine.

-Joy