I had a day off work and decided to do just that and head down the coast from London to the seaside town of Brighton.  The train journey from my home in London to Brighton is very easy and with only one simple change takes just over 90 minutes door to door. So, you would think I would have travelled there more often but before this visit I had only been there on a flying visit about a decade prior to this trip. I had been wanting to go back and properly explore Brighton and with the weather so good if felt like there would be no better time to do it.

Brighton is known as a hip and trendy area of the modern UK with a bit of an artsy flare that attracts a youthful and diverse  crowd. The popularity of the seaside town goes back centuries though and since the turn of the 19th century one of the main tourist attractions in Brighton has been the Palace Pier which is now known simply as Brighton Pier.

Still operating today, it harks back to a bygone era of domestic British seaside holidays. Filled with penny arcades and fair ground rides, it is a lot like what Americans would call a boardwalk but instead of going along the beach it stretches out into the sea.  Sure, it resides just on the wrong side tacky for most modern tastes but if you go with the right mindset you can enjoy the cheese and the step back in time.

Brighton Pier

The main purpose of my Brighton day trip was to practice my photography. With so much of the old and new in Brighton and the seaside and all its creatures to boot it felt like a good place to take my camera and see if I could get a bit better at what has become a favourite hobby of mine.

I arrived in Brighton at 8am so that I could hope to capture the beach area of the town as it was coming alive. There is something I really enjoy about observing places are they are waking up for the day. I did a mixture of colour and black and white photography just to see what I liked the most.  I  found myself enthralled by the remains of the burned down pier that still resides in the water at the other end of Brighton Beach to the Brighton Pier. I  spent a lot of time trying to get decent shots of that before moving onto photos of Brighton life – both human and animal.

Here is just a small selection of the Brighton photos I took that day. If you are interested in seeing the whole day’s shoot then feel free to check out my Brighton Flickr Album.

Remains of Brighton West Pier

Brighton Sea Bird

Brighton Pier Game

Of course, as somebody that runs a food blog, enjoying the food that Brighton had to offer was also high on my agenda. Not least because along with the slightly new age reputation Brighton has developed, the town has also grown a reputation for having a good vegetarian food scene.

It was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to find this promised vegetarian food treasure on Brighton Pier.  Sure, it had tons of food and much of it would technically qualify as vegetarian but it was mostly candy and junk food. It was fun to look at but my teeth hurt just thinking about eating any of it.

Brighton Candy

So, I moved away from the Brighton waterfront and moved into the modern Lanes shopping area of the town.  Sure enough, tucked amongst the quirky and fashionable shops were a number of vegetarian restaurants.  My main dilemma was to decide which one of these Brighton vegetarian restaurants to try.

The first vegetarian restaurant that I stumbled on was the Infinity Foods Cafe which looked really lovely and inviting. What I liked the most about the look of it was that it looked like it was fitting so well into the cafe culture of the street and wasn’t sticking out as “the vegetarian restaurant”. Just a few minutes down the street the same people also run Infinity Foods which is a giant (by the standards I have seen) vegetarian food co-op store. If I had a bigger bag and budget I would have filled myself up with goods. Instead, I just bought a few little things to try (green tea soba noodles was one..trying those out shortly) and packed them away as I continued the search for the place to grab my vegetarian lunch.

Infinity Foods Cafe, Brighton

In the end, I settled for a vegetarian burger joint that was on the other side of the street from Infinity Foods Cafe. I would love it if there were so many vegetarian options so close together in London.

I had heard of the Red Veg vegetarian burger place before. They used to have a branch in the Soho area of London but I had always been a bit shy to go. Not the least because I was fairly sure I wouldn’t be able to convince any of my meaty friends to join me when I hadn’t even tried it out on my own before. Face it, you can get really good veggie burgers but you can get really horrible ones too.  I was punished for putting off trying out the London branch of Red Veg because it closed down and I never did get a chance to try it out.

When I walked past Red Veg Brighton I new that it had to be the time to give them a try.

Red Veg Brighton

The menu board outside of Red Veg made it easy to see the selection of vegetarian food on offer. Not only do they offer a good variety of different kinds of veggie burgers but their vegetarian menu was expanded to cover various falafel and salad dishes. Plus, they had all the chips and onion ring sides you would expect to find at a burger joint. The prices were also pretty attractive with the most expensive of the veggie burgers costing £3.50.

Red Veg Menu

With feet aching and the beginnings of a sunburn, I ventured inside Red Veg. The interior was fun and a bit funky without the feeling of trying too hard.  Still being a Weekend Carnivore and not a full time vegetarian, I felt that it wasn’t the kind of place that I would feel out of place. It was clear that even those of us still trying to give up meat would be comfortable chowing down on a burger here. The bright red inside and the giant windows helped to make the place feel bigger than its truthfully tiny nature.

Red Veg Interior

The member of staff that took my order couldn’t have been more pleasant either. She was bouncy and polite and was engaging the customers in genuine conversation while they waited for their takeaway orders. I listened on the sidelines as she explained to a customer that any burger could be made vegan.  She apologized for not offering vegan cheese but explained it was too expensive for them to offer. Her explanation was truthful and believable and showed she knew the product she was selling.

As a rock music fan myself, it was fun to listen to her talk to her friend about the songs that were coming on the radio too. It made me feel as if all the local concert posters on the wall of Red Veg weren’t just there by accident but because it is the sort of thing both the staff and the customers would be interested in attending.

Red Veg posters

After pondering the veggie burger menu for a short period I was sucked in by the mushroom Swiss burger. I find it nearly impossible to turn down the promise of anything involving mushrooms. Plus, one of my all time favourite fast food items was a mushroom Swiss burger that used to be available at the Hardees chain in the States.   I was mighty tempted by the spinach and pesto burger too but  the shrooms won out in the end. With a view to conserving calories I didn’t order a side order. I did attempt to have a diet cola but they didn’t have anything diet. So, I resorted to an organic lemonade.

I took a seat and waited for my veggie burger to arrive. The first thing I liked about it was how it was served just like the more famous burger chains. If you had ordered it as take out nobody would have thought it was anything but a ‘real’ burger. When I unwrapped my veggie burger I was also happy that it looked like a traditional burger. There was nothing ‘tofu burger’ about the way that it looked. The veggie burger looked meaty, the veggies were piled high and the sauces were just as drippy as the big international chains.

Red Veg Burger

More important than looking good, the Red Veg burger tasted great. Meat substitutes are getting to so good now that if they are handled properly in the cooking process they more than “pass” for meat and end up tasting good on their own. The veggie burger pattie in the veggie burger tasted as if it had been flamed grilled even if that might not have been the actual case and it gave the whole veggie burger a great slightly smoky background taste. The mushroom and Swiss combo was as good as ever and the cheese was melt perfectly.   Now I wish that I had gone to Red Veg when they had a Soho branch and I didn’t have to wait to go back to Brighton to have another great veggie burger from them.

Red Veg Veggie Burger

After my burger I went back onto the Brighton streets and continued my photo safari for a few more hours. When my feet were just too sore to continue I made my way back to Brighton station and jumped on a train back to London.  I decided to have a bit of a sweet treat on the journey home and opened up a raw chocolate bar I had bought at the Infinity Foods store.   It was the Fresh As! bar from The Chocolate Heart company. The packaging was very attractive and gave hope for the promised lime and Acai Berry flavour.

Raw Chocolate Bar

Sadly, I have to report that I wasn’t really won over by the actual taste of the raw chocolate bar. I don’t have a lot of experience with raw chocolate so perhaps it is simply how it tastes but it lacked the creamy texture that I am used to with chocolate. Each bite left me with a bit of a chalky after taste that by the end of the bar had reached the level of being downright unpleasant.

The bar looked good so maybe it isn’t the raw chocolate but more a case that the flavour combination of the lime and Acai was leaving that after taste. Either way, I will certainly try a raw chocolate bar again just to make sure but I am not going to rush out and replace my normal chocolate with them. Not the least because you pay a fairly high premium for raw chocolate.

Raw chocoalte bar

All and all I had a fantastic day trip to Brighton. The town is vibrant, there is loads to photograph and there is a ton of vegetarian food on offer.  I shall be making sure it doesn’t take me another decade to visit Brighton again and next time I will be trying that spinach and pesto burger!

lemon waffle recipe with strawberries and cream

Some of those waffle recipes are mine but others are the culinary brain child of other great cooks. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been taking part in a cooking event that has be teamed up with other members of Recipezaar as we try out recipes from around the world. When my team captian, the wonderful Andi of Longmeadow Farm posted these lemon waffles as one of her offerings for our team’s Scandinavian cookbook I just knew I had to try them.

What I especially liked about this lemon waffle recipe is that the waffles didn’t have so much of a lemon flavour to them that I was sent into an involuntary pucker. Instead it was as if the lovely crisp but fluffy waffles were lemon scented. A perfect treat for a naughty breakfast recipe but I couldn’t help but think the lemon waffle recipe would also make a fantastic base for a vegetarian dessert recipe.

Being June in England, the idea of strawberries and cream is never far from a foodie’s brain. So, I threw the two together and boy was it good! As soon as the lemon waffles were off the waffle iron I got out the spray cream (hey, it was spur of the moment..no time to whip!) and piled those tasty waffles high with cream. A few sliced strawberries on top and it was perfect!

Ever since we have decided to go full force into the weekend carnivore lifestyle of eating mostly vegetarian recipes, our vegetable drawer is bursting at the seams anyway but I do tend to get more adventurous when the summer recipe season hits. I will buy any vegetable that looks good and challenge myself to come up with a new healthy vegetarian recipe that I can work into my diet.  This week, I picked up an aubergine with no real plan as to which vegetarian recipe I would be making. 

An aubergine, by the way, is what my fellow Americans call an eggplant. So, if you are scratching your head wondering what I might be talking about with this recipe just rest assured that this is simply an eggplant recipe by another name. I knew I had been living in the UK for a long time (14 years this month) when I caught myself thinking aubergine rather than eggplant. When your mind thinks the word of the country you moved to instead of the one you grew up with you know you have finally gone native!

My husband has come a long way with his vegetable eating habits and will try just about anything.  However, I knew from the past that unless it is very well hidden he isn’t going to be a big fan of any aubergine recipe. So, that meant that my newly purchased aubergine was destine for a vegetarian lunch recipe.

For the past month, I have been participating in a cooking event over at Recipezaar (yes, I do spend a LOT of time there..such great people and recipes!) where we cook food from different regions of the world.  One of the regions we have just finished “visiting” is Greece. So, I had a whole bunch of Mediterranean bits and bobs hanging around in the fridge. Aubergine fits so well into Greek cooking that I knew it wouldn’t be hard to come up with a Greek vegetarian recipe.

Not having a clue how the eggplant recipe would end up, I started by slicing my eggplant lengthwise and griddling them.  If you do it well there isn’t much that is better tasting than grilled aubergine because it really works so well as a base for any other flavours you want to add to it. Which, is exactly what I did because amongst the remains of my Greek cooking ingredients was a little bit of feta.  I took a little bit of a gamble and cut up some fresh basil I had laying around and mashed it into the feta. You know what!? That was a stunning combination and I will be using it again in other recipes. The fresh basil really took that salty feta to a different level.

I spread that mixture over the griddled aubergine and then raided my fridge for any jarred Mediterranean vegetables and added them to the aubergine and feta stacks.   Then I plated up and tucked in to my newly developed low fat vegetarian recipe.  That was followed shortly by giving myself a nice firm pat on the back because they were SO good. The artichoke might have been chunky enough to make them slightly unwieldy when transferring to the plate but it was worth it for me since I can’t get enough of artichokes lately. Really though, this aubergine and feta recipe is so versatile and you could add any vegetables you desire to the top.

For me, two of these slices made for a perfect light vegetarian lunch recipe but I  could see this aubergine and fetish recipe being served as an appetizer recipe before a special meal. Equally, I could also see a side salad being added for a lovely summertime meal on the patio.  If you have a barbecue you could even do the grilling of the aubergine on that and make it an easy outdoor meal. Why not try them and let me know how that basil and feta combination worked out for you?

Mediterranean aubergine and basil feta stack recipe

Mediterranean aubergine and basil feta stack recipe

Ingredients:

2 lengthwise slices of aubergine (eggplant), about as thick as your small finger
60 grams reduced fat feta cheese
3 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
20 grams sundried tomatoes from a jar, drained well
30 grams marinated artichokes, drained well
30 grams green unstuffed olives

Directions:

1. Heat a griddle ban until very hot and then grill your aubergine slices until done. You can lightly oil the pan if you wish, I just used the tiniest amount of light cooking spray.
2. Mash the feta up in a bowl and stir in the chopped fresh basil until well combined.
3. Put the aubergine slices on a plate and spread an equal amount of the feta mixture over the top.
4. Chop up the sundried tomatoes, artichokes and olives and pile them on top of the feta mixture.

Serves: 1

As I have mentioned before, I love dips and spreads. Sadly though,If I am ever going to shift the rest of this weight then I either have to pretend they don’t exist or come up with healthier versions. That is what I have done with this creamy avocado and lime spread.

I came up with it some months ago when I was looking for something to quickly fill me up and tickle my tastebuds. I know that a lot of people use lemon juice with avocado but I have found that lime really works very well to lift the creamy texture of the avocado and give a real zip to the spread.

With a little bit of salt in the mix that lime and avocado combination becomes a real culinary match made in heaven. To me, this is one of those cases where it really is important to use coarse sea salt rather than the normal table salt. The slight crunch really works to bring the flavours of the creamy avocado and lime spread bursting forth.

Since its creation, I have used this avocado and lime spread in any number of ways. I have been known to spread it simply on some toast in the morning instead of butter or jam. Scooping it up with some tortilla chips has a certain charm too.

However, as of late, my favourite use for the creamy avocado and lime spread has been to make a quick and healthy lunch. I have been spreading it high on some crisp breads and then topped it with slices of cucumber and cherry tomato.

As summer approaches I can see myself adding a piece of fruit on the side and calling that a perfect hot weather lunch.

Avocado and Lime Spread

avocado and lime spread

Ingredients:

1 small avocado
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon Greek yoghurt

Directions:

1. Scoop out the flesh of the avocado
2. Put all the ingredients in a blender or mini chopper.
3. Pulse for between 15 and 30 seconds until the mixture is smooth.

Serves: 1

It was during just such a period that I developed my red pesto ciabatta pizza recipe. Truth be told, I feel a bit dramatic even calling it a recipe because it is so simple and easy to put together. All you need to do is take a quick trip around your local supermarket to collect the items that make up the ciabatta pizza recipe and within 15 minutes of returning home you can be serving up a meal.

I feel no shame either in saying that all of the ingredients for my red pesto ciabatta pizza recipe all came from Lidls. Some foodies can really look down their noses at the Lidls and Aldis of this world. However, there is no shame in buying affordable food and considering the prices, both stores have some quality hidden gems on their shelves.

Due to their reach across the continent, they have managed to bring in ingredients from all of the other countries where they do business. Amongst those items are some interesting Italian ingredients ranging from various types of pesto, nice cheeses and really nice antipasti. I am particularly fond of the jarred mixed mushrooms and I have used them in this recipe.

The great thing about this red pesto ciabatta pizza recipe though is that if you don’t have or like a particular ingredient you can just swap it out for another item. Also, if you have family members who aren’t ready to go fully vegetarian then you can put slices of meat on their part of the ciabatta pizza recipe.

Red Pesto Ciabatta Pizza

Red pesto ciabatta pizza recipe

Ingredients:

1 ciabatta loaf, if part-baked bake it until just underdone
70 grams onions, thinly sliced
115 grams red pesto
200 grams shredded cheese (I used a reduced fat cheddar and mozzarella mix)
130 grams roasted red peppers from a jar, diced
125 grams antipasti mushrooms from a jar

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven grill.
2. Slice the ciabatta loaf in half lengthwise and put on a baking sheet.
3. Lightly sauté the sliced onions using a cooking spray or a tiny bit of oil just until they have lost their bite.
4. Spread the red pesto evenly over the two halves of the ciabatta
5. Sprinkle the cheese over both sides of the bread.
6. Pile up the rest of the ingredients making sure each half of the bread has roughly the same amount.
7. Stick the baking sheet under the grill and cook for about 7 minutes until the cheese has melted and started to go golden. Keep a close eye on it to make sure it isn’t starting to burn.
8. Slice both long halves into slices width wise.

Serves: 4

I have heard so many times from people back home about how bad they think British food is suppose to be. Let me tell you, that is a total falsehood. If you can’t eat well in the UK then you simply didn’t try.  In London alone, you can get food cooked by some of the finest chef’s in the world.  In just this past week, I have eaten Turkish food, Czech food, Indian food, Chinese food and Middle Eastern food while out and about in the city.

British food treasures aren’t just found in the restaurant scene though. The true richness is found in those passed down family recipes that have been made for generations. British food is wonderful and it should be celebrated. The classic British dishes are often master classes in making filling meals out of inexpensive ingredients.

Pan Haggerty is just such one British recipe. It is one of those recipes that is more of a concept than an exact recipe. Traditionally, it would have a bit of meat and then a whole lot of root vegetables.  From what I have learned since moving here, most families have their own idea of what makes a pan haggerty recipe.

My mother in law, makes a dish that is near enough a classic pan haggerty but it uses bacon.  She never calls it pan haggerty but I was watching a British cookery show and saw them making pan haggerty and thought ‘hey, that is that recipes!’.

My husband has always really enjoyed her recipe but there is no danger of him learning to cook well enough to be the one to pass down the recipe. So, I figured that I would take it upon myself to learn a pan haggerty recipe that I felt was as tasty as my mother in law’s version.  Of course, as we are trying to eat a vegetarian lifestyle most of the time, I wanted to make it a vegetarian pan haggerty recipe.

I tinkered around with bits and bobs of vegetables I had and decided upon making it a carrot, butternut squash and potato vegetarian pan haggerty recipe.  For a while, I was afraid there was going to be too much liquid in the pan but by the end of the cooking period I was left with just the right amount of ultra tasty juices.

I sliced up some freshly baked bread and that was all we needed for a truly lovely and very British meal.

Vegetarian Pan Haggerty

vegetarian pan haggerty recipe

Ingredients:

30 grams butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
200 grams onions, sliced in thin rings
550 grams potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
300 grams carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
50 grams, butternut squash, peeled and sliced thinly
500 ml vegetarian chicken flavoured stock or vegetable stock
100 grams cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
1. Melt the butter with oil over a medium low heat in a pan that will be safe to go into an oven.
2. Sauté the onions until cooked down and just starting to go golden.
3. Scoop out onions and set aside.
4. In the same pan, layer up the vegetable slices with potatoes, reserved onions, carrots and squash. Repeat the layers making sure to end with a potato layer on top.
5. Add the stock on the pan and cook on a medium high heat and covered for 15 minutes.
6. Take the cover off, reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 10 minutes until most – but not all – of the liquid has reduced.
7. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and put until a pre-heated grill for a few minutes until it is melted and started to go golden brown.
8. Serve

Serves: 4

My husband really enjoys those ice pops you can get in a any number of unnatural colours from the corner store. This year, I thought I would try my hand and learning to make my own healthier versions of those frozen ice pops. Also, with a little imagination I thought I might be able to come up with some interesting varieties to keep the idea fresh throughout the summer.

Not only will they be far better for both of us but they don’t actually require all that much effort or money to produce. The ice pop molds are available at any number of supermarkets at this time of year. I picked my set up at Ikea for just over a pound. Apart from the molds, the cost comes down to whatever you decide to put into your ice pops.

For my first attempt at making my own frozen ice pops I went for a kiwi and lemon ice pop recipe. My mother in law had recently been staying with us and left behind several kiwi fruits. I didn’t want them to go to waste and I was sure I could work them into the recipe. For the lemon, I went with a diet cloudy lemonade.

For any American readers, in the UK lemonade means a carbonated drink such as Sprite. However, the cloudy version is much closer in taste to what Americans think of as lemonade. The only difference is that it is carbonated. However, I am sure this kiwi and lemon ice pop recipe would work with non-carbonated lemonade too.

It really couldn’t be much easier to make these kiwi and lemon ice pops and the great thing is that a total of three ingredients goes into the recipe. I can’t even begin to think how many chemicals go into the ones we had been buying!

I am looking forward to a summer of trying out new ice pop varieties. I am sure the possibilities are endless. I am even thinking of “adult” cocktail varieties that could be done.  There is some ginger wine in my fridge that is begging to be used.

Kiwi and Lemon Ice Pops

Kiwi and Lemon Ice Pop Recipe

Ingredients:

80 grams kiwi flesh
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 cup cloudy lemonade

Directions:

1. Purée the kiwi flesh. You can use a traditional blender or a stick blender to do this. I went with the stick blender.
2. Stir in the honey.
3. Pour in the cloudy lemonade and mix everything together until well combined.
4. Pour into the ice pop molds and freeze overnight.

Makes: 6 ice pops

This past weekend, I had a friend that was performing a stand up comedy show at a pub in Camden.  So, I figured I would take advantage of the freakish weather and take a stroll through the market before his show. Of course any visit to Camden Market for me means a trip back to the wonderful food stalls in the west yard of Camden Locke Market. It was good to see that so many of the places I had seen on previous visits were still running strong. Also, there were a number of new places that had popped up to seriously tempt my tastebuds.

Frustratingly, I couldn’t allow myself to indulge too much because I knew I would be eating at my friend’s show but I couldn’t let myself leave that food yard without trying something.  Just when I was having trouble deciding what should be my treat I walked around a corner and came face to face with Jaz & Jul’s Organic Hot Chocolate stand.

Organic hot chocolate in Camden Market

Normally, hot chocolate would be enough on its own to get my attention but this time it was watching the woman on the stall preparing the iced hot chocolate that got me going.  On the warm day it seemed like a perfect indulgence.  What I particularly found interesting was the wide variety of unusual flavours of chocolate they offered.

Hot chocolate varieties

All of them sounded really good and I was highly tempted to try the orange with cardamom and cloves because that just sounded wonderful. However, my eye kept being drawn to the bottom of that list to the caramel with a hint of lime variety. That was a combination I hadn’t heard of before and so decided that was they way I was going to go.

I placed my order for an iced chocolate and was very pleasantly served by either Jaz or Jul (not sure which) and I am happy to report that I was offered a choice of soy milk instead of cows milk. It is always nice when people make it easy to make vegan choices. I am not a vegan but I do have lactose intolerances. So, even on that side of things it is nice when the option to not have real dairy is so easily taken.  I did end up taking the lactose risk though and went for real milk.

Iced chocolate being served

I watched as she scooped chocolate powder out of the various containers on the stall and mixed everything together with cold milk and ice cubes. She asked if I wanted whipped cream on top and honestly couldn’t imagine somebody not wanting extra goodness on top of all that milky chocolate. At last, the iced chocolate was mine to drink.

iced hot chocolate drink

I am pleased to report that it was a really tasty drink that was perfect for the warm weather. The caramel and lime flavouring came in the form of flavour crystals that were mixed in with the chocolate. I imagine that had I gone for the hot chocolate option they would have melted more and given a more intense flavour. In the iced variety, they were more like little candy crystals that you could chew on as you were drinking. The lime felt like more than just a hint but that isn’t a complaint at all because I found it to be a really nice combination with the caramel.

I certainly recommend giving Jaz & Jul’s a try when you are next in Camden market but you can also order their mixtures from their website. I am certain I will be making another purchase in the future but next time I will go for the hot chocolate just to see the difference. Plus, it is unlikely that we will have nice weather two outings in a row. This is England after all.

I do, however, like coffee ice cream. With all the cream and sugar the bitterness is cut to make it enjoyable. Lately, I have been thinking maybe it is time to try coffee again but this time experiment with different types until I find one that works for my tastebuds.

My chance came this week when I, once again, participated in Recipezaar’s Pick A Chef event. In this event, you adopt one or more of your fellow Recipezaar chefs and agree to make and review at least three of their recipes. In exchange, somebody adopts you and you get three of your own recipes reviewed.

White chocolate Bailey's latte recipe

One of the chefs I adopted was Shuzbud. As I was perusing her list of recipes I spotted this White chocolate Bailey’s latte recipe.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Recipezaar events is that they push me to try new things. It is as a direct result of various events held on the site that I found out I love marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes and polenta. With such a track record I decided it was worth giving this white chocolate latte recipe a try too.

Of course, I had to do things my style. Which means cheap and cheerful! Instead of actual Baileys I used the Irish whiskey cream brand that you can buy in Lidls. I also bought my white chocolate there (on an aside they have this super yummy strawberry white chocolate bar there now!). I even bought a jar of Fair Trade instant coffee there. I love that Lidls is doing so many Fair Trade items now. It is great that you can make the responsible and ethical choice without having to worry about your own budget all that much.

The white chocolate latte recipe was so simple to prepare. Simply heat the milk (I used skimmed because it is what I keep in the house) on the stove, stir in the white chocolate until it melts and then add the coffee and the Baileys.

I am sure it is because the drink was mostly a white hot chocolate with a little bit of coffee but I really enjoyed it. It was lush tasting without having to cost me much in either effort of money.

Perhaps getting myself to enjoy coffee isn’t a total lost cause and having this latte recipe taste this good is just the springboard I need to explore further.

Okay, well maybe that is a tad extreme but I have been on an adventure with this recipe all day. I woke up with an idea for a new dip recipe floating in my head. By the time lunch came around I just knew that I had to try it out and see if the new dip recipe I had dancing in my brain would work. Caution was thrown to the wind and I decided to have a crisps and dips lunch.

I was aiming for a creamy dip recipe but I didn’t want to go the normal onion or spinach dip path. Instead, I thought that mixing together some Italian themed ingredients was the way to go. I knew that I wanted sundried tomatoes to be a key feature to the new dip recipe and that I wanted to use low fat cream cheese as the base.

A good rummage in the fridge helped be bring my plan together. You can’t have something Italian without garlic. So, a few cloves had to go into the dip recipe. Then, I thought that throwing some green olives could add a nice hint of salty depth to the dip. Lastly, I threw in some lemon juice and zest in an attempt to lift the whole flavour of the low fat dip.

The results of the dip experiment? Yummy! All of the fresh flavours work very well together and make the taste buds pops. Plus, the light cream cheese means all the lovely creamy dip texture is there without nearly as much fat as you would think. Perhaps best of all, it takes a total of 30 seconds in the mini chopper to make!

Easy Sundried Tomato and Olive Dip

East sundried tomato and olive dip

Ingredients:

1 cloves garlic, minced
25 grams pitted green olives
50 grams sundried tomatoes in oil, drained but leave a bit of the oil clinging
200 grams light cream cheese
1 teaspoon lemon juice
zest of half a lemon

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients into a mini chopper or food processor and use the pulse setting for about 30 seconds until everything is mixed up but there is still a bit of texture to the tomatoes.

2. Get the crisps and enjoy! It would probably be really yummy spread on a bagel too.

Serves: 4