Baking is probably my favourite form of stress relief. When I'm feeling really homesick, or just want to get rid of a bad mood I often turn to whipping something up in the kitchen, aka procrastibaking. I'm always on the lookout for something that will actually fit somewhere between "yummy, but filled with things that are bad for you" and, as my housemates often put it, "the crazy healthy shit that Steph makes and no one eats". This actually seemed to hit the spot! Totally suitable for vegans and anyone going dairy or nut free, these little apple tarts are cute and won't clog your arteries.
So, here's what you need to make them:
2/3 cooking apples
Coconut palm sugar (or a sugar of your choice)
Filo pastry
And here's how you make them:
1.) Peel and chop the cooking apples. Place them in a pan with a tiny amount of water (about a centimetre at the bottom of the pan) and as much sugar as you wish. I like my apples quite sharp, but 150g is probably the maximum I would advise if you have a slightly sweeter tooth.
2.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
3.) Cut the filo pastry into squares of a suitable size to fill a muffin/cupcake tin with a little bit of overlap on the edge. Place one in each cupcake hold and then place another one on top at a 90 degree angle.
4.) Cook the apples for 20 minutes and leave them to cool for 5-10. Then place a tablespoon full of apple in each pastry holder.
5.) Cook for 10 minutes. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes and then enjoy!
In my opinion cinnamon is like marmite: you either love it or you hate it. I hate it, BUT, if you're on the opposition as it were, you could add some cinnamon or nutmeg to the apples prior to putting everything in the oven to add a bit of winter heat!
What do you like to bake when you're feeling stressed?
I may or may not have already made my Christmas order to LUSH (whoops), and, having tried just a few of their face masks before, I had to pick up the cranberry one. With argan oil and rose clay in it, it's perfect for softening your skin at winter. So you can totally combat the slightly grim roughening of skin we all suffer from as we battle our way around in these gripping winds. And yes, I am looking out at the endless rain in England, thinking again how desperately I'm going to need this if I don't want to end up with rock-like tough skin!
Face mask night is my favourite night of the week. Me and my housemate/best friend get get together and try out a new product or go for an old favourite. On this particular occasion however, my other half got involved, and there were foam peanuts lying around. Hint for the future: avoid all male contact during face mask time Steph. In the end though, we had great fun taking some horrendous photos of ourselves with the peanuts and the face masks made our skin uber soft.
What's your face mask ritual?
Autumn is upon us (and by the looks of it Winter is coming too!), and so my mind has turned to making homemade soups. As someone who's lactose intolerant, I often find it incredibly difficult to buy yummy tomato soups that don't have some form of dairy in, so I've been making my own for a couple of years now. However, this week I tried something a little different, by adding chickpeas and haricot beans to my normal recipe.
So, here's what you need for two portions:
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 small tin of chickpeas
1 small tin of haricot beans
Coconut oil
Fresh basil
Salt and pepper
And here's how you make it:
1.) Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan.
2.) Chop the onion and garlic
3.) Place the onion and garlic in the oil and cook until soft
4.) Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, haricot beans, tomato puree and salt and pepper
5.) Simmer for 15 minutes
6.) Stir in the basil and you're done!
This is a great basic dish that you can add anything that's "on the verge", as I like to call, it in the fridge to - I usually end up putting some red pepper, carrot, peas, green beans, etc. in it: anything goes really! The other great thing about it (which makes it my favourite easy lunch of all time) is that you can bulk make it and freeze a whole load of portions, aka lunch for days!
What's your favourite Autumn soup dish?
