Healthy chocolate cookies

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a naturally healthy person. If I could I'd eat out for every meal of the day. When people struggle to finish a meal I find it bizarre- maybe my parents were just really strict with me finishing meals growing up, but even when I'm full I'll continue to eat. The other day I spent a good ten minutes contemplating what I'd do if I had to give up one of either cheese or chocolate, and I still didn't come to any resolution. You get the gist- I like food. For the past couple of years I've made very conscious efforts to improve my in-built bad eating habits and try to make better choices.
That's where these cookies come in; they don't contain any flour or butter, only have a tiny amount of sugar in, and are legitimately pretty healthy coming in at just over 100 calories each. Earlier today I realised we had an avocado which was about to get to the bad side of ripe but I wasn't in the mood for guacamole. Then I remembered I'd once seen a recipe for avocado cookies online so I went on a search to find it. My recipe is very heavily based on this one with minor adjustments. I'm a bit dubious about all these 'healthy' baking recipes doing the rounds at the moment- if you want a brownie surely you want it to taste like a brownie and not a sweet potato. But please, like me, give these cookies a second chance. The texture definitely isn't like a traditional cookie, more like a cross between a brownie and a cookie, but since when has that ever been a bad thing?

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 small-medium banana
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder; I used Bournville
• Chocolate chunks; I used about 70g of dark chocolate chunks
• A little sea salt

1.  Preheat your oven to gas mark 4/175 degrees celsius
2. Mash up your avocado flesh and banana in a bowl
3. Add your sugar and use a handheld electric whisk to mix it all up. In all honesty if you want to be extra virtuous you may not need this extra sugar but I wasn't sure if one banana would be enough to substitute what was meant to be half a cup of sugar.
4. Add the egg, give it another mix
5. Add the bicarb & cocoa powder and mix again
6. Using a wooden spoon, incorporate the chocolate chunks
7. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then spoon the mixture in blobs on to the tray- this recipe made 9 decent sized cookies. They hardly spread out at all so flatten them out a little with the spoon. 
8. Sprinkle a tiny bit of the salt over the tray- I like to do this with most cookies nowadays to make them a little less sickly
9. Bake for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. I set my timer for 10 minutes, at which point the cookies looked very shiny but weren't quite done. They'll never properly firm up as a traditional cookie would but keep checking them every couple of minutes until they hold their shape and you can lift it off the baking paper easily

That's it! If you can resist the temptation of a warm cookie with still-melted chocolate then you're a better person than I am, but even when cooled they have a very fudge-y lovely texture. Enjoy!

A postcard from Lisbon

Long time no see. Again. It's becoming a bit ridiculous how lazy I am with this blog, but the thing is that right now my life is in a particularly boring & uninspiring place. That's not to say I'm unhappy; I just don't have much to talk about. 

Luckily, my blog-draught is temporarily over. Last week I, along with 7 others, accompanied my best friend for a few days in Lisbon to celebrate her 22nd birthday. We stayed in a lovely air bnb which I really can't recommend enough- we all appreciated having a full flat to ourselves, especially when waking up feeling a little worse for wear. Until last Thursday I hadn't been out of the country since summer 2013 so you can imagine how excited I was to get to explore somewhere new; though I can't really complain since I've now booked my one-way flight to the other side of the world..but that deserves a post all of it's own! Anyway, I really liked Lisbon and I thought I'd share a few things about it as I don't think it's quite as well-known as some other European destinations.

• Lisbon is incredibly hilly. It's very strange because a lot of the buildings are really tall meaning you can't see what's coming round the corner- the difference between whether you'll be puffing and panting your way up a steep incline or tip-toeing down one. But at least it meant that my thighs didn't suffer too much from being in holiday mode (ie. eating & drinking everything).

• Speaking of indulgence, if you're a lover of pastry you really needn't look any further for your next holiday. 'Pastel de nata' are possibly the best gift that Portugal has given to the world- they're basically egg custard tarts but maybe 20 times better than anything matching that description that I've had on home turf. You'll find them pretty much everywhere in Lisbon, displayed in windows tempting in poor tourists, which is why I averaged 2 a day while I was there. Top tip- the best I tried was from Aloma, part of the Time Out Mercado da Ribeira food hall. Just don't buy them from the airport so you can bring the joy home to your loved ones- from personal experience I can tell you, you'll just be sad with how bad they are.

• The nightlife is varied and starts late. We didn't get a chance to go to any proper clubs and we didn't go to that many bars but those we did go to were all very different. On our first night we wandered towards the Bairro Alto area, which is the main spot for bar-hopping, and found a great little bar full of weird and wonderful things. Then on the second day we spent a lot of time in a bar called Sol e Pesca (translation: Sun & Fish) drinking far too much 'Super Bock' beer. This place is possibly the most fish-themed place I've ever seen; even the menus were displayed on fishing rods. Then, later on that night we ended up watching a drag queen show in a strange club. It seems that in Lisbon the possibilites are endless. Just head out late- locals don't even leave the house until 1am. 

• Linked with the above, if you visit Lisbon you'll likely end up drinking more than you intended to due to the ridiculously low prices. In the first bar I mentioned above, 6 beers and 2 glasses of (actually drinkable) white wine came to a grand total of €7.50. The conversion rate for pound to euro is particularly strong at the moment, but it seemed like most places were similarly priced. 

• As with most places I've visited in Europe, crossing the road is a pretty terrifying experience. Trams and cars share the same road space and pedestrian crossings don't really seem to mean much. That combined with, as I mentioned, never really being able to see round corners means you just have to trust your gut. Oh, and walk fast. 

So maybe we didn't do that much in the way of specific sight-seeing and I'm sure there's plenty more we would've got round to seeing had we had more time, but I think my biggest tip for Lisbon would be to just wander and see what you find. It's a lovely place to walk around, the people really do seem friendly and you never know what you might find hidden at the top of a hill!

Places in Leeds: Cabana

Last night I met up with two of my closest friends for a new years catch-up. We'd all been really busy over the festive period so had barely seen each other leaving us with lots to discuss; perhaps the best bit of gossip I can share with you is that Gaby, one of my oldest friends, spent her New Years Eve dancing in a show in the Maldives in front of the likes of David Beckham & co. The difference between our lives amazes me sometimes.

Anyway, we wanted to try somewhere new in Leeds to host our little reunion. I suggested Cabana, a fairly new addition to the Trinity centre. Cabana is a Brazilian restaurant- I know what you're probably thinking, what exactly does that mean? Judging by the menu it means street food, meat skewers and a whole load of caipirinhas. We decided to give it a try and I'm glad we did- even if just solely for the sake of the dessert alone, but I'll get to that later..

First of all: drinks. Caipirinhas are one of my favourite cocktails and Cabana's offering were definitely up to scratch. They had the classic lime option, which I went for, as well as kiwi, strawberry, pineapple & mint (which Gaby chose) and passionfruit (Lizzie's choice). As you can see, Lizzie was a big fan of hers.

Next up: the food. We decided to bypass the starters and go straight for mains. Lizzie & I both went for the spicy malagueta chicken skewer; malagueta is Cabana's signature sauce and you can buy a bottle of it to take home with you. Gaby plumped for the lime and garlic chicken skewer, and we all decided on the feijoada fries, which are sweet potato fries with a pork, beef and black bean stew on top. When your food is ready, each person's skewer is brought to the table separately and is transferred onto your plate. This is a bit of a gimmick I suppose but it all adds to the experience that Cabana is trying to give, which overall was a pretty good one. We all really enjoyed our food; the only thing I might say is that next time I visit it might be a good idea to share some different sides for a little more variety, as essentially what you have on your plate is just your meat. This isn't a complaint as such, because the meat is pretty damn good. Just a thought!

Now for the best bit: dessert. This is a bit of a tale- we paid after mains and went off into Trinity kitchen in search of one of their monthly stands called You Doughnut. Alas, when we got to the stand nobody was there serving. Determined to get some dessert we went through our options and decided to go back to Cabana as I'd heard great things about their nutella donuts. So off we went back inside the restaurant, much to the surprise of the waiter. Lizzie & I got the doughnuts while Gaby had a peanut butter and oreo sundae. Okay. I don't even know how to describe these donuts other than to say if you live in or near Leeds, you must go try them. Tiny donuts stuffed with nutella..served with more nutella for dipping. Apparently I hadn't read the menu properly as I didn't realise they actually had nutella inside them too, so you can imagine my delight when I had my first bite. Lizzie let Gaby try a few of hers in return for a bite of sundae- I'm almost glad I have a nut allergy therefore couldn't partake in this swap as these were far too good to share. It's probably time I stopped talking about donuts now. I'll just leave you with the photo instead.

Something else that I liked about Cabana is that although it is one of a chain of restaurants, the owners wanted to keep some authenticity. For example I've read that the different baskets they put your bill in were all bought from a young boy on a beach in Rio. The seats are made from recycled jeans selected from a small charity in Sao Paulo. They give out colourful ribbons with the bill which are popular in Bahia and are known as wish ribbons. According to Brazilian tradition, you're supposed to wear them until they fall off for your wishes to come true. So I'm not holding out any hope for my fancy New York apartment dream to come true, but it's a nice little touch all the same.

All in all we had a lovely few hours in Cabana and I'd reccommend it to anyone looking for tasty food in Leeds city centre.

Have you ever been to Cabana?

Places in Leeds: Cielo Blanco

I'm starting a new series on this here blog called, imaginatively, 'Places in Leeds'. Simple and to the point. I have an ever-growing list of restaurants and bars I want to try in my (pretty much) home city and now that I'm back from uni for good I've decided to start working my way through it. Leeds has really improved over the past few years and I love living so close to it. Until recently I was pretty adamant that I'd have to move to London somehow to experience city living but I'm starting to think I'd be quite happy to stay in Leeds; it has an abundance of great bars, pretty much any shop I could want to go to and more & more restaurants are choosing to open their only northern branches here- you can't imagine how excited I was when I first heard that Meat Liquor was moving on up (who has this in their head now? sorry). I sing Leeds' praises to any naive people who will listen so I thought it'd be a good idea to write about places, new and old to me, here.

Today I'd like to tell you about a mexican restaurant called Cielo Blanco. It's in the Trinity centre so has been open a while now but I've only just got round to trying it- something I'm pretty sad about. My friend Gaby and I chose it as our catch-up location and we were both thoroughly impressed. CB is committed to being authentically mexican, particularly in their emphasis on street food. 

First off we decided on drinks- this took longer than deciding on the food. I went for a west house mexicana- I couldn't tell you what was in it other than tequila, but I liked it- and Gaby had a pink grapefruit and pineapple margarita which she seemed pretty happy with. Foodwise, we decided to go for their 'street food experience' where you pick 6 of their dishes for £11.95 each- pretty good when you consider that each dish separately is £4-7. We went for stuffed jalapenos, pork tacos, rump steak quesadilla, chipotle mushroom and cheese flautas (we had no idea what this was upon ordering), mexican chicken dumplings and crispy squid tostadas- although these were just for Gaby as seafood and myself don't mix well. We also got some sweet potato fries with aioli to share because, well, just because. They also bring you some free tortilla chips with three different salsas after you've ordered which I think is a nice little touch.

As you can see it all looked, and luckily tasted, pretty great. Gaby couldn't quite deal with the heat of the stuffed jalapenos but I loved them, so was secretly happy to have them all to myself. I obviously didn't try her crispy squid but she munched her way through it all quite happily, so I'll deem that a success too! The tacos were probably my favourite thing but I'd definitely recommend the dumplings which were a surprising hit for both of us.

After we'd polished the lot off Gaby enquired about their desserts. The selection is so small that they don't actually have a menu- either churros or a chocolate sundae. I wasn't going to have a dessert actually, but as soon as Gaby ordered her churros I knew I'd have crippling food envy if I didn't have some too. And I'm glad I did...

Who can really resist anything in the doughnut family paired with chocolate sauce and ice cream? A better person than myself, I'll tell you that. 

I can't quite remember how much it all came to but I believe we paid about £25 each including a tip, which, although a little pricier than I'd sometimes be able to afford, I'm happy to pay every so often for a good meal and drink. All in all we both really enjoyed the experience of Cielo Blanco; the mixture of interesting drinks, lovely food and a chilled atmosphere means that I'll definitely be returning when I next have a mexican craving. 

I don't know about you...

...but I'm feeling 22! Okay I'm sorry Swift-haters but I couldn't resist that one seeing as I'm going to tell you a little about my 22nd birthday earlier this week.

I didn't have much planned for my actual birthday- if I'm being honest I felt a bit 'meh' (for lack of a better word) about the whole thing, but I ended up having a lovely, if rather chilled, day in the end. I actually opened my cards and presents the night before, as if not my parents would've tried to wake me at the crack of dawn before they went to work the next day and if my 22 years on this earth have taught me anything, it is that I am not a morning person. I was lucky enough to receive a couple more of my beloved silver knuckle rings, Foals' 'Holy Fire' on vinyl, a lovely new leather purse and a MAC lipstick- nothing extravagant but it doesn't take much to make me happy.

I'd arranged to meet one of my best friends, Gaby, in Leeds to take advantage of Pizza Express' annual free bottle of birthday prosecco. She just came back from working in Marbella all summer so a pizza and prosecco was exactly what we needed- I went for the rustichella which is basically a Caesar salad on a pizza, need I say more?

Once we'd finished our food we met up with another of my friends, Susie, to head to Belgrave Music Hall's roof terrace, which I think it's now fair to call my favourite place to go in Leeds. We had a lovely leisurely afternoon drinking Amstel (just a little less sophisticated that prosecco) in the sun, only popping back inside to take advantage of resident Dough Boys' half price slices; because apparently one pizza wasn't already enough..

Like I said, it was nothing too exciting and most of my friends were either back at uni or working, but it was a good day with a few good friends nonetheless. Really I just wanted to post a few higher-quality photos on here as I remembered to take my DSLR camera out for the day- seeing how much better these photos look than iphone snaps makes me really keen to do more lifestyle-y restaurant-y posts. Watch this space!

Belgrave Street Feast

Last Saturday I had another food heaven experience. I know, I keep writing about food at the moment but unfortunately while I'm revising it's one of few joys for me. This one took place at Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen; a fairly new but very popular addition to Leeds' ever-growing bar scene.

I'd heard about Belgrave's street feast and been very intrigued but I'd always still been at uni in Birmingham when they were held, so when I saw that it is now a monthly event I made it my mission to go while I was home for easter. I rounded up a group of friends and headed to Leeds' northern quarter to see what delights were on offer.

The event was held on all three floors, including the lovely roof terrace which I'll definitely be visiting again when the weather is feeling a bit more agreeable. We had a wander round first to see what we fancied. I'd heard good things about Fu Schnickens so I started off with one of their crispy panko chilli chicken Guo Bao. It wasn't like anything I'd ever tried before but it was delicious and a small enough size that I felt okay about sampling a few other things. I didn't get to take many photos which is a bit of a pain when you're describing food, but you'll just have to trust me on this. Fu Schnickens are currently calling Belgrave their home so I think I'll be popping in again for more.

While some of my friends were at the Manjit's Kitchen stall (by the way, they also described their food as amazing) I bought a pint of Symonds cider then went to ogle the delights of the Noisette Bakehouse stall. I opted for a sea-salt caramel brownie to have later as I'd heard great things about them and feared that they'd run out; I can confirm that it was indeed a very good brownie. I'd been eyeing up the Arepa!Arepa!Arepa! stall nearby and decided to check it out. An arepa is a fried maize bread-sort-of-thing. Descriptions are apparently not my strong suit. Anyway, I had one filled with spicy, beer-y beef and it was pretty darn good.

I thought this was where my food for the day would come to a halt alas I couldn't resist trying a slice of the resident Dough Boys' pizza on my way out. From 12-7 every day pizza slices are half price, meaning you get pretty much a quarter of a pizza for £1.30. Basically if you live in Leeds you have no excuse not to grab yourself a slice too.

Long story short- I'd definitely recommend the street feast and I've already convinced my parents that they need to go to the next one. I, sadly, will not be able to attend the next few due to the slightly pressing matter of my final ever exams (when did I get this old?) but I'm already looking forward to returning to Belgrave in the summer for drinks on the roof terrace and perhaps a Guo Bao or two.

Have you been to Belgrave yet?

Breakfast, burgers and Lionel Richie

Last week I went to visit my best friend Kerrie. She lives just outside London so we had a few trips into the capital and I think it's fair to say we were in food heaven for those few days. While my limited photography options (i.e. my iphone) mean that I'm unable to take any impressive photos, I thought that it's only fair to share the places where I ate food which I've genuinely been daydreaming about ever since.

First up is a lovely café/bar near Kings Cross called Drink, Shop, Do. The premise behind the 'shop' part of the name is that you can buy anything that you see there; the tables, chairs, wall decorations, you name it. This means that all the furniture is mismatched and vintage, with old milk bottles holding flowers in the middle of the table. Oh and they sell really good cake. There were plenty of options to choose from but in the end I went for a simple Victoria sponge alongside a fresh lemonade. I don't have a photo of my cake but I can offer you a peek at the décor. I'm hoping to be able to come back here on an evening to try out one of their many bizarre entertainment offerings; my favourite that I read about was 'Lionel Rich-tea' where everyone has a go at piping Lionel's face onto a biscuit and the best one wins a prize. Can you think of something better to do with your night? Personally I can't. 

Next up is Honest Burger. Two of my friends go to UCL therefore have sampled many a London burger, but they have named this amongst the best. After a long day of window shopping, we headed back to Kings Cross to the branch nearby. We both went for the namesake honest burger with a cider and we certainly were not disappointed. The burger was juicy but not too messy (something which was a slight problem for us with Psychic Burger's offering) and the chips were incredible. I'm not even a big chip fan, but these were something else. They had rosemary salt on them and my mouth is watering just thinking about them. I think the photo below speaks for itself. 

The final stop on our culinary tour came the next morning before I had to head off home. We'd both heard about The Breakfast Club many times and decided that it was time to try it out so we headed to the original Soho branch. Despite the fact it was 11.30 on a Thursday morning we still had to queue for 20 minutes but it wasn't much of an issue as we'd both spent at least an hour the night before pouring over the menu online deciding what to order. I went for bacon and banana french toast with maple syrup. I know what you're thinking, very strange combination, but I can safely say it was the best breakfast I've ever had. Kerrie agreed with her avocado and bacon on toast with a poached egg, which also looked heavenly. We both had apple juice, of which I wasn't expecting much until it arrived and was a glowing green colour. Miles better than what you get from a carton. Essentially, The Breakfast Club has ruined any future breakfasts for us both...until we can go back again. 

This photo is actually my phone background now. I know, I need to get a grip. 

Have you ever been to any of these places? Do you also dream of french toast? Please tell me I'm not alone.