berry smoothie.

With summer now with us, the warmer weather is begging for cool drinks. The other day, while the heat was near unbearable and I was basking in the coolness of my house (which is like a fridge, no joke) I decided to make a smoothie out of the fresh berries in my fridge instead of eating them (oh, what a conventional way of consuming them :P)

Berries, of all kinds, are my favourite fruits. The fact I don't consume nearly enough dairy products means this is the best way to meet my nutritional needs while keeping my taste buds happy! Not to mention this is super easy to make :)

This recipe makes approximately one 350ml glass.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of mixed berries - this is an approximate
• One 175g tub of yogurt - I used Yoplait's raspberry
• 150ml of milk - I used skim

METHOD:

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or beaker (if you have stick blender, like me) - and blend
2. VOILA! How easy was that! Now sit back, relax and enjoy your berry smoothie and the warm weather :)

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c coconut water.

When I first heard about C Coconut Water I didn't know what was so special about it. After having seen countless number of Instagram images from other bloggers, I figured it had to be something worth looking into - and I was right.

C Coconut Water is pure organic coconut water with no added preservatives, colouring, or additives. It also has numerous amount of benefits such as:

• Boosts immune system naturally
• Contains chemicals to counter fatigue
• Increases metabolism and weight loss
• Aids in circulation
• Detoxifies and fights viruses
• Fights against stress
• Balances body pH
• Naturally hydrates
• Clears complexion
• Hangover cure

The main benefits that caught my attention was the fight against stress, clearing of complexion, boost in immune system and increase in metabolism. With the last leg of my university semester I have been under considerable amounts of stress which causes bad complexion and a lowered immune system which is all balanced out by C Coconut Water.

I love drinking it after exercising because of its hydrating qualities as well. C Coconut Water is sold by cartons of 12, at $35.90 a carton. So be sure to enter carton numbers when  you buy it online, I was a little confused when I first went to buy it.

I'm loving it so much, I bought another carton just yesterday!

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buttermilk pancakes with caramelised bananas.

I have this little HUGE soft spot for pancakes. It's the one thing that I love ordering while I'm abroad that makes me feel as if I'm home again, which is odd considering they originated in Greece (yes, I Wikipedia that..) But it also links me back to memories of being abroad like when I had an EPIC sized pancake in America, and by EPIC I mean the length of a mini platter (approx. 30cm wide), or when I ordered pancakes, also in America, and they gave me waffles...

Anyway, I've always made pancakes out of the shake 'n mix because I never really looked or bothered with making ones from scratch, and I was called out on this by my best friend when I was searching for pancake mix: "don't you always make things from scratch??", and my response: "not pancakes, they're special" - but this moment had always stuck in my mind, so with some left over buttermilk from the jam donut recipe I decided to make some buttermilk pancakes...from scratch.

This recipe makes 4x 20cm pancakes...I poured out too much in the first one, so the size had to be consistant...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1½ cups self-raising flour - once again, I had no self-raising so I substituted it with plain flour + baking soda...I really need to restock on self-raising...
• 2 tablespoon caster sugar + a bit more for the caramelised bananas, I don't know exactly how much I used...
• 375ml buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon melted margarine
• 2 ripened bananas
• A bit of water....

METHOD:

1. Sift flour into a bowl
2. Create a well and mix in egg, margarine and buttermilk one-by-one until the batter is smooth
3. Pre-heat a non-stick pan over medium heat
4. Cook pancakes one at a time - as this batter isn't silky smooth like pancake mix, you will have to spread out the mixture until it's about ½cm thick
5. Flip pancake when you can see at least 50% of cooked pancake showing through the batter - given you didn't make it too thick... usually pancakes bubble to indicate it's breathing, but I think because I used plain flour it didn't do that properly...
6. Once the other side is cooked, pop onto plate
7. Repeat until the mixture is used up

Caramelised Banana Method:

1. Keep the pan you were using for the pancakes on
2. Cut bananas in half both length ways, and split
3. Put bananas inside-side down onto pan
4. Pour caster sugar to coat the bananas, and a little on the pan - splash some water until the sugar starts to bubble like caramel - sorry I don't have exact measurements...
5. Once caramel begins to brown (which is fairly quickly), flip bananas over to coat in the caramel
6. Fish the bananas out - be careful you don't burnt the caramel, burnt caramel tastes VERY bitter
7. VOILA! Put your bananas on top of your pancakes, and you're good to go!

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