Healthy Green Smoothie

Today marks the official end of my 2nd year at uni with Party on the Amp, at which I'm helping with the media coverage as a runner.  That means that I'll be liaising with the technical crew about musical acts, posting on the university student union's social media accounts about what's going on, and hopefully interviewing a few bands.  With a little luck, the weather will be nice (I didn't go last year due to work, but it apparently rained a lot) and there'll be ice cream, candyfloss, popcorn, BBQ stuff, and smoothies.  Speaking of smoothies, today's healthy green treat was inspired by this smoothie from the wonderful agirlnamedally (a.k.a. Tie-Dye Girl or My Aussie Soul-Sister).  Imagine if I was sipping that at Party on the Amp - mmmmmmmm.

Ingredients (to fill a pint glass of smoothie)

3 bananas
3 dessert spoons spinach
a handful of cucumber sticks
a dash or two of cold water

Instructions

1. Cut bananas into slices.
2. Blend banana slices a bit at a time, and add cucumber sticks, spinach and water gradually (i.e. add a bit of bananas, cucumber, spinach and water each time and blend).
3. Pour into a pint glass/mug and enjoy!

Healthy Vegan Flapjacks

I've had a couple of weeks off for deadlines and exams and the just a bit of winding down, but now I'm back with a bit more energy and more recipe finds.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still winding down, but I'm having a go at doing both reading and watching DVDs each day and then sometimes a bit of designing bits and bobs.  At some point, I'll focus a bit more on design work, and perhaps start trying again to learn to drive.  Last Friday, the day after I finished exams and deadlines, my university's Amnesty International group held a concert to raise money to help with the aid efforts in Nepal following the recent earthquake, and my musical theatre group (BUSOM) joined in with an a capella set of songs from previous shows and concerts (plus Lean On Me, which we haven't done before, but vaguely knew the words already in our own time).  For a donation, we could choose from a range of chocolate brownies, white chocolate chip buns, a peanut butter thing, cookies, and vegan flapjacks.  As always, my interested was piqued by the vegan flapjacks, so I went to ask Elliot, the event's host, for the recipe.  He told me that he had adapted a flapjack recipe from the BBC Good Food website to have a vegan-friendly alternative to butter and then added some coconut oil.  I'm yet to try this recipe at home, but I'm sure it will be as delicious as the one I tasted last week!

Ingredients

250g porridge oats
125g vegan margarine (such as Pure)
125g brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons golden syrup (depends on how gooey you want it)
coconut oil (optional)

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until fully mixed, but be careful not to overmix as the oats could lose their texture.
2. Lightly grease the baking tray with margarine and use a spoon to transfer the flapjack mixture into the tray.
3. Press into the corners of the tray with the back of a spoon to ensure that the mixture is flat.  Separate the mixture into 12 squares.
4. Bake the mixture in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Strawberry and Kiwi Smoothie

On Monday morning, I headed to Student Central for my student radio show and came across the Health Fair (there seems to be a lot of things like this at the moment).  I didn't have much time to spare, so I went straight for the stand where there were trays of smoothie samples.  I tried a Watermelon Wonder smoothie (the recipe for which will come next week) and a Strawberry and Kiwi smoothie.  We were also given questionnaires which had the question of "How would you define healthy eating?"  I would define healthy eating as eating lots of fruits and vegetables and drinking plenty of water, but also treating yourself in moderation to things like chocolate.  How would you define "healthy eating"?

Ingredients

apple juice, chilled
1 banana, sliced
1 kiwi, sliced
frozen strawberries

Instructions

1. Gradually add each ingredient to blender and pulse until mixture reaches a smooth consistency.
2. Enjoy!