Recipe: Protein pancakes

Post-gym sugar-free chocolate protein pancakes

Ingredients:

For the pancake:

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 2 egg whites

- 4 tbsp milk (skimmed/ almond/coconut)

- 1 banana

- 1 tsp cinnamon powder

- 30g chocolate protein powder (or whatever flavour you want)

- Oil (rapeseed/coconut)

For the topping:
-Berries
-Syrup

Agave nectar is a great low glycemic index alternative to maple syrup, tasting very similar.

& maple syrup from myprotein.com is less than £5 and has zero sugar and fat. The taste is slightly unusual, so therefore I mix agave and this syrup for the top of the pancakes.

Method:

1) If you haven't already, separate the egg whites from the yolk.

2) Place the whites in a large bowl.

3) Whisk with an electric whisk until fluffy.

4) Put all the other ingredients (baking powder, milk, banana, cinnamon and protein) into a blender and blend until smooth.

5) Pour the protein mix slowly into the egg whites, and fold together. Do this gently to keep all the air bubbles.

6) Heat a small amount of the oil in a pan.

7) Add the pancake mix into round cirles and leave for about 1 minute until cooked on one side.

8) Flip the pancakes and cook for about another minute.

9) Stack up with berries and pour on the syrups

Recipe: Surprise rainbow cake

How to make a vanilla & lemon rainbow cake filled and decorated with chocolate

(not particularly healthy but looks impressive and is not too difficult to make.)

Ingredients: (serves 10-12)

For the cake:

- 225g unsalted butter, softened

- 400g caster sugar

- 500g plain flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 1 tsp salt

- 3 tsp vanilla extract (I also add some vanilla bean paste for extra flavour)

- 4 large eggs

- 500ml buttermilk

- Juice of 2 lemons

- Smarties (or skittles or whichever sweets/ chocolate you want inside the cake)

- Food colouring (you need 6 colours. I got red, blue, yellow and green food gel then used the colours red, blue, yellow, green, purple (red and blue mixed) and dark red (red and yellow mixed). 

For the icing:

- 250g icing sugar

- 80g butter

- 3 tsp vanilla extract (I also use some vanilla bean paste too)

- 25ml of milk

- Juice of half a lemon

For the decoration:

- White and milk chocolate fingers for the sides ( I have also used kit kats in the past, alternating milk chocolate and cookies & cream kit kats)
- M&Ms for the top of the cake
- About half a jar of lemon curd
- White chocolate buttons for the sides of the cake (optional)
- Reese's peanut butter cup chocolates and love hearts just to serve the cake with/ any chocolate or sweets you want (optional)
- Edible glitter (optional)

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease with butter and put baking paper on the bases of 6 cake tins. I used 18.5cm (in diameter) tins. I only had 2 tins so just kept washing, re-lining and using them again.

2) Mix the butter and sugar together using an electric whisk for about 7 minutes until fluffy.

3) Meanwhile, in another bowl mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. (I never sift the flour, just mix the ingredients above together with a spoon).

4) To the butter and sugar mixture, add the vanilla extract (and paste), then the eggs one at a time. Mix together.

5) Put your mixer on a low speed and slowly pour in the buttermilk.

6) Then add the flour mixture to the cake batter, in about 3 batches, and combine.

7) Then divide the batter into 6 bowls. I put about 300g of batter in each bowl.

8) Put the food colouring into each bowl, only a few drops should be necessary.

9) Put the coloured cake batter into the lined tin, making sure evenly spread. If you only have 2 tins then just put 2 colours into 2 tins, bake and repeat the process.

10) Bake in the oven, on the center shelf for 17 minutes. 

11) Whilst still hot, prick the cakes with a skewer and pour lemon juice over the cake.

12) Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the icing. Simply whisk together, using an electric whisk, the butter and icing sugar for 10 minutes. Then add the milk and vanilla and mix for a few more minutes. Then combine with the lemon juice.

13) When cool, start to ensemble the cake. Cut a hole, using a cutter, in the middle 4 layers of the cake (NOT the bottom or top layer).

Use the first hole as a stencil so that all the holes in the cake are aligned. Discard /eat the middle circles of cake.

14) First spread the lemon curd, then icing on the bottom layer (without a hole). Then repeat, stacking up the cake, until all the layers are stuck together (EXCEPT the top).

15) Now add the smarties to the hole.

16) Close the hole with the top layer. Spread more icing on top of the cake and add the M&Ms.

17) Add icing to the sides of the cake and stick chocolate fingers (alternating in white and milk). If the cake height is taller than the chocolate fingers then fill the gaps with white chocolate buttons, if you want.

18) Put the cake onto a large wooden chopping board/ a plate and decorate with the Reece's and love hearts. Sprinkle edible glitter over the cake. 

Enjoy x

Recipie: Teriyaki salmon

Teriyaki salmon with coconut rice, garlic beans and sesame cucumber

(one of my favourite meals)

Ingredients : (serves 6)

For the teriyaki salmon:

-6 pieces of salmon

-60ml soy sauce

-60ml mirin (found in the japanese section in supermarkets)

-50g soft brown sugar 

-1 red chilli, chopped (if you don't want it hot then take out the seeds)

-Juice of half a lime

-2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

-A few spring onions, chopped (to garnish)

For the coconut rice:

-2 cups of rice 

-4 cups of water

-2 cups of coconut milk

For the garlic green vegetables:

-2 packs of trimmed green beans

-1 pack of sugar snap peas

-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

-2 tbsp of oyster sauce

-1 tbsp soy sauce

For the sesame cucumber:

-1 whole cucumber

-3 tbsp sesame oil

-1 tbsp soy sauce

-handful of black sesame seeds (or use white seeds if you can't get hold of black)

Method:

Salmon

1) Put the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, chopped chili and lime juice into a bowl (which will fit all your salmon in) and mix. (Try to get a bowl size which will fit your salmon in tightly, this way they marinade better). 

2) Add the salmon to this.

3) Put clingfilm on the salmon and put into the fridge to marinade for at least 15 minutes. The longer the salmon marinades the better, so leave this overnight in the fridge, if you can. However, usually I just marinade the salmon until I have got my rice and vegetables ready (see below), then cook the salmon last.

4) Put a pan onto MEDIUM heat and once hot add some oil to it (only a very small amount). Make sure the pan is on medium heat and not high or your salmon will burn. Put the salmon SKIN side down first on the pan and leave for 3 minutes. Don't worry if the skin turns black, it is because the sugar in the marinade is being caramalised.

5) After this, pour all the marinade left in your bowl into the pan.

6) Flip the salmon over now, so their skins are on top. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes. When the salmon is perfectly cooked will depend on how thick the piece of salmon is. After about 3 minutes I usually find the thickest (in depth) piece of salmon and cut into the middle of it. If it is just flaking but not still fleshy and pink then all of the salmon will be done, and take them out of the pan. If this piece is undercooked then I will leave all of the salmon in the pan for a further minute or so.

7) Once cooked, place the salmon on a plate and keep the remaining sauce in the pan. Add the rice wine vinegar to the pan and keep on HIGH heat for about 1-2 minutes. The sauce should reduce and now be sticky. 

Pour this sauce on top of the salmon, and garnish the salmon with spring onions.

Coconut rice

1) Simply add the rice, water and coconut milk into a pan and put on LOW heat for 25 minutes.

Unlike normal rice, because of the coconut milk, this rice is more prone to sticking to the bottom of the pan and boiling over the pan, so make sure that you are using a low heat and that you stir the rice every so often. 

Garlic green veg

1) Heat up a wok on high heat. (If you don't have a wok then just use a regular frying pan). 

2) Add a some oil to the pan and leave for a few seconds to heat up.

3) Add the garlic to the work/ pan (be careful the oil will spit). Keep stirring the garlic and it only needs less than a minute until it turns golden.

4) Then put the beans, sugar snap peas, oyster sauce and soy sauce into the wok/ pan and stir for 2 minutes.

5) To cook the veg fully, add half a glass of water to the wok/pan, turn the heat down to medium, cover up with a lid and cook for about 7 minutes, stirring half way.

Sesame cucumber

1) Get your cucumber and cut it into half length ways. Get a teaspoon and scoop out all the middle seeds (they make the cucumber too watery). Then cut the remaining cucumber into slices.

2) Add the sesame oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds onto the cucumber and stir. Refrigerate until you serve it.