Muv and I made a green smoothie. It wasn't horrible. It was green. It was healthy. If you've got any other ideas, get in touch. The jar came from Elena and is pretty funky I think.  We got talking to John last night and he explained he was super keen on all these healthy smoothies as he's got a NutriBullet; I don't have one so we just used a blender. Seemed to do the trick. 

So I bought some Pimms because Kit suggested a Pimms Cheesecake - I'm working on a recipe for that as the first one I did wasn't quite right. I also made this - it's quite refreshing. You might want to add sugar to it. 

Healthy delicious snack. Fish is meant to be good brain food. I need all the help I can get. Realise this might not feel like proper student food but if you fancy treating yourself then this is a good bet.

Also check out Nina Simone in the video. 

This is quite light and went down well. Loadddds of tins in this one so it's really easy and pretty cheap. Enjoy. This is pretty similar to the No Cook Lemon Cheesecake, so if you're into lemons, try that.

Ingredients

• 200g crushed rich tea biscuits
• 100g butter
• 300ml cream
• 397g condensed milk
• 1 tin of cherries, remember to stone them

Method

Melt the butter over a low heat. Crush the biscuits. Add the biscuits to the butter. Stir about to coat. Bung in a baking tin with removable base (my tin is 7 inches). Press down with back of spoon. NOTE: I've started using rich tea biscuits because they're a bit lighter than digestives but as a result there is less fat in them and so the base is a bit more crumbly. If you prefer a solid based, add more butter - reckon 150g would do it.

Whisk the cream until it starts to thicken - you should be able to see creases in the cream.

Add in the condensed milk and beat for a good 5 mins. It should start to thicken. It won't go mega thick but it should get to a stage where it holds its shape. 

Pop a sieve over a bowl and pour the cherry tin out. The juice will go through and the cherries will be caught. The cherries will have stones in them so take them out - either cut open with a knife or I found you could just squeeze in your hands and it would come out. 

Pop two pudding spoons of the juice in the cream and blitz again. When thickened, pop the cherries in and stir with a spoon. Pop in the baking tin on top of the base. Clingfilm and fridge for at least 4 hours. Overnight is best.

Enjoy!

"You shouldn't be scared of what you don't understand" - Ravi, on quinoa, 2016. 

So if you are even half interested in food, or you eat, then you'll probably have heard of 'quinoa'. The general vibe we get is that it can do no wrong. Apparently it's a superfood. Whatever that means. So when I saw it on sale I thought I'd bite the bullet and buy some. 

I returned to the house, proudly bearing this seed-come-grain which no one knows how to pronounce and set about making my lunch. My first shock was that you actually have to cook this thing. I don't know why but I kind of assumed it was one of those things that was edible straight away. No. You have to cook it for 10 mins. And then once it's done it looks like little pieces of frog-spawn with tails #technicalterm. 

Anyhow, my verdict is basically that I think it needs something a tad sweet to go in it (the raisins in this recipe worked fab, as did the feta). So in general it's good. I had mine at 1pm and, writing this at 5:30, I am still fairly full so it's worth a shot, even just for the novelty factor. 

If anyone knows any OMG YOU MUST TRY THIS recipes with quinoa (or anything else), please get in touch - you can message the facebook page here. Or email in "BarkingBaking(at)gmail.com".  Such fun.

This was supposed to be a green smoothie. It's got spinach and everything in it. Edgy. But sadly the berries overcame the greenness of the spinach and it's kind of mauve instead. Anyhow, it's healthy, tastes great and making it takes just long enough to be classed as procrastination. 

S/o to Elle for technique tips.

For when you really just want food but can't be bothered. 

This is a recipe from BBC GoodFood and I tried it because I am trying to eat more vegetables and the other day I bought a courgette (not really thinking about what to do with it). Enjoyed this. I bought a 400g pack of tagliatelle and cooked the whole thing. It's doing me three meals. Just divide into portions, cover and fridge them. 

Elena showed me this recipe. It was really good! The red thai curry paste makes it slightly spicy but the lemon kind of makes it citrus-y I think... basically it tastes good and is pretty healthy. We had it with spinach and that was nice. Give it a shot.

Also sorry to Venus. We stole your onion. A replacement will be bought. 

So I had this out in Hong Kong over the summer and they had it for sale in the grocery so I got some. It's gorgeous. Takes no time to cook and is super delish. You just need some garlic so this about as it gets. Trick is to keep the heat low when frying the garlic. 

Probably a side or could be a green quick bite if you are trying to be super healthy... 

So I said that for my New Year resolution I was going to be more vegetarian because, as has been duly noted by Ravi and Chloe, I am really not great at it. This was a lovely little supper that was actually surprisingly filling. And you feel gorgeously healthy afterwards. Very easy, very nice. Give it a go. 

OMG. This is amazing. It'll rock your world. It's obviously not as healthy as a fruit-only ice cream but by changing the base to banana you're making it much better. And it tastes FAB. So easy that you have no excuse not to do it. 

So Lauren very kindly sent over this recipe. It's originally a Nigella one but I've massively reduced the amount of sugar in it. Still tastes lovely. It's a lovely refreshing orange and lime ice cream. Well worth a go. Super simple to make. Faaab.

Also, I got half way through making this and realised it was a bit like the chocolate puds I like to make (these ones) and so I thought we'd make some little cheesecakes too. These worked really well! And because they come in little ramekins you don't end up eating waaayy to much. #BasicallyHealthy. All is explained below. Check out the video!

Have a really glorious Christmas!

Let's face it: smoothies are not as great as we think they are. Sure, they taste good but really the reason why we love them so much is because they're full of sugar. So this is a 'reduced' sugar recipe; obviously it's not as sweet but it does still get lots of fruit in you without the sugar. Give it a go. Watch the video.

Super easy and super healthy. This is a great snack and a fabulous way to get some fruit in you!

I was busy watching some videos the other day and came across one by Gemma Stafford. She was doing something similar to this and it works brilliantly. Enjoy!

I was walking back from rowing this afternoon with Sophie and we got talking about food and cooking. I admitted I had a courgette left over from my escapades with a ratatouille. I didn't know what to do with it. Sophie suggested, among other things, a courgette frittata. It's superb. And I feel sooo healthy.

If you want something healthy and delicious this is for you. Peaches are just the most amazing things and probably my favourite fruit. Use a small banana for this (or half a large one) as we don't want to overpower the taste.

Let us know how yours worked out - get in touch on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat (all our usernames are BarkingBaking so just ping us there!).

Ingredients

• 1 peach
• 1 apple
• 1 banana

Method

Cut the peach, apple and banana into slices then put onto a plate with some baking paper (this helps stop it sticking to the plate).

Freeze overnight.

Blend in a blender when it's frozen solid. It's quite stubborn so you'll need to keep scraping it down with a fork.

Enjoy. Makes about 2.5 ramekins of ice cream.

This is another addition to our healthy ice cream series! It's great. Not going to lie, it is arguably more of a sorbet. This recipe makes just one serving so if you want more, double up the ingredients. Got to start packing for my return to Durham soon and this was a perfect way to procrastinate...

Ingredients

• 1 peach
• Large handful of blueberries

Method

Cut the peach into slices (no need to skin it but do remove the stone). Pop the peach and the blueberries on a plate with some baking paper.  Freeze overnight.

Bung the frozen fruit into a blender and whizz until it's gone smooth - you'll need to use a fork to push the mix down the sizes of the blender.

Eat!

If you haven't already worked it out, I'm currently obsessed with these healthy ice creams. They taste amazing and are super healthy. What's not to like.

It's almost too good to be true...but it isn't. It's healthy, fun, easy and actually tastes like ice cream. It's best when you make it and then eat it straight away otherwise it can go a bit brown. Enjoy!

A friend, Freddie, once told me that gin and tonic is one of those things you grow into. I think he could be right. I’m afraid they still don’t really do it for me. However, my parents do enjoy a G&T once in a while. This is how to make one.

Ingredients

• Fresh lime
  
• A large shot of gin
  
• Fever tree tonic water
  

Method

Add the lime then crushed ice then the gin then the tonic. Enjoy on a nice summer evening. Raining here but still good!

Hamish and I have very different tactics when it comes to lunch. I am more of a pick and go person whereas Hamish makes these incredible foot-long sandwiches. Kind of like Subway but a bit less grimy... Anyhow, this is his first contribution to Barking Baking and it is pretty darn good. If you are patient enough to make one, do it. 

Elena and I made these in Cornwall; the recipe came from the condensed milk tin and it actually works and is lovely. We had a fab week  and managed to swim every day. I know. Mad. Absolutely freezing but after a while you go numb so it feels warm. Such fun.

I got in touch with Mark from "Outside of The Breadbox" a while ago and he very kindly agreed to let me try his recipe for Eclairs. This is the result. It is rather fab. You can find the original recipe here. Mark used cherries but I used strawberries and blueberries as that's what we've got in the house at the moment. This is quite difficult as there are lots of different things you need to do but I had a lot of fun doing it so well worth the effort. 

The cat, Truffle, was most intrigued by the eclairs! I think he approved. You can also drizzle some chocolate on top or melt some and then dunk the eclairs in/drizzle as you go if you are feeling like some real indulgence.