Saw this recipe on Buzzfeed and wondered whether it actually worked...it only uses three ingredients... is that too good to be true? Watch the video on YouTube or Facebook and read below to find out what we thought. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 280g chocolate spread (I used Tesco's own #student)
• 150g plain flour
• 1 egg

Method

Pop everything in a bowl and blend. The mix should turn to a kind of moist blu-tack consistency. Pop a small ball onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Now flatten it (see vid) and then pop a little chocolate spread in the middle. Grab another small ball of dough and flatten it in the palms of your hands then cover the chocolate spread and pinch the sides together. This recipe, despite Buzzfeed's claim of 18 makes 7 good sized cookies. 

Cook for 7 mins at 180 then let them cool entirely. 

​The Verdict:  they are tasty but not quite cookies; more like thin brownies. Still that's not a bad thing! My housemates really liked them so that's pretty good in itself! Well worth a go considering how easy they are to do. 

So this recipe came from Sally's Baking Addiction, which is a really fab site for all things sweet. She uses Nutella and Graham crackers but I'm in the UK and they don't have Graham crackers over here so I used digestives. Perfect.

​Give it a go. Very simple to do and you'll feel like a pro.

Scrambled egg. It's a classic. Normally found in a pan. Today, we are doing it in a mug. In a microwave. I was sceptical when I first heard about it but I can confirm it tastes and looks like egg once it's done. So do it.  Check out the Nigella video.

I'm suddenly becoming aware of just how much sugar there is added to all the ordinary stuff we eat. I'm a big believer in having a balanced diet, so that does mean you can enjoy a nice pud every now and again. But things like smoothies and milkshakes are notoriously bad at all this kind of thing. So here is a nice little milkshake that tastes and does good for you. No added sugar.  It's bananas, milk and oats. You don't need honey or sugar or syrup. It's great as is. Do it.

I only discovered the delights of fajitas the other day and I am now a total convert. They're super easy to make and taste wonderful. Just buy the spices and they'll last for decades. My problem is I eat way too much of it all in one go but if you can resist I reckon this will do you three meals..ish. 

So I saw a video the other day doing this but with a huge lump of bread and that got me thinking about how we could student-ise the recipe. So this is the answer. Boursin is fab. Just chuck in and tuck in!

So here we are. Meat-free Monday. This was actually really good. It's lovely and rich and super healthy. There's that famous "fact" about celery - it is meant to burn more calories than it gives you or something. So if you're trying to be a bit healthier, then this is definitely a good one. And, as I say, it isn't just eating a lettuce leaf. You can eat healthy and well without becoming a rabbit. #profound. 

The recipe came from a beautiful blog called Sprouted Kitchen. Go check it out!

Does about 4 meals. I've frozen some. Wine is pretty key in this one so grab something nice. Check out Barking Booze for some suggestions.  

This is seriously funky and unbelievably easy. I made this because I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday trying to make a beef brisket thing for supper but it was a disaster! So to make myself feel better, I made this. And have eaten most of it too unfortunately. Anyhow, I reckon this would be a fab pud for date night as you can do it in advance and it looks amazing so you'll feel like a total pro. Give it a shot! Enjoy!

So apparently this is the cool new thing. I read about it over the summer and got obsessed. Needless to say my family and Elena don't like it but I think they're wrong. It's nice and refreshing. Apparently it brings more caffeine out than normal iced coffee, but I don't really know about that.

Give it a shot and see if you like it. Clearly can't promise you will but #yolo.

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. 

What they say:

This honey-hued beer is matured over the finest American Oak heartwood to unlock natural flavours from deep within the oak grain. These luscious flavours of toffee, vanilla and oak perfectly balance the beer's malt backbone and light hop fruitiness. Its mellowness and depth of flavour make it a great accompaniment to food like grilled seafood, juicy steaks and mature cheese.

What we say:

I like this. Whenever a bottle says "oaky" I'm a bit sceptical but actually this was great. Not getting much toffee but perhaps a hint of vanilla. But then that might be my inner Pavlov's dog coming out. 6.6%. Would buy again.

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. 

This was really special. Tracy, my godmother, gave me a case of this at my christening (can't say I remember that!). It's been sitting in a cellar since then. We'd been told that leaving it too long may not be good for it. So we decided to crack open a bottle this Christmas.  It was fabulous. 

However, I've been thinking about why it was fabulous. Of course, it's a wonderful bottle of port - it's wayyy more exciting than anything you'll get from the supermarket. "Technically" it's brilliant. But that's not the reason why it is such a special bottle. It's because we drank it as a family, after a lovely meal, and it was a gift from Tracy. It's more than just a bottle. It's about the experience, about sharing and caring. The bottle is, frankly, incidental. I think we can all become almost intimidated by lovely gifts and things; we don't want them to get damaged or used up. We protect them because we know they're significant or expensive.

But really, things like this are for sharing with friends. It's meant for drinking. 

And I guess that's my (and the Barking Baking) philosophy: if you are lucky enough to have people you care about to share something with, do it.

I look forward to putting the world to rights with Tracy (and others) soon.

Port Thoughts: a website I googled said, "the 1982 Churchill Vintage Port is now at the peak of its maturity. It is a medium weight, dry, streamlined port with an excellent black fruit character, as well as fine purity and richness." All I know is that it tasted wonderful.

Here endeth my strangely profound post. As ever, hope we're all well. I'm back in Durham now!