Strawberry and banana 'nice' cream

The sun is back and this is a lovely quick way to make homemade ‘ice-cream’. It’s actually a vegan alternative that’s like half sorbet and half ice cream. It’s basically frozen puréed fruit, but it tastes like you’ve made WAY more effort. My kids love it and as a bonus it’s actually really healthy because there’s no added sugar - or anything for that matter! However you might notice that I’ve drizzled some honey on one of the photos as it tastes lovely if you fancy something a bit sweeter.

Read on for the shortest ingredients list ever!!

Ingredients

Makes 1 large tub, serves approx 6-8

• 450g frozen strawberries

• 450g frozen banana

Method

• Put all the fruit into a large food processor.

• Blitz for 30 seconds and then scrape down the sides. Repeat until smooth (or the texture you prefer - can be rougher with small bits of fruit). You’ll need to repeat a few times to incorporate all the fruit.

• Scrape into a large tub and freeze for 2-3 hours until firm.

• You might need to take out of the freezer about 30 minutes before serving, depending on how firm you want it to be.

Energising strawberry smoothie

I know I always say it, but this is my new favourite breakfast smoothie!! I probably should say, this is my latest smoothie obsession…. loving the strawberry for a change as I haven’t had any in the freezer for a while.

By the way, I always use frozen fruit in smoothies as it naturally chills the drink and is way cheaper than buying fresh. I also freeze all my brown bananas that no one will touch, so they don’t ever get wasted anymore. I added a medjool date for a little sweetness, but this is optional if you want a lower sugar drink. Personally I think it brings out the flavour of the strawberries though, so my advice is - chuck it in! Also, I always use plant milk in my smoothies, but you switch for cow’s if that’s what you have in or you prefer the taste. The same goes for all my smoothie recipes.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, it made me feel all cheery and spring-like today, along with my new green hoodie!

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 160g frozen strawberries

• 60g frozen banana

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 420ml nut milk or organic whole

• 1 medjool date, optional

• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, optional

Method

• Blitz really well, especially if you’re adding the date.

Mixed berry compote

This is a simple way to make breakfast or desserts more interesting, compote is lovely served with porridge, overnight oats, granola and yoghurt, muesli or with desserts like ice cream, lemon tart or frozen yoghurt. It’s easy to make and you can apply the same technique to any type of frozen fruit, you’ll just need to adjust the sugar depending on the sharpness. Cherries, strawberries and blueberries hardly need any sweetening, but raspberries, blackberries and currants are sharper and need more sugar, which you can add at any point while the fruit is still warm.

I keep a pot in the fridge all the time as I particularly like compote on top of my breakfast. Try making these coconut overnight oats as mixed berries go so well with it (recipe link, plus more below).

Ingredients

Makes approx 300ml

• 450-500g frozen mixed berries

• 70-80g soft brown sugar

Method

• Tip the frozen fruit into a large saucepan with 70g sugar and allow to warm on a medium heat. Once all the fruit has defrosted, simmer for 10 minutes.

• Use a potato masher to break up any whole berries, add a little more sugar if needed and leave to cool.

• Or if you prefer to remove the seeds and make a coulis, pass though a sieve whilst warm, pushing with a silicone spatula.

• It will take quite a bit of effort to get all the pulp separated, but keep going until you only have seeds in the sieve. Or as long as you can be bothered, but you’ll be surprised at how much you can get out even when it looks like mostly seeds!

Tip

• Recipes that work well with compote: granola, overnight oats, pancakes, muesli

• You might want adjust the sweetness to your taste, this recipe is on the tart side, so add another 1-2 tbps if needed.

Berry power smoothie

If you’re a regular on my blog, you’ll know that I love a smoothie for breakfast. Today I threw together berries and nuts with creamy oat milk and added protein powder to keep me going until lunch. I always use frozen fruit as it’s so much cheaper and works better in a smoothie as it naturally chills the drink without the need for ice.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 60g strawberries

• 60g blueberries

• 60g raspberries

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 1 tbsp almond butter

• 1/2 tbsp protein powder (I use unflavoured planet organic)

• 350 ml nut milk (I like Plenish drinks) or organic whole

Method

• Blitz!

Strawberry & mango smoothie

This is my daughter’s favourite flavour combo and we’ve been making it a lot recently. We only used a little banana so it didn’t take over the taste and just added a bit of creamy texture. If you want to add some protein you could put in 1 tbsp of chia seeds and a little water (as they’ll thicken the mix). I always buy bags of frozen fruit for smoothies as they’re cheaper and they chill the drink without using ice, but if you only have fresh go ahead, but add a couple of ice cubes.

Ingredients

Makes 2 medium glasses

40g strawberries

40g mango

30g banana

320ml apple juice

Method

Put all the ingredients in the smoothie maker and blitz!