Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 2 x Sweet potatoes
• 1.5 x Tbsp fennel seeds
• 2 x Pre packed/cooked beetroots cubed
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 x A tin of chickpeas
• 2 x Tbsp of fresh chives finely chopped
• 2 x Heaped tbsp of sweetcorn
• 1 x Tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 x Tsp English mustard
• A few hazel nuts and spring onions to garnish.

Directions

1. Prick the sweet potatoes and put them in a pre-heated oven. 200°c for 30 minutes.
2. Bring the potatoes out of the oven and cut each one down the middle. Remove the flesh from the skin and place it in a separate bowl.
3. In a frying pan toast the fennel seeds for a few minutes and then put to one side.
4. Mix the diced beetroot with half of the sweet potato mixture and the fennel seeds. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Now in a separate bowl mix the other half of the sweet potato flesh with the sweetcorn, chickpeas, mustard, soy sauce and the chives.
6. Fill the sweet potatoes with half of each of the mixtures and place under the grill for 10 minutes.
7. Now serve using hazel nuts and chives to garnish.

 

Chocolate, Banana and Coconut Balls

Ingredients

• 120g x Hazel nuts
• 2 x Small bananas (removed from skin)
• 3 x Heaped tbsp of coconut powder
• 1 x Tbsp of cocoa powder
• 1 x Tbsp sweetener
• Extra coconut powder to coat them

Directions

1. In a bowl place all the ingredients and use a hand blender to bind them together.

2. Using your hands roll the mixture into small balls.

3. Roll the balls in the extra coconut powder to coat them.

4. Place them on baking tray lined with baking paper.

5. Now place them in a pre heated oven at 200°c.

5. Cook for 10 minutes and then remove from the oven. You can eat them straight away or allow to cool and eat later.
This is a really healthy dessert that took hardly any time to make. I made these bad boys when I had a evening craving for something sweet. I created these delights out of what I had in the cupboards at the time. They are lovely! Enjoy

Pea-nut Soup

Pea Soup with a little heat

Ingredients

• Frozen peas
• boiling water
• stock cube
• peanut butter
• Cayenne Pepper
• Salt
• Bombay mix

Guidelines

1. Pour as many frozen peas into a pan. (I used about 1/3 of a bag of peas which made one BIG bowl of soup for me : ) )
2. Add a tbsp of peanut butter and stir.
3. Now cover the mixture with boiling water (just enough to cover the peas) and add salt to season.
4. Crumble in a stock cube and allow the peas to cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Keep stirring.
5. Using a hand blender give the mixture a quick blitz.
6. Now pour into a bowl and sprinkle over some cayenne pepper… I didn’t put on loads as I wanted the pea flavour…but enough to give a little warmth in each taste.
7. Put some Bombay mix on the top to add some crunch.

 

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Now I know this recipe may seem vague… however I find the most enjoyable part of cooking to be the experimentation…For instance…Pea and peanut butter! Slightly random combination, but it works well together. Now I thought I would share this with you and allow you to use your own taste buds and intuition to work out exact measurements that suit you. That’s the fun part…so who am I to take that away from you?? Keep tasting until it is the right heat, texture, saltiness and consistency…As an added extra sit some Bombay mix on top of your soup to add some crunch. It acts as a type of crouton and again worked well to give a little kick of spice.

I hope you enjoy playing around in the kitchen with this one!! It shouldn’t take too long to prepare…It was probably the quickest meal I ever made : )

Carrot, chickpeas and cumin filled pittas

Ingredients

 

• 3 x Spring onions, chopped
• 6 x Carrots (organic are sweeter)
• 1 x Large Orange
• 1 x Tin of chickpeas (400g net weight)
• 1 x Tsp of star anise powder
• 1 x Tsp of black onion seeds
• 2 x Heaped tbsp of cumin seeds
• 1 x Tsp of corn flour
• 1 x Stock cube
• 1 x Tbsp ginger powder
• 1 x Tsp of sweetener or sugar
• Salt
• Pitta breads
• Optional garnish – fresh chilli and coriander

 

Directions

 

1. Peel and chop the carrots (about the same width as a pound coin, this way they cook quicker).
2. Place the carrots in a pan and squeeze all the juice from the orange over the carrots.
3. Push the carrots to one side of the pan. Now place the corn flour into the juice and mix it in until the flour dissolves. This will help thicken the juice.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients excluding the pitta bread and garnish into the pan.
5. Place the lid on the pan and allow to cook on a medium heat until the carrots are soft or al dente.
6. Toast the pitta bread and fill it with the carrot and chickpea mixture.
7. I added coriander and fresh chopped chilli to look good…but also popped them in the pitta’s for an extra boost of heat and flavour.

 

 

This is healthy, cheap, quick and tasty…you couldn’t ask for much more from a meal. Again like with all of my recipes…they are not concrete and you could do some experimenting yourself… add a different spice you like…try it with cous cous instead of pitta bread, have fun with your food. It’s all about being creative. If you do try any of my recipes I would love to hear from you and how it went. Happy flocking cooking people.

Birthday Beetroot Brownie Cake

Ingredients

Brownies

• 1/4 x A cup of apple sauce
• 2 x Tsp of vanilla essence
• 1/2 x A cup of vegan butter
• 1 and 1/2 x Tsp of baking powder
• 2 x Tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 x A cup of sugar
• 1/2 x A cup of sweetener
• 1 and 1/4 x Cups of plain flour
•  1/2 x Cup of cocoa powder
• 1/4 x Cup of soya milk
• 1 x Cup of beetroot puree
• Salt

Frosting

• 1 and 1/4 x Cups of powdered icing sugar
• 1 x Tbsp of vegan butter
• 1 x Tbsp of soya milk
• 2 x Tsp of vanilla essence
• 1 x Tsp yellow food colouring

 

Directions

1. Place all of the brownie ingredients into a blender and mix until a smooth batter has formed.
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
3. Pour the brownie mix into the baking tray and cook in a pre-heated oven at 200°c for 45 minutes. You can check it is cooked by placing a cocktail stick into the middle of the brownie. If when you pull it out there is no cake stuck to it…it is cooked.
4. Take the brownie out of the oven and allow to cool. Using a heart shaped cutter, cut 4 heart shapes.
5. Now to make the frosting, use an electric whisk to mix all the ingredients together.
6. Now spoon a layer of frosting onto a piece of the brownie and stack another brownie on top and repeat using all of the brownies. Voila…you got yourself a Birthday beetroot Brownie cake.

A beetroot treat I made for my fabulous friend Sophie’s 30th Birthday! Its very easy to make and can be whipped up in a few hours.

This is a little poem I wrote for Sophie’s Birthday…

I’ve known this Yorkshire lass for ages, her name is Sophie Grey….today is very special for her… It’s her 30th Birthday.

Hope your having a great day and are being treat like a king…hope you got loads of gifts, chocolates, booze and bling!!

Make sure you go out and rave, like in the past we did…Make sure you enjoy your day, you deserve it R kid!

 

The Vegan Foot-Long Sausage Roll

Ingredients

• 5 x Shallots
• 3 x Linda McCartney
• rosemary and red onion sausages
• 3 x Garlic cloves
• 1 x Stock cube
• 3 x Tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 x Tbsp of dried basil
• 1 x Tin of butter beans
• 8 x Sun blushed tomatoes
• 1 x Packet of just roll puff pastry (ready to roll)
• Oil from the sun blushed tomatoes

Directions

1. De-skin the shallots and roughly chop them. Place them in a frying pan with some oil from the sun blushed tomatoes. Cook on a medium heat.
2. Add finely chopped garlic, Linda McCartney sausages, a stock cube, tomato paste and the dried basil.
3. Allow to cook until the onions are brown and the sausages are soft. Don’t allow them to cook until crispy.
4. Now place the mixture along with the butter beans and sun blushed tomatoes into a large bowl and allow to cool.
5. Roughly blitz the mixture with a hand blender, but leave some of the mixture chunky for texture.
6. Now roll out the puff pastry onto baking paper. Place the butter bean and tomato mixture down the length of the pastry, leaving a couple of centimetres from one side. The filling should be the width of 2 sausages.
7. Now very carefully roll the pastry over on itself to make the sausage roll shape. Ensure the filling is well contained. Cut off the extra pastry.
8. Using your fingers push down the edges of the length of the pastry to seal the filling in.
9. Using a fork mark the edges of the pastry and score the top with a knife.
10. Glaze the sausage roll with plenty of oil from the sun blushed tomatoes.
11. Cook for 25 minutes at 200°c in a pre heated oven.

So there has been lots of hype over the famous Morrisons foot long sausage roll… As they are filled with meat, this makes them unsuitable for me to eat. So I figured I’m not missing out on the fun and made my own…but vegan. I think it would be great if Morrisons brought out a vegan version of the foot long sausage roll…Until then you will have to make your own using my tasty recipe 😁 Enjoy

Flower Burger…. and Bop

Makes 8 burgers

Ingredients

• 600g x Peeled and cubed sweet potato
• 250g x Pre-cooked whole grain rice (one packet of the precooked rice)
• 1 x Tin of chickpeas drained
• 4 oz x Coconut powder
• 8 oz x Walnuts
• 2 x Tbsp of liquid seasoning
• 1 x Tsp chilli powder
• 2 x Tbsp of brown mustard seeds
• 2 x Tbsp of cumin seeds
• 2 x Tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 x Tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 x Jar of sliced beetroot
• 1 x Handful of fresh and chopped coriander
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions

1. Place the peeled and cubed sweet potato into a microwavable bowl with a tbsp of water. Cook in the microwave for 8 to 10 minutes until the potato is cooked.
2. Place the coriander, cumin, fennel, and mustard seeds into a pan and toasts for a couple of minutes. Be sure to stir them regularly to avoid burning.
3. Once the sweet potato has cooked place the packet of rice in the microwave to cook. Follow the cooking method on the packet for exact times.
4. Whilst the rice is cooking, drain the chickpeas and cook the excess moisture off them in a pan. I cooked them for a couple of minutes.
5. Now place all of the ingredients (except the beetroot) in the bowl and use a hand blender to blitz the ingredients into a paste. Due to the ingredients being quite dry and starchy they bind together perfectly.
6. Now take a handful of the mixture and hand mould into a burger shape and then use a flower mould to cut the burgers into flower shapes.
7. Place the burgers on tin foil and grill them for 10/15 minutes. Turn them when they start to go golden brown.
8. Take a slice of beetroot and use a water bottle cap to cut perfect circles for the centre of the flower.
9. Serve the Flower Burgers on a bread bun, with salad or next to chips. We actually ate ours with salad and melted some cheese and sweet chilli sauce on ours which was very nice.

 

 

 

My friend Lisa is a feeder… it is impossible to leave her house without feeling stuffed. Prior to my visit to see them I said I will make some food for everyone…but bless her she could not go to the shop without buying 101 things to cater for a vegan guest. She messaged me a massive list of a wide variety of foods that she had bought and set me a challenge (like Ready Steady Cook) to cook something with the ingredients… Flower Burgers are what I created.

Now you are probably wondering why I called the burgers Flower Burger and Bop… It relates to the help I had in the kitchen at the time of preparation. My beautiful god daughter Emi (nickname Bop) helped with the stirring and eating of the ingredients as we were going along… So this is where I decided upon the name…. Flower Burger and Bop. It also quite nicely sounds like my blog name Flower Bird and Dock.

This is my little helper Bop…

 

 

These burgers got a thumbs up all around and tasted equally as impressive as they look. So why not impress your friends with these fancy flower burgers.

Pancake Well

Ingredients
For the pancakes:-

• 1 x Cup of plain flour
• 2 x Tbsp baking soda
• 1 x Tbsp sugar
• 1 and half x Cups of soya milk
• 2 x Tbsp coconut oil (melted)
• ½ x A cup of coconut powder
• 1 x banana (mashed)
• Salt

For the topping:-

• 1 x Punnet of raspberrys
• 2 x Bananas
• Golden syrup
• Alpro vanilla soya yogurt

Oil for the pan

Directions
1. Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix.
2. Add the other pancake ingredients to the bowl and whisk into a batter.
3. Heat a pan on a high heat, turn down to a medium heat when the pan gets hot.
4. Add oil to the pan and wipe away the excess.
5. Once the oil has heated add a ladle of the batter.
6. Allow to cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Until the top of the pancake starts to bubble and appear to be setting.
7. Then flip the pancake. Let it cook for about 30 seconds and then use a glass or a cookie cutter to cut a circle out of the centre of the pancake.
8. Cook the pancakes until golden brown on both sides and then stack them up on a plate.
9. In the centre of the pancakes place the raspberry and banana topping mixture or create one of your own.

 

 

Perfect weekend breakfast for sharing with your favourite people. We cut ours into quarters and there was plenty to go around…In fact we were all stuffed. My mum loves raspberrys and as it is her Birthday tomorrow, so this is why I chose them…but you can adapt these pancakes with flavours of your choice! Enjoy .

 

Homemade Beans

Ingredients

• 1 x Large diced onion
• 2 x Large garlic cloves
• 4 x Tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 x Tins of butter beans
• 1 x Tsp Cider vinegar
• 2 x Heaped tbsp sumac
• 1 x Heaped tsp of sugar or sweetener
• 1 x Tbsp of paprika
• The juice of half a lime
• Salt
• Half a chilli
• Fry light

Directions

1. In a large pan cook the diced onions in the Fry light spray, on a medium heat for around 5/10 minutes.
2. Add the minced garlic and chilli to the onions and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Now add the rest of the ingredients and cook for around 5 to 10 minutes.
4. If the mixture starts to dry you can add a little water and mix.
5. The beans can be served with a jacket potato on toast or with salad.

 

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A couple of months back Barry and I walked from St Bee’s to Robin hoods bay whilst doing the Coast to Coast. It was an incredible 2 week adventure, we climbed loads of mountains, met some interesting people and camped along the route. The only thing we had to worry about was where we were pitching our tent, getting lost and where our next meals was coming from. This is where the inspiration for this recipe came from…whilst on this amazing adventure I would often end up eating cold baked beans straight out of the tin for breakfast. So after eating Heinz for 2 weeks I decided to make my own version… homemade baked beans. Enjoy.

Pina Colada Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 x Tbsp of coconut oil
• 1 x Tbsp of icing sugar
• 4 x Tbsp coconut milk/cream
• 1 x Coconut
• 1 x Tin of pineapple rings or dried pineapple pieces
• 3/4 of a cup unsalted cashew nuts
• 1/2 a cup of desicated coconut
• 8 x Glaced cherries cut into tiny pieces

Directions

1. Remove the coconut flesh from the shell and peel off the fibre.
2. Grate the coconut and place in a bag and freeze over night.
3. Either buy ready dried pineapple pieces or if you have a dehydrator dry the pineapple. Making sure you cut the pineapple into small pieces. I dehydrated mine for 10 hours on 60 degrees.
4. Place all the ingredients excluding the cherries and pineapple into a blender. The mixture should be sticky enough to form into patty shapes. Then using a small biscuit cutter cut them into circles and flatten them to the thickness of cookies.
5. Now cut the cherries into small pieces and stick them into the cookies.
6. Add the pineapple pieces and dehydrate for 10 to 15 hours on 60 degrees. (This helps to keep the nutrients). If you don’t have a dehydrator you can freeze for a few hours. The texture will be less crunchy.

 

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I know not everyone has a dehydrator…but I would advise you to buy one…they are great for making healthy snacks. Although this is not so healthy…but tastes amazing. I made these pina colada inspired cookies as a part of my friend Kerry’s 30th Birthday present! I wanted to make her something original and Pina colada is my all time favourite cocktail so I thought why not have a cocktail cookie. Kestral is a friend that goes way back, we were best friends at school, but lost touch. However we have recently got back in contact and I am so glad. Kerry…AKA Kestral is a Pink obsessed princess who is hilarious and has always got your back haha.

Happy Birthday Kerry…I hope you enjoyed your cookies!!