Tag: Foodie

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Aldi’s Raw, Paleo and Protein Bars

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If you haven’t jumped on the Aldi bandwagon yet, what are you doing?! It’s cheap, easy to shop in and actually good quality. After moving flats I even go out of my way now to still shop there.

All they’ve been missing is a free from section – until now! They’ve trialled gluten free products a couple of times, but this week I noticed a more permenant looking section with spaghetti, coco pops, soups and the most exciting thing I noticed – raw, paleo, fruit and nut bars. They’re from the company called The Foodie Market who make a few other products for Aldi. I’m already a big fan of their chilli rice cakes which are also gluten free.

There are three flavours available – brazil nut and cherry, cashew and date and macadamia and coconut. All contain simply nuts, dried fruit and oil. High in fibre, vegetarian and gluten free. For 39p each!!! 39p. That’s it?!


They’re tasty, pretty filling, nothing groundbreaking they taste like most raw, paleo bars on the market. But, for 39p it puts them miles ahead in my books. The perfect snack.

Also on offer are protein bars for a whopping 49p. I got the berry flavour but they also sell a banana one. Containing 30g’s carbs and 20g’s protein per bar they’re a really tasty snack during the day or pre/post workout.

Just writing this has made me realise I need to go and stock up before everybody hears about these bars.

Good luck hunting them down! Fingers crossed they’re are here to stay.

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

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Homemade Pecan, Yoghurt and Cranberry Gluten Free Granola. 

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Let’s be honest, it’s not cheap to be a coeliac! Whether it’s bread, sauces or granola you’re going to be paying a little more than the average brands. I’ve had to put serious bans on myself before when it comes to buying granola, I eat it so quickly its just not friendly to my bank balance. So, recently I’ve been making my own. It’s really quick and easy and I find you get a lot more for your money!

The great thing about homemade granola is that you can pretty much use a combination of any ingredients you fancy. Whichever oats, seeds, nuts or dried fruit you’re loving at the moment, put them together using this method and you’re ready to go!

This is the recipe that’s my ‘go to’ at the moment – feel free to add or substitute any of the ingredients you want to.

– Ingredients –

150g whole almonds

60g whole pecans

100g sweet dried cranberries

100g oats

40g deassicated coconut

75g yoghurt drops or yoghurt coated fruit

2.5 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

4 tbsp honey

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– Method – 

Preheat your oven to 180ºc

Blitz your almonds and pecans in a food processor or by hands so that they’re broken up but not completely ground.

Combine the nuts, oats, deassicated coconut and just over half of your cranberries in a mixing bowl

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Place your coconut oil, honey and cinnamon together in a pan over a medium heat. Remove when completed melted – this wont take long you don’t need to bring to the boil at all.

Add your wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix together then lay out on a baking tray.

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Pop in the oven and bake. I cook mine for around 25 minutes, but check every 10 minutes or so to separate the mixture.

When golden brown, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Once cool add the rest of your cranberries and yoghurt drops.

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Then eat! Top yoghurt with your granola, eat with milk like a cereal or take to work as a snack.

Pick all your favourite parts of ‘off the shelf’ granola and throw together in one pot to enjoy for a fraction of the price!

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx

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Bottomless Brunch with my Hen – Avenue, London.

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My beautiful big sister got married on the 18th June 2016. But, before I go into all the exciting details about that, let me take you back to the beginning of June when I was in charge – the hen party!

As head bridesmaid, it fell on me to organise a wonderful send off for my sister. Food, prosecco and dancing was my main theme and this was to be repeated throughout the day. The idea was to start where every Saturday should begin, at brunch, and drink prosecco in the best way, the bottomless way. I decided on London, the brunch centre of the UK, and started researching where to go!

After looking through google and timeout suggestions I narrowed my choices to Bad Egg, Bourne and Hollingsworth Buildings and Avenue. They all looked lovely and seemed to provide what I was looking for however, following recommendations from friends living in London and TripAdvisor reviews I finally decided on the latter. The general consensus was that Avenue are extremely attentive and you totally get your money’s worth – which when it comes to prosecco is very important.

Groups of 8 and under are booked online, if any bigger you can call and reserve your table there. No payments are taken in advance they just require credit card details as a deposit if the party doesn’t turn up.

The brunch menu offers 2 courses for  £23.50 or 3 for £26.00 you then add on bottomless prosecco for £15 per person. Honestly, it really is bottomless. Your table is booked for 2 hours and at no point in that time was my glass empty! The staff were all great and brilliantly attentive. I only had to take a couple of sips and there would be a nice man leaning over my right shoulder to top up my glass!

Now to the food! The brunch menu is a sort of American style lunch affair, varying between smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, pancakes and buttermilk chicken burgers. Of course, not everything is gluten free friendly but I felt happy with my selection. They can substitute any of the bread/toast for gluten free replacements. Unfortunately all granola, waffles, pancakes and burgers were off limits.

I chose two courses and started with eggs royale. The gluten free bread is by no means groundbreaking but it was a good portion and the hollandaise sauce was really tasty. Every brunch should have a pudding so my second course was mint ice cream with hot chocolate fudge…delicious.

We booked for 13:15, it was extremely busy already by then so I would definitely recommend booking first. Despite the tables of excited hen parties and group after group of girls with cocktails and prosecco, we still felt the waiters looked after us really well and were at no point left trying to catch their eye for service.

For us it was the perfect way to start the weekend. I have to confess my planning got rather lax onwards from this and we ran late for everything else! Don’t expect to have a productive afternoon after you fall out of a bottomless brunch! Find Avenue on St James’s Street round the corner from Green Park and Piccadilly tube stations. Grab your best girlfriends and guys and book a table! I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon – can you?

Forever, The Awkward Dinner Guest

xx