Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

"Chocolate and beetroot? Crazy!"

That's basically what I thought when I first heard of this recipe a few years ago, but I've seen lots of other food bloggers and tv chefs making this cake, as well as one show doing a test to see who could guess which cake had the beetroot in it to which most got it wrong! I decided I had to do it and in fact last summer grew some beets in our veggie patch with this recipe in mind!

I have to admit I'm not a fan of beetroot as my memories of tasting beetroot was the pickled variety and I've since discovered I'm not a fan of most pickled things. Trying this recipe forced me to try some unpickled beetroot and while I discovered I'm not a fan of it on it's own, it's awesome in chocolate cake!!!!!

I took this cake to my youth group for a test and they loved it! Gurned their noses up when they discovered there was beetroot in it but some went back for seconds anyways!



Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
(Sourced from Nigella's Website)

Serves 8-12
Ingredients
175g Plain Flour
10g Baking Powder
75g Cocoa Powder
225g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
225g Raw, roasted, peeled and finely blended beetroot.
200ml Corn Oil

For the Chocolate ganache:
250g Dark Chocolate
250ml Double Cream

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C and grease a 9" baking tin.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar).
3. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the corn oil and blended beetroot.
4. Bake for 40 minutes.
5. Gently melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once melted stir in the cream until the ganache is smooth.
6. Once the cake has cooled, top with the ganache.
7. EAT!

Marmalade Chicken

Sorry!!!!!! I've been such a bad blogger lately but life has just been mental and though I would have had time to blog it would have burned me out so I apologise for not being around much lately - and haven't visited other blogs either so I've that to catch up on too!

I'm getting back into the swing of things with a great quick simple dinner - marmalade chicken. A one dish dinner which everyone will love (except my weird husband lol).



Marmalade Chicken
Source: Tesco Magazine (can't remember the issue)
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 medium sized white potatoes
3 shallots, peeled and cut into 6ths
1 red pepper (I used a mixture of peppers), sliced into strips
2 chicken breasts
4 tbsp marmalade

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 175˚C
2. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1.5cm cubes. Spread evenly over the base of a baking dish and spray with oil.
3. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
4. Spread the shallots and peppers over the top of the potatoes and spray with oil.
5. Place the chicken breasts on top and place back in the oven for 15 minutes
6. Glaze the chicken with the marmalade and return to the oven for a final 10 minutes.

Voila! Delicious chicken dinner!!!!

Pork and Mango Stir Fry

My hubby, Rob, is working in Liverpool these days which means there are loads more options for me for dinner. I threw this together for myself and absolutely loved it!



Pork and Mango Stir Fry

Serves 1

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
150g pork pieces
2-3 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
pinch of dried chili flakes
handful of mixed vegetables (I used broccoli, red pepper, onion and peas)
2 rings of fresh pineapple chopped up
Add to wok noodles for one.

Recipe
1. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and add the pork. Stir fry until cooked through (about 5 minutes)
2. Add the mango chutney, oyster sauce, soy sauce and chili flakes and stir through. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the vegetables and pineapple and cook for 3-5 minutes.
4. Stir in the noodles and cook for 1 minute and serve.

Crash Hot Potatoes

On last week's bookmarked recipe round up Teresa from I'm running to eat submitted crash hot potatoes which I couldn't help but make straight away.

They were simple and delicious. Great texture to them too. I'll be making these again.

I added a sprinkling of paprika to my verison but pretty much stayed with the Pioneer Woman's original recipe



Crash Hot Potatoes

Ingredients
Baby potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Thyme

Recipe
1. Boil the potatoes for about 15-20 mins
2. Oil an oven tray and spread potatoes on top.
3. Crush each potato slightly with a masher.
4. Drizzle a little more oil over the top of the tatties.
5. Sprinkle on salt, pepper, paprika and thyme
6. Roast in the oven at about 180˚C for 25-30 mins.

Leeking Mushrooms

Over the past week I decided to make a little change to my diet. I do eat fruit and veg, and I love to eat fruit and veg but I don't eat enough of it. So I've been increasing the vegetable content in my meals, eating a little less meat and also trying to bring fruit and veg into my diet that I've never really had much of before.

When I saw this recipe on Dharm's blog it was around the same time as I made this decision and seemed like a great way to get more leeks into my diet and also a great recipe for my food blog event: Bookmarked Recipes.

Thanks Dharm for some tasty mushrooms!!! I loved the mix of the leeks and mushrooms and the herbs, really tasty. I'll definitely be making this again!