Thermomix Berries and Cherries Smoothie Recipe

I made this smoothie a couple of weeks ago when the sun was shining non stop here in the West Midlands, unfortunately this last week it's been rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine.

Redcurrants from my garden, a mixture of cherries and blueberries from the freezer and the last orange from the fruit bowl all make a delicious and refreshing smoothie.

New In My Kitchen The Thermomix TM5

Over the years I've juiced and whizzed fruit with varying successes and if you, like me, love gadgets then you too no doubt will have worked your way through a plethora of gadgetry. I've now sent the juicer to the charity shop, it has sat unused in the cupboard for ages, mainly because I feel that we should be eating the fibrous stuff the juicer spews out and not throwing it away. I bought my juicer many years ago and it was only used at weekends - I've enjoyed every single drink we made but not enjoyed cleaning five separate parts, or the dreaded filter which hubby was employed to scrupulously clean.

I've been blending drinks too over the years but my new kitchen toy really does make fast work of the task. Those pesky redcurrant seeds will take a little longer to blitz and I found adding another 30 seconds to the blend time did the trick. So in 'Thermie talk' here's the method: Chop 5 Sec/Speed 5 - Blend 1 Min/Speed 10 - Add more water if necessary Blend 20 Sec/Speed 3.

In my freezer there always seems to be frozen fruit coated in ice that I haven't used up quickly enough and these are perfect to use and saves adding too many ice cubes.

My drink is made from frozen blackcurrants and redcurrants (from my garden), a peeled orange (chopped), 1 x quartered apple (Braeburn always taste lovely) and a little water to loosen the mixture and thin down the drink.

I struggle with green smoothies and drinks and to date they aren't on my agenda for blitzing and I can't comment on these, but I've used a variety of fruits over the past few weeks and find that adding an orange to lots of blended drinks makes a huge difference to the flavour.

I'm definitely not going to wax lyrical about how living off fruit drinks and smoothies will change my life in 2016 - I try to blend a few times a week, when I fancy a refreshing drink or need to use up the last of the fruit bowl.

Well, I'm loving my new present from hubby and whizzing up things in seconds, come on what's not to love!

Pop over to my Pinterest Board for amazing drinks, smoothies and juices.

Back soon.

Strawberry Cake - Recipe

                                              Fantasy Cake - a recipe by Lisa Faulkner

I've been away from home this week and have indulged in some fabulous food, especially my treat of the week, which was an evening meal at Le Caprice. As regular readers know I love coffee, and I've had more than a few expertly made cups this week but the best was definitely at Le Caprice.

I made this cake a couple of weeks ago and have to say my strawberries have been amazing this year, I can't believe how many strawberries you can get off two rows. I've made a few strawberry cakes this year from them and these are now my favourite summer cakes, they're fabulous, especially if you serve them with cream.

I came across this recipe whilst browsing through some cookery books in the library, a quick search on the web and everyone agreed this cake is one of the best strawberry cakes ever.

The recipe can be found on the Waitrose website and they have a video on You Tube showing the cake being made -  I'd recommend using the method shown on the video and not the one on the website. My only comment regarding the recipe is the amount of strawberries used which is 400g, I used less and it was absolutely fine.

The cake keeps really well covered in cling wrap and stored in the fridge.

Make it before all the fresh strawberries disappear!


                                                       VIMTO SQUEEZY - REVIEW

I was delighted to be sent Vimto Original, Cherry and Strawberry to try, the weather has been hot and the timing was perfect.

The Vimto Squeezy is lighter than a cordial in taste, I'm not always very keen on cordials, some taste like boiled sweets - perhaps it's just me who thinks this, but these are excellent and definitely don't taste like boiled sweets!

These mini bottles are easily transportable to flavour bottles of water whilst you are out and about. Handily they will also fit into my handbag and take up no space at all.

The squeezy bottles come in a small 50ml bottle and are sugar free.  To flavour a 500ml bottle of water simply squirt in one teaspoon of Vimto.  There are approximately 25 servings in a bottle and at a RRP of just £2.49 they are very good value.  Available from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Co-op Stores.

Disclaimer:  I was sent the products for review, all thoughts are my own.