Terry’s who? Grandpa’s four ingredient chocolate orange balls

chocolate orange energy balls

When I was a little girl, my Grandpa used to have a magical orange tree. All year long it would stand in his lounge producing little tiny oranges which were never bigger than a golf ball. But amazingly once they fell off the tree (so the story goes) they would turn into Terry’s chocolate oranges, packaging and all. Of course we never ACTUALLY saw this happen and my brother, cousins and I always took Grandpa’s word for it.
Even after the truth came out, the tree still continued to produce its ‘fruit’ on birthdays and other special occasions. At the end of last year Mr H and I bought a house together and shortly after moving in a little orange tree turned up on our doorstep, a housewarming present from who else but my darling Grandpa.

But my chocolate orange tree is a little different you see. Mine is like chocolate orange tree 2.0; it produces four ingredient chocolate orange energy balls. Ok so it doesn’t, but I do use the zest of its little fruit to make them. Here’s how;

Makes around 10 small balls

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dates
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 4 tbsp cacao powder
  • zest of 1/2 an orange

In a food processor, first blend the cashews until they are all chopped up super small. Then add the dates, cacao and orange zest and blend until all the ingredients are mixed together nicely. Then shape the mixture into small balls and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. Magic!

Love, Mrs H xx

Quasi goreng (that’s quinoa nasi goreng, obvs) 

 

There’s a lovely little Singaporean restaurant in North West London that my family have been going to for years. My grandpa used to love it (he spent his war years in that part of the world) and always amused the waitresses with his vast vocabulary of Indonesian and Malay swear words. Or at least they used to laugh politely. He would order the nasi goreng without fail each time – it was such a big portion he could never finish it, so (being the Jewish mother he always claimed to be) he always told us we hadn’t eaten enough and made us help him out. I don’t think I’ve ever left that restaurant feeling anything left than stuffed. Continue reading

I quinoa believe it! Four ingredient chocolate peanut butter truffles 


 Most people we know LOVE chocolate. And peanut butter. But quinoa? We’re not even sure half our friends know how to pronounce it, let alone how to use it in their cooking. So we whipped up these incredible little truffles and served them as petit fours at a dinner party this week, but we kept shtum about our secret ingredient until after the fact. The verdict? They received rave reviews – they aren’t at all heavy or sickly like other truffles can be, and the quinoa gives them a lovely little crunch. They are packed with protein (so a much healthier kind of truffle) plus they are so easy (and inexpensive) to make. Our friends are totally converted. We hope you will be too!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp cacao powder (plus a little extra for dusting)
  • 4 tbsp peanut butter

Cook the quinoa by boiling it in water for around 12 minutes. Drain off the excess water and pop it in the fridge to cool for an hour. Once the quinoa has cooled, in a bowl combine it with the maple syrup, cacao and peanut butter. Shape the mixture into balls and dust with cacao. Store in the fridge.

Love, Mrs H xx



   

Slow cooker Mexican three bean chilli

 

 

OHMAGAWD. I have no kitchen.  PANIC. That’s me when I was told that in order to have a lovely sparkly new kitchen fitted, it would mean living sans kitchen for a month.  Originally I hadn’t given it much thought; ‘June will be warm, we can just eat salads’, I told myself (and a very unhappy looking Mr H). Well it turns out that you just can’t make those sort of assumptions in the UK, as I sit here now huddled in my dressing gown, listening to the wind and rain outside. Continue reading

Indian inspired creamy chai latte 


When Mr H and I set off on a magical tour of India two years ago, we had no idea how much of an assault on the senses (in a good way!) it would be. Everywhere we went we were wowed by the noise, the colours and the smells, but above all, the tastes.

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Throw away the ‘smack’ bars – my hunger-busting apple pie granola bars


The scene is set – it’s 11am in a busy office, you’re trying to press on with your to do list, but your concentration is waning and your colleagues are not enjoying the awkward soundtrack provided by your rumbling tummy.
You just need a quick fix. Anything will do. One of said colleagues offers you a Nutrigrain or a Special K bar. That’s healthy right? You readily accept and scuttle back to your desk.

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Four ingredient peanut butter balls

On a recent trip to LA, Mr H and I were blown away by how much our lovely friends across the pond seem to adore peanut butter. Talk about a ‘special relationship’, pretty much every candy bar in existence over there counts our beloved PB among it’s ingredients. Now of course most of these are also filled with all sorts of unpronounceable nasties, so we steered clear of them, but we wholeheartedly indulged in the healthy alternatives we found. Continue reading

Vegetable korma

Korma blimey. If you’re on the hunt for a delicious vegan curry jam-packed full of yummy vegetables with a good spicy kick to it then this, my friends, is the recipe for you.

Not only is this one full of incredible flavours, it’s also super comforting and a good way to get in all of your five a day (and then some)! It’s so easy to make and makes a big old batch, so perfect if you want to make it for all the family or freeze some for another day!

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Staying healthy at weddings – survival tips

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Before we start let us throw a caveat into the mix – D&H LOVE weddings. We can’t think of anywhere we’d rather be than surrounded by people who are bursting with elation and enjoying that moment so much, it’s just magical. Like Disneyland for adults. On crack. Which is good, because Mr H and I have a lot of recently betrothed friends, and at the moment hardly a month goes by without a delicate pearly-white invitation fluttering in through the letterbox. Continue reading

Hey pesto! My magical four ingredient sauce


We’re sure you know us by now – we love a simple recipe. If it’s healthy, cheap and quick then it’s a winner in our books. We also love pesto. So these two loves led us to create a super easy, inexpensive (and vegan) pesto recipe that we just can’t get enough of. Continue reading