Hey guys, how you been doing? First off, apologies for how quiet I’ve been on the blog lately – I’ve been majorly lacking in inspiration! Would you believe it if I told you I hadn’t baked since before Christmas? That’s crazy by my standards! I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a post holiday funk? Or maybe it’s just one of those things! Either way, hopefully I’ll get my mojo back soon or I might drive myself crazy! I have a few recipes in the figurative lock box still to post, but my lack of inspiration spreads to writing too! That might be more of a lack of motivation, it’s a dangerous spiral really – I need to bake to keep myself level headed and happy, when I stop that I lose motivation to do anything else! But I’m here today because a) I need to force myself back into things if I want any hope of returning to normal and b) I can’t miss Fiesta Friday now, can I?
I think we all find ourselves in funks like this every now and then, it’s part of life. People talk about writer’s block a lot, but you don’t hear much about other blocks – baker’s block, knitter’s block, painter’s bloc etc. They all exist, no matter how much you love doing something, sometimes you just can’t! What do you guys do when you find yourself in that situation? Any tricks you use to get yourself back in the game? Or do you find it’s just one of those things you have to let play out? So far I’ve just been letting it play out, but I think it’s gone on long enough now so I’m taking action! Starting with writing up the recipe for something yummy I’ve had in my list of recipes to share with y’all. Next up I’m going to be baking some things to photograph, recipes I’ve already posted but their photos are terrible so they need updating – that’s what I’m gonna be spending my Friday doing – I’ll be baking profiteroles. I’ll only have time for that one thing though, as I have to take the cat to the vet in the evening and then me and my mum are having some late Christmas drinks (aka an excuse to drink more wine than we should!) – but I think it’ll make a good start and hopefully that will give me the kick up the rear I need to get me in the kitchen properly again!
To get me back into the blogging side of things, I’m sharing a pretty easy recipe with you today. It’s nice and simple to put together, it’s super yummy and it’s good for you – that’s 3 pretty awesome boxes checked there! It’s also pretty customisable – I used raspberries because I had a nice supply of them in my freezer and chocolate and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations, but you could also use cherries or strawberries. I love, love, love my green smoothies – it took me a long time to convince myself to try them, but I’m so glad I did. They’re super yummy and they just make you feel healthy even when, like me, your diet really isn’t! I can’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables because of my TMJ so the green smoothie is a great way for me to get some of that goodness in my diet without cooking vegetables until they’re way too soft and lose most of their nutrients. This smoothie is a great one to start with if you’re still on the fence, it’s got plenty of sweetness and a deep cocoa flavour, you’ll forget there’s even spinach in it! My general rule for green smoothies is to have a 2:1 ratio of greens and fruit – so if I use 1 cup spinach I’ll have 2 cups of fruit (or 1 cup and a banana), that way you don’t have to worry about any bitter aftertastes ruining the smoothie for you. Nut milks are a great addition too to help counteract the bitterness, and the almond milk in this one is just a must, it really adds to that chocolatey flavour.
As a rule, I like at least one ingredient in my smoothie to be frozen to make the smoothie cold without any need for ice. I usually buy fruit when it’s on sale or discounted (buying fruit that’s been marked down at the end of it’s shelf life is great for this), then I divide it into portions and freeze in zip lock bags, that way I have handy portions of frozen fruit ready to go! I do the same with my greens too, 1 cup of packed greens per zip lock bag and I’m always ready to go when the smoothie need hits! Although I do like to keep fresh greens on hand when possible, so I don’t lose out on those nutrients.
