:: humpday special! smoked salmon quiche ::

I'm sorry I didn't post anything last Wednesday, if you noticed. I've had a full-on weekend with our housewarming shin-dig held on Saturday night, and I'm still getting the chip crumbs out of the carpet now. But it was a fantastic night, made best by my mother-in-law's super huge black forest cake. I was sad not to get a photo of it, but I only thought of it after I had my fingers planted in the icing as I attempted to cut the soft work of art into 20 pieces and figure out if I had enough plates.

This humpday absolutely revolved around my lunch time, as I had scored the last leftover piece of this AMAZING smoked salmon quiche. Hands-down the best thing that's come out of my oven for a while. I swear I spent the whole morning dreaming of it.

Hence, today's post is the recipe, and I hope you get to give it a go! I found it somewhere online but edited it enough that I don't think I'll bother posting the link.

~ Han's Smoked Salmon Quiche ~

1 batch of short crust pastry (see below if you need a recipe)

bunch of fresh spinach (4-6 leaves, chopped, de-stalked)

250g smoked salmon (that thinly sliced stuff)

4 eggs

300mls cream

10 leaves basil

salt & pepper

mozzerella cheese for on top

Method:

Beat together eggs, cream, salt and pepper in a bowl.

 Roll out your pastry between two floured pieces of glad-wrap and press into your quiche dish. There's no need to blind-bake. Yay!

Lay half of the salmon in the bottom of the dish, on top of the raw pastry. 

Chop basil roughly and scatter over the salmon, along with half the spinach.

Pour over 1/3 of the cream mixture.

Then the rest of the salmon, the remaining spinach, and all of the remaining cream mixture.

Scatter mozzerella cheese on last, cover the dish in foil and bake for 30mins on a low shelf in the oven.

Remove the foil, and bake for a further 30 mins so the cheese browns.

Serve warm or cold. De-lish!!

Short Crust Pastry

200g plain wholemeal flour

100g butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1/4 teas salt

50 - 60g water, chilled.

Place flour, butter and salt in food processor and wizz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Set it to a slightly slower setting and gradually pour the chilled water in until the mixture comes together in a ball of dough. Wrap in glad wrap and let sit in the fridge for 15 mins while you make the rest of the recipe.

I'd also like to to give a shout-out to Katie's (from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog) healthy icecream recipe!!! It was sugar free, based on bananas (yet not bananary) and SO FIRM!!! And just amazing.

See the recipe here.

Till next time!

xo Hannah

humpday delights :: sticky treats ::

Now that a food processor is back in my life, there are just so many more little pleasures to invent.

Like these Thin Mint Brownies by one of my favourite blogging ladies,

Chocolate Covered Katie.

{below} Katie's verson

{below} my version

hmmm... not quite as appetising looking, but nevertheless, addictive.

Katie likes people to go back to her website for the recipe, so I won't go into detail here. But what you will need is:

1} food processor (or magic bullet, actually, what is that? people keep japping about them).

2} walnuts

3} dried dates (try to buy softish ones, these were a wee bit hard)

4} cocoa powder (I used raw cacao powder)

5} vanilla

6} peppermint essence (I actually didn't have any, so mine aren't really mint brownies lol)

7} honey. I added this because I felt it needed to be a bit wetter to stick together

The dark chocolate below is just for eating. i'm serious. I tried putting squares into the food processor for a bit of extra zing, but it was way too hard and just bashed around in there so I had to take it out. And eat it. Whittakers is so amazing!! Katie put choc chips in hers. I found they were super yum without them though. But if you wanted to, I'd stir them in at the end next time.

I added one nice big tablespoon of honey after completing the recipe after noticing it didn't 'pinch' together that well.

It's also fun 'pinching' it in your mouth as you go.

Finally, I greased a mini muffin tray I had, and pressed the chocolate goo into the moulds and chill.

Looking at them in the photos, they almost look huge, but they are tiny. About the size of rum balls. My muffin tin makes about 24, and I just rolled the extra mixture into balls with my hands.

pop them out, and into your mouth



and the chocolate continues...

I'm sorry but if you're wanting something "choc" full of calories, today's post is not it.

dark chocolate brownie batter dip

.. but good for you!


I have recently discovered chocolatecoveredkatie.com who is a MARVEL at whipping up healthy foodies that totally look banned.


This one is made from

CHICKPEAS!

The link to her recipe is here.

It was pretty easy to follow.. she uses "garbanzo beans" but chickpeas are the same thing. I bought a 99c can of them, drained, and rinsed very well, then chucked it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients. I used coconut nut for the milk, and melted coconut oil as a substitute for the nut butter.

It worked really well, though it would have been just that bit smoother if I had a food processor.. which is certainly on the list! The things you can do with those are endless...

It's super for eating straight or eating on carb-free pancakes!



These are made from tapioca flour or starch (also known as arrowroot), along with coconut milk and an egg. I think I put in some stevia too. And topped it with chocolate mousse. Yes, I know it looks like poo. It really does. But I promise you it tastes better.
Get that glob over here. Let me know if you try it!