vitality and pudding

This weekend's favourite juice, with a recipe this time, just for you Lil!

Vitality juice

3 Bramley apples
3 small pears
1 large stick of celery
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
2 medium kiwi fruit


Chop all the fruit and juice together. Strain into a jug and serve with ice! So easy!

I got the recipe from this wonderful book, which I recommend for anyone who loves food, loves cooking and loves cook books:

It's absolutely bursting with fabulous ideas, and written with so much freshness and realism, but also enough element of fantasy to make me wish I was the type to make an extravgant breakfast in bed with champagne cocktails, or a yummy mummy with a perfect chrome kitchen in Clapham somewhere....(which I'm not!)

The night I got it, I made the Saucy Banana and Caramel Pudding - but adapted it for the marathon runner's diet :P

Here's my version:

Saucy Banana and Caramel Pudding

[sorry, I did try and take a photo but as delicious as it is, it is not a photogenic pudding]

125g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
100g brown sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed or pureed with a hand blender
1 large egg, beaten
150ml soy milk
100ml low fat vanilla yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 if you have a fan oven). Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Add the sugar, mashed banana, beaten egg, milk and yoghurt, and stir until well combined. Add a bit more milk if it's too thick, or a little more flour if it's too runny (it should be the consistency of a cake batter).

Coat a 1.5-2 litre ovenproof dish with cooking spray. Pour the batter in. Sprinkle the top of the batter with more brown sugar - so the entire surface is covered with a thin layer. Pour over the top (yes, really!) 250ml of boiling water from the kettle.

Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden and firm in the centre when slightly pressed.

Leave to cool for a few minutes, and then serve with a bit of vanilla icecream or thick yoghurt.

The top is a banana-cake like sponge, and the bottom is a river of caramel sauce.....so good!!

Serves 4-6. TS and I have had this for pudding for three nights! TS asked me to tell you all that he preferred the pudding tonight, two days after it was made, because the texture of the cake was nicer (an observation, not a criticism, he was quick to add!) So yes, apparently it improves on keeping.

Sorry, my Australian readers must hate me - all snow and hot sticky puddings that this blog has become of late ;P