Last Autumn I made loads of and loads of blackberry jam from frozen blackberries I picked at the end of the summer.

I still had a random amount of leftover blackberries that I've been steadily using up in pies and crumbles throughout the winter. Now that it's getting warmer though I don't really fancy heavy, stodgy puddings and want something lighter and fresher. 

So I've been trying to think of something to make that would use up the rest of the frozen blackberries and clear some much needed space in my freezer. 

Blackberry frozen yoghurt seemed like the perfect solution. Not too much making involved and relatively kind on the waistline. 

I've never made something like this before and all the recipes seemed to need an ice cream maker (which I don't have).

I eventually found this recipe but I didn't like the idea of whole pieces of fruit and lots of seeds in the mixture. So I've adapted it to suit myself and what I happened to have to hand.I think the result turned out brilliantly!

Ingredients

350g blackberries (can be fresh or frozen)

100g caster sugar

300g full fat greek yoghurt

100ml semi skimmed milk 

50g runny honey

Method

1. If you are using frozen blackberries remove them from the freezer to defrost for an hour or two.

2. Once defrosted mix with the caster sugar and leave for about 20-30 min to macerate. 

3. When the fruit has begun to break down mash up with a fork to release the juices.

4. Combine the milk, honey and yoghurt and mix gently with a whisk to remove any lumps.

5. Pour the sugar and berry mixture into a sieve suspended over the yoghurt mixture. Use the back of a spoon to press as much juice as you can from the fruit. 

6. Combine the fruit juice and the yoghurt mixture using the whisk and discard the blackberry pulp.Taste the mixture and add a little more honey if it is too tart for you.

7. Pour into a freezable container and place in the freezer.

8. After two hours remove from the freezer and stir. Return to the freezer and leave overnight. 

9. Remove from the freezer ten minutes before serving to allow it to soften slightly. 

10. Serve in waffle ice cream cones with a little extra drizzle of honey. 

This is honestly one of the easiest things I've ever made and it tastes amazingly fresh and light. 

Trip to Mangoes for Cordelias birthday

A massive happy birthday to my flatmate Cordelia! Feel like I'm posting about birthdays a lot but apparently all my friends have theirs close together.

She started her birthday in style with a trip to Sobar which was great fun. Sobar if you could play good music like that all the time I would go every week like I used to. I had to leave earlier than I would have liked as I had a massive load of work and errands to do the following day. 

We started the day off with everyone nursing hangovers and blowing out the candles on the delicious carrot cake baked by my flatmate Nicola. Then after a frantic day of scurrying around getting stuff done we went for a lovely trip to the Thai restaurant mangoes. 

Despite living just down the road from this little place for over two years I had never managed to actually go, even though many people have recommended it to me.  I think I've always been a bit put off by how busy it is (always a good sign with a restaurant) and felt like I would never get a table. 

The decor is lovely and I like the cosy intimate feel of the place. It's actually much bigger than I had realised as it has an upstairs and substantial area behind the restaurant you can see from the street. 

The food was sublime and I had deep fried beef. Enjoyed every bite! I hope to go back in the new year, I feel like it would make a really fun date night. 

Field Trip to Tenerife

Me with Mt Teide in the background

Now without wanting to point the finger this trip is the main reason why I have fallen behind with this blog. I am not the biggest fan of field trips, I'm going to be honest and say I hate them. But this one was such a great fun (if we ignore the actual work, soz but rocks are boring). I went out to eat almost every night with my friends, we went in the freezing cold pool and all got ridiculously merry on the final night.

Then theres the island itself. Having never been to Tenerife before I had no idea what to expect but it is spectacular. You don't have to be a geologist to appreciate it but having an understanding of what is going on makes it all the more incredible.

The pictures speak for themselves so take a peak if you want to know what I got up to. The altitude sickness was shit but was worth it to go to the top of Mount Teide!

La Tarte- ash fall deposits

Scoria Cone 2500m up!

Something my friends found funny...

Me with the Geology Girls on top of Mount Teide 3500m up! Love these girls. Sirens forever.

11 Actual Student Meals

I don’t know about the rest of you students out there but I have never made any of the meals out of this book. Not because the food doesn’t look yummy but because I do not have time to make a smoothie. Ever. Also cleaning the blender is such a boring task.

So I have compiled a list of actual student meals that can all be made in under 10 minutes, cost next to nothing and have little to no washing up. They will make your Mum want to force feed you veggies but if you are at uni this is what your diet is likely to look like, at least at some point.

Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like cooking and I can definitely create more elaborate meals than these. In fact most of the time I cook like a proper adult. But sometimes a girl just can’t be bothered so its essential to have a few emergency ideas up your culinary sleeve. I bet even Nigella Lawson has eaten a few of these bad boys in her time. All these carb filled meals will probably make you fat but hey, they’ll make you happy. 

      1.. Baked potato. This is the absolute student classic and can be jazzed up with all sorts of toppings. My personal fav is lots of butter and cheese. Grab a potato, stab it to death with a fork and microwave the living daylights out of it for like 10min. If you fancy being more Nigella like (and you can actually bear to wait for your food) then microwave it for like 7min and then chuck it in the oven for another 10 min so it goes all crispy and yummy. Rub a little sea salt into the skin beforehand for extra crispiness. No washing up either. 

2.       2. Uncle Bens rice and Blue Dragon individual sauce packets. This is a great standby meal and can be made in 2 minutes in the microwave. Add into it whatever the hell you like or be lazy like me and eat it as it is. Up to you. Also involves no washing up so it just gets better and better. 

3.       3. Pasta and something. Bulk buy yourself a big bag of pasta, bonus points if you can get your parents to buy this before term starts. Boil the kettle and pour it over your pasta rather than boiling a sauce pan of water, life is too short for that shit. When the pasta is cooked add to it whatever ingredients you happen to have lying around. Personal favourites are pesto, cream cheese, mayo and ketchup. All of these will make this into a perfectly edible meal that can be whipped up in a few minutes. Only 1 pan to wash up. 

4    4. Toasted sandwich. Grab some bread, butter it and slap cheese in it. Chuck it in the sandwich maker/George Foreman/under the grill. Voila, dinner is served. No washing up because let’s be honest you’re not going to clean whatever implement you used to cook this. You’ll leave it for your flatmate to deal with later.

5.       5. Toast. Similar to above but as far as I’m concerned toast can be eaten wherever, whenever. Slather it in something delicious such as honey, jam or chocolate spread. Eating it with crisps is optional. Zero washing up with this one because only mad people clean their toaster all the time.

6.        

       6. Soup. Warm and soothing this is ideal for when you’re freezing your ass off cos you can’t afford to turn the heating on. Be daring and add toast to this for extra carby happiness. Again no washing up, just microwave it and chuck the can you bought it in the bin. Unless you were actually pro enough to make your own soup. In which case, hats off to you but also you probably don’t need to be reading this list as you are clearly a competent human being.

7.       8. Lazy spag bol. Same as the pasta mentioned but buy yourself a few of those Dolmio pasta sauce things for one. Make the pasta, microwave the packet and then pour it into the pan with the pasta. If you can be bothered add extra veggies and cook some mince but Dolmio actually does a Bolognaise sauce version so I would advise purchasing that out of sheer laziness.  Another great emergency meal that can sit happily in your cupboard until needed. Only 1 pan to wash if you follow the recommended lazy instructions.

8    9. Pot noodle. Personally I hate these things but I have been at uni long enough to know they have fed many a hungry student. Buy it and follow the instructions. No washing up just chuck the pot in the bin. Or don’t cos you’re a student and having mould filled things in your room is just what happens.

9.      
      10. Bacon sandwich. Your fridge should never not contain bacon. This is a miracle hangover cure and great for mornings when you don’t have early lectures as a treat. Spend another £1 and treat yourself to Smoky streaky bacon and fry til crispy. Make some toast (yay more toast) and cover in ketchup. Just the one pan to wash. Plus you get to make all your flatmates jealous with the glorious bacon smell.

1    11. Tea and biscuits: Don’t care what anyone says if you can’t be bothered to cook then this can constitute a meal (depending on how many biscuits you eat, obvs). Zero washing up because the washing up fairies clean all cups left lying around the house. Also tea is just tummy warming happiness so that makes this acceptable. 

 

10 things that have made me happy this week

I'm hoping that this will become a regular thing on my blog and to celebrate its one week birthday here is my very first attempt at this.

1. I had an hour long Skype session with my friend Imogen who is currently being chic and sophisticated living it up in Paris visiting the Eiffel Tower and checking out the incredible local coffee (and lingerie!) shops. I haven't spoken to her for a while and it was so lovely to catch up as I've really miss her. She also has her own blog so you can follow her adventures here. 

2. My Mummy finally came home after a stressful visit to Crete to try and sort out my Grandads affairs as he sadly passed away recently. He moved to Crete just over 6 years ago and unfortunately we didn't get to see him much after that. I'm still really sad whenever I think about the fact I can never talk to him again. But anyway I was really happy to see my Mum and we've had birthday celebrations (Chinese takeaway) as it the big day happened while she was away in Crete. Glad you're home Mum!

3. Finally got my act together this week and went and got my bus pass. Got stung £265 for it but this now means I can hop around Southampton to my hearts content. The freedom (and less walking) is bliss.

4. In my first year my four bestest girl friends who do Geology with me used to have regular pizza nights where we would stuff ourselves, watch a film and gossip. Somehow this got put on hold last year which was probably to do with us being all spread out around the city but we had such a great time this week. We ordered £60 worth of Dominos (only paid £30 for it WIN) and devoured it within about 10 minutes. The film chosen was This Means War and we all agreed we would have gone for Tom Hardy. Would just like to take a moment to say I love these girls so much and the past 2 years would have been shit without them. And we need more Pizza nights!

5. My boyfriend and I have been planning a really nice date with an elaborate dinner this week. Anything that involves dressing up and eating scrummy food is a sure fire way to make me happy. 

6. This chocolate spread from Waitrose. Its so delicious and I daren't even look at how many calories it has but it's so chocolately and perfect. Go buy some. But don't forget to hide it from your flatmates.

7. It has literally not stopped raining in Southampton over the last week and we've also had some rather scary thunderstorms. Lying in bed, listening to the rain while I'm snuggly and warm is absolute heaven.

8. My new Avon Glimmersticks. My Mum bought me one of these last year and I instantly fell in love with it. I wore it almost everyday and it recently ran out. I don't think I've ever worn an eyeliner so much before that I actually used it all up. As they were in the sale I got three of them in different wearable colours. They go on so smoothly, stay put all day and are great for subtly enhancing your eyes without looking too 'done up'.

9. The only good thing about this incessant raining (going to start working on my arc soon) is that its a great excuse to wear my favorite boots everywhere. These were a birthday present from my Grandma and I love how comfy they are. Now that they are a few years old they are fabulously distressed and look incredible. 

10. Relaxing in my new room at uni with candles burning, music playing and a hot chocolate by my side. That makes it pretty hard not to be happy.