Father's Day Feast

We wanted our blog to be more than just a look at our cards and whats inside our pencil case. With this in mind we decided to share every aspect of our life, from style to food. On Father's day we got together with our family and had the best posh picnic. Its really exciting for us to be sharing everything with you and this is our first of many foodie posts !

Being with all of our family is one of our favourite things and so on Father's day we all got together to enjoy the weather and eat al fresco! Here are some of our favourite picnic creations:

Mum's Best Potato Salad-

• New potatoes
• Lots of spring onions
• A generous helping of mayonaise

This is a really simple dish that we are sure you have made before but we wanted to share because its one of our favs! 

After washing and boiling the potatoes let them cool then toss them in mayonnaise and mix in with in with the spring onions - our secret is to leave on the skins off the potatoes !

Summer Time Fruit Salad - 

• Chopped mango
• Lots of grapes
• Halved strawberries 
• Raspberries
• Orange juice - or your favourite fruit in a carton!

The fruit salad is another simple dish but we added mango for a tropical twist! Cut all your fruit then put into a big serving bowl. Cover the fruit in orange juice and leave in the fridge to chill.

Perfectly Creamy Guacamole

• Avocado – we used 4
• Generous helping of mayonnaise
• 1 lemon

We absolutely love avocados and love how you can make the most wonderful, zesty guac with it! Now you can do this by using a food processor however we did not have access to one back at home so we went old school with it! We used our guacamole to dip our scrumptious vegan crisps in and it was totally fantastic!

 

• Peel and pip avocados and place onto chopping board
• With a knife cut down the avocados into chunks
• Using a masher, squish those avocados until they start to form a paste (5 minutes)
• Place into bowl and mix in mayonnaise and lemon
• Stir using a spatula and place into the fridge until ready to serve
• You can also add chili flakes and pepper for a nice kick!

Dad's Favourite Bloody Mary's-

• Vodka
• Tomato juice
• Tabasco sauce
• Worcestershire (Vegan friendly version)
• Lemon and lime wedges
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• Celery stick

This is our dad's most admired drink so we had to serve them at his picnic! Mix vodka and tomato juice. Its up to you how strong you want your drink so we will leave the vodka measurements up to you! Add a dab of Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze in some lemon and lime. Shake it all about, serve over ice and give it a swirl with your celery stick.

 

Refreshing Beet & Quinoa Salad

4 pickled beetroot
Tomatoes
A bunch of lettuce
A few handfuls of spinach
1 cup of Quinoa
Half a cucumber
1 lemon
A tin of chickpeas
Salt
Pepper
hot sauce

This fierce beetroot salad not only looks incredible but tastes perfect! If you’re looking for a salad that keeps you refreshed, happy and full then this is the one for you. It is perfect for a fancy lunch or a light summer’s dinner!

• Put 1 cup of quinoa in saucepan with 2 cups of water and let boil until fluffy (20 minutes)
• Drain and place chickpeas onto cooking tray and sprinkle with salt and pepper (you can also add lemon and hot sauce for a kick)
• Bake chickpeas until crispy on top – this could take from 15-30 minutes depending on how you like them!
• Place cooked quinoa in large salad bowl and mix with chopped beetroot until quinoa has nicely blended into beautiful pink fluff
• Chop your cucumber, lettuce, tomato and toss into the salad bowl
• Add you spinach in – Tip is to wash your spinach with lemon first as this is easier on the stomach to digest
• Squeeze your lemon juice into the mixing bowl and stir again adding salt and pepper too
• Once chickpeas are perfectly cooked, add into bowl and give it a good stir
• Leave in the fridge until ready to serve and enjoy!

  

Gluten & dairy free summer fairy cake -

Ingredients to make 2 cakes

• 1 ½ cup dairy free butter per cake
• 1 ½ cups replacement sugar per cake(add more if needed)
• 3 medium eggs per cake
• 1 ½ cups gluten free flour per cake
• 2 tsps. poppy seeds per cake
• 2 lemons per cake
• 1 orange (wax)
• lime (wax)
• 1 peach
• ½ - 1 cup of coconut milk per cake
• 2 tins of full fat coconut milk
• 2 handfuls of raspberries
• Tube of dried raspberries

We had so much fun making this glorious cake, its vibrant colours and tastes bounced off our eyes and taste buds! This is definitely one to try this summer if you want to impress the guests (or your stomach) !

The Cake

• Mix 1 ½ cups of sugar and butter in a bowl until fluffy
• Beat eggs in one at a time with a tablespoon of flour
• Mix in rest of flour
• Stir in coconut milk until your mixture is a thick paste consistency – you don’t want it too runny or too stodgy
• Add one teaspoon of poppy seeds and mix well
• Grease 2 cake tins ready for the mixture
• Carefully pour cake mix into cake tins
• Pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes – the cakes need to be beautifully golden brown and no sticky mixture should come out if you stick a small knife in there
• After your cakes are baked leave them to cool in their tins until they are easy to remove

 Lemon Icing

•  Poke holes in each of your cakes for the icing to seep through
• Mix together the juice of one lemon (one for each cake) and ½ cup of sugar until a nice thick paste has formed – add more sugar if it is too runny
• Pour the icing over each cake
• Let cakes rest until you are ready to add the filling – we left our over night

 Whipped Cream

• Place the cans of tinned coconut milk in the fridge overnight – a great tip is to place them in a large mixing bowl as the fridge will keep that nice and cold too!
• Once left overnight take your tinned cream and spoon out thick cream into the bowl (you can save the remaining coconut liquid to add to a curry or pasta sauce!)
• Carefully fold in your fresh raspberries
• Mix in ½ cup of sugar (you can add any other sweet flavouring too)
• Place whipped cream in fridge until you are ready to fill that cake with cream!

The Magical Topping

• Cut peach and decorate the top of the cake in whichever pattern you choose
• Grate the zest of an orange and lime and sprinkle on top
• Throw some dried raspberries over the top 
• Serve and enjoy!