Strawberry and Avocado Smoothies
What’s the difference between a milkshake and a smoothie?
When I was a kid, I would always accompany my mom when she went grocery shopping. One of my favorite bonding moments with her is when we would stop by for a ‘papaya shake’ or ‘buko (coconut) shake’ or ‘avocado shake’ before or after doing the groceries.
So I always thought of these drinks as ‘shakes’. Later, however, it became more chic to call them ‘smoothies’. But actually there IS a difference between them.
‘Shakes’ is short for milkshakes, which by definition – at least as far as I know – requires milk AND ice cream. Smoothies are made of yogurt, and fruit or vegetables. Ok… class over.
Just put the ingredients below in a blender and blitz up.
Ingredients:
500 grams fresh strawberries
2-3 tbsp condensed milk
1/2 cup crushed ice
Garnish with whole strawberries.
Ingredients:
2 avocados (spoon out the flesh and place directly in the blender)
2-3 tbsp condensed milk
1/2 cup crushed ice
Garnish with mint leaves.
Beef Stew with Red Wine
When I’m busy throughout the week, weekends tend to be my ‘make-up-for-the-rushed-meals’ cooking time. However, since we were out last Saturday and Sunday due to some family and friend invitations, I didn’t even get to do that last weekend.
Last Tuesday, however, was different. I woke up early after a fitful sleep and decided to take the day off. (Ah the pleasures of working from home!) I cleared out our freezer (oops, haven’t done that in a while) and threw things that have been there for ages. I then proceeded to concoct three different dishes. By the time hubby was awake, I even had the table laid out for a lazy Sunday Tuesday brunch.
The recipe below is one of the dishes I made. I usually make a stew for consumption a day later so this is what we had for dinner last night. I used a pressure cooker so cooking time was cut in half but you can of course opt to use a stew pot instead.
Ingredients:
1 kg beef stew meat
1 white onion
5 garlic cloves
3 carrots
1 red bell pepper
1 celery stalk
1 cup passata
1 bay leaf
1 rosemary sprig
butter and oil for frying
250 ml red wine
2 potatoes (cubed)
100 grams green peas
salt and pepper to taste
secret ingredient: green olive tapenade
Procedure:
- The first thing to do is sear the beef. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the beef. (I don’t cut up the beef into cubes at this point yet so it’s easier to flip on the pan.)
- Using a cast-iron pan, heat butter and oil and sear the beef on high. Set the beef aside.
- Cut the onion, garlic, one of the carrots, the celery, and bell pepper in big chunks.
- Heat some oil in the pressure cooker and quickly saute these ingredients.
- Add the beef and passata.
- Add the bay leaf.
- Remove the rosemary leaves from the sprig and add them to the stew.
- Add the red wine and let the stew simmer.
- Put on the lid of the pressure cooker and cook the beef for about 15 minutes.
- Take out the beef and puree the stew.
- Next, add 1 teaspoon of green olive tapenade!
- Cut the beef into chunks and add them back to the stew.
- Add the potatoes, the rest of the carrots and the green peas.
- Cook until the potatoes are tender and then plate up or serve the following day :)
Note: Passata is stewed or cooked tomato concentrate. Often, I buy about 5 kilos of tomatoes and make passata and then I just divide these and freeze, to use when I need them. For this recipe, you can substitute canned tomato puree.
Note: Pls. be sure you carefully let all the steam out before you open the pressure cooker.
I served this with brown rice (for me!) and wholewheat crusty bread (for hubby).
