Raspberry, Banana, Honey & Oat Smoothie

www.shropshirebreakfast.co.uk

Like many people I find it a bit of a struggle to eat healthily at this time of the year. It's made worse as I'm constantly baking for guests - mince pies and shortbread straight from the oven are so very hard to resist.

It's also difficult to find seasonal fruit to eat. I love clementines but there are only so many I can eat in a day!

So I try and at least start the day fairly healthily. This is my standard smoothie but by adding in the oats I make it a bit more substantial. Oats, of course, are great for lowering the cholesterol. The raspberries are frozen but you could use fresh.

This smoothie gives you almost 3 of your 5 fruit & veg. It's not particularly low calorie but I find it does keep me going till lunch and stops me raiding the leftover guest croissants. These ingredients make 1 big smoothie!

80g frozen raspberries
1 small banana
100ml apple juice
40g porridge oats
150 ml ( 1 standard small pot ) of natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon local honey

Put into blender and whiz for at least a minute.

Enjoy!

Mince Pies

www.shropshirebreakfast.co.uk

I'm not a keen pastry cook and, every year, have always searched in vain for a decent mince pie pastry recipe. However a couple of years I was recommended a recipe by Darren ( @urdygurdy on Twitter ) and chef at the Minfford Hotel near Tal-y-llyn in North Wales ( a stunning part of the country if you've never visited ).

The ingredients are from Darren but I can't blame him for the recipe. Also the orange zest is my own addition.

I couldn't decide whether to put the mince pies or the lemon drizzle in the guest rooms so I've put both in in the run up to Christmas.

5oz cold butter, cut into cubes
8oz plain flour
1oz sugar
zest of half an orange
1 egg
1 jar of mincemeat
a little water
1 small beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or Fan oven to 180 degrees C.

Rub the butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs ( I use the food mixer ), add the sugar and orange zest and mix well. Add the egg and mix well until it forms a stiff dough. You made need a few drops of water but not a lot.

I put the pastry wrapped in clingfilm for at least 30 mins.

Cut the pastry into 2 then roll out quite thinly on a floured surface. I use a large and medium pastry cutter to cut out 16 large and 16 medium sized circles. You'll probably need to pull together the trimmings of pastry and reroll them a few times.

Take a mincepie tin and line with the large circles. ( My mincepie tin only has 12 holes so I do it in 2 batches ). Put about a teaspoon of mincemeat in each ( be careful not to overfill ). Brush the edges with water and then put the smaller circles of pastry on top. Crimp the edges together. Brush with beaten egg and put in the oven for 20 minutes. My oven isn't very even so I time for 10 minutes then turn round the tin and cook for another 10 minutes..

Put on a cooling tray and dust with icing sugar.