Totally Dairy-Free

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic and Basil in lashings of olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar -  cooked  as they are supposed to be - not forgotten in the oven and burned to a frazzle like last time ....

Banana and Blackberry Ice Cream - totally dairy free.

1. Peel, chop into chunks and freeze ripe bananas. 2. Put into a food processor and blitz them till they turn into a pale creamy, Mr Whippy texture. 3. Blend in a couple of spoons of cooked blackberry compote.

4. Swirl in some more compote and re-freeze. 

5. Eat quite quickly as it melts into a mush soon after you spoon it out.

You could add any other fruit like fresh strawberries or raspberries too.....or a chocolate version with cocoa powder  and honey.....

Coconut Vanilla Ice Cream - totally dairy free.

1. Chill 2 cans of coconut milk.

2.Scoop out the dense white solid layer and keep the watery milk to make a curry.

3. Whisk the coconut  cream with half a cup of icing sugar or maple syrup and a capful of vanilla essence, till smooth and thick.

4 Put into a plastic container and put in freezer. Whisk again every few hours to make it lighter.

A recipe  I haven't made before for Chocolate Raspberry Cake - except I wanted to make it totally dairy-free and used coconut oil instead of butter .....When I came to wrap it up tonight I found it was totally raw in the middle...maybe able to rescue it tomorrow  - re-cook it - not sure that'll work though. Luckily I have an alternative in the fridge - a totally dairy-free Chocolate Mint Cheesecake( thank you for the recipe, dear niece) involving lots of velvety avocados and more coconut oil....but not sure how it will cope as a birthday cake...if the candles will melt the topping....

Today I felt so buoyed up by the network of love in our lives....one friend came this morning  and gave us both a soothing, gentle foot massage, another friend took my husband out this afternoon for an ice-cream even though it was pouring with rain.....so I could mess about in the kitchen with my totally dairy-free recipes.....my totally favourite thing to do on a wet Friday summer afternoon.