Book Giveaway | Recipe for Happiness

Recipe for Happiness

‘An inspirational memoir with recipes’

As you may know, as well as blogging about food & recipes, I am a professional speaker – The Happiness Speaker.  As part of my speaking journey, I have examined my own happiness and researched other material on happiness; thus, ‘Recipe for Happiness‘ was born.  It is a book about happiness, with practical tips as well as anecdotes from my own life and those of the people I have interviewed, and packed full of inspirational quotes.  And as it’s written by me, it also has a selection of my favourite recipes, including my signature dish: Tiramisù.

Recipe for Happiness will be published by Solopreneur on 1st December and is available to pre-order now – all pre-orders will receive an exclusive signed copy* of this paperback.

If you want the chance to receive a copy for free*, enter the Goodreads Giveaway here before 15th December 2013.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Recipe for Happiness by Frederika Roberts

Recipe for Happiness

by Frederika Roberts

Giveaway ends December 15, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

*exclusive signed copies only available to pre-orders, not for the Goodreads Giveaway.

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#tvdinner Competition | Freeview competition

Freeview have launched a new competition

Do you enjoy cooking and showing off your recipes?

Then hurry as this competition ends on 25th June!

You can win a ‘celebrity cooking experience’ for two

Freeview recently conducted some research that showed that, whilst the popularity of cooking shows is higher than ever (approximately 1.4million Brits – 3% – admit to writing down dishes from cookery shows), one third of us eat take-aways or ready-meals while watching these shows!

Tomato Spaghetti

According to Lisa Faulkner, who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010:

For me, the great thing about cookery programmes is they inspire me to try new dishes and show that making a good quality meal doesn’t have to take hours.

I couldn’t agree more!  Hopefully, the recipes I showcase on this blog appeal to all skill levels and time available, from quick, no-fuss meals to more complex sausage-making recipes.

I’ve pondered for a few days over which recipe of mine I should enter.  Should I show off some high-level culinary skill with a complicated recipe, or go with quick and simple?

In the end, I’ve decided to enter my fresh tomato and basil spaghetti recipe, as it is beautiful, delicious and seasonal…and ridiculously quick & easy to make.  With food this easy to make at home, there’s really no excuse for relying heavily on ready meals and take-aways!

To enter the competition, simply post (Twitter or Instagram) your picture with a snazzy caption, mention @freeviewTV and the hashtag #tvdinner.  It couldn’t be simpler!  Let’s champion great home cooking together and may the best recipe win 🙂

Good luck!

Follow the @freeviewTV #tvdinner tweets here

Soup Recipes | Pea and Asparagus Soup

Pea and Asparagus Soup

This is one of the simplest soup recipes and one that everyone I’ve made it for absolutely raves about! Sometimes the simplest recipes really are the best…and this one is truly, gloriously good (even if I do say so myself)!

Soup Recipes | Pea and Asparagus Soup
Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 10-15 mins
Serves: 8
Approx. calories per serving: 140

Ingredients

  • 2 big bunches of fresh asparagus spears (approx. 750g)
  • 1 medium bag (900g) of frozen peas or petits pois
  • Boiling water
  • 2 x Stock cubes (I personally like using Knorr Chicken Stockpots – but that’s just my personal preference.  Any chicken or, if feeding vegetarians, vegetable stock cubes will work)
  • Salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
  • 40g Fresh butter

Method
 

Chop the asparagus spears into approximately 1cm lengths, but keep the pointy ends plus maybe one or two extra cuts’ worth separate to use later.
Melt 30g of butter in a medium/large stockpot, then add the bulk of the chopped asparagus (NOT the ends you’ve reserved on one side!) and turn the heat up.  Add salt to taste and stir.
After about a minute or so, add the frozen peas, stir and grate in a sprinkling of fresh nutmeg.
Cover with boiling water (only to about 1cm above the solid ingredients).
Add stock cubes/pots.
Bring to the boil and boil until peas and asparagus are cooked (approx. 5 mins); the softer the peas, the smoother the soup, so this is down to personal preference how long you cook it for. Taste the stock during the cooking process and add either salt or another stock cube/pot (or part of one) if it requires more seasoning.
Turn the heat off and leave to cool for a few minutes, then process in a food blender (I find it easiest to use a hand blender you can simply place into the pan…if you use a jug-style blender while the soup is still hot, make sure you leave the centre opening in the lid OPEN and use a folded tea-towel to cover it, allowing steam to escape without the lid flying off!)
In a separate pan, fry off the asparagus tips you previously kept aside in the remaining butter and season with salt (to taste).  They need to be cooked but still crunchy, so you only need to fry them off for 1-2 minutes.
.
Stir the fried asparagus tips into the soup.
Serve & enjoy – Gloriously Good Food!
Soup Recipes | Pea and Asparagus Soup

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