With Christmas now gone and 2009 now here we wondered how you were all getting on with your New Year Resolutions? Have you managed to stick religiously to them or did you fail?

If one of your resolutions was to diet and you have failed then don’t worry about it, start again tomorrow! If you love your food like us and always have done then you will certainly find it difficult to diet. Start dieting gradually, don’t cut out all the foods you enjoy, why punish yourself? Also try to incorporate more exercise into your daily routine.

From the many emails Flowercarole received during the Christmas period we understand that many of our visitors received blenders / juicers and smoothie makers as presents and you wanted to know which smoothie recipes to start to off with. Our advice is that if you are new to making smoothies we would suggest you try a basic smoothie recipe at first, something like Berry Banana Twist smoothie recipe or even just a one fruit smoothie recipe. The more you make the more you will get used to both your blender and the quantity of fruit to put into the recipe. Some people like their smoothies nice and creamy without any lumps of fruit in, whereas others prefer their smoothies with more lumps of fruit in. It won’t take you long to get the hang of smoothie making, we promise!

Let us know how you are getting on with your smoothie makers and even send us a photo!

Do you ever avoid buying certain fruits in the supermarket because you are not quite sure how to tell if they are fresh or ripe?

One particular fruit people tend to avoid is the beautiful pineapple fruit. This fruit not only smells fantastic it tastes wonderful too!

Top tips for choosing a fresh / ripe pineapple:

1. Have a good look at the pineapple it should have deep green leaves and be brightly coloured.

2. Avoid pineapples with brown leaves.

3. The pineapple you are holding should be heavy for its size and the skin should give slightly when you push it gently, but there should be no soft spots or areas that are squashy to the touch.

4. A pineapple should have a wonderful sweet smell at the stem end of the fruit.

Here are flowercarole.com we have some really scrumptious pineapple smoothie recipes for you to make. All our smoothie recipes are free to use.

Our pineapple, banana and coconut smoothie recipe is delicious and would be a good one to try out first.

Let us know how you get on.

Our sister site called Quick Free Recipes has recently added yet more tasty vegetarian recipes for you to try and like this smoothie site they are all free to use as often as you wish.

A favourite of our readers at the moment seems to be the grilled vegetables with feta cheese recipe. This recipes is certainly one to tickle your taste buds! The main ingredients used in this recipe are courgettes, aubergines, feta cheese, olive oil and pine nuts. Is your mouth watering yet? Thought so!

Another quick and easy free vegetarian recipe from the site is the garlic and lemon spinach recipe. This particular recipe is extremely fast and simple to make yet tastes wonderful and is packed with iron.

So what are you waiting for go and have a look at our Quick Free Recipe site now – 100’s of quick free simple cooking recipe for you to make and enjoy.

In a study of middle-aged and older men and women, those with the highest blood levels of vitamin C were significantly less likely to develop diabetes over 12 years than those with the lowest levels, researchers found.

Fruits and vegetables are the main source of vitamin C in Western diets, and blood levels of vitamin C are good markers of fruit and vegetable intake, Dr. Nita G. Forouhi, at the Institute of Metabolic Science at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, England, and colleagues note.

The current findings “re-endorse the public health message of the beneficial effect of increasing total fruit and vegetable intake,” the investigators wrote in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Read the rest of the article from Reuters.com here

The unions have a joint stand and on Thursday at noon, both Welsh farming unions will go head to head in a smoothie-making competition.

NFU Cymru’s president Dai Davies will compete against Gareth Vaughan, the FUW’s president, to buy local produce on the Maes and make a smoothie with up to five Welsh fruit or vegetables.

Mr Davies said: “I am looking forward to going round the Maes to buy Welsh produce.”

Alun Elidir, farmer and Ffermio presenter will compere the event.

Source: Wales Online

Strawberries taste good at this time of year. They’re not those hard, pale things that you find looking stunned under supermarket strip lights in mid winter. They’re strawberries as strawberries are meant to be; red, sweet and delightfully juicy.

The head chef at San Carlo, Jason Annette, has devised two delicious recipes that make the most of the ripe strawberries and soft fruits available right now. Even novice chefs will be able to conjure up his Summer Fruit Syrup, which is perfect as a base for a cocktail or as a coulis to pour over a dessert. Those who are a little more confident in the kitchen can try creating the Apple, Strawberry and Raspberry charlottes. If you can make them look like the one in the photograph, we congratulate you. Send any spare portions into the Man Con office, if you like.

Read the rest of this article at Manchester Confidential.

Firstly wash the peppers then dry the outer skin with kitchen paper or a towel. Slice them in half and take out the seeds and any white pith in there.

If you prefer to slice the peppers into long strips, do so, but then place them on a small baking tray or cookies sheet and lay them out so they don’t touch each other, place into the freeze and freeze for an hour or so. Remove the peppers from the freezer and tray, place them into a freezer bag and seal and date it so you know how long they have been there.

When you are ready to use the peppers for a particular recipe just remove them from the freezer bag and cook as normal.

If you enjoy omelette’s then try the ‘Red Pepper Omelette Recipe‘ over at Quick Free Recipes. It’s very cheap, quick and easy to make and tastes delicious (and it’s very healthy and low fat too).

Remember …
• You want to make the pieces long and/or wide, so they don’t fall through the grate.

• You want to make them sturdy, so they don’t fall apart.

• You want to make them of uniform thickness — shoot for about one-third inch — so they cook at the same time.

MAKE SURE YOUR GRILL IS CLEAN
When the grill is hot, use a metal-bristled brush to scrub any residue off the grate. Since you are going to oil the vegetables, there is no need to oil the grill.

GRILL-SIDE TOOLS AND SUPPLIES
You should have close at hand: the prepared vegetables, a sheet pan or cookie tray, olive oil, kosher salt, long-handled tongs.

ALL ABOUT HEAT AND TIMING
Over a medium fire, vegetables will take, in general, from 3 to 5 minutes on first side and a little less on second side, but this varies with the heat of fire and the thickness and water content of the vegetable. Turn a gas grill to “medium.” With a charcoal grill, start the coals in a pile in the middle; when they are hot, arrange them around the edge of grill. (To get a final char on an already-cooked vegetable, move it directly over the coals).

TIME TO GRILL
When the grill is hot, season the vegetables: Pour a couple of glugs of olive oil into the sheet pan and sprinkle generously with kosher salt. Press the prepared vegetables into the salted oil and, using your hands, make sure both sides are lightly coated with oil. Place vegetables on the hot grill. Add more oil/salt to the pan as needed.

Read the rest of this article by Erica Marcus at Newsday.Com

If you have any leftover red or white table wine do not throw it away – freeze it instead!

The easiest way to freeze wine is by pouring it into an ice-cube tray and then pop it in the freezer until required.

Some great uses for frozen wine cubes would be to pop one or two out of the tray and add it to soups or casseroles when cooking. Therefore when some recipes ask for a dash or splash of wine you don’t have to go out and buy a bottle, you can simply pop a couple of your homemade wine cubes in the dish!

If you are looking for some tasty recipes, then don’t forget to visit our Quick Free Recipe site. You will find 100’s of quick, tasty and delicious recipes (and you will be able to use your wine cubes in some of them!).

Thousands of people in the UK are already feeling the pinch due most of the major companies increasing their utility bills. More and more people are living off credit cards in order to buy their basic provisions even though they are working full time.

Clothes here in the UK can now be bought for only a few pounds if you look around – however, someone, somewhere will be paid pittance for making them and no doubt will be working in terrible conditions.

Is this gas increase just the start or are more companies now going to follow suit and increase their bills even more just to see how much money they can actually make?

Let us know your thoughts.