Happy Ramadan!

I know I've been a bit remiss with my blogging for a while- and hand on heart, I'm very sorry about that. I was in two minds about starting to post again today with it being the first day of Ramadan, but I thought as long as I keep the pictures non-drooly, we'd be OK, and thought it would be a great time to write some great recipes for those who have been fasting.

So what is Ramadan? Ramadan is a religious period of time where Muslims practice self-restraint and abstain from the act of eating and drinking throughout the hours of sunrise and sun-set to focus on faith and purification.

But no, Ramadan is not fasting all day and gorging at night. The vast majority of Muslims understand how important the balance of food is, and therefore ironically eat better in this month as they need to fuel their body appropriately.

Hopefully this month, I will be preparing meals that will ease fasting and break fasting, and hopefully along the way, I'll be able to share some recipes that might be enjoyed be others as well!

OK, here's a very basic one, Fruit smoothie:

You can really make any combination, but I've gone for high berry content smoothie- Berry smoothies are very nutritional, as they contain vitamin C, vitamin E, antioxidants, and a lot of other nutrients as well. I've chucked in a handful of blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and cherry. You can also add in apples, bananas and whatever flavour you fancy as there really is no hard and fast rule. However, if you can get your hands on a nice big watermelon- the high level of water content will make the smoothie thinner in consistency. After a long day of fasting, you don't want a chunky monkey type of smoothie- but rather one that's got a good level of nutrients in it, and will be easy to drink.

This is ideal for morning Sehri (mealtime before fasting) or Iftar (mealtime after fasting). If you're having for Sehri- team up with some porridge or dates, and other slow releasing foods- the high water content of the smoothie is important as this also works to give you storage for the day. 

Ok, so here it is, the most basic of all Ramadan recipes. Simple and effective, and frankly a shot of what I drink on a day to day basis anyway! Enjoy!