Bananas, Banana Bread

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

Gosh I've been saying that a lot latly with regards to the blog.

It's just trying to juggle a job, a mad, but super fun 3 year old (he went three the other week crazy hey) so time just got away from me a bit.

But I'm off to Disney world in 3 days so I plan to get loads of blogging material might even write a few when I'm over there on my Blogger app. (Although will sort out the photo when I'm back as the app, well I can't work out on the app, how to get the pics right)

Any who before all the Disney madness I thought I add a cooking blog, blog lol.

A few weeks back at my inlaws I made them a lovely Banana loaf with the help of my glamours assistant my husband.

So what you will need is 

3 Bananas

140g Flour

140g Butter

140g sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder 

2 eggs 

First weigh out the sugar

and the Butter 

And cream them together

Then weight the flower 

And whisk two eggs

Fold in the flower and the eggs

Then add a 1tps of Baking Powder

Then take your 3 bananas

Chop them 

Then smush (my technical term for the below) lol  them together a much as you can

Then fold this into the mixture 

After that your mixture should be ready for the oven

Then spoon it into a loaf team 

and cook in a 180 degree oven for around 50 minutes.

And Enjoy it with some fizz.

Right so hope you make enjoy it and love it!!

Also keep an eye out in the coming week for all my Disney posts so excited!!!

I've been 'Safari Parking' since before you where born

Showing my age with that Simpson parody title.

But this week we visited Port Lympne Reserve

And O-M-Goodness it was such an amazing day out.

It's set in some lovely grounds and there is so much space, the little one could really get a head of speed up running about and exploring.

They have such a wide array of animal we started in the part with the big cats. I was a tiny bit unsure of about the cages as there was only one wire mesh guard between them and us. 

I am sure it is sturdy and secure, but when you see such a big and powerful animal pacing. Looking for a way out as he might be a bit peckish and fancy's a bit of Human Rump, a little voice in the back of your head is saying are you sure that's secure enough lol...

But the area it is set in is beautiful and we had such a nice day for it, and as it is set at different elevations at the top you could see all the way to Romney Marsh and the sea, pretty... 

You also get to go on these great Safari Trucks a lot bigger than the one I went on Safari in when I was in Nairobi back in 2010.

Although I would not recommend if you have back problems is was a bit bumpy and the seats were very hard - thanks goodness for all the cooking and eating I do,  as I have a bit of extra padding lol

So lots and lots of animal - Ostriches

   

Fantastical Amazing Rhinos, these are such beautiful creatures, still can't believe they are killing them in the wild.

It 2016 people, magic Rhino horn potion do not work, just get to the proper doctor ask for the little blue pills and it will all be okay. 

Can't remember what these animal were call some kind of antelope - I am probably so, so wrong and as someone is reading this they are shouting at the screen..

Giraffes, I love these animals, think they are cool, like how nature solves problems. 

"The food we like to eat it up high?" 

"hmm tricky"

"I've got it long necks" 

As well as having the huge reserve where the animal roam free, they've also got some lovely habitats for the other animals.

They have meerkats, now as I big Disney Fan I alway think of Timon, out of Timon and Pumba - I'm sorry I will never see them as the advert ones - "Simples" eh.. 

Although he did throw me some shades as you can see from the picture above lol.

As I am such a mega geek I found the enclosure with the Fossa in them and because of "Madagascar" the animated movie I started shouting "FOSSA, FOSSA" and pretending to run away, much to the bemusement of my son and the un-amusement of my Husband. 

Yes there was other people about but I don't care. 

They also have a Gorilla enclosure it actually really nice, but as I think it was such a hot afternoon they preferred it inside. They had this amazing area which had slides and rope swing for them.

I know there is nothing better than the wild, but seeing as their natural habitat is being eroded and they are being killed. I find, if they are in captivity, but it's done in a great way like this is, I think that it can sometime be the best thing. To make sure that they are around in years to come. 

Oh and I saw a monkey with a beard, no really story just thought it was cool. 

Oh wise old monkey tell me your secrets - he said nothing, kept all his secrets to himself lol. 

So fantastic time seeing all the different animals 

The Lions 

The Tigers 

The Bears - OH MY!!

Sorry had to do that!!


Along with the Animal they have a fab Dinosaur forest.

Where they have proper size (well I can only assume they are proper size I admit I am not very knowledgble about the Dinos so big apologies to any paleontologists if I'm wrong) Models of a lot of Dinosaurs.

They are split into different time periods and there is a lot of information dotted around the place.  Although seeing I had a toddler who likes to run about it was hard enough getting pics, I had no time to read anything.

Oh they also have them up in the trees to so make sure you look up.

I though it was a really cool idea and something a bit different to come across.

I think the little one was a bit unsure of them to start off with. 

But he soon came round and decided to make a few friends. 

My verdict on the day - aabsolutelybrilliant.

Now I have a fussy toddler who get board very easily and normally if I can spend up to 2 hours anywhere I consider it a win (At the cinema we lasted 5 minutes it was a nightmare) at this place we arrived at 10.30am and the little one was still going strong when we left at 4pm (well strong in spirit, he slept all the way home).

The only slight thing, and the reason there is no picture was the food, we brought a packed lunch for the little man and we had some of their fast food, Burger and Chips. Have to say I wasn't impressed but to give them a bad food review, I think would be to do them a dis-service.

I wouldn't rate what I had, but going around the park and seeing all the signs it looks like they do amazing food. They have a hotel onsite that does by the looks of it a fantastic afternoon tea as well as having a full service restaurant.

They even have Africa lodges you can hire with a personal chef to cook you dinner.

Both those offering sound amazing, so I'm just going to say I had an off meal and next time I go I will make sure I try one of the nicer places or get a night at a lodge before I properly judge.

So my advice is go and have a great day out.

Vlogging the blogging

So I thought I shake it up a bit...

I've given Vlogging a go this week. We went to  Leeds Castle in Kent to watch the Medieval Jousting.

Although when I say vlog, it's more of a video but I am trying new things and will hopefully be making more of this with a bit more talking from now on (Also apologies for the sound a the start it was a super windy day). 

Will be back next week with a proper blog apologies been hectic what with a new job and not having internet at home don't ask but now I have super fast broadband so will be able to blog quite happily from now on.

Lamb-ie and Stuffed

So yay I'm back.

The trials and tribulation that have happened over the last few weeks seem to have calmed down and life is back to normal (Well normal for me lol).

I've had a busy, busy, busy week. First big event went to the Hippodrome in Leicester Square for my friends 40th Birthday! She'd hire out the Heliot lounge for fun an frolics.

It was a really nice venue, staff was lovely and it was great to get out into town (Hubby had the little one)

As I was having a night off  I had a cheeky glass of Fizz:

Which was noms, I then tried their Margaritas, and regular readers will know I do like my Margaritas. Not to toot my own horn (toot toot) but I do make a mean Margarita (V. Strong)but  have to say it wasn't the best which was a shame.

So I went back to the fizz for the rest of the night my poor head lol.

As due to the Easter holiday we had some family time we decided to have a  meal out at the Farmhouse in West Malling

I had their lovely Steak Panini which was very tasty and the steak was cooked really well and no chewy at all. You can tell it was good a the little one wolfed it down.

My Husband had the burger which looked lovely,

But we decided couldn't have been as nice as the steak as the little one didn't like the bite, he was given, and went back to the steak.

We even had some amazing Crisps "Corkers" yummy really need them to start doing them in big bags in my local supermarket as these would go great with dips and a cheeky glass of wine while having a comfy night in, in front of the TV.

I did some of my own cooking too, well I though I might as it is supposed to be a cooking blog lol.

I did a Roast Dinner for my mum as she's well on her road to recovery. Also Asda had super duper bargains the lamb was £4 per KG and the bags of veg were £0.29p each OMG whole dinner didn't cost that much over a £10 and that was with dessert.

For such a good price it was a huge leg of lamb as my glamorous assistant demonstrated, and remember he's 6"4"

Roast dinners are really simple to do but appear complicated so you get lots of praise which is nice. The only thing you really need a handle on, to have a great roast, is timing. If you get that right everything else fits into place.

So for the meat I heated up some olive oil in a roasting dish (in a pre-heated 180 Degrees) for about 5 minutes

I then gave it a baste and quickly scored the top before liberally adding Rosemary.

I then covered it in foil and put in the oven for half the cooking time 25min per 500g (17 oz) with an extra 25min on top

So after half way I whipped off the foil basted again and then I added some par boiled new potatoes and Parsnips to the roasting dish then back in the oven for the rest of the time.

What you end up with is golden lamb-ie goodness which is so so so flavorful.

Add some veg and a couple of Yorkshire puddings (I know they are supposed to go with beef but I love them with all roasts and it my blog so there).

What you are left with is a fantastic roast dinner for all the family (The little one ate all of his and he is my gold seal of approval for all my cooking now lol).

Also in the week we went out for a lovely brunch at Bills I opted for the Vegetarian option which was toast one topped with hummus and the other with guacamole. It also came with two poached eggs, mushroom and tomatoes.

Great combination of flavors especially with the sweet chilli sauce applied all over the dish. There was nothing left just one satisfied me.

I have had a lot of food this week but I have been burning it off too we been doing so DIY to the new house have a lovely new spare room.

and a beautiful new floor, oh well I can't really take any credit for the floor as we got that from the wonderful people at Carpet4less I like to give credit when it's due and these guys were great.

Really good prices and really professional fitting, couldn't be more impressed with the service.

Last cooking dish I want to share with you is a lower fat one than the roast dinner.

I baked a potato

Once it was a bit cooler I scooped out the inside.

and place the that into a bowl.

I filled the bottom of the empty potato skins with low fat cream cheese

I then grilled some bacon (with the fat trimmed off) and some Mushrooms

chopped them up and added them to the potato mix.

I then put this mix back into the potato shells and grilled for about 6 minutes.

Then add some low fat cheese and place back under the grill till it melted and serve with a lovely salad and Voila a lovely and not overly fattening snack.

So glad to be back and glad to be cooking and hopefully over the coming week we can have some fab food and some fab times.