A pox on my house - (but hey cocktails)

Firstly the good news look at what my Son did a Nursery the first thing he's made so proud as he following in him mum's foot steps today it chocolate rice krispy cakes tomorrow Cake boss lol..

Well that is before he got sick, so it was my birthday in the past week I turned 36 whoop whoop actually don't mind getting older my 30's so far have been fantastic and far less stressful and unsure like my 20's were. Also because I'm embarrassed me, especially my dyslexia and dyspraxia. I find I am finally comfortable in my own skin. 

So I had a big party plan with loads of treats and fun things I was going to cook and share with my chums but the morning of the start of the festivities my son awoke with the Chicken Pox (right on my birthday, a gift I really didn't want). The poor lad was not well and I needed to cancel on everyone, two days of plans right out the window and all my cooking idea too.

Slightly worried though as the presents I did get (and please remember that most of my friends gift didn't arrive as they were bring them to the party) I still managed to amass a load of drink - Think I have an unfair reputation and yes I know my blogs are full of drinking and yes I'm going to be talking about drinking below. That's not the point and I think this characterization is wholly unfounded :P 

So on my birthday it was just My husband as me and the little one spent most of the day in bed the only highlight was Hotel Chocolat and Champagne 

Oh and I did get a cake a super cute Pug cake so cute from Asda - but between twopeople  a 16 person cake is just too much lol.

There were some highlights I manged to get back to the Artesain Bar at the Langham Hotel in London and have another one of their cocktails that's 2 now out of a list of around 20 and oh yes I will do the whole list but they are a bit pricey so will have to spread them out.

This time I had their utterly fabulous "How Not To Be Seen" it was Tots Amaz (Sorry was somewhere posh so it just came out) lol  - it was made of Martell Cordon Bleu, Caju, Sauvignon Blanc, Agave.

Goes down very well and was just as nice as the last cocktail I had there "Suspended in Time" but it was less dramatic, think next time I need one of their more showy cocktails.


Oh and I was taken by a colleague at work to Wahaca as it was only a few of us didn't want to spend it taking loads of food picks but I did take a photo of the Passion Fruit Mojito we had.

That is one smooth and refreshing cocktail, it tastes just like a fab fruit punch which I can see being dangerous as they go down far to easily but as I was only on lunch I only had one. (But will go back when I can and have more than one lol).

The other good thing this week in between trying to get a 2 and a half year old not to scratch his poxs - Which is just so much fun and who said parenting was glamorous.

The sun has finally arrived in the UK it is hot and sunny and wonderful and great and fantastic (oh you can tell I so over the cold can't you :) )

so I managed to eat outside and look my food dishes even came with a hidden Mickey.

Oh and you have to have cocktails in the sun it a rule (That I've just made up) Well I did have to use all the champagne I was gifted so, some Buck's Fizz (Mamosa) went down really well with a mini BBQ.

We just had a few nibbles some steak, plain for Hubby and then some chilli seasoned stake hot sauce and spicy seasoning for me.

so nice to eat alfresco and I really do think food is improved by your surrounding so eating some nice steak and corn in the sun taste far better than if you where eating it inside in the cold and with it raining outside.

Also with the left over steak in the evening I fried it with some mushroom and parsley to add to a salad.

I should have taken a picture of the salad but got distracted and then I was over half way through when I remembered and it look a mess. (bad food blogger, bad).

So hopefully next week the cursed Poxs should be lifted from our house (Sorry it's Shakespeare celebration over her in the UK so I'm challenging the Bard). And after all the trauma lately with one thing and other back to my old self (and maybe even a slight tan self if the weather holds).

Mega Sandwich and Meatball Madness

Hello everyone :)

How are you all, I hope you're keeping well. I know I am.

So what have I been up to this week - hmm not lots but enough to keep me out of mischief.

It was a alright weekend in the Garden of England (That's Kent for you that don't know) So I spent a lot of Saturday outdoors with the little lad.

After some fun time in the park which involved 45 minutes of swings  - as from my previous post the little one likes the swings. Trying in vain at the moment to see my apartment to get a bigger place with a Garden and the first thing that I will put in it will be a swing. I still have all the pushing to do but at least I won't have too far to get there lol.

We went for some lunch at The Swan Street Cafe, it's a lovely little local business with good food and really reasonable prices especially compared to some of the other places dotted around where I live. I been in a few times but this is the first time I ordered a Club sandwich and when I say it was huge it was the biggest sandwich I've ever seen and I've eaten sandwiches in the USA lol.

Honestly it was nearly as big as my head (not that I have a huge head :) ) It was so tasty filled with Chicken and sun-dried tomatoes in lovely doorstep toasted bread. The coleslaw that came with it was scrummy too.

As it was so big I only managed to get through half of it before I was so full. The little one enjoyed his Kid sandwich but that was also made from the same size loaf so he could finish his too.

I think it would be the perfect sharing sandwich. I would definitely have it again although think I have to wait till I am mega hungry to finish it off.

On Sunday Hubby and my Father painted the outside of our apartment. So I had them painting, my mother on babysitting duty and I was running about picking up extra paint, paint hook, white spirit made about 5 trips.

Was a busy day and they did a great job and my Mum even with looking after the little ball of energy also known as my sun she managed to cook us all a Sunday Dinner which was yummy. Why is it that you mum's cooking always taste better than anyone else?

I did with all this going on manage to get one big cook on this week.

I made Meatballs with Bacon, Chorizo and Chillies.

for the meatballs I used:

420g of Low Fat Beef Mince
4 Rashes of Reduced Fat Bacon Medallions - chopped
Half a pack of Chorizo - chopped
A couple of medium Hot Chillies - chopped
and 1 egg

Oh and the boys used my big mixing bowl when painting the house so that had to go in the bin so will be getting myself a new big bowl this weekend luckily I have a could of smaller ones that did the job (just).

I added the mince to the bowl

Followed by the Bacon

Chorizo

Chillies

then the Egg

Then bind it all together you might want to use your hands to do this

Then using the mixture mould in to balls shapes I got 9 pretty big meatballs out of my mix.

I then sprayed them with oil and popped them in a 220 oven for 22 minutes

Also when this was happening I put also in to cook a pack of roasting vegetables.

When these were both firmly cooking in a pan I browned off some onions

then added in some chopped tomatoes

and "Oxo" beef stock cube

Then the roasted veg

When the meatballs came out of the oven I placed them in the sauce.

What I was left with was a yummy hearty meal (which is more fitting with the time of year than my Kebabs last week).

I think it really tasty and delectable but that's just my humble opinion lol.

Oh and last thing I am so happy with the result of the Great British Bake Off. for those of you who don't reside in the UK (although I know some country have their own version) it is a baking competition where 10 contest show of the baking skills in the hope of being crown the Winner. There is no prize money the only high octane action is when someone bake goes wrong.


It's one of the most popular shows here in the UK. just goes to show to make a great TV show you need some personable people and fun format and of course baking lol :)

Lasagne, Lasagna "I've Heard it both ways"

Sorry about the title but I do love "Psych" the TV Show.

So cooking again yay, well my blog is call dyslexic cooking so after a few weeks of doing none, well apart from the bog standard family meal that rule my life. But hey I do work full time have a toddler and a husband and trying to have a life so whipping up culinary masterpiece everyday is not feasible, when I win the lottery and have my dream kitchen I promise to cook every day lol.

This week I have been busy I cooked up another Prawn Pasta (see the 9th June blog for full recipe details)

Love this dish as it quick and easy and you can make loads so it last a few night.

Much the same with my next recipe as you know I'm trying, and not very successfully I might add (see the buns and the bacon sarnies post for proof) to do Slimming World. I have lost 10lb which I suppose is better than putting it on,  but considering I being doing since January not great. Although one of my New Year resolution was to loose weight (Luckily I didn't put how much) so if I can just not put it all back on by Dec 31st for the first times I would have achieved a resolution lol.

Any who I made a Slimming World Lasagne as we say here in the UK.

Ingredients for this:

500g of 5% fat lean mince
1 chopped onion (I was lasy and bought pre-chopped)
500g of veg for roasting (this can be anything you fancy I like bell peppers and courgettes/Zucchini)
100g of Mushrooms
Carton of Passata
Can or Carton of chopped tomatos
300g of Fat free Greek Yogurt (For the white Sauce)
Lasagne Sheets (Dried)
and not featured in the pic but any herbs and spices you might want to add.

Firstly I put on the oven and cooked the roasted vegetable, I used 1% spray oil to keep it nice and healthy.

they go on at 200c oven for 25 minutes.

Then when they were firmly underway cooking, I started to brown the meat and the onions.

I then added in the mushrooms

cooked them off for a minute or two before adding the Passata and the chopped tomatoes.

Then once the vegetables were nice and roasted I added them too.

Which made a lovely pasta bolognese sauce, but we are making Lasagne so on-wards.

After grabbing a deep dish

I added a layer of the meat to the bottom.

Then layered on some pasta sheets.

Then covered the sheet in a layer of the Greek yogurt.

I then repeated this process and just for me (if you don't want the calories and what it to be syn free don't add it) a bit of low fat mature cheddar on top (40g)

baking in a 200+ degree oven for 35 minutes

You then end up with was a delicious, filling, tasty and very very low in fat dinner for two nights.

Add it with a bit of salad and you got a meal that will leave you full but without the guilt.

So I hope you give it a go :)


My one last thing before signing off this week is how exciting was the news about the Disney World expansion at Disney Hollywood Studios?? if you haven't heard about it, what have you been living in a little box? you can read about it here

As you know I am a huge Disney fan and a bit of a Star Wars geek so to be able to geek out with the Star Wars in the same place I can geek out with the mouse I think I'm going to have some sort of fit lol.

Although am a bit bummed that they are not starting work till 2017 and with how long it took them to do the Fantasy Land expansion I can see it being another 3 years on top. The only thing that is a plus side is my little one will be around 8/9 when it is completed so I would say Optimum age for Star War Madness yay.

So with Disney being so prevalent in the news I have decided to start a holiday fun to fund a trip for me and the family (think I mention that I wanted to start one a while back,but hey I'm dyslexic so we have idea and then another one takes over that why if it not on my to do list is ain't happening lol) but this time I have started it.

I have costed up a total for my trip and it's not going to be cheap and currently as it stands the fund is just getting to about the 1% mark of the total amount. So a long way to go (Think Star Wars land will be open before I hit the total lol)

I have decided I will achieve the total by getting some stuff that has been sitting around on ebay, cutting back on excessive spending, more batch cooking and going to use the train problems I have to my advantage and every time I get a delay repay compensation I will stick it in the fun so come on delays and cancellation lol

My Disney Dream is currently 99% away from target, but hey at least it's not a 100%

Meats, Fishes and Disney Shoes

Wow it's been a mad week...

I started off the week with all go intentions of being health and sensible.

I started by making a fab fish pie:

Ingredients:
Cod, Pollock and Salmon (as much as you want depending on the Size of the pie)
Carrots and Green Beans. (For the filling)
Quark and Low Fat Yogurt ( for the white sauce)
New Potatoes and Courgettes (Zucchini) (for the topping).

In one pan par boil for 6 minutes some New Potatoes.

Then in a shallow pan add the fish on a low heat in a pan and cook off for a few minutes.

Then add the carrots and green beans and stir in.

Then turn the hob right down and stir in the Quark and the low fat Yogurt. At this point I added some Chili powder to liven it up a bit as I am a big fan of the spice.

Transfer into a dish then cover the top with the new potatoes sliced and some sliced Courgettes. cook in a hot over around 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Then you should have a lovely healthy fish pie that server 4 people.

serve it with some salad and Voila something yummy but not calorific. Also if your on Slimming World it Syn Free.

So after that lovely healthy start to the week it went a bit awry.

It started with me, traveling between offices for a meeting deciding on Having Ice-cream for Lunch.

It was from Snowflake Gelato from their concession stand at Selfridges. I  had two scoops, one of Stracciatella and one of banana. It was so cream and so lovely just the thing on a hot day in London. I was definitely enjoying it, although probably a bit too much judging by some of the looks I got walking down Wigmore Street whilst devouring it lol :)

As the weather has finally turned sunny I  managed to get a little BBQ on the go first one of the year yay.

We had the standard eats of Burgers and Sausages with a yummy salad and olives

The highlight was an amazing new dip from Tesco's a Beetroot Tzatziki. Really fresh tasting with a little bite of sweetness from the beetroot, hands down my new favorite dip.

We also took a trip to visit some friends in the lovely town of Whitney near Oxford. It is a lovely little town and we were treated to a show of Morris Dancers. I used the Periscope app to film it all. I am loving this new App only wished I did more interesting things to film.

The App lets you broadcast live from wherever you are (well as long as you have Wifi or 4G). It is my new guilty pleasure as if I'm on it, I'm normally watching people filming from Disney World, especially the Parade as, because of the time difference, it on just after I get in from work. Although with the little man it normally just a quick fix before the bedtime story.

Back to Whitney, we were visiting to ask our friend to be godparents to our little boy, they said yes which was fantastic, we have to wait so it co-insides with the In-laws leave year as they need to be back for a weekend - probably end up a logistical nightmare but I'm sure I can sort it.

After lots of hugs and happiness at them saying yes, we went for a fabulous lunch at Chequers-Smoke-House My husband and I had their meat platter to share which was comprised of chicken, brisket, Pork Ribs, Beef Ribs, Pulled Pork, Burnt Ends, Corn Bread, Sweet corn, Coleslaw and Chips.

My friends had huge mouthwatering burgers they even did a naked "Pig" burger for the Gluten free member of the party.

the food was great, really tasty and a bit of a bargain for the 4 of us to eat and with drinks it worked out to £25 per head. Definitely be giving it another try even if it just to have a taste of their Mac N Cheese which a person on the table next to us was having as that looked yummy too.

Oh and this week I finally got my son some Disney Vans woo hoo...

Only taken me best part of 3 weeks going to different stores and tweeting the company (Which they didn't respond to, not great customer service boo).

They are so cute but as they are limited edition I'm undecided whether I should let him wear them or just squirrel them away for a later date when they could be worth a few more bob...

Although knowing me as he'll look so cute in them I'd rather just let him have the fun in them.. Which will probably be wreaking them in the first puddle we come across, oh well :)