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. 

No Wine (Wait, What!!) Risotto

Two posts in the same week I am spoiling you lol.

Also this is a cooking post yay - give the public what they want, even if they don't know they want it :)

So back from the Yummy Scrumminess of Scotland and with having all the fun and the drinks, it's back to the diet (Boo) but I get to try out new things so (Yay).

So I decided to make Risotto, I adore Risotto and I have a lovely summer recipe (which I will do this summer as I can take shots in my new Garden whoop whoop) of a Lemon Chicken and Spring Onion Risotto that I do  make with wine.

But as it winter and not the nicest weather here in Kent I wanted to stick with a more winter theme and because I was dieting I omitted the wine. 

So I decided to make Mushroom and Leek Risotto.

Actually a really easy recipe taking about 15-20 minutes but for the whole time you need to be on it.

For the ingredients I used, Risotto Rice, Stock Cubes , Mushroom (chopped), Quark and a bag of sliced leeks (Yes I know that make me super lazy) 

So for this recipe you need a bit of stock - I used three cubes in 1/2 Litre nearly a pint of water. 

So as usual I used spray oil and emptied about 200g of Risotto Rice in to the pan gave it a bit of a stir for 1 -2 minutes. This is when I would normally add a glass of wine and cook it down - 

Instead I just added the stock, bit by bit.

When it was around half way through the stock and about 5- 6 minutes into cooking time along with the stock I added in the chopped up mushrooms - I cooked the leeks separately in another pan as I like my leeks nice an tender. 

I cooked this for about another 10 minutes before adding the leeks, really easy but you have to keep stirring which is normally fine, but as any parent out there know that getting a toddler to behave for a few minutes is an achievement but 15 straight minutes without need to help them with something is hard. So memo to me next time making this either the other half needs to be about or he's in bed as I only managed to just save it from all sticking to the bottom of the pan doh. 

After I added the leeks I stirred in a spoonful of the quark to give it a slightly creamy texture then serve. 

Quick easy and yummy. I had so much that the next day I even managed to use the left over.

I roasted some skin free chicken breast which I added some chili and roasted tomatoes along with it. So still really healthy but another added twist to it. 

On both accounts a very filling tasty meal which is great when you're dieting as there is nothing worse than being hungry after dinner as I find for me that is optimum snacking time.

Although saying that I have now become obsessed with Muller light yogurts, I never had these two flavors before but they are supper yummy.

I even mixed in Raspberry with the Vanilla Chocolate Sprinkle one for a between meal pick me up. .

And my other favorite of their's the Banana and Custard, I had with Blueberries as a quick breakfast treat at work.

New Way to Poach Eggs

Hello

Just a quick update from me this time round as I'm off to Scotland tomorrow for a week's holiday.

Well as it's my little ones 2nd Birthday (Oh no the terrible 2s lol) we thought we'd head north to visit with some family.

I hope to spend the time walking in the stunning countryside, celebrating the little ones big day to the max and of course eating some nice and sometimes naught (Scottish Fritters - Amazing) food and having a wee dram or two :)

The only thing apart from the normal family cooking I wanted to write about this week is I've just discovered a great new way to poach eggs.

Can't take the credit, I saw a video on Facebook about it. Although this was when I was checking my phone in the middle of the night after the little one decided to get up; so when I went to check again (when I remembered it) I couldn't find it to add the link.

But if the person who posted the video reads this - Well done, you inspired me to try something new and I will now pass that knowledge on.

So what you need to do is get some Cling Film, I think Americans call it Sano Wrap?

Put the film it in a cup or a ramekin add salt pepper and oil. (In the Video they added extra herb, technically you could add anything. OMG just realized I could add cooked Bacon - Right I am doing that next time I have poached eggs.)

Then crack an egg into the center

Twist the top very tight

Then just add them to the boiling water

Cooking time is up to you depending on how runny you want them.

I normally put them in the water then put the toast in the toaster and when the toast pops my eggs are done.

Poached Egg On Toast

Now with writing this down I have realized the potential of this, adding cooked Bacon, adding Chillies, adding peppers adding anything you like;  I will definitely be doing this again.

Oh and it really helps with the washing up as you don't get that stubborn egg film in the pan and reduces the smell when cooking too.

Right signing off now as I need to get packed for my trip; but keep an eye out for next week's as it will contain all the fun and frolics I had north of the boarder.

Shortbread for everyone

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 :)