Spicy Vegetable Bites

So I haven't done a cooking blog in a while which isn't great if you're supposed to be writing a cooking blog...

My excuse is life got in the way big time.

But calmer now but I'm off to Amsterdam tomorrow for weekend of fun (see the previous Amsterdam trip post and you'll see what I mean lol)

Any who I decided to make a quick, easy low fat and relatively cheap snack. That can be use for parties or in my case so I don't reach for something unhealthy.

You take some frozen veg and leave in a bowl to defrost (used just over half the pack) 

So when the veg is nice and defrosted take some dry rice and cook as per instructions. This can just be plain rice but this add a bit more flavour. 

Then get two potatoes and a sweet potato.

Peel

And dice. 

Then boil for about 20 minutes.

Once they're all nice and soft mash. 

Put mash into a mixing bowl.. Alright I know this is a pan but there was an unfortunate accident with my bowl so I had to make do. 

Then add in a chopped red onion

Add the defrosted veg 

The give it a good old stir 

Get about 4 tbsp of fat free yougurt and mix it with 2 tbsp of curry power

I like it hot but mild curry powder can be used instead of you don't like it too spicy. 

Add that mixture to the pot and stir in. 

Make sure it is mixed well together

Then add the cooked rice and a raw beaten egg (the egg can be left out if needed) 

Mix again till it is all combined 

Then make the mixture into balls and places them on a greased baking tray. 

Pop in a 220 oven for 40 minutes and volí a tasty health snack

Serve with a bit of tzatziki to balance out the heat.

Now they are super delicious and fun to make. 

So I hope a few of you give it a go. 

Right I'm off to back for Amsterdam so excited.

Also of course they be a blog, but do check out my Twitter account @dyslexiccooking or my YouTube channel for not only the Vlog this recipe 

https://youtu.be/XZV6jkZL5Rw but mini Vlog from throughout my trip. 

Pondering over Soup

Not a particularly busy week in the Dyslexic cooking household.

Apart from the usual running around that comes with having a 21 month old son. 

The major event is we had the local priest round to sort out our son's baptism. 

It went well but not till after a particularly bad Dyslexic episode. The interview started with the priest asking loads of question about my son himself and us but as I got so flustered. I first couldn't spell our address and secondly got my son's date of birth mixed up. In the end I had to get my husband to step in as I was getting more and more stressed so more and more crap at everything.

I managed to pull myself together and we got it all sorted.

although that did get me to pondering. I find it hard in stressful situations to remain calm, cool and collected and then fluff things. Not sure how many more of you out there get this happen to you. It got me to thinking what people who don't really understand Dyslexia and Dyspraxia think of us.

Especially as I messed up my son's date of birth I would hate to have someone have the perception of me as not caring or a bad mother "She can't even remember his date of birth". I also sometimes mess up the spelling of his full name as he got 2 middle names. Now going forward knowing this, it  will stress me out more.  So when I filling in forms for School and other stuff I am now more liable to mess things up.

It's hard going through life with these disorders as there so much people don't understand about them and I have a sneaking suspicion that some people perceive it as just being lazy or not paying attention. Coupled that with the dyspraxia and it many manifestation, people just think I'm a bit manic and clumsy. I hoping being different and having these condition will make me a funner parent. Although currently its turned me into a anxious mummy mess.

Oh well at least there is cooking to cheer me up.

Did something really simple this week just made a 4 ingredient soup.

Butternut Squash with Sweet & New Potato Soup

Take 400g (0.8 lb) of Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato's 

With around 6 new potatoes peeled and chopped. 

Bring the to the boil then simmer alll together for 20 minutes

after you drained them blended all the Veg together.

Then added about 400ml (13 Floz) of stock gradually to the blended vegetables whilst stiring

What you ended up with is a super simple, super delicious and super healthy soup.

Which was eaten in a flash :) 

Look out for next week's blog as this weekend I am super excited to be going to the Whitstable Oyster Festival for the whole weekend - Friday and Saturday Night just me and the girlies (The same ones from the Amsterdam and the last Whitstable trip see previous post for shenanigans) before the Hubby and the little one join us Sunday for lunch.

I expect it to be a jam pack blog post which will slightly more fun filled :) 

Birthday and Food Photo Winner

So it been a fun week.

I celebrated my 35 birthday (Must change my Bio) which means I'm half way to 70 and I have to fill in a new age box when taking part in questionnaires lol..

Actually I'm not that bothered by age or by birthdays, especially now as I'm a mum. So I'm half way to 70 all that means to me I get spend all that time with my beautiful family... Think of all the cool stuff I can do with them..

So my birthday was a quiet affair, as a few of my friends are going through bad patches with family illnesses and the little one was ill with a cold so we kept it very low key.

I woke up to a lovely breakfast of a bacon sandwich and bucks Fizz from my lovely hubby along with some vouchers to go towards my new computer (I'm saving up for a Surface Pro 3).

 

The from the little man I got send these lovely Flowers and Balloons (Although I have a sneaking suspicion his dad might have helped) :)

After having a lie-in, and as us parents know that is the best present ever. We went for a lovely lunch a The Hungry Guest in West Malling.

It has not long open and it is very beautiful inside a mixture of old and new as the building itself is quite old. Full of old wooden beams which look fab in contrast to the mix of modern art they hang on the walls.


I had a lovely open parma ham Sandwich with salad and as it was my birthday so I had a bit of pink fizz (Well you have to don't you) and my husband had a burger. They both were super delicious and enjoyed the quiet as the little one was at nursery.

I did also like the cutlery, although had the voice of Sheldon Cooper in my head saying a fork with 3 prongs is a trident lol..

 

The great thing about this place is it was reasonably priced, it had great food, great service and it is local. They also are welcoming of children so I know the next time we go we can bring "Captain Chaos" with us :)

 

Then in the evening I went to my parents we were supposed to go out again but as the little man was still not feeling well, we stayed in and had a take away and some wine which lead to me not feeling great the next day.

 

Then the rest of the week and because we had the bank holiday I did a lot more cooking.

 

I experimented as I'm trying to at least stay with in my Slimming World syn (Obviously Birthdays don't count).

 

So I made a Spicy Prawn dish.

 

 

 

I cooked off some prawns with a sprinkling of chilli powder on top, then added tomato Passata, bit more chili powder and some low fat Greek yogurt.

 

Then for the rice I just boiled up some plain rice but I roasted some carrot and swede chunks - 35mins at 200 degrees and mixed them in.

 

It was a great low fat dish which lasted me a couple of days. Although be careful with the carrot and swede as with the cooking it really easy to have them underdone or burnt.

 

 

 

 

I Also made a lovely low fat Bolognese with Turkey Mince and Passata but to jazz it up, I added 3 bell peppers, button mushrooms, Red Onion and baby plum tomatoes.

 

 

It was so colourful (Super tasty and Syn free) the photo won me "Dish of the Week" at my local Slimming World group which was nice.

 

I like to share recipes see other people recipes especially when dieting. As you're always looking for something different as its so easy to get stuck eating the same thing.

 

Its great that we can share ideas and then try them for myself, as I'm still trying to lose the weight. I'm hoping by the end of July I should be down to my target, but I do  have quite few parties and event to go to so I will need to stay strong...  

 

 

 

So far so good

Well my New Years resolutions got off to a flying start.

I've managed to lose 5.5lb (2kg) in my first week of dieting with Slimming World.

I'm so happy but it's not all been plain sailing, as the the below comparison picture shows.

My Husband and I, thanks to my Parents got to go for a nice meal out at a local Kent Pub - "The Farmhouse" in West Malling toddler free. which you all know meant I could eat without a screaming fit.

 I had a seafood linguine to be good. The other half had a burger followed by their sticky toffee pudding and I had nothing. He also left a bit of it, it took every inch of willpower not to finish it but I managed lol.

With trying to eat healthy I've been cooking up a storm.

This week I've made Turkey Chili.

All you need is:

Turkey Mince

1, Courgette

1, Bell Pepper

Mushrooms

Red Kidney Beans

500g chopped Ttomatoes

Chili Powder (I had hot but you can have mild)

1 vegetable Oxo Cube

Brown the mince add all the veg, kidney beans, Oxo cube and tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes.

To top it off I added home made chips (Fries) and added Salad.

I've been a busy bee in the Kitchen and with a young child it is difficult as we have a low oven so if I'm doing a lot of cooking I have to put the baby gate up so he keeps away from the hot oven. He obviously doesn't like it and stands at the gate and makes his feeling known lol.

So I spend a lot of my cooking time running over to him and giving reassuring hugs that I'm only cooking and haven't abandon him in favor of a Kitchen appliances. 

I used the basis of the Slimming World Quiche recipe and made.

Roasted Aubergine (Egg plant) & Courgette (Zucchini) Salmon Quiche

I roasted 1 bell pepper with 1 Aubergine and 1 Courgette at the same time cooked for 20 Minutes the Salmon. 

While this was cooking I took 4 eggs and 300g of fat free cottage cheese and mixed added a bit of Salt and pepper for seasoning and mixed together. 

Then when the salmon and the veg were done I lined a bottom of a dish with the roasted Aubergine poured over half the egg mixture then added the courgettes, peppers and the flaked Salmon before Pouring over the last of the mixture.

I then put this back in the over for another 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

What your left with is pastry free delicious quiche. 

To add to my busy cooking schedule last week I also had to attend a two day course to get my re-registration of my Prince2 (Project Management) Practitioner exam. The course was very intense and with the little one demanding most of my attention when I got home it was a bit tricky to do the home work. So fingers crossed I passed (I won't find out for a few weeks).

The upside is the training facility was in an Awesome location. Right next to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. As the weather was nice (Chilly but nice) I did a bit of sightseeing in my lunch.

I do love London even though I've seen these sight loads of times before I still love it when I near them.

On Sunday I was up early but due to one thing an another getting the little one up and fed. I decided I wanted something slightly more interesting for breakfast so I made Syn free Spicy Potato cakes.

All you need is a potato a grater and some Quark (a soft low fat cheese).

The process is so easy I made a little video:

So as I said a great week so far on the Diet front still need to get my other resolution off the ground but I am feeling healthy and fairly happy. Must be all the vitamins from all the fruit I've been snacking on.

So wish me luck with this weeks endeavors.

Think I'm just glad to be cooking again as it was a bit weird having a cooking blog with no cooking lol...

My Christmas Day

Yay Christmas 2014 in the DCM household was a low key affair this year well apart from my fab crimbo accessories.

With a little one you think we'd be up earlier but the pudding slept past 7am and by the time I managed to get husband unit out of bed we did presents at 8am.

As the little one only 14 months we decided not to go too mad with gifts as I'm sure over the coming years the demands on Santa will increase. 

Christmas morning in our house all ways consist of Bacon Sandwiches. Mmm Bacon making the house smell delicious.. 

Then on with a The Christmas Tv while we enjoyed the bacon and slowly got dressed. Think there's nothing nicer than having a quiet Christmas morning as the day can be stressful enough without starting it in a panic. 

Then it was off to my folks for Christmas Dinner they're only 10 minutes away so it was a short jaunt. I drove there so the Husband unit would drive back. Don't feel too sorry for him he's not a big drinker and with us just getting over cold I wouldn't be having a lot.

Now it is true what they say nothing beats your mother's cooking. My mum always pulls out all the stops for Christmas a proper Turkey Dinner. The starter was Prawn Cocktail which is a bit 1970 chic. But hey I like them and if someone else is making it I'm in no position to comment. 

We have a serve yourself system at dinner at my mum's which I think is great so you can just have what you want rather than being rude and leaving stuff on the plate you don't like. For me it's peas I like them in stuff like a cottage pie but have a thing about the on their own (yes I know I'm weird). 

So dinner with all the trimmings was amazing.

Followed by Christmas pudding and custard.

As you can see I'm a traditionalist when it  comes to Christmas eats. 

But that's just once a year ( well we are having Christmas two tomorrow when my brother and Nephew go over to my mums). So that's okay... 

And considering my fantastic Christmas present 

Know I'll be cooking up some interesting flavours in the New Year. So if any of you out there have any good Tangine Recipes I would love for you to share them,

I'm now having a relaxing Boxing Day ( for my American readers this is a holiday we have the day after Christmas in the UK) in front of the telly with a sick little man. 

Piece of advice people don't get your kids MMR jab just before the holidays as he's having a mini measles session while the vaccination start work. Not too bad apart from the 1am sickness session :( but seems to be not too bad now.

So a quiet day in front of the box with some movies (mostly cartoons) and the odd treat to keep me going.

So I hope you all had a great Christmas Day and have a fun fuelled new year planned....