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%

Back to Baking

So after previous weekends filled with of fun and frolics I finally managed to get my Bake on this week.

well after I enjoyed a rather nice cider 

Corner Stone Cider Blush - very refreshing taste and not sharp like some other ciders. Haven't seen them in any local shops yet (Parents brought it back from the CLA Fair) so a rare treat. Although I will keep an eye out for them as it a perfect accompaniment to a Summer BBQ. 

Right back to the cooking:

I decided to make some Slimming World crust-less quiche - but as I was inspired by Great British Bake Off - My Favorite show I decide add a bit of flare. So Made Crust-Less Cupcake Quiches... 

I took a pack of dried Mac n Cheese, Frozen Veg, Fat free Cottage Cheese (300g) 4 Medium eggs, some Mushroom and some cherry tomatoes to make my taste low fat (Syn Free) snack.

Firstly I cooked the Macaroni cheese as per instruction I just replaced the milk required to water to make it extra healthy.

While that was cooking I took two handfuls of frozen veg and cooked as per instructions.

I then chopped up between 8 - 10 mushrooms 

They need to be quite small as they will be going in the quiche.

I then took the 4 egg and the fat free cottage Cheese 

Placed them all together in a big bowl 

Then proceeded to mix. I would recommend using a mixer to do this you can do it by hand but you want to break up most of the cottage cheese lumps and an electronic mixer will make this easier.

Then once everything was cooked I added the Macaroni Cheese to the egg and cheese mix.

Followed by the mushrooms

Then added the veg 

Mixing them all together they were ready too spoon out.

I put the mix into Muffin cases (Make sure you spray some 1 calorie spray oil into the case to make them easier to removed when cooked) and added a whole cherry tomato on top.

I put them in a 200 degree oven for 30 minutes, if they are not golden brown you can always but them in for an extra 5 more mins if needed.

Then Viola some tasty looking quiche cupcakes with a cherry (well Tomato) on top.

They are really fun and yummy to eat and you can always add a bit of spice to it or change with veg you added.

I would say just have a go an experiment with the flavors you like. Also if you want to make a gluten free version you can just omit the Mac and Cheese and just add 40g of low fat cheese (Although this will add a syn value if you are on Slimming world).

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 :)