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 :)

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...  

 

 

 

Cookies for Work

I've got back to doing some baking, I decided to make cookies for my work colleagues. 

I made chocolate filed chocolate chip cookies.

I used 

250g of butter

180g of soft brown sugar

180g of granulated sugar

450g of flour

3 eggs

Teaspoon of bircarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

Lots of chocolate chip 

And more chocolate for the Middle 

I wanted to add some vanilla extract but I had run out so I used a bit of pineapple juice to make sweeter. ( worked quite well as it didn't detract from the taste)

So I mixed the butter and the sugar together. Once creamy added the eggs and the juice and mixed in.

Then sived in the flour and the bicarb mixing before I dived the mixture in half and adding lots of chocolate chips to one of those halfs.

I wanted there to be melty chocolate in the middle so I added a bit of chocolate to the cookie once it had been placed on the baking tray.  

I then cooked for 10mins in an over at 200 degrees. 

The melty chocolate didn't quite work out. I know what I did wrong though. I should have melted down the inside chocolate and added a bit of cream so it wouldn't set. But they tasted good anyway.

That's the great thing about cooking even if it doesn't go right you can have tasty mistakes lol...

With the rest of the mixture I added coco powder and made double chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips..

They went down a storm at work, with most co works trying both to see which one they liked the best. It was a divided opinion so when I do cookies for work again looks like I'll need to make both flavours😋

I love baking but as there's only 2 and a half of us at home it's nice to work in a big team. So if I go on a baking spree I don't have to eat it all myself. As I don't think my slimming world group leader would like it if I did 😝

Hope you give them a try yourself and if anyone has any hints, tips or great recipes i would love to here them..