Category: Food

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Mothers Day With McCains Special Roast Potatoes

Mothers Day food yesterday was courtesy of McCains to try their new roasties.

McCains 12

The NEW Special Roast Potatoes are made from the very best King Edward potatoes cut into generous chunks and basted in sumptuous beef dripping.   They are really really good.  I put on both bags and by the end of mealtime, there were none left at all.  That’s always a good sign.

McCains Special Roast Potatoes 1

McCains sent along lots of lovely ingredients to go along with the roast potatoes, and we had carrots, sage and onion stuffing, chicken, green beans, broccoli and cabbage.

The broccoli and cabbage is in the fridge for another day, as there was too much for one meal, even if there were 6 of us eating.

There was a Knorr Flavour Pot in Mixed Herbs which we’ve also not tried before, and as I like my vegetables roasted, I use roasting bags to keep them moist and not get burned.  I used two separate bags, one for the green beans and one for the carrots.  In them, I halved the flavour pot and added a few tablespoons of water before shaking the mix around to coat the vegetables.

The chicken went into the oven first (also in roasting bags) and just over half an hour from the end, I popped the roast potatoes in a tray covered in tin foil to start cooking.  The vegetables were last to go in, with 20 minutes cooking time at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cheese and Tomato Quiche Recipe, with Maw Broon’s Sauces

Cheese & Tomato Quiche 2

This recipe size makes up to 8 x 4″ flan case sized Quiches.  Use half the quantities for a smaller batch.

Quiche is nice and easy to make and almost everyone enjoys Quiche hot or cold.  Eaten hot, it’s great with some baked beans and is fabulous cold as part of a salad, and can even go in lunch boxes.

We’d been sent some lovely Maw Broon’s sauces to try.  As a Scottish person who grew up on the Broon’s books, the Maw Broon’s range isn’t one that I’m going to let slip through my fingers.

Two of my children love Tomato Sauce and the other loves Brown (or Broon) sauce.  The verdict in this house was one of thumbs up.

My boys are usually Heinz fans only, so I was slightly apprehensive that they wouldn’t like it, but they did.  There are no artificial flavourings, colourings or sweeteners, so it’s all good.

For the Quiche, it all starts with the shortcrust pastry.  I’ve added the recipe for that first, and then followed it up with the cheese and tomato quiche one underneath.  Enjoy.  This makes for delicious quiche/flans.

[gmc_recipe 25753]

[gmc_recipe 25773]

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Honey Glazed Mushroom and Onion Topping

Honey glazed mushroom and onion topping is perfect for on top of soups, toast, potatoes or steaks.  We’re big fans of as many vegetables we can get into the kids.  A teaspoon or two of honey among 4 – 6 people isn’t going to do any harm at all in a sensible food intake.

Honey Glazed Mushroom & Onion Topping

Lesley S Smith
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Sides / Toppings
Servings 4 - 6

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Onions
  • 500 g Chopped Mushrooms
  • 2 tablespoons Honey
  • 1 heaped teaspoon Coconut Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Peppercorns

Instructions
 

  • Put the coconut oil in a frying pan and let it melt. Coconut oil melts very quickly so it will not take long.
  • Add the chopped onions and mushrooms and fry lightly until cooked. You are aiming at keeping the onions as light as possible for this dish so don't let them burn.
  • At the end of cooking, add in the honey and give it a good mix with the mushrooms and the onions.
  • Serve as a topping for soup, toast, baked potatoes, salads, steaks, or anything savoury that you can think of.
  • Sprinkle with a little ground peppercorns for decoration.

 

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Thomas Kitchen Carving Challenge: Tomato Ladybirds with a Cucumber Rose

After a few attempts, this blog post is my entry for the Tesco Blogger Fruit and Vegetable Carving Challenge to win £150 meal voucher from Red Letter Days.   This week is the first time I have tried vegetable carving, so I’ve found it difficult, challenging and fun at the same time.  It’s easy to see why carved fruit and vegetables are so popular in Thailand.  The kids eyes popped open when it was ready to eat and sat on the table with dinner.

The kids gave me some inspiration to make it and the suggestion for marzipan when white icing didn’t work was genius.  I decided on Tomato Ladybirds and a Cucumber Rose.

Tomato l

I’ve already written a post about the vegetable carving that showed just how difficult I had found it.   Tesco sent me a set of Thomas knives to carry out the task with, and my first attempts failed miserably.  With a plan, and deciding to still have a last try, I decided to take it from a different angle and create decoratively carved food that my kids would enjoy picking off a plate.

I needed Philadelphia Cheese, Tomatoes, a Cucumber, some White Marzipan, Fruit Flakes, Chocolate Sprinkle Drops, Lettuce and a Carrot.  It took 6 bamboo skewers in all, with three for the tomatoes and one to make my cucumber rose with a carrot topped centre.

The marzipan sticks to the dried tomatoes very easily, so was perfect for the spots and base for the eyes.  I could have also used it for the top of the antennae, but I had fruit flakes so used them to have something different.

So, here goes.  My finished attempts and the photographs of how it turned out.

My cucumber rose in a container of lettuce for the decorative setting.

Tomato Ladybird Cucumber and Carrot Rose

My ladybirds on a bed of lettuce with carrot and cucumber decorations.

Tomato Ladybird 4

Tomato Ladybird 5

Tomato Ladybird 7

If you would like to find out more about the Thomas Kitchen Knives and win a set for yourself, head on over to the Giveaway post to enter.

If you shop at Tesco, you’ve probably noticed that they are running a sticker promotion between 3rd March – 1st June 2014 where you can save up to 70% on exclusive kitchenware products at Tesco. For every £20 you spend online OR in-store you can collect a sticker, once you’ve collected five stickers you can use these to save up to 70% off professional kitchenware items of your own.  

Stickers can be collected from 3rd March 2014 – 25th May 2014 and must be redeemed by 1st June 2014.  

I’ve already got enough stickers to get the chopping boards and the roasting tin, so I am a happy bunny right now.

Thomas

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Soup Maker: Carrot and Ginger Soup Recipe – 1.6 Litre

Another soup maker recipe for you, but remember, you can also make this in a pan.

Carrots make for a wonderful soup.  It really does not matter what is added to the soup, there is almost always going to be an innate sweetness that the carrots lend to the recipe.

When serving this up, you can serve with a little cream on top, creme fraise, or even some natural yoghurt.

Soup Maker: Carrot and Ginger Soup Recipe

Lesley S Smith
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 26 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Carrots
  • 150 g Onion Peeled and Chopped
  • 1 Root Ginger Bulb Up to about 3 - 4 Inches Long. Peeled and chopped.
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 l Vegetable Stock
  • 1 teaspoon Coconut Oil
  • Rainbow Peppercorns To garnish.

Instructions
 

  • For this recipe, to get more taste, lightly fry the onions and ginger in a frying pan with a teaspoon of coconut oil. The onions must stay white, so they will not need to be on for long. You can miss out this step and just put the ingredients straight into the pan if you are in a hurry, but the taste will not be so rich.
  • Add all the ingredients except the ground rainbow peppercorns into the soup maker and set it to smooth for 21 minutes. With stock, fill to Maximum In Soupmaker or up to 1600-1800g for all ingredients manually in a pot.
  • Serve and garnish with rainbow peppercorns.

Carrot and Ginger soup 5

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Maltesers Pancakes Recipe

These were the idea of my youngest child.  Wanting something a little bit different from regular pancakes, he wanted something a bit more sweet added to them.

We wandered the aisle of the local co-op to see what we could find and came up with pancakes with Malteser bits in them.

They’ve been more of a success than I actually could have imagined, so it was well worth experimenting with these Malteser Pancakes.

Malteser Pancakes Recipe

Adapted from Nigella Lawsons American Breakfast Pancakes
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Snack
Servings 8 - 18

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 tablespoons Baking Powder
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 35 g Soft Butter
  • 35 g Caster Sugar
  • 300 ml Semi Skimmed Milk
  • 250 g Plain Flour
  • 150 g Crushed Maltesers

Instructions
 

  • Put all the ingredients into the mixer. Mix for 3 minutes. This pancake mix is actually quite thick in comparison to many of the older scotch pancake recipes as the intention is to have a pancake with a bit of a fluffy middle.
  • Heat a thick bottomed frying pan (or any pan) on the hob. I prefer not to use oil to cook my pancakes, but it means I do have to keep a close eye on them. I leave the heat almost at the lowest that it can go and cook them slowly.
  • When you see the top of the dollop of pancake mix beginning to bubble up, then it is time to turn over your pancake to cook the other side, which won't take long at all. Don't leave pancakes alone on the hob as they will burn very quickly.
  • You can get anything from 8 - 18 pancakes from this mix, depending on how big you make your pancakes.

 

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What Is Pancake Day? Tues 4th Mar 2014

This year, pancake day falls on the 4th of March.

Traditionally, Pancake Day, or what is often called Shrove Tuesday in the UK, is the day before Ash Wednesday and signals the start of Lent.

Typically, the word shrove means to confess all your sins and it is often known as pancake day as it was a great way to clear the cupboards before the fast of Lent by using up milk, butter and eggs which are not allowed during Lent.

We’ve all heard of the Mardi Gras carnival.  That’s a Shrove Tuesday event, as is the well-known carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

The Christian season of Lent is to prepare for Easter.  As a non religious family, it’s always surprising to me to find out the holidays and customs which so often seem tied in to historic Christian practice.

Lent begins around 40 days before Easter (not including Sundays)

During Lent, lots of Christians go through a period of fasting and repentance to have enough time to reflect on Jesus Christ, his suffering and the sacrifice he made.

Although not all Christians follow or stick to Lent, and it doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the bible, I do hear people giving up things for Lent.  A tweeter gave up Twitter for Lent a couple of years ago which I found a little strange as i thought it was about repenting on sins, and I’ve not thought of Twitter as a sin.

Perhaps it’s very hypocritical of me to enjoy making pancakes for Pancake Day, but like Christmas, it has no religious meaning in our home, and is celebrated just for what it is.  A day for making pancakes.

Whatever it means to you, have a lovely day and make lots of great pancakes.

[gmc_recipe 22548]

 

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Soup Maker: Peppered Mushroom Soup Recipe – 1.6 Litre

Another soupmaker recipe goodie.

Mushrooms are available here all year round and make fabulous soups.  The taste is completely different to anything you can buy in a tin.

This recipe does make for very thick soup when it cools slightly, so you might want to water it down a bit or use slightly less ingredients if you want a more watery soup.    The colour of mushroom soup isn’t the most appetising, but the taste more than makes up for that.

It might be too peppery for some, so if you don’t like the strong taste of peppercorns, add less ground peppercorns to give your soup a milder kick.

Soup Maker: Peppered Mushroom Soup – 1.6 Litres

Lesley S Smith
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Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4 - 6

Ingredients
  

  • 400 g Mushrooms Washed and Chopped
  • 200 g Chopped Leek and Onion
  • Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Rainbow Peppercorns
  • 1 l Beef Stock
  • Chopped Chives To Decorate
  • 1 Teaspoon Double Cream Per Person To swirl on the top at serving.

Instructions
 

  • This recipe is intended to be cooked on the smooth setting. Add your chopped mushrooms, leek and onions to the pot.
  • Add in a pinch of salt and your teaspoon of ground rainbow peppercorns and your litre of stock (or up to the 1.6 mark on a soupmaker)
  • Set to the smooth setting, or in a pan, simmer for 20 minutes and then blend.
  • Serve with a little cream to temper the slightly spicy taste of the peppercorns and decorate with some chopped chives.

 

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Puff Pizza: Chicken and Tomato Pizza Recipe

I love puff pizza as it’s just so quick to make compared to bread bases and makes a full meal on it’s own.

With this version, I simply used Sainsbury’s Lighter Puff Pastry, Ready Rolled.  It fitted the size of my baking tray perfectly with absolutely no overlap at all.

It’s just a case of rolling it out, throwing on your toppings and popping it in the oven for a great choice.

You can make it as healthy or as unhealthy as you like by the amount of cheese and toppings that are added, so the world is really your oyster.

Puff Pizza – Chicken and Tomato

Lesley S Smith
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Main Dish
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • Tomato Puree Paste
  • 375 g Puff Pastry Ready Rolled Sheets, Hand Made, or just Blocked and Rolled Out
  • 2 Chicken Breasts Diced
  • 12 Cherry Tomatoes Halved
  • 300 g Grated Cheddar Cheese

Instructions
 

  • Flour an oven dish, I used a very rectangle tray that we use for making oven chips. Roll out the puff pastry to fit the tray.
  • Dab tomato puree along the pastry and use a knife to smooth it out across the whole base.
  • Sprinkle on the chicken evenly, spread the cherry tomatoes out and top it with the cheddar cheese.
  • Bake in the oven at 200 Degrees or 180 Degrees for a fan oven, for up to 20 minutes.

 

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15 Uses for Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil 2

I’m, a coconut freak.  It’s been one of the constants in my life for a couple of decades or more and it’s multi purpose abilities means that I’ve found it handy.  I used to buy mine online in quantities of 6 tubs of 500 grammes at a time.  I can now buy it supermarkets, so I’ve changed my allegiance and switched brands.

The extra virgin organic and raw coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but melts very quickly when heat is added.  When we go abroad, I’ve just learned to live with the fact that the solid state of my tub of oil can fluctuate greatly.

Coconut

I go for virgin coconut oil, and the one I have this month is actually extra virgin coconut oil.  The smell is what draws me to this type of oil as I absolutely adore it.  It came into my life when I was sixteen years old and on my first holiday in Corfu, Greece.  I’d got burnt by the sun and my hair began to frazzle.  It was a Greek lady who came up to me, felt my hair and told me to go and buy a tub of coconut oil to rub into my hair and leave it overnight.  I am so grateful she did, as otherwise I’d probably never have found my favourite oil of all time.

It’s safe to say that I use coconut oil quite a lot.  I’ve slackened off using it in cooking, but I plan to remedy this quite soon.   That’s more to do with wanting to make my stocks last for as long as I could until I found Sainsbury’s stocking a fabulous smelling tub of it.

Before using coconut oil on any skin or body part, make sure you do an allergy response at least 24 hours before so that you know there won’t be any negative reactions to it.  I’m not a doctor, so ask their advice if you’re not sure about using it on your body.    An inside elbow patch is probably a good place to try it out.

People say coconut oil has anti-fungal properties and can be used as an anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic.  I’ve never used it for any of these uses, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it helped with all of them.

1  Cooking

Why more people don’t cook with coconut oil, I have no idea.  I suspect some are cottoning onto the good uses of it as the price is beginning to come down in supermarkets for the good stuff.   I love it to add to fried fish that I’m not dry frying and to give a lovely coating for things I’d rather not stick to pans.  It has a high smoke point so it’s great for baking and replacing butter to make a recipe dairy free.

2 – Skin Cream

Yes really.  I’ve had years where the only skin care regimen I’ve had is to slap on coconut oil twice a day.  I now alternate that with oilatum in the morning and the coconut oil at night as my skin is really very very dry and can break out in dry patches.  I’ve not had any dry patch breakouts since I started using coconut oil, so for me, it’s a no brainer to use it.

3 – Make Up Remover

Are you out of baby oil, or eye make up remover liquid?  If so, your tub of coconut oil can come in extremely handy.

4 – Baby Rash Cream

Slimy to apply it may be, but coconut oil makes a for a fabulously soothing balm for sore babies bums.  Just make sure they’re not allergic before using it.

5 – Hair Conditioner and Deep Nourisher

This is what I did in Greece.  Slap it on and then pop on a towel and keep it on while you sleep.  It will take some amount of rinsing out the next morning, but your hair will feel amazing a couple of days later.  If you’re too wary of leaving it on all night, just pop it on for an hour and take it off then.

6 – Stretch Marks

People tell me that it helps to prevent stretch marks if you rub it directly on your skin when you’re pregnant.

7 – Sun Protection 

I believe it’s a natural sun protection factor of 4, but you’d have to research that for yourself.

8 – Home Made Soaps

Add it to your home made smellies and it’ll add a fabulous moisturising effect.

9 – Home Made Soy Candles

Add it to home made candles and the smell of your soy candles may well be enhanced and the texture improved.

10 – Massage Oil

It’s an oil.  It’s more practical to have one oil with multi functional purposes than to buy lots of different oils for different purposes.  Some people can’t take the smell of coconut oil as a massage, but if you do, it’s perfect for it.

11 – Lip Balm

Buy wee lip balm tubs and put some in for a lovely natural lip cream.

12 – Eczema

Helps to improve and sooth dry skin and skin problems like eczema.

13 – Energy Source

I am told it doesn’t store calories as fat in our bodies and is wrongly labelled as one of the bad fats.

14 – Cradle Cap

Soothes babies skin and flaking misery by moisturising and helps remove the horrible itching.

15 – Acne

I didn’t have acne as I always had dry skin, but people tell me that it helps with acne.  It can cause an increase in the outbreak over the first 5 days so I’d recommend anyone wishing to try it makes sure they know what the potential is before they try it.

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Review: Benefits Of Green Tea

Teapigs3

Green tea on its own is definitely something that seems to take a little time to get used to.   I’ve been given it to try for a few weeks, and I’ve used it for just over a week now, and said I’d report back on it.

teapigs calls their 100% organic green tea leaves that are ground to a fine powder, Matcha.   They say it has 15 times the health benefits of regular green tea.  As a frequent green tea with lemon drinker, I thought this would be one for me to try.

One serving contains 6 times more antioxidants than goji berries, 70 times more than orange juice and 9 times the beta carotene of spinach.  The science boils down to claims of raising energy levels while keeping us calm and focused, which is apparently why it’s drunk by Buddhist monks to help them with their meditation.  It is also said to boost metabolism and burn fat.

I have to say that on the first couple of uses, I found it quite difficult to take.  The green powder is very fine and if we’re drinking it as a tea, it is better whisked up so that all the powder is absorbed.   It can also be baked into food or sprinkled over porridge, or even added to orange juice, yoghurt or smoothies.

I made the mistake at my first try, of just drinking it straight as it was made with hot water.  I didn’t find that easy, so I tried the other ways to use it.  The taste seemed to be hidden well in yoghurt, so that has become my vehicle of choice to take my daily dose of powder.

Teapigs1

I’m not quite sure if the benefits from drinking Matcha are because I’ve read the literature and been convinced, or whether it really is doing me some good.  I think that only time will tell with that one, but after a few days, I certainly didn’t feel as bone weary and exhausted as usual by the end of the weekend that has just gone past.

For that alone, I’ve convinced to keep on with it as I want to know if it continues to improve my daily well-being and I certainly could use to lose more than just a few pounds.  There are some celebrities trying it out too, like Lisa Snowden and Rebecca Adlington, so I’m looking forward to see how we all get on with it.

Teapigs4

So, for me, it’s keep going and see where it takes me.

I think we all have to make up our own minds with this type of product and only personal experience can help us decide if it’s right for us or not.

I would say that if you buy some, make sure you take it slow when you pull the ring that opens the container as the powder is very fine indeed and is easily shaken up.  The picture does not do the colour of this tea justice as the powder really is a beautiful shade of green.

Teapigs5 

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Dry Fried Bananas With Cinnamon Infused Sugar

This dish is perfect for serving as a topping for ice-cream, crumbles and desserts, or you can simply eat it on it’s own for a sweet treat with a bit of goodness from the banana thrown in.

If you want to find out more about dry frying, have a look here.

Dry Fried Bananas With Cinnamon Infused Sugar

Lesley S Smith
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Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 6 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Small Banana Per Person
  • 2 teaspoons Cinnamon Infused Sugar
  • sprinkle One Cal Spray

Instructions
 

  • Use a spray of one cal on the bottom of your pan. Add the chopped banana and bring to a low heat.
  • When you smell the banana cooking, use a fish slice to turn over the bananas to the opposite side. Turn them a few times over the space of a couple of minutes while always cooking on low to dry fry. If you need to, add one or two more sprays of your one cal or half a teaspoon of water.
  • Sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon infused sugar over your bananas, leave for around 30 seconds and then turn the bananas over.
  • Turn your bananas out onto a plate and sprinkle over a teaspoon of cinnamon infused sugar to serve. This is fantastic when it's served as the topping for ice-cream or a crumble.