Saturday bake day

Happy Saturday strawberry bon bons! Hope you are all well and happy : ) I am uber happy, even more so than usual, as it is half term! I have made some great plans for next week, all will be revealed soon!

Today has been more laid back than usual for me as hubby is ill with flu so I have been in full on wife mode! I stopped off at Waitrose for some get well soon bits for hubby and then spent the afternoon making home made vegetable soup and chocolate brownies! Today's post shows the delicious results! ; )

My favourite cook books! Today I used the book second from the left with the flowery spine, a  birthday gift from hubby's Grandma.

1) Break 225g of good quality plain chocolate (at least 60% cocoa solids) into pieces and place in a heat proof bowl. Add 175g of butter to the chocolate. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering hot water but make sure they do not come into contact at all. Set the timer for 10 minutes and allow the chocolate and butter to melt slowly.

2) In the meantime, whisk together 100g caster sugar with 3 large eggs.

3) In a large bowl, add all the ingredients together; the melted butter and chocolate, the sugar and eggs, and 175g of self raising flour. Mix together until all the ingredients are combined.

4) Add 100g white chocolate chips and 50g of milk chocolate chips to the mixture and stir in fully.

5) Pour the brownie mixture in a 25cm non-stick baking tin and smooth over.

6) Ta-da! 30 minutes at 180 degrees and the brownie should be cooked. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into squares.

7) The brownies cut into squares and stacked onto a cake stand.

I served the brownie with Haagen-Daz's chocolate, praline and caramel ice cream for hubby, perfect get well soon dessert! : )

More soon dear readers, enjoy the rest of the weekend : ) XOXO

Something Different

Hello  gorgeous followers, hope everyone is well and happy! I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend too : ) Mine was great, I ran revision on Saturday again (my last Saturday revision and stupidly early start until exam season in June!) then went for my monthly wander around Rochester with co-pilot Clare. We love to take in the quaint little antique and home shops before stopping for a gorgeous lunch in our favourite shop/restaurant! I stayed round Clare's Saturday night and then returned home this morning. Waiting for me were some beautiful Christmas presents from hubby's grandma which I loved and put a huge smile on my face : )

 Later today hubby and I decided to lunch out at Chiquito's which has just opened near our house, there will also be a Nando's soon right next door, by the looks of things today it is very nearly finished, woohoo! We devoured three courses which left us stuffed, so much so that I didn't even want any popcorn when we went to the cinema afterwards! We saw Warhorse which was amazing, I shed a fair few tears as did hubby! ; )

As I like to mix it up from time to time, today's post is a foodie one, a dish that I made recently and enjoyed immensely. Hubby and I both love an Indian takeaway, and I also love making healthy curries in the week too. My recipe for healthy chicken korma comes from my favourite Sally Bee cookbook and is a winner in terms of health and taste.

1) Chop up a range of veg, whatever you fancy and enjoy. I chose green beans, courgette and red pepper.

2) Over a medium heat, heat some olive oil and saute the two onions, a couple of chopped chicken breasts, two crushed cloves of garlic and a peeled and chopped medium apple. Allow to cook for 3-4 minutes and then stir in 4 teaspoons of mild curry powder.

3) Add the chopped vegetables to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until the veg start to soften and the chicken has sealed in the spice.

4) Add 300ml of chicken stock to the pan, sultanas (if enjoyed, I left them out because I do not like them), and 2 tablespoons of tomato puree. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

5) Just before serving, add some chopped coriander and 4 tablespoons of low-fat creme fraiche or fromage frais to the curry and stir in well. Season with freshly ground black pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes but do not allow to boil.

6) Serve with hot cooked basmati rice, adding one spoon of creme fraiche to each portion as you serve.

Very yummy and healthy too! Well that's about all from me today, I am looking forward to a slightly more laid back week, final GCSE until June is tomorrow morning so things will calm down a tad (for a while anyway!) XOXO

Peach Crumble

Hello strawberry shortcakes, how are you all today? I am just lovely, had a busy but fun day at work and have just eaten a delicious spaghetti bolognese cooked by my own fair hands! Today's post is another foodie one; after making my Christmas cookies in half term last week, I was inspired to try another new recipe, peach crumble, and I want to share it with you all today : )

1) Get your ingredients ready, you will need: 6 peaches/nectarines, 1 lemon, cooking butter, salt, caster sugar, cinnamon, light brown sugar, plain flour, baking powder and one egg. Pre- heat the oven to 200 degrees.

2) Peel the nectarines/peaches (I used my vegetable peeler as I find this easier!), and then cut into similar sized slices. Lay across the bottom of the foil tray. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the peaches and a sprinkling of the lemon zest. Mix one quarter of a cup of brown sugar with 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of cinammon and sprinkle over the peaches.

3) Mix one cup of flour with one cup of caster sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Add the beaten egg to the mix and stir until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. It may be necessary to get your hands into the mix (remember, remove wedding rings first!) as it is really important to make sure the mixture does resemble crumble, without any obvious lumps.

4) Sprinkle the crumble mix evenly over the peaches. Melt half a cup of butter in a pan and drizzle over the top and then cook in the oven for around 30 minutes.

5) Ta-da! The finished product should look lightly browned on top. Serve with custard or ice cream and enjoy!

 A really tasty and comforting dessert in 5 easy steps! I have to confess I had never made a crumble before and was very impressed with the end result. The crumble was delicious and the peaches were soft and tasty. In future, I am going to try apple or pear crumble as hubby prefers those fruits, and perhaps even blackberry and raspberry!

Hope you are all well, more soon XOXO

Christmas Cookies : )

Hello lemon bon bons how are you all today? I have had the most ridiculously lazy day ever. I didn't wake up until 11 (no alarm clock in half term!) and then allowed myself to stay in bed til half 12. It was so nice not having to rush around for anything, I am going to enjoy it while it lasts! I decided to have a practice run making some Christmas biscuits today so set off later in the afternoon for a couple of ingredients from Tesco. Here's how I got on...

1) Get all of your ingredients ready, you will need 2 tsp of vanilla extract, 250g butter, 140g caster sugar, 1 yolk of  an egg and 300g plain flour. The cookie cutters to the right were a Christmas present from my mother in law and were perfect for creating festive shapes.

2) After weighing out the ingredients, mix the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until light and creamy.

3) Stir in the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat in quickly. Then sift the flour and continue to stir in. Towards the end, you will have to get your hands in in order to turn the mixture into a firm dough.

4) Flour the kitchen surface and roll the dough out with a rolling pin. Use the cookie cutters to cut out shapes., and evenly space them out on a greased non-stick baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 12 minutes at 180 degrees, and then place them on a wire rack to cool.

5) Decorate! I used an icing sugar mix to create the white icing, and a sprinkling of icing sugar on a few as hubby is not such a big fan of icing as I am! You could experiment with different colours and toppings too as I intended to (but ran out of time!) Still, I like the white, I think it looks like snow, simple and effective : )

So there you have it, I think they turned out quite well for my first attempt, however, I have learnt some lessons for next time:

1) The icing sugar mix was quite messy and tricky to apply so next time I may try some ready to roll icing stuck down on top of the biscuit with apricot jam.
2) I am going to buy some tubes of different coloured writing icing as it will be quick and easy to create designs then without having to use my piping bag.
3) Make sure I only using my baking sheets (I used a regular cooking tray with one load of biscuits, and despite being greased it was not non-stick at all, so all the biscuits on that tray broke up).
4) Remove my wedding rings beforehand - when kneading the dough, it all got stuck between my diamonds, meaning I had to use an old toothbrush and washing up liquid to scrub it all out afterwards!)

Love to you all, more soon xoxo

Chilli con healthy

Hi dolls, hope you are all well! I have been super busy this past couple of days as school has returned and I am following my full timetable now. The classes I have had so far have been really good and fun, although I am pretty tired by the time I get home in the evening! Today's post is a non - fashion one, instead a recipe that I wanted to share from our dinner yesterday. The weather in the UK has been pretty chilly and rainy so I have started to crave comforting old favourites for dinner. I decided to make Sally Bee's version of chilli con carne, a recipe she has dubbed 'chilli con healthy' and it was delicious!

Step 1) Chop up an onion, half a courgette and a green pepper. Peel two cloves of garlic. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and then brown the mince for around 5 minutes. Add the vegetables and continue to cook for another 5 or so minutes.

Step 2) Add one teaspoon of paprika, two teaspoons of cumin and two of chilli (more if you like things spicy) and  stir in. Continue to cook for 3 minutes.

Step 3) Add one can on chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of tomato puree and 600ml of beef stock to the pan. Stir well and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently.

Step 4) Add one tin of mixed beans to the chilli, and one tin of green lentils. Season with black pepper and  heat through gently for another 30 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, heat your rice and also some extra green vegetables for the side.

Step 5) Serve with rice and veg, I used brown rice, broccoli and spinach.

My new garlic pot! So cute!

 xoxo