who would thought it was beginning of summer?!

Well what i can say its blooming freezing, i would have to have posted about how the garden is nicely flourishing with plants. But instead i have the sorry news that most of it has died courtesy of the rubbish cold weather.

The new house is slowly coming along, the carpets still aren't down but we have bee having lots of repairs, so its not all bad. Its another hard month financially for us, i've just found out Natwest have messed up our accounts again, thats it i'm leaving them for another. I have simply had enough, poor customer service, atm machines not working its just poor.

So today i'm making a meal plan to see what i can do for the next two weeks. No doubt it will involve pasta, rice and potatoes and i'm going to get back into baking and cooking more scratch.
Also going to attempt to try and make a suet pudding of some kind, so before it could be a disaster!.

On the plus side my lilys have finally they showed they head hoorah!!!!
Oh and Twining have delivered the free samples of tea, hmmm earl grey and english breakfast yummy.

till later x

We have finally moved!!!

Its a been an incredibly long time since i last blogged.
My health was dire (still is), we were having a nightmare sorting all kinds if things out and battling with a landlord who refused to do repairs.

But something happened, i received a phone call from the local council and shock horror they offered us a 3 bed house!!!!!!! Now for us it was a massive shock to the system as we have been bidding for social housing for the past 11 years with no luck.

So we viewed the house and accepted it! Its 3 bed with a garage and we actually have an outdoor area :).
I was really dubious about moving though as the area we now live in is in between four really bad estates. They are literately no go areas and after 7pm if one person throws a brick at a bus no public transport will go through it.

But the area we are in is so quiet and nice and my children love it. They can play football outside without some car going 90 miles an hour up the road.
Do don't give up hope you never know it might happen, just like it has for us!


As well the above i have also being attending conferences to do with children and adults with disabilities, learning and additional needs. It was truly terrifying standing up in front of people and saying a speech, still have shivers now thinking about it.

Lemon Curd Cake and Twinks

Realised i didn't actually post the recipes and i always lose them so best i put them on here.

Lemon Curd Cake
100g margarine
75g castor sugar 
2 eggs 
175g self-raising flour
1 jar lemon curd

Heat the oven to 180  degrees. Grease /line a  loaf tin 
Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together till binded.
Then pour the cake mixture into the loaf tin and  level the top so its straightish. 
Place in oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes until browned.



I use granulated sugar instead of castor, as that's what i had in.
Oh and value lemon curd so its works out really cheap to make. Think its comes out at less than 50p to make the cake. Tastes lovely hot but also great for pack lunches.


Twinks  are like hob nobs and i got the recipe off the Money Saving Expert website. A member off there made this recipe up and they are so moreish hence the name Twinks.

(220g)8oz sr flour
(220g)8oz sugar
(220g) 8oz porridge oats
(8oz)  margarine

1tbsp golden syrup
1tbsp hot water
1/2 tsp bic soda

mix flour, oats and sugar, melt marg, syrup and water in a pan stir in bic soda and add to dry mix, mix well, make smallish balls and put on greased tray and flatten slightly with a fork, 180oc for 15 mins, cool on the tray, you just want them golden in oven not brown.






When the twinks come out of the oven they are quite squidgy  but after a couple of minutes cooling they harden. Beware they are diet killers. I think i got about 30 out of the mix. oh and leave plenty of space between them on the tray as they spread out when cooking.

It's been a while ....

Last time I posted I wasn't very well, my health was at an all time low. Everything was getting me down including my slum of a private rented home.
Since then I've been exceptionally busy, we've been offered a house off our local council. Myself and my partner have been on the lost for about a decade. Guess what were taking it!
Today had been a mixture of packing and baking.
Made a batch of twinks, lemon curd cake and a chick pea and chorizo casserole.

Tomato and pepper pasta

Hi all, 

Another cold day here in the north.we had a very quick.dinner tonight. This pasta takes about 15 minutes to cook.I normally start cooking the pasta and then start making the sauce, so its ready at the same time.

Tomato and pepper pasta.
Serves 4
 
500 grams of pasta (basic dried pasta 29p)
One onion thinly sliced. (10p)
One yellow pepper thinly sliced (20p)
2  garlic cloves crushed (or 1/2 tsp of powered garlic) (5p)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g tin) (25p)
1 tsp of black pepper (1p)
1 tsp of oregano         (1p)
1 tsp of salt                (1p)

put the pasta onto boil
Place sliced onions and garlic into a frying pan and cook till soft.
Then add the sliced pepper and fry till cooked.
then add the tinned tomatoes, pepper, salt and oregano  stir and boil down till the  liquid is almost gone.
The pasta should be cooked by the time the sauce has boiled down.
drain pasta, place some  in a bowl with some tomato sauce and serve.
simple and quick

Costs about 92p in all

 

Here are some variations

Meat :- add raw bacon and fry at the same time as the onions and follow the recipe as normal

Sometimes we like to add cheese after we've placed the pasta and sauce in a bowl. 

Yummy and perfect for a quick lunch or dinner.

fruity bread yummy

Hello,

Well its bread day made a huge 700g bloomer, a small loaf and a fruity loaf.
Now i've never made a fruit loaf so thought what the heck lets give it a go.

So for the bloomer, fruit bread and small loaf i've just used the same recipe as i would for a basic large white loaf. Now i've made it by hand as my bread machine has broken down. The bread machine recipe is on further on the blog to.

Which is 

Basic Bread Recipe
300g Strong White Bread Flour
300g Plain Flour
1pint of warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
7g dried fast action yeast 

For the fruit bread, same as above but also add 100g of whatever dried fruit you may have.

If making by hand place the flour in first ,then the salt, sugar and yeast.

Mix together till fully combined. Then slowly add the water whilst stirring till it has formed into sticky but not wet consistency.

Now leave to rise dough till its doubled in size. Once it has done this, knock the dough back down again .

You can now shape into loaves, buns etc Place the shaped into a loaf tin, baking tray and leave to rise again. Once it has done this, preheat the oven to gas mark 5. Leave for 5 minutes for the oven heat up and place the bread dough in the oven.

Bake for about 45 minutes or till cooked.

After you have mixed the dough it shold kind of look like this, if its too watery add more flour and mix again till its the right consistency.

I then  split the dough into two pieces, one for the fruit bread and one for the small loaf.

I place the small loaf dough into a separate dish. 

Then added about 100g of mixed dried fruit mix. 

I then mixed it all together and placed it back in the bowl.

to rise.

After placing the bread into bowls i covered them up with a carrier bag to trap the heat in to help them rise.

Heres all three of looking scrummy :)

ahh fresh bread, can't beat it.

Sausage and stuffing plait.

Hi all

Been a another cold and blustery day. 

Spent the day at my sisters drinking tea, cofee and chatting about life, kids basically anything and evrything.

Another recipe for you to try, i'm sorry i don't have pictures daft phone decided to run out of battery.

Sausage and stuffing plait.
1 large onion (thinly sliced and diced) (10p)
4 cloves of  crushed garlic (optional) (20p)
1 pack of basic sausage meat (494grams) (£1.45)
1 pack of puff pastry (£1.00)
1 pack of basic sage and onion stuffing (15p)
Fry onion and garlic till cooked and place into a bowl.
Mix the dried stuffing with the onions
Mix the above with the sausage meat.
Roll out pastry into a rectangle shape.
Fill the middle of the pastry with the meat mix, then fold pastry over into a sausage roll shape.
Place onto a greased baking tray and cook till pastry is brown, about 25 mins.
Serve hot or cold.
The above did us two meals with extras for the boys.
The first meal we had it had it with was veg, mash and gravy for one meal.
The second meals was sausage plait with chips and beans.

The plait can also be frozen and eaten cold, so very flexible meal.

Till tomorrow

Kez x