A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I may be steadfastly clawing my way back onto the healthy-eating wagon but in just the last couple of weeks, I’ve developed the most horrendous sweet tooth known to man.  My sneaky way around this intrusion into my angelic lifestyle *cough* is to fatten everyone else up instead.  Yes, I have become the ultimate feeder.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not so saintly that I don’t taste my creations but the trick is to have one and then GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF THE FLAT.  It’s the only way I can do it, heaven forbid I still have cake in the house come night-time.  You can be sure that it wouldn’t still be there the next morning.

My latest dabble has been with cupcakes (again).  Leila has decided on the theme that she wants for her fourth birthday party in May (she’s a planner), and that theme is “ballerina”.  She wants ballerina cupcakes, which will thankfully save me a whole lot of stress because anything has got to be easier than last year’s “steam engine cake”.

And so with my raging sweet tooth in hand, I headed into the kitchen to reacquaint myself with a bit o’ cupcake nurturing.  The actual baking, I can do with my eyes closed… the icing?  Well, to be honest, I usually trowel it on with a spatula and I’m done.  I don’t enjoy the faffy bits in baking… which is probably why I’ve always preferred home-style cooking over anything more delicate.

These Earl Grey Tea cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery book caught my eye mostly because I’ve discovered a new-found love for Earl Grey.  I’ve been a tea-drinker for about 10-years, I used to hate it as a teenager and it was only through meeting my husband (ultimate tea drinker) that I developed a taste for it.  While he’s a simple PG Tips man, I have enjoyed dabbling in loose leafs and the clean-tasting, subtle Earl Grey has become a real pleasure.

I won’t print the recipe here for fear of getting my hands slapped, so instead, I shall link you to the lovely Laura Ashley website who are hosting a copy of the Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes recipe with permission of Hummingbird Bakery.  Incase you’re curious, it’s from their Cake Days book… the sweet-toothed girl’s bible.

The only change I made to the original recipe was to use loose leaf tea instead of teabags, which I steeped in a cup with a tea infuser.

You may have noticed that my icing didn’t go to plan.  I got a phonecall mid-bake and when I returned to the kitchen, my scales had reset themselves!  I don’t think I put quite enough icing sugar into the mix but seeing as these were going to my Mum and Dad, I knew they wouldn’t mind my collapsed swirls!

Actually, if anyone has a failproof frosting recipe, I’m all ears… I’m not a huge fan of the HB one (which generally makes too much for 12 cupcakes).

Either way, the flavour of the cake is beautiful with just a hint of bergamot to lift the sponge, it’s very spring-like and delicate without being perfume-y.

Are you planning on baking this weekend?  How would you make “ballerina” cupcakes? Throw all your cupcake/icing tips at me, I’m gonna need them!

I would love to say that when it comes to enjoying a special occasion… for me, it’s all about the social experience.  I can’t.  I’m ashamed to admit that I like to involve food and drink in a big way.  Whether I’m planning a night in or a night out in celebration, the thought of what we’ll be eating or drinking is usually near the top of the list when it comes to preparation (and excitement).  Here standeth a foodie.

If you’re following a weight loss plan or trying to achieve a change in lifestyle, we can often view special occasions as the perfect excuse to let our hair down and overindulge.

Is this really such a problem?

I honestly believe that there is NO problem in occasionally taking your eye off the ball, and whilst I should be telling you how you can swap your chips for boiled potatoes, burgers for steamed fish, and your high-sugar cocktails for a gin and slimline tonic… I won’t.  Put it this way, if you’re coming to my dinner party whilst dieting AND you’re on pudding duty.  Don’t even think of bringing a fruit salad in lieu of a tiramisu, I’d mess you up.

The reason I won’t explain how you can be so wonderfully virtuous?  Well… I can’t, because it’s not what I would do and if I did?  I’d spend the evening with a look of pure resentment on my face as I watch my husband shovel steak cut chips into his mouth.

Homemade Steak & Chips (steak fried in garlic butter, jumbo mushroom, homemade baked chips dipped in egg white instead of oil, and salad) – 11 Propoints

I love food.  I always will love food, and who doesn’t love the occasional feast on the less-than-healthy stuff?  I love Weight Watchers precisely because it doesn’t stop me eating what I want.  It just reminds me (constantly) to keep myself in check, and that’s what I need more than anything.

I’m the sort of dieter who can sense a downhill spiral at a hundred paces.  I know that if I let myself go a bit silly on a Thursday night (our movie night), the chances are that my willpower will be weakened on a Friday evening too.  This is just the way that my brain likes to play games with my belly and I’m certain that some of you will recognise my words in yourselves.

Does this mean that I don’t feel any guilt about a splurge? (I won’t call it a binge, because it’s not that epic!)  Of course I feel guilty at times but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to pile on the self-sabotage with cherries on top.  This is nothing to do with hunger management, and everything to do with whatever issues give me the potential to live my life at a weight that is double that of what is considered healthy.  There ain’t no weight-loss plan in the world that will fix that overnight.

So, how do I use Weight Watchers in this situation?

1. I’m a planner, which is probably one of the reasons WW works for me… and I like to go into situations with my eyes wide open.  If I’m going out for a meal, I’ll usually have a nosey online at the restaurant’s menu beforehand.  Infact, that’s something I do regardless of whether or not I’m “dieting”.  What can I say?  The anticipation of a great meal is a thrill for me *embarrassed face*.  I use the Propoints Calculator on my iPhone app to work out the points of anything I can’t easily find in the Weight Watchers database and I calculate the Propoints of my chosen meal.

Nandos! (1/2 chicken, regular rice, and salad) – 14 Propoints. Swapping out the pitta bread and creamy mash meant that I happily guzzled a Cornetto at the cinema after.  Wasn’t giving up my rice though!

Usually, just by taking that step… I find myself genuinely wanting to swap an unhealthy side for something a little lower in points purely because it doesn’t seem worth it.  But I don’t put myself under any pressure to do this… and I’ll honestly only do this if I love the “healthier” version.  An example of this would be swapping out a meat-based starter for something like mushroom bruschetta.  I LOVE mushrooms and doing this is genuinely, no hardship to me.  Don’t think I’m being angelic… I’ll often justify an on-the-spot “oh go on then” pudding moment because I’ve made a couple of swaps earlier in the meal.

2. Well, you already know that I’m not on the exercise wagon as firmly as I should be… but this week, in pure anticipation of stuffing my face on Valentine’s evening… I’m upping the stakes.  It’s a challenge and for someone like me, let’s face it, the best reward is an extra scoop (ok, 2) of Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche on Thursday night.  Because the Propoints system makes the exercise/food ratio so tangible… I know precisely how many Propoints of exercise I want to earn this week and what I need to do to achieve it.

Whether or not this will actually make a difference on the scales next week, I don’t know.  But you know what?  I don’t actually care.  It helps me retain control and alleviate any guilty pangs, ‘cos those are the things that are really unhealthy to my willpower.

What approach do you take when special occasions threaten your steely-eyed determination to lose weight?

* I am a Weight Watchers blog ambassador and my links to their website are affiliated.  I have received no payment for this post.

Well, it’s Thursday and I’ve stayed on plan this week.  There’s been a couple of times that I’ve sneaked into my weekly PP allowance (an allowance you have in addition to your daily allowance – best reserved for treats/night outs, “emergency points” if you will) but on the whole, I’ve stuck steadfastly to my PP per day limit.  Talking of limits, after Monday’s weigh-in (I lost 3lb), my PP allowance has dropped from 30PP to 29PP, something to simultaneously cheer and grumble about.

This week’s challenge has been all about keeping track of what you’re doing and how you’re sticking to the plan.  And for me, it was a very easy one….

You see, I always plan my meals a week in advance… I have to, it reminds me when my belly rumbles at 3pm that I’ve got such-and-such dinner for tea… which is only an hour or so away so putdownthosebiscuitsrightnow.  It also allows me to use my PP effectively, and ensures that I include enough healthy and filling foods into my diet to keep the hunger pangs away.  Planning and a little forward thinking really is key to Weight Watchers in my experience.

So here’s what my weekly plan has looked like (and the meals that have gone with, thus far)

Monday: Bacon, Scrambled Egg, Tomato, Mushrooms, Bubble & Squeak patty, Bread – 10PP – Not bad for a fry up!

Tuesday: Balsamic roasted vegetables with streaky bacon and cous cous – 10PP – I didn’t expect to really like this one but it was probably my favourite!

Wednesday: homemade pizza (garlic sausage, tomatoes, onion, basil, mushrooms, grated cheese) with salad – 13PP – Lovely, the homemade thin crust was 8PP on its own but LUSH.

Thursday: Sausages, onions, carrot/swede mash, butternut squash, yorkshire puddings – 13PP – One of my favourites but I’m still searching for the perfect lowfat sausage! Oh and a word to the wise, Asda Smart Price Yorkshire Puddings are 1PP each, you’re welcome.

Friday: Tuna melt in a wrap with salad – 11PP

Saturday: Leek and potato gratin with blue cheese and bacon – 11PP

Sunday: Spinach and Quark Cannelloni – 10PP

My instagram page features all my main meals and if you use the hashtag #wwfooddiary, you should find many more dishes, snacks and treats to inspire from other instagrammers.

So, as you can see…. I’m not really a baked salmon on a bed of air kinda girl which, to be fair, is probably why I’m following the Weight Watchers plan in the first place.  Having said that, I’ve bought some frozen coley portions, asparagus, and lemon that doesn’t come out of a bottle in an attempt to not eat sausages every day next week.  You know I would if I could.

So far, the plan isn’t proving to be remotely difficult but then again, I am used to it and have sussed out LOADS of shopping tips to ensure that I make the clever choices when it comes to filling my basket, and my belly.  It’s Mr. L’s birthday on Sunday (21 again) so we’ll be going to the cinema and out for a meal at some point next week… we also have an afternoon champagne cream tea booked in to celebrate.  This week was easy… next week is going to be my NEMESIS.

To be continued… (back to the makeups tomorrow!)

Do you make a weekly meal plan?  What’s been your favourite healthy and filling meal this week?

* I am a Weight Watchers blog ambassador and my links to their website are affiliated.  I have received no payment for this post.

When bloggers do a “what’s in my bag”, or a “what’s on my bedside table” post.  We all know that this stuff isn’t really in their bag right?  Their bedside table doesn’t actually look like a Sense and Sensibility set at any other time than when the photo was taken for the blogpost.  I mean, I love candles but I don’t feel the need to sleep with one inches from my face or keep a collection of classic books to rival the British Library’s back catalogue adjacent to my elbow.  “Look how messy it is!” they proclaim.  Hahhahaha.  No.

Where’s the clicker? (remote controls to you normal people) the snotrags, the scrunchies that you wouldn’t be seen dead in outside of 1992?  It’s an illusion.

Which is why I was a little bit nervy when my first Weight Watchers challenge turned out to be photographing the contents of my fridge post-Christmas.  Of course, I did what any normal person would do and took out the two Quarterpounder Feasters (microwaveable burgers), and the Pepperami.  But what you see in the photos below is not an illusion.  It was also quite bare considering the Big Day had not long passed, I guess that accounts for the 6lbs I managed to put on over the festive period.

I swear those yogurts were not planted there by a Weight Watchers crack team

So, what have we got here then?  A crap-ton of garlic, coriander, ginger, madras etc. type pastes… because they can turn nothing into everything.  Some tired looking vegetables, many yogurts, leftover coleslaw, a tin of corned beef (it’s easier to slice cold!), mattesons sausage, the chocolate/treat container (shh), butter-esque spreads, and a bottle of mini champagne in-case something nice happens one day.

The thing that surprised me looking back at the photos, is this… considering how little there is in the fridge, there’s an awful lot of cheese in there.  We’ve got: cheddar, parmesan, dairylea, lowlow grated, blue, edam slices, and babybel.  Just how much cheese does one poorly-stocked fridge need?

So why am I showing you the contents of my fridge anyway?  Ladies, the challenge from Weight Watchers HQ was simple…

This week we want you to sort your fridge by hiding all your high PPV foods.

Store that Stilton, move that muffin and put all these temptations into containers or drawers that are hidden away.

Turn all the leftovers  you can into tasty low ProPoints values meals and share one recipe you’ve made.

I’m not storing my Stilton!  Stilton is a bleedin’ lifesaver when you’re trying to create tasty-but-virtuous meals thanks to its potency.  The reality is, you only need to use a little bit to really lift the flavour of something… and that’s what I’m going to show you in my “leftovers” recipe below.  In-case you were wondering, the mattesons sausage totally got stored.  I also went through my freezer and gave my stash of beef mince to my Mum who picked me up a few packets of turkey mince on her next food shop.

Anyway, the recipe…

Cauliflower, Turkey, and Blue Cheese Bake – 10 ProPoints Values

Now, I know it looks a bit like baby vom and at the very least needed a sprig of parsley artistically placed somewhere but believe me when I tell you that it tasted better than it looked.  I’m no Smitten Kitchen when it comes to cooking but this was pretty yum for a weight loss friendly, fridge-rescue mission.  I do have one confession to make though… I stole the turkey to make it from my Mum’s fridge, hers was (and still is) heaving!

1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets
15g butter
15g plain flour
140ml semi-skimmed milk
50g blue cheese
200g roast turkey meat, pulled into pieces
black pepper to taste

1.  Steam the cauliflower until tender and transfer into a baking dish.

2.  Make the roux by melting the butter in a saucepan on medium/low heat.  Once melted, quickly stir in the flour before adding the milk – a little at a time until you have a creamy sauce.

3.  Crumble and add the blue cheese to the sauce, keep stirring until it melts and then remove from the heat.  Grind a little black pepper into the sauce if you wish.

4.  Add the turkey pieces to the baking dish and pour over the blue cheese sauce.

5.  Pop under a hot grill until the top begins to darken.

The rich flavour of the blue cheese and the unadulterated creaminess of the sauce makes this meal seem far naughtier than it is and I felt no guilt when I logged on to the Weight Watchers website later in the evening to track my day’s progress.

How’s your fridge looking in the gloom of January’s dull presence?  My first food shop since Chrimbo came on Friday and I must say, it’s looking a lot healthier this week!

* I am a Weight Watchers blog ambassador and my links to their website are affiliated.  I have received no payment for this post.

I’m not your classic party girl… but if I were, I’d be panicking right about now.  You see, December is the most traditional of party seasons, that time of year when you’re really not supposed to wear the same dress twice.  And as thankful as I am for a red carpet-void lifestyle, I’m even more thankful for the fact that I don’t have to embark on strict beauty rituals to maintain an appearance fit for public consumption.

So why the hell did I agree to trial a Beauty Juice Cleanse for 5 days?  Well, because I had massive bloat, felt like a spotty teenager, and wanted a kick up the backside toward behaving more healthily again.

Almost everything is provided on the plan, the juices (and supplements) arrived by early-morning post and were still cold on arrival thanks to a well-insulated cool bag and a nip in the air.  I eyed them suspiciously, I’m of the firm opinion that rarely does anything green actually taste pleasant.  I was proven both right (and wrong), as you’ll soon discover.

The morning ritual consisted of starting the day with a barrage of powders, capsules and warm water that tasted suspiciously of sub-standard supermarket lemons (my fault) before consuming the first of the day’s three Purifyne juices.  The Colosan powder ensures that you purge the waste efficiently whilst taking on the benefits of the juices.  Unless you know your tolerance for herbal laxatives, start small and build your way up.  And don’t stray too far from a toilet at first.  Trust.

I continued to sip at my juices throughout the day, alternating them with filtered water – by the end of day one, I would have robbed your granny for a Pepsi Max.  I can honestly say that I didn’t feel hunger throughout the 5 days of the plan.  Not once.

But don’t confuse that for one-second with “not wanting to eat anything” because as your granny was getting back on her feet, I’d have knocked her back down again for the Greggs sausage roll in her handbag.  Infact, on day 2 and day 4, I had to put myself to bed early because I was quite the grumpiest of baggages without a square meal inside of me.

Having said that, with the exception of one… the juices were good.  Hilariously, out of all of them, it was only the very greenest of juices that I couldn’t stomach (there’s a picture of it toward the bottom of the post).  I ended up pouring it down the sink, I just couldn’t deal.

I must have gone into ketosis at some point between day 3 and day 4 because I felt a little shaky and light-headed on the morning of day 3 and recognised those symptoms from the Cambridge Diet – however, this isn’t a “diet”… not at all, and I definitely suffered less carb withdrawals (headaches etc.) on this plan.

Afternoons involved taking a beauty “shot”, of a substance quite hopefully named “elixir of youth”, and do you know – it was delicious!  Unfortunately, I had to follow that up with a shot of Aloe Vera juice, which… I could only get down my throat by holding my nose and praying for instant sinusitis.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Purifyne Beautifyne Juice Cleanse is the wonderful excuse for a bit of pampering.  Every evening, I bathed in Dead Sea salts whilst sporting a hideously unnattractive mud mask.  Creature from the Black Lagoon much?  You could have thrown in a bit of seaweed and I’d have been dodging harpoons left, right and centre.  I felt so completely relaxed (and slightly wobbly) after pulling the plug each night that I was more than happy to head to bed with my final drink of the evening, Brazil Nut Milk.  Not quite a hot chocolate… but refreshing nonetheless.

Day 4, the penultimate day…. was a strange one.  I felt SO ready to eat normal food, but I was also just starting to feel the benefits of four days of juice injection.  Mr L told me that my eyes looked sparkly.  I wasn’t sure if he’d caught me remembering what a KFC tasted like or whether I was actually reaping the benefits of all those vitamins, either way – he was kind enough to notice that I was looking more perky than usual.  Of course, I weighed myself every morning… I wasn’t going to, but I couldn’t resist.  I lost a total of 8lbs over the course of the five days.

I also put 4lbs back on within 72hrs, but then I didn’t follow the “aftercare” plan and I was well aware that a lot of what I’d lost would have been water, which pops straight back on when you start eating refined carbs, sugars, salt etc.  But anyway, I didn’t do it to lose weight… hell, this juice cleanse isn’t even about that.  The Beautifyne Juice Cleanse offers the opportunity to “enhance your beauty” through chlorophyll-packed Green Juices and carefully selected supplements.

Did it?

Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I will say that my spots and blemishes healed remarkably quickly compared to normal and I felt that my “lush-flush” (a.k.a diffused redness across my nose/cheeks) seemed less angry.  I also think that you can actually see I’ve lost half a stone in the before/after pictures – even if it didn’t stay off for long…

The plan is cleverly-devised, simple to follow and well-supported.  Any queries I had over email were answered within the hour and I was also provided with a daily email alert reminding me how to stay on track and get the most from the experience.  My only complaint is that I would have liked to have been provided with an “in preparation” shopping list so I could have been ready with things like fresh, organic lemons/epsom salt/additional drinks.

Ultimately, would I do it again?  Well, if I had the money and was told that I’d be wedged between Watts and Mendes for a couple of pap shots, I’d be chugging back the “elixir of youth” shots in a heartbeat.

I definitely felt better for it but I also won’t pretend that I skipped around sipping at my pantothenic acid, folic acid, carotene and choline-rich juices like Mary Poppins’ cheerier sister.  I snarled on more than one occasion.  I’m also divorced now 😉

The 5-day Purifyne Beautifyne Juice Cleanse costs £345 and works well to hand-hold your way through what is, after all, quite a serious detox.  For more advice, you can talk to the guys behind the cleanse on Twitter and Facebook.

* press sample

If you’re looking for an Autumn-warmer that’s both versatile and nutritious, then you need look no further than good ol’ fashioned home-made soup.  It’s the kind of meal (yes, you CAN have soup for a main meal) that practically cooks itself and tastes even better the second time around.   I usually cook a batch of soup late at night, let it cool, then pop it in the fridge in the morning – we rarely have soup on the same day that I cook it, I generally feel that a good soup needs a day or two to mellow and intensify in flavour before it’s ready for serving.

I’m an advocate for simple, unfussy food.  I like cooking, no… I love cooking just so long as I don’t have to do anything that requires the patience of a saint.  The same with baking… as soon as I see any mention of meticulous decorating or sugarcraft, I close the cover on the book – the finesse of cooking, just doesn’t appeal to me.

With that in mind, today’s recipe is a hearty, if not meaty soup that has been really popular in our household lately.  Except with Leila.  It’s green you see, and Leila doesn’t trust anything that’s green.

One of the best things about this particular soup is that you only need a handful of ingredients to prepare it.  And trust me, despite the lack of content, there is a surfeit of flavour.

Broccoli & Blue Cheese Soup (makes around 3L, serves 8 – enough for freezing)

Olive Oil for frying
5/6 small onions (3 medium ones)
2 heads of broccoli (about 700g worth)
1 large potato (killer jacket sized)
2L of vegetable stock (I use a Bouillon)
100g blue cheese and a little more for crumbling (1 normal sized packet will do it)

1. Chop and fry the onions in a little olive oil (use a stockpot) for this.

2. Peel and dice the potatoes, make up the stock and add to the stockpot (I used 8tsp of bouillon to 2L of boiling water).  Simmer for around 10/15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

3. Roughly chop the broccoli (the smaller you chop, the easier it will be to blend later) and add it to the simmering mixture.  Allow to cook for a further ten minutes.

4. Crumble the blue cheese into the soup and stir gently until melted.

5. Grab your hand blender and whizz the mixture until smooth.

6. That’s it!  How unfathomably easy is that?

Some pictures of the process…

Sooooo good with fresh bread (homemade of course!).

Especially good with more fresh bread than you know is healthy for you and a little swirl of double cream – but that’s between you, me and the carbs.

What’s your favourite Autumn soup?

As a nation, we’re not particularly renowned for our cuisine… often finding ourselves the butt of many a culinary-related joke, but I don’t care.  I think that we cook without prejudice and, as a result, have no qualms about creating some of the best fusions and adaptations from around the globe.

Take the classically British Bread & Butter pudding, great it might be – but we haven’t gotten prissy about trying it with croissant, panettone, or brioche… we’re happy to smear the slices with jam, marmalade and even nutella! (hmmm, peanut butter idea forming as I type…) – we’re not stuck in our ways and we’re not overly precious about our food traditions, and what good is cooking if you don’t get experimental?

Well, it’s still pretty good actually because I really couldn’t be arsed today.

I went for the classic variety of bread and butter pudding and it puffed up so bloody beautifully in the oven that I thought I’d share the recipe I used with you.  The perfect bread and butter pudding should be crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, custardy, full of plump, juicy raisins (none of those burnt ones!) and perhaps just a little kick of nutmeg.

Here’s how mine went…

Classic Bread & Butter Pudding (like wot Mum makes!)

10/11 slices of stale bread (use fresh at your peril, it will taste like soggy weetabix)
Butter (to grease and spread)
Sultanas
1 pint milk
4 Tbsp caster sugar
2 eggs and 2 egg yolks
1.5 tsp nutmeg

Grab an ovenproof dish suitable for layering the bread inside (I usually use the same kind of dish you would for a lasagne – not too deep) and grease it well with a knob of butter.  Get your butter knife (the one that doesn’t tear the bread to pieces) and start buttering your bread!  Some people leave the crusts on, but once buttered, I usually chop mine off and then half each slice diagonally.  Keep the crusts to make into breadcrumbs for freezing, cube and fry them for croutons, or fatten up our already obese bird population!

Sprinkle a handful of sultanas over the base of your greased dish and place your first layer of bread, butter-side down, in the dish.  Don’t worry if the bread doesn’t fit exactly, this isn’t an experiment in tessellation just plug as many big holes as you can before grabbing one of those Tbsp of sugar and sprinkling it over the first layer.  Chuck another handful of sultanas over the top and arrange your 2nd layer of bread, butter-side up.  Repeat the bread, sugar, sultana layering until you run out but DON’T sprinkle any sultanas on the top layer – they will just burn.

In a saucepan over a gentle heat, combine the milk, sugar, eggs and nutmeg.  Whisk gently, the goal is to warm the mixture and dissolve the sugar – not cook the eggs, keep the heat very low and if in doubt, just stop cooking the mixture, I’d rather have slightly undissolved sugar than scrambled eggs!

Pour the liquid over the bread and squish each slice down to ensure that it soaks up a substantial amount of the liquid.  Leave the whole dish alone for a good hour to let the flavours intensify.

One hour later, come back to the kitchen and preheat your oven to 200 degrees C (180 degrees fan).  Cook the bread & butter pudding for around 40 minutes and marvel at how the custard has puffed the bread up a treat.  Hopefully, you’ll have a crispy, dark-golden crust and a fluffy middle.  Best enjoyed warm, perfect for the colder weather!

How easy is that?!  Do you have a favourite Bread & Butter pudding variation?

Having moved out of a hoarder’s paradise, it’s been interesting to discover just how many of my mother’s ways I’ve managed to pick up over the years.

The one trait that I can’t afford to have inherited is wastefulness. I don’t mean the big things (how harsh am I sounding on my Mum?). I just mean that over the years, the number of things that were bought and never used/eaten up made an impression on me.

Every week, I make it my mission to clear the fridge of anything lurking at the back. Frittatas are great for leftovers, slow-cooked soups are also brilliant. The latter being easily freezable for another day, important criteria when your meal plans are pretty tight.

So, this week… it was a whole punnet of strawberries that I’d completely forgotten about. Leila adores fruit… but is a fickle little madam, her tastes change weekly – and this had obviously been a don’t-like-strawberries-anymore week.

Fine.

I made muffins.  They’re quick, easy, taste amazing, and freeze beautifully. Sorted. Here’s the recipe incase you ever find yourself with a strawbs glut. Perish the thought.

Strawberry Muffins – makes 12

375g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
170g chopped strawberries
2 medium eggs
150ml milk
150ml oil (I usually substitute half for apple sauce)

Heat the oven to 190 degrees celsius (170 degrees for a fan oven) and prepare your muffin cases/tin ready for baking.

Add the flour, baking powder and sugar to a large bowl.  Drop the chopped strawberries ontop.

In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the milk, eggs and oil (apple sauce) before pouring over the dry mixture.

With a large spoon, mix until *just* combined.  It doesn’t matter if you still see a few specks of flour, the secret to good muffins (cough) is to never overmix them!

Spoon the mixture into your muffin cases/tin and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Check on them regularly, yours may need longer – mine took nearly 30 minutes on the middle shelf before Leila oddly decided that, she did, infact, like strawberries again.

Enjoy!

I know many people think that chocolate brownies are one of the most over-hyped cake(y) substances known to man.  That and macarons.  And cupcakes.  Probably also whoopie pies.

Killjoys.

Although in fairness, I’m inclined to agree on the macaron front, I mean wtf are they all about anyway?  They’re like suped-up communion wafers that weld themselves to the backs of your teeth while simultaneously scouring your soft palette so fiercly, you can’t consume a hot drink for a month without whimpering.  Sure, they look pretty but I ain’t shallow.  Much.

But brownies… A good chocolate brownie is heavenly, and if you think they’re overrated, I’d hazard a guess that you’ve been buying yours from Costa Coffee for too long.

I’d also like it to be known that I’m squarely in the fudgy-is-best camp when it comes to brownies.  If I wanted a “cakey” brownie, I’d go buy a fucking cake.

Anyway, I found a jar of slightly-out-of-date Marshmallow Fluff that I’d bought purely for the novelty factor and promptly forgot to use, so I googled for some recipes but didn’t like the sound of anything that was coming up on the search.

Instead, I decided to make a batch of my favourite brownies, omit my usual chocolate/fudge pieces and marble some swirly Fluff into the baking tin instead.

For the Brownies (makes 12 – use a smaller tin or double the quantities for a 30cm long tin)

140g  butter, softened
190g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
50g cocoa powder
50g self-raising flour
1/2tsp baking powder

Chuck all of the ingredients (yes, all at once – another reason I love this recipe), into a bowl and mix until combined and smooth.  Don’t overmix, you just want to get everything together and looking glossy.

Spoon the mixture into a greased tin and use a spatula to spread it across the surface.

For the Fluff topping

50g Marshmallow Fluff
20g butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Add the topping ingredients into a bowl and beat with a whisk until combined, you can add a tsp of water to thin the consistency if needed.  It should be smooth, silky but not “runny”.

Spoon the topping over the (uncooked) brownie mixture in tsp-sized “blobs” and use a skewer (I only had a straw to hand) to “marble” the topping.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees/160 fan) for around20/25 minutes.  Test with a knife to check if it’s done and if you’ve got any leftover “topping” mixture, you know what you need to do – don’t you?

Overall, they’re not my best experiment to be honest.  The brownie is definitely more fudgy than cakey and the Marshmallow Fluff, whilst it adds a teeny bit of chew to the topping… doesn’t add much else.  I’d suggest adding a crap-ton more than I did and to hell with whether it marbles or not.  Also, don’t leave out the chocolate and/or fudgy pieces… these are definitely more cakey than fudgy.  Bother.

Having said all that, they’re still nice.  They’re just not better than my usual recipe which I’ll post here sometime closer to Halloween.

Did you get your “bake” on last weekend?

I like to pretend that I’m not really a cupcake person.  I mean, we all know what cupcake ‘people’ are like right?  They have TONS of hair, usually swept horizontally across their foreheads in a faux-bo style (hair jewellery optional).  They giggle.  A lot.  And they wear far too many layers.

I’m not a giggly person (lies – it’s a nervous thing rather than an affectual thing though) and I don’t have much hair.  As for layers, I find it a struggle to co-ordinate my top with my bottoms let alone style an outfit akin to a fucking onion.

But cupcakes, well… I can’t help it – as much as I want to hate them (and everything they stand for), they taste too good.  I’d like to make them all muffin-sized though.

Look what I made last night.

OHMYGODSOGOODITHURTSMYTEETH.

The touch of Fleur de Sel makes the whole cupcake affair slightly less twatty don’t you think?  I like salted sweet things.  Have I ever told you about my favourite chocs?  These are them (you can find them in Selfridges) and when I was a kid, I could only have dreamt about paying out £13 for some chocolates.  Mr. L looks equally disappointed and elated whenever I bring a box home, which to be fair, is only about twice a year.  But still…

These cupcakes present a cheaper way of getting my salted chocolate fix, read on for the recipe – which isn’t mine by the way but is my absolute favouritest no-fail chocolate cupcake recipe – courtesy of Hummingbird Bakery…

yields 12 chocolate cupcakes

100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1½tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter (I use clover, don’t shout at me)
120ml whole milk
1 egg
¼tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter to a bowl and using the lowest setting on your hand-mixer, whisk until the mixture begins to look ‘sandy’.  Watch out for flour clouds.

In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk and vanilla extract together before adding it to the dry mixture, a little at a time, whisking all the while until you get a smooth consistency, don’t overmix.

Fill 12 cupcake cases around 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Mine were nicely done by the 20-minute mark.  The surface should spring back when pressed.  Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Now, as for the buttercream… I may be in a minority here, but there is definitely such a thing as TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.  I simply don’t like towers of icing that drown my cupcake, I want the icing to complement, not invade and conquer the cake below.  What say you?

That’s not to say I’m a joyless spoil-sport… *wipes buttercream from mouth* I just generally find that when making buttercream, I can usually half the recommended quantities listed in the recipe book and still get my chocolate, sugary, gooey fix.

Here’s how I made it:

for the Buttercream

150g icing sugar
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature (again, Clover for me)
20g cocoa powder, sifted
20ml milk

Whisk everything except the milk… then add the milk a spoonful at a time.  Continue whisking until you get bored.  The longer you whisk, the lighter/fluffier the buttercream.

And the magic ingredient?  Just a little sprinkle of Fleur de Sel ontop of each one does the job… you can leave the salt off some of them if you like, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea now is it?

These are SO light and airy, with just the right amount of buttercream and that little salty tingle on the tongue that reminds you just how incredibly bad these actually are for your health.  Stunning.

In other news, not-cake related.  I’m off on holiday tomorrow for a week in Liverpool/Manchester – thank god the diet is starting the week after eh?  All those curry cafes are making extra portions in preparation for my arrival.  As always, any insider tips/places to visit/things to do/goodies to eat – I’m all ears, you made my last holiday earlier this year in Torquay, absolutely blinding with a little local knowledge!

I’m probably not going to be posting much, if at all, next week – I just haven’t built up any reserves in my draft folder to see me through the drought.  Hope you all have a fabulous week, and long may this warm spell continue – though if it could stop by bedtime, that would be great, thanks.

x

…baking!

I don’t know if it’s ‘normal’ to have a baking cupboard – but most of my cupboards currently look like this:

…except this one, which I’ve designated as home for all things cakery:

*HOARDER ALARM SOUNDS  IN THE DISTANCE*

So, anyway, I thought it was about time me and L put our heads together and made a cake in our new flat – it rained all morning today, an excellent opportunity to get messy with a bit of flour, no?  And before you ask, yes – my daughter is still in her nightie, rockin’ some fluffy bed hair, it’s how we roll.

Date Loaf Cake

375g dates, chopped
2 tsp. instant coffee
1 cup (175g) self raising flour
1/4 cup flaked almonds

I like loaf cakes.  You see, I like their simplicity, I like how easy they are to store and I like their fuss-free attitude to life.  I also probably just like the fact that they look like loaves, carb fiend here with the blood sugar levels to fucking prove it.  We opted to make a simple date loaf because I don’t have any of my cake spices over here yet and I also didn’t have any oats, otherwise we would have gone down the “let’s kid ourselves they’re wholesome” muffins route.

This particular date loaf is exceptionally simple because it only contains four ingredients.  Yes, four.  There’s more ingredients in my cup of tea than that – especially if you include the midge that just dive bombed it, kamikaze style.  Poor midge, it isn’t even caffeinated.

I digress.

Roughly chop your dates and soak them for a few hours (overnight if you’re more prepared than I am) in your coffee solution – 2tsp instant coffee, 1 cup of boiling water.  This will allow them to get all squishy and happy… they don’t take on much of a coffee flavour, I detected only the tiniest hint.

If, like me, you have a small child – get them to add the chopped dates into the prepared coffee and marvel at how. fucking. long. it takes for them to meticulously plop each piece into the bowl from varying heights, meticulously checking and double-checking (OCD alert) that each stoned-piece of shrivelled fruit has landed just where they want it.

Then, just as you’re about to sweep the whole pile of dates into the bowl in a fit of irritation, ignoring any patterns they’ve been painstakingly creating – they give you a side-smile like this and you suddenly re-discover limitless patience.  Clever this whole self-preservation thing.

Give it all a bit of a stir and walk. away.  Seriously, the longer you leave the fruit to soak, the better the results.  Have patience fellow cake-munchers.

Once your dates have been suitably soaked, add 175g of self-raising flour and combine the mixture before pouring into a greased/floured loaf tin.  Don’t be stupid and use a 3lb loaf tin like we did when the sum of your ingredients only weighs like, 500g at the most.

Get aforementioned OCD chid to meticulously place flaked almonds (or whole, whatevs) on top and bake in the centre of the universe oven at 160 degrees celsius for 45 minutes.  Considering it has NO fat or sugar in it, you get a surprisingly moist, sweet loaf.  Them dates are pretty clever things!  I guess you can’t have brains AND beauty huh?

Our slightly-too-flat-because-our-tin-was-too-big date loaf cake.  Four ingredients, minimal washing up.  Hoorah.  Especially nice spread with a little, or you know… shit-loads of butter.

So proud.  Her, not me.

Oh ok, me too.

Until I started Weight Watchers, I thought Quark was just an old skool page layout program.  Or a particle.  Turns out it’s a cheese that’s approximately half as disgusting as cottage cheese, which makes it pretty edible when you’re looking for lower-fat cheese alternatives.

I’ve been craving pasta like crazy since I’ve been following the weight watchers plan and whilst I can totally still have pasta (perhaps not my favourite mega-bowl of pasta shells and pesto), it just feels like such a damn waste of points.  Have you ever weighed pasta?  It’s surprisingly heavy.  You need to play that pasta at its own sneaky game and get clever.

Instead of spirals, bows and shells – opt for lasagne sheets and cannelloni tubes – you can construct a hefty portion of your favourite pasta dish without feeling short-changed just by making this simple substitution.  On the menu last night was this, Spinach & Quark (just pretend it’s ricotta) Lasagne.

My husband hates fresh Spinach but he tolerates (and secretly enjoys) the frozen stuff.  I don’t understand why, but I figure that it means at least I don’t have to wash the leaves.  Pick your battles.

Serves 2:

5/6 “lumps” (technical term) Frozen Spinach
80g Lasagne Sheets (that’s approximately 4/5 sheets)
250g Quark
2 cloves of garlic
1tsp Smoked Paprika
80g low fat Mature cheese, grated (i’m still loving the Cathedral City one best)
1 tomato, sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste (quark is generally unsalted)

Finely slice the garlic and defrost the spinach in the microwave, retaining any excess water (if you’re stuffing cannelloni tubes with the mixture, drain the water).  Stir in the Quark, Smoked Paprika and garlic until well-combined.  Grab a shallow dish and spoon 1/3 of the spinach mixture on the bottom.  Layer the lasagne sheets ontop and repeat the process. I usually get two layers of pasta and three layers of spinach from the above quantities but your mileage will obviously vary depending on the size of your dish!

Top the final layer of spinach with the sliced tomato and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Cook in a pre-heated (190 degrees celsius) oven for around 30 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown.

We had a red pepper looking a bit wrinkly in the fridge, so I halved it and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar before popping it in the oven alongside the lasange for around 25 minutes.  Serve with a side salad.

9 Weight Watchers Pro Points for a super-cheesy, easy-peasy lasagne.

Do you buy Quark?  What are your favourite recipes with it?