Yummy Scrumy Carrot Cupcakes

hey guys, this week it was my little baby's 1st birthday. i cant believe a whole year has passed already!!! i guess its true when they say "time flies when your having fun". He really has been a complete joy and so much fun. love him to bits.

Well every birthday boy needs a birthday cake. i found a bargain cupcake stand in a pound shop so cupcakes it was...
My other half Mark's favourite cake is carrot cake so here goes...

 Ingredients:

2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1 tsp. mixed spice
1/2 salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cup grated carrot
1 cup yogurt or cream
3/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup golden syrup

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Place muffin cases in muffin tray.

Sift dry ingredients in large basin to incorporate air.
Add the sugar and mix.

Combine the oil, syrup and cream/yogurt together and beat for few seconds.
Pour the oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till all blends well.
Add the carrots and mix.
Use a little milk if the batter is too thick.

Spoon into muffin tray and bake. Takes 30-35 minutes.

For the frosting i used:


250grams of cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 cup of icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

cream all ingredients together

Cheese and Spinach Tart

This is a recipe i use a lot, it is so easy and quick. 

It is yummy hot or cold.

I sometimes make this as a tart or make them as small tarts in a muffin tray, perfect as a party snack.

Ingredients:
1 cup of Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of feta cheese
1 1/4 cup of bread crumbs
200grams of blanched spinach
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup of grated Cheddar cheese
sliced tomatoes to decorate top of tart
1/2 tsp brown sugar

enough puff pastry to line tart tin.

Pri-heat oven to 200c

mix the ricotta, feta, bread crumbs, spinach, salt and pepper.

line the base of a tart tin with puff pastry, prick the bottom.

Spoon in the mixture.

sprinkle the Cheddar cheese over the tart.

place the tomato slices over the top and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes.

serve hot or cold

enjoy

:o)

stuffed peppers

hey guys, 

i made these stuffed peppers over the weekend for my mother in law and marks great auntie.

Stuffed Peppers are one of the easiest meals to cook and look great plated up...
there is no rules is what to stuff them with, use what you have :)

Ingredients:
Peppers (i used the long red sweet peppers)

1 courgette cut into small cubes
1 leek finely chopped
a small hand full of sun dried tomatoes
2 cups of cooked rice or cous cous
a 180gram log of goats cheese
olive oil.

in a frying pan, add a table spoon of olive oil, add the courgette and leek, cook till soft. mix in the sun dried tomatoes and rice, give it a few minutes on the heat while mixing. add seasoning.

cut the peppers in half, its nice to try cut the stalk in half also, makes in look pretty on the plate. take out the seeds and membranes.

line the empty peppers on a tray and fill with rice mixture.

slice the goats cheese into 8 equal pieces, place them evenly on top on the stuffed peppers.

drizzle some olive oil over the goats cheese.

place in a pre heated oven, 180c for 25mins.

Bean Burgers

hey everyone,

been having a lovely relaxing day, only left the house to do the school run.

have done a bit of painting, got the house sorted (although looking round now, you wouldn't know, my kids are very good at making a mess) and made some Bean Burgers.

I think part of raising children vegetarian is showing them that they are not missing out, they can have a burger if they like :o)

Ingredients:

1tbs of olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

a couple of sprigs of chopped parsley

6-8 mushrooms finely chopped

a tin of beans, i normally use kidney beans but most beans will work well.

salt and pepper

plain flour for dusting

burger buns for serving

Heat oil in frying pan, add onions and cook till soft.

add garlic and mushrooms, cook till soft, set aside.

drain the beans, mash with a fork, stir in the mushrooms, onions, parsley and season with salt and pepper.

shape the mixture into patties and dust with flour.

heat some oil in a pan and fry the burgers till they have a nice crispy coating.

serve in a burger bun with cheese tomato ketchup and anything else you might fancy :0)

I'm looking forward to trying some other burger recipes soon ...

my little kitchen helper

Vegetable Hot Pot

Its Sunday, and with Sunday comes Sunday Dinner...

I am working Fridays and Saturdays now so its nice to try make the most of Sunday, make it a good family day and make sure we all sit and eat together.... "families who eat together, stay together"

today the rain has been pouring down all day ( in June ) so a good hearty warm meal was the ticket... A Veg Hot Pot is a perfect easy quick warm meal that all the family will enjoy :)

You can use any veg you like to you will nearly always have the ingredients in stock.

Ingredients:

carrots 3diced or i used little Chantilly carrots as the kids love the novelty of them and they are deliciously sweet.

1 large leek

1 head of broccoli cut into florets

mushrooms 6-8

2 tbs of butter

2 1/2 tbs plain flour

7oz milk

7oz vegetable stock

2 tbs of chopped fresh sage

salt

topping:

6 medium sized potatoes cut into slices

cheddar cheese.

steam the carrots and broccoli till tender. drain and set aside.

melt the butter and add the flour, cook for a minute than slowly start adding the milk and stock, whist till smooth. return to heat, bring to boil, stir till thickens. add the mushrooms, leek and sage, stir in the set aside veg.

add salt to taste.

pour the mixture into oven dish.

cook the sliced potatoes, arrange on top the veg and cover with cheddar cheese.

cook in pre heated oven, 190c, for 35mins.

Eggless Pineapple Upside Down Cake

And for pudding, a nice warm Pineapple Upside Down Cake with custard :)

If i am having friends over i do like to be able to make something nice, maybe because its dangerous to make a desert when theres no one to help you eat it :)

i found this recipe on another blog and thought id try it out because i happend to have the ingridients in my rather bare cupboards

the top of the cake should have been a little more caramely but my silly cake tin needs replacing and the bace doesnt fit snug enough so all the caramel ran out the bottom and dripped all over the bottom of my oven :-/

but it was still yummy scrummy :D

Ingredients:

Pineapple Slices (canned)

Sugar for caramelisation – 5-6 tb

Water – 1 tbs

Butter – 100g, softened

Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1 tin (400g)

Plain Flour – 2 cup

Baking Powder – 2 tsp

***

Preheat the oven at 180º C,

Grease a 9” round cake tin with butter. Arrange the pineapple slices at the base of the tin.

Add water to sugar & heat it in a pan till it melts and becomes brown. Pour hot caramel onto the pineapple slices and leave aside.

Add sweet and condensed milk to the softened butter and beat well.

Sieve together flour, baking powder. Mix the flour to the other mixture slowly beating well. Pour batter into the prepared cake tin and bake at 180º C for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.

Remove from oven, loosen sides of cake using a knife and immediately turn onto a plate.

Dont leave in tin because if you are lucky enough to still have you caramel (unlike me) it will stick to your tin as it hardens.

i think this needs to be served warm with either a nice scoop of ice cream or some custard :)

Vegetable Lasagne

Hello guys,

I had a lovely day today, we had a lovely family round for diner. They have 3 kids the same age as ours so they all had their little pal to double up with :)

I made a Lasagne as its a great easy fool prove meal, i think everyone loves lasagne...

Ingredients

lasagne sheets

filling:

vegetables (i used some broccoli,mushrooms, courgette and onion) you really can use almost anything though

2 tins of chopped tomato

ricotta cheese

salt

pepper

sugar

oregano

topping (cheesy white sauce)

2 tbs of butter

2 tbs of flour

milk

cheese

***

heat oven to 190c

steam the broccoli till its tender. fry off the rest of veg in a little olive oil till its cooked.

in a separate pot, pour in the tinned tomato, heat and add salt pepper and oregano to taste.

i always find a handy tip is to put a couple of spoons of the tomato sauce in the baking tray before you start layering up the lasagne, makes it easier to serve up.

mix the ricotta and cooked veg into the tomato sauce.

Now your ready to start layering the pasta sheets and the veg mixture.

to make the topping, heat butter and stir in flour, stir on a medium heat for 5mins. slowly start adding milk, i do this slowly while whisking until i get a smooth creamy texture. stir in some grated cheese and pour over the lasagne.

bake for 25-30mins