Seasonal foodie goodies

Around this time of year you get a mixture of themed food stuffed onto every possible shelf space and there's always several things in particular I look out for...

I'm not big into Halloween for numerous reasons but something I am big into is good old Mr Kipling's Fondant Fancies. My brother and I always used to fight over the pink and yellow ones when we were little as they were our favourites. I love the Easter strawberry ones but these 'fiendish fancies' are a lovely little bundle of loveliness of their own!

 These seem to be popping up in place of popping candy elves (see further down on my list) and I haven't given them a try yet but I know I will and I know I'll love them because, how could you not love Freddo?

My ultimate Christmas treat I practically stalk along the Christmas aisle(s) hunting these beautiful sweets out. If you could these all year then I probably would get through a ridiculous amount of them!

Magical elves (with popping candy) seem to have disappeared this year (see Freddo popping candy) which is a shame as they were quite sweet and made a nice little stocking filler for my niece and nephew, especially as I could pick a particular elf for them.


What are your favourite seasonal goodies? Is there any food - sweet or otherwise - that you look out for at a certain time of year? Let me know in the comments below.

Meal Planning Monday; 7th October 2013

Goodness me, how is it October already? All the Halloween/Christmas bits are now out in full force. Not that I need them thanks to my Grotto (aka present haul in the bathroom using up the spare shelves) I'll probably stock up on some more wrapping paper and there are a few cards left for specific people (I'm looking out for extra special cards for hubby and Bubbah) but there's not so much pressure this year so I'm feeling quite relaxed about it all. All the better for casually selecting Christmas sweeties to have in the cupboard for when a sweet craving hits.

Christmas is here already!

Last week's meal plan went pretty well with few meals being swapped about/disregarded altogether. I ended up finding a peppercorn sauce in the reduced aisle so used that with my pork steaks with some simple wedges and veg. This week I decided we should use up some of the stocks we've been building up in the freezer to help make some space and save money at the same time.

This week we'll be having...

• roast chicken and veg pies with mini Yorkshire puddings, home made stuffing (recipe to come), roasts and extra veg
• Cheese and tomato tuna pasta bake with extra mushrooms/ ratatouille for hubby
• Lamb casserole with dumplings (veg soup using the veg from this for hubby as he's not a fan of lamb)
• Pizza - sausage and mushroom for me, veggie for hubby using a new cajun spice I found recently
• Fish pie for me and veggie fingers with wedges for hubby
• Slow cooker spag bol (recipe to come) with garlic bread

Let me know what you're planning this week in the comments below. If you're looking for inspiration yourself and none of these tickle your fancy head on over to Mrs M's meal planning linky to see what everyone else has planned.

Recipe binder: butter dumplings

Now I will be honest, before yesterday I hadn't ever had dumplings before. However after seeing them on Jamie Oliver's show the other week I decided to give them a go when I made chicken casserole. And goodness me was it worth it! Making them with butter instead suet makes them a lot lighter. This recipe makes between 6-8 dumplings depending on how big you like them.

Source

What you need

• 115g self raising flour
• 55g butter (cold)
• Cold water

What you do

• Rub flour and butter together until you have what looks like breadcrumbs
• Add a small amount of cold water to form a stiffish dough
• Roll into small balls
• Boil in salted water or cook on the edge of a simmering casserole/soup for 10-12 minutes
• Serve immediately

Meal Planning Monday; 30th September 2013

Goodness me I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last blogged! *Slaps self on wrist* The time seems to be running away with us all as it gets closer to (whisper it) Christmas. I've been super/weirdly organised and have got nearly everybody's Christmas presents, all my Christmas cards and some wrapping paper. Not as bad as someone else my friend was telling me about who's already wrapped all their presents! Needless to say our spare shelves in the bathroom look a bit like Santa's grotto at the moment but it'll be worth it as I've got some brilliant bargains, especially for Bubbah, my niece and my nephew (who's birthday presents are also up there ready for November).

I'm very excited about today for several reasons; hubby has the day off so we get a bit of an extended weekend feel, this also means I get some child free time(!) as hubby has agreed to watch Bubbah so I can go out for a drink with a friend and actually contemplate ordering a hot chocolate that will be warm when I drink it and not stone cold after numerous rounds of "no, that's mummy's drink" and finally....Taylor Swift has announced 2014 UK tour dates for Red! Being a mega Taylor fan this made my morning when my friend messaged me the news and we've promptly picked a date and she's flexing her fingers ready for the 9am ticket selling time on Friday. We've gone to every concert she's done in the UK so it's almost tradition for us now.

I'm hoping we'll be this close to the front again next year!

Anyway, on to meal planning...

After a few lazy weeks of "I'll buy random stuff and cobble together some sort of food from it but it'll be pot luck on the day" I'm back to proper planning after complaints from hubby when his question of what's for dinner was greeted with "dunno yet" oops!

This week we're having...

• chicken casserole with dumplings using up leftover chicken from yesterday's roast
• Ratatouille for hubby, ham and pork filled pasta for me
• Cheesy cottage pie using mince I found in the freezer when searching for roast potatoes yesterday
• Pizza with sausage and mushrooms for me and tomatoes, sweetcorn, mushrooms, peppers/chillis for hubby served with wedges or garlic bread
• Mushroom soup for hubby and tomato or steak and vegetable soup for me
• Curry with egg fried rice and cheesy naan bread for hubby, something with pork for me - any ideas? I can't quite decide but I have two pork steaks to use up in the freezer
• Turkey meatballs with spaghetti in a tomato sauce

Lots of lovely warming meals as the weather is supposed to turn after today (I'm taking advantage of late September sun to dry our bedsheets before having to wait a million days for them to dry on the airer for the rest of Autumn/Winter) and get back to being cold and rainy.

On that note I'm also setting aside some time to bake some gingerbread, possibly covered with Nutella for an extra naughty note of yumminess.

I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there for more meal ideas.

Hope everyone else has a lovely week. Let me know what you're cooking this week in the comments below. Don't forget to comment if you have any ideas what I can do with my pork!

Recipe binder: pizza

Over the last year or so we've slowly scaled back our pizza night from take away to shop bought, to pizza base and just added stuff (so half home made) to completely home made. A friend lent me Lorraine Pascale's cook book and I came across this pizza base recipe and decided to give it a go after hubby kept asking for stuffed crust pizzas. It's actually really simple and yummier than anything from a shop.

What you need;

• 250g strong white bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fast acting yeast powder
• 125-140ml warm water
• 30ml olive oil

What do to;

• Mix the flour and yeast powder together in a bowl, make a well in the middle
• Mix with olive oil and warm water together
• Pour into the well
• Mix together until you have a soft - but not sticky - dough
• Knead for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface (or 5 mins in an electronic kneading)
• Gather into a ball
• Roll out on a lightly floured baking tray
• Add tomato purée and cheese and other toppings
• Roll the edges over and press them down if you're doing a stuffed crust
• Cook for 15 minutes, gas mark 7

Ideas for toppings;

• Meaty - sausage, bacon/turkey bacon, ham, chorizo, chicken pieces, meatballs
• Mushrooms
• Olives
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Sweetcorn
• Peppers
• Courgette
• Aubergine
• Seasoning - BBQ, chorizo

What are your favourite pizza toppings? And are you a stuffed crust or flat base fan?

Recipe Binder: Quiche

This summer I have absolutely been loving quiche as a quick, light meal option. When Bubbah was little my mum taught me how to make one from scratch and since then I can't stand shop bought ones. Hubby is also a massive fan of my quiche and will quite often request one. You can have a variety of fillings once you've made up the base, which also makes this a brilliant versatile recipe. This recipe makes one quiche which can be cut into four big portions or eight smaller ones.

You will need

• 250g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 300ml single cream
• 3 eggs
• filling of choice
• cheese

What to do

• Rub together the flour and butter in a bowl until it is like breadcrumbs
• Either roll out or (if you're a bit of a quick cook like me) press into flan dish
• Poke with a fork (or the pastry can go a bit soggy in the oven)
• Mix together the cream and eggs, season with pepper if you like
• Layer your filling on the pastry
• Pour the cream and egg mix on top
• Cover with grated cheese
• Cook for 25-30 mins on gas mark 6

Filling ideas

• Bacon
• Tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Sweetcorn
• Chorizo

One of my favourite things about this recipe is that you can freeze whatever you don't eat. Frozen quiche slices take about four minutes at most to heat through in the microwave, or slightly longer 15/20 minutes in the oven. Quite often I make myself quiche Lorraine and Hubby has a veggie one. I serve up our dinner slices and freeze the rest for a quick dinner another night. Great served with new potatoes, potato salad, wedges, salad or coleslaw.

Meal Planning Monday; 26th August 2013

Happy bank holiday! I've had a lovely day today with my morning spent baby free food shopping and lunch with my mum followed by a nice family afternoon walk in the woods after Bubbah finally had his nap. While hubby is cocooned off with his dad watching football I'm curled up in the living room with some cloudy lemonade, hot chocolate (I couldn't choose!) and Benefits Britain 1949.

Quick side note; has anyone been watching Benefits Britain 1949? I've genuinely been fascinated, humbled and annoyed with every episode. I think Channel 4 has genuinely struck a decent balance between making a point and providing something interesting. Let me know what you think!

This week is a quiet week, getting things back to normal as school terms start and all the summer programmes Bubbah and I have been enjoying over the last few months finish up. A trip to the children's centre for one last play session and a library visit are in order, but otherwise a quiet week with lots of cooking/baking included.

A pretty basic meal plan this week as it's the week before pay day but yummy nonetheless...

• Monday - peppercorn kievs with cheesy potato and bacon bake (all from the reduces/whoopsie aisle when I went shopping this morning) and cauliflower. Also found some choux buns in said aisle so we had those as a treat.
• Tuesday - I'm out all day so hubby will be having curry from a batch I made last week (recipe to follow) and I'll have tuna pasta bake when I get back
• Wednesday - I'm out again so hubby will have veggie fingers with sweet potato wedges
• Thursday - I'll be making quiche Lorraine for me and Bubbah and tomato and mushroom quiche for hubby which I'll serve with sweet potato wedges
• Friday - a friend lent me one of Lorraine Pascale's books and I've been making stuffed crust pizzas using the pizza base recipe in it with a meaty one for me and a veg loaded one for hubby.
• Saturday - lasagne
• Sunday - toad in the hole with roasties, veg and stuffing.

And that's our week. For more meal plan inspiration head on over to Mrs M.