Posh nosh for less dosh!

Firstly, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for taking the time to read my posts and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! I hope none of you are planning on rushing out and buying the latest exercise gimmicks for the new year, new you con, as I will be doing healthy lifestyle for less posts in January. As promised on my Facebook page, I'm going to share my goats cheese tart with you, definitely not for slimming this one. It's not the cheapest as the goats cheese was £1.70 per person however the end result is nothing short of spectacular (if you like goats cheese that is, otherwise it will be gross!) A child could put it together it's very simple. The onion relish is the perfect accompaniment. Another fancy looking meal that's easy to throw together for a special occasion costing very roughly £2.00 per person it's a cheap alternative to eating out!

4 circles of goats cheese
Block of puff pastry
4 small/med red onions
2 tbsp sugar (I use brown but white will work to)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
20g butter
Salad to serve

Preheat the oven to 200 and place a handful of salad on each plate

Stand the goats cheese on the rolled out puff pastry and cut a circle an inch wider than the cheese, as you can see I did a cheddar and tomato one for my son Chase
Scrunch (it's a technical term) the pastry around the sides of the cheese so it's surrounded
Season with pepper
Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden
While the tarts are cooking slice your red onions and place them in a frying pan with the butter on a med/high heat

Add the sugar and balsamic and cook until sticky and soft

All that's left is to plate up make pretty and enjoy!

Triple choc chip cookies

Don't you just love those cookies you get in the supermarkets. The ones in the paper bags, all gooey and chewy. They usually have a named sweet in them like Rolo or Smarties. Well I made some last night that tasted as good, if not better than those! They were a chocoholics dream. Triple chocolate cookies, verging on the consistency of a brownie in the middle and crispy on the outside, generously filled with chocolate chips. If you want to recreate the supermarket ones then replace the chocolate chips in the recipe for your chosen sweet, I can't wait to experiment! I'm going to try replacing the chocolate I used for chocolate orange for my next batch. Throw some nuts or oats in for a different texture, whatever you decide on let me know on my Facebook page How to be hard up and happy! I'd love to see your results.

150g plain flour sifted
100g chocolate melted (whichever you want)
200g chocolate chips or whatever chocolate sweets you want (from the fridge)
30g cocoa powder sifted
120g butter softened
75g brown sugar
50g white sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
Large egg beaten (from the fridge)

Preheat the oven to 170
In a bowl combine the flour, cocoa, salt and bicarbinate of soda
With a mixer if you have one (by hand is fine too it will give your arms a good workout!) cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy (or until your arm feels like it's going to drop off) then add the melted chocolate and mix again until combined
Beat in the cold egg and add the dry ingredients
Fold in first, so the flour mix doesn't go everywhere, then mix

Once mixed stir in the chocolate chips/ sweets you are using

Using an ice-cream scoop or a spoon if you don't have one, dollop large amounts onto a greaseproof lined tray

                                  

No need to shape them just dollop and bake for 18 minutes

They will seem undercooked but I promise you they're ready 

Leave to cool for 5 minutes, this is the hardest part, it takes real willpower after smelling the chocolate wafting through the house

All that's left is to enjoy them with an ice cold glass of milk, or ice-cream, or cream, or.....just enjoy them

Here's my son Chase enjoying his this morning

Yule love this log!

This one's for the unashamed chocoholics. How can you resist a light and spongy, cream and chocolate filled, chocolate log? Who needs a better excuse to rush and buy a load of fitness gear in January?! The time and effort that go into this are so worth it, no shop bought log will taste as good. You could go to town on the decorating it too if you're slightly artistic, or if like me you're just more realistic, stick some holly on it (for photographic purposes of course) and then whip it back off again and dig in!

To make the sponge

4 eggs

100g sugar

65g self-raising flour sifted

40g cocoa powder (I use Sainsburys own)

Place the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and mix until pale and frothy (use a mixer if you have one)

Sieve the cocoa powder and flour into the eggs and sugar mix and fold into the mixture taking care not to beat any of the air out

Line a large oven proof tray (I used my roasting tin) with greaseproof paper

Pour the mixture into the tin and spread into the corners 

Cook in a pre heated oven at 200 for 8-10 minutes until the mix is shrinking away from the sides

                          
See video for how to roll the log while still warm
                                
For the chocolate filling
200ml cream
200g plain chocolate

Melt the chocolate and cream together in a pan on a low/ medium heat until combined
Refridgerate until set
                           
Spread some of the chocolate mixture onto the sponge and if you like 150ml whipped cream on top

Roll back up again and cut a third of the cake at an angle and stand next to the rest of the log

Place the remainder of the chocolate into a piping bag with a star nozzle, or spread it on and make your own log design, you can't go wrong!

All that's left to do is get the kettle on and enjoy a slice!

M&S veg on an Aldi budget

Let the crossing of the sprouts and par boiling of the roasties commence! Quite a lot of the prep work can be done in the week leading up to Christmas so you can relax a bit more on the day, enabling you to enjoy it with your family, heck you could even squeeze in a nap! I would like to share with you my tips on making the vegetables a bit special and I'm not talking carrot crush Royle family style (I loved that episode, they just don't make them like they used to). I have accomplished great things in my house, I have converted my husband into a vegetable lover (even cabbage!) and the children love it too! With these simple twists and methods, you need not fork out extra for prepared vegetables again. To give you even more time on the day you could even cook the vegetables and freeze them until you need them (it's good enough for Aunt Bessie!) Most of all I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and new year with your families, don't lose sight of what it's all about.

Swede puree

Peel and chop the swede into similar sized cubes and boil until soft.

Place in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

Spiced red cabbage

In a pan add 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp mixed spice

Finely shred the cabbage and add to the pan

Cook for 5 minutes on a high heat stirring occasionally then turn down low for 15 minutes until soft

If the liquid disappears just add a small amount of water to keep from drying

Sticky parsnips

Peel and half the parsnips and par boil for a couple of minutes.

Coat them in honey and place in an oven proof dish with a tbsp oil (if you like a kick use sweet chilli sauce too)

Roast for 15 minutes on high 

Roast potatoes

Peel and chop potatoes as large as you want your roasties to be

Boil for 5 minutes and drain the water

Shake the pan with the lid on vigorously to 'fluff' them up

Leave the lid off to allow steam to escape

Put 3 tbsp oil in a roasting tin and heat in a high oven for ten minutes

Carefully place the potatoes in the tin coating them in the hot fat and roast for 30-40 minutes on high until crispy

Christmas bomb

Don't like Christmas pudding? Like rocky road? Try this for dessert on Christmas day. You can put what you want in it, it's entirely up to you. I had some mini marshmallows and bits of chocolate left from our hot chocolate bar the other week and my daughter gave me (not even begrudgingly) a couple of her mini Mars bars to throw in too. The last time I made this I made my own honeycomb (You-tube tutorial to follow soon!) but you could try fruit or nuts, anything at all. You start with plain old vanilla ice-cream, again, you could use a different flavour, and basically add to it what you want. I poured melted white chocolate over mine to look like white sauce on a Christmas pudding but you could use any chocolate and any swiss roll for that matter! But if you want to recreate mine here's what I used.

Chocolate swiss roll

3/4 litre vanilla ice-cream

Mini marshmallows

2 mini Mars bars sliced

50g white chocolate broken

50g milk chocolate broken

100g white chocolate melted for top

                                       

Slice the swiss roll into slices 1 cm thick and line a bowl with cling film 

                                     
Get a child (any will do) to bash up the chocolate into pieces (works even better if they're in a mood)                                      
Place the slices of swiss roll into the bowl
                                     
Place the ice-cream, marshmallows, chocolate and Mars pieces into a bowl (or mixer) and combine                                          
Scoop the ice-cream mix into the swiss roll lined bowl and tighten the cling film around the top
Place into the freezer preferably with a side plate on top with something weighing it down

After at least 2 hours turn it out onto a plate pour on the melted white chocolate, decorate and serve

A wow factor for any Christmas party!

'Tis the season to be a wally

Advent day 11 it's getting closer!! I'm excited anyway....So yesterday our advent 'surprise' was to decorate the Christmas cookie tree together. Most of the advent surprises end with together as that's what it's all about. Getting us all together, even if it's just for ten minutes before my husband rushes off to work. The other night we sang Christmas songs together (good job our neighbours live away most of the time they may have thought a cat was getting strangled!) It was hilarious and my son Chase who's nearly two thought we had all gone mad, although he danced and screamed "Yay!!!" at the end, so we must have done well. Anyway, here's my cookie tree recipe, don't worry if you haven't got the star cutters they're £4.99 on-line from Lakeland or you could always try cutting freehand stars, or even different sized circles to stack. This recipe gives you enough dough for twenty large to small cookies.

600g sifted plain flour
300g butter
300g sugar
Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
Kg pack of ready roll icing (I got mine in Lidl)
Decorations (Again Lidl had some decent decorations, or the Pound shop)
Tbsp jam

In a bowl (or mixer if you have one) cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (as shown above)

Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and mix 

Add the flour gradually until a dough is formed divide into two balls, wrap in cling film and chill for an hour

                                                 

Roll out the dough to around 3-4mm thick and cut two of each size cookie re-rolling and cutting with the leftover scraps

Place cookies onto greaseproof lined baking trays and place in a pre heated oven at 180 for 12 minutes or until firm then place on a wire rack to cool

                            

Knead and roll out the icing until it's as thick as you like to top the cookies 

Cut two lots of each size for the icing too

Brush each cookie with some jam to stick the fondant icing in place

Let the children assemble the stack starting from the largest to the smallest (cookie not child)

                                               
We had loads of fun decorating the tree but not as much fun as we all had eating it      
                                               

Chris's teacake n butter pudding

As promised last night on my new Facebook page (shameless plug please do like, follow the link above!) here's my, okay it's not mine it's actually a lady called Chris from Marton court's, recipe for teacake n butter pudding. A different take on the old classic and very yummy. With it's spices and fruits already in the teacakes half the prep work is done for you. I really enjoyed my time talking with the people from Marton court and will be going back soon for more old school recipes and tips so watch this space. There are a few variations to this recipe you could try, marmalade spread on the teacakes, or chocolate chips scattered in between layers, have fun with it but most importantly let me know how you get on!

6 teacakes halved
2 tbsp sugar (white or brown)
3/4 pint milk
2 eggs beaten
Butter for spreading

In a greased ovenproof dish layer the halves spread with butter to line the bottom of the dish 

Sprinkle them with half of the sugar 

Layer again repeating the process but face the butter side down this time

Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on the top

In a jug mix the egg and milk

Pour over the teacakes and leave to stand for half an hour 

Preheat the oven to 200 and bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is crispy and the middle will be nice and gooey  

                               

                                 

Serve with custard or cream

Please yourself pie

Firstly I would like to say thank you to those of you reading my blog and trying out my recipes. I've had nearly 5000 views and I'm over the moon to think I may be helping some of you live a bit cheaper. In these frankly miserable days where the news throws out so much negativity, we really do need to spread some cheer! Now this recipe is great for using leftover turkey, as well as chicken, and is very tasty! It's cheap to make and very filling too. If you don't eat it all it's great cold the next day! You can pretty much throw in anything to fill it out, please yourself, if you have leftover stuffing , put that in, or some sausages need using up, throw them in. You could add cream or creme freche to make it a bit richer we had it without and it was still delicious. It's your pie put what you want in but the base is chicken/ turkey and leeks.

Leftover chicken/ turkey meat (I actually used a full chicken that was reduced to £2.79 in Lidl)
2/4 leeks sliced
Tsp dried thyme
3 rashers smoky bacon/ streaky whichever you have/want
150g mushrooms
1 pt chicken stock
Tbsp flour
Ready rolled puff pastry

Add chopped leeks to a pan with a nob of butter on a medium heat and sweat, with the lid, on stirring occasionally for about ten minutes.
Fry your chopped bacon strips on a high heat with the thyme and mushrooms.
Transfer the bacon and mushrooms into the leeks and stir in the flour until dissolved.
To deglaze the bacon pan, put it back on the heat and pour in some of the stock until any residue has dissappeared.
Pour all the stock into the pan with the leeks, not forgetting the stock from the frying pan with the flavour from the bacon!
Stir in the meat until it's bubbling nicely and simmer for ten minutes.
Transfer into an oven proof dish and top with the pastry.
Score some nice diagonal lines with a knife and if you want a golden pastry brush with beaten egg (it doesn't matter if you don't do this it just looks nicer)
Put into a preheated oven at 180 for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

D.I.Y Decorations

There are a lot of cheap decorations around at the moment with shops such as Poundland, so it doesn't have to cost a lot to make your house look magical this Christmas. I prefer free to cheap though (who doesn't!) and with a bit of imagination you can make your own and I think they look way better than shop bought. Firstly I made my own wreath, I've wanted to do one of these for years now. Luckily my dad has a lovely Norwegian spruce in his back garden and a holly tree full of beautiful red berries, so I didn't have far to forage! I had a big cardboard disc saved from one of the large pizzas we had the other week (I rarely throw anything if I think I can craft with it) and I made a ring template out of it. I hadn't got any florists wire but I had some red wool so I used this to bind everything.

I cut a couple of branches off the bottom of the trees.

Using the wool I started with small sections of branch and tied it to the cardboard ring as tightly as I could. When the branches covered the card I wrapped the wool around it all creating a sturdy circle to build up on with more branches and holly until I was satisfied with how it looked.

I also made a mess!

The end result was perfect! Now my front door is very inviting and festive!

When we were little my mum sprayed a branch and stuck our home-made decorations on it and I think it looked fantastic. Having seen a few spray painted branches in the shops for sale I decided I would do my own....for FREE! After spray painting our fireplace white we had some leftover, it was roughly £5 from Homebase but you could use any paint or glitter you have lying around. Again, I raided my dad's garden for an old branch and found this one. After spraying it white and leaving it to dry I had to find something to stand it in.

I didn't really want to be buying plaster to set it in so I used my tall vase and a heat log that was hollow through the middle. I stood the branch in the heat log, put it in the vase and surrounded it with brown paper that was used in some packaging from a parcel. Literally throw nothing it all comes in handy! I hung all the children's home-made decorations off it and some lights and again it looks lovely in my dining room.

                                                 
These are just two ideas but you can let your imagination run wild! Let the children make their own paper chains and snowflakes to decorate their rooms. Don't let a lack of money dictate what type of a Christmas you will have. Most of all have fun!

Christmas traditions that don't break the bank

There's nothing better to create a bit of magic than a new tradition to stick to every year. Children love routine it makes them feel safe and secure when they know what's coming, especially when it's a fun tradition! I have seen some of the new traditions like 'elf on the shelf' which needs a lot of props. For those of us without a great deal extra to spend at this time of year, we can do without paying out for a tradition. So, with this in mind, I have put together a few of my favourite, free, or very cheap ideas to start a new tradition in your house this year.


Christmas Eve box.

For this you need a box, some wrapping paper, pyjamas for everyone (if you really can't afford to buy new wrap up their favourite ones) a Christmas dvd (or make a ticket to the showing of...... if watching on t.v) and some snacks and hot chocolate sachets. Wrap the box and everything to go in it. when the kids are preoccupied on Christmas eve hide the box somewhere for them to find and tell them Santa must have popped by early with a treat! Enjoy the movie as a family with your new/ favourite pyjamas on with some snacks and a hot chocolate.


Christmas sleepover.

On the day you put your tree up make it extra special by having a family sleepover in the living room. Bring down the duvets and pillows and camp out watching Christmas movies, or to make it a bit more special for the children, try a technology free night talking about Christmas's from when you were little.



Secret Santa.

All children love to buy a gift for their family members, but we can't all spare the money to buy everyone a separate gift, so the secret Santa is a great idea. Set a budget amount per person (even a pound will do thanks to the Poundshop) and put everyone's name into a tub and pull a name out each.  If you get your own name put it back and try again until you all have someone else's name. Now you must secretly buy that person a gift for the budget amount. When you open them see if you can guess who bought you it. If you can't afford it then try a family swap where you all get items you no longer want and swap them for ones you do.


Advent stories.

Most of us with kids have loads of books lying around (if not there's the library) and what better way to spend time with them than reading. Every night from the 1st December you could read a different story or poem finishing with 'The night before Christmas' on Christmas Eve.


Christmas light spotting.

If you have a car get everyone to put their pyjamas on and have a drive around the neighbourhood looking at lights. Get the Christmas tunes on and you could even pack the mince pies and have a supper picnic. If you haven't got transport then enjoy a late night walk.

I guarantee these traditions will make the memories the children remember forever. Let's face it how many children remember their gifts year to year?