Posts

Nanny X's Comforting Turkey Soup

Every Christmas my nan (and granddad when he was alive) would come to our house for dinner. My mum would always hand my nan a bowl containing the Turkey Carcass and some meat. A couple of days later the bowl would be returned filled with a thick homemade soup. Mmmmm. It was always the best part about Christmas, food wise, when I was little. It was always such a warming thick soup. Great with a slice or two of bread. Perfect for cold winter days and nights. My mum also made it and gave me the recipe. Its so simple and a great way to use up leftovers from a Sunday Roast or from Christmas Dinner. Its now part of my Christmas routine and Boxing Day morning is spent making a batch of soup. Three years ago my nan lost her second daughter in the March and had a pretty tough time, understandably, and became a bit frail. We saw her at Christmas and on Boxing Day I sent her home with a bowl of Turkey Soup. I felt so good about myself, knowing I was giving my nanny a lovely comforting meal, which...
Post a Comment
Read more

Low calorie crunchy potato salad [recipe]

Image
With my diet I've been eating a lot of salads and boiled potatoes. I wanted to make it a little more exciting so decided to make a low calorie potato salad, just to add a little more flavour and to mix it up a bit.  It was so simple and for the whole thing was only 313 calories, I'd say 4 portions could come from this batch and would be 78.3 calories. The thing I love about this too is that you can add anything to it to add more flavour. Chives, herbs and allsorts.  Red onions 20g (8 calories) Baby potatoes- boiled 332g (226 calories) Philidelphia Lightest 60g (52 calories) Heinz Seriously Good Light Mayonnaise 10g (27 calories) Salt and pepper to season
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweet and Sour Meatballs [recipe]

Image
Back in January I made the decision to change my eating habits with the aim of losing weight and being healthier.  I don't like the whole anti-diet culture at the moment to be honest and feel a little like I should be ashamed to actually have wanted to lose weight and to actually have needed to lose weight.  I've so far lost 2 stone and 8 lbs and feel so much better about myself. I've played around with different recipes and foods and I think that's part of what I really enjoy about being on a diet. Yeah there are hard days but I think now I am thinking more about the food I eat and what I'm putting together I definitely enjoy it more and feel like it's quite fun sometimes playing around with different ingredients and flavours.  I found a recipe for sweet and sour meatballs which at first didn't sound too appealing to me but I tried them anyway and they've now become a favourite meal for me and for my children. Playing around with the ingredients has mea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egg, Dairy, Soya Free Birthday Cakes

Image
It was my boyfriends birthday recently and we had a little celebration with his children. I wanted to have a cake to celebrate properly but due to allergy restrictions couldn't just go to the stop to buy a good ol' Colin the Caterpillar classic. I found a recipe online and adapted a little to suit what I wanted and this was the result!  Rustic and stacked! Ingredients 195g plain flour 130g sugar 1tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp white wine vinegar 5 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 140ml water Large marshmallows Sprinkles Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In a bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and mix. Then add the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and water and mix well.  Once fully combined add this mixture either to a lined cake tin or to cupcake cases. As the mixture is quite thing I first poured this into a jug to make it easier to pour into the cases. We didn\"t have a cupcake tray so, as expected, the cases didn\"t stay upright ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vanilla and Strawberry Cheesecake

Image
We had a weekend of celebrating and along with locally made cupcakes, I wanted to make a treat dessert for us myself rather than buying something from the shop.  I’ve not made a cheesecake for a long long time, always intimidated by whether or not to go for one which you bake or a no-bake recipe instead.  I went for no-bake and a simple flavour too.  I opted for a vanilla cheesecake with strawberries on top, although did also have some raspberries to add alongside the strawberries but felt they weren’t needed in the end. Ingredients Base 300g Digestive biscuits 200g Unsalted Butter Topping 750    Full Fat Cream Cheese (I used Philidelphia) 2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract 100g Icing Sugar 300ml Double Cream Strawberries (I used approximately 8) Instructions Base Either use a rolling pin and a food bag/cling film to smash the biscuits into a fine crumb or use a food processor/hand blender.  Melt your butter and add it to the crumb mixture. I mixed this with a w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Never See Him Race Again

Image
2015, Douglas, Isle of Man I'm stood in the driveway of a house of the rudest Manx people I have ever met, but have given £20 towards the air ambulance for the pleasure so I will bloody well enjoy it. Agos Leap, the watching spot most TT fans dream of being able to view from and here I am. First time on the island, first race I've ever seen and I am technically "Living the dream". At this point though I still don't really like bikes. I am still just here to spend time with my brother and am a fan of William Dunlop after watching the film Road. I wasn't quite a fan of Michael at this point. William was the one I was drawn to initially. We listen to the tannoy in the distance and the crackly radio. A bike revs and then we hear "First bike away!". "Ready Lauren?" my brother says and all of a sudden I become overwhelmed and the adrenaline rushes through me. I burst into tears and start having a panic attack. Within seconds the first bike is sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bluestone Wales Highlights | Five Things

Image
Last year myself and the boys were lucky enough to be invited along to stay at Bluestone in Wales for 5 days. I'd seen Bluestone a lot over Instagram and Twitter for a few years so to actually have the chance to visit was super exciting and I had high hopes. Holidays as a solo parent are pretty daunting. I'd managed a 2 night stay in Milton Keynes which was pretty simple and of course a 5 day stay at the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man gave me an insight into what the drive would be like with just me and two boys (we drove to Liverpool then got the ferry to the island) and stayed in a tent for the time we were there.  So, although I managed to get through that holiday going to Wales did seem like a challenge but one I was excited about.  I'll break down our days in a separate post but wanted to do a Five Things Highlights post as we had such an amazing time. 1.  The Views I've always loved Wales, it's one of my favourite places and I've got a lot of memories of vis...
Post a Comment
Read more