Free From BBQ Kebabs

I live kebabs, most of them that you buy ready made contain either soya or wheat and although I did find some friendly ones in Tesco, I decided making my own would be cheaper. These were a big hit and I could have done with making twice as many as I only got to nibble a piece of the lemony, herby chicken one as B missed out and I gave her mine.

Ingredients:

                 Red and orange peppers ( any colour you like really)

                  Mushrooms

                  Cherry tomatoes

                  Chicken breasts

                   2 lemons

                   Dried herbs

                   Chilli powder

                   Skewers

Method:

             Squeeze the juice out of one lemon and pour into a container. Add mixed herbs. 

             Squeeze the juice out of one lemon and pour into a container. Add chilli powder. 

             Cut your chicken breasts into chunks. 

              Put half your chicken into the lemony, herby marinade and make sure it is all coated. 

              Put the other half into the lemony, chilli marinade and make sure it is all coated. 

             Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least an hour. 

             Chop your peppers and mushrooms (if needed) into chunks. 

             Assemble your kebabs, mix up your tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and kebabs. 

            Refrigerate until needed, then BBQ.  

As I said, these went as soon as they were ready and I needed to make at least twice as much!

Lupin Girl x

 

I've linked this post to Modern Dad Pages Food Porn Thursdays

 



 

And to Free From Fridays

 



 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cheesecake

So I made the avocado chocolate mousse for the second letsgetfoodiechallenge and as the children didn't like it, I thought I'd get adventurous and have a go at turning it into a chocolate cheesecake!

Ingredients:

                  Half of the avocado chocolate mousse

                  4 gluten free digestive biscuits (needed more, but I'd eaten them all!)

                  1/2 cup gluten free oats

                  2 tablespoons golden syrup

                 1 tub mascarpone cheese

Method:

               Lightly grease a cake tin.

               Crumble up your digestive biscuits, mix with oats and golden syrup and press into your cake tin.

              Mix the mascarpone cheese with the avocado chocolate mousse and spread over the top (I did add a bit more golden syrup here!)

I've tasted it and it is lovely, R even licked the mascarpone/chocolate bowl out lol, so hopefully more of a winner than the mousse (C liked the mousse, although it's very rich)

I've popped mine in the freezer to have at the BBQ, so I hope everyone likes it!  (And I hope it freezes and defrosts ok!?)

Lupin Girl x

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

I've seen recipes for chocolate mousse (it was nearly a chocolate mouse lol) made with avocado to make them dairy free floating about for quite a while now. So when Amanda Bootes letsgetfoodiechallenge week 2 came through with the challenge of making something using a green ingredient I thought I'd give it a go!

I ended up playing with the recipe I found this is what I used:

          1 ripe avocado

         1/2 cup cocoa powder

         1cup of water

         10 dates

         2tablespooms golden syrup

         Half vanilla pod

Method:

            Put it all in your blender and blitz until smooth. 

            Place into serving dished and refrigerate until needed. 

That's it, pretty quick easy and healthy. 

Only trouble is. The kids don't like it. 

It tasted really chocolatey to begin with, then you taste the avocado. 

I thought it was alright. I think it'll make a brilliant chocolate cheesecake which is what I might do with it. Do you think it'll mix with mascarpone cheese?

Lupin Girl x

I have linked this post to #freefromfridays

 

        

A Blur

The last week and a half has been a blur of migraines and study. I know I haven't posted much but now I'm back (well, as long as my head behaves!)

I had the end of module assignment to write for my fourth module towards my English Literature degree. I have found this course really tough and got my lowest marks ever. I am just praying that I have managed to do enough to scrape the 40% pass mark for this EMA so I can forget the hole module. I honestly font know whether to change my degree path to an open degree or not. Or do the advanced creative writing course next and decide next year, I will phone and speak to someone next week. 

I am hoping that my migraines clear off for a bit now so I can recover. I've had four in just over a week. Last Saturday, last Tuesday, Friday, then Tuesday again and I feel totally wiped out. I'm going to phone the Dr and get him to prescribe the three Pizotifen a day to see if that helps. Must remember to do that!

We've got a BBQ to look forward to at the weekend so I need to make burgers and get prepared. I need to make a cake and some puddings too. So it will be a busy couple of days. 

Lupin Girl x 

Wordless Wednesday

Lupin Girl

Gluten Free Pitta Bread Pizzas

Tonight we needed a quick dinner so we've made pitta bread pizzas. They're really easy and R loved making his.

We poured a bit of passata onto each pitta bread. 

Grated some cheese over the top. 

Added ham, salami and mushrooms. 

Cooked on gas mark 5 for about 10 minutes. 

Served with salad. 

Dinner done in 15 mins. 

So delicious and tasty. 

Lupin Girl x

Lactose Free Tiramisu

Tiramisu is one of my all time favourite deserts, I started making it myself when I became allergic to soya.  When I became gluten intolerant I thought I would have to give this pudding a miss.  Then I found an internet company called FreeGo which sell gluten free sponge fingers and I bought some.  This was ages ago, and I've just not got around to making it.

When B turned 13 I asked what she wanted for a birthday cake.  She said tiramisu (she's got my tastes)  The only thing being that B is lactose intolerant, so I was a bit stumped about how to make this.  We knew that you could get lactofree cream cheese so I had a google about and found a Nigella recipe which looked a bit more child friendly than her Baileys recipe, which is my favourite one!  I thought this one looked good as it felt like more of a mocha recipe and as I wasn't sure if any of her friends, who were coming over for a sleepover, were big coffee lovers I thought the chocolate would make it more appealing.

Ingredients:

                  Gluten Free sponge fingers (30 ideally)

                  250ml lactofree cream cheese

                  200ml lactofree cream

                  1 cup sugar

                 150ml lactofree milk

                 1 table spoon coffee powder

                 1 table spoon cocoa powder

Method:

            Whip up the lactofree cream with 1/2 cup of sugar until firm.

            Whip the lactofree cream cheese with 1/2 cup of sugar.

            Combine the two.

            Now you need to make the syrup to dip the sponge fingers in.

           Mix your lactofree milk with the coffee and cocoa powders, I think warming the milk would help the fingers absorb the syrup better.

           Line a dish with the dipped sponge fingers.

          Spoon half of the cream mixture over the top.

          Repeat.

         You can sprinkle cocoa powder over the top to finish if you want to (I didn't this time.)

I set about making it, and Nigella's recipe is easy to follow, however, when I opened up the gluten free sponge fingers there were only 12!  So when it came to building the pudding it looked a bit poor, and I was a bit embarrassed about bringing it out in front of all of B's friends, so I thought I'd whip up a Victoria sponge from Davina's book to go with it and for the friends that didn't fancy the tiramisu. 

It was the best Victoria sponge I have ever made!

The tiramisu, although looked a bit of a poor effort, tasted amazing and I have had requests to make it again, although I still prefer the Baileys recipe.

I'm off for another coffee, the sleepover didn't involve much sleeping, and a slice of the Victoria sponge!

Lupin Girl x

I have linked this post to Free From Fridays
http://www.freefromfarmhouse.co.uk/recipes/free-from-fridays/free-fridays-21st-may-2015/

GF, WF, SyF, LF, EF, SF Digestive Biscuits

I'm feeling a lot better today so I've decided to make some biscuits. When I did the post the A-Z of me of said how much I missed biscuits so I thought I'd have a go at making digestives.

I've adapted a recipe from Davina's 5 Weeks to Sufar Free. 

Ingredients:

                 200g GF plain flour

                200g GF oats

                1tsp GF baking powder

                200g lactofree butter

               150g maple syrup

Method:

             Put your flour and oats into a food processor and blitz. 

             Add you butter in chunks and whizz until you have a breadcrumb texture. 

             Add the maple syrup and mix by hand to form a dough. It wil be soft and gooey, put it in cling film and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour. 

           Pre-heat the oven on gas 5/190c/170fan. 

          Roll out half your dough (pop the rest back in the fridge) on a well floured surface, I sprinkled flour over the dough and my rolling pin too as it was still quite sticky. 

         Use a medium cutter and cut out your biscuits. 

        Place them on a lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. 

         Repeat until you have used all of your dough

        I got 28 scrummy biscuits out of this and am taking them to my friends for coffee this morning. 

Lupin Girl x

I've linked this post up to the Wacky Wednesday Linky Party

 

 

and to Waiting on Wednesday Linky 

 



 

Cheats Chilli

When I went to work yesterday I got told by my colleagues that I should have been at home in bed, when I told them that I'd had to go to the dentist and sort the children out I got:
      
        'I don't know how you manage!'

Well, I suppose I manage because I have to.  I have lots of support at home, I am really grateful for this, but things still need doing, so unless its a 10/10 on the pain scale I get on with things, I have four children that need getting ready for school, clubs to go to and that need feeding. 

One of the ways I cope is by being organised, or trying to be!

J is always really helpful and between him and B they had emptied and re-loaded the dishwasher for me.  C and B make their own lunches so I only had L and R's to make.  I took them to school, then dashed to the dentist as I needed a filling replacing (I could have rearranged but then I'd still have been charged so I went).  Then I dashed home, via Tesco as I wanted some of the cheaper free from items, I hadn't ordered them with the internet shopping as they then became the free items (Tesco has a 3 for 2 deal on at the moment) so I grabbed the dairy free chocolate bars for B and the gluten free toasty pastries for R and myself, then I grabbed some mince, kidney beans and tinned tomatoes to make a cheats chilli when I got back.

Cheats chilli is really easy, I make it in the slow cooker:

Ingredients:

                 750g minced beef

                 2 tins of chopped tomatoes

                 2 tins kidney beans

                2 made up stock cubes

                Chilli powder

                Brown rice

Method:

             This couldn't be easier, you just chuck it all (except the rice) in the slow cooker, give it a mix about and leave on full heat for about 2 hours. 

             Add your rice to the chilli mix and cook of full heat for a further hour, then turn down to low heat.

           I put the meat and tins into the slow cooker around 11am, then added the rice at about 2pm, we ate just before 5pm.

Then I took L to her club, I could have said no I'm not well enough, but that's not fair on her, so we went. I do have attacks where I physically can't take her, but yesterday was a recovery day, I still had serious head pain, I almost burst into tears when I was told if have to collect my prescription another day (the prescription wasn't even anything to do with my head lol) 

If I can work through or after an attack I do, if I can safely get my kids to their clubs I do, then I collapse in a heap when they're all in bed. Maybe that's why it takes me a week to recover, maybe it sometimes brings on another attack? I don't know, but I will try my hardest to not let them affect my family as far as possible. 

Today, well today I'm still tender, my head isn't trying to explode with every step, but its not 100% better either. 

Lupin Girl x 


           

Wordless Wednesday

Lupin Girl x

Another Migraine

I just could not wake up this morning. After snoozing my alarm three times, I dragged myself out if bed feeling like I'd been drugged. I didn't think too much of it as most of us struggled. J was working close to home today and so helped with the morning chaos, walked B to her friends, took R to basketball club and dropped C at his meeting point. 

That left me with L and myself to sort out. We were ready on time with one lot if washing hung on the airer and another lot in the machine on the timer. I took her to school then dashed off to go and look at a school as I'm going to apply for a job there. 

I found the school and arrived in plenty if time, enjoyed my little tour, although there were four of us, with another your on Thursday, one of the ladies on this tour is a parent helper at the school; there are two vacancies so I guess that means there's only one really! So please keep your fingers crossed, although I really want the job at the school I looked around a couple of weeks ago as I got a good vibe from there. On the tour I felt giddy coming down some stairs, I gripped the rail hard and stayed upright but from then on I just didn't feel right. 

On getting home I had an hour before leaving for work, but just felt low/not quite right. I ate brunch and hung the washing up, then went to work. 

Whilst attending to first aid I noticed I had stars in my vision. I went and got someone to cover and headed off to take my medicine.  I managed to complete my shift, came home and collapsed on the settee until it was school run time. I don't know what caused this attack, maybe the weather? It's been rainy all day with really heavy downpours? 

I survived until J got home, thankfully he was in time to do the club run thus evening and I went to bed with more medicine and my trusty blindfold. 

Typically, I can't sleep now!

I hope you are all well, 

Lupin Girl x 

Migraines and Football

Saturday night, as I was relaxing after a hard day's shopping I realised I was getting a migraine.  I hadn't had one for a couple of weeks, and caught this one early.  I raced upstairs to get my medication down me, quickly, and went to bed.  I have downloaded a new app for my phone called Migraine Buddy, so I hit 'go' on that before I went to sleep.

Thankfully, when I woke up Sunday morning, I didn't feel too bad, which was a blessing as J was working and R had his football presentation day.  I lazed about a little bit to make sure I could move ok, and my head stayed on, so I made up a picnic to take with us.  Last year we were unprepared for an all day event at the football presentation, but I knew what to expect this year, so boiled eggs, made sandwiches and drinks and put lots of nibbles in; crisps, rice cakes, bananas apples and sweets.  Got the stew prepared in the slow cooker, washed and hung up a load of dark washing as I'd forgotten to wash B's P.E kit and she needs it Monday, then made gluten free dumplings for the stew, got everyone dressed and out of the door, stopped for petrol and still managed to get there on time, phew!

R played for the Under 8's last season and so we found out what time his presentation ceremony was - 1.30pm and then found out when he was playing bubble football - 12-1.  Bubble football is a bit like football, only the players are in big balls, like zorbs, only their feet are out of the ball so that they can still run about.  It was very entertaining to watch!

After R had played the bubble football, he got given a ticket for a free burger or hot-dog.  I had been prepared for this after last year, and had his burger put into some gluten free bread I had with me, so he was quite happy that he hadn't had to miss out.  Then it was time to go into the presentation, where he received a medal.  It was fairly chilly by now, but I let them have a few goes on the inflatable slide before coming home.

B wanted to watch her new DVD The Theory of Everything and I watched it with her.  It is a really good film, and had both of us gripped all of the way through, although we did pause it when J got in to dish up the stew, which, even if I do say so myself, was really yummy!

And now it's bed time, and keeping your fingers crossed time, as my left cheek feels numb again.  Which is sometimes, but not always, a sign of migraine.  I do wish I had 100% certain migraine tells, even the weird vision isn't a dead cert, as sometimes I've just caught the reflection off of a car window or something like that, and for a few minutes I'm left wondering if I'm getting one or not.

I hope you had a great Sunday,

Lupin Girl x

A Lovely Girly Day Out

B recently turned 13, and when I asked her what she wanted to do to mark the occasion, she said she wanted to go shopping with me to Milton Keynes.

I know she's wanted to go on a girly day out for coffee and shopping for a while; occasionally I go with my Mum and Sister and she has wanted to come with us.  We haven't been for a while, so I thought I'd surprise her and invite them along.  Only I only decided to do this on the morning so my Mum and Sister didn't have long to get ready to come with us, and unfortunately my Sister-in-Law couldn't make it.

The journey down wasn't too bad, and we got parked straight away which really surprised me as usually we struggle if we go on a Saturday.  Then we headed for one of B's favourite shops, Blot.  First shop, first bag.  She started how she meant to go on!

We shopped a bit more and B bought a pair of Heely's in bright orange, and Aunty bought two pairs of trainers and I bought a couple of T-shirts which were on buy two for £5.  B was looking for a coat, and had a specific style in mind, we looked everywhere and got lucky in TK Max just what she'd been looking for and a bargain at £10. 

We decided it must be time for lunch, and after a lengthy discussion and looking at several menus, B decided she just wanted McDonalds then a posh coffee later on.  I was a little disappointed with McDonalds new self order machines as you could order burgers with items removed, but you could remove everything except the bun, how difficult would it have been to put a picture of the roll and a tick box next to it along with the onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard and patty?  I queued up and ordered my bunless burger and we had a lovely lunch.

We were re-fuelled and went off for round two.

More walking, talking and shopping, B bought The Theory of Everything, but she wasn't feeling so good, and we started to think maybe something she had eaten had contained milk, we hadn't actually checked the allergy advice in McD's with all the faffing about and I felt quite bad.  I was pretty certain her drink was fine, iced strawberry lemonade, she ate a McChicken Burger and fries. (I know the fries are fine)  Later on, after changing back out of her Heely's which she had put straight on after buying them, she realised she'd been holding herself funny on them and maybe pulled a stomach muscle. 

Realising that she wasn't ill made her feel much better, but she didn't want to risk having a coffee (we were going to get her a soya coffee) so we did even more shopping (I think we walked around the centre a fair few times!)  B's Aunty had to leave early as she was going out, so we carried on without her and B bought some summer clothes, denim shorts, and two T-shirts.  Then, although she still didn't want coffee, we did go for a drink.  We chose Marks and Spencer and B had a sparkling blackberry and elderberry drink, Mum and I had a filter coffee each, whilst I was there, I thought I'd have a quick look to see what was on offer food wise for gluten free people like myself, and I couldn't find anything, I was quite surprised as I'd heard that M&S were good for gluten free foods, I didn't have time to look around the food court though, but did think if they sold food there, they would have it in the café, maybe it was just because it was almost closing time and they'd run out?

Once back home, and after B had shown off her purchases, I made us some very tasty gluten free chips, not just any old chips, but MASSIVE ones lol, and they were much appreciated (I know, I know we had chips for lunch and dinner, but it is a birthday celebration!)

I think B enjoyed her girly day shopping and I think she may request to accompany us on further trips.  I enjoyed my day too, it is lovely to spend quality time with one of the children on their own, they're growing up far too quickly!



Lupin Girl x

The A-Z of Me

I've been nominated by the lovely Lisa at Mummascribbles to take part in a lovely post which is doing the rounds called 'The A-Z of Me' I'm sorry it has taken me a while to complete, but here it is, and I hope you enjoy it:

 

A is for anaphylaxis, something we hope we never have to deal with, but live with the knowledge that we may well face it, any day!

 

B is for biscuits, something I really miss since having to go on a gluten free diet, I can't seem to make nice ones and most of the shop bought ones have soya in :(

 

C is for my amazing children, whom I love dearly.

 

D is for dolphins, my favourite sea animal (B's too).

 

E is for elephants, my favourite land animal (R's too).

 

F is for friends and family, I have some amazing friends and family and I don't know what I'd do without them, so thank you to each and every one of you xxxx

 

H is for holiday, I'm really looking forward to ours.

 

I is for intolerances (food ones) which we're learning to manage and accept.

 

J is for jelly, I love it, all wibbly and wobbly, and I AM going to make my own, one of these days.

 

L is for lemons, I love using them in cakes, and on our dinners, chicken and fish taste lovely cooked with lemons.

 

M is for milk, something new I'm having to look out for on labels now B is lactose free.

 

N is for Nineteen Kids and Counting one of the shows I love watching with my girls.

 

O is for the ocean, I love to jump the waves with the kids whilst on holiday, and would absolutely love to live near the ocean one day.

 

P is for pumpkin, I keep meaning to make a pumpkin pie, but have only ever made soup so far, this will be my challenge for this Halloween!

 

Q is for qualifications, I'm working hard to get my English Literature Degree with the Open University.

 

R is for reading, something I love, which is good considering the amount I have to do for my degree course!

 

S is for sugar, we're trying to cut it down, I now make most of my cakes using honey or maple syrup and they're lovely and yummy.

 

T is for teal, my favourite colour

 

U is for USA I loved going there on holiday as a child, and would love to go back one day.

 

V is for VW as we're hoping to buy a camper soon, exciting!

 

W is for work, I need more of it so if anyone is looking to hire anyone give me a shout, I'm a hard worker and a quick learner!

 

X is for xanthan gum powder, my new friend when baking.

 

Y is for yolk, the best bit of an egg.

 

Z is for zoos, we haven't been to one for a while, maybe we will on holiday then L can see her favourite animal, a zebra.

 

 

I nominate you, yes you, go on, it's fun x

 

Lupin Girl x

 

Migraine Blogs I've Linked To

Just a quick post today as I've been on the phone for most of it trying to get a better deal on our sky, broadband and telephone.  I've managed to get all three for the price I was paying for only our Sky T.V by merging the three items, saving about £50 per month, I'm quite pleased with myself :)

Recently I was invited by Gem at imaginationwithin to link up to share our experiences of living with migraine, there are other people on there and interviews that Gem has conducted for you to read, Gem has even written an e-book about migraine, I've not read it yet, but it's on my to read list. 

I have also been invited to link with happyiihgirl not only does she suffer with migraine, but also has idiopathic intracranial hypertension and her blog is a humbling read.

I hope you enjoy engaging with these blogs as much as I have.

Lupin Girl x

Who needs Cake?

B celebrated her 13th birthday recently, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal.  Her request was lasagne followed by tiramisu. 

The lasagne I made without any problems, I made it a day early so that all we had to do was heat it through on the night.  The tiramisu, however was another story.  Since B has gone on a lactose free diet I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it.  B said that there is a lactofree cream cheese so I was going to see if it was possible to make it using that.  However I have been so busy this last few days, and then with the car breaking I couldn't get to the big shop, so the big day arrived and I had no birthday pudding or cake!  I asked her what she wanted instead and she just said something cold!  Ice-cream is out, so I walked to our little shop hoping that they sold sorbet, they didn't.  I know one of her favourite deserts is Eton Mess, so I bought meringues, strawberries and some sweets (we had squirty cream at home for everyone else, but I didn't add it to the pudding so it was safe for B)

So here is B's 13th birthday pudding, who needs cake?

 

I still need to see if there is a way of making a lactose free tiramisu for the weekend, (so if anybody knows of a recipe, please share), then I need find out what cake she wants for her birthday sleepover later in the month, we know how to string out birthday's in this house :)

 

 

Lupin Girl x

Wordless Wednesday

I have done a lot if walking this past couple of days while my car was in the garage. However because of a good friend (H) I didn't need to have a taxi ride, so thank you very much xx

Lupin Girl x

Quick Catch Up

I am so tired, yesterday was amazing, my fantabulous friend H had bought me a ticket to see Take That in concert and we had such a great time.

We set off just after picking up the children from school, and H's partner had kindly offered to have my children for me until J got home.  They are fab friends :)

We parked at Birmingham airport, which did feel a little odd, and we ate at the Frankie and Benny's there.  The meal itself was lovely, they catered for a gluten free diet, and checked that the meal I ordered (omelette) didn't have any of my allergens in, and I remembered not to order a drink from the draught pumps, I went for a J2O.  However, despite having a sign up, and a bit on the menu saying that you wouldn't wait longer than 15 minutes, they were slow.  We waited a good half an hour for our meal, so it was a good job we weren't catching a plane!

We then caught the monorail to the NEC arena and walked down to the Genting arena, we arrived just in time for Ella Henderson and climbed what felt like a million seats up to our seats, Ella was great, although I have to admit to not knowing many of her songs, I do love Ghost though, we have it on in the car a fair bit.

We had a half hour wait for Take That to start after Ella finished and they were well worth the wait, what a show!

I'm not going to spoil the concert for anyone as they're still touring, but if you have tickets you are not going to be disappointed, and my favourite bit was this:

Then, after the buzz of last night, I got in the car this morning and had no brakes!  My car is now at the garage, it has corroded brake pipes, although, not the corroded brake pipes which I had replaced last March, my car in special, my car has 6 (or was it 8, I can't remember) pairs of brake pipes.  The garage are mending it tomorrow, which left me in the lurch (as well as leaving me skint!) as I have an appointment at 9.30am, and H is being a star again and giving me a lift, and picking me up.

I have amazing friends, and feel very lucky, you all know who you are xxx

I hope your last couple of days weren't such a rollercoaster ride!

Lupin Girl x

Free from Chocolate Brownies with a twist

I recently agreed to take part in Amanda Bootes #letsgetfoodiechallenge and the first challenge was to make your best chocolate recipe.  Now this was rather a challenge for me as I don't really make anything chocolatey as it makes me ill.  I do still occasionally make chocolate brownies, I have gotten used to making them gluten free, so now I decided to try making them lactose free and sugar free too, only I'd run out of honey so I decided to try and make them using stevia, this was the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

               225g lactose free butter

               1 cup of stevia

               4 eggs

              70g cocoa powder

              225g gluten free self raising flour

              Lactose free milk

Method:

            Whisk your butter until really creamy.

            Add the stevia and whisk some more.

            Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each one.

            Combine your flour and cocoa powder, then add to the mix. 

            If you mix is a little thick, add some milk to thin it out. 

             Grease a cake tin and pour your batter in. Bake at gas mark 4 for 25 minutes. 

Verdict: 

           Because stevia is very sweet I used half the amount of stevia by volume than sugar and I added more cocoa than usual and so these were quite grown up brownies, consequently the little two weren't keen and so I will probably ice them to sweeten them up. I found the stevia left a strange after taste in my mouth and I'm not sure I'll bake with it again. 

I would love to hear how you all get on using sugar substitutes, but think I'll stick to using honey and maple syrup for now. 

Lupin Girl x

I've linked this post to Twinkly Tuesday's

 

Special Memories

Today has been wonderful.

Last night we had my Goddaughter over to sleep, and she was an angel as usual, after playing with my children in the garden she happily got ready for bed.  however, when I went up, my children were all asleep and J was still awake!  I checked she was alright and told her to get some sleep now, she must have done as I didn't hear any more from her until 7.30 this morning, I listened to her and L laughing for a little while, then I took her downstairs for her morning hot chocolate and cereal.

Then I decided that the old wardrobe we had in our dining area needed to go today.  It had been moved recently and ended up blocking up our French doors blocking out all of the light and we had the children's Nanna and Grandad coming to visit and I wanted it looking good for when they arrived (12.30 ish it was now 8.30am)

Four hours, could we do it?

Now this wardrobe housed all of the dressing up outfits, many of which my children have outgrown, art supplies, definitely still needed, board games, some of which my children had either outgrown, or had pieces missing, but some that we still wanted to keep, and Lego, which we still need.  Where on Earth we were going to re-home all of this to, I wasn't sure!

We emptied all of the wardrobe out onto the kitchen table and the children sorted it out into piles of things to keep and things for charity.  J did trips with the items which were being given away and moved the wardrobe into the garden for now.  The children and I found homes for the rest of the items, with a little bit of re-arranging in the boys room, we found room for their items, the board games fitted in the smaller unit which had been moved into the dining room (the reason for the wardrobe being moved in the first place) and the girls found room for their items in their room.  The only thing which doesn't have a new home yet is the Lego, but we'll find somewhere.

J had been picked up, most of the house was back to normal and I had put a pinto bean vegetarian chili on to cook in the slow cooker earlier on, so we were all on track for visitors.  Yey!

We don't see Nanna and Grandad as much as we should as they live a long way away from us, and it was lovely to spend the day with them, we enjoyed a bottle of wine, the vegi chili and lots of laughs. 

And...

I made corndogs for the very first time!  I need to make them again before I post pictures and a recipe as my oil was old and the corndogs came out very dark, I also struggled to begin with with the consistency of the batter, I got better as I went on, and I thought they tasted yummy, however B wasn't convinced that she liked them, I think she was disappointed that they didn't look like the ones she's seen on television!

I love days like this, watching the children play and have fun with family around us, building special memories together.

Lupin Girl x

One Pot Mediterranean Chicken

I was going to cook one if my favorite meals, homemade sweet and sour chicken balls with egg fried rice, but R has to make a Mediterranean dish for his home learning and so we got googling. We've come up with our own dish made from a couple that we looked at.

Ingredients:

                 21 new potatoes

                 3 lemons

                 1 onion 

                 1 bulb of garlic

                 1 packet of smoky bacon

                 1 packet of cherry tomatoes

                 1 packet of mozzarella cheese

                 2 chicken breasts

                 2 tablespoons of oil 

Method:

            Put you oil into a large baking tray. 

            Cut your potatoes into chunks and put them into the tray, coat in the oil. 

             Chop you lemons into quarters and add to the pan along with the cherry tomatoes. 

            Chop the bacon and chicken into chunks and add to the pan. 

            Peel and chop you onions and garlic and add to the pan. 

            Break your mozzarella into chunks and add to the pan. (I made two trays full and left the mozzarella out of one so it was lactose free)

 Bake for about an hour, depending upon how big your potatoes are, serve with corn on the con and enjoy. 

This was lovely and caramelised, so full of flavour and we will be cooking it again. If only all homework was a tasty! 

Lupin Girl x

I've linked this post to Twinkly Tuesday's

 

            

            

Sugar Free, Lactose Free, Gluten Free Victoria Sponge

So I had an urge to have cake, not really sure why but I decided to make a Victoria sponge, but a sugar and gluten free Victoria sponge and I served it with whipped cream. (thank you C for whipping it for me)

Ingredients:

                   225g lactose free butter

                   225g gluten free self raising flour

                   2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

                  1 teaspoon xanthan gum powder

                  3 eggs

                  225g honey or maple syrup (I used honey in this one)

Method:

                Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4/180C.

                Put your lactose free butter into your mixer and beat it well, until soft and creamy.

                Combine your gf flour, gf baking powder and xanthan gum powder.

               Add one egg and beat.

               Add a tablespoon of your flour mixture and beat.

               Repeat until you have added all of your eggs, then add the rest of your flour.

               Grease a cake tin, pour your mixture in and bake for 30 minutes.

I served this with whipped cream on the side (so B could still eat it as I still haven't gotten around to buying lactose free cream *slaps wrists*)

I hope you enjoy as much as we did (heads off for another sneaky slice!)

Lupin Girl x