Happy New Year - Mushroom & Spinach Stroganoff

Happy New Year!
Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?  I did but I am so glad all the turkey is out of the way.  As the nights are dark and cold still though I sometimes feel I still need a little comfort food on an evening.  But as its January and a month of resolutions and dieting I felt I should try and have a healthy take on things.  So here is my version of Stroganoff...

Serves 2

1. Pasta
2. 1 tbsp olive oil
3. 1 small onion, chopped
4. 150g mushrooms (chunky slices)
5. 1 clove garlic, crushed
6. 2 tsp ground paprika
7. 3 tbsp dry sherry (just added a little water and was fine)
8 .1 tbsp tomato purée
9. 2 tsp Dijon mustard
10. squeeze of lemon juice
11. 2 tbsp half fat crème frâiche (I used fat free)
12. 2 hand fulls of baby spinach (just to add some greens)
13. Fresh chopped Parsley (for garnish)

How To Cook

   1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the pasta (tagliatelle works well) and cook for 10 mins or according to packet instructions until the pasta is just tender.
 
 2. Whilst the pasta cooks make the sauce: Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add onions and the mushrooms and sauté for five minutes over a high heat until golden brown. Add the garlic and paprika cook for 30 seconds, stirring all the time.
 
 3. Stir in the sherry, tomato pureé, mustard and lemon juice, and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring. Stir in the crème frâiche and cook over a gentle heat until piping hot. Season to taste.
 
 4. Drain the tagliatelle and divide between four bowls. Top with the mushroom mixture and scatter over the parsley.

My Healthy Take on Chips

So now the colder months are here I find my self turning to comfort food to warm me up... but as a lady likes to watch her figure I have to find a healthy way of cooking things.  One my my winter favorites is good old British Chips.. you can even have them with steamed or bread crumb fish (make it whole wheat bread crumbs and your onto a winner) and peas to create a healthy low fat take on Fish and Chips. 

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Leaving skins on chop potatoes into chip style slices, the chunkier the better.  Toss chips in olive or coconut oil. Spread over a baking sheet in an even layer, bake for 40 mins until browned and crisp turning half way through. 

Yes its thats easy.

French Onion Soup - EASY

So today I am feeling a little under the weather so I have chosen to cook my self some heeling food.  For me thats french onion soup today.  Now as my head is a little cloudy to say the least I need something simple.  So here we are.. enjoy!

What you need
30ml (2tbsp) sunflower oil
15g (1/2oz) butter
3 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1.5 sugar
15ml (1tbsp) plain flour
10ml (2tsp) wholegrain mustard
1 liters (2pt) beef or vegetable stock
2 large sprigs fresh thyme

What you do!

Heat the oil and butter in a large deep pan. Add the onions and cook gently over a low heat for 10 mins, stirring frequently. Sprinkle over the sugar and cook for a further 10 mins until the onions are soft.
Stir in the flour and mustard, and cook for 1 min. Add the stock and thyme sprigs and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30-40 mins.

Serve with crusty bread... delish!

Strawberry Pancakes

So today I'm not in at work till 2pm so iv had a wonderful lie in followed by a scrummy pile of pancakes.

I took this recipe from the one and only Nigella Lawson (a genuine domestic goddess) and adapted it a little adding my own flare.. I think it has worked out well so I though I would share it with you guys.

What you will need -
* 1 table spoon of melted butter
* 1 egg
* 150g plain flour
* 1/2 tbs bicarbonate of sode
* 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar (plain will do just fine)
* Fresh strawberry's
* 1/2 cup of milk

What do to -

* Heat a non stick pan over a medium heat
* slice your strawberry's then add to pan and warm through
* Mix together dry ingredients then whisk in the wet to make a batter
* Take the strawberrys off the heat and add into the mixture
* wipe off your pan and return to the heat for a minute or so
* Spoon mixture into pan to create little pancakes about the size of the base of a wine bottle (always a good measuring device)
* when the pancakes start to form little bubbles on the surface its time to flip them over
* Cook on the other side for about a minute

Serve warm with maples syrup, strawberry jam, peanut butter anything you fancy really.

I also think this would work with a little cinnamon added into the dry mix and possibly a few dark chocolate chips wouldn't go a miss to.. yum! Will try that soon.

Enjoy Xx

Tips From Granny

Now my Gran is the sort of woman who put most 1950s house wife's to shame, I get called a clean freek and she makes me look messy.  She is the kinda lady who would clean her skirting boards and doors every single week, and now even though she is coming up to 90 years old in October she still worries that her brass light fittings have not been polished for a few weeks.  This woman in a real old fashioned and traditional domestic goddess.

So the other week we were chatting and she was telling me about how her neighbors would say "your white washing is always sparkling, what is your secret"?  she never told them, not a sole.  So when I asked if I could pass down the genius to you guys I was surprised to hear the words "ah what the hell, go on then"

And here boys and girls is the tip from my gran..... soda crystals!  YUP..Thats It!  She adds a table spoon of soda crystals to her white washing and it comes out super white.  Much cheaper then Vanish cleaning products and 100% better.   So give it ago... you can pick them up at most super markets.

Anyway ta ta for now xX

1000 Awesome Things

So I was surfing the web looking for more things to make me smile and I came across this site.. http://1000awesomethings.com/ honest take a read and see how many things you think.. humm so true and then smile.  :-)  I love it.

It inspired me to think of a few awesome things that just make me smile, I have written them down.  So when life aint so good I can check out this list and it will make the nasty things seem not so bad.  It's the little things in life that count.. right?

1. Flying over snow capped mountains (ok so this is off the site but its so true for me)

2. Smell of bonfires in Early Autumn

3. When walking off a plane into a hot place the way the heat hits you.. love it!

4. A good chat and a bottle of wine with the girls

5. Laughing till your tummy hurts

6. When you think they are all gone dipping your hand into the bag and finding one last sweet.

7. Finding that £5 you left in your bag from last year

8.Receiving an unexpected hand written letter in the post

9. Mum's, Grandma's (who ever it may be for you) smell of cooking when you walk into the house after a horrible day.

10. (for me the best of all)  Snuggling up to a loved one after a tiring day.


So whats your favorite awesome things? 

Tatty Bye Xxx

We're All In This Together Poster

Hello ladies and Gents,

So is it just me or has summer gone a miss somewhere.  A few weeks back they were talking about the lack of rain and hose pipe bans all over and now it seems to do nothing but rain.  The sky is full of gray clouds and I am quickly loosing my summer glow. 

So i decided that today I was going to take a look around and see what I could find to brighten up even the most dull of days.  I came across this little gem.   I have printed mine off an popped it into a frame.  Sometimes a positive message is just as up lifting as the sunniest of days.  You can down load yours here.. http://sunnyfionadesign.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-poster.html

I hope you enjoy it.. Toodle Pip Xx