Tuesday 25 January 2011

Millies 'N' McDonalds

Having recently read that you can buy a voucher at Millie's cookies for £35, which entitles you to twelve boxes of twelve cookies (£35 for 144 cookies, I think not) I decided to make our own. The recipe below makes about 15-18 cookies for approximately £1.20.



The Recipe:



Ingredients;


  • 3 oz butter (softened)
  • 3 0z granulated sugar
  • 3 oz muscavado
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 6 oz Self Raising flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • 4 oz of chocolate chips (you can use any chocolate you want. e.g. M&Ms, chopped up chocolate, toffee, fudge etc.)

  1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4.
  2. Put all of the ingredients, except the chocolate, in a mixer and mix thoroughly.
  3. Tip the mixture into a bowl and then mix in whatever chocolate you are using. Stir well. Make sure the chocolate is evenly distributed.
  4. Take small amounts of the mixture and roll into approximately golf ball sized balls.
  5. Place on a greased baking sheet and make sure that they are evenly spread out. These babies spread out a lot!!
  6. Bake for exactly eleven minutes. No more, or no less.
  7. Leave to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire tray.
Enjoy !!!

Clare xx

Tuesday 18 January 2011

CFC

Not Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Clare's Fried Chicken. OK, well it was actually baked not fried but you get the picture. I tried one of the recipes out of my new book, the Takeaway Secret for Southern Fried Chicken a la KFC, and it was gorgeous!

To avoid the deep frying, I followed the recipe exactly, except instead of deep frying I oven baked for 20-25 minutes and the whole family enjoyed it. The chicken was exactly the right texture. Instead of the usual drumsticks and thighs I used a pack of chicken breasts from work reduced from £6 to £2. Alongside these I also made potato wedges using the recipe from the same book. Even more successful !!!

I have to admit to one failure though - the prawn toasts that I made for Mickey didn't go down well. Oh well, win some lose some !!

Clare xx

Friday 14 January 2011

Hurry up !!!

I'm on tenterhooks, waiting for an Amazon delivery. I've ordered a new cookery book and three recipe/gardening books. The latter are about growing your own food and preserving it ina multitude of ways.

I hate waiting.

So I promised myself that I'd do as much cleaning as I could whilst I was waiting, so that once the books arrive I can just snuggle up in bed with a cup of coffee and enjoy them, guilt free. It's nearly half past twelve and they still aren't here!!!!!!

How much cleaning can a girl do????

I've also made a huge batch of bolognaise sauce, with lots of mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, red wine and oodles of herbs. Half is for tomorrow's lasagne, half for spag bol in the week.

Clare xx

Thursday 13 January 2011

Meal Plan

Ok- here goes a meal plan for the next few days. With me, it's either all or nothing. I stick to it beautifully or it all goes out the window! So fingers crossed......

Friday- Orange glazed chicken breasts with baby new potatoes

Saturday- Lasagne (will have to make on Friday because I'm working on Saturday, but I want them to have a decent meal)

Sunday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Monday - Roast chicken dinner

Tuesday - Cumberland Sausage and Mash

Wednesday - Filled pasta tortellini and garlic bread (note to self - buy the garlic bread)

Thursday - beans on toast (full of protein!!!) because I'm working until 6.30pm

Friday - Crispy Chicken with potato wedges

Saturday - St James Beef (a rich beef casserole with lots of garlic and cranberry sauce)

Clare xx

Busy!!

Happy New Year !!

Christmas and New Year were both very busy for us - we had my Mum, Dad, sister and Aunty over on Christmas Day for a three course lunch, and spent a lot of the Christmas break visiting other family. Sadly I had to work a lot over Christmas (the tills keep busy at Sainsburys!) so I didn't see as much of Dave and the girls as I would have liked. I missed my babies!!

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's birthday (Happy 74th, Doris) so we had her over for tea. Home-made roast chicken and stuffing pie with mashed potatoes and buttered carrots, sherry trifle - her absolute favourite - and a chocolate birthday cake. It was lovely to spend happy time with her, as she has so many ongoing problems that it can be very strenous and emotional dealing with them.

I've decided to get a greenhouse this year -I desperately miss the one we used to have in our old home. I can still remember the smell of 'real' tomatoes in there, not the insipid bland ones that we buy now. Lucy is looking forward to it too......she wants to get some seeds started especially peas!

Here's to a decent year's weather!!

Clare xx