Recipe - Warm Artichoke Dip

It's been a while since I hosted a 'bring a plate' night at my house. It's a great way to get my busy mum friends together for dinner without anyone having to do all the work. We literally all just bring a plate of something, and we end up having a great selection of dishes and desserts.

The first night I hosted was at my old house, and it was when my good friend Ailsa was still in Glasgow (she emigrated to Australia nearly three years ago... I miss her & her brood so much!). Anyway, I digress. Ailsa made a more-ish artichoke dip that was just delightful. It was so easy to put together and yet tasted/looked like she had made a huge effort.

Well, I was flicking through the Sainsbury's magazine yesterday and stumbled upon a Warm Artichoke Dip recipe that looks pretty much the same as Ailsa's one... so I thought I would share it with you. I think I'll make it this weekend.

Warm Artichoke Dip

Ingredients

1 x 400 g tin artichoke hearts in water, drained
100 g mayonnaise
100 g Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Olive oil and thyme leaves to serve along with a fresh Focaccia bread or similar.

{image source}

Method

Preheat oven to 200 deg C (fan 180 deg C, gas 6).

Blend the artichokes, mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese in a food processor.

Transfer to an oven proof dish.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with thyme leaves and serve with toasted Focaccia drizzled with olive oil.

Recipe - Lamb Stew

When the kids & I were up in Aberdeen for half term, my sisters other half Robin made us a fantastic lamb stew for dinner. The stew was flavoursome but not too spicy so the kids enjoyed it. I'm all for us eating the same meal and so in that respect this recipe is ideal. It's from Two Fat Ladies, Full Throttle and I thought I'd share it with you here with his tips :)

From what I can see on Google, Harrira is a Moroccan soup, but this was definitely more stew consistency than soup as the rice soaked up most of the liquid.

Harrira 

{Ingredients}

115 g chickpeas (from a tin - saves you soaking them overnight!)

350 g lamb in bite-size pieces (Robin recommends you double this lamb quantity to 700 g)

1 large onion, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

25g butter

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Salt & pepper

900mL - 1.2L chicken stock

400g chopped tomatoes

55g long grain rice

Pinch of saffron

1 red pepper, skinned, de-seeded & cut into strips (another tip - it's better if you don't skin the pepper)

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp chopped parsley

{Method}

Fry the onion in oil & butter until translucent.

Add the lamb and brown evenly.

Add the ginger, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, cinnamon, salt & pepper to taste and fry for a few minutes.

Transfer to a saucepan in which you have the chicken stock, cover & cook gently for an hour.

Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, rice, red pepper and lemon juice and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

Robin served the stew with toasted tortilla wraps and it was the perfect accompaniment

It was delicious... thanks guys :-)

Food - Shrove Tuesday

I just logged into Pinterest on my computer to find that I've got over 5K pins... wow!!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a few ideas for pancakes seeing as it's Shrove Tuesday tomorrow (Pancake Day).

I'm getting better and better at Scotch Pancakes the more I make them. My son even said that my pancakes were better than TriBeCa...now that's saying something! (For those of you not in Glasgow, TriBeCa is an American diner that serves up amazing pancakes and waffles amongst other things!). When I was growing up, Pancake Day was all about crepes with sugar and lemon, but when I tried making crepes the kids weren't impressed. They prefer the smaller, fatter pancakes.

The recipe I've been using is Nigella's American Breakfast Pancakes and we serve ours warm with butter, jam and sometimes Nutella if I have any.

But do take a look at all these lovely ideas I've pinned...it's making me so hungry!!

{Strawberry Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes}

{Banana Bread Pancakes}

{Glazed Doughnut Pancakes}

{Blueberries and syrup}

Will you be making pancakes tomorrow?

Review - Breville Blend-Active

I was thrilled to be selected by BritMums to review a Breville Blend-Active Family Pack. The kids and I were super excited to give it a whizz! ;-)

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

If you haven't heard of it before, the Blend-Active is a personal blender allowing you to create one-person portion blending for the whole family. The Family Pack comes with 2 x 600mL bottles and 2 x 300mL bottles.

The concept of this really appeals to me, and if only I could get up a little earlier I would be making healthy smoothies to drink en-route to work or on the school run (I'm yet to do this! With the dark mornings I'm really struggling to get up!!).

Despite it being winter, we decided to make some yummy milkshakes! Fruit ones for me and the littlest and a chocolate one for my son. He's all about the chocolate!

Basically we threw in some ice cream, milk and frozen berries into the bottle (added a dessert spoon of cocoa to my son's one to make it chocolate flavour), attached the blade cap, whizzed it until smooth and then replaced the blade cap with the drinking cap and we were ready to go.

The shakes tasted good (I demolished mine in minutes!), but I've found that using frozen fruit doesn't work all too well. Despite the instructions saying the machine can crush ice, chop tough fruits and nuts I found that with the frozen fruit I was having to blend it for a prolonged period and was worried that the motor was going to burn out.

We had much better success when we used fresh fruit.

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

The other evening R & I decided to film a quick vlog of me making a healthier smoothie... this time with avocado, chocolate and peanut butter. Watch below to see how we got on...



The Breville Blend-Active Family Pack has an RRP of £40 but it's currently on offer on the Breville website at £29.99. I think for what you get this is good value, but I wouldn't recommend it if you are wanting to prepare bags of fruit in your freezer for blending which is what I had envisaged I would be doing. It was definitely better with fresh fruit.

The machine itself is really easy to use and it's quick to clean it too - big thumbs up. I've been sticking the bottles into my dishwasher. Aesthetically I think it looks good too if you're going to have it sitting out on your kitchen counter. I love the lime green colour and it just happens to tie in with my kitchen colour-scheme!

I received a Breville Blend-Active for the purposes of this review. As always, opinions are honest and are my own.

Martinis and Mistletoe

Every year around this time I like to have a Christmas drinks thing. Last year it was a festive afternoon tea and I had envisaged that this year I would have a grown-ups 'martinis and mistletoe' cocktail party. However I'm totally skint and don't really have an available child-free weekend night anyway due to my works Christmas lunch this weekend and a dinner with the girls in the diary too!

{image source}

That said, I thought I'd share with you my ideas because it might inspire you to have a wee festive get-together with friends.

To Drink - Bailey's Nog

(I realise this isn't a martini, but I thought this drink sounded nice!)

Ingredients

300mL full fat milk

300mL Baileys Irish Cream

4 egg yolks

150mL maple syrup

1tsp cinnamon powder

1tsp allspice powder

Freshly grated nutmeg, to garnish

Chocolate swizzlestick, to garnish

Method

In a blender (I was thinking that this would be good to make in the Breville Blend Active I have been sent to review!) combine the milk and a few scoops of ice and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks, cinnamon, allspice and maple syrup. Combine all the ingredients in the blender and blend again. Pour into a glass and dust with grated nutmeg. Garnish with a chocolate swizzlestick and serve.

This recipe is courtesy of World Duty Free. For more information on their products, please visit www.worlddutyfree.com

To Eat - Mince Pies

Ingredients

For the mincemeat:

110g sultanas

170g raisins

170g currants

170g grated bramley apples

110g suet

200g soft brown sugar

100g finely chopped mixed peel

65g blanched and chopped almonds

1/2 tbsp mixed spice

The zest and juice of 1 orange

Large splash of brandy

For the pastry:

170g plain flour

Pinch of salt

100g unsalted butter

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 small egg

1-2 tbsp cold water

Large splash of brandy

Method

For the best home-made mince pies, it's always worth making the mincemeat filling a month or so in advance so that it develops a good depth of flavour. Making it couldn't be easier: simply mix together all of your ingredients in a bowl. Store your mixture in a sealed, sterilised jar and it will keep for up to 12 months.

Now for the pastry. After preheating your oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C, start by rubbing together the butter and flour, mixing in the golden caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Roll this mixture into a ball and knead it briefly, before leaving to stand for 20 minutes.

Line a patty tin with walnut-sized balls of pastry and spoon in your mincemeat. Take slightly smaller balls of pastry and pat them out between your hands to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal. Beat 1 small egg and brush the tops of the pies. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes, then dust with icing sugar to serve.

This recipe is courtesy of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, the charity partner of the White Stuff.

On the iPod

Michael Bublé Christmas CD

And after all that, if you can't be bothered organising the drinks and nibbles yourself, then I can highly recommend Social & Cocktail who will make your Christmas party sparkle! You can have a Bellini reception, 5 cocktails plus canapes for £32.50 per person (minimum booking of 10 people). Sounds good to me!

Magic Mealtime Moments with Galloway Cheddar

I was sent a lovely hamper from Galloway Cheddar and it included a variety of ingredients for us to create some recipes.

I felt like a contestant in Ready Steady Cook!

Thinking hats on, what would you make with the following?

• Galloway Cheddar Cheese
• Haggis
• Chorizo
• Tortilla Wraps
• Peppers
• Onions
• Turnip
• Potatoes
• Leek
• Macaroni pasta
• Oatcakes

With it being near St Andrew's Day, we decided to make something with the haggis and rather than the usual haggis, neeps and tatties, I decided to throw together some Haggis Quesadillas. Super easy to make and they tasted amazing. I cooked the haggis in the microwave, and separately I grated the Galloway cheddar cheese and mixed this with some chopped spring onion. With a frying pan over a medium heat, I added a drizzle of oil before placing in a tortilla wrap. I then sprinkled on the cheese & spring onion mixture and then the haggis before covering with another wrap. I cooked this on both sides until the cheese was all melted. Remove from the pan and cut into wedges. I served this with salad.

The ingredients

Before the top was added!

The final result. Yum!

I also decided to make a macaroni cheese. Seemed obvious given we had the two main ingredients - cheese and macaroni pasta! However I decided to give it a bit of a twist and added sautéed onion, leek and chorizo into the pasta before baking in the oven. 

The ingredients

I cooked some pasta according to the packet instructions, and whilst this was cooking I sautéed some onion, leek and chorizo in a frying pan. After about 5 minutes or when the onions were soft, I took it off the heat whilst I made a cheese sauce. I followed Delia Smith's recipe for an all-in-one white sauce to which I added plenty grated Galloway Cheddar cheese. I then mixed the macaroni, onion, leek, chorizo and cheese sauce all together in a pan before transferring to a dish and sprinkling with even more cheese! Super easy and tasted great.

Chopped onion & keek

Pan fry the chorizo

Add the onion and leeks

Transfer to an oven proof dish

Ta da! Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese has melted.

It was delish!

And then finally, with the remaining ingredients I made a yummy vegetable soup in my slow cooker. Just throw everything in with some stock and cook on slow for a few hours. I then blitzed with my hand blender and served this with oatcakes, and cheese of course!

Galloway Cheddar are giving away £5 cashback towards your next family meal when you buy special promotional packs of their cheddar. Find out more details here. You could also win your own Galloway serving dish by entering a photo of your favourite Family Mealtime Moment. 

I was sent a hamper of ingredients, a cheese grater and serving dish for the purpose of this post. All opinions are my own and are honest.

Mini Fondant Christmas Cakes at Wayfair

If you haven't spotted it already, then my Mini Fondant Christmas Cakes tutorial is now live over on the Wayfair site. Do head on over and have a peek :-)

I received some kitchen equipment from Wayfair to prepare the cakes and in exchange I wrote this tutorial. 

{Recipe: Banana & Choc Chip Muffins}

We had friends coming over for a play date the other afternoon and so the littlest & I decided to bake some banana muffins to use up our bananas that had past their best. The recipe we used is based on a Mary Berry one which we found online on the Daily Mail website here.

{Ingredients}

100 g butter at room temperature

2 medium free range eggs

175 g caster sugar

2 medium ripe bananas, peeled

3 tablespoons milk, we used semi-skimmed

225 g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50 g milk chocolate chips

{Method}

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C. My oven is fan assisted.

2. Line a cupcake tin with paper cases. The recipe should make 12.

3. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate chips into a mixer, and mix on low until combined. We used our KitchenAid stand mixer with the flat beater on number 1 for approx 5 minutes & then number 2 for a further 5 minutes or so.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips using a spoon or other kitchen utensil. I think we used a spatula!

5. Spoon the mixture into the cases.

6. Bake for around 25 minutes until the muffins have risen & are golden brown. I turned my oven up to 175 deg C for the last 5 minutes as at 20 minutes they didn't look golden.

7. Stick the kettle on & enjoy a warm muffin with mug of hot tea...perfect!

Ta da!!

They were really good, and our guests loved them too. Thumbs up!!

Another good recipe for bananas is this loaf. Equally yummy!!

{Gousto}

At the Foodies Festival in Edinburgh the other weekend, R & I signed up to Gousto. 

You choose the recipes (3 out of a selection of 10); they do the shopping and measure everything out; they deliver it for free and then you cook & enjoy the food using the recipe cards that come with the box.

{image source}

Our first box arrived on Friday, and along with the food there's a reusable jute shopper and a ring binder to store your recipe cards. I've been extremely impressed with the service thus far. I had emailed a few questions about the delivery of my box and the responses from the team were very quick and helpful.

The first meal we chose to cook of the three recipes we selected was the Posh Burgers. They are served with rosemary chips, homemade tomato sauce, caramelised onions and basil oil. All of the ingredients came with the Gousto box aside from the olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar.

The kids and I loved our first dinner. It was great to get them involved in the preparation of the food too; the littlest and I followed the recipe card together to make the various components of the meal before we sat down as a family to enjoy it. And enjoy it we did!! Apparently it was the best dinner ever!

The goods that were sent were of a really good quality and it was all packaged in such a way that it could be left outside for a few hours if you missed your delivery (at the moment they can only offer slots that are 8am - 6pm).

The other meals we have this week in our box are turkey meatballs in coconut laksa and a spiced chicken mujaddara with lentils.

Turkey Meatballs 

What I like about the service is that there is no commitment, no fee and no lock-in. So I've received my first box but put my account on hold whilst I trial it. I can then decide when and if I want to rejoin. It's also encouraging me to get creative in my kitchen. I've been a bit rubbish lately at cooking from scratch. One other great thing about the box is that the herbs and spices come in the correct quantities which is ideal for me with my teeny tiny kitchen and lack of storage space.

There are four types of weekly box available (correct at time of publishing from Gousto website here):

Meat box for 2 people, £34.99 per week

Meat box for 4 people, £49.99 per week

Veggie box for 2 people, £33.99 per week

Veggie box for 4 people, £47.99 per week

If you'd like to give it a try, you can use the code SARAH10366 for £20 off your first order.

This is not a sponsored post, it was genuinely something I wanted to try for myself and I purchased my first box myself. However, all customers are rewarded £15 off their next box for each friend that signs up. So thank you very much if you do give it a go as I'll get a discount as well as you :-)

{Recipe: Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake}

After my success with the Three Sisters Bake Courgette & Lime Cake, I thought I'd attempt a Lemon Drizzle Cake. I found a recipe on jamieoliver.com that looked the business! 

Jamie's cake...

{Ingredients}

For the cake:

115 g unsalted butter

115 g caster sugar

4 large eggs

180 g ground almonds

30 g poppy seeds

zest and juice of 2 lemons

125 g self-raising flour, sifted

For the lemon syrup:

100 g caster sugar

90 g lemon juice

For the lemon icing:

225 g icing sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon

{Method}

Preheat oven to 180 deg C / gas 4.

Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20 cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Beat butter and caster sugar until light & creamy (I did this in my KitchenAid stand mixer).

Add the eggs, one by one, beating each one in well.

Fold in the ground almonds, poppy seeds, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour.

Scrape the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until lightly golden.

Make the lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved.

While the cake is still warm, make little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour the syrup over. (I think when I repeat this cake I'd take more time over this step and I'd also make the holes deeper.)

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice. Stir until smooth. When the cake is cool, pour the icing into the middle and let it drizzle down the sides.

Slice a large wedge and serve with a hot cup of tea! Yum!!

...my cake :-)

{Three Sisters Bake - Courgette & Lime Cake}

I love it when a recipe is easy to follow and when the results actually look the photograph in the recipe book... So I was delighted when my first attempt at the Three Sisters Bake Courgette & Lime Cake turned out like this...

I think the only thing that could have been improved upon was the cream cheese icing... But that's my own fault as I used a 'light' version rather than 'full fat' like the recipe called for. So mine was a bit runnier than I'd have liked. Also not helped by the fact that the littlest was desperate to ice the cake so it was still a little warm when we smothered it with frosting.

The cake itself was lovely & moist (sunflower oil is used in the recipe rather than butter) and surprisingly light & airy. The lime icing worked beautifully with it. It was extremely easy to put together & I personally thought it looked pretty amazing with the courgette ribbons on the top (made with a peeler...no fancy tools necessary). Knowing me, if the cake had staying at the Glasgow Mummy house I'd have demolished the lot (I ate 80% of the Banana Bread we made myself in the space of 12 hours!), so this time we took half of the cake and delivered it to our new neighbours. Hopefully they like it as much as we did - they certainly were impressed with how it looked when we dropped it off!

You'll find the recipe online here, but I'd highly recommend getting your hands on the Three Sisters Bake cookbook. So far we've made the Banana Bread (also fab, see comment above!) and this cake. I'm looking forward to trying out some more of the recipes - they all sound amazing. The photography in the book is beautiful and I find the sisters story inspiring. Hopefully the kids and I will make it out to their cafe at Quarriers Village soon for a visit.

I was sent a complimentary copy of the Three Sisters Bake cookbook, but as always opinions are my own and are completely honest.

{#MorrisonsMum - our Bank Holiday BBQ}

I was absolutely delighted to be selected as a BritMums #MorrisonsMum for the Bank Holiday Weekend.

The littlest and I headed to the supermarket on Friday afternoon whilst the eldest was at nursery to pick up our supplies for the BBQ we were hosting that evening.

I even managed to get in front of the camera for our YouTube video!



Seeing as we had a new BBQ to try out from our TK Maxx adventure in Falkirk, we kept our fingers crossed for a dry evening - and it was!! Result!

R's family were joining us, and I was keen to impress, so we went all out getting a massive spread - I totally went OTT as you'll see below!

Loads of bargains to be found in every aisle. Morrisons really have cut their prices on thousands of products... We were loving the Kettle Chips!

I enjoyed a chelsea bun (£1 for 2) before attempting the unpacking!

Making the bean salad

The menu

To nibble on whilst cooking...

Kettle Chips, 99p

Beetroot Houmous, £1

Sour cream & chive dip, 99p

Followed by:

Tomato & mozzerella salad, see below

Bean salad, see below

Green side salad, 99p salad bag with orange pepper (79p) and cucumber, tomatoes & red onion

3 for £10

Morrisons signature burgers - Scotch beef quarter pounders

Morrisons signature burgers - hot & spicy jalapeno beef quarter pounders

Chicken breasts

Morrisons signature thick prime beef sausages, 2 packs for £5

Finger rolls, 72p 

Burger buns, 72p

Flava-it barbeque marinade sachet (for the chicken), 69p

Corn on the cob, £4

Baked sweet potatoes, £2.27

Morrisons signature coleslaw, £1

Morrisons deli style potato salad, £1

Gherkins, £1

Burger relish, £1.09

Tomato ketchup, £1.75

Cheese slices, £1.55

Washed down with:

Diet coke with lime

Coke zero cherry

(£2.64 for 8 cans - great price!)

Robinsons Fruit & Barley, £1.79

For the next again morning:

Blueberry muffins, £1

Pecan plaits, £1.09

Bagels, 90p

Cream cheese, £1.85

Coffee, £3

Milk, £1.39

Fresh juice, 3 cartons for £4

For the washing up:

Fairy liquid, £1.30

Finish Quantum, £6

Scourers, 69p

The salads & condiments

Tomato & mozzarella salad:

Red onions, 69p

Vine tomatoes, £1.29

Buffalo mozzarella, £2

Fresh basil, £1.39

Belazu balsamic vinegar (from my cupboard)

This salad always reminds me of my mum, who made something along these lines frequently when I was growing up. Basically chop everything and throw it in a bowl with the beans and pour over some dressing. Easy!

Bean salad:

Cucumber, 49p

Cherry tomatoes, 99p

Red pepper, 79p

Yellow pepper, 79p

Kidney beans, 79p

Chick peas, 59p

Sweetcorn, 65p

Cannellini beans, 59p

Spring onion, 49p

Balsamic dressing, £1.50

Our new BBQ

Lumpwood charcoal, £5

Lighting gel, £3

Matches, 55p

Lighting cubes, £2

Bacofoil tin foil refil, £2.99

BBQ fork, 88p

BBQ turner, 98p

BBQ tongs, 98p

(you'll see the tools in the photo above - absolute bargain!)

GRAND TOTAL = £94.26 (of which £69.89 is food)

I realise this is rather expensive, but as you can see from above it included all the BBQ charcoal etc plus dishwasher tabs (which in themselves are extortionate!) and the food we prepared fed 4 adults and 2 children, plus there were tonnes of leftovers so I had lunch and dinner the next again day, and the day after that (it basically fed me for the whole bank holiday weekend). Plus there's still plenty salad for my lunch at work this week! I've worked out that the food was enough for 9 adult meals (if not more), making it cost approx £7.77 per person. 

The end result :-)

The burgers were lovely, and I especially enjoyed the BBQ chicken breast. I'll be making that again for sure. The flava-it barbecue marinade sachet that I used was great as it only needed 10 mins to work it's magic.

All the produce was lovely and fresh - lots of nice looking salad vegetables to choose from - as you'll be able to see from our YouTube 'advert'.

Muffins, pastries, bagels and cream cheese for breakfast

Thank you Morrisons - we had an awesome BBQ (eldest's words, not mine!).

We received £80 of Morrisons vouchers as part of this campaign. Opinions, as always, are my own.

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