Pancake Day with Aldi

The nice people at Aldi sent me a box full of yummy pancake related items to test out.

It included:

Classic Pancakes – 99p, 480g (pack of 8)

Classic Pancake Mix – 69p, 232g (10 servings)

Lemon Juice – 29p, 200ml

Dairyfine Milk Chocolate Buttons – 35p, 70g

Grandessa Pure Canadian Maple Syrup – £2.99, 250ml

Grandessa Hazelnut Chocolate Spread – 99p, 350g

Fiddes Payne Vanilla  Sugar – £1.09

We have tried some of this out we haven’t had time to try it all. We decided to give the ready made a go and save the mix for Tuesday.

Now I know some people hate the idea of readymade or mixes but I have a total block when it comes to pancake or Yorkshire puddings. I can never get them right not matter what recipe I use so I often reach for the packet mix for them.  I had never had readymade before.

You can eat them hot or cold, we warmed ours in a hot frying pan. 

I had my favourite filling bananas and chocolate spread.

 

My OH had lemon and vanilla sugar.

The Grandessa Hazelnut Chocolate Spread is *really* nice. Thick, rich with a good hazelnut taste to it.

OH enjoyed his but thought the Vanilla Sugar had a weak taste. We both agreed that the pancakes were really nice, a good texture and taste and you would never know you hadn’t made them yourself well apart from my disasters. I would buy them again.

I will be testing the Pancake Mix on Tuesday with my 3 year old, I will post some pictures afterwards.

Apart from the Grandessa Hazelnut Chocolate Spread and Grandessa Pure Canadian Maple Syrup which is available all year round the pancake items are on special buy and are in store as long as stocks last.

Aldi have some great recipes for Pancakes on their website.

Peanut Butter and Jam Filled Heart Shaped Biscuits

I did a little bit of experimenting this week and made my own large jammy dodgers. As its Valentines next week I decided to make heart shaped ones. 


I was just going to just fill them with jam but my daughter who is 3 thought they would be better with Peanut Butter as well and she was right!


I made 4 large biscuits and because my daughter was helping we baked the cut out hearts and use the remainder dough to make mini heart biscuits but if you want to make just the large ones I reckon you could get 5-6 out of this dough.


Ingredients 


225g of plain flour
150g of cold butter cut into cubes
125g of caster sugar (plus a little extra to sprinkle)
1tsp vanilla extract or bean paste
Peanut Butter
Jam


If you are making the mini ones then you may want some icing sugar, food colouring, decorations. 


To Make


Preheat your oven to 180/160 fan/gas mark 4


Line a baking tray with baking paper


Sift the flour into a large bowl and then add the butter


Using your fingertips rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs


Add the sugar and vanilla and stir and then form a ball of dough


Roll to 1cm thick and cut out your large hearts. You will need 2 per heart.


Using a smaller heart cutter cut out a heart in half of the larger ones.


Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 15 mins or until they are golden brown.


The smaller ones will take about 8 mins


Leave on a wire rack to cool

Once cool you can fill you hearts.


Spoon a small amount of peanut butter of the base heart and then top with jam

Place the heart with the cut out on top 

For the smaller hearts decorate in anyway you like. I make a lemon icing for mine I just 
added a few drops of lemon juice to the icing.

My daughter went for pink icing, silver balls and hearts!

I have entered this biscuits in English Mums Baked With Love Bakeoff. 

The In Season Challenge - February

Are you ready for your next In Season Challenge? I had a great response to first one using Savoy Cabbage.

If you are not sure what the In Season Challenge is, I explain all bellow.

Each month I choose an In Season ingredient and your challenge is come up with a recipe that includes it.

 Here is what you need to do:

1.       Post a recipe on your blog that uses the chosen ingredient.

2.       Email the link to me at makeitbakeit@hotmail.com (you can send links to recipes you already have your blog) by the deadline.

3.       Add the badge to your post or blog (optional).

I will create a post with links to all of the recipes and then choose my favourite as the challenge winner.  (We may not always have a prize)

This month’s In Season ingredient is….

Apples

I love apples but I don’t cook with them very often. I am looking forward to some great recipes.

Please send links to me by 6pm  Sunday 4^th March and I will post links to the recipes on Monday 5^th.

Happy cooking!

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The In Season Challenge - Savoy Cabbage

I am very excited about my first In Season Challenge! I have some great recipes to share with you.

Each month I will choose an In Season Ingredient and the challenge is to come up with a recipe using that ingredient.  

The In Season ingredient for January/February was Savoy Cabbage and I wasn’t let down!

So without further ado here they are:

The very first entry comes from Aly at Plus 2.4 and she has made a Shepardless Pie in the slow cooker.

Tasha at WAHM BAM has come up with this great Three Cabbage and Chick Pea Soup.

We have two Sausage and Cabbage Bakes! The first one is from Vanesther at Bangers and 

Mash is looks great with sliced potatoes on top.  Howard at Gifts from Nature has a very simple Winter Warmer Cabbage and Sausage bake.  

Last but not least is Ali from Over a Cuppa with a fantastic recipe for Savoy Cabbage Stir Fry.

This month we have a prize for two of my favourite recipes (a really hard choice)

The lucky winners of a Dairy Diary are:

Ali and her Stir Fry and Aly with her Shepardless Pie. Ladies if you can email me your address please.

A huge thank you to everyone that submitted a recipe I look forward to trying them out.

Come back on Wednesday for the next In Season Challenge.

Recipe - Quick, easy & super delicious: Quinoa, Fish and Capers

This recipe was a result of indecision on what to cook one evening.  However it turned out so delicious and is set to become a firm family favourite. It takes about 20 minutes to make.

Ingredients

Quinoa

Stock Cube

Medium Onion

2 Large Cloves of Garlic

4-5 Fillets White Fish

Tin of Chopped Tomatoes

3 heaped tablespoons of drained capers

Cook a pint of quinoa with a stock cube (as per instructions on the packaging- mine cooked in 12 minutes). Fluff up when ready so it’s not a lump.

Chop a medium-sized onion and 2 large cloves of garlic.

Sauté onion & garlic on a generous splash of olive oil on a medium heat.  When onion turn glassy, put in 4-5 fillets of white fish. (I used frozen white fish fillets, didn’t bother to defrost). Cover and let them slightly fry on both sides. Turn gently so they don’t fall to bits.

In the meantime, take a can of chopped tomatoes, you can leave these as they are, or blend it down, like I did. Add 3 heaped tablespoons of drained capers.

Pour this tomato mixture to the saucepan with the fish.  Cover, bring to boil and let it simmer for another 5 mins (or till fish cooked through). Mill some pepper when serving.

You can serve hot the fish over the quinoa or mix the quinoa and fish together, breaking up the fish as you stir, then let it cool.  It will make a lovely cold lunch, especially on a hot summer’s day.  (I discovered this as I was putting it away into the fridge and licked the spoon…only to end up eating half of the left-overs cold.)

Bon appetite!  Let me know how it turns out for you and how you modify it.

I’m a mum of 2, soon to be 3 and blog on http://mumonthebrink.com  about family, pregnancy, parenting dilemmas thrown in my path and about keeping my sanity as a SAHM with my love for technology, travel and smaller and bigger adventures.

Wild Mushroom Lasagne

Sports Relief starts on Friday 23^rd March and to help raise money for both Sports Relief and Comic Relief Gordan Ramsey created the Seriously Good cook in sauces.

At least 10p from every jar of Seriously Good sold will contribute to the Sport Relief 2012 total, and as usual Gordon doesn’t get a penny from the range.

Seriously Good sauces are available in selected major retailers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and The Co-operative.

The Seriously Good cooking sauce range is priced from RRP £1.89 for a 350g jar.

I posted some recipes last year to make using the sauces and today I have another one for you.

Wild Mushroom Lasagne

Preparation time: 15mins

Baking time: 40mins

• 1 jar Seriously Good Bolognese & Red Wine Sauce
• 400g mixed mushrooms (such as ceps, girolles, chestnut mushrooms), cleaned
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely crushed
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Splash of Marsala or dry white wine
• Small handful of flat-lead parsley, chopped
• Small handful of chives, chopped
• Leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
• 8 sheets of dried lasagne
• 250g fresh buffalo mozzarella, thinly sliced
• 2-3 tbsp grated parmesan

1.      Trim off the hard ends of the mushrooms and chop any large ones into smaller pieces.

2.      Heat a wide frying pan with the oil and add the onion and garlic. Sweat over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until the onions are soft.

3.      Add the mushrooms and season well with salt and pepper. Fry over a high heat until any liquid released from the mushrooms has cooked off and they are lightly browned.

4.      Add a splash of Marsala or dry white wine and let it simmer for about 5 minutes until it has almost all evaporated.

5.      Remove the pan from the heat, mix in the Seriously Good Bolognese & Red Wine sauce and stir in the chopped herbs.

6.      Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Fan 160ºC/Gas 4. Spread about a third of the mushroom and sauce mixture over the base of a lightly greased ovenproof dish. Cover with a layer of lasagne sheets, followed by the mushroom mixture, and then add a layer of mozzarella. Repeat layering process twice, finishing with a layer of sauce.

7.      Top with any remaining cheese, and sprinkle over the grated parmesan. Cover the dish with a piece of foil and bake for 30 minutes.

8.      Remove the foil and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the topping is golden-brown and bubbling. Let the lasagne stand for a few minutes before slicing and serving with a green salad.

The In Season Challenge

Are you up for a challenge? Fantastic because I have decided to start a monthly In Season Challenge and for the first one I have even have a prize from Dairy Diary.

Each month I am going to choose an In Season ingredient and your challenge is come up with a recipe that includes it.

 Here is what you need to do:

1.       Post a recipe on your blog that uses the chosen ingredient.

2.       Email the link to me at makeitbakeit@hotmail.com (you can send links to recipes you already have your blog) by the deadline.

3.       Add the badge to your post or blog (optional).

I will create a post with links to all of the recipes and then choose my favourite as the challenge winner.  (We may not always have a prize)

This month’s In Season ingredient is….

Savoy Cabbage

I am always stuck with what to do with it, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

Please send links to me by Sunday 5th February and I post all the recipes and let you know who has won on the 6^th February.

This month I have two Dairy Diary’s to giveaway. 

The Dairy Diary is a week to date diary packed full of recipes, lots of writing space, budgeting and planners. Visit their website www.dairydiary.co.uk to see full details. They also have a blog!

Good luck I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!