Rainy Day Marbled Chocolate Biscuits (Dairy Free)

What a miserable day!  Such a waste of a bank holiday weekend, although we shouldn't have expected anything less really.

D1 has been pestering me for ages to make biscuits so with D2 watching Ben & Holly and The BigD & D3  upstairs having a little afternoon snooze we sneaked into the kitchen and did just that - some great Mummy daughter time.

Shhh - I think I may be in trouble for posting this

You will need:

• 75g Melted Dark chocolate (make sure it is dairy free - Most of the good stuff is) 
• 250g Plain flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 capfulls Vanilla extract
• 100g Golden Caster Sugar
• 200g Dairy Free Spread (Vitalite or Pure are good brands)
• Good pinch salt

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 (we have a fan oven).
2. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
3. Mix salt/baking powder/flour together.
4. Wisk together spread/sugar/vanilla extract until pale and creamy.
5. Fold in flour mix.
6. Pour on melted chocolate and stir only a couple of times to give marbled effect.
7. Roll into balls a bit smaller than a golf ball, place on lined baking tray and flatten them just a little - Watch out the mixure is a little sticky so this bit is a bit messy!
8. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes.
9. Leave to cool and then enjoy.

Freezer Cooking

Last week the fridge freezer decided to die - really not good for my stress levels!  We had so much meat that needed using or throwing away.  There was nothing for it but to go on a major cook fest.  In one afternoon The bigD and i managed to whip up:

2 meatloaves

1 portion of meatballs,

1 bolognese

2 chilli con carnes

1 Cantonese chicken

1 sweet and sour pork 

1 steak/ale stew/pie filling

1 portion Lamb kebab meat

1 Cooked beef joint for sandwiches

1 portion of shepard's pie meat

It was some effort but we managed to save most of it and it has now all been distributed amongst friends'  freezers.  Once we are back up and running in the fridge/freezer department I am quite looking forward to 2 weeks of not having to cook, but for the moment we are living day to day, buying fresh on a daily basis.  I am looking forward to it so much I think I may just have to make it a regular thing, only with a little more forward planning next time.  I am hoping to dream up a varied two week menu, which would mean if done well I would only have to cook 2 days a month.   Just think, what could i do with all the time saved?  If I need to chop 1 onion I may as well chop up 10!

Come Dine With Us - D1 Style

This Easter holidays D1 has been in charge of all our evening meals.  

I picked up a fab little cook book (What's for dinner) from the book club at a baby singing group that D2, D3 and I attend.  It is great in so many ways, we love the photography and more importantly there are not many recipes that we won't try.  It certainly isn't posh dinner party food but it definitely is a quick and easy everyday family cook book.

D1 flicked through the book and bookmarked every recipe that caught her attention (lots of pasta) and we are now working our way through them.  She is writing a shopping list and we are going to the shop for ingredients on a daily basis (we are walking distance to the super market), she is paying and then helping to prepare the meal.

It's proving to be a great exercise and the Italian Chicken Bake will definitely be going on the menu more often, even our fussy eater (D2) ate it all, along with the extra vegetables I snuck in!

Cooking with Kids (Dairy Free Recipe)

D1 has an egg and dairy allergy. We are not talking Lactose Intolerance but a full blown allergy - Swelling, hives, vomiting, extreme itching and pain.

The BigD and I are both food technologists (Not to be confused with nutritionists) so we are probably quite lucky that we have a greater awareness of where hidden milk proteins and sugars might be hiding. Did you know that lots of pre-sliced sandwich meats contain milk?

I remember in the early days how daunting dealing with it all was so thought I would share with you the odd example of typical family meals in our house. For ease we all tend to eat a dairy free diet - it saves cooking separate meals as we did a lot of in the early days. Don't get me wrong D2 and I still use cows milk on our cereal and eat yoghurt and chocolate, etc. I am just talking about the main family meal.

We have done a lot of work in desensitizing D1, it has taken 18+ months to do this. She can now tolerate a small percentage of milk as a processed ingredient in foods and some margarine type spreads containing buttermilk straight on her toast. This has been an absolute godsend as it has taken the fear factor away and generally makes eating out so much easier. I do have a post about our journey planned for the future so before I waffle on and tell our whole story I will crack on with sharing what we had for dinner last night!

In our house D1 is chief carrot peeler, sauce stir-er and stock cube crumble-er!

The Simple Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast/Beef (whatever you fancy - I only had 1 small chicken breast left in the freezer so BigD played "spot the meat" when I served his meal up.
• Veg (Whatever you have to hand - I used peppers, some leftover sugar snaps, red onion, 1/8 of a cabbage and a rather large carrot)
• Vegetable oil

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp honey
• 6 tbsp soy sauce (If you want more sauce the general ratio is about 1 honey:3 soy)
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 3 tbsp water

Sauce variations: (We went for the five spice)

• large handful chopped coriander
• Five Spice
• Cashew Nuts
• Sesame oil

Mix all sauce ingredients together in cup/jug.

In separate bowls coat thinly sliced meat and veg in oil - not much is needed.

Stir-fry meat, remove from pan and set aside.

Make sure wok is really hot and add veg, when just about done return meat to pan and stir in the sauce. Add more water if the sauce is too thick or a little bit more cornflour if you prefer a stickier/thicker sauce.

Serve with rice or mix the whole lot in with some noodles (You can get some great egg free ones)