Prezzo

I don't go out to restaurants very often, mostly just special occasions. If I'm honest, when I have the money and want to treat us all I much prefer to just get a takeaway and enjoy it in the comfort of my own home! With Jasmin pestering me to take her to Prezzo (she loves Italian and Mexican food) and a Tastecard burning a hole in my purse I thought it was about time we had a meal out for a change.

After an afternoon of shopping in Bromley we caught the bus down the road to Beckenham.

On entering the restaurant I was surprised at how large and spacious it was. Split onto two levels, it was very light and airy and modern looking.
The restaurant was quite empty with only a handful of other diners in attendance but I suppose being a weekday afternoon it is not likely to be bustling.

The waitress that served us was lovely and we ordered our food and drink within a few minutes of being seated. The food arrived promptly and looked very appetizing.

For starters Jasmin ordered the king prawns in a pomodoro sauce and I ordered the crab cakes with a garlic mayo. Both starters were delicious and I could of actually ordered another lot of crab cakes to go with my main course...I didn't!

For the main course Jasmin had the Penne Arrabbiata Which tasted lovely and was very filling. I was a bit disappointed with the choice of pizzas as I am quite picky with my toppings and usually go for something with chicken. I was not too keen on their options so chose the classic Margherita. The pizza was really big and covered the whole plate but was nothing to write home about taste wise. After a while it got quite hard to eat as it was so dry but I suppose you cant expect too much when you order the basic Margherita and it didn't stop me eating the whole thing!

We would have loved to of sampled the desserts but was just too full after stuffing our faces so maybe a trip back is in order!

Overall it was a pleasant experience and we left feeling full.

Prezzo offers 2 for 1(excluding drinks) for up to 2 people on the tastecard all week except Friday and Saturday. We did not need to book in advance, I just informed the waitress when I arrived. The total bill for two drinks, starters and mains was just over £20

I quite liked doing a restaurant review, I just felt a bit self conscious taking photos of all the food when it arrived and nobody was even looking, imagine how I would feel if it was full up! Anyway I am hoping to use my Tastecard more often so if you have any recommendations then drop me a comment!

A cake through the letterbox?

Last week we were sent an adorable little cake from Bakerdays If you have never heard of them, they are an online cake company that make personalised cakes for any occasion with any design you could possibly think of!

We were sent a letterbox cake to review, it is a perfect size to fit through your letterbox, meaning you don't have to wait in for the delivery. Problem was my postman didn't realise this and my cake was stuck in the post office depot for nearly a week as I was at work when he delivered it! Luckily the cake is sent a cute tin with a protective film and is fresh for up to two weeks so we were still able to enjoy it when I picked it up.

When choosing a cake with Bakerdays there is a selection of fillings including this very delicious chocolate chip filling, plain sponge, fruit or even gluten or dairy free making them a suitable gift for anyone. The sizes range from this letterbox size at £14.99 up to a large cake with 40-55 portions for £56.99 so a range for any budget.

The cake can be personalised with any name or message you choose but I didn't want to give mine away so I stuck with the original message!

Christmas may be over but with Valentine's day and Mothering Sunday just around the corner I think a cake would make the perfect gift!

Lemon Drizzle Muffins

I  don't think there is a cake I don't like but one of my all time favourites is the lemon drizzle cake. I think its the sourness of the lemons mixed with the sweetness of the cake that makes it so moreish!

I had just made lemon drizzle cake a little while ago and I wanted to make some muffins so I thought why not combine the two? Not being much of a baker myself, I didn't feel confident to just make up my own recipe so I turned to good old google to find one for me.

The recipe I found which looked pretty simple to make was on the BBC food recipe website. The preparation time was less than 30 minutes and the cooking time was 35 minutes. The recipe said it would make 8 - 10 muffins but as I used cupcake cases I actually made 12.

Here is my batch before I added the lemon drizzle...

Here are the ingredients if you would like to make your own:

2 eggs beaten
85g caster sugar
240ml milk
100ml vegetable oil
300g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 4 lemons

For the topping

50g icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon

My lemon had rather a lot of juice so the drizzle was very watery but I liked it like that, if you prefer it more like icing then just add less juice.

 

The muffins are very easy to make; just combine the egg, sugar, milk and oil in a large mixing bowl.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the grated lemon zest

Spoon the mixture into pre prepared muffin cases.

Bake in a pre heated oven at gas mark 6/200C until risen and golden.

Make the lemon drizzle topping and pour over the muffins once they have cooled.

Sit back with a nice cup of tea and enjoy your home cooked deliciousness! 

And remember when life gives you lemons, bake lemon drizzle muffins...

Cake glorious cake

I love cake I do, I could eat it everyday! In fact the first thing I ate when I got up this morning was a piece of chocolate cake (just a small piece)

Lately I've been seeing cake everywhere, lots of fab designs, homemade, cupcakes, tiered, cakes with fruit or covered in chocolate (my favourite) and it's made me feel quite inspired to make my own.
I've made cakes before, like the basic kind with a bit of butter cream but I'm thinking I want to take the next step and start decorating and designing, particularly for birthdays.

In May it's my daughters 12th birthday and she wants an Alice in wonderland themed tea party so I have been looking at cakes like the one below via pinterest. It definitely isn't for a beginner like myself so I think I will make a simpler version with 1, or maybe 2 layers!
The other cake, also via pinterest, I thought would be nice for Valentine's and as the man is trying to lose weight I suppose it will have to be a Valentine gift to myself :)

My 15yr old is studying food technology for her GCSE's as she wants to be a baker when she's older but she's really having a hard time at the moment. The cooking part of the course is fine but there is a lot of written work and she has to make a 26, A3 page portfolio within a few weeks. Falling being with this work has really started to put her off the course and I'm hoping that if I spend time baking and get her involved it will encourage her to carry on with her dream.

As they say 'there is no time like the present' so today I am going to bake a lemon drizzle cake just to get me in the mood!

Mealplan Monday 03/02/14

I missed my mealplan last week as I didn't know whether I was coming or going. The main reason for this is because 2 weeks ago my 9yr old son decided he was going to be a vegetarian : /
I've dealt with this situation before and it turned out to be a phase but I've also dealt with 1 child deciding she wasn't going to eat pork and that has now lasted 12 years so I thought I would give him a chance to see how long he could hold out (well his favourite food is hot dogs)

As the phase hasn't seemed to pass I've decided I will cook at least 1 vegetarian meal a week that we haven't tried before (don't worry, I will still feed him the rest of the week) and if we do have a meat dish I will adapt it to suit him.

Monday - Fish and chips

Tuesday - Fry up

Wednesday - Cheese and broccoli pasta bake

Thursday - Jacket potatoes with various toppings

Friday - Pizza and homemade potato salad

Saturday - Fajitas

Sunday - Lamb, roast potatoes and veg

Mealplan Monday 20/01/14

I done pretty well with my meal plan last week. I didn't make the macaroni cheese as I didn't have enough cheese and I decided to have a stew on Sunday instead of a roast, so to my surprise when I got home from work today the man had made roast beef for dinner :)

Monday - Roast beef, potatoes and veg

Tuesday - Lasagne and salad

Wednesday - Pie and mash with gravy

Thursday - Cheese and onion bake

Friday - Spaghetti bolognese

Saturday - Pizza and chips

Sunday - Curried prawns with rice and peas

Mealplan Monday 13/01/14

The man has been on a juicing diet the last week and is doing really well! In the last 6 days he has only cheated 3 times, twice he had a salad and another time he had a weight watchers yoghurt. He has managed to lose 9lb so far and wants to continue doing it for this week too. I wish I had his willpower but I don't so instead I'm thinking of all the delicious meals I'm going to make this week.

Monday - Pizza, onion rings and potato salad

Tuesday - Eating out/Theatre trip

Wednesday - BBQ ribs with vegetable rice

Thursday - Macaroni cheese

Friday - Pie and mash with veg and gravy

Saturday - Thai green curry

Sunday - Roast

Mealplan Monday 30/12/13

I wrote a few weeks ago that I was planning to do a meal plan and I have been writing my ideas on paper but this is my first blog meal plan. Its been going okay, a few times I changed the meal at the last minute because I had other things in the fridge that needed using before going off or I didn't have the ingredients I needed but I think that's good because in future I can make sure I only buy what I need!!

So for this week the plan is:

Monday- Fry up (sausage, eggs, beans etc..)
Tuesday- Salmon, baby potatoes and cabbage
Wednesday- Leg of lamb, roast potatoes, veg
Thursday- Spaghetti Bolognese
Friday- Fish, chips and homemade coleslaw
Saturday- Pasta bake
Sunday- Roast beef with all the trimmings

I'm hungry just thinking about it so better make a start on my fry up!

This week I am linking up with Mrs Ms meal plan Monday so I can share my meal plan and get some ideas from other bloggers.

Meal plan plan

With my car out of use it's meant I've had to go into the smaller, more local supermarkets and pick up what I need nearly everyday and carry the heavy bags (I do miss having a pushchair to throw all my shopping on) home or struggle on and off the little, packed bus.

I've done online shopping with all the major supermarkets in the past and as I'd recently installed the Tesco app onto my tab I thought I would give it a try.

The first thing I noticed on the home page were the half price, bogof and offers link... I am such a sucker for these! So quickly filled my basket with all those goodies that are not actually good for you at all but oh they do taste good!!

Cupboard essentials, a months supply of toilet roll, cat food and packed lunch fillers soon added up and the basket totted up to over £100.

After having all my shopping delivered I thought about what I would cook for dinner, realising I didn't actually have much of a choice. I missed the whole frozen section during my shopping because I am waiting for my oven to be delivered so whatever I was cooking would have to be on the hob.

I hadn't actually planned very well and although I always have some sort of idea of what I'm going to feed the family I think the time has come to put it down on paper.

I'm thinking a meal plan will make me more organised meaning I don't have to run around after work wondering what to buy for dinner, it should be better financially because less trips to the shops means less picking up those offers on crisps and chocolate that I just have to have, and hopefully I will be trying out some new recipes that I always intend to do but never get round to.

I have seen some blogs with fab recipes so will be looking out for some good, cheap, wholesome meals I can feed the clan.

If you have any tips on meal planning they will be greatly appreciated!