Foodie Friday On A Saturday - What I Ate In May

As I said on my weight loss update on Monday, May was a bit of a disaster when it came to eating healthily. I ate the odd healthy thing but a lot of the things I've ate were naughty in the extreme :). A lot of this naughtiness was to to do with my birthday so that seems as good a place as any to start my review :)

Birthday Cake :) - my mum made my traditional birthday gluten free carrot cake, I love this cake and this years was especially yummy, especially with extra cream cheese frosting :)

Something else which I made especially for my birthday was my Spicy Mexican Cornbread (see the recipe here). I've been craving this for months so as I was having a treat day I went for it and made it extra cheesy.

As well as home baking I also went out for a few meals with friends and family. You can read about my meal with my bestie at the South Causey Inn here but I also went to Chiquitos with Mummy Lou. We're both partial to a bit of Tex Mex so we took advantage of the Lunch menu. My ever the carnivore momma went for a hefty cheese burger and I went for this..

It's a newish item o the menu and it's well worth having. It's the Halloumi Salad which is basically "skewered halloumi cheese, onions and peppers, grilled and served over a citrus dressed salad with cranberry & mint salsa" It was gorgeous grilled veg, salty squeaky grilled halloumi and the salsa - wow I could write poems, well I couldn't but you know what I mean, it was sweet, savoury, tangy, sticky amazingness -Chiquitos if your listening jar this stuff!.

As I said my mum had a burger, she's going through a meat phase at the moment, to give her, her due she eats lots of veggie food at home - I cook at least 4 nights a week and I don't do meat! Sometimes though she does cook it for herself, and lately she's had a burger thing going on, so I joined in and made myself a veggie burger to be proud of. A veggie burger in a gluten free bun, stuff with lettuce, raw onion, tomato ketchup, low fat salad cream and blue cheese - nom!

It's no real surprise that I gained weight in May, I probably ate more cheese than I probably had in the previous 4 months put together - first up a nice veggie lasagne.

I made a veggie, baked bean chilli, and layered it with gluten free lasagne sheets, chargrilled aubergines and creamy cheese sauce.

I also made nachos with my homemade salsa..

which is healthy in it's own right, but I don't think a mountain of tortilla chips, mozzarella and Red Leicester really help the calorie and fat content. In fairness the bag of tortilla chips had been lying unloved in the cupboard since January - how's that for willpower.

Speaking of cheese, in May I also experimented with something new - Genius Gluten Free Puff Pastry - Yes it's fattening but I have missed puff pastry so much. It's not exactly the same and I did find it a little less flaky but my yummy cheese straws speak for themselves.

When I was first diagnosed with gluten and wheat intolerance, there wasn't a lot of gluten free food on the market but now you can get gluten free friendly food from pretty much everywhere, including QVC.

QVC sell fudge making kits from a brand called Calico Cottage, as well as those kits they also sell some baking mixes, including one called Chocolate Fudge Pie. It's a gluten free almost brownie like cake, squidgy sweet and very, very yummy!

From sweet to savoury in the blink of an eye, and something that was a bit of an experiment - stuffed mushrooms! My mum got some huge mushrooms from Aldi and it was such a shame to just chop them up, so I decided to stuff them. I removed the stalks, chopped them up and added them to a pan with a crushed clove of garlic, a tiny bit of chopped onion, and a spray or two of fry light. I cooked them off till they were soft, then I mixed them with a little bit of Stilton, some gluten free breadcrumbs, and a bit of cream cheese. I then put the stuffing back into the mushrooms, put a bit more cheese on the top and then put them in the oven for about 20 minutes till the mushrooms were soft. I then served them with some yogurt, mint and garlic sauce.

Yogurt, mint and garlic sauce is a bit of an obsession for me at the minute, and I served some more with some curry loaf and some new potatoes. I didn't have any chickpea dahl to make it though so I made my own spicy bean mix. I cooked some garlic, onion and chilli in fry light before adding a tin of baked beans and some curry powder. I was really happy with how it turned out and I'll definitely make this version again x

I also served some with a nice fresh salad, with some olives and some coleslaw.

So that was my month, what are my plans for June? Well I'm hoping for a few more healthy options, and so far so good, I've started the month well but we'll see how I get on. Next weeks Foodie Friday post in a recipe for something erm not that healthy but we all need treats in life :). Happy Eating and I'll see you soon xx

Lots of Goods and A Couple of Tiny Bads

Hey my loves welcome to this weeks goods and bad posts which for once is predominantly positive :)

Goods

• Yesterday in case you didn't  know was my birthday - my celebrations started on Friday when I went for a gorgeous meal with one of my best friends - I know she reads my blog so Hi Dawn :) It was really nice to spend some time together and catch up - sometimes life just gets in and we don't see as much of our friends as we should x Saturday was pretty quiet apart from a visit from some relatives and then of course there was the big day itself. Unusually for my birthday it was quite a quiet one the relatives I usually spend time with were on holiday so it was just me and Mummy Lou so what did we do? we had a great but quiet day, chatting and eating yummy food to almost bursting point :)Check out my gluten free birthday carrot cake above ;) I was so spoilt by all my friends and family it was untrue - a few of you have requested a pressie post so I'll try and get that up today or tomorrow :) I did get a little bit of spends but that has already gone whoops, thanks to ASOS, Dorothy Perkins, Nails Inc, and believe it or not H&M - yes I know I ranted about their service but £2.99 for a dress is just to good to turn down!
• As well as my immediate friends and family I was also overwhelmed by the lovely birthday wishes from you guys on both here and on twitter, and by all my facebook friends everyone was so kind yesterday and I really appreciate it x

Bads

• I suppose with every good there has to be a bad and unfortunately I broke one of the little lugs on the battery compartment of my camera which means the battery compartment won't shut properly and the camera keeps turning itself off - I am managing at the moment by taping it up but I really need a better solution or a new camera grr
• and of course it wouldn't be a good and bads post without a bit on my ankle - well it started to hurt on Saturday morning and I had to wear my splint all weekend to walk without pain grr thankfully it seems to be ok this morning but I guess it's just one of the things I'm going to have to get used to
• Well that was rather positive on the whole wasn't it  :) I have a few planned posts for this week mainly ones that I never got round to from last week hmm. First up there will be my birthday pressie haul, then maybe a product rave and then a product review and drumroll... a giveaway. I will also be posting an updated blog sale page on Wednesday after blogger kindly lost half of my items hmm. Thanks as per usual for sticking around and thanks for being lovely xx

Birthday Cooking - Part 2 - Carrot Cake

I've showed you pics of this fabulous cake a few times in the past but I've never ever told you how to make - I love conventional supermarket birthday cakes with their normal sponge, jam and butter icing, and garish fondant icing , but alas I am a Coeliac so normal birthday cakes are a no, no. As a result my mum searched for years for a yummy cake I could enjoy on special occasions until we found this recipe on the Nigella forums - a sweet fruity cake, creamy luscious icing what it not to love. This is an American recipe hence the use of cups but I've translated the ingredients for my UK readers :)


Mother Berta's Carrot Cake

Ingredients
Carrot Cake
3 Medium Sized Carrots Peeled
2 Cups All Purpose Flour (I used Dove Farm Plain Gluten Free Flour and 1 tsp Xanthan Gum but for non Coeliacs you could use normal Plain Flour)
2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Cinnamon (or to taste)
1 Cup Corn Oil
3 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
2 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts (or Pecans)
1 Cup Dessicated Coconut
3/4 Cup Crushed Pineapple (or Pineapple Pieces) Drained
1 Cup Raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting
4oz Cream Cheese
3 tbs Softened Butter
1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla (or to taste)
1 tbs Lemon Juice

Method

1. Dice 2 of the carrots and place in a pan of boiling water and cook until tender. Drain and then puree in a food processor or blender, or mash with a fork - set aside to cool - meanwhile grate the remaining carrot and put it in a small bowl


2)Preheat your oven to 350˚F / 180˚C - grease and line a 9x13 inch square cake tin (as shown later with a collar)

3 Using a large bowl, sieve in your, flour, baking powder, (Xanthan Gum if using) the sugar, and your cinnamon. Add the oil, beaten eggs and the vanilla and mix well


4)Fold in the carrot puree, the grated carrot, the nuts, the raisins, the coconut, and the pineapple - Your finished cake mix should be a soft dropping consistency - if its too stiff you could add an extra small egg


5)Pour your mix into your cake tin smoothing out the top


6)Bake until a skewer comes out clean the original recipe said this should be about an hour but we sometimes find it takes a bit longer - if you think the top is getting a bit brown cover with greaseproof and turn the oven down

7) Cool the cake in the cake tin for at least 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack


8) When the cake is cool you can start the cream cheese icing- mix the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl. Sieve in the icing sugar and mix together, then add the vanilla and slowly add the lemon juice to taste. Don't panic the mixture may be a bit sloppy just add more icing sugar and put it in the fridge for a bit. Then ice the cake - It may not look that great but it will taste it and the icing does set a bit in an hour or so.


9) Enjoy :)

Hints and Tips

* Both the cake and icing can be adjusted to taste, more or less cinnamon and vanilla in the cake, and more or less vanilla and lemon in the icing - experiment!
* The original recipe says walnuts but they can be a bit bitter so I use pecans which I prefer - you could also use almonds or any other nut you prefer
* The original recipe also uses raisins but you can add whatever dried fruit you prefer - In these pics we used some raisins and some luxury dried fruit mix from Holland & Barrett which contains raisins, cherries, dried pineapple and papaya
* You needn't ice this cake if you don't want to - it's really moist and would also make a good pudding
* You can also double the icing if you really like cream cheese frosting - we often do yum:)
* The cake also freezes really well both iced and plain
* You can also make this into cupcakes or muffins obviously altering the cooking time etc.

Hope this was useful - it is a gorgeous cake which is super rich and moist - in fact I might go and get some out of the freezer now x :)

7 Days of Happiness? Hmmm

Apologies that I am so late with this, this week, but I haven't been feeling too good. Caring for my mum, and catering for my birthday party has certainly taken its toll on my ME ridden carcass. I managed to miss the match on Saturday and to be honest I just about survived these past few days - ME related pains have riddled my arms, shoulders and back leaving me relying far too much on Mr Painkiller :( Added to that the recurrence of my earache and a trip to the doctors tomorrow - this week and being 31 in general hasn't started too well. Still lots of things last week made me happy and I need to keep up my happy thoughts



1)My Birthday -OK being a year older isn't a lot to be cheerful about normally, but I got some lovely pressies most of which you have already seen, and I got some lovely wishes from people on chat forums, facebook and so on their are some nice people out there :)Pictured here is one of my pressies from my bestie -OK maybe not the most obvious pressie for a 31 year old but I love my bright, shiny balloon - reverting back to childhood is good :)

2)My Birthday Carrot Cake - Since my mum is still a bit incapacitated it was left to me to make my birthday cake - I used her gluten free carrot cake recipe with cream cheese frosting and I have to say it was a total success and tres yummy! The pic really doesn't do it justice


3) Minstrels - yummy, yummy, yummy haven't had these for ages but I have just rediscovered them - Oh wow chocolate heaven - why haven't I shown these more love!

4)My Smashbox Stuff - Loving those nude lip liners especially - great colours and a good texture

5) Once again you - thanks again to you for following me on here and on twitter - it's very much appreciated and a big hello to my new followers x