Scrambled Egg & Tomato Breakfast Wrap

Recently I’ve given up bread. Not all bread, but leavened bread because I eat too much of it, and when I cut it out I tend to lose weight a bit quicker.

I’ve struggled a bit with breakfast as I love scrambled egg on toast. I’ve tried just having scrambled egg but it felt a bit too frugal and it needed something else.

Searching for inspiration I found some tortilla wraps in the cupboard and came up with this breakfast wrap. I doubt it’s a new, exciting breakfast concept; but I love it and coming in at under 450 calories for a pretty hearty, tasty breakfast you can’t go wrong. And yes, I’ll admit it doesn’t look stunning, but it does taste amazing.

Chop two tomatoes into bite size chunks, put into a microwaveable dish and season to taste. I used salt, pepper, dried chilli flakes and a pinch of sugar. Microwave for two minutes, stir and microwave for one more minute.

Scramble two eggs however you’d normally scramble eggs. I add a dab of butter, no milk, no seasoning in this because the tomatoes are seasoned enough.

Take your tortilla, spread with the cooked tomatoes, top with your cooked eggs, roll it into a wrap and eat.

I think it’d also be great with some wilted spinach or chopped parsley. Whatever you fancy.

Honestly this is my new favourite thing. If I can’t have it for breakfast then I’ll have it for lunch. It might look a bit bland but it’s so good. In fact I think I’ll go and make another one right now!

Mummy makes Cakes with Cake Angels

I’m not known for my baking skills. If a cake needs whipping up in our house, it’s usually my much more talented better half who takes up the whisk. My skills lie equally in cake decorating and cake eating.

A few years ago I went to a cupcake decorating class and learned how to pipe the icing onto cakes large and small. It is remarkably easy and can look quite effective.

I was excited when a huge goodie bag from Cake Angels was sent to me. The bag contained a large tub of chocolate fudge icing, some mini marshmallows, two packs of sugar decorations, a big variety tub of chocolate swirls and sprinkles and a couple of sets of candles.

The boys set to work exercising their baking skills. I stood well back for fear my intervention would render the cakes inedible. Once cooled I set to work with my piping bag and the decorations. I think the results are quite acceptable and the products really easy to use, even for a very amateur baker like me. What do you think?

Disclaimer: I was sent the goodie bag free of charge by Cake Angels for testing purposes, the products were easy and enjoyable to use, my reviews are always honest and unbiased.

Pancake Day Breakfast

I’ve always been a massive fan of Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday to give it it’s proper name). Pancakes are cheap and easy to make, but they’re a real greedy treat for us.

We usually have the traditional pancake which my husband whips up and we sprinkle with lemon and sugar. But sometimes if we’re having a lazy weekend we’ll have a stack of Blueberry pancakes from a recipe in the River Cottage Everyday cookbook.

So today, being Pancake Day we treated ourselves to this special breakfast, of course our resident junior chef got involved, a bit of a mess was made, but where there’s no mess, there’s no fun!

Pancake making — Flour…stir, stir, stir!

The pancakes were delicious. I like my blueberry pancakes drizzled in honey, the boys liked theirs with yoghurt and more blueberries.

How do you eat yours?

Gusto, Didsbury Review

I’m a Didsbury girl through and through. I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve seen many changes. I remember Gusto when it was Est Est Est (yes, I am that old) and it has always been a local, neighbourhood eatery, a restaurant for all occasions and for none.

I love that when you go in there’ll be a table celebrating a birthday, a few couples on their first or fiftieth date or just people who fancied a good meal. You don’t have to dress up to go there, or you can dress up to the nines, whichever. It’s so relaxed with very little pretention.

I’ve been itching to review Gusto since I started blogging and I was pretty sure we’d be in for a good night with some great food.

We were seated next to their open kitchen. I love sitting there watching the hustle and bustle and the quiet concentration of the chefs, it can get a bit warm up that end of the restaurant in the summer, but on a drizzly February evening it was just the ticket.

We ordered a bottle of Italian red, a very acceptable Feudi d’Albe Montepulciano. It was easy drinking and matched our food beautifully.

To start, Matthew, my long suffering husband ordered the mussels in white white, garlic and cream served with ciabatta. He was cock-a-hoop over this dish. He reckons mussels are a good way to judge a restaurant. If the mussels are prepped properly and the sauce without grit you know kitchen standards are going to be alright. He loved the tender mussels and the rich, flavoursome sauce. They smelt incredible, even to my vegetarian nostrils. He’ll be having those again.

I opted for the Burratina mozzarella cheese, slow roasted beetroot and herb wafers. This was undoubtedly the prettiest thing I’ve ever eaten. The mozzarella was soft and yielding, beautifully creamy, it almost sighed as I ate it. It was well matched against the tang of the beetroot, with the crunch of the herb wafers adding a welcome contrast of texture.

My only moment of pickiness was I wasn’t keen on the crunchy seeds mixed in with the beetroot, I’d’ve preferred them on the side, but that’s a personal preference. It was a delightfully light start to the meal.

On to the mains and I chose the Rigatoni Primavera which was rigatoni, butternut squash, celeriac, carrot, cabbage, green beans, pine nuts and cream. Being a real vegetarian the waitress kindly offered to get me the vegetarian Parmesan instead of the standard non-veggie one. This was one of those lovely, attention to detail touches that really make the difference in terms of customer service.

The Rigatoni Primavera was a well executed dish with the pasta being just a nudge over al dente. The vegetables were tasty and the celeriac was sweet and tender and I could’ve eaten a big dish of that alone. The green beans added crunch, it was a lovely rich, wintery pasta dish.

My carnivorous husband went for the pan roast breast of duck, balsamic shallot tartlette with red wine and beetroot reduction with sides of buttered savoy cabbage and pine nuts and a dish of lovely crispy baked garlic and rosemary roast potatoes.

The duck was pink with perfectly rendered fat, he said it was about the best duck he’s ever eaten. The shallot tartlette was sweet, unctuous and the pastry crisp and golden. The red wine and beetroot reduction (which I had a little dib-dab at with my finger) was sweet and I’m told worked well with the duck.

The sides which I ably assisted in the consumption of were lovely. I adore cabbage so there was a little battle of the quickest fork going on between us. The potatoes were hot, crispy and garlicky. We loved them (I was so inspired by them I knocked up something similar to go with Sunday lunch).

The portion sizes were just greedy enough to make us feel nicely full, but still magically have room for pudding. I plumped for the Bombolini, homemade mini doughnuts with chocolate sauce and cream. These arrived piping hot, sprinkled with sugar with a pot of melted chocolate and a dollop of cream on the side. These were amazing, far, far superior to the hot doughnuts you get in huts by the seaside, altogether classier and if I’m honest I’ve thought about little else since I ate them.

My companion chose the hot chocolate and hazelnut brownie with pistachio ice cream and chocolate sauce. As is the law I scoffed a couple of mouthfuls of the warm, moist brownie. The pistachio ice cream was a bit special too. Definitely a contender for brownie of the year.

We rounded off our meal with a Godfather cocktail each. We’d had an exceptionally delightful, laid back, fun evening; with three courses of excellent food, a bottle of good wine, with attentive and considerate service and all just five minutes walk from our house. Perfection.

Gusto, Didsbury can be found at 756 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2DW Tel: 0161 445 8209

Disclaimer: We were invited guests of the restaurant and ate for free in return for our honest review.

A Bewitching Breakfast at The Alchemist

On Friday I had a quick pint with some friends, which turned into about 80 double bourbons and ended in the wearing of comedy stick on moustaches. It’s fair to say that when I rolled out of bed on Saturday morning I wasn’t full of the joys of spring.

There was nothing else for it, the only cure was hair of the dog and as many poached eggs as I could feasibly manage. So I arranged to go for brunch with the usually gorgeous and effervescent Liz from Things To Do in Manchester, sadly due to the 80 bourbons the night before, she was slightly less effervescent than usual.

Together we stumbled into The Alchemist in Spinningfields like something from the zombie version of Sex and the City (I’m Miranda, natch). We met a couple of friends there and settled down to peruse the menu. The waitress immediately sensed damsels in distress and furnished us with large, icy glasses of tap water, she kept them coming too as we were knocking them back quicker than the bourbons which had got us into that state in the first place.

Liz went for the steak and hash browns which was served with two pretty special looking fried eggs on top. Me being veggie went for their only veggie option the Eggs Florentine (though I am told you can ask them to rustle up a veggie version of the other breakfast items). Our chums ordered the American (waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs and maple syrup) and Eggs Royale.

To drink I opted for a brunch cocktail, the Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a delightful and deceptively boozy tipple made from marmalade, gin, cointreau and lemon juice. Liz, wearing her best sensible face went for the Passionfruit and pineapple smoothie.

My cocktail was a breakfast delight, full on boozy, but tasting like it should be thick cut and spread on toast. The smoothie we both agreed was the most perfect hangover cure ever concocted. I’m not generally keen on smoothies but this hit the spot so perfectly I had to order my own.

Our lovely brunchables arrived. Liz’s massive slab of perfectly cooked steak drew much oohing and aahing from around the table. Served with little hash browns and a couple of fried eggs it did look amazing. It obviously has magical healing powers too as she looked almost human by the time she’d cleared her plate.

As for my Eggs Florentine, it’s no secret I’d happily marry anyone who gave me a perfectly cooked poached egg and I was given two, do I hear wedding bells? Presented on a hot slate, were two perfectly runny poached eggs nestled atop some wilted spinach on a toasted English muffin, all smothered with buttery hollandaise. It was exactly what I needed and could happily have eaten it all again the second I’d finished.

I liked the laid back brunch vibe at The Alchemist, there was a real mix of people, the staff were busy and attentive and the food was as good a breakfast as I’m ever likely to have. In fact the hollandaise was the best I’ve ever had, pretty darn perfect. It’s probably fair to say that brunch at the Alchemist worked it’s magic on our hangovers.

You can find The Alchemist at 3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3HF Tel: 0161 817 2950

Disclaimer: We dined as guests of The Alchemist and were not asked to pay for any of our food or drink. It was all yummy though.

Meal Planning Monday w/c 10th February 2014

When my self-employed husband came home on Friday and announced he wouldn’t be able to pay himself for the next few weeks, I had horrible flashbacks of the time we didn’t have enough food or money to feed our son. But this time I was prepared.

I think we can ride out the next few weeks on the food I’ve been stockpiling in the freezer and pantry, yes we’ll need a few fresh items, but a few frugal weeks won’t do us any harm at all. We always meal plan, but this week I needed to be super organised. Challenge accepted.

What’s on our Meal Planning Monday Menu?

Monday – Homemade chorizo burgers, veg and couscous. I mixed up a mega-batch of these a few weeks ago and tucked some in the freezer for a rainy day, the couscous lives in the pantry. Sorted.

Tuesday – Pasta with homemade cheesy courgette sauce. Pantry and freezer to the rescue again.

Wednesday – Homemade pea and paneer curry with rice, just need to buy the paneer. Highlight of my week!

Thursday – Daddy’s homemade pizza and potato wedges. Yum.

Friday – Valentines Day tea, spaghetti vongole but without the vongole.

Saturday – Fajitias. Kit from the cupboard, quorn burgers sliced up with some veg, simple, tasty and fun.

Sunday – Whoopsie fishcakes, homemade potato wedges & peas.

Meal Planning Monday w/c 10th February 2014

We’ll manage, we always do. Just need to persuade the little lad that lentils can be fun. Wish me luck!

Festive Afternoon Tea at Opus One

Now I’m self-employed, I am officially a part-time member of the ladies who lunch brigade. When I was offered afternoon tea for two at Opus One at the Radisson Blu in Manchester, I decided it was high time I treated one of my fellow self-employed types to high tea. So last Wednesday myself and a fellow home based freelancer put on real clothes, turned Homes Under the Hammer off and went out for a posh tea at Opus One.

Opus One
I’d been there before and had a lovely time, so I knew we were in for a treat. We arrived and were informed they were expecting a drinks party so we’d not be able to sit in the lovely, light and airy space by the window and we were seated in the main restaurant. We thought it’d be a great place for a romantic meal in the evening, but the red lighting was a bit much for daytime, and meant that we couldn’t really see what we were eating.

There were a few afternoon teas we could choose from but we decided that since it was December it’d be rude not to try the Festive Afternoon Tea. My friend plumped for a pot of English Breakfast tea and I gave the Ceylon a go. Both were a good brew.

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The afternoon tea arrived and as I’m vegetarian, they’d made a few extra veggie sandwiches for me. I’ll admit in the light it was hard to tell what they were, but we both liked the cheese and pickle and I enjoyed the cream cheese and cucumber. We were both half starved so the sandwiches disappeared in double quick time.

I’d been eyeing up the scones, I love scones, these were prettily presented and the proper, thick, crusty clotted cream had a shard of caramel stuck out of it. The scones were sadly cold, but that could’ve been our fault for faffing about taking pictures. They were however light and beautifully made, just the right size and for me and they are always the highlight of an afternoon tea. If you can’t give me a decent scone then I’m going home.

First up were the mini cream horns. I felt it prudent to start with these because they looked delicious. I’m not overly keen on pastry and I like it wafer thin if I ever do have it, so this was for me a little on the thick side, but (bowing to knowledge passed on to me by Grandma who was a pastry chef) it was perfectly crisp and flaky. It was a good cream horn.

We then tried the fruit cake, which was moist and an excellent example of what a top notch fruit cake should be and it was packed with fruit. We both felt that it could’ve done with a bit of marzipan to make it feel more festive, but it was actually one of my highlights from the tea.

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I was most excited to try the mini chocolate fudge cake which looked beautiful but for some reason photographed terribly. Take my word for it, this was the good stuff. The cake was moist, light and fluffy with a gooey-gooey centre that oozed out. It was plate-lickingly good. I might have rubbed a finger across the plate to ensure no crumbs were left, I might not have, I am a lady after all.

We finished off with the winter berry jelly, sadly we were only issued with one jelly, which we assumed was an oversight as other tables were given one each. So we had to share the little jelly, which felt a bit intimate. It’s been a long time since I shared a jelly with anyone other than my husband. I loved the jelly, full of lovely fresh berries and it was such a zesty, palate cleansing end to the tea.

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In all we’d had a lovely time, we’d eaten some really tasty things, drank some very good tea, put the world to rights and taken a selection of shockingly bad pictures of food. I think it’s the ideal resting point after a hard morning of Christmas shopping and before getting the tram home. The staff are friendly and attentive and the atmosphere, despite the lighting is relaxed and intimate. It’s decently priced too at £18.95 per person.

Opus One Bar and Restaurant is located in the Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester M2 5GP; Tel: 0161 8358904.

Disclaimer: We were invited as guests of the restaurant and were not asked to pay for our food or drink. We did love it though and will be back for more!

Meal Planning Monday w/c 2nd December 2013

I’ve long thought meal planning was the secret to making a little money go a bit further It also makes life infinitely easier for the person who stares puzzled into the fridge every evening trying to figure out what to feed the starving hordes. This week I’m taking part in Meal Planning Monday.

Our meal plans are slightly complicated by the fact I’m a vegetarian and the boys love meat, really love it. Often we’ll eat veggie food so we can eat the same thing as a family, but they quite often have meat which I really don’t mind cooking. Sometimes I just can’t be bothered, so they’ll have a lovely meat and two veg meal and I’ll have a bowl of cereal. I do like cereal.

We meal plan every week and have done for years, but here’s our Meal Planning Monday plan for the week…

Monday
Hodge has a work meeting quite late, so I’ll need to rustle up something which will happily sit and be re-heated when he gets in. I’m thinking (Nigel Slater’s) beef in beer stew, mash and kale from the garden.

Tuesday
It’s been ages since I made a risotto, so I’m fancying making an aubergine risotto. This is a huge favourite, so flavoursome and hearty, perfect for these cold winter nights.

Wednesday
I’m meeting a friend in town to have a mulled wine at the Christmas markets so the boys will have to fend for themselves. Tonight just screams spaghetti bolognaise. We batch cook things like this, so it’s just a case of grabbing a portion from the freezer and leaving them to it.

Thursday
Thursday is traditionally a busy day in the HPD house so I’ll likely assess what the leftovers situation is and we’ll take our pick from that. If that falls short, then we’ve always got eggs so it’ll be our old favourite scrambled eggs on toast or something along those lines.

Friday
Curry night! I’m going to knock up a quick and tasty pea and paneer curry. I serve it with fluffy boiled rice and toasted pita bread. Yum.

Saturday
We’re off out for dinner with some friends but young Splodge will still need feeding. Our quick & easy tea for him which is a guaranteed plate cleaner is pesto pasta, so that’s what he’ll have.

Sunday
We don’t often have a roast dinner; it’s not really worth it for just the three of us, but we picked up a cheap chicken from the whoopsie shelf a little while ago. It’s taking up valuable pre-Christmas freezer space. So we’ll be having a roast chicken dinner.

Meal Planning Monday w/c 2nd December 2013

So, that’s us for the week. It’s made me quite hungry writing it down properly and not on the back of an envelope for a change. What’re you having?

Sorry Son – how it feels to struggle to feed my family

Sorry son, we’re not on the breadline just yet, but mummy looked in her purse and could only afford milk. I know you want a ham sandwich for your lunch but there’s no ham and no bread. Sorry son.

Sorry son. I know you want a cheese sandwich now, but the same applies. We’ve got no pesto to make you pesto pasta. We’ve got things you won’t eat like tomatoes and celery, but that’s no use. Sorry son.

Sorry son. We’ve only got two eggs, so your lunch is two scrambled eggs and some ketchup. I won’t have lunch so you won’t be able to steal mine. Sorry son.

Sorry son, I think your tea might be a packet of vegetable curry flavoured noodles with some frozen peas. That’s all that’s in the cupboard. Sorry son.

Sorry son, I’ll find some money from somewhere and buy you something nice to eat tomorrow. At least some ham and bread and cheese. Sorry son.

Sorry son for letting you down. For not earning more. It’s not that I don’t love you; I do with all my heart. Love doesn’t put food on the table. It’s a hard lesson I know. Sorry son.

I’m sorry.

Giving back this Christmas - Our Reverse Advent Calendar

Update 2019:

I wrote this post back in 2013. Since then we’ve had financial highs and lows; we’ve had empty cupboards and we’ve scraped together meals out of seemingly nothing. It’s turned me into a hoarder of food. Whenever I have a few extra pounds in my purse I stock up on big bags of dried pasta and tins of chopped tomatoes. I have bags and bags of rice, tins of tuna, lentils and beans.

I always want to be able to feed my family. To have nothing but a small 25p packet of noodles to feed your growing son is a terrible, terrible feeling. I never want to feel that way again.

We’ve recently lost our tax credits since we were moved over to Universal Credit, so right now things are tighter than they have been, and will be for a while. You can only tighten your belt so much. We will be ok, because we have no other option than to be ok.

For more information about food poverty, visit the Trussell Trust website.

My Toddler Boys Winter Bucket List

Being an avid reader and lover of blogs I stumbled across this little cracker. Primarily the blog is about making sure your little nipper gets enough Vitamin D during the long, dark, cold winter months; but the bit that grabbed my attention was the “Winter Potty List” which is basically a mini winter bucket list of fun things to do over the winter for kids.

winter bucket list

I actually love this, I sometimes really struggle to be creative and think of fun things to do with the lad. I’m going to print the graphic out, stick it on the fridge and see how many we can tick off before the trees go into blossom next spring.

The ones I’m most looking forward to trying are –

Salt dough hand prints which we can decorate and give to Grandma for Christmas
Making messy fruit scones and gobbling them down still warm from the oven
Teddy bears picnic for him and a couple of his little chums
Making naughty hot chocolate and snuggling under a blanket watching a Christmas film

I think he’ll love this and enjoy helping me plan what we’ll do and then ticking them off. Hope you like this too, thought it’d be rude not to share!