Building our own mud kitchen: The Ordinary Moments

We finally had a bit of summer guys... in April!!
After snow and storms, I really wasn't expecting a weekend of beautiful sunshine, and we certainly made the most of it.

We've been working on our garden periodically for months, with little updates here and here, and we've been able to do it on a budget which I'm pretty proud of. Recently we added wood chippings to the "kids area" of the garden to cover the concrete base, and make it a bit more child friendly. The last addition to this mini-section to the garden was our planned mud kitchen.

Recipes for the whole family - The Flavour Led Weaning Cookbook

Our weaning journey has been a pretty great one.
I never realised how much fun meal times could be.Yes I love food and love to experiment with new foods and dishes, but nothing quite compares to seeing your little try and love new foods.

However, sometimes it can be really difficult to make a meal that suits everyone at the table and that can be made relatively quickly and easily.
That's where the Flavour Led Weaning book* comes in handy. It's a healthy guide to introducing your little one to different flavours and textures.

Easter Homemade Rocky Road

One of the best things about Easter has to be the food - to be fair, the best bit of most holidays is the food.

Yes it is not in the least bit healthy, hello chocolate eggs and hot cross buns, but it is truly yummy. 

I've never really done much baking or cooking for a holiday but I thought I'd start changing that up and making an effort around the holidays, because Henry is growing up so fast so I best get my act together. 

To start things off I thought I'd update my Chocolate Biscuit Cake and make an Easter inspired Rocky Road.

My 15 minute lazy pasta dinner

Do you know what I really love? Really good comfort food. There's something to be said for carbs and their ability to make us feel full and comfy and cosy inside. These dishes are of particular importance during times of need or when requiring cheering up.

Today I thought I'd share one of my favourite comfort foods, which also happens to be a super fast dish perfect for the lazy cook. We usually save this for evenings when we're super busy, or returning from a trip (the homesickness gets very real, and this helps quite a lot). 

It isn't pretty really, but damn is it warming and loved.

Gingerbread Houses with Friends

I think one of the best things about Christmas has to be the food. Am I right? There's nothing like really good good to get you in the festive spirit.
And the food at Christmas is always so special too. Pigs in blankets, mince pies, chocolate log, Christmas pudding, turkey, candy canes and gingerbread houses.

And I seriously love gingerbread houses. We decorated our own a couple of years back, but as this is the year of starting traditions, it only seemed right to get decorating again.
As Henry is still a little young (OMG next Christmas guys, next Christmas is going to be amazing!!) we decided to have a decorating contest with our friends (and Henry's Godparents) Alice and Arran one Friday night!

Alongside our competition we had Bailey's and Bucks Fizz, pigs in blankets and mince pies of course, to get really Christmassy.

We picked up the houses with lots of decorations and icing from Tesco.
Here's some photos from our evening - we even voted on a fave - but you'll have to wait til the end of the post to see who Twitter crowned as our winner!!

Sushi making at home

We love trying food from all around the world, and we adore making and trying new foods at home too. We're big Japanese food fans - with an inordinate amount of love for Wagamamas, and who doesn't love a Blue Monday at Yo Sushi? so when we were offered the chance to make our own sushi at home I jumped at the chance.

I've always loved watching sushi being made - one of the best things about Yo Sushi and many sushi restaurants is you can sit and watch it being made in their open kitchens! And I've always wanted to try and make some myself!

FOOD: Summer Lamb

Lamb has to be one of my favourite meats, even if I do feel a little guilty eating it sometimes. I love it as a roast dinner - smothered in mint sauce of course! And it also makes a great winter dinner option, like in this mustard lamb recipe I blogged earlier this year.

When I was asked by Tasty Easy Lamb to share a lamb recipe that proves lamb isn't just for roasts I knew exactly what I wanted to make.

Lamb may be considered an autumn/winter meat, but with the right ingredients it's a fab summer meat too.

Inspired by Greece, I'm sharing my Lamb pittas, perfect for a sunny weekend lunch, or add wedges and buttery corn on the cob for a simple and easy dinner option on a hot day.

FOOD: Simply Green Tea Salmon

A new foodie post and this one is a super healthy dinner option. This Green Tea Salmon with Coconut Rice and Wok Fried Greens is a great dinner for those wanting something easy, delicious and healthy with Chinese/Thai inspirations. This was really popular with Dann, especially before training in the evenings, and a great way to get in that all important fish into your diet.

FOOD: Homemade Honeycomb (aka Hockey Pockey)

This year for our friends and family we are putting together little packages of homemade bits and bobs for Christmas. We're trying to save money and doing Christmas on a budget this year, but wanted to show we'd put lots of thought and effort in, and what better way than homemade yummy treats.

I thought I'd share one of my recipes for you, which I think you'll all love, and it's super simple to make, and kinda fun as it's a little bit like a science experiment.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson, and can literally be made in 10 minutes.

What you need
100g castor sugar
4 tablespoons Golden Syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda
Greaseproof paper for the tray

How to make
Mix the sugar and golden syrup together in a pan off the heat
Place pan on the heat and melt the mixture. It will then start to bubble (approx 3 minutes) - do not stir, swill the pan if you want to but no stirring
Remove from the heat and add the bicarb
Immediate whisk the mixture (this is the fun sciency bit) where it will foam and go a light gold colour
Pour onto a tray (use greaseproof paper to make it easier)
Let it set (put in the fridge to help
Once set smash, and put in a box/tin

Store in the fridge until gifting

We're also adding a tag to our boxes saying it is best served chilled.
It also goes well crumbled on top of ice cream or a fruit crumble!

FOOD: Spiced Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Autumn is all about soup right... especially homemade soup.
We love making soup in our house, served with crusty buttery bread so I decided to make Spicy Curried Butternut Squash Soup. It's a variation on this Spicy Butternut Squash Soup as I love the curried flavour with butternut squash.

Ingredients
Two tablespoon olive oil
Sprig of rosemary
Two bay leaves
Three garlic cloves crushed
One teaspoon mild curry powder
Half medium chilli (we used a whole one but we like it HOT!)
One medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
Two carrots, chopped
One large potato, peeled and cubed
Two celery sticks, chopped
One medium onion, chopped
Pinch cumin seeds
Half teaspoon chilli powder
Pinch smoked paprika
Two pints veg/chicken stock
Half tub of fat-free natural yoghurt

Get cooking
Heat oil in a large saucepan and add garlic, chilli, mild curry powder, paprika, bay leaves, rosemary and cumin seeds and heat for 30 seconds (do not colour, you only want to release the flavours).

Add all the remaining ingredients apart from the stock.

Saute the vegetables for two minutes until they are fully coated in the spices.

Add the stock, turn down the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about 45 mins.

Allow the soup to cool and then blend with a hand whisk, until free of lumps. If the soup is too thick add a little more stock until you have the desired consistency. Add yoghurt dependent on how much you need to cool the heat of the spice (we needed lots as our chilli was hotter than we realised! Woops.) This is healthier than cream and works just as well!

Reheat when ready to serve and eat with a big hunk of crusty bread and an extra dollap of fat-free yogurt, delicious!

Leave me your favourite soup recipes in the comments below so we can try out some new ones!

LIFESTYLE: Super easy 3 ingredient recipes for a quick treat

I love a little baking session. But as a bit of a novice, I also like simple and easy recipes to follow. So I've pulled together a few really simple, tried and tested treats for you to try at home too. You can also see my no-bake chocolate biscuit cake here if you fancy.


Three ingredient (gluten-free and dairy-free) peanut butter cookies
I made these back at the beginning of the summer for a BBQ with friends. One our friends can't eat dairy due to an intolerance of her daughter who she was still breastfeeding so I decided to bake these little treats so she could still have something sweet. I'm assured by her and Dann that they taste great - I hate peanuts so I can't say!

Ingredients:
260g of peanut butter - smooth or chunky, your choice
200g sugar - I used caster
1 egg - medium

(optional - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder)

The recipe:
Preheat the oven to 200C, and line a tray with greaseproof paper
Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix - handy tip: break the egg in a separate bowl increase the shell goes in
Roll into balls and gently flatten on the tray. Push a fork into the top to make a criss cross pattern
Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins - watch them carefully. They should be slightly golden on top.

Three ingredient naughty chocolate brownies

These are a real naughty treat for any chocolate lover, and a huge hit with Dann who will do anything for brownies.

Ingredients:
275g chocolate spread or Nutella (again I can't eat hazelnuts, so we used chocolate spread instead)
2 eggs - medium
70g plain flour

(optional - add chocolate chips for extra indulgence - lightly cover in flour to stop them sinking in the mix)

The recipe:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a square tin - I love the greasing! 
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
Spread into the tin
Bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until the centre is just set
Wait until cool and slice into cubes

^^we had some left over melted chocolate so I drizzled so on to make these extra naughty!^^

3 ingredient frozen banana yoghurt bites (gluten-free)
I guess this one really does what it says on the tin. A slightly healthier treat, great for those with kiddies, especially if they want to help - not too messy! These are great as a snack on their own straight from the freezer, or as an extra for a healthy breakfast with cereal or granola.

Ingredients:
1 large ripe banana
150g of yoghurt - we used natural fat-free
Dried banana (optional)

(optional extras - to make it naughty add chocolate chips - white ones would probably work best)

The recipe:
Sort out 12 cupcake case (silicone ones work best) ready and place on a tray that will fit in your freezer. We stacked it inside our chest freezer.
Peel the banana and mash with a fork, or potato masher.
Mix with the yoghurt in a bowl.
Spread the mix between the cupcake cases.
Top with banana chips if you like
Place in the freezer for about two hours or until frozen all the way through.
Remove from cases if in silicone and serve - or bag up and store in the freezer for later use.

FOOD: Homemade no-bake chocolate biscuit cake

Recently, I've been making the most of my kitchen and trying my hand at the typically house wifey antics, whilst Dann plays with tools and builds things. A couple of weeks ago I decided to treat him to my mum's infamous Chocolate Biscuit Cake as he was working so hard on our garden. (note here that when he realised he was getting a treat, he worked extra hard!)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he loved it. We also took a few slices to a friends house, and they loved it too. And I took some into work for my boss's birthday and they loved it as well. 

So, I've decided to share my recipe, so you can love it too. 

The recipe is pretty much based on one from Ocado, but I finish mine slightly differently.

LIFESTYLE: The amateurs guide to refitting a kitchen

As you all probably know we recently bought our first home. If not, you can ready a little about our experience here.
As part of our purchase we decided to completely refit our kitchen. The house is a bit of a project. It was quite dated, and honestly the style and colours where not to our taste at all.
Within three weeks of moving in we started ripping out our old kitchen - as you can see it wasn't the prettiest of kitchens on our first day! And we really dislike yellow now!