A few delicious Lotus Biscoff Spread ideas

We have a new family favourite in our house! The Lotus Biscoff spread. Having grown up in Belgium I have always been very familiar with the little red biscuits. For as long as I can remember we've always had them in the house, they usually came out at breakfast time (my dad loved to have them in between his sandwiches), at snack time (what child doesn't love these biscuits) and when we had family over they always made an appearance on the table. Coffee and a Lotus biscuit are a must! You can only imagine how excited I was when I found out Lotus had created a spread! The spread is available in both smooth and crunchy varieties and we tried out the crunchy variety. Holey Moley it is amazing! It's like a biscuit in a jar. I have caught myself a couple of times just eating it with a spoon from the jar, and the kids and husband were more than happy to do this as well. This spread is so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. The smooth version can even be incorporated into dips, frostings and cakes! Here are some ideas on how we used our crunchy spread.
On toast

I have been loving my breakfast these days. Cup of coffee, warm toast with Biscoff spread...yummy!
 Milkshake

These are SO good! We blended together some vanilla ice cream, milk, a banana and two spoons of Biscoff spread. The result was a delicious milkshake that the kids loved and have been asking for again and again. 
 Lunchbox sandwiches

With school starting again and having one fussy eater my lunchbox dilemma's are now sorted. Emily will happily munch her crunchy spread sandwiches and I no longer have to pull out my hair trying to figure out what to put on her sandwiches.
Spread on a cracker for a delicious mid morning snack

The kids love this snack and we found out it goes really well with chocolate spread, so most of the time they ended up sandwiching both crackers together. I loved adding some apple to my Biscoff  cracker for even more crunch, yummy.
Lotus Biscoff caramelised spread is the perfect alternative to peanut butter and chocolate spread. It has NO added flavours, colours or hydrogenated fats and it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
We were kindly send our Biscoff spread for reviewing purposes and all  thoughts and opinions are our own.

Sweet potato bake recipe

I love a good oven bake. Partly because they are so easy to make, I mean you just throw everything into ONE dish (less dishes to wash people!), and partly because they always end up tasting scrummy. Yesterday I walked into the kitchen, recipe in mind, and when I went to get the potatoes there were only two teenie tiny ones left. Just like that I had to reinvent what I was going to make for dinner. Sweet potato to the rescue!. I don't know what it's like in your house but we love sweet potatoes, so this dish came together very effortlessly and was eaten very gratefully.

My ingredients were:
1 large sweet potato 3 carrots 1 green pepper and 1 yellow pepper 1 red onion Olive oil (enough to coat all the veggies) 1 tbsp garlic salt 1tsp Herbs de Provence  
Method: Preheat oven to 180 Celsius Cut all the vegetables in large chunks and add to oven dish Coat with olive oil sprinkle on garlic salt and herbs stir together bake in oven for about 30 minutes

I served our sweet potato bake with sweet chili chicken skewers and it was delicious! Definitely making this again.

We made scones

We made scones...I say we, I really mean me. The kids were too busy playing Minecraft and after asking them about 10.000 times I decided to go ahead and make them by myself. I'd never made scones before so was a bit apprehensive, maybe it was a good thing the kids weren't around to "help". I must say, they turned out far better than I imagined, quite delicious actually and they disappeared just as quickly as it took for me to make them!
Here's my scrummy recipe: 350g self raising flour pinch of salt 1 tsp baking powder 85g butter 3 tbsp sugar 180ml milk 1tbsp lemon juice 1egg
Preheat your oven to 220 Celsius. Add the flour to a bowl, add the salt and baking powder and stir. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs, then add the sugar and stir. Heat the milk until just lukewarm (30 secs in microwave) and then add the lemon juice. Make a hole in your flour mixture and pour the milk into this, then quickly stir together with a fork, be careful to not over mix. Dust some flour on a work surface and gently fold together the mixture. Fold into a shape about 4cm thick and cut out round shapes (I used a cookie cutter). Place on a baking tray and glaze the scones with some beaten egg. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve with jam and cream. YUMMY!!!

From my kitchen to yours...homemade pork burgers.

Last night I felt completely uninspired when it came to deciding what to do for dinner. I walked aimlessly around the supermarket trying to come up with something when it hit me.... Homemade burgers! I hadn't made any in such a long time and it's a meal I definitely do not regret making, or eating.

To make these at your home you'll need (this make about 6 good sized patties) 500g pork mince 1 onion 1garlic clove 1 carrot 1 egg bread crumbs pepper and salt oxo beef cube 1 tsp mixed herbs 1 tbsp ketchup
burger buns and your favourite toppings
In a food processor chop the onion, garlic and carrot. (if you have kids chop it really fine, they'll eat veggies without knowing, operation hide the veggies complete!) Add the mince to a bowl and add the chopped mixture. blend together using a fork or your hands Crumble up the oxo cube and sprinkle on top, add the remaining ingredients  and blend together. Using your hands shape into burger patties and grill until cooked. 
Serve in buns with your favourite toppings.  I used burger sauce, lettuce, cheese and gherkins, but you can let your imagination go wild here!
enjoy!

Easy Easter cupcakes recipe

On Saturday Emily had a friend over and we decided to do some baking. I don't know about you but I have always loved baking with my kids, I think it stems back from when I was a little girl, sitting on the counter top and helping my mum stirring and adding ingredients whenever she was baking something delicious. Emily decided on making some cupcakes and that's exactly what we did. The girls favourite part was decorating them of course, all while munching on mini eggs and giant buttons.

These cupcakes are so quick and easy to make, the girls did most of it themselves! To make these at your house all you need is
110g softened butter 110g caster sugar 110g self raising flour 2 eggs tsp of vanilla extract  salt
Preheat your oven to 180C Add the sugar and butter to a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the flour, eggs, salt and vanilla and beat together. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before decorating.
For the butter icing
100g softened butter 225g icing sugar a spoon of water drop of yellow food colouring Cadbury's mini eggs chocolate buttons
Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, water and food colouring. Use a piping bag to pipe the butter cream onto the cupcakes and decorate with mini eggs and chocolate buttons. Enjoy!
P.S. Only ONE more day to enter my giveaway! You can do so HERE. Good luck.

A fave a day #6

original image here
Welcome to my "A fave a day" series. You can read what this series is about here, and please do join in, Leave me a comment with your favourites and share your amazing finds.
Saturday is Food day.
Pinterest really is an amazing source for food recipes. Look at this delicious looking tart for instance.

Recipe found here
Now I don't know about you but I sure wouldn't complain if someone served this grilled vegetable and hummus tart to me! I'm hoping to recreate this very soon.

Cheese cake recipe

 

This cake is so delicious and so easy to make that I just couldn't resist sharing the recipe.

Here's what you will need:

250g digestive biscuits

150g soft butter

300g cream cheese

60g icing sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 ml double cream

fresh berries

 

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until crumbled and add the butter. When mixed together press the mixture into a springform tin.

 

Next you blend together the cheese, icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whip the cream in a different bowl and then fold into the cheese mixture. Finally add the mixture on top of the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.

 

Add fruits just before serving and enjoy!

 

 

Chocolate chip cookies

  Oh my goodness, I am so excited today about sharing this delicious recipe with you. If you are a fan of chocolate chip cookies you will LOVE these bad boys! They are soft and gooey and just fabulous. The more chocolate you use and the bigger the chunks the better they are I would say, but then that is coming from the chocoholic that I am. I have converted many of my friends and  I'm sure they will agree with me when I say they are not only super delicious but also super easy to make.   Here's what you need:  250g plain flour 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 170g unsalted butter, softened or melted 200g dark brown soft sugar 100g caster sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 egg 1 egg yolk 325g chocolate chips   Here's what you do: Preheat your oven to 170 Celsius (metric system I know, sorry!)

In a bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Next beat in the vanilla followed by the egg and egg yolk.

 Mix in the flower and bicarbonate of soda until just blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon, as you can see I used two varieties of chocolate there. The more the better!  

Drop tablespoons of the dough onto oven trays lined with baking paper You should be able to make 16-18 cookies Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The edges should look crispy, the middle still soft. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy! I love these best when they are still slightly warm.   So there you have it. I really do hope you'll give these a try. You'll thank me for it.   Have a great weekend!  

 

 

 

 

yummy scrummy strir fry

If you read my previous post you know that we had a stir fry for dinner

last night.

Let me tell you, it was goooooood!

I don't really have a recipe as I threw some stuff into a pan and hoped for the best,

but let me just recap what I did in case you want to try this out yourself.

You won't regret I promise.

I started out with chopping up some veggies

I chose mushrooms, a yellow pepper, spring onions, carrots and some broccoli.

I had all these in my fridge but really you can use whatever you like.

I then cut up three chicken breasts and stir fried the chicken in some sesame oil.

I like the sesame oil because it gives some oriental flavour but any oil would do.

Once browned I added all the veggies apart from the mushrooms,  oh and I also added some

crushed garlic and some soy sauce.

While the vegetables were softening I made some chicken gravy (about 150 ml) and then

added that to the chicken and veg. I also added the mushrooms and a spoon full of cornflour.

Finally I added about three table spoons of oyster sauce and a packet of cashew nuts.

I let it bubble for a few minutes.

And tadaaaaaa....

A yummy scrummy stir fry.

Let there be cake!

Last night we made a cake,

the BEST cake ever!

I didn't really want to share all this goodness...

Turns out I wasn't the only one who loved this cake.

Want to make one of your own?

Here's the recipe

Ok, I know some of you might have to do some measurement conversions

but trust me this cake is so worth it!

400g sugar

                                                                 400g softened butter

400g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon milk

8 eggs

100g cocoa powder

whipping cream

tined cherries in syrup

strawberries

flake chocolates

preheat oven to 170 Celsius

mix together the sugar and butter

add the eggs and milk

add flour, baking powder and cocoa powder

mix well

pour into a baking tin and bake for about an hour

let cake cool

cut into three layers

thicken the cherry syrup with some corn flour

and spoon some onto each layer

add cream and cherries

decorate the top with more cream and strawberries

sprinkle with crushed flakes.

Hide, eat all by yourself and enjoy!

Cake pops anyone?

Today I decided to make some cake pops.

I've seen these little yummies pop up on several blogs now...

about time they made an appearance on mine!

I found the recipe on Erika's blog

Oreo and mascarpone cake pops (oh yesssss!!!)

Three packets of Oreos (154g each)

250g  Mascarpone cheese

White chocolate

Lollipop sticks

Sprinkles

Step 1. Blend the Oreo cookies in a food processor until

all crumbled and fine.

It helps if you have a cute assistant helping you out.

Step 2. Add the mascarpone cheese

Step 3. Blend it all together, not easy at first and it took me a good five

minutes and a lot of muscle power to get it to the right consistency.

You should end up with something that looks like dirt from the garden.

Step 4. Roll into balls and place on a baking sheet, then place in the freezer

for about 15 minutes.

Step 5. Melt the chocolate and dip the end of the lollipop sticks into this.

Then insert them into the cake balls. Place back in the freezer

for about five minutes, allowing the chocolate to harden.

Step 6. Coat the cake pops in chocolate and add sprinkles, leave to dry.

Make sure you buy enough chocolate, I didn't and have two cake pops

who are feeling very sorry for them selves.

Also, unless you are super handy and know what you are doing, prepare

for this stage to be slightly messy!

Step 7. Eat and enjoy, they are heaven on a stick!

Linking up!

Have a delicious Tuesday everyone

xxx