Category: Food

blog, Food, Spring, Uncategorized

Panalate Season

Dub Mouse

Winter will so be leaving us, flowers will start to bud, and the trees will show signs of sprouting new leaves, soon it will be time for those little lambs to be bouncing everywhere…. It’s not spring, nope it’s panalate!

Why have I called spring panalate? Well reader, though I love spring and seeing all the signs of flowers starting to bloom, lamb roast dinners etc, I look forward to pancake day and yep Easter or as I call it chocolate egg exchange 🙂 hmmmmm.

PANCAKE DAY (aka as Shrove Tuesday):
Usually takes place on 4th March or round abouts this date in UK. We love pancake day, you can have all sorts of lovely stuff in pancakes such as…. Chocolate, fruit, lemon and sugar, honey. The list is probably endless I imagine. So what is pancake day? Well rather than me explain, have a read of this little link which explains it pretty well – https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pancake-Day/

Those of us who aren’t religious, enjoy pancake day because it’s a good excuse to eat pancakes and well it’s kind of a tradition in the uk 🙂

EASTER:
Most of you who are clued up on these things will know it’s Christian thing, even though it’s taken from a Pagan festival. People who aren’t religious will just know this time of year as chocolate egg exchanging time, a good excuse to eat lots and lots of yummy chocolate 🙂

LAMB ROAST DINNER:
The traditional thing to eat on Easter Sunday is a nice lamb roast dinner! Probably because it’s spring and well there’s plenty of yummy lamb to eat. I love lamb, with loads of mint sauce.

So welcome to panalate season, a season of having pancakes, eating chocolate eggs and lamb roast dinners.

blog, Food, Healthy Eating

Smooth Operator

Dub Mouse

Have you ever seen those social media adverts and thought that product looks good but decided not to buy? I used to be the same but I took the plunge and so far I’ve brought a veg chopping thingy and some make up. Both have turned out to be good buys.

The latest product that I’ve brought as it kept appearing on Instagram, is the Blendjet. I looked at reviews and YouTube videos and decided ah what the hell, let’s try it. For £30 with no shipping fee, it was worth a punt. So in an attempt to try and be more healthy as well as cut down on the amount of rubbish I eat, especially on night shifts, I brought two (one is for the husband) and awaited their arrival.

The delivery time was actually quite good, took 6 days in total. Ordered on the 1st April and they arrived on the 6th. So instantly impressed with that part. Next was the actual item, mine is purple and the husband’s blue (our fave colours), loving the bright colours and the packaging is pretty good. The only con so far is that the blender still works with the lid off so bit of a safety thing there.

Beast ordered a load of frozen fruit, honestly almost a whole freezer full! We tried them on the Monday. Mixed fruit for breakfast and me being a scientist decided it would be good to experiment and boy was it. In my wisdom, I decided to look on the internet and found a blueberry cheesecake smoothie recipe and tried it, omg it’s delicious. Here’s the link in case you want to try:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.myfoodandfamily.com/amp/recipe/113240/blueberry-cheesecake-smoothie

So today (being 09/04/19), I looked for a recipe using peanut butter powder as we have some in the cupboard. Popped to the shop for rest of the ingredients and yup I tried a peanut butter and banana smoothie…this too was amazing. I used alpro almond milk and honey as the sweetener. Here’s the link: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2017/04/27/peanut-butter-banana-smoothie/

In all, I can definitely recommend buying blendjet. A well worth buy.

blog, Food

Choc Choc Chocolate

Dub Mouse

That wonderful sugary brown stuff that melts in your mouth, which comes in many different guises such as a hot one, a cold milky one, on top of things (ooh er), in things (not so er) or wrapped – yes reader I haven’t gone smutty though it could read that way if you engage that dirty mind, but I’m actually on about chocolate.

A sweet wondrous thing that some women will suddenly crave before that annoying monthly period, something that brings pleasure to those who like it (those who don’t are weirdos :-p) or aren’t allergic.

Have you ever tried dog chocolate? I’ll say this one thing – dont. It’s horrid, yes I tried, surely it’s a must when you have a dog? Just to try and see if it’s any different? I can’t describe the taste except its really quite disgusting. In fact reader I dare you to try some and see for yourself.

Body chocolate:
This is another disgusting thing or at least the Ann Summers’ one is. It wasn’t used for the purpose it should of been (things were very boring in the bedroom department with the ex). It was brought as a present from a friend – we used to buy each other cheeky little things for crimbo as a joke. Anyways I tried it – spread a bit on the hand…..yep it’s pretty horrid. Actually the taste was not dissimilar to doggie chocolate thinking about it.

Why does chocolate cause us to be happy when we eat it? (dons lab coat and pretends to be little miss I know science, when in fact I googled but translated it): Basically – It contains stuff like theobromine and phenethylamine (big science words), that have physiological effects on the body. These cause serotonin levels in the brain to rise and so your mood increases to one called happiness (albeit only for a brief time). There are various health benefits but I’ll let you google those (cant do all the work for you).

All in all, chocolate is pretty good for you. It increases your mood along with other benefits, and apparently can be used as a bit of fun 😉 of course everything has a downside which is spots that are always bound to appear a couple of days after eating loads. Oh and don’t forget to try doggie chocolate!!

blog, Food

Feeling Fried

Dub Mouse

That wondrous sight: close your eyes and imagine a sausage as it dips into a nice wet, ready waiting…..egg yolk! What did you think I was on about?

The English breakfast. What consists of the joyous English breakfast? Usually eggs (any way you fancy, but fried is best), bacon, fried mushrooms, sausages, baked beans and black pudding (or not depending on if you hate it – if do, you’re a weirdo in my world but you’re forgiven), oh and toast (fried bread = yucky. Again weirdo if you like it in my world. This is not forgiven). Though you could be über greedy and add either potato waffles or hash browns to the plate, plus a fried tomato or a heated plum tomato (tomatoes with fry up is just wrong).

When was the good old English breakfast invented? I’ve no idea but whoever did, I sure hope they were given a bloody medal! The English breakfast: said to be best hangover cure (not tried it myself having only been drunk twice), the ultimate camping breakfast & awesome after a shift block! It’s also one of those things that taste far better when cooked by someone else….so who’s cooking me breakfast?

blog, Food

Can’t Cook …… Can Cook

Dub Mouse

In the past whenever I cooked a meal I was always told I couldn’t or “that was ok but not as good as mine, I’ll keep cooking that” (though they never cooked that meal themselves, everyone has lived with a control freak at some point in their lives right that likes to put you down right?) – this would probably explain why most meals were either takeaways or ready meals, well apart from the once in a blue moon roast dinner or homemade lasagne, yup reader to that person that was cooking!!

Since then I’ve discovered that actually I can cook and pretty well. I can cook a steak to requirement (something apparently I couldn’t). I’ve made all sorts of meals and experimented a few times by twisting recipes or creating a meal from scratch, though may get one or two that come out wrong but seem to be easily fixed with packet powder sauces I’ve discovered (handy little tip there).

Though it does appear a roast dinner is my enemy as I can never seem to pull one off properly. Something that will require a bit of practice I believe but being a shift worker and a volunteer doesn’t allow much time to do so.

Constantly being told “you can’t cook” can knock your confidence. The next time someone says you can’t cook or it’s not as good as mine – tell them to (kindly) foxtrot Oscar and let you get on with it. Don’t let them bully you out of the kitchen.

Cooking can be fun whilst experimental – dont be afraid to try new things. My kitchen will never be without a slow-cooker. I love using it and have cooked some fab meals. If you’re single, you can cook loads in there and it will last (sometimes) for a whole week. It’s saves on cooking and washing up (as a shift worker that’s pretty handy), or you can simply freeze what’s left and have as a homemade “ready meal.”