Half A Syn Chocolate Brownies

You know your an adult when you have to make your own birthday cake!!

It`s my birthday tomorrow and being on Slimming World I was worried I wouldn`t be able to have a nice piece of cake to celebrate...that was until I found these 1/2 syn Brownies.

Who doesn`t like chocolate and cake and ONLY 1/2 syn per slices????

I found this recipe on mydietjourney, it is so easy and SOOOOOOO tasty!!

Here goes....

1/2 Syn Chocolate Brownies

Serves - 25

Prep Time - 10 mins

Baking Time - 30 mins

Ingredients

• 70gm of Sweetener
• 60gm coco powder
• 6 eggs, separated 
• 1tsp vanilla essence 
• Fry Light

Method

1. Spray a baking tray with Fry Light and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted, adjust accordingly for gas)
3. Whisk the egg white till they form soft peeks.
4. In a separate bowl mix the egg yolks with the sweetener, coco powder and vanilla essence, you may need to add some water if the mixture becomes too stiff.
5. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture
6. Pour mixture into baking tray
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. ENJOY still warm or allow to cool.

You can eat the brownies as they are or you can top with quark and an options sachet mixture. At only 2 syns per options sachet spread onto 25 squares you cant really add any 0.08 syns to the total ;-) so lets not!!!!

Fab Food Friday #1

Welcome to the first Fab Food Friday link up!!

#FFF is a new Slimming World recipe link up where you can show off your culinary creations...good or bad and in return we hope you`ll find a positive group to be a part of.

Tell us about your ups and downs of cooking; the disasters, the successes and the mishap meals that turn out pretty darn good....and in return you`ll get honest feedback on your meals and maybe make some new friends along the way.

If you do link up please feel free to grab the badge below to show that you are part of Fab Food Friday`s xx

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An InLinkz Link-up

Cheesecake Cherry Brownies

Tomorrow is the last day for one of my colleagues at work so I have decided to make my favourite chocolate treat for her....Cheesecake Cherry Brownies.

These are so lush and gooey that I can`t get enough of them!! I daren`t count the syns or calories in them as I`m sure that I would have a heart attack.

Here is the recipe for you. xx

Ingredients  Will make approx 12 servings

For Brownie Mix  -

125 gm unsalted butter

125 gm dark chocolate chopped

200 gm brown sugar

3 eggs beaten

50 gm plain flour

50 gm cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

For Cheesecake Mix - 

180 gm soft cheese

40gm caster sugar

glacier cherries for decoration

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180c or gas mark 4.
2. Combine the butter, chocolate and brown sugar in a pan until melted ( Top Tip - dont heat on too high a heat as the chocolate will granulate and taste crunchy) Remove from heat and whisk in the eggs.
3. Add flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and stir well.
4. Pour mixture into a greased and lined baking tin approx 18 cm x 28 cm in size.
5. Beat soft cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Blob randomly over the chocolate mixture to create a random pattern. Swirl the mixture together with a knife, or as I use a chopstick. P;ace cherries randomly into mixture.
6. Bake at 180c or gas mark 4 for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the thickest part of the brownie.
7. Wait until completely cool before dividing up into servings. 
8. ENJOY!!!

Mum`s birthday cake with a little help from Cake Angels!

Last week an unexpected parcel arrived on my door step. A lovely selection of goodies from Cake Angels.

Look at the lovely bright colours, I could`nt wait to give these beauties a go!!

April, May and June are busy months for birthdays in the Wood household; today is the turn of my lovely mum.

I don`t usually make my mum a cake but was inspired to create something bright and flowery for her after receiving these goodies.

There were 2 oranges in my fruit bowl that had passed their best so decided to make an orange infused cake, something I had never done before, so was a tad worried how it would turn out!

I used my Nan`s and Mum`s traditional sponge recipe that they had taught me...,I don`t think its a family secret, so apologise to them if it is!!!

The recipe is very simple; I need it to be simple or I muck it up!

Method

As I said a moment ago, it is so simple....

• pre heat oven to 180 degrees for fan ovens or gas mark 6 for gas ovens
• grease or line your chosen tin, I chose a 2 lb loaf tin for this bake
• weigh your chosen amount of eggs - I tend to always use 3 eggs, this makes plenty of cake batter to make at least 24 cupcakes, 2 x 8" sandwiches, or in this case a 2lb loaf
• weigh out the same weight of the eggs for butter, sugar and self raising flour
• cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk till light and fluffy
• add eggs and whisk together till all eggs are incorporated into mixture
• add flour and gently fold in with wooden spoon, making sure not to mix too vigorously so to not remove all the air added by whisking. As I was making a orange infused cake I also added the grated zest of 2 oranges at this point.
• place batter into tin and put in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer placed in the centre of the cake comes out clean

I did find that as I was using a loaf tin that the cooking time had to be increased to 45 minutes

Here is it before I used the Cake Angels products....not bad for a first attempt, even if I do say so myself!!!

I used Cake Angels ready made vanilla icing RRP £2 per tub and 2 packs of their 2d royal icing cake decorations in the daisy flowers design RRP £1.49 per pack

The vanilla icing was very easy to spread but can also be used in a pipping bag straight from the tub with no more preparation needed. It tastes so creamy and surprisingly light.

I hope my Mum likes her spring inspired birthday cake!!

I will be giving the ice cream cone cake kit a go in the next week or so, check back to see how they turned out!!

I was sent these products free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and views.

I`m a Morrison`s Mum!!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend Morrison`s via Britmums invited me to become a #Morrisonsmum and do a shop in one their stores. I was to then report back on my views of the shop and produce available.

They very kindly gave me £80 to spend in-store. This is well and truly over our weekly budget of £60 so I was excited to see how much we could get and include some naughty luxuries.

Usually I shop at Aldi or Asda and so am used to getting good value for money.

Our nearest store is in Verwood, Dorset, approximately a 25 minute drive away. I wouldn't normally go this far out of my way to go food shopping as we are very spoilt in Bournemouth and have a superstore almost every few miles!!!

So on Friday night (2nd May) I convinced ThePrMummy to come along with me and we set off in search of bargains!!!

Due to it being a bank holiday weekend and with the promise of some nice weather I decided to not take a list of things to get, but to see what stood out for me and took my fancy.

The Verwood store is currently undergoing a complete redesign with a new HUGE store being built next door. I didn't find that this impacted my shopping experience at all...in fact it has made me want to go and see it finished as looks like its going to be massive.

Having never shopped at Morrison's before I didn't know what to expect,  I'd only had vague descriptions of the general store layouts from my Nan who lives next to a store on the Isle of Wight.

I was very pleasantly surprised!!

Everywhere I looked there were yellow I`M CHEAPER signs on the shelf edges showing that the prices had recently been lowered...it was a sea of yellow!!!

Half full already!!

The fresh fruit and vegetables were situated right by the front doors so you walked straight into a vibrantly coloured, fresh smelling and widely varied selection of fruits and vegetables.

I'm used to Aldi`s offers of the week prices so was surprised to see that Morrison's prices were pretty much on a par with Aldi.

Typically my phone battery decided to die whilst walking around the store so didn't get many photos of all the lovely products available, but did get a few random ones of myself and ThePrMummy!!

As you can see from how full my trolley is and the size of my receipt that I got a lot on this shopping trip!!

That`s a rather long receipt!

My weekly budget is usually £60 to feed the 5 of us, this shop came in at £89, so it only cost me £9.......AMAZING considering I was rather naughty and filled up the bottom drawer of my freezer with ice lollies for the kids!! Emma and I were having bets on how much each of our trolleys would come to, hers came to £115 but that did include baby food and formula so she was impressed with that!! I was well out on mine saying £105.

This has to be the worst photo of me ever!!!!

Saturday night was stay at home date night with hubby and so decided to treat ourselves to a nice Italian meal. I got a meat feast pasta melt from Morrison's own chilled range with some of the amazing in-store bakery's cheddar and red onion focaccia bread.....yummy. The whole meal only cost £2.66 for the pasta meal and £1 for the focaccia.......BARGAIN.

I decided to get everything needed for a nice chicken roast on the holiday Sunday and then make a Chicken Noodle Stew for the Monday.

Here is what I got :-

1 x Morrisons Saver Peas 89p per pack, 1/4 used = 22p

1 x Morrisons Savers Chicken £3.92, 1/2 used = £1.96

1 x Morrisons Savers Carrots 59p per pack, 1/4 used = 14p

1 x Morrisons Potatoes 69p per pack, 1/2 used = 34p

1 x Morrisons Savers Broccoli 49p 

So a chicken roast dinner for 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 baby = £3.15 or 78p per serving!!!!!!!!!!!!

For my Chicken Noodle Stew I used :-

Left over chicken = £1.96

Chicken carcass for stock = free!!

3 x carrots = 14p

2 x potatoes = 17p

Ribbon Noodles from store cupboard = 20p

So a grand total of £2.27, or 45p per serving as I made enough for hubby lunch the next day!!

This photo doesnt do my Chicken Noodle Stew justice, it was delicious.

I have to say that I am genuinely surprised at the quality and price of Morrison`s products compared to the other big brand food shops. And am glad that I have managed to produce some lovely tasting budget family meals.

If I had a store nearer to me I would definitely start using Morrison's on a more regular basis but can`t justify the trip out to Verwood at the moment.

Thank you to Morrison`s and Britmums.

xx

I was sent £80 in vouchers to spend in-store in exchange for my honest opinion which is truly my own.

A Family Favourite Meal - Pasta Bolognese Bake

Does your family have an all-round favourite meal??

We have a few but the whole family absolutely love the good old pasta bolognese bake.

It`s so simple and quick to make and VERY satisfying.

Simply...

• preheat oven to 160c
• cook desired amount of pasta
• whilst pasta is cooking, brown mince in frying pan
• add diced onions, mushrooms and garlic salt (optional)
• add either tinned tomatoes or pre made bolognese sauce and simmer for 5-10 minutes
• make up either cheese or white sauce, its your personal preference
• grab a large oven/pyrex dish
• place all the mince mixture on bottom of dish
• then layer the now cooked pasta over the mince...DO NOT MIX!!
• layer chosen sauce over pasta.....DO NOT MIX!!
• add cheese if required
• cook in oven until sauce is bubbling or cheese has browned.
• ENJOY

I have personally found that not mixing the layers whilst cooking makes the whole bake taste better but its up to you. We also have garlic bread with it.

There is never any left overs with this recipe.

My First Apple And Cinnamon Crumble

This is sad to admit at 32 but I have never made a crumble of any kind!!

I like to try new things in the kitchen but for some reason never thought of trying a crumble.

After the recent `storm` my mums garden was covered in cooking apples which had fallen from her neighbours garden. Initially I thought about gathering them up to make some apple puree for Benjamin but whilst I was stood peeling the apples I decided to give a crumble a go.

The smell of the house whilst cooking it was amazing.....just like Christmas.

And I have to admit it was lovely!!! Hubby, who is very picky with his food, ate all of his serving and even asked for more.

After this success crumbles are now going to be a regular on the Woods`s dinner table, I may even take a stab at a pie next time!!!

Has the blackberry season finished now??