stay at home

The Boy Makes….Homemade Bounty Bars

12/04/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Over the Easter holidays, the boy and I were inspired to have a crack at some more sweet cooking projects. We made chocolate cupcakes one day and then, scrolling through Instagram one morning, I came across this post for Homemade Bounty Bars by the gorgeous Mrs Bishop over at MrsBishopBakesandBanter. I LOVE Bounty bars and the boy has taken a real shine to coconut and dark chocolate recently (there’s not an issue in the world that can’t be solved with a Mrs Crimble’s Chocolate Covered Coconut Macaroon I tells ya!). We’ve never tried making proper ‘sweets’ before, so I thought this would be a fun place to start.

The recipe Mrs B (and I!) used was incredibly simple with just four ingredients:

100ml Condensed Milk
75g Desiccated Coconut
200g Icing Sugar
200g Dark Chocolate

I weighed out the ingredients..... — I weighed out the ingredients…..

...and Oscar poured them into the bowl. First the coconut..... — …and Oscar poured them into the bowl. First the coconut…..

...followed by the condensed milk and then the sugar. Mix it all together. — …followed by the condensed milk and then the sugar. We mixed it all together.

It should come together in one easy to handle lump.

Oscar helped me shape it into bars (it was only my desire for even bars that meant his lumps got flattened out!) Place on greaseproof paper lined tray and leave to firm up in the fridge for an hour or so. This recipe makes 8 big bars easily. — Oscar helped me shape it into bars (it was only my desire for even bars that meant his lumps got flattened out!) We placed the bars on a greaseproof paper lined tray and left them to firm up in the fridge for a couple of hours. This recipe makes 8 big bars easily.

Melt the chocolate. I do this is short bursts in the microwave, stirring each time, but you could do it in a bain-marie. Drop the bars into the choclate and spoon it over to coat. Oscar LOVED doing this bit. Lift onto greaseproof sheet and chill in the fridge. — Melt the chocolate. I do this is short bursts in the microwave, stirring each time, but you could do it over a bain-marie. Drop the bars into the melted chocolate and spoon it over to coat. Oscar LOVED doing this bit, but it was a bit messy and I got no photos – boohoo! Lift onto a greaseproof sheet and chill in the fridge until the chocolate sets.

Oh my life they were so good! We’re definitely going to make them again, but next time I am going to fiddle around with the proportions. I want to try adding more coconut and a little less sugar. I’m also going to make 16 small bars, instead of 8 big ones. Don’t get me wrong the big bars looked awesome, but realistically, I think a smaller bar would have been enough. You could also try making them in to bit size pieces, perhaps for a party. Bounty Bites, if you will! I think you’d easily get 32 bites out of this recipe, although I’m not sure if you’d need slightly more chocolate. Give it a go!

Homemade Bounty Bars. The boy likes them, but not as much as mama does!

The Boy makes……BBQ Pulled Pork

31/03/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

The boy has recently discovered baking and absolutely loves it. He’ll regularly go to get the chair from the conservatory to pull up to the work surface. Thank god he can’t quite manage it on his own yet, or he’d be in the cupboards before you can say Domestic Goddess.

Anyway it’s a great shared activity for any child and particularly one with the developmental issues Oscar has. He really (and I mean really) struggles with adult led activities, but everything in the kitchen kind of has to be adult led and the fact that he requests it is great progress. All the professionals involved with us have been thrilled when I tell them about it and really keen to encourage us to do more. Which I try, but sometimes we don’t have all the ingredients or I just don’t want any more cakes in the house! And don’t think he can be fooled into making a ‘flour and lentil and old cereal and whatever other crap is at the back of the cupboards’ cake. Oooooh no! We tried that once before and it worked until he realised we were just playing and since then its been “no deal”!.

So whilst we love baking and continue to do it, I’ve started to get him involved in the every day cooking I am doing. It’s still about adding ingredients, it’s still about stirring. he doesn’t necessarily get the sweet treat at the end but that doesn’t appear to be much of a motivator for Oscar. He just wants to be involved in the process. And he enjoys it so much, I’m going to document our trials and tribulations in the kitchen, with a series of posts, called The Boy Makes……

And here’s the first one.

Last night I had him making burgers (although we haven’t quite got round to him shaping them yet) and today he helped me make BBQ Pulled Pork.

And on today's show I'll be making..... — And on today’s show I’ll be making…..

Pulled pork is one of those amazing recipes. You hear all about it, you see it and you assume its incredibly complex. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can find a myriad of recipes for it online, but I follow this Slimming World, syn free one:

1.5-2kg pork shoulder, all fat removed. Removing the fat is the hardest part of the recipe, and requires a sharp knife, good kitchen scissors and patience! I always do this before the boy joins in as hE has no patience at all (sound like anyone else 😉 )
75ml Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard powder
1 x jar passata (I use a 68g one)
3tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic
3 tbsp sweetener ( I use natural plant based sweetener here. I like Canderel in my coffee, but not for cooking. You could use sugar if you felt so inclined but that would add syns)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

The recipe then goes on to suggest using a slow cooker and reducing the sauce first. I don’t have a slow cooker, and I cant be bothered to reduce the sauce. We literally pour each thing into my Le Creuset casserole (this is the bit the boy loves), then I warm it on the hob.

Its old, but it's loved. The Le Creuset that is! — Its old, but it’s loved. The Le Creuset that is!

Look at his little hands! — Look at his little hand!

Before adding the meat and sticking it in the oven on gas mark 2 (150c or 300f) for about 5 hours. Ish. Give or take.

I check it after about 4 and give it a pull through with a fork. If it comes apart easily, I shred it and mix it up with the sauce and leave it for a while longer, sometimes out of the oven, sometimes in, depending on how wet it is.

It’s a very understanding dish. It basically does whatever you ask of it and will reheat brilliantly, if you add a little water. I’ve had it with chips, with pasta, with rice. It lends it self to tart flavoured veg, such as coleslaw and pickles but works equally well with roasted Mediterranean style vegetables or garden vegetables. It would be fab for a party and I plan to do it for our next games night.

Only thing is, Oscar wont eat anything with a tomato base. Ahh well all the more for us!

What’s your favourite dish to cook with your children? I cant be the only only training up their child for Masterchef?

The way the cookie crumbles

07/02/2015 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Since I was a little girl I’ve loved baking. I may have mentioned this before 😉 . My first foray into the kitchen was an independently made Victoria Sandwich at around the age of 7 and I’ve never looked back. Of late my baking has taken something of a back seat, due to a focus on healthy eating and losing weight, but I still love and occasionally miss the process of taking a seemingly innocuous bunch of ingredients and turning them in to something that look, smell and taste amazing.

Last week we had a couple of days where the weather wasn’t so great and decided to stay indoors, not something you do lightly with a ~~ball of energy~~ toddler. First plan was to make a new batch of Moon Sand (our first attempt at which I wrote about here). This time however Oscar showed much more interest in the actual process of making it. To the point where I got him a chair, pulled it up to the work surface and let him pour the cornflour in to the pan. He even, after a while, gave the whole thing a stir. He was mesmerised by the process and that got me thinking.

On Thursday it snowed. Not particularly badly, but enough to stop this wimp of a mother wanting to go out and so I decided to let the boy have a crack at baking. I chose a recipe that utilised what I had in the house (which did not include eggs. I know, eggless baking? Challenge accepted!) I found this recipe for Oatmeal Raisin cookies over on the blog, TransatlanticBlonde, whose son is allergic to eggs. It was a great one to start Oscar on, as the measurements were in cups, which needs minimal fuss (although I can’t help it, I prefer grams and scales. I guess it’s just what you’re used to). We switched the plain flour for Dove Farm gluten free plain flour (as Oscar is eating GF at the moment) and left out the vanilla (as we didn’t have any!) Any who, I scooped the ingredients out and Oscar poured them into my giant Maslin pan. I chose to use this rather than a mixing bowl because of its wide base and large capacity, meaning Oscar could really see what was going on as the mixture took shape.

And look at what was going on, he really did. I can honestly say I’ve never seen him so attentive to an activity we’ve done together. And we really did do it together. I’d measure, he’d pour and we’d stir. He was even repeating words I was saying, such as “OK, “so” and “now”. Believe it or not he even had a crack at “Cinnamon”! At no point did he get bored or look away or want to do things ‘his way’. Even when I was scooping the mixture onto the baking sheets, he watched until the very last one was done and in the oven. And he watched as I took them out the oven, interested in what happens now. And when I let him have one, well… Let’s just say his new word of the week is “cookie”!

Egg free, gluten free, oatmeal raisin cookies

I never expected baking to be such a resounding success with my boy, but that’s the thing I guess. You never know until you try. It’s been such as success in fact that we’ve just made another batch, using a (slightly more complicated) recipe from Jamie Oliver. He was just as involved and interested as the first time round. And really what could be more gratifying than throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pan and having cookies come out at the end?

I think we may have found a shared love. I can’t wait til he’s old enough to stay up for Bake Off with me!

Slimming World Update Week 73/74

19/12/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

HI guys

Yes it’s me, remember me? I’ve been so busy these past couple of weeks that I barely remember who I am. Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat of late and for that I apologise. Only when I start to think about it, have I really been that busy? Well I guess I have been out and about in the evenings a lot more than I usually am, but really the thing that’s changed is that Oscar is edging closer and closer to dropping his daytime nap. I know – abandon hope all ye who enter here!! I find it so hard to write, or at least write anything of any value, when he’s around, that it’s just easier not to try. But actually the thing I’m finding the hardest is the lack of ‘down time’ I get these days. I’ve said it before and I don’t mind repeating that I know I have only been able to stay at home with Oscar as long as I have because he has, until recently, been a good, consistent napper. I wish I could say I revelled in his company 24/7 and wish it didn’t bother me quite as much not to have time to myself, but it does. Something has had to give and of late it’s been this.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt quite so much like I’m dragging myself towards the end of the year as I do this year. We’re all exhausted. The past few months in particular have been draining for all the family. Whereas last year I was excited to see what 2014 held, this year I can’t wait to get 2015 going, to make some changes. In some respects I feel nothing is still, nothing is constant and in other respects I feel like I’m static and somewhat stuck in a rut. Its the most bizarre feeling – like standing stock still in the middle of a storm.

I know my weight loss journey isn’t really a journey at the moment, more of a stop off. Like I’m taking a break at the motorway services of me. I don’t know, I think I’ve lost my mojo somewhere along the way. Don’t get me wrong I haven’t slipped into old eating habits, I’m just not moving forward anymore. I’ve maintained for the last few weeks and last week I gained 1lb (total lost 6 Stone 6 lb (90lb) ). And do you know what? I was fine with that. It’s not that I don’t care so much, just that I was fine with it.

I weigh in tomorrow for the last time before Christmas and I promise to update you on that on Wednesday, in between taking delivery of our Christmas food shop (Yay for Ocado and yay for me booking my Christmas Eve slot back in November!) and cooking our Christmas Ham. Oh and visiting friends and generally getting ready for the big day. Yeah, it might not be a long one on Wednesday 😉

Anyway, I’ll let you go – you probably have a tonne to be getting on with. I’ll just leave you with this picture. It was our Slimming World group party last Friday and boy did we let our hair down. Well, you know me, I don’t get out much, poor old thing!! We had a ~~right old piss up~~ riot and it was great to meet people from the other groups and to hear how they’re getting on. It was especially nice to have people who read my blog come and introduce themselves and tell me how much they enjoy my writing. It’s always slightly baffling but very flattering to think actual people are reading my actual words. And big thanks to the lady who couldn’t get over how I looked. She kept saying I was slimmer in real life than she’d thought I was from my pictures. How sweet!!! The dress I wore was gifted to me by our Miss Slinky, Sarah Jane, who wasn’t able to join us for family reasons on Friday. She was really missed. I wasn’t sure about wearing it, but I’m so glad I did. I felt fab all night. It wasn’t a size I’d have ever picked off the rail and it just goes to show, sizes differ so wildly that it’s not about a number but about what fits. So anyway that picture

Last year’s Christmas party outfit, size 22. This year’s, size 12!

Have a great few days and we’ll speak on Wednesday. Promise!

Xxx

Silky Smooth Dough

26/11/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

OK, I know this looks like I’m writing a crafting/messy play series and I promise this wasn’t the intention. If I’d been more organised I guess I could have done. Ahh well, next time!?

So next in the line of crafty activities I’ve been doing with Oscar involves a different kind of play dough, that had been recommended recently by several friends. This one was even easier to prepare that the Easy Playdough I made recently. This one has two ingredients: cornflour and hair conditioner. I know right!!?

I don’t use hair conditioner myself (what? I don’t regularly use moisturiser either – it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just I never remember to), so bought the cheapest bottle I could find at our local supermarket. I plumped for a pale green one, with a minty fragrance. I thought this would add a nice sensory touch to the dough. Which it did, although it did leave me with a craving for Soft Mints all day!

This dough is quite a different texture to the flour based ones. It’s a smoother consistency once kneaded but dries quickly. A quick knead though and you’re back to silky smoothness.

Directions: I mixed one cup of conditioner with two cups of cornflour. I didn’t use colouring this time, but you could! Mix and knead. Simples!

The best thing about this dough is the stretch you get from it! Due to the non-Newtonian properties of the cornflour (can you tell we have a nerd in the house?) it can be both soft and hard at the same time. The boy played with it for ages, burying Thomas the Tank Engine in it, then pulling the train back slowly to see how far he could stretch the dough.

Like I said, a craving for chewy soft mints!

... but it's really not — … but it’s crumbly at the same time

Despite it’s silky, smooth appearance, this dough is actually very crumbly, meaning it was also much more messy than regular dough. Had I realised this beforehand I would have let him play with this in the kitchen on the tiles, not in the lounge on the carpet! That said, it cleaned up with a damp cloth and a hoover, so it wasn’t all bad. The only thing I would say is I wouldn’t give this to babies or children with a penchant for putting everything in their mouths. Hair conditioner is really not something you’d want them to chow down on.

So , yes it was pretty messy, but clean up was easy enough. It wasn’t my fave, but the boy loved it and at the end of the day that’s what matters when it comes to messy play.

I need some more ideas of things to do now. Something less about the end product and more about the process. Any ideas would be greatly received. And before you ask I’m think I’m going to save Ooblek for the garden months! Well, wouldn’t you?