Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu Recipe

 

Photo by Cassiano Barletta on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post, this recipe has been provided to me for publishing}

Crispy salt and pepper tofu is an ever-popular Chinese dish that we absolutely love. The contrast between the crispy exterior and super silky interior of perfectly cooked tofu is hard to beat and the subtle, classic flavours of simple salt and pepper is always a winner in our books!

This delicious and easy crispy salt and pepper tofu recipe is an absolute breeze to cook and is on the plate, ready to eat in just 35 minutes (including preparation and cooking time!). 

The crispy outer coating is achieved with a 100% vegan-friendly cornstarch batter that gives an incredible flavour and texture to our favourite ingredient in health-conscious cooking: tofu. We think cornstarch is much nicer than frying tofu with flour and egg (not to mention that without the egg, this recipe is vegan friendly) as it provides a much lighter batter for a firm, crunchy crust that doesn’t overpower the tofu.

We also use white pepper in this recipe, commonly used in Chinese cuisine due to its milder flavour that’s perfect for a delicious yet light crispy salt and pepper tofu dish.

You can garnish your crispy salt and pepper tofu with a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper, some red pepper flakes, and/or a sweet chilli dipping sauce, or eat them fresh out of the frying pan as you prefer.

Dutch Oven Cinnamon Rolls

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

 {This is a collaborative post, the recipe had been provided to me for publishing}

Cinnamon rolls are an excellent breakfast alternative to porridge or cereal - everyone loves them, and it's easier than you might think to make them.

This cinnamon roll recipe can easily be prepared in your Dutch oven. If you aren't familiar with a Dutch oven, don't be fooled into thinking it is a massive piece of equipment that you need. You might just know it as an enamelled cast-iron casserole dish. Dutch ovens are fabulous for baking as well as making main courses, as they distribute the heat evenly.

You can make this cinnamon roll recipe at home or even on your next camping trip. You can also make these rolls in advance and chill them overnight for baking the next day if that suits your plans better.

This recipe serves 4-6 people.

Ingredients for the dough

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk, any kind
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons instant active yeast (typically one packet)

Ingredients for the filling

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Ingredients for the Icing

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

UK Recipe - Fabulous Fun 2 Minute Make Kids Silly Putty/ Slime

Over the last couple of weeks I have been testing out loads of slime recipes and trying to find one that works every time with UK ingredients. I have at last been successful and here is the recipe -

Ingredients - 

• PVA glue (clear is best but white works fine) 
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Food colouring (or you can use paint)
• Contact lens solution (must have boric acid as an ingredient)
• Optional - baby oil, to stop the slime being sticky
• Optional - shaving foam to make fluffy slime

Slimming World Butternut Squash Lasagne - Syn Free

This delicious lasagne is easy to make and will provide a filling meal. It is also syn free when you count a portion as half of your HEX A choice and you still have 20g of low-fat cheese to use that day in any way you fancy!.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

• 500g Lean (under 5% fat) minced beef or Quorn
• 1 Pack Butternut Squash lasagne sheets (Sainsburys)
• 1 500g carton Passata
• 1 Onion
• 250g Fat-free Natural Yoghurt
• 250g Low-fat Cottage Cheese
• 100g Spinach (fresh or frozen)
• 80g Low-fat Cheddar Cheese
• 4 tbsp Tomato Puree
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp Parsley
• 1 tbsp Mixed Herbs or Basil
• 1 Egg
• As needed - Low-cal Spray oil
• To suit your taste - Salt and Pepper

Reinstating our Date Nights with Pistachio and Orange Crusted Lamb #MiniRoast

Date night in Hastings earlier this year

My husband and I have been married for fourteen years now but together for twenty-two and with three tween and teenage kids it can be hard to find the space to make time for us to just be a couple. 

Sometimes (no idea why) we seem to be better at this than others. If I'm honest we have not been great at carving out time for ourselves in recent months, we've stolen moments after dinner to chat or had the odd cinema night but we've not had a really good long chat for some time. I think the last time might have been the beginning of May when we went for some food and then had a long walk along the seafront in Hastings and visited the new pier. I do love those times when we have no agenda and we just wonder and chat about whatever is on our hearts at that point.

I've realised that I do need to be more intentional again and make sure we are having the opportunity to have those special times together. One of the barriers is how often we are in the house on an evening together. At the moment this is only a Wednesday and Saturday and I have to admit that I love a full family Saturday night with snacky food and trashy TV, so that just leaves Wednesdays but a week night isn't always ideal after dh has been at work all day and the kids have homework. I'll have to be a big girl and give up my trashy Saturday night TV every once in a while as well as making time on a Wednesday.

Cadbury refrigerator cake for the girls birthday #Cbias

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

We are on holiday this week in Poole, Dorset with the grandparents and the kids are having super fun - beach, swimming, play parks, dog walks - all the things they enjoy. Poor Daddy has been left home but we will see him soon enough. Last week it was the girls 6th Birthday and this holiday was what they chose instead of a party. Good news for me as I get to enjoy this too. A party - not so much so!

As they did not really have a proper birthday cake on their birthday as it was a school day and we are in the throws of packing and house moving at the moment I told them we could make a cake together on holiday. They loved the idea of this and as soon as we got to the house we checked out the kitchen for equipment. Well it seems I overestimated a holiday/student let and we really did not have the kit for a decent cake. Quick thinking of my feet had me suggesting that we make a refrigerator/ rocky road type cake together. They were thrilled with this idea and off we set off to Asda to buy lots of ingredients including some yummy Cadbury chocolate (my favourite, inherited from my Dad who is Dairy Milk crazy).

This is what we bought ourselves, the girls decided they did not want raisins and cherries in their refrigerator cake, but instead we would have crunchie and curly wurly pieces!

Miss E and I got to work in the kitchen and yet again found a few shortcomings we had to get round. The scales did not have a bowl with them and we did not have any cling-film. Not to be deterred we soldiered on! A plastic tub and some ripped open freezer bags did the job for us.

Cadbury Curly Wurly and Crunchie Refrigerator Cake

Ingredients -

5 oz Cadbury Dairy Milk

5 oz Bourneville dark chocolate

6 oz digestives biscuits

4 oz golden syrup

4 oz unsalted butter

2 crunchie bars 

2 curly wurlys

1/2 packet small marshmallows

Method - 

1. measure out all your ingredients

2. Cover a shallow lipped square/oblong dish in cling-film and leave overhang (or bags if like me you don't have any cling-film - it worked fine)

3. Prepare the items you want to go in your refrigerator cake, for us this meant bashing the digestives with a rolling pin, bashing the Crunchies and cutting up the Curly Wurlys into small bits

4. Place the broken up chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bowl over hot water and melt (I had to place my bowl in, which was not ideal but it worked)

5. Miss M came to join in at this stage, mix the hot melted chocolate into all the other ingredients and make sure they are all well coated.

6. Place the mixture into your cling filmed dish and decorate the top with marshmallows, sweets, nuts - whatever you fancy putting in it. Then put it in the fridge overnight to set well.

7. Chop into manageable pieces and serve with a nice cool glass of milk (for them) or a cup of tea (for us adults)

Yum - can you see those pieces of Crunchie in there?  I'd highly recommend using cut-up Curly Wurly too - it is really good!

I'm pleased to say that my little ladies were very happy with their cake and although it was not the traditional sponge with candles it was enjoyed none the less.

What do you put in your refrigerator cake - any good tips for us?

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Dh has gone Veggie again & Mums quick Quorn Lasagne Recipe

I have been waiting for it to happen for a few weeks as I knew dh was planning another health kick and earlier this week he announced that he is going back to being a vegetarian.  Every time he wants to shift a bit of weight and to feel better in himself; less sluggish and bloated he becomes a vegetarian. Then, because I don't want to have to cook more meals than the minimum possible it means that the kids and I all start to eat far more meat-free meals as well and that is no bad thing from a health point of view.

Quorn is always a part of our diet, whether dh is veggie or not.  Since I met him 18 years ago he has mainly been vegetarian with just the odd times of meat eating, so for years we have eaten quorn and I have to say I like it and truly believe it is far superior to any of the generic brands of meat replacements I have tried.  What I love about quorn is that you use it in exactly the same way as you would meat but it is so much better for you. The quorn mince that I used tonight has 75% less fat than lean minced beef - what an amazing saving is that? You don't have to be a vegetarian to appreciate that, it is great for those trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy balance in their diet or looking to keep a low cholesterol diet.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Choc Chip Banana Bread! (Week 17)

Hi, Welcome to week 17 of Reasons to be Cheerful.  We had a pretty quiet week with link up's last week, that will be the bank holiday and sun, glad to see so many people out there living life and hopefully creating loads of reasons to be cheerful! (it also made it an awful lot easier for me to comment everywhere, lol!)

I have decided that I will vary how I post my #R2BC post each week. Sometimes a written list of my gratitude's, others a slideshow, others a vlog and this week a recipe and couple of hours cooking with my little blond bombshell, AKA Miss M which made me very cheerful indeed!

So here is the recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ingredients
3 medium size very, very ripe bananas (the softer and riper the better)
1 tsp lemon juice
5oz soft brown sugar
3oz butter
9oz self-raising flour
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
3 medium eggs
1 small bag of chocolate chips

All ready?  off we go then...

1. Preheat the oven to about 190 degrees C.  Lightly grease and I also line with greaseproof paper a large cake loaf baking tin.
2. Mash the bananas in a bowl with the lemon juice and a heaped tablespoon of the sugar, keep for later.
3. Gently heat the remaining sugar and butter in a pan until the butter melts. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool slightly.
4. Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl, make a well in the middle.
5. Beats the eggs into the cooled butter/ sugar mixture. Pour into the flour well and mix thoroughly

Every good Chef has to taste their food?

6. Add the chocolate chips and stir.
7. Gently stir in the mashed banana mixture.  Put the finished mixture in the cake loaf baking tin.

8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50-55 minutes, or until it is well risen and golden brown.
9. Leave to cool slightly in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack.
10. This cake is really good the day after cooking, it firms a little but still stays moist.  Great to eat for up to about 4 days after cooking.

Super yummy with a cup of tea!

So over to you, you know the drill.  Link up your cheerful, happy gratitude post.  if you don't know what Reasons to be Cheerful is all about, then read HERE.

..and before you go, I must remember to point you over to Maxabella's I'm Grateful for... link up.  Join up your reasons post there and make some new Aussie friends. It is live on our Friday.

Of course Jen's Blog gems is still open too. Jen is having a real hard time at the moment, so blog gems is being hosted by friends. Look at Jen's blog and that will direct you where it is right now. Link up every other Sunday and air your archives.

The Gallery: A Circle You Can Eat! Vegetarian Homity Pie

This weeks theme at the Gallery is Shapes and Tara shared with us some amazing photographs of arcitecture and whilst I would love to wow you with my stunning photos, sadly I do not have any.

I thought about finding a few cheesy photos of people danicng at my wedding, you know 'throwing some shapes!'  but that idea went out the window in a moment.  So here is something a little different for the Gallery - my first receipe entry, but it fits with the theme as it is a beautiful circle of Homity Pie.  It tasted fantastic, probably far better than the photos make it look!

Fancy knowing how to make this tasty pie?  Then read on...

Make yourself a batch of rich shortcrust pastry, I always make mine with half wholemeal and half white flour for a good nutty taste. Put the pastry in the fridge in clingfilm for at least 1/2 hr to rest.  Then bring it out and allow it to warm a little before rolling it on a  floured surface and lining a large flan dish.

You need to bake the pastry blind for 20 minutes at 180 degrees, so cover it in greasproof paper and use something like beans, lentils or rice and keep them to use again and again.

While the pastry is baking, peel your potatoes and chop them into 1cm cubes and peel and chop your onions.  I am totally rubbish at quantities so I just guess each time, I probably use about 6 medium spuds and 4 medium onions.

Par boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes.

Saute the onions until they are translucent and tender, I like them with an extra bit of flavour and allow them to caramelise a bit. Layer the onions into the par cooked pastry case and then add some frozen peas and the cubed potatoes.

Mix a carton of double cream, 3 eggs and some grated cheese up together.  Then pour this all over the potato, onion and pea mixture. Letting it drip right through.  Put some more cheese on the top before you bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.  You can leave it a little longer if you like a more browned and crispy top!

and voila vegetarian Homity Pie.  You can serve it with a nice green salad or mixed veg, it is sure to fill you up!

I hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Of if you want to go down the more professional route then do check out this fantastic caramelised onion tarte tatin from Helen at the Crazy Kitchen.