munchiesandmunchkins, Author at Munchies and Munchkins

Got Milk?

February 7, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

I don’t drink enough milk. In fact I rarely drink any. I never have time to have cereal in the mornings and I realised the other day that other than drop in my tea I hadn’t had any all week. Not having enough calcium in your diet is not good,especially when you spent 5 years of your adulthood on the contraceptive injection which can cause osteoporosis. Anyway I’m rambling. When I was pregnant I made sure I drank milk,in fact I drank a ton of it due to horrendous heartburn but since I stopped breastfeeding last year I have stopped taking care of my body as much which is sad.

I have decided to have a milky drink/ milk based smoothie etc every day to get some extra calcium in and enjoy it too.

This started this week and so far I’ve enjoyed Nutella hot chocolate and Banana&Vanilla smoothie. Yum. What a good excuse to drink delicious things. I take my hot choc in an insulated cup on my journey to work. It smells so good I’ve had envious looks all week. Smug smiles from me until I get to work and see I have chocolate milk over my nose 😮

You don’t really need recipes for these drinks as they are self explanatory but here you go:

Nutella Hot Choc

1/2 pint of semi skimmed milk ( you could use any type)
1 tbsp Nutella
Approx 1 inch of boiling water

Heat your milk. I zap it in the microwave for 2 mins. Mix your Nutella with your boiling water and then top up with the boiling milk and stir well. If you like a more cocoa..y type of drink add a spoonful of drinking chocolate powder ( such a cadburys or green and blacks) but its truly delicious just left alone. No sugar,no extra flavours just warm hazelnuty Chocolatey milk. Ahhh. Bliss.

My love affair with Nutella hot chocolate began last June in France. Hot chocolate tastes even better on holiday.

Banana Vanilla Smoothie

1/2 pint of skimmed milk
1 ripe banana
1 tsp of vanilla essence ( I use NielsenMasseys)
4/5 ice cubes

Blend all of above in smoothie maker or blender. Serve. You could also add strawberries. If you want to be super healthy add a handful of baby leaf spinach. You won’t really taste it but its so good for you.

So there you go,simple delicious ways of getting your calcium requirements. Or you could just eat cheese…hmm but that’s another blog post.

The MAD blog awards – Thank you

February 7, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

I should start by saying thank you ..so THANK YOU. I’ve been nominated by some of you lovely people for not one but two MAD Blog awards. I’ve been nominated for best family life blog and best food blog which is so exciting! Nominations don’t close until 18th Feb so I won’t know if I’ve made the short list until after that time but its an honour that someone considered my blog to be interesting enough to be nominated amongst some quite frankly amazing writers!

I’ve only been blogging since April 2012 but I am thoroughly enjoying it and I hope you are too 🙂 I’ve had some really interesting experiences and met some wonderful people via my blog and twitter. I really appreciate your support as everyone knows that part of the appeal of writing is knowing someone is enjoying what you have written so while I don’t expect to win, the fact that you read my blog, comment on my posts and share them on twitter has been enough for me.

Thanks again.

I’m not going to beg for nominations but if you do love the blog enough to use your one ( yes one so use them wisely) set of votes to nominate me I thank you muchly.

To nominate click here

To read more about how the MAD blog awards work and to see some of the amazing blogs up for awards please click http://www.the-mads.com/

Knocking up some Gnocchi

February 4, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 4 Comments

Being able to make the food you love from scratch has to be one of the best parts about being a foodie geek. I love Gnocchi and if you have read my blog over the past 6 months you will see at least 2-3 recipes pop up using the ready made stuff.

A while ago I was given a book from two of my lovely friends and its called Homemade and written by Yvette Van Boven. I’d never seen this book before and never actually seen it anywhere since but I’m sure you can find it online and it’s definitely one I recommended buying. The book itself is a bit mad and all over the place and it has recipes for all sorts of things from bread to ketchup and marshmallows to liqueurs and all from scratch. Imagine knowing that everything you served was made from scratch. So if you made a burger and the roll, the burger and the ketchup were all made by you .. Well that would feel kinda good yes? So whilst I’m not setting myself ANOTHER challenge as I don’t want to go overboard I do want to make more dishes entirely from scratch.

Gnocchi seemed a little scary to make but I don’t know why. As always being the disorganised chef I realised at the last minute that I didn’t have enough potatoes so I substituted with sweet potatoes and it worked. In fact it worked so well I don’t think I’ll be buying ready made again as it just doesn’t compare.

Ill give you a list of ingredients and a bit of a how do I but if you really want to know how I recommend buying the book as each step has a picture and well I just can’t do it justice!

You will need:

1kg (2lb) mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes or you can just do potatoes
1 egg
300g 00 flour (pasta flour)
Pinch of salt

Step 1

Boil potatoes in skin until soft, remove skin whilst still hot. Mash or use a potato ricer ( I don’t have a ricer – it’s in my want list)

Step 2

Tip onto a clean work surface and add your flour ( not all in one go – it gets messy) you may not need it all or you may need a tiny bit more. Also add your salt.

Step 3

Add a beaten egg ( again not all in one go ) and mix together with your fingers. Be prepared for mess and stickiness.

Step 4

Knead into a smooth dough, if needed add more flour or your egg.

Step 5

Roll out into a rope and divide into equal sections

Step 6

Roll the sections into smaller sausages.. Mine were quite long.

Step 7

Cut these sausages into small cushions and leave

Step 8

When they are all cut roll over the back of a fork ( or use a gnocchi board if you have one)

Step 9

Save under a clean tea towel until ready to use

Step 10

Or cook immediately, they are ready when they float to the surface

Cooked and ready for my bake

It’s worth noting that this recipe makes a lot of gnocchi! I divided into 3 batches and cooked one and froze two. I haven’t defrosted yet so can’t comment on how they coped with being frozen – I’ll let you know when I do!

Gnocchi and bacon cream bake

I placed my cooked gnocchi in a small cazuela (overproof pan) and poured on some single cream,chopped parsley, seasoning and cooked bacon. I gave it all a good stir and baked for 15 mins them sprinkled on a little cheese and cooked for 5 more minutes. It was delicious served with a salad and garlic breaded mushrooms – this recipe will follow later today.

Just ready for the oven:

And just out of the oven:

My verdict: it was slightly fiddly and messy but I enjoyed and the end result is more than worth it!

Give it a go x

Silent Sunday

January 20, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Munching on Munchkins

January 18, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 1 Comment

As I explained in my last post I get a lot of people finding my blog as a result of a search engine enquiry for a Munchkins recipe or similar so I thought I would go find a recipe, try it out and report back.

Well I’ve never tried a munchkin before and all of the recipes are American and use different ingredients to what we use here so I had to improvise a bit and also the measurements are a bit different too but here is my take on Munchkins and they look very much like the google images I found so I think it’s about right 😉

You will need:

3/4 small tin of condensed milk
1 pack of rich tea biscuits ( I used asda basic range)
1 tbsp cocoa powder ( I used Hershey’s)
A few tbsp of dessicated/shredded coconut

* Instead of rich tea and cocoa you could just use chocolate biscuits.

Blend biscuits and cocoa power until fine. Gradually mix in your milk and once well mixed out on the fridge to chill for 10 minutes. Remove from fridge and cover a plate with coconut. Using approx 1tsp of mix roll into a ball and roll in coconut. Place on greaseproof paper on a tray and continue until all mix has been used. Chill for 1 hour.

Verdict : I stuck to just one as I can see how the rich, gooey sweetness could get addictive but definitely an easy to make treat or dessert. I may have another tomorrow 😉

Is it me you’re looking for?

January 18, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

It’s always funny to read what people have searched for that has led them to my blog, sometimes it’s quite obvious how they have found it and other times its more like.. Hmmmm that’s a bit strange.

The most popular terms that people search for are:

Camp Bestival
Be happy be healthy and get well soon
The hungry caterpillar cake
Dr Ranj – see top answer
Baileys Cupcakes
Recipe for Munchkins

Fairly normal I guess. I wrote a review about last years Camp Bestival and it was a popular post and still is apparently. The Be Happy and Dr Ranj searches are from a post I wrote about Izzy being ill and me singing the theme tune to the Cbeebies show to her. The cake recipes are to be expected from a food based blog and The Hungry Caterpillar cake gets searches every single day!!

The last one however which also gets searched for at least 5 times a week threw me a bit. My blog is called Munchies and Munchkins but I had no idea what munchkins were ( I use it in the child sense) .. After a fair bit of google trawling it seems that they are chocolate cake/sweet type treats and of course after all of the searches it’s only fair that I tried to make them! Recipe on my next post.

Here are some of the less common searches I’ve had:

Do Sainsburys of Altrincham sell vegan cheese – being neither from Altrincham or Vegan I’ve no idea how they got led to me.
Is James Martin friends with Chris Evans? – this seemed like such a school playground question but I can see how it’s led to me as I wrote about a show I watched with both of them in at BBC good food show
Strict insane breastfeeding diet – I didn’t diet whilst breastfeeding, let alone insanely. Weird.
Smug parents of 3 children – we only have 1 child and she gives us the run around far too much for us to be smug!
I started punching when I saw my son munching, he had been put on punishment for eating the last … – it ended there. No idea how this led to me but I do feel bad for the son!
Rachel Allen recipe where is my parents at cake – random, just random although the very lovely Rachel has written a guest post for me but not for that cake haaa.

A few nudity related searches but I fear for my spam if I post those.

I wonder what people think when they find my blog from a totally unrelated search. Say hello next time you stop by 😉

Feeding the family – cheese, bacon and broccoli gnocchi bake

January 18, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Sometimes it’s hard to work out what to cook that we can all eat. For the most part these days Izzy eats the same food as us. It means that I have to think twice about what I put in our food.. Throwing in handful of dried chilli flakes may not be the right thing to do anymore. If I can I will make the same meal but in a separate pot/pan so that if needs be ours can have a little extra spice.

I am going to try to post some recipes occasionally of meals which are entirely suitable for ALL the family. The following is one of them. I only started using Gnocchi at home about a year ago, it was one of those ingredients that I just never thought to base a dish around. Now I love it. A lot. I make a tomato based gnocchi bake at least once a month and we all enjoy it – it’s one of Izzys favourites.
You can find the recipe here: www.munchiesandmunchkins.com/2012/09/25/eating-well-on-a-budget-simple-suppers/

Today’s recipe came about from wanting to get Izzy eating more broccoli. I know it’s one of those vegetables which children can begin to get fussy about so I’m trying to stop that from happening.

So anyway here is what you will need:

1 500g pack of Gnocchi – I use Il pasteio ( around 70p at Asda)
1 – 1/2 pints of prepared cheese sauce ( recipe link here ) I didn’t measure!
A squirt of garlic paste or crushed garlic clove
3 rashers of smoked bacon ( fat removed and diced)
2-3 handfuls of cooked roughly chopped broccoli
1 cup of breadcrumbs ( I blend mine with herbs and freeze ready for such dishes)
1 tbsp of chopped rosemary ( fresh or dried)
Pepper

Cook your gnocchi as per packet instructions and drain. Brown your bacon with the garlic and set aside. In an ovenproof dish ( I use a large cazuela) mix your gnocchi, bacon, herbs and broccoli together before pouring over your cheese sauce ensuring everything is covered then sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and cover with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20-25 mins until golden and crispy on top.

Serve with salad. Delicious.

This went down a storm with all of us. Tasty and comforting. Izzy certainly approved.

Comforting chicken casserole

January 15, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 5 Comments

Last Sunday I decided to try out one of the recipes in the Slow Cooker book I received for Christmas – Chicken Fricassee. It sounded delicious. After following the initial first step of tossing my chicken in seasoned flour and sautéing until brown I realised I didn’t have two of the key ingredients I needed to make this dish but I was determined to make SOMETHING so I worked out what I did have and what I came up with was this amazingly rich and comforting chicken casserole. Afterwards I scribbled down the recipe as I assure you this is one I’ll be making again.

Chicken Casserole

You will need:

2 tbsp olive oil
4 chicken thighs ( the original recipe called for thighs & drumsticks)
3 slices of smoked bacon chopped finely
2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt&pepper
4 shallots, sliced
3 garlic cloves crushed
3 waxy potatoes and 1 sweet potato chopped into very small pieces
115g of sliced mushrooms
2 tsp of finely chopped fresh rosemary
150ml red wine
200ml of hot chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Salt & Pepper

Heat oil in a large pan, toss chicken in seasoned flour and then cook for 8-10 mins until golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add your bacon and shallots and cook for a few mins stirring occasionally. Add your garlic, mushrooms, potatoes and rosemary and cook for 2 minutes stirring often.

Add your wine and bring to the boil then allow to simmer for 1 minute. Transfer everything to the slow cooker and pour in the stock, add the chicken and bay leaf cover and cook on high for 5 hours.

45 minutes before the end of cooking time use two forks to tear your chicken thighs into smaller pieces – this should be easy as it will be super tender, also at this time if desired add dumplings. These are a wonderful addition to the casserole but it would be perfectly lovely without them.

Serve with dumplings or fresh homemade bread – lots of bread recipes will appear shortly as part of my new challenge. I made soda bread to accompany our casserole.

““This post is part of the #FaveFamilyRecipes Competition with BritMums and Tilda Rice. Every pack sold will provide a meal to an expectant mum in need in support of the World Food Programme’s Mothers Helping Mothers initiative in Bangladesh.”

Meal planning and Chicken Coconut Curry

January 15, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 1 Comment

This is a little late but here is this weeks meal plan:

Monday : Freezer food – this is for days when I’m too busy or tired to pull a meal together. This week it was Bistro chicken and broccoli pies ( frozen when reduced to clear in Asda) with mixed veg.

Tuesday : Spaghetti bolognese – I used a cheaper minced beef than I normally do and was disappointed. I won’t make that mistake again.

Wednesday : Vegetable curry

Thursday : Cheese and broccoli gnocchi

Friday : Jerk chicken with coconut rice

Saturday : Sticky pork with rice. Recipe here

Sunday : Family get together and meal at a restaurant

Last week lots of you asked for the recipe for Chicken and Coconut curry. So here it is:

You will need:

3 skinless&boneless chicken thighs ( or breasts – I prefer thighs in curries)
1/2 can of coconut milk
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 small sweet potato cubed
1 onion or shallot chopped
1/4 jar of Balti ( or other curry) paste. I used Indi grand.
1 tablespoon of shredded coconut ( not essential but tasty)
Olive oil

Fry your onions in a tbsp of olive oil until soft and golden, add your Balti paste, whole chicken thighs and sweet potato. Fry until meat is browned. Add chopped tomatoes and coconut milk and cook for approx 5-8 minutes. At this stage you may wish to add up to 100ml of water – this depends on how thick you like your curry to be. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Your meat should now be tender enough to pull apart into smaller pieces. If using add your coconut, cook for a few more minutes and serve immediately.

I served mine with fragrant rice and flatbreads. You can find the recipe for the flatbreads here

Probably the best day out in Britain….?

January 14, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 8 Comments

This may sound a little bah humbug but sometimes after all the fuss of Christmas it’s nice to do something which is totally not Christmassy.

On January 4th 2013 we headed to Bristol Zoo after being offered a chance to review it for Money Supermarkets Britains Best Day Out!
Can you believe I have reached the grand old age of 29 without ever visiting this popular attraction?? I was possibly more excited than Izzy who at 16 months was probably more excited about the car journey snack pack.

We arrived at around lunchtime on an unusually bright, sunny but most importantly dry day with only a handful of other visitors – a definite perk to visiting out of season.

A typical British attraction entrance through the gift shop had Izzy excitedly exclaiming at the stuffed toys and garish masks before we even entered the Zoo. She was a happy girl.

First stop was to visit the Lion.. We were sad to discover that Kamal the Lion had died and that Lioness Shiva was nowhere to be seen 🙁 We hadn’t noticed this on the website so were disappointed but quite glad that Izzy was so young so we didn’t have to explain it. She had plenty of fun with the Lion cut out anyway 🙂

In fact had there been no animals I think Izzy would have found some fun.. There is lots to climb on, peep through and play with.

Climbing

Exploring

Pointing

Chilling

The penguin talk had been cancelled but we did see a real life version of Happy Feet.. Kinda

We also went under the penguin tunnel to see them swimming about which was one of my personal favourites and Izzy loved it too

We saw cuties

And oddities

And what looked like a giant guinea pig.. I’m sure I’m wrong here but look at the pic:

The Aquarium was the biggest hit! Izzy was entranced by the brightly coloured fish and happily babbled away at them, pointing and saying hiya repeatedly. I think we will have to watch Finding Nemo soon.

We stopped for a quick bite of lunch and in the spirit of MoneySupermarket we took a picnic from home, there are lots of benches and some beautiful gardens to admire whilst munching away.

Back to exploring and we found some giant tortoise

I found some monkeys

As always we all kept an eye on Izzy

Measuring up

All in all we had a fabulous day, I would say its good value for money at £15.50 for adults and £9.50 for children ( free for under 2’s). There is a lot to do and see for all ages and although we had a few disappointments due to attractions being closed ( due to difficulties, winter weather and animal death which was unavoidable) it didn’t spoil our day. Not many people think to go to places like this in the winter but for many reasons ( particularly lack of crowds) it’s a great time to go.

The stuff you need to know:

There is hot and cold food available as well as a gift shop and numerous clean toilets and baby changing facilities. Lots more info and timetables to plan your visit by clicking here

Wherever you plan to go this year check out The MoneySupermarket Voucher site here and save yourself some pennies.

What day out is complete without a fairground ride?

A little video for you to see just how much fun we had 😉

* Thanks to moneysupermarket and Tots100 for providing a family ticket for us to visit Bristol Zoo – we had a great day.

BRISTOL ZOO SITE

Got Milk?

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The MAD blog awards – Thank you

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Knocking up some Gnocchi

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Silent Sunday

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Munching on Munchkins

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Is it me you’re looking for?

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Comforting chicken casserole

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Meal planning and Chicken Coconut Curry

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Probably the best day out in Britain….?

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