Category: food

Blogmas Day Five: Our Christmas eve plans 🎅

Although of course Christmas day is the big day, I love Christmas eve and Boxing day too. Any excuse to stretch out the festivities a bit longer.

We usually spend time with my nephews Noah and Casey and my twin sister on Christmas eve and of course this year my niece Evie is a bit older and can enjoy the fun too.

It’s quite a nice chilled out day but full of fun and food.

I will get some yummy food in for breakfast for me and Tim to enjoy before he has to work.

Then me and my sister’s are going to get together and do something fun with all the kiddies.

When it gets darker we head over to my mum’s and pick her up so that we can carry out our tradition of looking at the Christmas lights around our local area. I love this tradition, it’s one of my favourite festive pastimes and it really gets you into the spirit.

After we’ve looked at the lights we head to Sarah’s for some yummy treats and relaxing in our new Christmas PJs. We don’t do full on Christmas eve boxes for the boys yet as they are still a bit little, but we do all get some new, cosy festive pjs, hot chocolate and a couple of festive activities for the boys to make or colour before bed.

We also have a Christmas film on in the background too, probably ‘The Grinch’ as we all like that.

Once the boys are in bed the adults enjoy our festive feast.

We always just get a few things that we can all share and enjoy together.

This year we are going to get a Camembert, with bread to dip, Nachoes and some pigs in blankets. It’s going to be delicious. I can’t wait!!

What do you like to do on Christmas eve?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: Celebrations, christmas, food, Life, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Bonfire night 🎆✨

I love an excuse for a get together and since I met my husband we have started up a little tradition on bonfire night.

We do usually go to a local fireworks display with our friends, as well, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it this year which was a shame!

But as the 4th was a Sunday and we usually head over to my father in laws for dinner, we were able to at least carry out our other bonfire night tradition.

It wasn’t too cold, just enough to warrant wrapping up and making yourself nice and cosy.

We had our traditional jacket potatoes and hot dogs to eat.

We followed that up with hot chocolate and baked apples, both of which were delicious and super warming.

It was so cosy sitting outside by the light of the tea lights and fires.

So yummy.

Inbetween the food we also had some large, gold sparklers to add to the bonfire night feel.

I love the smell of the fires and sparklers in the crisp, fresh evening air.

Gotta love a sparkler! 🎆🎇✨

& we even managed to finish up the festivities just in time for Doctor Who.

A lovely, cosy family evening. Good food & good company.

I hope you enjoyed your bonfire night celebrations!!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: Celebrations, food, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Malteaser Millionaires shortbread.

I havn’t done a baking post in a little while and as the Autumn/Winter months draw closer it’s all about cosy comforts, and these are perfect.

Plus, it’s Bake Off season so who doesn’t love a bit of inspired baking.

I used a BBC Good Food recipe as they always work so well. I’ll leave that here

I modified this recipe to create these Malteaser filled beauties.

In addition to the ingredients you’ll need:

  • Malteaser Teaser chocolate bar
  • Malteaser buttons (Large share bag)
  • Malteaser Teaser chocolate spread

Just mix these into the chocolate stated in the recipe, melt them together to make them extra special. Add the Malteaser buttons to the melted chocolate mix too but, keep some as decoration.

These went down a treat at the Macmillan Coffee mornings that I attended.

Happy baking!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: Celebrations, food, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Holiblog: Florida edition pt 4

FOOD

Of course I had to include food in this little series because,lets be real, if you’ve been to America you’ll know that the food is INSANE and so tasty.

I will include my favourite foods/meals and the best places that we visited to eat too.

My favourite American eatery was by far…. Denny’s!! I loved it.

Denny’s

It was everything I imagined an American diner to be and the food was incredible.

My favourite meal (I had it both times that we visited) was ‘Moons over my Hammy’ A delish breakfast sandwich served with their Hash browns on the side.

Their hash browns are a little different to ours but they are super yummy.

I also loved the Dennys milkshakes, I had the Oreo one the cake batter one too.

The cake batter one was amazing, cake-tastic!

Chuy’s Mexican food

My sister noticed this Mexican restaurant when we were in a taxi on our way back from Wal-Mart. The food was incredible, probably one of the best Mexican meals that I’ve ever had.

You were never going to go hungry as they bring over lovely warm and salty tortilla chips (refilled as soon as the basket is empty) These go perfectly with the guacamole 😍

The meals are insane, typical giant American portions but so flavourful.

I went for a combo, which was great as it was made up of different Mexican meals, perfect if you want to try lots of different dishes or can’t decide what to go for!!

We all really enjoyed this meal.

Enclave Suites

Our hotel served some amazing food.

The breakfast was all inclusive and thanks to Virgin we were upgraded 👍🏻

The hot buffet & continental options were fantastic and they changed each day.

My favourite were the Mickey Mouse waffles 😍 Pancakes & their incredibly crispy bacon, it was to die for (put the pancakes & bacon together and your onto a winner)

I also discovered a love of fruit loops too haha!!

Their lunchtime food was also delicious. They did a lovely BBQ on a Saturday which included the usual burgers and hot dogs, as well as some A-MAZ-ING nachos. All very reasonably priced too.

They did delicious sandwiches, crispy fries, quesadillas, platters to share and more. I loved the sound of everything on the menu tbh, it was always a hard choice so we often got the platters to share, as a group, so we could try a bit of everything.

Universal Studios

Now of course the Harryer areas of Universal were my ultimate fave! But the food was actually pretty good too.

At the two separate parks (Islands of Adventure, Hogsmede & Hogwarts castle and Universal Studios, Diagon Alley) they have eateries based on places from the Harry Potter books.

Me and my twin sister Sarah ate at ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ in Diagon Alley during our Harry Potter day and on our last Universal day we all ate as a group at ‘The Three Broomsticks’ in Hogsmede.

They served traditional British food and the fish and chips were to die for!! I had them both times because they were so good.

The ice cream at Florean Fortescues in Diagon Alley was amazing too. There weren’t that many good ice cream places in the area that we were in so this ice cream was a welcome treat and they did some really interesting and very yummy flavours.

The food was so amazing in America, one of my favourite cuisines.

Definatly one of the holiday highlights.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: food, Life, travel, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

6 Slimming World Sweet treats🍴

So, if like me you LOVE snacks and having a tasty treat alongside your free/speed food on the Slimming World plan then this post is perfect for you.

I love the versatility of the plan that Slimming World offers, especially the 5-15 syns that allows for some seriously sweet, and super yummy treats.

th

Below I have listed six of my fave sweet treats, including their syn values.

Hopefully this will give you some inspiration, if like me you need help with treat ideas and low syn snacks to get you through the day.

RidLMxkyT

1. Sweet & Salty popcorn

Ranging from 2.5-6 syns

The syns depend on the brand. I love the mini packets from Tesco that are 2.5 syns & Aldi’s own brand, which are a much bigger bag, for 6 syns.

Popcorn is a great snack, healthier than others & great for the cinema!

2. Hi fi bars

Syns: 3 syns each//X2 as a HEX B

My favourite flavour of hi fi bar is salted caramel, they are A-MAZING!

These are a great snack but some are also great as a cereal bar for a quick brekky on the go.

These are only available in class.

th

3. Snack biscuits

Syns: 2.5 syns per biscuit.

These are literally one of my favourite biscuits, covered in my favourite chocolate (I used to love the Cadbury shortcake bar in the blue wrapper!! 90s throwback!!) I didn’t realise how low in syns theses are… perfect with a cuppa and they definatly sort out that choc craving.

4. Nutella B Ready bars

Syns: 6 syns.

I LOVE these, they are so crispy and delicious and FULL of Nutella!! They are a great sweet treat for all you chocoholics like me.

5. No added sugar Jelly

Syns: 0.5 syn.

These make a perfect dessert after a meal, they are really tasty, with loads of flavours available & are really low in syns. My favourite flavour is raspberry.

Make sure it’s No added sugar Jelly as the others are more synful.

6. Whitworths Shots Berry & White chocolate

Syns: 4.5 syns

These are so sweet! I love the combo of dried fruit, which is naturally super sweet, and loads of little cubes of white chocolate, sooooo good.

They are surprisingly chocolatey too.

Well worth 4.5 syns as you get alot in the pack too, more than you’d think.

These are all perfect, they hit that sweet craving and make a great addition to a snack plate at the end of an eve.

So tasty!

il_fullxfull.1264329741_iqxv

Who says following a meal plan means you have to eat boring food aye, because let’s be honest, we all like a snack.

I hope you’ve found this handy. If you’d like me to do a savoury version then let me know.

Any of your ideas are greatly received too, anything to fend off my v.sweet tooth.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: food, Life, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Leftover Easter chocolate!

If there is some leftovers after Easter Sunday… I’d be very surprised if I have any… I thought that these would be the perfect solution!

Don’t they just look delectable!?!

Grab those creme eggs that you couldn’t manage and make something yummy for yourself, or if you want to share (you might not, they are sooooo good) make them for family and friends too.

Gooey creme egg & mini egg brownies, absolute heaven 😍

I will leave a link to the basic brownie mix that I used and of course explain my eggcellent 😂 (sorry, not sorry) extra naughty but, nice additions.

BBC Good Food ‘Best Ever Brownies’ recipe

 

 

So I made up the Brownie mix that I’ve linked above, and stirred in a pack of mini eggs, with me it’s Cadbury’s all the way people. I then halved creme eggs and pushed them into the batter so they were halfway submerged in the gooey goodness.

 

 

Perfection.

You 100% need to give these a go if you are a lover of chocolate like me, you won’t regret it.

Let me know how you get on!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: Celebrations, food, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Easter baskets for the kids 🐣

Easter has got to be one of my favourite celebrations. Now I’m not a Christian so I don’t celebrate it in the traditional sense, however I do enjoy the way that we ‘celebrate’ this annual occasion.

I love the giving (& recieivng of, because your lieing if you don’t enjoy receiving chocolate!!) chocolatey treats! Picking ones out you’ll know that your nearest and dearest will enjoy (FYI my fam, it’s all about Terrys choc oranges, Cadbury Mini eggs & Maltester bunnies 🤣)

I thought that since my nephews are a bit older it would be nice to get a bit creative with their Easter Gifts this year. I’ve also done a smaller scale one for my niece as she’s only 9 months old but I didn’t want to leave her out!

So let’s take a look at the goodies…

 

 

I picked up these super cute buckets from Home bargains and some ‘straw’ to fill them with.

I picked up a yellow one each for the boys and a purple one for Evie.

Now to add the treats…

In each basket the boys have got:

● A large chocolate character, one is a pig, ones a lamb.

● Mini assorted Easter chocolates

● A wind up toy, bunny & chick

● A large bubble wand

● A decorate your own chocolate egg kit

● For Noah I’ve popped in a Easter arts & crafts pack

● For Casey (as he is a bit smaller) I popped in a soft cuddly lamb teddy, super cute.

For Evie’s little basket I just filled it with some of her favourite snack bits & sweet treats, baby-tastic. I had to include her favourite banana wafers!

 

 

 

Such a cute & simple idea for the little ones.

Have a great Easter guys.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: Celebrations, craft, food, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Raspberry & Almond slices

Cake, glorious cake!

Need I say anymore…

If, like me, you believe that cake is life then this blog post is going to be right up your street.

I love doing a spot of baking and this time I have taken inspiration from a recent dessert I had at a family meal.

These jammy, marzipan, spongy treats are layered perfection and are a great accompaniment to a cuppa.

Without further ado here are my Raspberry & Almond slices…

IMG_20180212_233854_645

I followed the recipe on the BBC Good food website, because it’s just brill and their recipes always work so well. Check it out for yourself –> BBC Good Food Raspberry & Almond slices

First up,

IMG_20180212_233812_014

1. Roll out that shortcrust pastry into the bottom of your traybake tin and cut to size.

2. Prick with a fork and leave to chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

 

3. Whilst this chills prepare your almondy sponge.

4. Cream together your eggs and sugar. Add the rest of your ingredients into an electric mixer and whisk until combined. Be ready to smell the most sumptuous sponge mixture, it’s divine.

IMG_20180212_233835_202

5. Once the pastry has chilled, bake in the oven for 8-10 mins until it is cooked but not too coloured.

6. Leave to cool for a little bit then it’s time to add that fruity, jam layer.

7. Dot the jam over the pastry, no need to spread! & sprinkle over your just thawed frozen raspberries.

IMG_20180212_233931_192

8. Pour over your sponge mix, sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake for 35-40 mins.

9. Leave to cool before cutting into your slices (or desired shape)

IMG_20180212_234037_595

These jammy bars are made up of a few simple componants that work so well together. The frozen raspberries are a tangy hit to the tongue and the flaked almonds add a delicious crunch.

IMG_20180212_234113_899

Enjoy and let me know how you get on if you give these a try.
What’s your favourite flavour combination?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: food, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment