Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

These double chocolate chip muffins were very easy to make, this did make 12 muffins, but next time I think I will use 3 eggs as this seems to enough for 12 decent sized muffins, unless of course you want to make cupcakes.

Makes 12 muffins

I weighed my eggs and then weighed out the butter, sugar and flour to be the same as the eggs. As these were chocolate, I subbed part of the flour for cocoa powder.

Ingredients:

125 g eggs (this is what my eggs weighed)

100 g plain gluten free flour

25 g cocoa powder (unsweetened)

2 tsp of baking powder

125 caster sugar

100 g milk chocolate chopped up (or you can is milk chocolate chips, or dark if you prefer)

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until the butter starts to turn light and until it is completely mixed together and smooth
2. Add the eggs and continue to mix with an electric whisk until the mixture becomes smooth again.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl and mix until fully combined. If the mixture is a bit stiff, then you can add a little milk.
4. Add the chocolate chips / chopped chocolate and stir in.
5. Add the mixture into 12 muffin cases and put in the oven on 190 C
6. Cook for approx 20 minutes or until the muffins are fully cooked and

I'll be looking into improving my piping skills next, so feel free to share any tips with me for those of you who are more experienced at this.

Easy Vanilla Muffins / Cupcakes

Tonight for dinner were having Jacket Potatoes, so I thought I would post one of the baking recipes from the weekend, as I made a few different cakes. These were made as large cupcakes / muffins and they were very easy to make. 

You can easily increase or decrease this recipe by however much you want, I tend to weigh the eggs and then use equal weights of caster sugar, butter and plain gluten free flour.

Mine made 12 muffin sized cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 eggs (mine weighed 185 g)

185 g caster sugar

185 g butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

185 g gluten free plain flour

3 tsp of baking powder

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 C.
2. Cream butter in a bowl, then add the sugar and whisk with an electric whisk until it starts to go pale in colour.
3. Add the eggs and whisk until the batter becomes smooth again.
4. Add the vanilla extract and sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix until it is all combined. Make sure to whisk fully to get a really smooth batter. If the mixture seems really thick then add a little milk, but personally I didn't need to put any into my mixture.
5. Put the muffin cases in the muffin tin and fill them with the mixture.
6. Bake in the oven on 190 C for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, poke with a cocktail stick until it comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when you touch it.

I used vanilla butter icing on top of mine, for which I used the following recipe:

Ingredients:

150 g of butter

300 g of icing sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Soften the butter in a bowl.
2. Add the icing sugar little by little to the bowl and start to cream by hand with a spoon (Personally I find that it ruins the butter icing if I use an electric whisk).
3. Add the vanilla extract to the butter icing and stir. 
4. Spread the butter icing onto the muffins with a teaspoon or you can pipe these on if you have a piping bag.

Asparagus, Pea and Bacon Risotto

Tonight as we were deciding what to have for dinner (from our menu), we decided on risotto. I do love it and though you do have to stay by the stove whilst cooking it, I personally think it's a fairly straight forward and simple dish. 

I would advise that you do not add salt to this recipe. As you are adding bacon, which tends to be quite salty you really don't want to add any more salt. You can always season at the end to your own taste.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 knob of butter

320 g risotto rice

1 litre of hot vegetable stock

150 g asparagus, chopped

1 cup of peas

Approx 8 slices of bacon, chopped - you can use less than this, particularly if it is quite salty

50 g of parmesan cheese

Pepper

Method

1. Put the medium based saucepan over a medium heat, add the knob of butter to the pan.
2. As soon as the butter is melted, add the onions and cook for 2 minutes until the onions begin to soften slightly, then add the chopped bacon and cook for a further 3 minutes.
3. Add the rice to the pan and stir round to coat, cooking until all the juices are absorbed.
4. Put the stock into the pan with the rice, one ladle full at a time. You should wait until the stock is absorbed before adding another ladle full. This will take approx 20 - 25 minutes, keep adding until rice is fully cooked through but still has a bit of bite, season with pepper.
5. Meanwhile cook the asparagus and peas on a high heat for about 3 minutes.
6. Take the rice off of the heat and add the cheese, asparagus and peas and serve.

Next time, I just need to be careful with the levels of salt as it was slightly salty!

Lamb Leg Steaks and Vegetables

I ended up having to go out for a meal with work tonight, so actually this post is coming to you courtesy of my boyfriend today as he did still have lamb steak. 

I cooked the lamb steaks in a tomato and balsamic sauce with some fresh vegetables.

The meal was pretty substantial, tasted really good and only took about half an hour to 45 minutes to cook with preparation time, which I think is fairly quick. It is definitely something which I would have again and actually wasn't that expensive considering this is a lamb dish. I prepared the vegetables by boiling but finished them off in the frying pan with some butter and garlic salt, which gave them a good flavour and accompanied the meat and the sauce well.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Dash of olive oil

2 lamb leg steaks (or your lamb steaks of choice)

200 g packet of baby sweet corn and sugar snap peas

120 g extra fine beans and tender stem broccoli

2 tablespoons of butter (this is optional)

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 to 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (this is to your own taste)

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1/2 glass of red wine (optional)

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1/2 tablespoon of rosemary

2 tablespoons of sugar

Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Fry off the steaks in small amount of olive oil until browned on both sides, then set to one side to rest.
2. Use the same pan to fry off the onions, garlic. Once translucent de glaze with the balsamic vinegar and wine.
3. Add the herbs, fry for another minute and add the tin of chopped tomatoes along with the sugar.
4. Bring to a simmer and add the lamb steaks back to the pan, along with any juices and season. Cook for approximately 20 to 30 minutes on a low light, depending upon the thickness of the steaks. 
5. Meanwhile, boil the vegetables in water until cooked through but still have a bit of bite to them. Drain then off and then fry quickly in a pan with the butter and garlic salt. Serve with the steaks.

Meal Plan 18/03 - 22/03

In our household my boyfriend and I both love food and enjoy cooking, but due to ever rising costs we do have to keep a budget. I'm also trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diet, so this week I've tried to plan our meals based on this.

I thought I'd share my meal plans with you and the shopping lists for these. I'll be sharing the recipes for these    throughout the week.

Monday

Lamb leg steaks with vegetables (we had tender stem broccoli, extra fine beans, baby corn and sugar snap peas)

Tuesday

South Western Quinoa Vegetable Casserole

Wednesday

Asparagus, Peas and Bacon Risotto

Thursday

I've not included my meal for this day, as we have made plans to go out for dinner.

Friday

Baked potatoes with tuna and cottage cheese with onion and chives

The full shopping list for this is as follows (I've used asda.com to verify the following prices on 17/03/13):

Item	Cost
Quinoa  - 300 g  (This price is not verified as it isn't available online )	£2.18
Frozen Sweetcorn - 1kg	£1.40
Mixed Chillis	£0.50
Knorr Stock Cubes - 8 pack	£1.67
Mixed Beans in tomato sauce - 405 g tin	£0.79
Garlic Powder - 100 g	£0.69
Ground Cumin	£0.57
Asda Mature Cheese - 200 g	£1.27
390 g chopped tomatoes with herbs	£0.50
Ground Coriander	£0.71
Arborio Rice - 500 g	£0.98
Parmesan  - 150 g Asda Parmesan	£2.50
Asparagus - 150 g	£1.50
Frozen Peas - 1 kg	£1.60
Onion -  3 Pack	£0.85
Baking Potatoes  - 4 Pack	£1.00
Salad Crisp Sweetcorn	£0.57
Cottage Cheese with onion and Chives	£1.00
Princes Tuna Chunks in Brine	£3.00
Lamb Leg Steaks (This is just an example, as we actually bought these from our local butcher at the market)	£5.00
Baby corn & sugar snap peas	£1.50
Tenderstem Broccoli, extra fine beans	£1.20
Total	£30.98

There will be some leftovers, which I will incorporate into my meals in the following weeks.  Also we may interchange the meals that we have on certain days, just so that we can get a little choice in what we would like to eat. 

Also some meals will provide leftovers which you can either freeze or use for lunches the following day.