Yummy chocolate flapjack recipe

Chocolate flapjacks

These are an absolute favourite in my house, My boys cant get enough of it!

You will need....

150g butter

75g light brown soft sugar

3 rounded tbsp of golden syrup

250g porridge oats (I use smart price)

300g milk chocolate (I buy mine from home bargins 89p)

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan)

Grease and line a tin with parchment paper

Put the brown sugar, butter and golden syrup into a pan and gently heat until melted

Add in your porridge oats and mix together.

Turn out the oats into your lined pan, level and press the mixture evenlyand firmly with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 mins

While your cooked flapjack is cooling melt your chocolate. I use 300g as my boys like thicker chocolate than the ones you buy in the shop but you dont have to use that much if you dont want to.

Pour the melted chocolate over and allow it to set.

Before the chocolate has turned into complete solid (soft but not runny) cut your flapjack into cubes or slices and place back into the fridge to set completely.

Then serve and watch them magically disappear!!

Enjoy!!!

Cutting The Food Shopping!

So....with it being payday this week I decided to try to lower our monthly food bill which seemed to be increasing every month....I set the over all food budget of £150 and really didn't want to go over that.

My inlaws had picket us up quite a few chicken breasts and we had various other items in the freezer like bacon, fish cakes, fish& pizza so it wasn't as if we didn't have one ounce of food available before our big shop.

I decided to give Aldi a go for our big shop as we had bought the news paper with the £5 off when you spend £40 at aldi along with other coupons for items in the shop.

I started to write a list of what I wanted to get for the big shop as i didn't want to go and pile unwanted things into the trolley just because they were cheap.

So here is what we got at Aldi along with the prices....

ALDI SHOP

• Tinned sweetcorn x 2 - 35p each (quite big tins)
• Wheat biscuits 48pk - £1.49 (Weetabix)
• Wholemeal pitta bread 6pk - 49p
• Cheesy puff crisps 10pk - 99p
• Snack raisins boxes 12pk - 99p
• Dip-its (like dairylea dunkers) 3pk - 99p
• Breaded wiltshire ham - coupon in paper making it 89p
• 15 fish fingers £1.29
• Pack of nappies 44pk - £4.49
• Bin bags - 97p
• Fromage frais 8pk - 84p
• Lighter soft cheese - 49p
• Belgian chocolate waves - coupon made them 69p (putting these away for xmas)
• Frozen garlic baguette 2pk - 65p
• Creme caramel 6pk - 68p
• Nectarines 4pk - 79p
• frozen roast potatoes - 89p
• Tomato ketchup - 69p
• Raspberries - 99p
• Pate - 55p
• Cooked ham - 65p
• Bananas 1kg - 68p
• Cheese triangles 8pk (soft cheese) x 2 - 59p each
• Sandwich filler 89p
• Sandwich thins - coupon making them 39p
• Everyday sausages 12pk - 99p
• Pork Sausages 8pk - 99p
• Foil - 72p
• Fresh egg waffles - coupon making them 29p
• Malt loaf - coupon making it 24p
• Southern fried chicken goujons - coupon making them 69p
• Baby wipes 64pk - 64p
• Custard creams - 26p
• Small whole chicken x 2 - £5.98
• Beef Meatballs Fresh 12pk - £1.89
• Tinned spaghetti x 2 -29p each
• Mini cheese bakes 7pk (like mini Cheddars) - 89p
• Tinned Ravioli x2 - 37p each
• Tomato soup x2 - 42p each
• Premium baked beans x4 - 32p each
• Pasta bake x 3 - 79p each
• 2.5kg white potatoes - £1.59
• Tinned tuna x 2 - 69p each
• Sandwhich paste x3 - 25p each
• Dreemy bars 6pk (milkyway) - coupon making them 24p
• Rich tea biscuits - 23p
• Naan bread 2pk x 2 - 49p each
• Bag of apples - £1.49
• Eggs 15 pk (medium) - £1.25
• Part baked Baguettes 2pk - 29p
• Malted Milk buiscuits - 33p

All of this came to £52.36. I also had the  £5 off voucher from the paper making it only £47.36

Obviously like i said.....I had various things left in the fridge/freezer like veg, salad so on a normal month this would have been more.

I still had some things that i wanted to pick up from asda....these were.....

ASDA SHOP

• Squash extra concentrate - 3 for £3 (we find that these last us the month)
• Sanex deodorant - £1.50 (on offer & had a 50p coupon)
• Dried pasta 3kg - £2.87 (If your into your pasta bakes i highly recommend this big bag!)
• Smart price ready salted crisps 12pk - 66p
• Kingsmill 50/50 bread - 79p
• Milk 4pt x 2 - £1 each
• Butter 1kg - £2
• 4 x large sausage rolls - £1
• Frozen potato waffles 15pk - £1
• Ice cream - 69p
• Smart price chocolate mousse 6pk - 27p
• Smart price Jam - 29p (we only use it when hubs has rice pudding)
• Innocent smoothie orange juice - £1.50 (had a £2 coupon so i got 50p overage)
• Magazine for my little en as a treat - £2.99
• Fairy concentrate 2.9ltr/116 washes - £4 (on offer)

So in total this shop cost me £22.18

Over all between the two shops I spent £69.54.

Obviously there were things that I wouldn't normally buy like the magazine and also the Fairy softener will last me ages and I know many of you are probably thinking well she isn't very savvy buying fairy softener however this is the only one that doesn't affect my sons skin....if it was just me and hubs I would prob give the Aldi brand a go.

So i have now allocated £30 for extra bread, milk, veg for the end of the month and because at the beginning I allowed myself £150 I can put that £50 into our savings! :-)

My 'woman on a mission' week

so....the last few days have seen me spending a lot of time in the kitchen! Hubs-to-be is off work for a little while and its safe to say he loves eating biscuits, cakes, muffins and is a fan of pastries! I'm no Jamie Oliver but i like to have a dabble!

Earlier in the week I did a post about some yummy biscuits that I made! you can find the blag post along with the recipe here Butter Biscuits

Yesterday I decided to make corned beef pasties, pies and bakes! Ive gotta be honest, I enjoyed making these as its something different from what I usually make and they tasted amazing (yep I'm on my diet and should have had any but hey ho)

I cheated and used the ready made puff pastry and just as in the name it puffed up a right treat!!

Here is a pic of how some turned out (some were still in the oven)

Basically I cooked some potatoes and Mashed them then added a tin of corned beef, mashed it in and let it cool.

I rolled out the puff pastry and placed a side plate on top and cut around it, then put some of the corned beef mix into the one half, pupped some whisked egg around the edges and folded it over creating a semi circle, press the edges down firmly with your finger tips to seal. 

Using a pastry brush, brush some egg onto the top of the pasty to create a golden brown colour once cooked. 

Pop in the oven until golden brown!

Yum Yum!

Oh you can also see some mini ones I made too!

We moved into our new home back in September and we cant wait to sort the garden!

So last week I decided to buy a jet washer as we have been going on about cleaning the Patio ever since we moved in!

We decided to buy the Black and Decker pressure washer on sale at the moment at £59.99

Its safe to say that I'm getting on with it a right treat! Here is just 2 BEFORE pictures (I will post some after pictures once I've finished it all)

So as i said this is the before pictures and it was that kind of task you look forward to getting stuck into but half way through you just want to give up and go for a nice cuppa!

I also underestimated the amount of mess it would create of ME.....I mean i knew there was a risk so i popped on a pair of my old jeans.

This was me half way through..........

So its going to be a wellington job next time!

I know people may say....'jet washing your patio in February??? Basically its never been done in 17 years so i wanted to get the hard work done now and then it may only need a quick wash nearing summer!

I also gave the shrubs and bushes a trim back and changed the bulbs in the water feature in the garden!

Woman on a mission!!

Oh, and I started to paint our en suite!

So if you haven't gathered by now....Andy will do things when its essential (that's not me saying hes lazy because he isn't....if i ask him to do something he will do it (within a few days or so))

But me.......I get an idea in my head and I've gotta go and do it! Andy knows not to stop me when I'm on a mission :-)

My next blog is going to be about how we keep out son entertained as he is on the go all the time! and every now and again really need that structured activity to calm him down a bit!

Catch up with you soon 

xx 

Tasty Tuesday! Butter biscuits recipe

So....Years ago I got into making biscuits and cakes....I made biscuits from soooo many different recipes and they never seemed perfect....they were either too hard, too dry, not tasty enough, soggy etc...

However....a year ago i came across a recipe for biscuits and OH MY GOSH the biscuits are soooo yummy! my boys cant get enough of them.

Basically the only way i can describe them is a mix between a butter biscuit and shortbread and they stay nice for days (hmmmm probably longer if i could keep my boys paws off them).

Ive posed the recipe at the bottom of this blog post!

I used my Russel Hobbs mixer (which is a god send when making large batches) I doubled the amount in the recipe as I usually make biscuits and freeze the rest of the dough for a later date. I also put milk choc and white choc chips in.

I rolled my dough out on a floured surface, the shape cutters i use are from Asda £1 for a bag of 20 (The Tom and Jerry ones are from a friend whos Daughter had the in her happy meal) Once I cut out the shapes I put them on baking paper on a baking tray and pop them in the oven until they turn a slight golden brown.

I even got hubby-to be joining in! seen as our little munchkin didn't want to make them (Happy to eat them tho!)

This wasn't even half of what I made as there were more in the oven and the boys pinched some too.

So here is the recipe!

Butter biscuits

1 cup butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 Egg

1.5tsp baking power

1tsp Vanilla essence

3 cups plain flour (extra for dusting)

MAKE SURE YOU GO AND TRY THESE OUT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! ME AND MY FAMILY LOVE THEM! 

XX