Davina’s cheesy apple savoury scones

A few years ago the television presenter Davina McCall - best known for Big Brother - decided to give up sugar. I was vaguely aware that she had written a cookery book and I am trying to cut down on sugar so had a look on Amazon - and discovered she has written loads of books!

I liked the sound of her book Sugar Free in a Hurry as I don’t have a lot of time to cook these days - between a full time job and parenting a toddler and trying to keep the house in order too (which my husband helps with, but I am the only one who cooks).

 I made these apple and cheese scones from the book, which were really easy to throw together - and fun for my daughter to help make too!

Follow this link to see the recipe.

Personally I couldn’t taste the apple and would add a lot more if I made this again, though would have to experiment with the consistency of the dough to make sure it wasn’t too wet. I also used extra nature cheddar and even then think it could have used a bit more. The scones turned out well though and I would definitely make some sort of savoury scones again using this recipe as a basis and maybe playing around a bit with the different flavours. If you have a really good recipe for savoury scones let me know in the comments!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup

I've made broccoli and stilton soup before but not used Cheddar in it. I decided to try another recipe from 'America's Most Wanted Recipes' - I went through a bit of a phase of using this book a few months back - and like many of the recipes in this book, it called for velveeta cheese. You can't get this in the UK and after reading a description online I decided that Cheddar was relatively close in flavour and texture.

Unusually, as broccoli soup is often vegetarian, and based on pretty much just broccoli and vegetable stock, this soup uses canned chicken soup as a base! It did taste really nice and though not as low calorie as the broccoli soup I would normally make it was very filling and would make a good lunch at this time of year - something you could take to work as well as enjoy at home.

To serve 4, you need:
4 cups water
2 cups potato, peeled and diced
1 chicken stock cube
I cup onion, peeled and diced
1 head broccoli, chopped
400ml can cream of chicken soup
300g Cheddar, grated

Heat the water, potato, stock cube, onion and broccoli in a large pan until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the soup and Cheddar and heat through, stirring occasionally, until the cheese has melted.

5 Easy Lunchbox Salads you can take to work for lunch

I've been eating a lot of salads lately, and taking one in to work every day for my lunch. It's cheaper than going out and buying one every day and this way I can put exactly what I want into it. Sometimes I get into a bit of a rut eating the same salads every day and end up looking around the internet for inspiration so I thought I'd share my current top five.

Please excuse the simple presentation - this is literally how I take the salads into work for lunch!
First up is really easy - any types of lettuce that you like, topped with feta cheese and chunks of fresh watermelon. A light vinaigrette dressing goes well with this. I usually eat this salad with a packet of ready cooked chicken pieces for protein and to make it more filling.

This salad is my latest addiction: pear, blue cheese and walnut. Again you can use any type of lettuce as a base, and if you like things like cucumber add it in (I don't). I used gorgonzola - I was going to use Roquefort but couldn't get any, but this worked really well. Top with peeled and sliced pear and a handful of walnuts. This goes well with a blue cheese dressing.

 

A different type of cheese for this salad: goat's cheese with bacon lardons (you need to cook the lardons first then let them go cold before adding to the salad). Use on a bed of your favourite lettuce. This goes well with a wine vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing.

 

 

 

This one takes a little longer to make but is good if you want something more substantial for lunch or to take on a picnic. Cook some pasta and drain; while it's still warm, toss through some green pesto from a jar, add some crayfish or prawns (I used crayfish here) and some pine nuts. You can serve this hot or cold.

Finally a bulgur wheat-based salad. This one does take a bit of preparation but you can make a larger quantity in one go. Put the bulgur wheat in a bowl and cover with water; leave for 15 minutes and then drain. Bring a pan of water to the boil - you need roughly three cups water to one cup bulgur wheat. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes and drain off any excess water.

I used cubes of roasted butternut squash in this salad; sweet potato works really well. If you don't have time to cook, you can buy tubs of roasted sweet potato, butternut squash and carrot to add to salads from Tesco. I've also added feta cheese and some fresh parsley.

 

 

I've certainly got no excuse to have the same thing every day for lunch now!

Mini Chicken and Ham Picnic Pasties

Copyright Caroline Makes dot Net

These mini pasties are a good way to use up leftover cooked chicken, are easy to make (especially if you use shop-bought pastry) and are a nice alternative to sandwiches to take on a picnic or in your lunchbox.

I had some shortcrust pastry in the freezer, and these pie moulds from Lakeland I bought ages ago in the sale and had never gotten around to using.

You get three different size moulds in the box:

I cooked some chicken (you could also use ready cooked) and mixed it with some chopped ham from a tin, a handful of fresh parsley and a little crème fraiche (I would have added onion but my husband doesn't really like it). You can also add peas, mushroom or sweetcorn (cooked) if you like.

Rolling out the pastry, I decided to open out the pie mould and cut around it to get circles of the right size.

I placed the circle inside the mould, put filling in one half and squeezed it shut - this makes it so easy to get the lovely fluted edge you see on Cornish pasties.

I glazed them with milk and baked them in the oven at 180C for about 20-25 mins.

 

Let me know if you try different variants on the filling!

I'm sharing these with Cook Once, Eat Twice, hosted by Corina at Searching for Spice.

Packed Lunch Ideas and Lunchbox Reviews

Whether you take a sandwich to work or make a packed lunch for your children I think there are few British people who haven’t made a meal at home and taken it with them to eat later. In the US a packed lunch is traditionally known as a bagged lunch and from what I’ve seen on television, Americans usually put their sandwiches in a brown paper bag. I’m not sure if this is completely accurate; to my mind, a packed lunch in a paper bag would get squashed! Surely American children must use lunchboxes as well – or is this a very British thing?

When I was at primary school, your lunchbox was a huge status symbol. They were square plastic boxes with handles, which fit a plastic flask inside (which came with the box), and were often decorated with the latest cartoon characters. I actually had a metal (tin) one at one point with a garden scene on the front, which I loved – until I was too cool for it any more and wanted a Care Bears one!

As an adult I used a plain Tupperware box with a white lid, and I’m not adverse to keeping plastic takeaway containers and reusing those for sandwiches or taking leftovers to work. But as I take a packed lunch to work almost every day it’s nice to have some better quality, attractive and even fun lunchboxes! I need a few in case one is in the dishwasher or I have something larger than usual, or sometimes I take different elements of a meal which need to be in separate containers.

So it was great when Flamingo Gifts offered to send me a few products from their website to review and as I wanted to test out food, drink and kitchen-related products I chose a couple of lunchboxes.

Flamingo Gifts has a wide range of gifts though – as well as kitchenware and gifts for the baker and cook in your life, there is jewellery, stationery, accessories like bags and purses, baby gifts, homewares like cushions and clocks…. The site is also divided into sections allowing you to browse for ideas for your boyfriend, grandmother, teenage girls and so on. The prices are very reasonable, and at the time of writing, a special deal offering 10% off and 1p first class delivery on all orders. I had great fun browsing the site and making a wish list!

I love Happy Jackson products with their fun and sometimes irreverent slogans. This lunchbox really makes me smile, from the sunny yellow colour with the jazzy band holding it together, to the message “Yay, lunch” – which is pretty much how I feel when it gets to midday!

The elastic band holds the two parts of the lunchbox together securely – though I wouldn’t put a liquid (such as leftovers in a runny sauce) into this in case it seeps out in your bag (if like me you have a long commute in the morning, or you have a child who will be carrying this around all day). There is plenty of space for a sandwich and piece of fruit and a KitKat for instance - or whatever you are having for your lunch.

One word of advice, I wouldn’t put this in the dishwasher; I also have their lunchbox which says “my very healthy snacks” on the front – and when you take the elastic band off you see the words “yeah right”! – and the words partly came off after one wash in the dishwasher.

It is really good value at only £5.94.

The second lunchbox I was sent to review is more of a bento box. I often take lunches into work that require assembly when I get there - for instance things that would go soggy if put together in the morning. I also like to take different salad ingredients and there's something nice about having them all separate rather than tossed together in one box, and this little lunchbox lets you do that.

It's from Ted Baker - also available on Flamingo Gifts - and is bright pink with a little metal bow on the elastic. The RRP is £12.99. It's very clever as the two sections can be carried separately with different contents and when they are empty, one fits inside the other to take up less space in your bag - ingenious!

The boxes are fairly small - it is 8 x 15 x 7cm when expanded - and only 5cm when shut. So this might not be enough for your entire lunch - I prefer to use it as a snack box and put for instance some crudites in one section and these Slimming World beef wraps in the other:

They are very easy to make. Take a slice of cooked beef - the kind you get in packets like ham -and spread with a thin layer of Quark and sprinkle over a dash of lemon juice and some salt. Fill with rocket and other lettuce if desired, roll up, and eat as a wrap.

Finally I selected this farmyard compartment tray - it's aimed at kids but I think it's really cute! The RRP is £9.31 which is a little more expensive but I think families with young children would get a lot of use out of it. The reason I like it is because as I said I sometimes like to have different things for my lunch which are all bite-sized, e.g. a portion of potato salad, some roast chicken slices, some carrot sticks and so on. The compartments are deep enough that you could put a dip in one section and perhaps the carrot sticks in the rectangle next to it. When I have lunch at my desk I eat out of a lunchbox -so it would be nice to  put this out in front of you! It also comes in a floral 'secret garden' design.

What do you take your packed lunch to work in?

Thanks to Flamingo Gifts for sending me the three items to review. All opinions are my own.