Pizza from scratch

The first meal we made on the FEAST bus was PIZZA!! totally from scratch!!! Though we havent been given the recipe folder yet I did find a similar recipe for the base so we could make it at home.
This one

500g flour
7g sachets yeast
1/2 tsp golden sugar
2tbsp oil
325ml lukewarm water
Homemade tomato sauce (HERE)
cheese & anything else you want on top.

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl & make a well.
Mix the yeast, sugar, oil into the water. Leave a few minutes before before pouring it into the well in the flour. Slowly draw in the flour while stirring until you have a lovely dough.
Knead for a while before putting into a large floured bowl, put a bit of flour on top. cover with a damp cloth & leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

Remove the dough & knead it again. This amount should make 2 large pizzas - if theres too much you can store it in the fridge or freezer.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Add the dough on top & either stretch, push or use a rolling pin to get the pizza base into the height, size and shape you want .... remembering it will rise to double its height when cooked.

I use a ladle to scoop a spoonful of tomato sauce & spread it out with the bottom of the spoon.
This photo shows how much is too much to use, lol, it leaves the pizza a bit soggy. The next time I made it I put a thin layer which worked a lot better,

Add your toppings - I got Kai to do this for me :-)
Bake at 160C until it goes golden.

Enjoy!!

Rocking My World Friday

Its Friday again, woohoo, so what Positive things has this week brought me?

I'm sleeping soundly again, yay!!! I think if I'd gone much longer I'd probably have gone even more loopy than I am now.

I had a day of crafting & it was glorious. I didnt get much done (2 cards, some rice krispie squares (recipe will be up wednesday) & strawberry cupcakes (recipe will be up tuesday)) but it was lovely to sit & play.

Ryan bought me a bouquet of White Lillies (no, I'm not superstitious). Its the first time he's ever BOUGHT me flowers (we've been together near enough 9 years).

Zack received an award at his school this week. For each subject a girl & boy are chosen from each year who have achieved the most in that subject. They also try & work it so theres no duplication either. Zack won his for Science. I am sooooooooo very proud of him and to be honest, happy that it was a subject other than Maths as this is the subject that he really excels in ... its nice for him to get high praise in other subjects as well.

I was yet again on the FEAST bus this week & learnt not only how to make chicken curry from scratch, carrot & oat muffins & strawberry muffins but also how to portion off a raw chicken!!! I'm not squeamish around meat, as long as its been prepared for me (i.e no heads etc, very sorry to any vegetarians out there) then I'm ok to deal with it. We learnt how to remove the legs, wings & breast meat. It felt a real achievement to me, & works out so much cheaper than buying fillets.
More about the FEAST bus on Sunday when I will tell you all about it with a few photos.

As you will be seeing on my blog these coming weeks I've been baking loads of food from scratch & have been thoroughly enjoying it. I enjoy putting the effort into the food when my family show they appreciate it.

So how has your week been? If you want to share or have a look at other peoples weeks pop on over to Celtic House.

Chilli Con Carne

You will need:-
Oil
1 large onion
1 red pepper - cubed
1tsp hot chilli pepper or 1tbsp mild/medium (I actually use 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper instead as my lot dont like chilli)
1tsp paprika
1tsp ground cumin
500g minced beef
1/2 pt beef stock
600ml homemade tomato sauce (see HERE)
1/2 tsp dried Marjoram
Salt & pepper
tin Kidney beans
tin baked beans

Method:-
add a splash of oil to the pan & cook the onions in it, on a low heat, until soft (about 5mins)

Add the red pepper, chilli, paprika & cumin, stir. Cook for a further 5 mins stirring occassionally
Add the mince & cook until brown before stirring in the stock, tomato sauce, marjoram, salt & pepper (to your own taste)

Bring to the boil, stir, then simmer for 20mins stirring occassionally to make sure the bottom of the pan doesnt catch.
Finally add both cans of beans & simmer for a further 10 mins.
Taste to see if it needs any more seasoning, if it does then add it.
Remove from the heat & leave for 10mins to allow flavours to infuse

Personally I enjoy it most served on a plate of fluffy white rice.

Tomato Sauce with LOADS of hidden veg

This is the first thing we made on the FEAST bus & is jam packed full of hidden veg, a tomato sauce that can be used on & in LOADS of things, so far I've used it on pizza, in chilli con carne & as a Pasta sauce, I'll be showing you these this week. I'm planning on using it in bolognaise, soup and anything else I'd normally put tinned tomatoes and tomato puree in.

So on with the recipe.
Get a tin of tomatoes (or 2), tomatoe puree & a stack of veg (any except Parsnips & Broccoli, we were told they drown out the other flavours)

This time I used:-
2 tins of tomatoes
1 tube of tomato puree
1/2 a tub of cherry tomatoes
1/2 tub mushrooms
3 courgettes
3 peppers (1 of each colour)
about 8 medium sized carrots
garlic powder
3 onions
4 frozen balls of spinach (not shown in the photo)
You can pretty much use anything though, I've some frozen sprouts that arent being used as they're not very nice so I'll add these next time. We're meant to eat fruit & veg of every colour of the rainbow to get a wide spread of vitamins & minerals, this recipe easily does that.

Fry the onions with the garlic (powder, sauce or fresh garlic, its upto you) until soft

Add the tinned tomatoes & tomato puree

Chop the veg & add them to the pan

Oooops, my pans a bit too full

I swapped & added it all into my wok

Simmer until softening.

Blend the lot until as lumpy/smooth as you want.

It does end up a bit redder than this photo shows

I then divide it between my plastic chinese tubs (these can be bought in poundland, or just wash out the ones you have left after getting take away)

This amount works out to be about 6 meals, it keeps in the fridge well & can also be frozen.

Tomorrow I'll show you how I use this sauce to make Chilli Con Carne.

CCW Challenge "For Teacher"

Morning Folks, I've just dropped my lil man off for his 2nd visit in the class he'll be starting in September. Though he didnt want to go initially, once in he happily sat at the table full of dinosaur toys & kissed us goodbye. I did feel a bit teary to leave him but am unsure why.

With only 2 & 1/2 weeks left at his nursery, where the staff have been lovely to both of us, its time to make them a card to show our appreciation, so what a perfect time for the "For Teacher" card challenge over at Creative Craft World Blog!!!

Heres the one I did as Guest Designer this week at CCW

I used the "Hoot Hooray" digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles (our kindly sponsor this week) - He originally comes holding a graduation certificate which I didnt think was quite age appropriate for nursery so I cut it out and added a book instead.

Not only could you win a prize for entering the challenge but theres also a discount!! Go have a lookie-see HERE

A Sweeeeeeet Blog Award

The lovely Carmen has decided I'm sweet ..... I knew those sugary things I eat were good for something
;-D

So, the rules...
"The rules are that I must share 7 things with you about myself and pass the award on to 8 other bloggers (who must then do the same)."

Lets see, things I havent told you before that you might find a teeny bit interesting, ooo, hows about some sugary facts...
1. I only eat porridge to enjoy the brown sugar on top.
2. At school we'd sneak out at lunch to buy battered Mars Bars
3. As a student I wouldnt eat or drink anything within the college building unless it was chocolate.
4. My favourite chocolate is cadburys, I'd prefer that over any of the posh stuff.
5. I love cocktails, the sweeter the better - but very rarely drink alcohol.
6. Dr Pepper used to give me such a sugar/caffeine rush that I would appear almost drunk.
7. I used to nik spoonfuls of demerara sugar out of my moms baking tub to eat .... I still enjoy eating it now

So who to pass it on to....

Fully fledged Noonie (Nanny Oonie) aka Chocolate orange - the reason is self explanitory, lol

Ruth - Coz she always leaves the loveliest, sweetest of comments - & is generally a fab person.

Mel - A fab fab fab blogger, always something interesting to read on there & is a lovely person as well - a bit of a nutty bar.

Sarah - coz she's just the sweetiest person you could ever meet

Hayley - She makes the yummiest cakes & biccies

PB aka @purplebunny - a sweet gal to talk to on twitter

Nicky - A talented crafter of mixed mediums ... which I'm sure will have included sweet wrappers at some point.


So thats me done ....a perfect theme to go with the many food posts I am planning on writing ... thanks Carmen.

Rocking MY world Friday

Its been an up & down week & I have to admit I'm really not in the mood to do anything, feeling rather down & sorry for myself, so its probably the perfect time to reflect on the positives & cheer myself up.

I have a nasty cough, it attacks mainly when my chest & throat are anything but totally vertical ... yes sleeping is virtually impossible & non existent, in the past 72 hours I've had about 8 hours sleep, therefore I am VERY thankful I managed to get about 4 hours kip last night in fits & bursts.

The tiredness is starting to show as I cooked the pasta for Macaroni cheese only to find I hadnt enough Milk or Cheese to complete it, I was too tired & stressed to even think of what else I could use it for. So I am very grateful that not only is Ryan & Zack went to the chippy for me but that I also had enough cash in the house for them to do so.

This morning I had a lovely hour at Kai's Pre-school making chocolate rice krispie cakes with him. I shall miss the staff there when he goes into reception class in September.

I received a letter from Zacks school saying he'd been nominated for a prize at the ceremony evening in celebration of good work/working hard & inviting us too attend (oh, he is soooo going to love me attending with my non-norm hair colour, not! lmao). We're not too sure exact details though I would guess its for Maths work. Me being a mean Mummy folded the letter up so only my name & the letter head showed, when Zack came home I put on a stern face & asked Why on earth was I receiving letters from his school about the quality of his work, what had he been upto!!!!! Looking concerned he stammered he didnt know what it was about, he hadnt done anything wrong. Me keeping up the stern face & gruff tone "Then why on earth have you been nominated for a prize then!!!". Poor kid, lol

I've been after a lace summer hat in Primark for the past couple of months but its always been out of stock & they havent been able to get any in. I saw one in the shop window today but couldnt find any instore so I took a deep breath & asked a shop assistant if she could get the one out the window for me - look at me getting the confidence to request stuff in shops! I thought it was a straight forward request but of course with me it wasnt straight forward at all & the poor girl had to ask quite a few other members of staff to find the key to open the gates to the window. When she took it down it turned out the wire rim had come unstitched, so she let me have it for £1, woohoo, its an easy fix so I'm very happy.

FEAST bus was cancelled this week :-( however it meant I could go get shopping & pay bills without Kai with me. (Next week I plan to take piccies of the FEAST bus and tell you all about it, so all will be explained :-)

Kai visited his reception class for the first time on Wednesday & seemed to settle in nicely.

Pinterest.com is definately rocking my world this week having lost spent many hours, mainly at night getting lots of inspiration, especially for the kids to do in the summer hols.

& finally I have had such an ego boost this week .... I have had sooooo many strangers coming up to me telling me how nice my hair colour is, one even called me beautiful **blush** I have never had strangers come up to me to complement me before, its embarrassing but also very nice. Hooray for blue & green hair.

Life is all about perspective, if you can find the positives in your darkest moments it will go that little way to make your life easier & a much better place to be. To see others doing just like I have pop along to Celtic house, or even join in.