Can't beat a bit of batter!

8th February 2016

I have been bent and broken, but hopefully into a better shape.

Good morning, raining for a change I notice!  Well the done finally calmed down sometime yesterday afternoon, but I'll still take him to vets, just looked back over blogs and this happened in October and June, so roughly every 4 months, I'm not good when I'm sleep deprived, it doesn't suit me at all.

Stayed on track more or less though, enjoyed a Chicken Biryani ready meal and fish, chips and peas for our meals. 

I didn't get a lot of knitting done as it's not easy to concentrate when you have a crying dog round you and mom who's concerned, say no more!  I should've stayed in my office and got my work done shouldn't I, as now I've got to do it today.  Hey Ho!

I do like the idea of Toad in the Hole, one of my members posted hers the other day and I thought mmm, so here's a recipe;

Toad In The Hole

Serves 4, 8sp each using WW Sausages, 7 using Heck Chicken Italia

Prep time, 20m, cooking time 30m.
8 Weight Watchers Sausages (10sp) or  8 Heck Chicken Italia Sausages (5sp)  or other low fat sausages

1 tablespoon sunflower oil (5sp)
125g plain flour (12sp)
300ml (½ pint) skimmed milk (4sp)
1 medium egg (2sp)
150g open cap mushrooms, halved
2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Lightly grill the sausages for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to Gas mark 6 / 200oC / 400 oF. Drizzle the oil over the base of a 20cm (8-inch) square non-stick tin and then heat in the oven while preparing the batter. Sift flour into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk and egg and whist thoroughly to form a smooth batter. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Add the sausages and mushrooms to the heated pan and return to the oven for 5 minutes. Add the chives and seasoning to the batter and stir well. Carefully remove the tin from the oven and pour the batter over. Return to oven and cook for 30 mins well risen and golden brown. Serve at once, allowing two sausages per serving. Use veggie sausages for a veggie option.

It's also Pancake day tomorrow, personally not a fan but each to their own, you could do the simple 1 banana, 2 eggs version which is lower in Smart Points, or here's a recipe for

AMERICAN PANCAKES WITH BLUEBERRIES

Prep time 10 mins ~ Cook time 10-12 mins ~ SmartPoints 6 per serving

2 eggs, separated

75ml skimmed milk

80g self-raising flour

3 tbsp caster sugar

Calorie controlled

cooking spray

250g blueberries

120ml 0% fat natural

Greek yogurt

METHOD

■ Put the egg yolks and milk in a medium bowl and whisk together. Sift in the fl our and then add the sugar.  Whisk until you have a smooth batter.

■ In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form then gradually fold into the batter mix, using a metal spoon.

■ Mist a large non-stick frying pan with the cooking spray. Drop 3 or 4 spoonfuls of batter into the pan and

cook for 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook for another 1 minute until the they are cooked and golden.  Remove from the pan and keep warm.

■ Repeat until all the batter is used up – you should have 12 pancakes in total.

■ Serve 3 pancakes per person layered with a handful of the blueberries and the yogurt.

Right I'm off to do stuff!  It may be raining, but we can choose to see a grey day as silver.

Stay BeYOUtiful.