Recipe - Berry Oat Crumble

One of the foody things I really love about Autumn is the abundance of yummy fruit to make a crumble, pie, cobbler with.  T doesn't really eat dessert, but he does like fruit puddings in all their variations and it's a yummy way to get one more serving of fruit into C's diet.  I almost always add oats to my crumble topping - they add a lovely texture.

Recipe: Cajun Chicken Pasta

This is another of those dishes that it's hard to make look appetising in a picture - but believe me, it's really worth giving it a go!  Cajun is another of the flavour profiles we brought back with us from the USA - a different kind of spice/seasoning to Mexican food but a lovely flavour combo that you can make as strong or as mild as you choose.

Recipe: Pork Carnitas

It's no secret that we love Mexican inspired foods at our house. This is another of our favourites - the long slow cooking adds a lovely rich flavour to the meat and the great thing with Carnitas is that you can use the meat for a number of different things - tacos or burritos, with some salad or rice and tortillas, or you can anglicise it and eat with some potato and veg!

Menu Plan Monday - 24th October 2016

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And just like that it's half-term and Autumn has finally arrived.  The mornings are a little gloomy with dew drops highlighting all the spider webs around the garden; the evenings are definitely darker with a chill in the air; Halloween is right around the corner.  C has a Christmas Countdown started on his chalkboard and, in case you were wondering, there's 62 more sleeps!

Twitter Trend - #CheeseToastieFest

When I'm browsing my Twitter feed I always enjoy looking at what's trending.  Sometimes, it alerts me to something newsworthy that I missed, sometimes it alerts me to some overpaid celebrity doing something they should be ashamed of, sometimes (usually weekends) it's full of sports-related hashtags.  Well today, something totally caught my eye - #CheeseToastieFest was trending....

10 Things You Don't Know About Me - Part 1

I've been a little reflective today - I think it's an "approaching 50" thing -  and the more I think about the last 49 years, the more I realise I'm quite an eclectic soul.  I've had so many amazing experiences in my life and yet there aren't any real themes.  So here's a slightly random view of who I am, and what makes me me....loves, hates, pet peeves and experiences.  Here's the first 5 of 10 - part 2 to follow shortly.

Recipe: Louisiana Chicken Pasta

When we lived in the U.S we were "lucky" enough to live in a City with 2 Cheesecake Factory restaurants. If you've never heard of them, your waistline is probably thankful. Not only does their menu feature about 40 different cheesecakes - they also have a "book" for their main menu - I'm guessing there's at least 150 different dishes. Despite that, we had a few favourites. Louisiana Chicken Pasta was one of mine and I played around with flavours until I got to something that's "almost" there.....now just to master their Pumpkin Cheesecake!