Showing posts with label parental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parental. Show all posts

Monday, 10 February 2014

Four yummy eggs and bread recipes


Hi everyone!,  So today I'm going to be doing something which is rare on my parental blog and give you some recipes that you can do with just two main ingredients. That's right just simply using eggs and bread.  I'm pretty sure most households have these in their house.  It's quite easy though to forget that eggs aren't just for baking especially with all these quick, go snacks laying around.  I decided to make this post as I got asked if I would like to be an ambassador for British Lion Eggs, which got me thinking.  When was the last time I had eggs without needing them for baking sweet treats?  Shocking to my surprise it had been quite a long time.  Some of these you might find obvious some you might not.  Either way I hope it jogs your memory of some great egg recipes and if these don't tickle your taste buds then there are plenty more at www.eggrecipes.co.uk

All the recipes below are purely based on my memory and what I remember.  So please don't blame me if they don't come out perfect. Also these aren't my images as well as much as I love these recipes I've only done one of them in the past week and I was far too busy eating it to take pictures ha ha.

Eggy Bread

This recipe is one of my childhood favourites.  Not a lot of people know about this, I often say "mmm I really fancy some eggy bread" and they are just like "huh? what are you on about".

eggy_bread_frying_pan

Ingredients

  • Eggs (I start with 3 and add more depending on how many I'm cooking for)
  • bread (also depends how many you want)
  • a bit of oil to fry with
  • milk (optional)

How to

So first of all you'll want to get a bowl and crack your eggs in to said bowl.  My mum sometimes added a little bit of milk in but you don't have to if you don't want to.  Also feel free to add any salt and pepper to your desire.  Whisk until it is basically the same consistency as if you were making an omelette. When you've done that you'll want to heat up your frying pan with a bit of oil to stop anything from sticking.  For a more healthier option use some cooking oil spray.  Once you've done then then you'll be taking your slices of bread and dipping them into the eggy mixture making sure all of the bread has been covered.  Not too much though as you don't want it to break when you pick it up.  Once your satisfied you have enough on your bread then go ahead and place it in the frying pan and fry away!  Not forgetting to flip them every once in a while of course.  When cooked it should look lovely and golden and you can transfer it to a plate.  You can chose to put ketchup on it or heck even sugar!  That's right these can be treated as savoury or sweet.  Pretty cool huh?

Eggs on toast

Sounds pretty simple right?  Your correct it is but I absolutely LOVE it.  It's like the adults version to eggs and soldiers (though adults are always allowed to eat them too ;) )  For the past week I have had this twice it's a big craving of mine and I don't know why. 


Ingredients

  • 2 x eggs
  • 2 x slices of bread
  • a bit of oil to fry with

How to

This is very simple, first heat up your pan to a nice medium temperature. Once the pan is nice and hot crack your egg into the pan.  Whilst it is cooking away place your bread in the toaster and wait for that to pop up.  Go back to your eggs and once the white on top is no longer transparent then your egg is done.  Personally I prefer to flip my eggs over and "seal" the top.  Just incase the white on top isn't quite cooked. If your toast hasn't popped up still take your pan off the heat until they do.  Butter your toast if you like and then transfer the egg onto your toast.  You can try cooking both eggs in the frying pan at once but I personally like to cook them one at a time.

Ideas:
Why not try poached eggs on toast as an alternative;
If you have a metal shape cutter why not cut out your desired shape in your bread and then place the shape cutter in your frying pan and cook your eggs inside it.  Hearts are a cute idea.

Egg and soldiers

I think this is probably one that stays with you for life.  It's a great comfort food and one of those recipes that always tastes better if your someone else cooks it for you.  I always remember having these as a kid in the morning.  If I had an exam my dad would wake me up extra early to have a big breakfast and the table would be laid and porridge would be made and whilst I was eating that my dad would do me egg and soldiers.  Pretty sure I didn't need all that food but he would always say "you need your brain to kick start you've got an important exam today".


I'm not going to bother listing the ingredients because honestly all you need is an egg and a slice of bread.

How to

Start with a saucepan and fill it with enough water to cover an egg.  Put your egg inside the saucepan full of water and place on the hob on a high setting.  Once your water starts to boil it's time to set your timer (or mobile phone) to 3 minutes.  Whilst that is cooking place your bread inside the toaster and wait for it to pop up.  Once popped up, spread on some butter and cut long ways to make strips of toast to dunk in your egg.  When the timer goes off it's time to carefully spoon your egg out of the saucepan and place it in a eggcup.  Let it cool for a bit and then get a knife (or spoon whatever you find easier) cut the top off.  The white should be cooked and not runny. 

If your white is still runny then fear not!  What I do if that happens is I get a ladle and I place the egg carefully in it and gently dip part of the spoon in the water of the saucepan and let it boil for a bit longer. 

If your yolk is hard as well as your whites then don't worry you can still eat it.  What I did when this happened was to spoon out the yolk and then spread it on my toast.  Just as yummy but just maybe not as fun.

Egg Mayo

Ah a classic! I must say I always have loved egg mayo.  I remember being picked on in school for liking this sandwich filler because of "eww it smells I hate egg mayo".  Pfft like I care it's yummyyyy.  As much as I like this sandwich filler though I normally only make it when I am having a picnic outside at the park or garden with my friends or son.  Only because I feel it takes quite a lot of time and trust me when you have an impatient son like I do (yeah he gets that from me I'm just as bad) then timing is key.  Still though you can't beat an egg mayo sandwich!


Ingredients (serves 3)

  • 3 x eggs (about an egg per person)
  • slices of bread
  • Mayonnaise
  • Salad cream (optional)
  • Herbs, salt and pepper if desired.

How to

Right first things first you'll want to boil your eggs.  Fill a saucepan with enough water to cover all your eggs.  When they start to boil, leave them to boil for about 5 minutes.  This is to make sure they are hard.  Once they are boiled drain the water carefully out of the saucepan.  You can do this by carefully pouring the water and eggs into a colander.  Once the saucepan is empty carefully place the eggs back in the saucepan and put under a cold running tap.  This is much quicker then simply allowing them to cool in hot water.

Once the eggs are cold enough it's time to peel the shell.  The easiest way I have found is to wrap an egg in kitchen paper and roll them on the surface with a little pressure.  Much like you would with a lemon before cutting it.  This allows the shell around it to crack making it easier to peel.  Now all your eggs are peeled it's time to mash them. now there are two methods on how to do this (bedsides using a fork) that I have learnt and I shall share both.

Method 1 

Place all your eggs into your bowl and with a potato masher, mash the hell out of the eggs until they are a consistency to which you like.

Method 2 (my new favourite way)

My mum showed me this method after working in a kitchen at the local pub in her town.  Get a grater and on the side your normally grate cheese with grate the eggs into a bowl!  I find this a lot easier then a potato masher and I prefer the consistency.

After you have your eggs in bits get your mayonnaise and add two table spoons worth. My mum also liked to add one table spoon of salad cream, but you don't have to.  Add dash of salt and pepper and any herbs if you wish and then mix away.  Once all the ingredients have mixed together it's time to butter some beard and spread it on and voilĂ !  Your sandwich is done, phew! 

I hoped your liked this blog it's different to what I normally do but hopefully I've jogged a few of your childhood favourites :)  This post is an entry for the #ShortcutEggsperts Linky Challenge sponsored by British Lion Eggs. Learn more and find recipes at www.eggrecipes.co.uk

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Sensory Activites with my son


 So this week was all about sensory play.  I really want to start doing more activities with my son that promote learning through play.  Although this can be achieved by simply playing with him with his toys I want him to experience new things. There will be times where he will want to play on his own of course.  For the times where he doesn't though I want to be able to do activities with him.

Gel_balls

So this was the first sensory "activity" we did.  It wasn't really an activity I suppose but it was still fun to do with David.  As this was a chocking hazard for David I put it in a sandwich bag so he could still feel them to an extent and see them but it was much safer.  We talked about the different colours and how they felt.  He wasn't really interested at first but after a while his interest peaked.

David_playing_gel_balls

The balls can be found on ebay.  I got 2 for 99p here just soak them in water for 24 hours and wash and drain :D

Next up was his bath,  I normally fill up his bath with lots of bubbles but sadly we had run out and I needed to buy some more (don't worry I've topped up now!).  I got this little dude from Lush it was really cheap too.  can't remember the exact price but around about £1.50

Lush_robot_bath_bomb

It was quite fun to watch it fizz but sadly it wasn't that blue as I would of liked.  I recommend if you are going to do this add some neon blue food colouring to add to the colour.  It won't stain your bath and is safe for your children :).

fizzing_in_bath

blue_bath_water

Talking about blue food colouring, I decided to make some icecubes for some ice sensory.  I did half white and just a little bit less than half with blue food colouring.  I did this as we STILL haven't had any snow.  This makes me sad as I brought David a sled this year and we haven't been able to use it at all.

ice_cube_sensory

Not only did David touch it but he tasted it and we did a bit of colour separation too. Separating the blues from the whites into two different containers.

Tasting_ice_cubes

colour_seperation_ice_cubes

This next one a lot of parents should be able to do as I'm sure 9/10 of you have megablocks or lego.  What I did was empty the whole carton of Megablocks on the floor and got 4 separate containers.  I then showed David the different colours and put each colour into a different container.

megablocks

He soon got the idea and was placing only green megablocks into one container.  It didn't last very long as he soon got bored and filled them up and emptied them.  Still I think this a very good way of introducing colours to your toddler.  After he helped me build and clear them up.  All good fun.

megablocks_seperation_colour

The final thing we did was red spaghetti.  I made it red for valentines day.  I didn't think David would like it that much but he loved it!

sensory_red_spaghetti

He put his hands in it and played with it and even took it over to his kitchen to "cook it" and stir it....and put it in his tea cup...odd child ha ha. I definitely think this is one I will be doing again.  maybe green and blue and orange for Halloween :D

pretend_play_cooking

 So there you have it my sensory week.  I do apologise for some camera quality issues.  Some where taken on my phone as I lost my camera (turns out it was hiding in my make-up bag *facepalm*).  I will hopefully be doing a food week with David soon.  I'm planning on making lots of things with him from pizza's to chocolate hearts and more.  I shall take pictures (when my hands are free) and tell you how they went. :)  please feel free to comment with similar blog posts and tell me if you are going to do any of these activities with your child .:)



 

Monday, 30 December 2013

New Year goals and aims.

My goals and aims for this year

2014

So basically I've seen this done a lot and my friend even put hers on twitter so I decided to make mine into a blog post.  I always plan ahead like I'm one of those girls that already knows what I want for my wedding if I ever get married.....no like seriously from the dress to the cake to the reception table decor....I've done it all. I dunno why I just can't help but plan it's something about bring a virgo I can't help myself.  I think if I wasn't such a perfectionist and I can't help but voice my opinion I would be a good wedding planner.  Anyway onto the goals, below I've listed what I aim to do in the new year like what my plans are I suppose.  Yes I could say I want to lose weight in the new year blah blah blah....but what are the chances of that happening? So here we go :)

Janurary
  1. Launch my beauty blog
  2. Paint David's bedroom and make a start on buying a few bits
  3. Hope it snows and have fun in it!
Feburary
  1. Have a good valentines day with my boyfriend
  2. Buy David's pirate themed wardrobe/chest of draws set
  3. finish David's room
March
  1. Start buying David's presents for his birthday
  2. clean up the garden!
  3. Start putting money aside for a corner sofa so there's loads more room for David to play!
April
  1. Plan a day out with David (I say plan as I don't have a car atm)
  2. Have a great Easter with David nomming on chocolate and decorating stoff (stoff not stuff)
  3. Look into starting a beauty course
May
  1. Buy all the bits for David's birthday
  2. Make David's cake the day before and in the morning
  3. Make David's 2nd birthday the best birthday he could ever have!
  4. Sign David up for Pre-school
June 
  1. Get a job for the times when David is at his dads and at pre-school
  2. Get organising my 25th birthday to Alton Towers...(urgh old!)
  3. Organise a day out to the science museum with David
July
  1. Cosplay Cruise?
  2. Keep saving money for birthday and events with David
  3. Have lots of fun at beaches!
August
  1. Hopefully book my birthday at Alton Towers for September
  2. Decide if I want to go to Euro Gamer or October MCM Expo (all depends where my friends are going to be, probably will only go for one day, won't be cosplaying)
September
  1. Have a fantastic 25th birthday with my friends even if Alton Towers ends up going...well tits up.
  2. Go to Euro Gamer if I decide not to go to October MCM Expo
  3. Have a summer garden party
October
  1.  Go to MCM October MCM Expo if I don't go Euro Gamer if I can afford it
  2. Have a fantastic Halloween! Maybe have a party?
November
  1. Start buying Christmas presents!
  2. Go to Winter wonderland
December
  1. Put the tree up!
  2. Take David to Hamleys to pick his own toy
  3. Take David to meet Santa
  4. Have a great Christmas and new year then start this all over again in 2015!
So there you have it all my goals but the most important one is to HAVE FUN all year round of course.  I'm sure there will be bumps along the way and money will probably be a big problem but hey I'll try my best.  I hope you all have a wonderful new year and dream big people!

Love Rachel