Becoming a Chobani convert!

As you probably know I have been following a diet plan since January 2012, quite successfully I might add as I have now lost just under 5 1/2 stone! My breakfasts have evolved over the course of the plan to now being pretty much a standard of a banana, or two if it's just one of those days, with a fat free yogurt, usually a Activia flavoured one. Which is fine, but it does get a bit boring after a while if I'm honest. So when I was given the opportunity to try out a new yoghurt which is just hitting the shelves in the UK I was quite pleased.

Chobani have been around in America since 2007 when it first went on sale in New York. But it has taken until now for it to move across the pond to the UK. Chobani is different from other fat free yoghurt's on the shelves as it is strained, which makes it deliciously thick and creamy and much higher in protein than regular yoghurt.
Something which I have know for a while now is that yoghurt is a fantastic replacement in recipes for things much higher in fat such as mayonnaise, creme fraiche and fromage frais, sour cream, butter milk etc... Which is where something such as the plain fat free Chobani would work well. I've not tried this yet, but I have plans for a chicken tikka masala in the coming week or two that will use it so I will post about it then.

This post is actually about the flavoured Chobani yoghurts. I was sent one of each of the flavours to try out and decided to change my usual breakfast yoghurt each day for one of these.

Day 1 - Pomegranate 

I have never been the biggest fan of Pomegranate as the fruit, I do like the juice though so I did my best to go into this flavour with an open mind. Though I was pleased with the over all flavour and texture of the thick yoghurt, I'm afraid this flavour did not change my mind about Pomegranate as I didn't like the seeds, if they were to make this without the seeds then I would buy it.

Day 2 - Apple Cinnamon

This flavour I was really looking forward to as Apple Cinnamon is one of my favourite flavour combinations (particularly in a pie). You don't tend to see Apple Cinnamon flavoured yoghurt in the UK either, so I was doubly pleased to try it. I really enjoyed the yoghurt, though perhaps would have like a bit more of the Cinnamon flavour to come through. Also, I think if I were to buy this flavour I would turn it into a really quick pudding with some granola sprinkled on top to make a crumble.  

Day 3 - Peach 

Peach yoghurt is one of the most classic flavours out there in my opinion. This stood up to the best of the peach flavoured yoghurt's I've had over the years, perfect sweetness mixed with the thick yoghurt. Not much else to say. 

Day 4 - Blueberry

Another one of my favourite flavours. I'm always pleased to find a blueberry yoghurt, not many of them around! This one was delicious, not allowing the tartness of the blueberries to come through, just the sweetness which works so well when mixed through the strained yoghurt. Again, this could go well with some granola sprinkled on the top as a super quick pudding, or special breakfast. 

Day 5 - Blood Orange

I don't think I have ever seen a Blood orange flavoured yoghurt anywhere before, so this was a first for me. I have eaten blood oranges before, but not for around 20 years much to my shame. This meant I had absolutely no idea what to expect when trying this, which probably made me a perfect candidate for trying it, as I had no prior opinions. I was pleasantly surprised at the flavour, it was a bit tangy, a bit sharp but just the right sweetness to balance it all. I will definitely buy this one!

Day 6 - Black Cherry

I have only tried one other yoghurt product with black cherry and I do really like that one so this had high standards to live up to in my mind. Although I enjoyed this one, it didn't make it into my favourites, I think I'd have liked a bit more of the Cherry flavour to come through. 

Day 7 - Strawberry

Another one of the classic yoghurt flavours, and one that I have tried in many forms over the years. This one matched all of the others, but didn't blow them away I'm afraid. What helps this one over the others though is that it's fat free and the fact that it's strained, so thick and creamy. If I were buying a strawberry yoghurt and saw this on the shelves I'd go for it for those facts alone.

I will be using the plain fat free Chobani in quite a few different recipes over the coming weeks, months and posting on here about them. So check back often to keep up to date. 

Pictures taken from the Chobani website to depict the actual yoghurt's that I tried.

The perfect flapjack

I have been trying to find the prefect flapjack recipe for what seems like forever. I have lost count of the different recipes I have tried and yet whilst most have been good, non have matched up to what I get when I buy them and that's what I'm always aiming for.
For me the perfect flapjack would be a nice thick slice, not crunchy but melt in your mouth soft. Not filled with fruit or flavoured with spices. I would maybe allow it to be drizzled with a touch of chocolate, but really I'm a purist when it comes to flapjack. It needs to be oats, sugar, butter and syrup. Cooked until soft, and never crunchy.

So when I was sent some Flahaven's Irish oats to try I thought, rather than just making porridge and telling you all what I thought of my breakfast I'd try out a flapjack recipe. I usually just say that oats are oats and there's no point spending more on them for a better brand. Perhaps that's why I'm so often disappointed with my flapjacks when I use the cheapest oats I can get?

After a bit of scouting on the internet I found a recipe on the Guardian website from Felicity Cloake, aptly titled how to cook perfect flapjacks.
I gave it a go, following it verbatim, as I always do when I first try a new recipe, then I make notes of what I would change next time and tweak it to how I like it.

Ingredients:

300g Unsalted butter, plus extra to grease

75g demerara sugar

120g golden syrup (6 tablespoons)

250 jumbo rolled oats 

200g quick-cook oats -  I used my Flahaven's quick-cook oats

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 190C. 180C Fan, 150C if you prefer your flapjack chewy rather than crispy - this is what I did with mine.

Line a 30x20cm baking dish/tin with grease proof paper, cutting slits into the corners to help it fit more neatly.

Melt the butter, sugar syrup and pinch of salt in a small saucepan. When the butter and sugar are melted and combined take of the heat and stir in the oats. 

Press into the baking dish/tin evenly and bake for 25 minutes for chewy, 30 minutes for crunchy, until set and golden. 

  

Allow to cool completely before removing form the baking dish. but slice into squares whilst it's still warm. 

This for me was the nearest to prefect flapjack recipe I've found. The only tweak I would make next time is to use slightly less butter as they were just a bit greasy. The oats seemed to do the trick though, so I shall definitely be using some more for them for another tray of flapjack. Judging by how fast this one has gone I don't think that will be to far away. 

How do you eat yours? Crunchy, chewy, with fruit, with cinnamon... Comment and tell me what makes your flapjack perfect. 

Happy Birthday Grandad!

I was recently sent some lovely silicone Pyrex moulds for children to use in baking. As you can imagine Littlest Baker was very pleased to receive these and we decided the first use just had to be for her Granddad's Birthday last week.
We took the Happy Birthday Loaf shaped mould with us on our visit to stay with my parents with my dad's birthday being on one of the days we were there meaning I wouldn't have to worry about transporting the cake safely all the way there in the car. My dad doesn't tend to have much of a sweet tooth so I didn't want to make anything too fancy or sugary as it would have gone un-eaten. Banana bread it was then!

Image taken from Pyrex website depicting the Happy Birthday loaf mould

                                         

Banana bread is really simple, perfect for little helpers when they're trying out their own range of bake ware!
I didn't leave Littlest Baker to do it on her own partly because she loses interest in baking about half way way through making a recipe and secondly because I had my own new gadget to try out. I have got a Masha which does the job of a stick blender (and a bit more) but without sharp metal blades.
                                       
When making Banana bread I normally use some brown bananas that have been kept in the freezer to save them being throw away, what might not be appetising eaten as is is perfectly adequate for cakes. However as I'd been away from home all week at the point of making this cake I used fresh bananas.

Here's how to make it.

Ingredients:

285g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp salt
110g butter
225g caster sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas
3 fl oz butter milk (or normal milk with 1.5tsp clear vinegar or lemon juice)

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180C (160C Fan)

Sift together the flour, bicarb of soda and salt.

 In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, mashed bananas, butter milk to the butter/sugar mix and mix well. This is where the Masha did a brilliant job! Sadly, didn't get a pic of it in action as I was trying to supervise Littlest Baker whilst working, sure there will be plenty of other opportunities though. 

Fold in the flour until just combined. 

Pour the batter into a loaf tin (which needs to be greased if not silicone) and put in the oven for about 40 minutes or until well risen and golden.

I had one or two problems with the oven at my parent's house, it seems to be a little bit user un-friendly (what's the saying about a bad workman again?) I set it to 160C as it's a fan oven, after around 15 mins I check on the cake and found it raw inside with a rather brown top! So after hastily turning the heat down and covering the cake in foil to prevent further browning I left it in for another 40 minutes or so and managed to get a workable banana bread. The cake came straight out of the silicone mould with ease, and the mould was cleaned in no time due to the fact that silicone is non stick. Not quite the right consistency but my dad said it was delicious non-the-less (liar!)  

Littlest baker was most impressed with the Happy Birthday writing that appeared on the cake, and was very pleased with her creation for her Granddad.
The Masha made the batter lovely and smooth with minimal effort. I must admit I was a bit dubious about how well it would work when I saw it but having used it twice now once for this and secondly for mash potato (where it made perfect, lump free mash in around 30 seconds!) I'm converted and will be using it A LOT more often! It is easy to use, and easy to clean. I look forward to trying it out on soups and sauces in the winter.
There's still a few weeks left of the school holidays and myself and Littlest Baker are planning on trying out the other Pyrex moulds so look out for another post to see what the creations will be!

Strawberry dream cupcakes

Strawberries are bang in season right now, and I have a meeting at work to make cakes for this week. Cue me making 24 strawberry and cream cupcakes!

I had a tub of Flora buttery in the picnic hamper sent to me by Unilever for my Picnic Challenge which I decided to try instead of I salted butter, and I have to say I was really impressed with the resulting cupcakes.

I knocked these up in just under two hours, they're simple but delicious.  

Ingredients:

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter

200g self raising flour (sifted twice)

4 eggs

1/2 jar strawberry jam

12 strawberries

For the 'Chantilly' cream:

250ml double cream

1/2 tsp chocolate essence

1 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c

Cream the caster sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. This could take 5 minutes or so and is best done with an electric whisk. I used my Russell Hobbs kitchen aid which allowed me to get on with lining the muffin tray with the cake cases and sipping my coffee whilst it did the hard work for me.

When the sugar and butter are creamed together, add the eggs one at a time until all are incorporated. If it looks like the mix is beginning to curdle add some of the flour a tbsp at a time. 

Fold in the remaining flour with a metal spoon until the flour is folded in. Being careful not to over mix and knock all of the air out.

Fill the cupcake cases 3/4 way up and bake for 15-18 minutes until the cake is springy when touched gently or a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

While the cakes are cooling make up the Chantilly cream by whisking the double cream, icing sugar and chocolate essence until whipped cream consistency is reached. 

When cool use either a small spoon or cupcake corer to make a small hole in the centre of the cake and put the small piece to one side. Put a teaspoon of jam into the hole and replace the small piece of cake. 

Spread the Chantilly cream across the top of the cake in a thin layer.

Finally slice a strawberry in half and slice the half lengthways with cutting all the way to the end enabling you to fan the strawberry half out, place this on top of the cupcake. 

Perfect for enjoying whilst watching Wimbledon with a glass of Pimms! 

Total's Big Fat Greek Birthday

For me when I think of Greek cuisine I think about Feta cheese, Olive oil, Aubergine, Olives and of course delicious Greek yoghurt.

Since I began my weight loss journey I have been discovering just how versatile Greek yoghurt is. It can be eaten on its own with a drizzle of honey, used in salad dressings, made into Tzatziki, mixed into cake, or indeed as I have also discovered more recently, used in place of heavy cream in cooking sauces. This is something that I often take advantage of with my home-made chicken tikka. 

I have tried the cheaper Greek style yoghurts, but they just aren't the same as proper Greek (as in actually made in Greece) yoghurt, which is luxuriously thick and creamy and even the 0% fat stuff tastes naughty! Total yoghurt is 100% natural, it has no additives or preservatives and comes in 3 variations 0% fat (the one I always use) 2% and Classic. 

Fage, the makers of Total Greek yoghurt are celebrating 30 years of selling their product in the UK this year and 90 years since Athanassios Filippou the founder opened their first small dairy in Athens. To help celebrate this coming of age Total invited myself along with some other lucky food bloggers to the Ice Tank, London to join in their birthday celebrations. A bit of a double whammy for me as it's also my 30th birthday this month. 

First up for the evening was a baking Master class with spaces allocated just for baking bloggers, so I was doubly lucky to be invited to this part! Presenting the Master class was the very talented Eric Lanlard who talked us through how to make the perfect sponge cake and giving us some very useful tips along the way. Before then demonstrating how to decorate a Show stopper, making it look very easy! 

                                         

Master at work!

It was then our turn to decorate the Show stopper, using cakes pre-made by Eric and all of the ingredients laid out for us.  Luckily we had a cheat sheet provided to prompt us along the way, with Eric moving through the room and helping out a little where required. I even managed to pipe my cream/yoghurt mix onto the layers of my cake without making mess or having any minor disasters! Maybe there is hope for my piping skills yet...

For an extra Greek kick each layer of the cake was brushed with Ouzo syrup, a lovely aniseed-y smell to make the cake even moister. 

Once the layers of the cake were built up, I used white chocolate cigars around the outside before decorating the top with fresh berries and fruit. There were figs, pomegranate, strawberries and raspberries. All of these fruits offer perfect flavours to match the creamy Greek yoghurt and Ouzo in the cake. 

Finally I used some shards of gold leaf caramel to give the cake height and an extra level of luxury. 

               

 What a cake! So much easier to decorate than I'd have thought, and the possibilities for different flavours and designs are limited only to your imagination, I'm already thinking of recreating this for my 30th in a few weeks, maybe in a chocolate version drizzled with Baileys instead of Ouzo. Either way it will almost certainly have an element of some Total Greek yoghurt in the cream frosting and in the cake. 

Eric's birthday cake for Total

Thanks for the inspiration Fage and Total, and a very Happy 30th Birthday to you! 

Pictures courtesy of satureyes photography

The Great British picnic

The summery weather has finally arrived in England and in true Brits style we all pile outdoors to local parks with the family and the odd dog in tow for a lazy day spent lounging in the sun, playing football with the kids, letting the dogs jump in the lakes chasing the ducks; and of course eating a picnic.

I don't think there's anything much more British than a summers day spent on a picnic blanket soaking up the rays discussing the weather and eating from a picnic basket. Which is where I came up with the theme for the recipe I needed to conjure up for my post in aid of National picnic week which is 17th-23rd June. 

When you think of traditional British food you think of Strawberries and Cream, Roast beef, Scones with jam and clotted cream and of course the classic Fish and Chips! 

I really wanted to find a way of bringing Fish and Chips into my picnic recipe, the ultimate transportable food, lovingly wrapped in yesterday's newspaper sprinkled with salt and vinegar and eaten al fresco with a plastic fork. Anyone could batter a piece of Cod or Haddock, and put it next to some chips and say there you go, so I needed to put my thinking cap on and came up with this...

Bitter lemon battered River Cobbler with Polenta chips, steamed Samphire and Samphire sauce.

Ingredients for the fish:

3 x River cobbler fillets (skinless and boneless)

160ml bitter lemon drink (very cold)

110g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

Extra flour for coating the fish before dipping in the batter.

For the Polenta chips:

500g pack of Polenta

1 cal cooking spray 

Steamed Samphire and Samphire sauce:

500g pack of Samphire 

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp light Mayo

1 tbsp olive oil

Begin by cutting the River Cobbler fillets into bite size chunks.

Then mix up the batter by sifting the flour and pinch of salt together and mixing in the bitter lemon drink until a smooth consistency is reached. 

Coat the bite size chunks of fish in flour and dip into the batter until they are well coated.

Fry the chunks in either a small frying pan with around 1/2 an inch of hot vegetable oil or if you have one a deep fat fryer. Be sure not to over crowd the pan or fryer as this will make the fish stick together and lower the temp of the oil making it take longer to cook. I did mine in several batches. The fish is done when it floats in the oil and the batter is golden brown.

Whilst the fish is cooking, cut the Polenta into chip size strips and coat in the 1 cal cooking spray. I cooked mine in batches in the Airfryer for around 10 minutes each batch at 200c. Though you could do them in a conventional oven at 200c, they will just take a bit longer. The chips are cooked when crisp on the outside.

The Samphire is simply steamed over a pan of boiling water for around 3 minutes until tender. Hold a handful back from steaming and chop up finely before blitzing in a food processor (or use a pestle and mortar like me) to make into a paste. Mix this with the lemon juice, olive oil and light Mayo. This makes a delicious creamy sauce to accompany many types of fish dish. 

The Samphire is a delicious edition and well worth looking for in the supermarket to include in your picnic. It is perfectly in season right in time for National picnic week and has a lovely saltiness which works perfectly with most fish.

I chose to use River cobbler as I try hard to use sustainable sources for my food, I want my daughter and future grandchildren to grow up having Cod and Haddock in the oceans.  It's also pretty similar to both of those and a whole lot cheaper, the three fillets cost me £3.50 and easily feed 4 people with this recipe. 

The Polenta chips were a first for me and I was really pleasantly surprised at the ease of making and also, this being a picnic recipe they will be eaten cold, which I think will work better than cold potato chips. 

All that's left is to wrap the components into your newspaper, pop them into your picnic basket and get outdoors enjoying yourself. This recipe with the saltiness of the Samphire, lemony-ness of the fish and scrummy chips will transport you to the Sea Side on a hot day even in your local park!

Thanks to Unilever for throwing down the gauntlet for me, and for the lovely hamper!

Philips Airfyer - review

When I first saw these Airfryers appear on the market a while go I must admit I was a bit sceptical that you could get 'fried' food without any odour and cooked with just 1 tablespoon of oil. I paid no attention to them until recently when I began my weight loss journey and started making my own chips, roast potatoes etc... from scratch without using a fryer or lots of oil.

I have always been of the persuasion that healthy food needn't be boring, flavourless or mean missing out on things that you enjoy.  I still eat chips made from scratch and they taste just as good (better in my humble opinion) but they can take well over an hour, nothing quick about them with peeling, slicing, par boiling then baking in the oven for 40+ mins.

I was lucky enough to be allowed an Airfryer from Philips to review. First up I made a batch of chips, the instruction manual says for chips to soak the sliced potato for 30 minutes before baking, if I'm honest which I feel I should be, I asked around some people who have Airfryers and they said they don't soak their potato at all... I did soak mine as I wanted to give the Airfryer a fair chance with it's first use. Though in place of the oil recommended for non frozen chips cooked in there I used a 1 cal cooking spray to coat the potato before  cooking and it worked just as well. Imagine, a nice chip sandwich with non of the guilt!

After the success of the chips I got a bit adventurous with my cooking and made a chicken breast stuffed with half of a babybel, wrapped in bacon for myself and littlest baker (Hubby was off walking London2Brighton for Charity, well done hubby!) I served them up with veg and cous cous for myself and to test the Airfryer some more some baked potato stars for Littlest baker. I must say how pleasantly surprised I was at how quickly the chicken cooked, it was done in 10 minutes at 200C, the bacon had crisped up and the chicken was moist and cooked through. The potato stars were equally as quick to cook, just 6-7 minutes  at 190C. 

Something else I like to have is roasted veg such as aubergine, but aubergine tends to take a long time and need a lot of oil to roast in the oven. I wasn't entirely convinced it would work well in the Airfryer but gave it a go non the less. I used my 1 cal cooking spray on aubergine that I'd sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices and baked them for just under 15 minutes at 180C. The aubergine came out soft and nicely browned. A much healthier alternative to roasting with lots of oil. It can be made as a very quick accompaniment to a meal or to be used in something such as Moussaka.

The booklet included with the machine gives plenty of recipe and meal ideas, mainly veg/potato based as you would expect but also some which you probably wouldn't expect such as brownies! Though, I'm still happy playing with my new oven and perfecting my sweet bakes in there so I've not had a go at that yet, maybe one day though, out of curiosity if nothing else.

The machine itself takes up no more space than something such as a deep fat fryer. It does not leave that awful greasy smell lingering for days after use in the way a deep fat fryer does (one of the reasons I used my old fryer just three times before getting rid of it!) and runs quietly.
All in all I'm very pleased with my new kitchen gadget and I'm sure it will be put to good use, I look forward to experimenting some more and enjoying more healthy quick meals produced in it.