I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

Just a reminder

 I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

I've moved!

Hi guys- I'm now over on my new blog Pink Chilli Vintage- please come and say hello

Thanks to everyone who has joined me here. It means a lot.

Jess

xxx

Recipe post- Healthier Spring Rolls

Sorry I've been MIA guys. Usual story- cupcakes, day job, business admin etc etc

Hope everyone is ok. The weather is getting depressing now! I just want some sunshine. At least we are going into March when it should perk up a bit and keeping my fingers crossed we may even get a BBQ day in April like we did last year! Here's hoping.

I'm in the middle of setting up another blog. Mainly because I want a blog for my crafts, cupcakes eating, recipes, general life chit chat in one place. I'll keep you posted on what the new bloggy is.

At the moment i'm doing patchworks for the house- doing a cushion, a table cloth and I want to do a nice new patchwork quilt for our bed. I've got some great inspiration from my new favourite blog Cherry Menlove

Whipped up a batch of my Lemon and Poppy seed muffins tonight. I'm taking them to work (good thing about being a good baker= more friends). However I think I'm going to have one as a treat with a nice cuppa before bedtime.

Anyway here is a little Spring roll recipe for you. N.B frylite is a low cal spray oil.

Healthier Spring rolls- Serves 4

For filling use frylite to fry strips of 100g carrot, 100g cabbage, 1 small red pepper, 100g beansprouts with 100g fresh peeled prawns, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1/4 tsp chinese 5 spice powder. Stir fry for 2 mins then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Cut sheets of filo pastry to size, spray with cooking spray and spoon some filling onto one end. Roll up pastry tucking edges in as you go to form sausage shape. Place spring rolls on baking sheet (line with non stick baking parchment) and cook in oven preheated to Gas mark 5/190 for 10 minutes. I spray mine with frylite before cooking so they crisp up a bit.

Jess xx

TGI Friday!

Hi guys, This week has gone so quick! I've been doing cakes most evenings after finishing work so it's nice to have the whole weekend off of no cakes or classes to do. As much as I love it there are some things I want to do like: meal plans, find some more health blogs, sewing and craft blogs, cleaning, hot bath, hair and face pack, make a list of cake supplies I need to upcoming weddings. And I also want to spend some nice time with Phil.

Meal plans is a big thing for me, I need to get some healthy recipes together again as so far January has been a bit unhealthy and my portion sizes have crept back up again. I'd welcome any recipe/meal ideas from peeps :-)

I also want to do some more research on cake classes for big wedding cakes as I want to start doing them this year at some point. I have ordered a couple of books from amazon for inspiration. My Maisie Fantaisie one is fab so I've ordered her 2nd one.

Tomorrow i'm looking forward to a lay in with Phil, have breakfast together and then decide what we want to do for the day. I'm liking the idea of staying at home and chillaxing :-)

Right i'm off to read a magazine, pop on a face pack and then read some of Ian Marber's The Food Doctor Diet.

As i've not got any pics to put up here's one of me and Phil at my best friends wedding.

Jess

xx

Busy bee

Sorry for not posting, with starting the new job and having millions of Cupcake orders I haven't had much time.

Trouble was as before I knew I had a job I rammed my diary for January with cake orders but at least now I can plan my weeks better.

Here is a couple of pics of cakes I did last week for a wedding.

I'm focusing at the moment at looking at our finances again as i have a job, so updating our monthly budgets and re-reading Martin Lewis' "Money Diet" and try and get ourselves back on track.

I've been eating better but still not great, it's a work in progress. I think now I'm not as manic with cake orders and work I can plan meals a bit better.

I'm loving my new job, it's so much less stressful than my previous ones. Thank god!!

Anyway it's a short post today as it's bedtime and I want to read a bit before bed.

Jess xx

Recipe post- Spanish chicken with Chorizo and potatoes

I promised i'd put this recipe up as it's amazing. We have this a good few times a month as it's super easy, using one pan and is cheap. This is from Nigella's "Kitchen". I use less ingredients as it's for 2 of us and i've also used lemon zest if I haven't got an orange and it still works great.

INGREDIENTS

2 x 15ml tablespoons regular olive oil

12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)

750g chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 4cm chunks if regular-sized

1kg new potatoes, halved

2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano grated

zest 1 orange

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting tins, 1 tablespoon in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin-side up, 6 pieces in each tin.

Divide the chorizo sausages and the new potatoes between the 2 tins. Sprinkle the onion and the oregano over, then grate the orange zest over the contents of the 2 tins.

Cook for 1 hour, but after 30 minutes, swap the top tray with the bottom tray in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-coloured juices.

Serves: 6