Another cake recipe taken from the book Emily and Mark bought me last Christmas.

Knowing how much Geoff loves ginger I just had to make this cake for him…

Honey and spice cake

3cm piece of root ginger peeled.

125g runny honey                

50g golden syrup

140g unsalted butter

50g dark brown soft sugar

2 eggs

40g rye flour

100g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice.

Grate the ginger onto some muslin and squeeze the ginger juice into a bowl.

In a saucepan over low heat warm the honey, syrup,butter and sugar till hot and butter is melted.

Remove from heat and whisk using an electric mixer for 2 1/2 min’s then add eggs and ginger juice. whisk for another 2 1/2 min’s.

The mixture should have cooled lightened and thickened.

Sift the flours , baking powder and spices.

Fold dry ingredients into the honey mixture, which will be unusually wet.

pour into loaf tin and bake in centre of oven at 170 for 50 to 60 min’s.

Leave to cool in the tin.

I can tell you it smells divine and has a slightly sticky top but we shall have to wait till the week-end before Geoff can tell us what it tastes like 🙂

This is quick and easy but very tasty.

As usual its low fat and a slimming world recipe.

One packet of tomato and herb pasta an sauce ( Bachelors / Aldi / Iceland )

One tub of cottage cheese.

Three eggs.

Any mix of vegetable.

Cook the pasta as instructions on packet.

Stir in cottage cheese.

Then mix in eggs and vegetables, I usually use peppers and mushrooms which I have softened in microwave.

Pour mixture into a dish, sprinkle with cheese and bake in oven for 30 min’s.

serve with a mixed salad or more vegetables of your choice.

Left overs are great, served cold for next days lunch too.

While Geoff, Lana and Emily were tucking into the fish pie I had left for their dinner

I was making a quick and easy dinner for myself.

Half a butternut squash and scoop out the pips.

Wrap in tin foil then bake in the oven till soft.

While its baking make some Bachelors savoury rice or  spicy couscous.

Pile the rice into the hole left from removing the pips.

Hey presto one delicious looking and tasting low fat dinner.

Great served with some green vegetables  like broccoli.

My youngest Son works at Morrisons after college, and gets home late.

He’s always hungry when he gets home but the last thing I want to do at 10pm is cook.

So I have got into the routine of making soup when he is working.

Tonight I have made Broccoli and Potato Soup a really nice and quick soup to make.

Ready to eat in about 30 min’s.

You simmer some chopped potatoes in vegetable stock along with some onions and garlic.

Once the potatoes are cooked you add the broccoli and simmer till that’s tender.

Then you blend till smooth.

Do not be put off by the colour as its really delicious  and very low fat too 🙂

Last week I made my second batch of blackberry and apple jam.

I made another 12 jars which taste as good as the first batch.

As I seem to give a lot of my jam away to special friends Geoff made me some great labels for the jars.

I hope people take note and return the empty jars to me as I want to make some marmalade next.

I made 10 jars of blackberry and apple jam. 

Using Geoff’s fathers sugar thermometer I got the perfect set and it really is far better than last years Jam.

I also had enough left overs to make 2 blackberry and apple crumbles….  one for both my Homes 🙂

I now have my eye on a recipe for a Hot Indian Relish or maybe some Marmalade…….

At last I got round to making my first batch of jam this year.

I decided to make strawberry jam for a change.

I got my Strawberries from the Knights hill farm shop. They sell  slightly imperfect ones especially for jam making.

This year making the jam was so much easier as I had got myself a proper preserving pan, so I had no mess to clean up like last year.

Think I should also get myself a Preserving thermometer  too. 

Luckily this seems to have set just right.

I had quite a few left over strawberries, so I used them to make fresh strawberry and cream muffins, in between muffins the boys told me how delicious they were 🙂

Now I need to go out blackberry picking next week so I can make my blackberry and apple jam too.