Showing posts with label strawberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strawberries. Show all posts

Friday, 14 June 2013

Strawberry and Apple Jam with Scones

The thing with strawberries, is they look delicious, but you blink and they're going soft and then mouldy. Well this time I decided to preempt that disaster by making the rest of my strawberries into home-made jam. This is the first time I've made jam, so I didn't want to make a huge batch.

I searched for a few recipes online. I wanted to keep this simple, so ended up taking a basic recipe of strawberries, apple (which provides natural jelling), sugar and some lemon juice. I added a little honey and vanilla essence to mine as well.

 Cut strawberries and grated apple in the pan.

 With the sugar added and starting to cook.

At this point I thought 'oooh it would be nice to make some scones to go with the jam!' so I quickly knocked together a scone mixture using what I had, which turned out to include no eggs and no milk (self-raising flour, pinch of salt, sugar, powdered milk, water, vanilla essence, lemon juice, butter).

 Just 4 as there's only me. =)

Once the jam had simmered for a good while and thickened, I decanted into a couple of jars. Could have put it all in the big one, but I decided to do a little jar for a friend who made me some lovely plum jam last summer. (I did taste it first to make sure it was edible, lol, and it's very nice, although also very sweet. When I make this again, I'll use less sugar).


 yummy scones. =) I'm not a big fan of cream, so I just have mine with butter and, of course, the jam.

A very British tea. Served with Earl Grey tea, of course. ;)

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Day Two (June 1st) - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Breakfast - cereal, semi-skim milk, coffee, banana

Lunch - tuna and mayonnaise sandwich with baby spinach on white bread

Dinner - Spaghetti Bolognaise (1 portion to eat, 1 to fridge, 1 to freeze):

Olive oil
Mince *
onion *
tin of tomatoes *
1 small courgette
3 large mushrooms
fennel
half red pepper 
wet garlic
frozen peas
bacon *
tomato puree
beef oxo cube
dry spaghetti
mixed herbs

fry onion and mince in oil, stir in stock. Add dry vegetables and bacon and cook for few minutes. Add other ingredients and simmer while pasta cooks.

Bowl of strawberries, strawberry yoghurt, tea.

Snacks - dried apricots, banana, penguin chocolate bar.
Drinks - coffee, tea, water

--
Shopping tonight, so I've sketched out a few recipes ideas for the following week which will best use the veg. The problem I'm foreseeing this week is the sheer amount of green veg I have. I am not normally a big 'leaf' eater... but this weak I have spinach, chard, lettuce and spring greens (which look a little bit like pak choi... not sure what they are). So I plan to make a large amount of green leaf soup, which I can then freeze. Spinach and lettuce can go in sandwiches, but if I have soup and leftovers then I'm not likely to be eating many sandwiches this week. I also plan to get some puff pastry and do a veg tart with the courgette, pepper and whatever else I have left!

Day One (May 31st) - Vegetable Risotto

Breakfast - cereal, semi-skim milk, banana, coffee

Lunch -

Dinner -  Vegetable Risotto:

Olive Oil
Vegetable stock cube
Risotto rice
3 large Mushrooms
1 small courgette
few handfuls baby spinach 
Philadelphia cheese
grated Parmesan


fry veg very briefly in oil, stir in dry rice and add some stock. Keep adding stock gradually as the rice cooks. When cooked, reduce heat, stir in cheeses and warm through.


Strawberry Yoghurt, bowl of strawberries, cola