Easter Sunday 2018

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you are enjoying your EASTER eggs - I read something so ridiculous the other day that a supermarket was advertising them as chocolate eggs because that is what they are made of and it's better for the customers (sic) ..... what poppytosh! I cannot STAND the way we are being forced to bloody well stop what we are doing/saying in case it offends someone. FGS tough sh*t. It's Easter,  we have Easter Eggs because of the fact the UK is a Church of England country at its heart. Yes, we are a global melting pot of all - but then all should be mindful of where they are choosing to be living. If we are accepting -then everyone should be. I could go on but then someone somewhere would accuse me of hate speech no doubt.. and I've other waffle to impart.
**puts soap box away**

I am not going to be enjoying an Easter egg. One reason is I didn't buy any and the other is a cream egg is 9syns - so I actually could if I wanted - but I choose not to! Freedom of choice and all that. Instead I'm going to have my version of hot cross bunnery.


*Aunt Ressie's™ Hot Cross Breakfast 'cake'. 5.5 syns  for the lot
Ingredients
50g all bran - Healthy Extra b choice
2 eggs - free

25g mixed peel -3.5 syns
14g box raisins chopped - 2 syes
2 big spoons of quark- free
Zest of a lemon and an orange- free
Few drops Lemon and orange essence- free
Enough fat free natural yogurt to loosen -free

Method
Put everything in a large bowl and whisk together until combined well.
Pour the batter into what you'd like to bake it in! I used an old ready meal container lined with a loaf tin liner. Sometimes I bake them in muffin cases, others in my enamel dish. It's up to you. It does stick to the sides so you can spray with frylight or cake release spray.

It's nice warm or cold and also huge and is legal portion for one meal! I cannot eat it all in one go so it'll last me the day as breakfast served with fruit and a dollop of yogurt, a nice treat with a cup of tea and then as pudding with ice cream and more fruit for tea! I do not feel deprived or as if I am missing out because the feeling of trying on smaller clothes only to find they are a bit big, beats the two minute joy of shoving a thickly buttered sticky toffee hot cross bun from M&S ( whaaaat??? I'm only human - it is hard to stand at the tills and ignore the siren call of all the good things!) in one's cake-hole!

I tell you what, since starting this SW lark, I have totally got inventive in the kitchen, hence forth
the Aunt Ressie's™ range!

Yum!

I made campfire stew in the slow cooker over night - not one of mine but from a recipe website that writes low calorie recipes, counting syncs for SW and points for WW and it's called pinch of nom.
The campfire stew is one of my absolute favourites. It is so tasty and so cheap and would easily feed a family of ten! With leftovers! Basically you chuck a tin of baked beans, a tin tomatoes and a tin of kidney beans or whatever else you have into a slow cooker. Add chopped carrot and onion -and here I also add in veg Imhave in like courgette and leek. Add sliced peppers and mushrooms. Add paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander and some chilli flakes, some Worcester sauce and Tabasco - I never add the Tabasco on account t of I don't have any. Then take a gammon joint that's been soaking in cold water, remove all the visible fat and plonk it in the slow cooker on top of all the other ingredients. You can push it down into the mix. Lid on and cook on low for minimum of 8 hours.

With two forks shred the gammon joint into chunks and stir to distribute throughout the stew. Turn it to high.
Then add in some more sliced peppers and I add some frozen green beans. Leave the lid off if it's a bit watery, add a bit of water if it's a bit thick. After about 30 minutes, it's done.
Then eat a number of ways!
I have it with chips and peas, in a jacket potato with salad, with pasta, in a dish on its own with bread., as a pie filling ( using a WW wrap  or like here, just on a giant bed of leaves!
It is so so so tasty and totally free on the SW plan.

Here is the link to this amazing website http://pinchofnom.com/recipes/syn-free-campfire-stew/

I've been totally and utterly spoilt by my wonderful HG. He has only gone and bought me a brand new fancy pants sewing and embroidery machine.

So far I've only just started dabbling with bits and bobs with her - as yet unnamed. I've mended my nephew' hoody putting in a new zip for him. I had an hour before we were going to see my little great niece for her birthday so I made a little bag for her out of some old jeans and embroidered her name on it.

I've also made myself a couple of hams and a pin cushion - nipped to pets at home last night for sawdust and shavings to stuff them with. I've loads of projects on the go and in my head! I've also something rather sweet on the needles but I want to wait until it's done for my show and tell! We had a little trip to that massive Swedish warehouse to get some shelving and a little set of drawers on casters that I will have at the side of me when I'm sewing instead of my essentials balancing in a box balancing on my little step stool at the side of me! I'm going to make a small portable ironing/cutting pad to go on these drawers so I don't have to keep getting up and walking AAAAALLLLL the way ( about 4 steps ) to the other table in my room!! The walking is ok - good for prevention of DVT but annoying when you just need a quick press or cut and back to the stitching.

I've been collecting some MORE gorgeous fabric from the North East as we went to see Miss 23 last weekend. We spent the day in a wonderful place called the slightly unglamorous Seaton Sluice!

Seaton Delaval Hall. 

I'm sure I've forgotten the other stuff I was going to waffle on about but I've forgotten. I tell you what though, I was BLOWN AWAY by the supportive and congratulatory comments on my last post. I've had emails and messages thanking me for writing it. Surprisingly, a lot of young uns are already light years ahead of me and are using these products  already! I'm also fair jealous that lots of my lovely bloggy clan is no longer in need of such items! And well done to Philip for making it through to the end!!

So, I'm off to eat my hot cross baked all bran and start enjoying my day. Hope you have a peaceful day and you feel cherished and loved.


Lots of love from

Rachel *Easter Eggs or No eggs* Radiostar xxx

*Aunt Ressie’s™️ Is obviously a joke brand based on that old lady who my dad has a close relationship with his his freezer! She keeps him well fed when he can’t be bothered to make from scratch! It’s just an in joke me and my friends in real life coined when I share some of my frankly ridiculous concoctions usually evolved from the bottom of the fridge manky veg!