Occasionally you run across a cake that is so squidgilly good that you either have to share it right away, or hide it and hog it all to yourself.  This delicious loaf cake falls into both those categories.   I kid you not.   At first bite you will want to run to your bestest friend or partner and share it with them, coz something this scrummy just begs to be shared . . . but then again, the glutton in you may be tempted to want to hide it and save it all for yourself!

The Toddster is always after me to cook using things that we have in our store cupboard.  He is always complaining about how much we have stored.   It is useless for me to explain to him that your cupboards may be full, but in a lot of cases they are full of ingredients that you put together with other things to make a meal . . .

Boostball is now rolling out across the world and has also been launched into the skies as Virgins Atlantic's protein snack of choice for their customers.  The company recently contacted me and asked me if I would like to try them.  I am always game for something new and so I said yes!

Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal developed in 1897 by C. W. Post, a former patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Despite the name, the cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts; it is made with wheat and barley.  This is not something which we ever really ate as a cereal when I was growing up and it's not something I would eat as a cereal now.  It's rather hard and crunchy, but it is great for baking with!  Back home in Eastern Canada it is also used in Ice Cream.  Grape Nuts Ice Cream was always a real favourite in our house and I do belive that it is my mother's favourite kind, or at least it was.

I think Bread Pudding has to be the Toddster's favourite all time dessert, next to apple pie.   So, this week, when I found myself having a bit too much bread in the house due to the Toddster's having bought the wrong kind of bread when he picked it up for me (men ARE from Mars!)  I knew exactly what to do with the excess!

One of my favourite soups has to be broccoli and cheese soup.  I just love it.  I love broccoli anyways, and when you combine it with cheese, well  . . . that is just a match made in heaven.  

This delicious casserole today had very similar ingredients as broccoli cheese soup, except it's not soup, it's a fabulous casserole that will have your family scrambling for seconds!

It also makes great use of leftover baked potatoes.  In fact if I am going to bake some potatoes for supper, I always throw a few extra into the oven just so that I can make this tasty casserole the day after! 

It never hurts to have already cooked potatoes on tap!

 I call it Skinny Broccoli and Potato Casserole because I used to make it with full fat ingredients, but now I make it with low fat or no fat ingredients, which cuts back on the calories quite a bit. 

It is surprising how easy it is to cut back on fat and calories with just a few substitutions!

 And, NO, that doesn't mean you get to eat twice as much as you normally would.  You just eat the same amount as you usually do and feel good about eating a bit healthier.  Everybody wins!

Fat free sour cream  . . .  low fat cheddar and mozzarella cheeses . . .  skimmed milk.  Combined with chopped baked potatoes, cooked broccoli and spring onions and you are in for a real treat that doesn't taste low fat at all.  

It's every bit as rich tasting as the original . . .  which probably had a lot more cheese in it as well, but what the heck!

These days I am just happy if there is any cheese in anything!  Seriously you are going to love this.  

I could eat a plate of this and be quite happy with nothing else. I really do love my veggies, and broccoli and potatoes are two of my all time favourites from the vegetable kingdom!

Reserve a couple of tablespoons of cheese (1 of each) and then combine all of the remaining ingredients together.   Spread into the casserole dish.  Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 20 minute.  Remove from the oven and scatter the reserved cheese over top and return to the oven just to melt the cheese.   Serve hot.

The real challenge is keeping the pounds off of me!  Oh, I wish I could eat whatever without having to worry about it.  Sigh . . .  Bon Appetit! 

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Taking a sharp knife, slit each frankfurter almost all the way through down the length of them.  Open up like a book.  Place open side down in the hot pan.   I like to lay a baking sheet on top with a heavy weight on top.  Alternately you can use a panini press.   Cook until golden.  Remove the pan and weight and flip the frankfurters over.  Place the pan and weight on top again and cook until golden on the other side.   Remove the pan and weight and top each dog with 2 TBS of the cheese.   Pop under a pre-heated grill to melt the cheese.  Place into the warm toasted buns and serve along with your favourite hot dog toppings.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan.   Add the onion, shallot, carrot and celery.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion and celery have softened, without browning.  Add the potato and garlic. Cook, stirring until the garlic becomes fragrant.   Add the flour, mustard and cayenne, stirring it in well and allowing it to cook for a couple minutes.   Stir in the vegetable stock along with the broccoli stems.  Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.  Cook for about 10 minutes.  Uncover and stir in the broccoli florets.  Cover and cook for a further 10 minutes.  Remove the cover and mash it a bit with a potato masher.  Don't mash it too much, as you want a coarse texture.  Stir in the cheddar and cream.   Taste and adjust seasoning as desired with salt and pepper.  Ladle into heated bowls.  Top with some grated cheese and serve.

I had some cooked chicken breasts today that I needed to use up.   I had bought some already cooked ones  at the weekend for something and then hadn't used them all, and so today I thought I better make good use of them.   You could use home cooked chicken breasts for this, or even leftover roast chicken.  It's all a matter of using what you have on hand.

For those throwing a dinner party this Valentine’s Day, Denby has teamed up with Instagram foodie Aimee Twigger to come up with four desserts guaranteed to impress guests. With one in five people admitting to buying in their sweet course, these ‘Cheat’s Puddings’ taste delicious but can be made in 10-minutes or less.

I do like to spoil my husband at the weekends.  These fabulous turnovers are a wonderful way to do just that.  Simple to make and oh so delicious, they always go down a real treat with him!

I think Bangers (sausages) and Mash has to be the Toddsters favourite meal of all that I cook for him.  He loves a good meaty sausage.  He love a nice pile of fluffy mash and  . . .  he adores a nice onion gravy.   This meal ticks all the boxes for him and he is a very happy camper when I make it for him!

There are normally only two of us eating in this house and so I normally try to cut recipes in half for us, or create dishes which are simple and make just enough for two. It's not that hard to do really. And you can normally multiply up with no problems at all.

One thing that I my mother always did with a wonderfully meaty bone left from a roasted ham was to make a delicious soup. In these days of austerity, it only makes sense to get as much bang as we can out of the money we spend on our food budget.   Mom's hearty split pea was fabulous.  It was done French Canadian style with whole peas, not split, but I have been unable to find them over here in the UK and so I make do with yellow split peas.  Tastes the same, but just looks a bit different!