The week of eating

I've been out for food three times this week. THREE times! I don't think I've ever done that, even when I've been on holiday. We were actually supposed to be going out tonight as well but then the sunshine suddenly decided to come out to play, and sunshine = BBQ, so we're staying in. I'm honestly not sure I could manage a fourth trip out. The whole food outside of your own house situation is lovely, but there's always way more than I would normally eat. And I always have to get pudding too. And then three meals later I find myself rolling home...

Anyhoo, I thought I would let you know about some of the places I've been to because they were all mighty fine! 

First up, The Wellington in Wolviston. We were originally going to go to the pub over the road from this one, but then we found out it only had a 2 star food hygiene rating and that is not good at all, so we opted for this one instead. And I'm so glad we did! Other than Dave accidentally ordering me the wrong burger (so forgetful!) which actually made no difference at all as the one I got instead was equally as delicious, the whole meal was flipping delicious! 

Dave got the lamb shank which looked so tender that it was just falling off the bone, with chips and seasonal veg. His mam opted for a chicken and brie pie, lose the chips/mash option, also with seasonal veg. And I had the chicken stack burger with chips and salad. I thought it was great that they were willing to swap your options around or indeed not even have one of the things listed on the original order in the case of Dave's mam's no-potato choice - this is great if you have any fussy eaters with you who will only have certain foods in certain ways. I'll tell you what else was great - the chips! Definitely homemade, most certainly chunky and oh so tasty. This is probably going to sound so northern but you really can tell the quality of pub grub when they take the trouble to make their own chips.

Shall we talk puddings? Their brand new menu offered the option of 4 mini puds - of course that was the one I went for. I never can make my mind up what I want anyway, why not get to try four of them out! Dave's mam went for crumble and ice-cream, but that's mainly because she is an ice-cream fiend and will always choose it off the menu! My four puds were blueberry and prosecco cake, cookies and cream profiteroles, tiramisu, and a salted caramel chocolate brownie type thing. Honestly they were all delicious but I'm still trying to decide for top place between the profiteroles and the salted caramel brownie - SO GOOD! 

I would 100% go back there again, mainly so I can try out the original veggie burger that I ordered, and also to try more puddings. Yass! I've also recommended it to my parents which is always a sign of a good eating place. Take a trip sometime - you will enjoy! 

Next up! Restaurant Week in Middlesbrough. The concept of this is that restaurants put on offers for one week only to encourage people to go out to eat, try new places, that kind of thing. Me and my work wife Rach opted to go and try out an Italian place that I'd heard good things about but had never been to. Step up Elianos Brasserie - to be found located down what looks like a v. dodgy road but don't let that put you off. Once you're inside it is charm personified! 

It's honestly like stepping into another world. Full of rustic charm, checked tablecloths, wine bottle candle holders with wax dripping down the edges, warm wood from floor to ceiling and lots of nice space between tables so you don't feel like you're eating with the next door table that you've never met before! 

The portions are huge, the food is delicious, the lemonade is Sicilian - sharp and tangy just the way I love it, and the puddings are the size of small babies. I had pasta (of course) with chicken, roasted veggies, toasted pine kernels and parmesan shavings, all in a dreamy creamy sauce, topped with lashings of black pepper and more parmesan (those last two were entirely my own choosing by the way). Boy it was good! And even though I felt so stuffed I'd already ordered the cheesecake so I just had to man up when this quarter slice of lushness arrived piled high with fruit (had to be at least 2 of my 5 a day) and cream on the side. Oh man. When I stood up from the table I honestly wanted to just find somewhere to lie down. 

It took me until at least lunchtime the following day to genuinely feel hungry, so bear that in mind when you go. And I urge you to do so - as soon as possible. It was pretty empty when we were there, but when I posted about it on my socials it turns out that it's a proper little gem that people seem to keep to themselves in case everyone else starts going. Well I think everyone should go, cos it was flipping fab! 

And now for my final meal of the week. Are you feeling as full as I have been yet? I was out and about in town yesterday after getting my hair did, doing a spot of holiday shopping and I was getting more and more hungry so food was definitely needed! It's a regular haunt of mine but I popped into Baker Street Kitchen for some lone lunching. I had my book with me at first but once my meal arrived I put my book aside, and basically chomped my way through my lunch. 

I opted for one of my faves - the open toasted sandwich with mozarella, tomato, pesto, rocket and parma ham. When it arrived it truly looked beautiful and it took all of my willpower not to grab my phone and take a photo. I'd earlier decided that I was going to live solely in the moment and not take any photos, which I regretted almost instantly cos my dinner was sooo pretty, but (self-imposed) rules is rules. 

To see the prettiness for yourself you'll have to pop along and see their newly refurbished place. It's worth a visit for the floor tiles alone, as if the totally divine sounding sandwich isn't enough to convince you that you need to go. They also had a lush looking strawberries and cream cake on offer but I manfully resisted this and called around the corner to Bedford Street Coffee to bring home a brownie for me and Dave. 

Just on a one woman mission to keep the economy of Middlesbrough alive in one day there! 

Where have you been out to eat lately? There's so many cool new places popping up that I want to try - I can't keep up with them all. And neither can the button on my jeans - meh. Bring on all of the food, I love it so! 

Round Our Way: Bedford Street Coffee

Me and Dave, we like our coffee. So when new places open up we always like to give them a try and see if they can beat Espresso 10 - the strange little coffee truck in the town that has somehow always stayed the winner, until now...

I'd like to introduce you to Bedford Street Coffee. Based in Bedford Street in Middlesbrough, this is one of the newest developments in town and it is absolutely stonkin'! I've yet to give anything else a try, but let's just say a walk down that road, has me salivating at all the potential tasty delights (a burrito bar?! Words cannot even!). I digress, back to the coffee. 

The coffee house is cool personified. Exposed brick, wooden floors, subdued lighting, it's everything you imagine a New York City loft to be in the shape of a coffee house. Coffee is ordered by size of cup and it is very bloody delicious! Using Rounton Coffee everything is about keeping it local and keeping it tasty. This time round I had a peanut goldie/brownie and a 10oz cappucino and Dave went for an 8oz black coffee, with an extra shot, and a chocolate and raspberry brownie. In his words: that is the best bit of brownie I have had in years...trust me, I do not need to say anything more. 

They've recently upped their foodie game even more by bringing in #projectbetty who I was delighted to discover is an old pal from art college! That was a happy reunion for a Sunday morning! They have big plans for Sunday brunch and all sorts of other tasty delights, needless to say I'll be back for more and am already looking forward to trying out some of the bagel options. And good news for any gluten-free readers as a lot of their food is GF friendly. 

If you're in the area I would highly recommend a visit. You'll probably see me there as I aim to spend much more time there trying out all the different brownie options. Find out more on their Facebook page here and I'll see ya there for coffee! 

Breakfast-for-dinner potato mash'em up - a recipe

Perhaps it needs a snazzier title? But the title of the blog post definitely sums up this little recipe that I've recently invented. I have been enjoying it as breakfast-for-dinner and it's mash'em up as you can add in any added extras that you fancy, thus making it your very own version.

Things you will definitely need:

• potatoes (these can be a few small ones or one big one)
• oil (or butter if you're feeling extravagant)
• eggs (1 or 2, depending on how your pantry is looking that day)
• paprika
• salt and pepper

I would suggest adding in the following but the mash'em up idea lets you go with your own style:

• mushrooms
• bacon/parma ham/facon (is that how you spell it?!)
• baked beans (these are probably best served on the side rather than mixed it, but whatever you fancy, go mash it up!)

Instructions:

1. In a smallish pan boil up some water ready for the potatoes
2. Slice potatoes thinly (about 0.5 cm)
3. Boil potatoes for about 8-10 minutes
4. Check the potatoes are cooked and drain them ready to pop into the frying pan
5. Heat up some oil (or butter) and chuck in your potatoes
6. Add your salt and pepper seasoning and give them a good swirl around so that they are coated
7. Sprinkle over a generous pinch of paprika (either normal or smoked will work)
8. Add in any of your additional extras such as mushrooms and bacon at this point
9. Swirl around until everything is starting to smell delicious and the potatoes are getting a little bit crispier
10. It's time to add your eggs now. I've been cracking them directly over the pan and then scrambling that way but you can also whisk beforehand if you're a bit worried about shells etc.
11. Using a wooden spoon or similar, give it all a good mix up until your eggs are scrambled, your potatoes are nicely crispy, and the optional extras are all ready to go
12. Serve with either toast or a bagel
13. ENJOY!

I don't have a photo to accompany this post as it's probably not the most photogenic recipe you may ever see, but it is incredibly tasty and I can highly recommend giving it a go! Let me know in the comments if you do, and feel free to suggest any alternatives as optional extras - I'm always open to new food suggestions!

Round Our Way - sharing Sunday lunch platter at Canteen and Cocktails

As with all good things in life, I found out about this Sunday dinner deliciousness via a fellow blogger, Carli at The Tea Bee. She had made the trip and followed it up with a blog post that had the most drool-worthy photographs and descriptions of the dinner that had me at hello. I suggested the idea to Dave, and he is generally on board with all food things, so we made a date for Sunday. We even got changed out of our dossing around the house with the hairy dog clothes into something halfway decent so it really was like a proper date, and off we went. 

Destination: Norton.

Adventure: a Sunday lunch sharing platter for 2. 

Details: for £9 each you can enjoy roast chicken, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, cauliflower cheese, roasted carrots and parsnips, green veggies, a Yorkshire pudding each, and some super tasty gravy. For just £1 more you can turn that into a choice of two meats. 

Our experience: we arrived at around half 1 and it was still pretty busy. As a party of two we were quite easy to find seats for and joined onto the end of a big sharing table. Orders were placed and we enjoyed a pleasant social beverage and chitted the chat whilst we waited. We did wait about half an hour for the food, but with so many people there and lots of big groups this didn't seem too unreasonable. Besides it was Sunday and we had no other plans so laid back was our kinda way. Once the platter arrived, it was absolutely worth the wait. Oh my! 

Everything, and I mean everything, on the plate/platter was done to absolute perfection. The chicken was tender and juicy, the carrots and parsnips were gorgeous, the roasties were crunchy and crisp, even the cabbage was delicious! Truly yummy. I loved the way you could help yourself to however much or little you wanted, and could dip in and out and add things, share a carrot here, and nick a bit of parsnip there...it's a novel way of offering Sunday lunch and I absolutely loved it. Fantastic value too for such good fare. It was also very family friendly and there were people with all ages of kiddos there enjoying the foodie delights which is a big plus if you have any littles of your own.  

Any downsides? Nothing at all about the food, I honestly could rave about it forever. Dave found the venue itself a bit noisy which could prove difficult if you have anyone in your party who is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids (we both have family members who have hearing aids so tend to be more aware of that kind of thing). As for me, I'm a bit over the whole enamel plate and tin cup thing but that's only a minor thing, and is more about crockery taste than anything else! Oh, I couldn't see anything for vegetarians either which is not great, but we didn't actually see a menu as knew exactly what we wanted! 

We both agreed we 100% would go back again, and I've already recommended it to almost everyone - any excuse to talk about food! 

Head to the Canteen and Cocktails website to find out more. And enjoy! I'm already envious if you've decided to go - I'm still dreaming about those roasted carrots...

(PS. I didn't take any photos at all as was too busy eating all the yumminess but you can see loads of photos if you go to Carli's blog post which is linked at the top of this post). 

Helloooo tasty food!

A couple of Fridays ago, a couple of cutie boys knocked on the door to talk to me about Hello Fresh. I must have been living under a rock or something as hadn't really heard much about it. Since then I've talked to a few people about it and everyone has been like oh yep, heard of that, what's it like? 

Well, it's like really good! Basically it's a food delivery service that you sign up for, you select what type of box you would like - we went for the Classic Box that is designed to feed two people for three meals a week - and you can select which meals you would like to eat too. I think there were 5 options for the week. In the box you will get all the ingredients you need, a full set of recipe cards, and all sorts of other good stuff too, like free samples of tasty popcorn that is peanut and almond flavoured, but that's probably a whole other post for peanut-drooling flavoured food. Back to the box. 

The sign up process was easy peasy. The boys were very friendly and told me everything I needed to know. You can select your meals and make any changes either via the website I've linked above or via the app which you can download for free. And then you wait for the box! The arrival of the box is very definitely exciting. It's huge for one! And there's loads of things inside to open! And some very funky packaging/insulation/cooling down thingies that are all kinds of clever (and which can be recycled both at home or via the company themselves - they are all about reducing their carbon footprint which makes me all kinds of happy). When I say all the ingredients, I mean right down to the teaspoon of cinnamon in a teeny tiny container and a single bay leaf! You really don't need to have anything special in your stock cupboard to be able to make all the recipes. 

Our first recipe was crusted chorizo chicken with new potatoes and green beans. Dave has decided he needs to be more involved in the kitchen process so opted to be chief cook. Carefully following the recipe (tongue out and everything with the concentration) he made the tea! And very yummy it was too. 

Next up was the steamed salmon with jewelled couscous which was a joint cooking adventure. It's not the greatest photo (hello Snapchat) but once again it was super tasty and not at all hard to make.

For the final meal we had moussaka served with rocket and ciabatta bread. I don't want to be boring but again it was tasty and the recipe was easy to follow. The whole box provided variety, tasty dinners, easy recipes, and everything that was needed to do all of that.

A couple of things I think need to be taken into consideration though. I don't think I'm mean with my quantities but some of the portion sizes were much bigger than what we normally eat, especially the couscous - way too much for 2 people - that stuff grows as it fluffs! Also, we ended up pan frying the salmon as the cooking time that was suggested for steaming was not how we like it, but each to their own there I think. At the end of all of the meals we had extra stuff left over that could be carried over into other meals which made it even better value for money! 

The initial box was on offer with 30% off, at £27 that was a good price for 3 meals for 2 people with all fresh ingredients. We've decided to keep it on but to only get a box once a month - this is mainly because I make all our meals from scratch anyway, and we both love to try new things so I am always scouring the internet and recipe books for meals to make. Adding the Hello Fresh box into the mix is an added extra to all the tasty dinners! 

If you fancy giving it a try let me know in the comments as I can give you a code to get it at a discounted price. Winner, winner, Hello Fresh dinner! 

Honest Food

Anyone else do that thing where you make a really good effort when you go to work to take some proper wholesome food, a good lunch, and then you work from home and all good intentions go out the window? Just me? I'm so organised when I'm at work - I set out my lunch and snacks ready to pick up the next morning and I'm good to go. I just can't seem to make the same thing happen at home. So much easier to just have a bagel. And maybe a banana. Oh and those fig roll biscuits are just perfect with that 7th cup of tea in the last hour...

I started thinking about this after I saw a blogger share her honest food diary for the week. Her honesty was like my best version of food eating. Three square meals and a couple of beers thrown in for good measure. I mainly wanted to ask how honest was honest. Did she really share all her snacks? If so, hats off to you m'lady, you eat pretty well for a work from home person. 

I would not even dare share a whole food week, mainly for my own eyes as I know if I actually wrote down every single item I would be completely and utterly appalled at myself. Take today for example:

I started out with a bowl of Cheerios and a cup of tea. Followed about an hour later by that one croissant that was leftover from yesterday, and another cup of tea. 

I headed to the opticians to have my wonky glasses straightened, passed by a Greggs and made the impromptu decision to get a coffee and a cookie, cos that £2 deal is just so sweet and the oat and raisin cookie is absolutely delicious. 

Came home and took Bob out for a walk before deciding on two toasted bagels with butter for lunch. Best have that banana to get some fruit in, share 3 pieces with Bob (anyone else's dog totally love bananas?!), and another cup of tea. Oh and a big glass of elderflower juice with my vitamin C, cod liver oil, and evening primrose tablet. 

Quick chat with my ma, followed by yet another cuppa and 2 fig roll biscuits (told you).

That is my honest food diary so far. And it's only 3pm. No matter what my plans for dinner might be, you should know there'll be more biscuits, and maybe even some chocolate as I just can't seem to stop! In this instance, we can clearly see, honesty is not the best policy!

How about you? How honest could you be? Go on, make a girl feel better and share your daily eats below. 

If your toast is green, it's mouldy

Anyone else fed up of seeing Instagram photos of smushed up avocado on toast with a poached egg balanced precariously on the top? Usually accompanied by the hashtag caption #goals and that all important white as white background to highlight the green as green avocado? Seriously? Enough already with the curated idea of perfection. Be a rebel and break free. Have your Instagram feed be full of all sorts of colours, with all sorts of backgrounds, and stuff piled up high that resembles real life rather than flat lays. I'm increasingly unfollowing many of these feeds and choosing alternatives that are very far removed from any idea of 'perfect' or 'goals'.

In light of this I'm starting a campaign for bringing back butter. Butter belongs on toast. Or jam. Or marmalade. Maybe even some peanut butter or Nutella if you're feeling fancy but no more smushy green stuff! Even the poached egg is all good, just NO MORE AVOCADO.

I used to quite like it actually. Avocado that is. But recently it seems to be taking over the world, or certainly the breakfast plates of the Instagram world, and I'm bored with it. Don't these people eat cereal? Or do you think they take the photo of the avocado on toast, click publish, then chuck it in the bin and gobble down the honey nut loops out of shot?

The Avocado growers of the world must be rejoicing at the surge in sales.

Cereal growers on the other hand are probably holding their heads in woe.

Sad times.

Anyone else with me? #squadgoals and all that...? No? The butter stands alone then...