Money Supermarket | Charcoal Challenge

Whilst enquiring about Money Supermarket's recent Big Night In competition (which I was too late for, boo hoo) I found out about their latest competition, The Charcoal Challenge*, where bloggers are each given £50 to throw a budget barbecue.

With the amazing weather we've been having recently here in the UK, I thought why the hell not and set about organising it!

I decided to take a trip to Aldi (which, by the way, is a seriously underrated store; the food in there is amazing and so cheap) in an attempt to stretch my budget a little further, and boy did I manage to get a whole load of food. We just had a small family barbecue between the four of us; my mum, dad, sister and I, so although we just spent around £44 of the £50 budget, I thought if I bought any more food we might spontaneously combust.

As you can see from the picture there was so much to get through.

As we already have a prehistoric reliable, sturdy barbecue, I thought it unnecessary to buy another, hence spending all the money on food and a bag of charcoal. We bought everything from salmon fillets and chicken to bread, peppers and bananas; all of which was shoved onto the barbecue bit by bit. 

My dad decided to use the chicken to make his (kind of) famous Tandoori chicken, which, by the way, is absolutely amazing. If any of you chefs out there fancy giving it a whirl then let me know in the comments and I can type up the recipe for you!

The salmon fillets were Aldi's lime and chilli flavoured fillets, which were also extremely tasty done on the barbecue and again I really would recommend giving them a whirl; I don't remember the price exactly but I do remember them being a bargain for the quality!

We also popped some tomatoes, peppers, sausages and paninis onto the barbecue and made a potato salad with the other goodies we bought. Most of the fruit was used in the blackcurrant Pimms.

 Whilst waiting for the food, my mum and I set about picking out the prettiest bits and bats we could find to decorate the table and bench with. We've had the elephant blanket for probably over 20 years, but it still remains one of my absolute favourites. It's probably hideous to most of you but for some reason I love it!

I salute my dad (I never understand why it seems to insult a man's masculinity if they cant take charge of the barbecue?!); the food really did taste as good as it looked. I could have just eaten it all over and over again.

Plus I think I deserve a good pat on the back for that impressive jug of Pimms, no?

I'm quite ashamed to say we almost demolished the whole lot; I think we had a sausage, a couple of paninis and a piece of chicken left over, all of which the dog very happily polished up.

 As if that wasn't enough, for dessert we decided to barbecue some peaches and bananas, and topped it off with some clotted cream (I know, how healthy are we?) and some chopped pistachio nuts.

All I can say is if you haven't tried barbecued bananas you are seriously missing out. Sort it out!

Overall we had such an amazing barbecue; the food was absolutely divine. We finished it off with a shameful performance on my part during a game of Trivial Pursuit. 

Family day, stunning weather and a stomach fit to burst equals one happy Jo!

I'd just like to say a massive thank you to Money Supermarket for giving me the chance to take part! It was probably the best barbecue I've ever had.

Love,

Jo xx

Come Dine With Me | Iced Lemon Mousse

 So here we have it, the third and final installment of my Come Dine With Me menu!

Following on from my prawn bruschettas (here) and lamb tagine (here), I made iced lemon mousses for the dessert.

Now this has to be the easiest thing you could possibly make for dessert...it was literally so simple, and went down an absolute treat! Really can't go wrong!

Ingredients:

• 300g jar lemon curd
• Zest 1 lemon
• 300ml pot double cream
• 25g lemon shortbreads or biscuits

(Serves 6)

1. Put 2/3s of the lemon curd into a large bowl with the zest and cream and beat until it holds its shape

2. Dribble over the rest of the lemon curd and divide between 6 small pots/glasses, marbling the curd as you go

3. Freeze for 30-40 minutes

4. Top with crumbs and serve

This was taken before I realised I forgot the biscuit crumbs...oops

How easy is that!?

The full recipe can be found on the Good Food website here



What are some of your favourite desserts to make?

Do you have any good recipes?

Do you enjoy reading recipe posts?



Dennis looking all handsome for the evening!

 Thanks for reading,

Jo xo





Come Dine With Me | Lamb Tagine

So following on from the lemony prawn bruschettas in my last Come Dine With Me post here, the main course of the evening was lamb tagine.

I have to admit this took me a lot longer than I expected it to, mainly because I found cutting up the lamb an absolute nightmare!

I have some kind of fear of raw meat...I think it feels absolutely vile. That squidgy, slimey, cold gooeyness, EW.

Anyway enough of that, the recipe went as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1-2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1.5 tbsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp chilli powder
• 2.5lb/1.1kg cubed boneless lamb
• 450g/1lb grated onions
• 3 crushed garlic cloves with 0.5tsp salt
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 175g/6oz dried apricots
• 50g/2oz raisins/sultanas
• 85g/3oz toasted flaked almonds
• 1 tbsp honey
• 300ml/0.5 pint tomato juice
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 300ml/0.5 pint hot lamb stock (I actually used vegetable stock instead)
• fresh chopped coriander to garnish
• couscous to serve

(Serves 6)



 1. Put the spices in a small bowl and mix them well. Put the lamb in a large bowl and coat them evenly in the spices using your hands

2. Put the casserole dish on high heat on the hob and heat the oil. Add the lamb and cook until browned. You may need to do this in batches.

3. When all of the meat is browned, remove it from the pan, turn the heat down low and add the onions and garlic. Stir and cook until soft but not browned, stirring often. This will take about 10 minutes.

4. Return the lamb to the pan and stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, cover and turn the heat down. The casserole should be left to simmer for approximately 2 hours, stirring halfway through.

5. About 15 minutes before the end, prepare the couscous and serve.

Ok so admittedly my presentation was pants but trust me, my friends eat with their mouths, not their eyes.

This really did taste good, even if I do say so myself!

It went down a treat.

This recipe is off a page ripped from a magazine which I think was a Good Food magazine!

Will you be giving this a go?

Have you got any good, simple recipes for dinner parties?

The lovely Louis :)

Thanks for reading,

Jo xo





Come Dine With Me | Lemony Prawn Bruschettas

A few weeks back, three of my friends and I decided to do our own little Come Dine With Me before we all scooted off back to uni (or to Italy in Ivy's case).

Now an amazing cook I definitely am not. But seeing as my meal went down pretty well (and the recipes were pretty straight forward), I thought I would do a few recipe posts on what I made!

So this first post is the recipe for the starter, lemony prawn bruschettas.

Ingredients:

• 4 baguette slices
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
• 200g raw prawns
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Small bunch of chopped coriander leaves
• 2 handfuls of rocket

(serves 2)

1. Toast the bread and keep warm

2. Heat the oil in a wok and cook the garlic and chilli until sizzling

3. Add the prawns and cook until pink

4. Remove from the heat, and add the lemon juice and coriander

5. Season and serve

Pretty simple, right?

The only thing I did differently was using cooked prawns and just heating them up in the pan...however I would recommend sticking to using raw prawns, as I ended up not heating mine enough and they were a bit cold!

But other than that it was a nice, simple starter

The full recipe can be found on the Good Food website here.

Will you be giving this a go?
Have you got any nice, simple starters recipes?


Thanks for reading,
Jo xo