This is the ultimate comfort food. It is often said to serve it with mashed potato but I think a bowl of this on its own is plenty enough. It is definitely my go to recipe in the winter.

Ingredients:

Stew -

400g Diced beef

2 Celery sticks

2 Carrots

1 Onion

2 garlic cloves

1 leek

3 potatoes

1 tbsp Oil

Herbs

1 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 beef stock cubes

Dumplings –

125g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

60g suet

Water, to bring together the dough

Method:

Put the kettle on, put the celery, carrots, onion and herbs in the pot with the oil and butter. Soften for 10 minutes, then stir in the flour until it doesn’t look dusty anymore. Then stir in the tomato puree and stock cubes.

Gradually stir in 600ml of hot water, then add the beef and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer for 2 hours.

Make the dumplings by sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the suet and water to make a thick dough. Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls and coat in flour.

After two hours, add the dumplings and cook for a further 20 minutes.

I'm asking for a slow cooker for Christmas, lame I know! But I definitely think some of my recipes will improve if I cook them in the slow cooker!

Ilumi

This is one of the most exciting blog posts I’ve done so far.

Ilumi are based in County Durham and they have produced a wonderful range of nut-, gluten- and milk-free foods.

The meals are so well thought out that they are safe to eat for people with certain allergies.

Taken straight from their website, their mission is: to create delicious, colourful, deeply flavoursome foods that our customers can trust, to make them accessible and convenient, and to spread the word about eating for wellness to the wider community.

I personally think that this is an amazing mission to have. I’m sure that many food companies out there have this, or similar, as their mission when creating food products but it is not always written so obviously on their website.

The products that I have been trying this week are under the 7-day meal plan, in which you get 10 x meals, 5 x sides, 4 x soups and 3 x ilumi-endorsed products. That’s 22 products for £44.99, bargain!

These meal plans are new and there are 4 options – 7-day, 14-day, 28-day and “try me pack”.

They are all portion controlled and so yummy plus you get to choose which meals you receive which is so much better than other companies who choose for you. I’m quite a fussy eater so I’d like to choose my food!!

The best part about their meal plans is that they can help you to:

• Lose weight
• Increase your energy
• Sleep better
• The meal plans are better value as you save over 30% than if you buy the products individually.

Not only do they send you your meal plan for your selected amount of days, on their website there are some helpful hints and tips that you can print off for yourself. On this page they give you a small shopping list that shouldn’t cost you too much, but it does help to ensure that you get all of your 5 a day. They also suggest to only have alcohol in moderation, as you should be anyway!

First up, the Spanish rice and vegetables. It comes in a tray and similar with your typical ready meal, you remove the sleeve, pierce the film lid and heat in the microwave for 2 ½ minutes.

In this pack there are 277 calories, I don’t think you can get a meal better than that!

It’s packed full of vegetables like butternut squash, yellow and red pepper, onion and tomatoes. Plus it’s made with brown rice instead of white rice.

Before I even sit down to eat it, I’m sold!

And once I’d eaten it, it turns out I got my hopes up a bit. I prefer my vegetables a bit al dente but these were really soft. The rice was perfect but it felt like there was just a bit too much seasoning for my liking!

It comes in a microwavable tray so it’s easy to cook!

Packed full of goodness!

The second product I want to share with you is the tomato and red pepper soup. At the time of deciding what to eat, I’d just done a long shift and wanted something I knew I would enjoy.

And it was so delicious! The balance of flavours was just right, and there were little pieces of tomato and red pepper, which gave it some texture. It wasn’t watered down at all and it wasn’t too thick like some soups can be, for me it really was the perfect soup!

Can you tell I enjoyed it?!

On the back of all their packets is a bout themselves with a line “irresistible taste you can trust”.

They claim to have their flavours locked in and 100% natural ingredients.

Nice and easy to understand!

*This post was sponsored by Ilumi and all views and opinions are 100% my own.

Chocolate and Raspberry Hand Pies

OH MY. Like seriously. These are, just wow. I thought they were just going to be delicious hot, but they were pretty good when they cooled down as well. The chocolate obviously melts when it’s cooked but it doesn’t go solid again when the pie cools down.

Ingredients:

3 oz. fresh raspberries

1 bar of milk chocolate (typically 150g)

1 egg beaten

1 pack of short crust pastry or homemade

Method:

First of all, start by cutting out 8 circles of pastry in one size of cutter, relatively small but large enough to fit a couple pieces of chocolate and some raspberries on.

Next cut out 8 larger circles, big enough to cover the filling and crimp down the edges.

Now you can do the filling, put two squares of chocolate in the centre of the smaller circle and put a few raspberries on top.

Using the beaten egg, brush some around the rim on the pastry circles and then put the large circle over the top and use a fork to crimp the edges. The egg helps to seal the two pastry circles together.

Once you have sealed all of the pies, take a knife and cut 4 slits in a cross on the top of the pies to allow any moisture to get out. Then put an egg wash on all of the pies.

Put the pies in the oven at 190C for 25 to 27 minutes.

Wait for them to cool slightly or the raspberries will burn your mouth. Then enjoy, no doubt you will!