Cheese on toast with a twist

Recently Warburtons have launched new Sandwich Thins, and they are flying off the shelves!!  They're great if you are on a diet because they are low fat and only 3 ProPoints per thin.  They are also great if you aren't a massive fan of stodgy white bread and want something a bit lighter with your lunch.  They even come ready sliced so you don't have to mess about trying to cut a thin bit of bread in half...genius! 

One of the things I love about weekends, and long bank holiday weekends in particular is brunch.  It sets me up for what remains of the morning and most of the afternoon - brilliant if you have plans to go out and about and do something.  Today, I fancied something a bit different to the usual brunches I make and decided to make this with some leftovers in the fridge - it was absolutely delicious.  It was cheese on toast, with a leftover sausage and some cooked mushrooms - doesn't sound like a culinary feast for your taste buds but by 'eck it was lush! I decided to toast my sandwich thin rather than use normal bread like i would.  If you are following weight watchers, the dish below is 9 ProPoints although you could reduce this if you use reduced fat sausages.

The recipe below is for one person. To make this cheese on toast (with a twist) you'll need:

• 1 warburtons sandwich thin
• 2 reduced fat cheese slices (I'm not a big fan of processed cheese but they are only 1 ProPoint each and it means I can control how much I am having a lot better - cheese is my downfall!)
• 1 sausage of your choice
• small handful of button mushrooms, sliced
• 4 sprays of calorie controlled spray oil

Spray your frying pan with the calorie controlled spray and cook the sausage as per the directions on the pack.  Meanwhile, split your sandwich thin in half and toast until golden brown.  Set to one side to cool once its toasted.

Once the sausage is cooked, set it to one side to let it cool a little and using the same pan, cook the mushrooms until browned and softened. 

Top each half of the sandwich thin with a slice of the cheese and place under the grill to melt.  Meanwhile chop up the sausage into little pieces.  Once the cheese is melted, remove the thins from the grill and top with the sausage pieces and the mushrooms.  I had mine with a little bit of HP BBQ sauce drizzled on top - yummy!

Posh poached eggs on toast

I came across this recipe on a fellow food blogger's site, it's called For the Love of Cooking and I thought this would make a great brunch.  Check out the site through the link above.  I made it for my boyfriend as I can't eat eggs although I made one for myself minus the eggs and had a little taste of his... it was good!!  You could turn this into a vegetarian brunch by just leaving out the bacon and adding some cooked mushrooms.  For those following Weight Watchers, each serving is 10 points.  To make the dish for two people you'll need:

• 6 rashers bacon
• 2 slices of bread of your choice - I went with a nice ciabatta
• 8 asparagus spears
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 eggs
• garlic infused olive oil (or a piece of garlic and some plain olive oil)
• White wine vinegar (for the eggs)
• Salt and Pepper for seasoning
• Butter

Place your bacon under a medium grill and cook until the fat is nice and crispy.

Meanwhile blanch your asparagus spears in some boiling water for a couple of minutes.  Remove and set to one side.  Use the same water to poach your eggs, adding some white wine vinegar.  I'm not going to tell you how to poach an perfect egg as I don't eat them so I'm not an expert, but if you need them you can find instructions here

By this point your bacon should be done.  Remove from the grill and set to one side.  Drizzle some garlic infused olive oil over your bread (or rub a garlic clove over the bread and then drizzle with plain olive oil) and then lightly toast under the grill. While you are waiting for the bread to toast, slice some tomatoes up.  Once the bread is toasted, spread it with a little bit of butter.

To assemble the dish, lay 2 slices of bacon on the bread.  Add a few slices of tomato and 4 spears of asparagus.  

Add another slice of bacon, top with the poached egg and season.   Mmm I miss eggs so much..all that lovely yolk oozing out when you cut into it.  Enjoy for me!!

American Blueberry and Lemon Pancakes

I came across this recipe for American blueberry pancakes on BBC Good Food and added my own little twist with a bit of lemon juice.  You can find the original recipe here.  With pancake day and valentines day coming up you could cook your other half breakfast in bed...or you could just eat them yourself! :-)

The recipe below makes 10 pancakes and believe me 5 each is more than enough - I couldn't finish mine but they were absolutely delicious! To make the pancakes you'll need:

• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 1 pack of blueberries
• 1 lemon
• small knob of butter
• honey for drizzling

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients - the self raising flour and baking powder.  In a separate bowl add the egg, milk and the juice from half a lemon and whisk together. 

Make a well in the middle of the flour/baking powder and add the wet ingredients - I don't have a mixing bowl at the moment so I used a pan to combine the two.  Then whisk together and create a thick batter.  Melt a knob of butter and then add this to the batter, then beat until its all mixed together.

Add half of the blueberries to the mix and stir gently.  At this stage you could add any fruit you liked really - raspberries, raisins etc but the blueberries are gorgeous.

Melt a little butter or oil in a non stick frying pan.  Take a large tablespoon (or in my case I found a serving spoon worked well) and pour a spoon full of the mixture into the pan.  Depending on how big your pan is you can cook 3 or 4 at a time.  Cook the pancakes for 2 or 3 minutes on each side  - I found that once the mixture started to look like it was cooking on the top side and little bubbles were starting to appear then it was time to turn.

When the pancakes are cooked stack them on a plate and sprinkle the rest of the blueberries on. Squirt a little bit of lemon juice over the top then drizzle some honey all over the plate and tuck in!!