Italian Layered Dip ...

 We are having a tasting night at our Weight Watchers group with foods that can be taken to a barbecue so I have made this yummy dip.

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 Combine 2 cans of butter beans (borlotti beans), mashed with ...

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 a can of diced tomatoes with basil and herbs...

 Put this is a shallow dish and top with mashed avocado with some chilli flakes or powder to taste...

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 Then mix a 200gm natural 99.5% fat free yoghurt with a big teaspoon of crushed garlic and smooth over the avocado...

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 Chop 1/2 cup of red onion, 1/3 cup of green and red capsicum, 1/3 cup black olives and 1/3 cup of low fat sundried tomatoes and sprinkle over yoghurt mix...

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Sprinkle with 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving with pita chips or low fat savoury biscuits or carrot and celery sticks.  Enjoy at your next gathering.

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New York, New York ...

 We arrived late from our flight from San Francisco so once we checked in to our hotel, we went to a little pizza joint around the corner, Uncle Paul's and ordered a couple of pizzas.  Deeelicious!

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 The next day was spent exploring on foot - this is heading to Times Square...

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 We went up to The View - a revolving restaurant and bar and took in the night skyline...

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 Times Square was buzzing, so many people...

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 A bus ...

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 Our only means of refrigeration - an ice bucket - no fridge in our hotel room!

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 Flatiron building on Fifth Avenue...

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 Central Park - this is such a huge expanse of parklands, we only saw one corner of it!

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 It was a beautiful sunny day ...

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 We hired a row boat and went boating for half an hour ...

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 Brianna pulling a Grumpy Cat face because she couldn't have an alcoholic drink (must be 21 with ID).  My French Cosmopolitan was so goood!  She had lemonade!

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 A typical hot dog with mustard and sauce...

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 Beautifully manicured gardens everywhere...

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 Large lawned areas for just sitting...

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Joolz xx

Pizza bake-up...

To feed the hungry children, we had a Margherita and a wagyu sausage, red onion, mushroom, rosemary and cheese...

Cooked to perfection in the Weber...

This one is potato, parmesan, garlic, rosemary and mozzarella ...

This is just a standard tomato, cheese, salami, bacon, pineapple and mushroom jobbie...

A yummy dinner then we headed out to a 50th birthday party. Kirby was our taxi for the night. I forgot to put my watch forward for Day Light Savings and thought it was an hour earlier than it was, ooops!! Still home and in bed by 1am. Feeling tired and lazy today.

I have loads of washing to do when the girls head off later this afternoon...

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

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No-Knead Bread - another recipe...

While surfing Alicia Paulson's delicious blog, Posie gets cozy, I found this recipe for no-knead bread. With hungry big kids in the house, I gave it a whirl!

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This is a really different dough as you start off with a really wet mix (flour, milk, water, egg and oil) then add more flour to get a stiffer dough.

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You just roughly mix the dough then leave to rise for 50 minutes.

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I let mine rise in the sunny window in our family room....

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It doubled in size, then I gave it a stir to knock it down. Then I put it in 2 loaf tins (although I think it would have gone into one for a bigger loaf) ...

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and baked them for 35 minutes at 180C.

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The loaves coloured up nicely ...

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and it had a nice crumb. I think it will be lovely for toast tomorrow ... if there is any left!

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I also made Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (Brianna's favourite).  This recipe is from Barbara at Bless us O Lord so click here for that one.

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Cheers - Joolz xx

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Blowing a gale and a love letter ...

The view out my window this morning. Gale force winds and lots of heavy showers. Welcome to spring in my corner of the world!

Don't you love receiving a love letter from the one you love? Gus dished up the leftovers from dinner last night so we ould have it for lunch today. Isn't that sweet?

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

 

Posted with Blogsy by Joolz

First rose of the season...

Isn't it a beauty?

 

Posted with Blogsy by Joolz