Chutney Betty

Delicious loaded nachos to share! Cheeky Thursday evening dinner

How gorgeous is my breakfast this morning? Thanks for making me delicious banana pancakes .rose
It’s great to have you home!

Lovely to have to supper after our strength session.
We’ve been doing our Monday thing together for nearly a year now and this is the first time we have done anything afterwards.
Made a French inspired tart with tomatoes, roast peppers, goats cheese, olives, anchovies and fresh basil.
Served with homemade miso aubergines, roast new potatoes and a green salad.
Delicious chocolate dessert made by followed by a cheeky dip in the hot tub!
Perfect Monday night!

All the deliciousness! Reuben’s Sandwich inspired by after our session this morning.
This beauty is packed full of salt beef (I used a pack of pastrami from ), sauerkraut (great for gut health), gerkins, grated Gruyère cheese and a little light Mayo.
All grilled in my super quick multi 15-in-1.
I can tell you, this didn’t hang around for very long!!

As my grandma used to say, “it’s too hot to cook! Give them salad!”
Ruby gem leaves with my mummy’s home grown micro greens harvested from her greenhouse - Pea shoots, China rose radish, broccoli and calabrese, aduki, rocket. Added Parmesan shavings and served with courgette and pea fritters and prosciutto wrapped chicken.

The only photo I took of food this weekend was this lovely platter of olives, bread and oils we had at The Bulls Head.
We had a complete switch off weekend in the Peak District with lots of fresh air, walks and no cooking!
Sometimes its great just to escape and live in the moment away from socials.
I’ve come home refreshed and ready for the week ahead. What’s everyone been up to this weekend?

This mornings chia coconut and almond porridge bowl with spiced plums.
This is made with coconut milk and a whopping 30g of chia seeds in this portion.
I buy my oats and seeds from our wonderful local .
Did you know chia seeds provide an excellent source of fibre that can improve your heart health, reduce cholesterol levels and promote good gut health? The fibre in this nutritious bowl will keep me full for longer, and avoid the need for any mid-morning snacks!
The plum compote on the top is made from quartered plums simmered simply with a teaspoon of honey and some cinnamon and provides a nice sweetness over the sticky porridge.
What’s fuelled you today?
Recipe from

A lovely gift was left on our doorstep last night from our wonderful neighbour .
Delicious cheese and herb biscuits - these are simply divine and made me feel instantly better after being on the sofa laid up with a rotten lurgie all afternoon. My other kind neighbour popped them inside for me as we didn’t answer the door.
She’s so clever!
-biscuits

A batch of sticky red onion marmalade sausage rolls for my dear friend Sue’s birthday get together today.
There’s another batch of vegetarian ones just out of the oven too!
I always use red onion marmalade and add a sprinkling of sea salt.
I don’t think they’ll hang around for very long!

This was delicious! Super easy and quite lazy for me, but I had a voucher for a free box which was too good to miss!
This is confit duck with roast carrots and pesto mash.
I may have added a pile of my favourite Cavallo Nero cabbage to this! It was lacking something green!
Nice Sunday dinner

A cheesy, vegetably, tomatoey fritatta using lots of bits and pieces from the fridge.
Full of goodness and protein yet low in fat this will be great for lunches at work for the next 2 days.
Just add some salad leaves and a dollop of pickle and this is my perfect pack up!
What do you prepare to take with you if you’re out at work for lunch?

And here’s some of the food from my mum’s birthday party. Whole poached salmon, Parmesan and garlic chicken, Asian slaw, hot mustard potato salad, cheese with relishes, lemon polenta cake (birthday cake of 3 tiers), chocolate brownies and summer fruit pavlova. We had a feast!

A very happy ‘significant’ birthday to my darling mum today. Here are the first of the pictures from her party at the weekend. Using a mixture of flowers from and my garden of a few roses and the odd dahlia (which made its way from my mum’s old garden), we decorated a table in all her favourite hot colours.
I also made a 3 tier lemon polenta cake which was also decorated with fresh flowers, raspberries and gold dust.
I may have also made some other food …. Watch this space for the buffet!

A delicious bowl of porridge to kick off my busy day. Slow release goodness to keep me fuelled.
Discovered this peanut butter drizzle from thanks to ’s recommendation. There’s no going back now…..I’m converted!
Peanut butter drizzle is life changing!!

A delicious bowl of warming mung bean, chickpea and red lentil dal made in a huge batch today.
I used the pressure cooker setting on my new 15-1 Foodi multi cooker. A bit of experimentation and trial and error, but it was super quick and very easy. Who’d like the recipe?
🍁

Brunch for the wedding party the morning after.
Had to be smashed avo !

Hand cut noodles with spicy lamb. This was divine and not our first choice off the menu but really delicious.

Breakfast! Almost a rainbow of colours with golden yellow free range eggs, spinach, avocado, smoked salmon and baby plum tomatoes.
Packed full of protein and good fats and low carb. Has set me up for some energetic housework and then training a little later.
What does your day hold for you today?
🥑

Lovely cooking a Thai dinner tonight with .rose who brought back her skills (& shrimp paste!) and taught me how to make Som Tum (papaya salad) and pork Pad Kra pao (pork and holy basil stir fry).
And we haven’t even had the dessert yet!
Delicious Floss - thank you for cooking!

One of our favourite things to do this summer is to walk from Kyson Point along the river Deben to Woodbridge for supper and then back.
Drinks at the boatyard then dinner .
Delicious meal of vegan platter and watermelon & feta salad, followed by cod katsu, lentil Dahl and chow mein. What an innovative and interesting menu at The Spice Bar. Lovely outdoor seating with pretty lights and heaters and dog friendly too.
Our walk back was at twilight and took us along the river back to where we’d parked the car. The dog was happy, we were happy and ready to head into the weekend.

These protein pancakes made in my heart shaped silicone mould just hit the spot earlier today.
I used a smoothie recipe for peanut butter jam smoothie and I added baking powder to create mini pancake/waffles. I served them with the Greek yoghurt and raspberries from the recipe.
This is one of the reduced carb/general meal recipes and it was really filling and tasty.

Fabulous gin tour and tasting at Fishers Gin in Aldeburgh.
I can easily say this was one of the loveliest gin tastings I’ve ever done. Fascinating drone tour, G&T on arrival, chatty tour, botanical tea making and ploughman’s lunch of local produce with 2 gin cocktails. Think I need a lie down now!

Attempting to keep flavours and nutrients up as our whole house has Covid right now. Lunch yesterday was a concocted smoked fish kedgeree packed full of extra vegetables and flavour. I added extra frozen leaf spinach, peas, spring onions, tomatoes boiled eggs, curry powder and peas shoots. It went down a treat, even though I have lost all sense of taste and smell which is really disconcerting. I hope it doesn’t last too long…!
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Just packed up my lunch ready for tomorrow.
It’s a smoked salmon, avocado and roast pepper pitta bread from .
The recipe has a whopping 105g of salmon in so I don’t think I’ll be hungry after eating this! I used Skyr instead of quark (as I didn’t have any) and I might add a few more leaves before I eat it.
The pretty pea shoots came from the wonderful greengrocers in Woodbridge after my visit on Saturday.
Part of the secret of sticking to an eating plan is to menu plan and prep ahead if you can. If you know what you’re going to eat and can prepare it to take with you, you have more chance to stick to what you should be eating and not be tempted to deviate.

Simply had to visit the Fete d’Ete at to see what everyone was raving about!
It’s a beautiful styled setting of French frippery to overload the senses with different ‘rooms’ and sets in colour theme.
There are linens, glasswear, china, garden things, candles, soaps and baskets.
There was also coffee and delicious cakes by
I wanted one of everything!
My haul included some beautiful green glass plates, a sardine tea towel and a rustic basket. Take a look on Stories for a look at my purchases.

We enjoyed a lovely anniversary dinner earlier this week at the highly acclaimed .
Spritz cocktails, soft shell crab salad and delicious sushi topped the bill.
It was a lovely treat before we headed to the theatre to see my fave in her single woman theatre show Prima Farcie.
And she was mind blowingly brilliant. What power, passion and energy. 1 hour 40 mins of non stop pure class. Think I have a little girl crush on her! Sadly no pics but we had a fab time.

It’s World Refill Day today.
Enjoy a 15% discount at The Wholefood Store Manningtree

Today it’s World Refill Day so to encourage you all, we are offering 15% off all our household and wholefood refills IF you bring in your own container.
And as an added bonus you also will receive a bodywash or hair conditioner refill for FREE.
Please share 🙏🏻

Been rather quiet on here of late.
We had a family week away in sunny portugal last week for half term and we all enjoyed the rest from social media and me photographing all the food!!

I’m back now and cooking up a storm on a Sunday evening for supper in the garden. It’s smoked tofu and aubergine curry with lashings of fresh coriander and pomegranate seeds.
Lovely fresh flavours and full of goodness.

We’ve had a busy weekend as it’s been the festival of the sea at RHS. Yesterday I helped set up for the evening ball, then enjoyed displays by the parachutes,
Marine commandos, RHS band and guard and the field gun team.
This afternoon we’ve enjoyed a lovely concert with a picnic outside with homemade cakes, sandwiches and sausage rolls. Oh and a cheeky can of Pimms!
Happy end to the weekend everyone!

Gosh! What ever has happened to the weather??!
I’ve made a big bowl of spicy, warming lentil dal to help keep the chills away. It’s really quite cold outside and I need taste and flavours to keep me going today and to distract me from the very unseasonal weather!
Made with red lentils, chickpeas, coconut milk, spices and black onion seeds, served with yoghurt, fresh coriander and chopped tomatoes.
What’s keeping you on track?

We had a delicious breakfast at The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant this morning. It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages since meeting owner Carina at a Family Business United event a few years ago.
This wonderful place is part of the Contini family of 3 restaurants in Edinburgh, and I was lucky enough to get to see Carina to say hello.
We shared a yoghurt, granola and fruit bowl and others had the delicious porridge made with double creamy peanut butter, caramelised bananas and toasted almonds. This was followed by scrambled eggs, spinach and tomatoes with sourdough.
The Contini group have continued to operate throughout lockdowns against all odds, offering deliveries when they were unable to open (we had a couple of their meals which were stunning, delivered all the way from Scotland to Essex).
They use wonderful authentic ingredients sourced locally, grown themselves or from Italy.
I would throughly recommend giving George Street, or the a look if you’re in Edinburgh - you won’t be disappointed.