In all honesty I haven’t been to a Beefeater in a few years, therefore when I was invited to go along and review the newly refurbished The Long Reach Beefeater in Whitstable I jumped at the chance to see what they were like these days, I have seen lots of Beefeater restaurants pop up alongside Premier Inn’s as their resident eatery so unless I went in stayed there I probably wouldn’t think of going in to try it. Also Whitstable is one of my all time favourite places to have a day out so it was a good excuse for a little afternoon at the coast.
This particular Beefeater is attached to Premier Inn just outside the main town, but had undergone a huge refurbishment at the the end of Oct 2015 when it closed for just a week for the work to be done.
I came across Britmums Hungry2Happy Challenge and it isn’t something I would normally do but lets face it £200 Tesco vouchers or £700 Centre Parcs Vouchers is nothing to be sniffed at.
Normally when I see these food challenges a lot of them are aimed at getting younger children to eat and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to join in with this one. My boys are now 12 and 15 years old and seem to be always hungry. So this one is for the teens.
When I saw it was to use Richmond’s new mini meatballs I knew my boys would eat them, we already like Richmond’s Irish recipe sausages. So with that in mind I aimed the meal at something more teen friendly with an element of fast food.
There are days where we have after school clubs that are timed so that dinner would be too early but they wouldn’t feel like eating if it was too late!! So I decided that my meatball sub would be a great fast food alternative for teens.
This was very quick to make up and cook through and with ingredients that I would naturally have in my house. Nothing fancy needed, that’s a bonus!
1. Put the meatballs in the oven to cook for 8minutes, add the ciabbatta rolls, 1 for each person.
2. Dice the onion and the mushrooms, cook in a little olive oil while the meatballs are cooking.
3. Once the meatballs are done add to the pot with the onion and mushrooms and crumble on the Oxo cube.
4. Stir in the tomatoes and add a decent shake of the Italian spice and cook through for around 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
5. Cut the rolls open, butter if you prefer, and add a couple of spoonfuls of the meatball mixture and serve!
* you could add cheese on top
* you could serve open with salad or closed as a sub!
Time taken- 20 minutes in total and I would bet that it would be great kept in the fridge and reheated the next day for seconds.
I added a compulsory bit of greenery!!
Simples!!
This post is an entry for BritMums Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs. You will find more details of the challenge here
Yesterday we celebrated St Patrick’s Day. Not that I am southern Irish or catholic!! I do have the accent though. However, living in England, married to an Englishman with 2 English sons it’s just nice to get them thinking about the fact I’M NOT FROM HERE!! LOL
Anyway it is a true excuse to terrorize them with LOADS of diddly diddly music, Irish food and all things green.
So here’s how it went:
Yummy beef in Guinness with a clover shaped pastry top, champ and cabbage!A bit of this also…………..the teen is NOT happy!
I would have liked to head up to the parade in London this year, however, one son had extra piano lessons today and the other had his Lamda practice…………..so it wasn’t to be.
I am waiting until they are both over 18 so we can go on a proper long weekend in Dublin, complete with a tour of diddly diddly bars, a few Guinness’s and yummy food! Until then my friends it’s down to me to keep the madness going!
Today I have had coffee in bed while I opened a few cards and a little pressie or two. I know these times can become very commercial so we always agree not to go mad and that it is the thought that counts. So I had a bought card from my OH but homemade personal ‘printouts’ from the kids (which I prefer).
I was chuffed to bits to get the soundtrack to the new Les Miserables film which has already been played today!
However, my definite surprise pressie was a fab onesie!! No laughing please I have really wanted one for ages but it’s not something I would go and spend money on for myself when there are lots of other things to pay for.
Sadly I look FAR too happy wearing this LOL
I am now sitting on the laptop while they are all ‘secret squirrel’ in the kitchen making dinner………………..I will admit I am slightly scared at the idea as my OH is the worst cook ever, so it will be like the blind leading the blind. However, like I said earlier it’s the thought that counts ( that’s until the food poisoning kicks in and then I will be swearing).
We also popped into Costa earlier(as my youngest had a party to go to) and I was able to have my favourite vanilla latte and caramel shortbread as a quick treat!
Calorie overload
AND to top it all off I have just seen that The Wizard of Oz is about to start on telly!!!
MY DAY IS COMPLETE.…………..if for some reason (possible impending food poisoning) I don’t make it to tomorrow, I can safely go knowing I had the BEST day today!!
I must admit I’ve been lucky enough to have escaped my own Christmas dinner disasters as I have only been doing the dinner myself for the past few years. Fortunately while my boys were very young we always went to the in laws (no cooking required on my part……..result!).
However, there comes a time when the kids want to stay with their toys for the day and enjoy Christmas at home. This means all cooking required by me!!
Luckily for me my mum stays at Christmas so she cooks the turkey for me with years of experience under her belt……again a result!
However, after talking to a few people the stories started to come out. Things you can imagine and things you can’t.
*turkey doesn’t fit in the oven
*turkey not cooked properly
*cases of food poisoning
*oven breaks down while cooking the dinner
Or even in the style of Only Fools and Horses where the coffee gets mixed up with the gravy and they pour coffee all over their dinner, or the time Grandad left the giblets in the turkey!!
Top tips on how to avoid a Christmas dinner disaster
Let’s face it, Christmas dinner disasters are far from rare in most households. A poll just released shows a quarter of us have first-hand experience of something going badly wrong on the 25th December.
The most common mishaps are dry meat, turkey that is uncooked or hasn’t defrosted properly, people buying the wrong size bird and those that have simply left it so late that the shops have actually run out.
Cooking a feast of massive proportions for extended families of aunties, uncles, grandparents, and children is a task daunting enough to even make a top chef break into a cold sweat, so it’s no surprise three quarters of the great British public suffer stress as a result of buying and preparing Christmas meat.
But the survey commissioned by The Q Guild of Butchers to launch their ‘Meat Your Butcher Sessions’ found an overwhelming 95% of the nation has never asked for expert advice about cooking Christmas dinner whilst more than half of us just head blindly go to the supermarket, and pick meat off the shelf hoping for the best. That’s despite the fact that there is usually a butcher’s shop right round the corner, who can offer quality advice on choosing, preparing and cooking meat.
So how can a local butcher help to reduce stress, focus on value and give fresh advice for your festive feast? When should you have ordered your meat by? What’s the difference between a corn-fed turkey and a gold turkey? How much do you actually need to buy so that you don’t get stuck with masses of meat, or even worse don’t have enough to feed the family? And if you don’t even like turkey, what are the great Christmas meat alternatives?
