Fabulous Toad in the Hole

A good Toad in the Hole is crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Never soggy.
There are so many recipes for this (Yorkshire pudding) batter. On this occasion we made a batter with just whole milk. Sometimes we use milk and water. Using all milk gave a soft doughy base and perfect, well risen crust. The best tip for a great result is to leave the batter to rest (see why below).
Here's the recipe we used:

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

I used a tried and tested recipe to make these. I didn't realise it was Yorkshire Pudding day today until I saw Saturday kitchen. What better excuse to make these lovely fluffy savoury puddings. Usually served with roast beef, but despite having pork for our roast today, we just had to make some of these to celebrate.
We think they work out roughly at 80-100 calories each. They rose to the occasion and with some left over, we're going to eat the rest warmed up with a sprinkle of sugar and lemon juice. Lovely. You have to remember the recipe is basically a pancake mix anyway.
To make these Yorkshire Puddings, we use this recipe:
150g plain flour, 2 eggs, 225 ml milk plus 50 ml water (or use all milk). Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Put the flour, salt and pepper into a bowl and make a well, crack the eggs into the well with a small amount of the milk. Combine with a whisk and gradually add the rest of the liquid. Leave to rest in the fridge for as long as you can. We made the mixture the night before, giving it plenty of time to rest.
We like to cook ours in a heavy based muffin tin - they usually rise really well. Add a small amount of oil (about half teaspoon for each pudding) and get the pan really hot before adding the mix.
TIP: Do you know how many calories you are allowed each day?

Here's a link to our very first blog post about our weight loss journey, which we began in January 2011. We started this blog as a way of recording what we ate while losing weight. The blog is a food diary, and contains lots of recipes, tips and ideas about losing weight.

You'll find our WEIGHT LOSS PLAN here. 

Copyright © forget dieting forever (2014), all rights reserved. Please do not copy any of this material without my express permission.

BRISKET OF BEEF

BRISKET of beef is a great cut of meat for slow-cooking. We cooked ours in the SLOW-COOKER which we turned on in the morning before going out to work. All that was needed was to steam the veg and pop a few Yorkshire puddings into the oven... It was a lovely mid-week treat, with enough meat for another couple of meals. Our kilo of brisket was very economical too at just under £6.
Let your kitchen gadgets do the work for you: add stock vegetables to the slow-cooker, place the meat on top and fill with around a litre of hot water. The meat falls apart and has a really meaty taste. It's also low in calories and this plateful is around 450 calories - including the Yorkshire pudding (see recipe below)!