My Helen, what lovely buns you have.....

"All the better to entice you with, my dear...".   "Why, thank you!" came the reply til I noticed him peering at a pair of Nutella covered chocolate buns.....I sighed inwardly and offered him one......uh...a bun....cheeky.....!   The buns in question were rather delectable so I can understand the staring.  

 

 Helen's Buns

This is the same recipe, dough-wise as the schnecken  but with 100g more flour and 80g sugar instead of 50g.   You can use oil instead of butter if you wish in this recipe.   So, all is the same up to the stage of rolling out the dough.   At that point, stop!  No longer follow schnecken and go the Helen Bun route instead;  you simply sprinkle over some sugar...a few tablespoons, making sure you coat the entire thing and then sprinkle with chocolate chips, enough to cover the dough evenly.   I used a 100g packet.   You then press the drops firmly into the dough and then roll up as per usual for buns, i.e. starting from the long end, rolling like a swiss roll.   Cut into 14-16 pieces, place on a parchment papered or oiled baking tray and follow the schnecken recipe, i.e. leave to prove and bake at the same temperature.

You don't have the syrup mix on this bun, like the schnecken do...so instead....oh this makes me happy...you take two large tablespoons of Nutella out of the jar and into a bowl, you melt in the microwave for about 10 seconds...stir...another 10 seconds...stir again at which time it should be soft and runny.   Pour over the cooled buns.   Leave to cool again and set a little then sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve.   Gaze in wonder and have two immediately with coffee, pretending to everyone and yourself that there were only 12 to begin with....12 I tell ya!   At 300 calories each...yup, I worked it out....1 bun is all you should really allow yourself but then, I'd had soup for lunch.....*whistling*...stepping away from the buns....

 

A wonderful breakfast treat

Today's shopping came to just over £92 for two weeks.   There is a lot of chicken dishes this fortnight and a few new cakes which I'm excited to try.   I shall post the receipt and menu plan tomorrow.

Having had rather a lot of leftover cooked salmon from Christmas, I decided it had to be eaten as it was getting near it's throw out date, frozen or not!   I decided to curry it...yup, that's right....curry.   It was mighty fine, good for us and extremely easy, considering I had curry sauce leftover in the freezer as well.   I threw it...the sauce... into a pan and added some water, getting it to a simmer.   I then tossed in some chopped onion, some cherry tomatoes and a potato, peeled and roughly chopped.   After the potato was almost soft...about 10 minutes, I threw in the salmon, broken up into large chunks and simmered for a further five minutes.

I added a sprinkling of ground cumin and coriander and a little turmeric.   I cooked for a further five minutes at a gentle simmer with a lid on and then served the dish with plain, boiled, white basmati rice.

 

So, Scotland, unfortunately, lost the rugby game on Sunday.    France were clearly on much better form and it was enjoyable to watch.   I had prepared some snacks in preparation....

...much to the amusement of my husband.   It's not exactly typical football/rugby fayre, now is it?   This is what I felt like, you know it's my favourite, so that is what I had, plus it was leftover from the girls night on Thursday and needed using up...suuuuure it did.....!

Until tomorrow my friends....have a wonderful, crazy night.