Chocolate, Oat and Raisin Cookies

HELLO! How is everyone? We just had a lovely sunny bank holiday here in Northern Ireland (hence why there is no meal plan Monday!). I spent the whole day in the garden planting, painting, playing with the pup and of course drinking a G&T or two! But today, I've got a really tasty recipe to share with you. These cookies are one of the best cookies I've ever made ( a very bold claim I know!) but they are just the perfect combination of crispy, soft and chewy, not to mention so easy to make. I made these one afternoon as I was really craving cookies but didn't have any eggs, and voila, such a yummy cookie was born. They are the perfect afternoon snack with a cup of tea or coffee. Or they would also be delicious with ice-cream sandwiched between them for an easy dessert. I really recommend you give 'em a try!

Ingredients

Makes about 10 big cookies

110g butter,

105g light brown sugar,

1tsp vanilla extract,

95g plain flour,

a pinch of salt,

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda,

30ml boiling water,

80g porridge oats,

40g ( a large handful) of raisins,

100g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for a fan oven. Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

2. Stir in the flour and salt.

3. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in boiling water and add to the mix along with the oats, raisins and chocolate chips.

4. Roll into 10 equal size balls and flatten each slightly on a baking try lined with baking paper. Make sure to spread the cookies out as they well spread in the oven.

5. Bake for 12 mins or until golden and crispy.

And there you go, a delicious cookie recipe to try! Let me know if you give them a go, I would love to know what you think! Until next time, thank you so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

How to Style your Dining Table for Spring

Hi all and welcome back to The Tea Cozy Kitchen. I hope you are all having a wonderful week. March is upon us and that means spring is right around the corner, hopefully! The sun has even made an appearance where I live, it's still freezing but at least it's showing it's face reminding us that it will be back soon. In light of this, I was inspired by Arhaus to share my spring tablescape ideas. So, today I will be showing you a couple of ways to style your dining table for spring. The dining table is the heart of the home in my opinion, well, it is in my house anyway. Decisions are made there, serious discussions had, laughs aplenty and of course delicious grub consumed, so it makes sense that we would want to dress this area a little for spring, bringing the colour into the home before it officially makes its debut outside. And with Easter on it's way there will surely be lots of family feasts and lunches to let your new tablescaping skills run wild.

Cue a lot of yellow daffodils (i'm obsessed with daffodils at the moment)...

I set my table up for a spring afternoon tea as this would be a great idea for Mother's Day or even Easter Sunday. Can you tell that I really love dressing my table and hosting foodie gatherings?

I love old teapots filled with fresh flowers, set on cake stands. You can have just one like in the picture or three on different heights of cake stands as an amazing centrepiece! I love this vintage china teapot that I found in a Charity shop. It even featured on tables at my wedding.

I really feel that tin cans are totally underrated. There are so many ways you can recycle them and they are completely FREE! I love them styled with ribbons and flowers and placed on stacks of vintage books!

Pretty glass jars can be recycled as well into cute little vases!

Spring is the perfect time to get out all your floral china to lend a little pop of colour to your table. Teacups and milk jugs can also act as mini vases when filled with fresh blooms.

Brightly coloured tablecloths are also a good way of brightening up a dark wood table for spring. Here I used a vintage floral tablecloth with a natural table runner from IKEA over the top. You only get a little of the floral pattern on either side of the table runner so it's not too much or too clashy!

I also like the idea of recycling old milk bottles with flowers and ribbons to dress the table. I'm all about recycling!

Another way of updating your dining area if you've got a wee bit of money to do so (unlike me!) you could invest in a new dining table or a new tableware set.  Arhaus have an amazing selection of dining tables and some beautiful tableware collections. I think when it comes to dining tables something big (if you have space for it) and light in colour is nice for spring, so you can entertain your whole family at once and have a lovely light coloured table with pops of bright florals. Here are some of my favourite dining tables...

Zinc Alloy Rectangle Table with Weldon Base

Pietro Dining Table in Bleached Oak

I would absolutely love this one, would be absolutely perfect with my house!

Copper Verdigris Rectangle Table with Weldon Base

Here are some of my favourite tableware sets...

Avignon White Dinnerware

Avignon Octagon Aqua Dinnerware

Oh be still my beating heart, these two colours would work perfectly together on my dream table above for a wonderful spring table scene.

If you would like any more inspiration, check out my Pinterest page, The Tea Cozy Kitchen, I have a whole board dedicated to my spring tablescape inspiration. I hope you enjoyed this post, it was something a little different for me. I would love to know any of your tips for decorating your spring tables, please do share them in the comments below. Thanks so much for reading,

Rachael xx.

5 Tips for Eating Healthily on a Budget

Happy Friday y'all! Today, i'm back sharing with you five tips to help you eat healthily on a budget. As my husband and I are trying to save for our first home, this is something that I find very interesting. These are just a few tips that I have learnt along the way that I thought I would share with you. Anywhere I can save money is great, if you have any tips please feel free to share in the comments. Firstly, before getting on with my tips, I would like to define what I mean by 'healthy'. In my case it means to eat everything in moderation, I see no need to cut out anything I enjoy like cake, chocolate, ice-cream, wine, beer, CHEESE, the list goes on and on. You've probably seen this in my what I eat in a day posts. My diet very much focusses on a huge variety of fruit, veg, wholegrain carbs, good quality meat and butter and of course, chocolate. But I do know that healthy diets are different to every person, this is just what I find 'healthy'. I have written a few other posts which may be helpful if you are trying to eat on a budget, have a wee read here and here if you need a few more pointers.  Anyway, let's get on with my tips...

1. Frozen vegetables and fruit are usually cheaper than fresh so they are a good place to start if you eat a lot of veg and want to save a good bit of money. It's a great idea to stock up on these veg as you can add them to lots of different meals to bulk them out. Another good idea when it comes to veg is to buy fruit and veg which are in season. Where I live, carrots, cabbage and potatoes are grown very easily and are therefore, very cheap.

2. As I have mentioned before, meal planning is a great thing to do to save a bit of money and eat healthily. Firstly, you will always have a healthy dinner in the house and won't be tempted to a cheeky take-away (although this does still happen, I assure you, just not as frequently!). And secondly, when you're planning your meals you can be selective about recipes you choose, choosing recipes with more veg. I always try and plan meals that have at least two portions of fruit and veg in them. It's also easy to switch in wholegrain carbs in place of white carbs in the meals.

3. Don't buy expensive superfood ingredients. These ingredients are amazing if you can afford them but there are many cheaper alternatives which are just as healthy but are nowhere near as expensive. I generally steer clear of things like quinoa or superfood powders as they are just so expensive, wholegrain rice and fresh fruit/veg are much cheaper and just as healthy.

4. A little bit of what you fancy is a great idea. I always have some chocolate in the house to have everyday, I find that it stops me wanting any big desserts or cakes. It's better to have a bit of chocolate everyday than to avoid it all week and then scoff a huge chocolate cake at the weekend, it's cheaper and healthier. A great swap to do is to have dark chocolate rather than milk, there is less sugar in it and it has been proven to be good for you (I definitely have heard this somewhere, I am right, right?). Because dark chocolate is so rich (70%+) you don't eat as much of it and it lasts longer than milk chocolate. I could definitely eat a huge bar of milk chocolate in one sitting and then another the next night, dark chocolate reduces the likelihood of this happening.

5. Eat vegetarian a few nights of the week. This is a great idea as you have to really bulk out meals with fruit, veg and healthy pulses and grains etc. This generally makes the meals cheaper and you get a variety of different fruit and veg in each meal. Doing this will also enable you to spend a wee bit more on better quality meat from your supermarket or butcher for your more meaty meals. Vegetarian meals are so different to the usual boring 'token vegetarian' option of restaurants, I love eating meat-free meals now as you have to work a wee bit harder with herbs and spices to give the meals as much flavour. My favourites are a veggie chilli with all the trimmings, soups, stir frys and big salads.

I hope you enjoyed reading these tips and you found them helpful. Again, if you have any tips, please do share them with me. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Having written this post on enjoying everything in moderation, I'm going to make some mars bar crispy buns for us to enjoy this weekend. I'm such a child, I've been dying to make these all week, ha! Thank you so much for reading,

Rachael xx.