Pinoy Hubby

Restaurant name : Chiquito Mexican restaurant and bar Location : Leicester Square, London Description: Mexican restaurant chain; the Leicester Square branch is big and noisy with quite cramped tables and such low lighting I had to use the torch app on my phone to read the menu! The restaurant does breakfast and cocktails as well as lunch and dinner. Reason for visit : We needed a quick dinner after work before seeing a show on Leicester Square; I'd never been to a Chiquito's so it seemed a good opportunity to try the chain. I ate : We didn't order a starter but were brought a bowl of popcorn flavoured with what I think was cheese; it was unusual but really quite good. I decided for my main course to try a Chimichanga - a tortilla filled with spiced rice, (I asked for it without the Mexican beans), cheese, and shredded chicken, then the whole thing is deep fried. It was served with a generous portion of fries and three dips. My companion ate : A burger, of course... he ne...

Restaurant name : Kensington Creperie Location : South Kensington, London Description : Cafe/restaurant offering both savoury and sweet-filled crepes and ice cream Reason for visit : I am part of a choir that performs concerts three times a year in some pretty amazing venues, so for the first time in November I sang in the Royal Albert Hall! My parents, my boyfriend and his mum all came to see the concert and I needed to find somewhere we could have a quick dinner after my rehearsal finished at 6 before I needed to be back on stage at 7, so this seemed the best bet. I ate : A ham and cheese crepe. I got there late and ordered without even looking at the menu as I knew they would have this flavour! My companions are : Not entirely sure as the others had eaten before I arrived; my mum said she had eaten a chicken and mushroom crepe, which was very nice, and my boyfriend's mum had a salad. The food was : good - mine was nothing fancy but my mum really liked hers. The atmosphere/serv...

I spent quite a bit of time last week going through recipe books and Slimming World magazines to come up with some healthy options, though I have factored in burgers one night as I need a night off from cooking. Monday Breakfast yogurt Lunch leftover pasta bake Dinner Late home after gym: Slimming World Vietnamese chicken and noodle stir fry Tuesday Breakfast yogurt or porridge and fruit Lunch pasta Dinner Slimming World sticky pork with orange and baby spinach for me; chicken in piri piri breadcrumbs from the local butcher for my boyfriend. Note to self: cook extra pork for tomorrow. Wednesday Breakfast yogurt or porridge and fruit Lunch pork and bbq sauce sandwich Dinner Home late - after work drinks with my new colleagues from the company I am joining next month. Not sure what time I will get home so I will either get something on the way home or have pasta when I get in. Thursday Breakfast yogurt Lunch chicken and pesto soft cheese sandwich Dinner Thai fi...

Restaurant name: Peggy Porschen Parlour Location : Ebury Street, Belgravia, London Description : A sugar-sweet pink tea and cupcake shop serving cakes from Peggy Porschen's bakery. The outside is painted pink and the window displays are beautiful. There are only a handful of tables inside and a few outside as well, so it's worth remembering this is not a big place. The chairs are upright metal so not quite the same as settling down on a plush sofa for afternoon tea - this is not the sort of place you'd sit for hours, more pop in for a piece of cake and a cup of tea. While Belgravia is a fairly posh bit of London but this is only a few minutes walk from Victoria station which is convenient. Reason for visit: I went to a Christmas market in Elizabeth Street just around the corner in December, with my friend and her five-year-old daughter. She was very keen to go here because it was so pretty and pink and to be honest I felt the same! We had : Tea and cake. The parlour has...

I made this vegetable curry for dinner on New Year's Day as I thought it would be a nice healthy start to the year (and I was cooking for my boyfriend's mum, who is vegetarian). The recipe comes from a book I picked up in the charity shop called The Creative Vegetarian Cookbook. I was surprised that the title was so generic, as curries are so popular these days they are always named after the region or have a proper name like bhuna, tikka masala etc, rather than just "Indian curry". I didn't think the book was that old even when I saw the publication date was 1996, until I remembered I was still at school that year and it was 18 years ago! So maybe the name can be excused.... in any case it was a very tasty dish. I haven't come across the use of milk in a curry before either - these days you are much more likely to see coconut milk, but if you use skimmed milk instead of coconut milk it's a good way of reducing the fat in a curry. To serve 4, you need: 2...

I'm trying to eat more veg this month, and I also wanted to use up some cheese from Christmas, so I decided broccoli and stilton soup would be a great idea. I am a pretty fussy eater and don't like a lot of veg, so had an idea of sneaking some hidden veg... into my own food! My theory was that if I couldn't see it, and hopefully couldn't taste it, I wouldn't mind eating it. Courgette (zucchini) seemed a good option! I can only give rough quantities for this recipe as it depends how thick you like your soup. To serve 3/4 you need: 1 head broccoli about 100g stilton or 6 Laughing Cow Light blue cheese triangles about 1 pint vegetable stock half a courgette (zucchini) salt, pepper crispy bacon pieces to serve (optional) Chop the broccoli into florets And slice the courgette You can either use leftover Stilton... ... or if you want to make this soup low fat and Slimming World friendly, use Laughing Cow Light Blue Cheese. Bring the vegetable stock to th...

Restaurant name : Cafe Rouge Location : High Street, Epsom Description : Mid-priced French restaurant chain Reason for visit: We went to the cinema to see the Hunger Games, and didn't have much time before the film started. When that is the case, we often go to Pizza Hut on the high street, so I was very surprised to find it had closed down, apparently due to lack of business! Cafe Rouge was a little further along the road and it had been a long time since we'd been to one. I ate : Burger and fries, £10.95 My companion ate : The same The food was : The burger was quite thin, and we weren't asked how we wanted it cooked which was surprising for a French restaurant that specializes in steak. The toasted brioche bun was a nice change but overall I've definitely had better burgers. The atmosphere/service was : Nice, the restaurant was decorated for Christmas and it was very cosy - perhaps a little too cosy as the tables were very close together. It was hard to squ...

Contestants on this year's Great British Bake Off were asked to make floating islands, a recipe I recently came across in the Macmillan Little Book of Treats. The charity cookbook features recipes from a selection of celebrities, some chefs and some TV personalities, as well as a handful of amateur food bloggers - including me! Dolly Parton submitted a recipe called Floating Islands in the Stream (get it?) and I decided to try making it. This particular version is served in a chocolate custard. The recipe also gives instructions to make a chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top but I decided against making that due to lack of time. To serve 6, you need: For the chocolate custard: 4 egg yolks 150g caster sugar pinch of salt 500ml milk 60ml double cream 125g dark chocolate, melted 2 tsp vanilla flavouring meringue islands: 4 egg whites 170g caster sugar Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and salt for the chocolate custard until creamy - I used my KitchenAid to do the job. Next,...

Restaurant name : Nando's Location : Mile End Road, Whitechapel, London Description : Chain of South African restaurants serving chicken and chicken burgers Reason for visit : Lunch during a team building day with work colleagues - we were gardening at a children's centre and went for lunch nearby. I ate : chicken breast fillet burger in the lime and herb marinade (I don't really like spicy food) with a slice of halloumi and fries My companions ate : Most people had burgers but several of them went for the extra hot marinade, which my boss likes so much that I took him a bottle when he moved back to America and I went to visit our office there! We also had one vegetarian in the group who had a beanie burger; there is more than one veggie option which is good. The food was : The chicken is good quality and tasty and the baps are 'proper' bread. I'm not sure I would bother having the halloumi with the chicken burger again though as it's quite salty a...

This recipe is from a Slimming World magazine; my boyfriend loves chicken burgers so I thought I would try to make my own so it would be as healthy as possible. This turned out really well and he was very impressed! To serve 2, you need: 2 chicken breasts 1 tsp curry powder half a carrot, grated bread rolls to serve Chop the chicken in a food processor until you have mince Grate the carrot and mix in, along with the curry powder. Shape into patties and grill or oven cook for about 15 mins I cut into one to check it was cooked; the curry powder gives the burgers a pink colour so it's hard to tell from the outside when they are ready. Serve in a bread roll, and enjoy! I'd already written this post when I saw that Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy have come up with a great blog challenge- Extra Veg. The idea is to include an extra portion of veg in any recipe or meal - so these burgers with their hidden grated carrot are perfect (and...