Im still here :)

Assalamalikum and hellos to all you lot out there..

so its been far too long as someone mentioned in my last post.. January seems so far away when I got my lower braces put on. I want to blame it on the fact that blogger wont allow me to use a gmail address (which is just silly!) so I wont use blogger on my phone. However, its more than just that! I could come up with a million excuses but instead I will just fill you in on the last four nearly five months.

Can you believe its almost June already?? Half way through the year!! SubhanAllah... so whats been going on.. well braces are still on! A few adjustments have been made and Im very pleased with the results so far, so is my orthodontist who says he sees no reason why they shouldnt be off around September as planned :) Alhamdulillah, so Im really praying that it all goes smoothly from now on. I had a few problems last month with the wire sticking into the inside of my mouth, but the wire has been changed to a less flexible one now and my new mouth is coming along nicely :) I just remembered I have some photos of my molds on my phone of my teeth before, maybe Ill upload them later insha'Allah

There hasnt really been anything big happening to be honest, Chilli Tomato has found himself a new job alhamdulillah at Morrisons (supermarket) he starts today, so Im looking forward to seeing how that works out. After his probation he will be earning generally the same amount as his old job, for less hours and there is hardly any commute. 0.8 miles instead of 8 miles alhamdulillah. He rides his new bike, oh yeah, he bought a hybrid bike (mountain bike frame, racer wheels) after buying our mountain bikes purely for work reasons, to work and it takes him about 10minutes if that!! so hes very happy. He realised there is a gym that hes been to before and he liked just next door to his workplace AND there is a mosque around the corner Alhamdulillah!! Hes even more up to actually moving to the area, which would mean closer for me too when Im going to work at 0230... trust me, an extra 5 minutes in bed makes a world of difference!!!

In May we took a family holiday to North Wales, my old next door neighbour has a caravan there and they allowed us to use it for a little while :) It was amazing masha'Allah.. our first proper holiday together away from family :) We climbed Mount Snowdon, went to a mountain bike park, strolled along the beach.. It was quite an active holiday and I was suprised at how refreshed I came away from it all really, Im glad I married this guy partly for the reason that he is so active masha'Allah.. He has opened me up to many experiences since we married in 2009 and Im grateful to Allah (subhana wa ta'ala) for that. We share so many more hobbies now.. I got him into snowboarding and photography and he got me into mountain biking :) prefect combinations masha'Allah

Ive recently bought a kindle (well my mum will tell you she bought it for my birthday but whatever! ;P) and Im in love.. Ive been reading soo much since I got it (feel free to check me out at my Goodreads profile :)
Also, Ive started meal planning :) Im thoroughly enjoying cooking new things (I decided to cook at least 2 new things every plan), our plan is for 2 weeks and its settling into a good routine alhamdulillah.

Insha'Allah when I get a minute free I will upload some photos from whats been happening since I last wrote :) Wish I could upload my instagram photos onto blogger, like you can with facebook and twitter.. would make things good too :D

Anyways, time to get back to work I think.....
Keep commenting :)
Fi amenAllah
Ammena

Almond cookies

115g plain flour
175g icing sugar
50g chopped almonds
115g unsalted butter

Oven at 180 degrees/ 350F/ Gas mark 4
Combine flour, sugar, and almonds in bowl
Add softened butter to mixture and mix until a dough is formed
Roll onto lightly floured surface to about 3mm thickness
Cut about 24 cookies, re-rolling dough when needed
Place on baking sheet, leaving space inbetween
Bake until golden for about 25 minutes
Leave on sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack

Decorate with sifted icing sugar and halved almonds

Coconut biscuit recipe

I have previously given this out to a sister but it was on facebook and not as public so here goes.
Recipe makes about 16 biscuits
Oven 180 degrees celcius
100g shredded/ dessicated coconut
100g plain flour
100g oats
75g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tbsp golden syrup
2tbsp hot water

Mix flour, sugar, oats and coconut in bowl. Melt cubed butter and syrup in a pan, when melted in separate vessel mix bicarbonate and hot water together. Then add to butter, mixture should fizz in pan. Add melted mixture to bowl of other ingredients and mix well. Making small balls of the mixture with your hands, place on lined baking trays and cook on top shelf for about ten minutes. Not usually that long so keep an eye on them until golden brown

Enjoy and I look forward to pictures and your opinions of the recipe. Hubby doesn't want me to change anything, but would u add any other ingredients? Fill me in
Fi amenallah
Peace and salams,
Ammena
Via BlogPress on her pretty cute iPhone

Coconut macaroons

Yummy. HubbyA added them to his love list yesterday. On my facebook a sister asked when I would be moving away from coconut and onto cakes. Well hubbyA loves coconut which is one reason for the coconut. I read her comment to him, his comment? 'yeh, when?' men eh lol. Gotta love em, anyways.... Recipe to follow insha'Allah.





Ammena
Via BlogPress on her pretty cute iPhone

Rocky Mountain cookies

I liked them, hubbyA likes the coconut biscuits the best so far. I think I will be making a few batchs of these to take with me, I had one problem with them being very soft but I think its due to the fact that I couldnt cool them properly as I dont have a cooling rack. Im borrowing one from a girl in work so insha'Allah the next set will turn out ok :D What dya think? I thought they were yummy!!!
I made flapjacks today, they were a disaster, there wasnt enough sticky mixture to cover the mass of oats the recipe called for. So when they came out the oven the top was browned nicely from underneath when I let them cool was dry and crumbly. HubbyA likes them after never tasting them before, but I know what they are supposed to taste like, and this isnt it!!!
So Im going to make the meringues in the morning before I go for work (just noticed Im supposed to leave them for 1.5 hours in the oven!!! then maybe Ill make the coconut biscuits when I get home from work, as I know how long they take and what I have to do. Then thats less to do wednesday night in the world of baking, maybe Ill try a different recipe of flapjacks that calls for less sugar and less oats... does anyone have a flapjack recipe thats tried and tested?

Baking days

So I decided I might take up a few treats to my family in Liverpool when we drive up next week, and instead of making them the night before I thought to test them out before hand. Theres a few recipes of things I wanted to make so off we went to Tooting today and bought a whole load of things including bakes things like a whisk, baking tins and what not. When we got back after Asr I started on these coconut cakes (photo care of hubbyA) they were a little hard to get from mixture in the bowl to somewhat round specimens on the baking trays but alhamdulillah they turned out pretty good. I would have liked them sweeter but hubbyA reckons they are just to his taste so maybe we have a balance. Im just glad I got one recipe tried out, so look out for future tries this week too which include flapjacks (although he doesnt want them) rocky road cookies, mini muffins and peppermint meringues.
Tonight we are thinking to settle in with a pizza and try to find a good dvd, although I am currently being 'watched' to get off his laptop so he can play some game *rolls eyes*
Adios chicas
Peace and salams
Ammena