Ultimate Cheese & Caramelised Onion Toastie {and 10 ways to spend family time together}

Happy new year to each and very one of you, and welcome back! 

The last couple of weeks have flown by as we've spent many hours eating and drinking in the company of friends and family, but it's now time to get back into a routine, and start enjoying some healthier eating.

Before all that though, there was still time at the weekend to enjoy an ultimate toastie, which was amazing. The boys had gone to football and myself and H enjoyed a couple of hours pottering around and making marshmallows.

We love a piece of smoked cheese, especially at Christmas, and the Applewood Slices were perfect in the toasties with my home made caramelised onion jam - a little bit of sweet and a little bit of smoke, and a hell of a lot of wow!

Ultimate Cheese & Caramelised Onion Toastie - serves 2

4 large slices of fresh crusty bread
1 pack of Applewood slices
butter
2 spoonfuls of caramelised onion jam

• heat a large non stick frying pan
• make a sandwich with the bread, some of the cheese, and the jam
• butter the outsides of the bread
• place the sandwiches on the pan and add a little of the remaining cheese on top
• cook for a couple of minutes before flipping over and again add cheese to the top
• cook for another couple of minutes before flipping over again - continue to do this until the cheese inside the sandwich is gooey and melted and the cheese on the outside is crispy and golden

Families don't always get chance to spend much quality time together, and ours is no exception, but how hard can it be to set aside one hour a week to do so? Whether you're an indoorsy or an outdoorsy family, here are ten ideas to enjoy some quality family time together, and maybe even enjoy a little cheese whilst doing so :

• go to the park
• go for a walk along the beach or into the woods
• play a board game, card game or family video game
• do some cooking
• play a ball game - football, basketball, tennis or golf
• visit a farm (or even the pet shop)
• do some crafting
• go to the library
• go for a bike ride
• have fun with science (lots of ideas here)

When we make the time to go, we really enjoy going to the forest, enjoying a ramble and a picnic together. I think we'll try and spend more Applewood hours in the forest during 2016, perhaps eating a toastie or two whilst we're there, or nibbling on a few of these morsels of perfection - new Applewood Nibbles.

The new Applewood bake might not be one to take to the forest, but it's perfect for dipping bread and crackers into whilst enjoying a game of cards or board game. Ooh, look at that gooey cheese!

How would you spend your #ApplewoodHours ?

post in collaboration with Applewood

Double Decker Chocolate & Banana Fluffernutter Toastie

During my time living in America I don't think I ever heard of a Fluffernutter sandwich, let alone tried one. If I'd discovered them during my first pregnancy I think I would've been hooked for sure as I had a sweet tooth then and craved Golden Syrup crispy cakes, and I couldn't find any Lyle's Golden Syrup for love nor money, and corn syrup didn't quite work as a replacement.

Anyway, if you've never heard of a Fluffernutter sandwich it's marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwiched between white bread. It's definitely a bit on the sweet side and not in the least bit healthy, so you wouldn't want to be popping them in the kids lunchboxes or the lunchbox police may have something to say about it. They work great as a quick dessert though, and are even better with an extra slice of bread, Nutella and banana.

You can either toast the bread or not, but as I'd just received a Breville 'toast to the top' 2 slice toaster to try out I decided to toast the bread.

For each toastie you'll need :

3 slices of bread, toasted
Marshmallow fluff
Peanut butter
Nutella
1 banana

• Spread one slice of toast with marshmallow fluff
• Spread another slice with peanut butter, and sandwich them together
• Spread Nutella on the top of the sandwich and top with banana slices
• Place the 3rd piece of toast on top of the banana

a perfectly toasted piece of toast

kids love them!

The Breville VTT570 is a perfect fit for all Warburtons bread - no white strips at the top of the toast with the slots deep enough for Warburtons Toastie bread. With the high lift facility it's also good for smaller slices, bagels or crumpets - avoiding burnt fingers trying to reach them out! There's also a lift & look facility making it possible to check the progress of your toast without interrupting the cycle - genius!

The toaster comes with either 2 or 4 slots, retailing at £34.99 & £59.99 respectively, from Breville.

I received the toaster for the purpose of this review

Leerdammer Toastie Challenge

You've got to love a toastie, there are so many fillings you can add, either sweet or savoury. I remember when we got our first toasted sandwich maker in the early 80's and my brother made me a surprise filling. I was expecting savoury but it was cornflakes and golden syrup! Not great when you're expecting to bite into cheese..

I can't say that I have ever tried that filling again, it definitely wasn't my cup of tea. If I have a toastie it has to be with cheese.

When Leerdammer sent me a package of goodies for a toastie challenge I knew that the first one on the menu would have to be my ultimate favourite cheese, chilli, mango chutney and banana. yes it may sound like a strange combination but it works and it works well.

Next up was a simple seasonal toastie of cheese and cranberry sauce. Fruit and cheese is a great combo and in a toastie it all melts together, mmmmm.

Among the ingredients I was sent in the package was a lovely Chorizo sausage, some mushrooms and Tabasco sauce. I fried the chorizo and mushroom for a few minutes before adding a few dashes of Tabasco and adding to the sandwich with a slice of Leerdammer.

Leerdammer Toastie is a mild and creamy cheese sliced perfectly to fit into your toastie and is priced at £1.75 from major supermarkets for a pack of 6 slices.

I was sent samples of Leerdammer toastie along with a toasted sandwich maker and a few ingredients to use in this challenge

The Best Toastie...EVER

A couple of weeks ago I attended a cooking event in London hosted by Warburtons. It was all about the sandwich and ways to be creative and make them more exciting, whether it be open or closed, brown or white, toasted or not.

There was a huge amount of ingredients to choose from, fresh meats and cheeses, fruits and vegetables and all the condiments you could dream of (well almost), along with Warburtons square(ish) wraps and sandwich thins

Our challenges were to create sandwiches, using the ingredients available, along the themes of 'flavour pairings', 'British with a twist' and 'International sandwiches'. There were some really interesting combinations and flavours created, including chocolate & bacon (oddly nice), mango salsa and roast beef, fish & chips to name a few.

My sandwiches were :

• Hot peppers, beef and chocolate
• Cheese & Pickle with a twist - Mozzarella and Lime Pickle
• Brie, Walnut, Honey & Rocket
• PB & J stack - with a twist as there was no jam so I used cranberry sauce instead, which is a good alternative at Christmas!
• My all time favourite toastie - Banana, Cheese, Chilli & Mango Chutney. This may sound very odd but it is amazing and one that I eat quite often. It was met with scepticism at first but one bite changed their minds and amazingly it was awarded first prize!

I even managed to convince the taxi driver that it was the best toastie ever and he said he couldn't wait to get home and make one.

The following day, armed with some Warburtons square wraps I made one for my lunch. If you do fancy being brave and trying it for yourself you will need the following :

2 slices of bread or square wrap

1 banana, sliced

cheddar cheese, sliced

a few slices of fresh chilli (or dried chilli flakes)

Mango chutney

• Lay the ingredients onto one slice of bread or on 1/3 of the wrap
• Lay another slice of bread on top, or fold the wrap over to enclose the ingredients
• Place in a sandwich toaster, panini press or in a frying pan and cook until the cheese has melted
• Enjoy!

I received expenses to allow me to attend the event, as well as some samples