Blogmas #22 - 5 minute mince pies!

Ok these are not technically mince pies as such. But they are made from pastry and mincemeat so they're the same really (and they look prettier in my opinion)

I stole the idea for these mince pie swirls from a friend of mine. They take 5 minutes to prepare, taste delicious and make the house smell amazing. They're basically the perfect mummy-friendly Christmas bake. 

Ingredients: 

- Ready rolled puff pastry

- Jar of mincemeat 

Unroll the pastry so it's laid out flat and spread the mincemeat evenly across it. 

Then roll it back up, cut into half inch pieces and place the swirls on a baking tray. 

Brush with milk and bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and voila --- perfect mince pie swirls! **

If you give these a go, be sure to post a picture on Instagram and tag me @nearlyyummymummy. 

Happy Blogmas! X

**DISCLAIMER** these are very more-ish and you may find yourself accidentally eating the whole plate full before anyone else gets a look in. 

Our week in pictures #1

When I decided to start doing a recap blog post of what we have been up to each week and I had no idea how much fun it would be! Looking back at the photos I took this week and remembering what did was lovely and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this post! 

Now I am back at work the weeks just seems to whizz by in the blink of an eye and before I know it we're starting all over again. 

This week has been lovely and full of friends. We had some of my favourite people round at the beginning of the week and made my sweet potato hash recipe for brunch. The recipe is up on my blog - it is the perfect autumn/winter meal and is super tasty as well as being healthy! 

This week it was also Mr yummy mummy's birthday (his first as a daddy!) so we had presents and cards and lots and lots of cake! Unfortunately Luke got a little bit excited about the card and decided he wanted to eat the envelope - we went with it and pretended the soggy patches were kisses! I realised on the day that Luke wouldn't be able to try any of the cake because of his CMPA, so next year I'm going to find a good dairy free cake recipe and make one so he doesn't feel left out. If you have any good ones please let me know! 

We met up mid week for coffee with Granny and Grandad which is one of Luke's favourite things to do. We are very blessed to have my parents near by which means Luke gets to see a lot of them. He absolutely adores them (and they are besotted with him - they're very dotey Grandparents!)

We also got to see Auntie Anna this week - We don't get to see her a huge amount as she is a mega cool and very busy 17 year old! 

She came over on Thursday to read bedtime stories and Luke absolutely loved it. He settled like a dream so I have told my sister she has to come and do bedtime every night! 

And then we were suddenly back at Friday and Saturday which are my working mummy days. I was run off my feet both days with customers buying beautiful jewellery. However it made me realise how behind I am on my Christmas shopping - I haven't even started making lists of who I need to buy for yet! You know you're disorganised when even the men are beating you to it! 

We also had a big first this week - Luke has cut his first two teeth! (which explains why he's been such a grump recently)

You can already see his face shape changing. I got all emotional as my little baby has gone and he's starting to turn into a little boy! It's scary how fast they grow up and I am determined to make more of an effort to savour every second of it. 

That was our week - next week I am getting my first set of Christmas nails done which I am super excited about. So keep an eye on my Instagram for pictures! 

Autumn brunch - Sweet potato hash recipe

My friend and I recently started to have brunch dates at our houses as our obsession with brunch was getting to be a bit of an expensive habit! As we are both trying to eat more healthily (whilst secretly devouring giant bars of Galaxy just before bed) we decided to come up with a tasty paleo recipe for our upcoming brunch date. Together we came up with the most amazingly delicious sweet potato hash recipe ever created. It's super easy, mega tasty and as if you needed further convincing, it's really healthy! Perfect for yummy mummy brunch dates.

Sweet potato hash recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients:

Half a large brown onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4 rashers of smoked bacon

2 medium sweet potatoes

3 medium free range eggs

Method:

• First pre-heat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC (fan)/gas mark 6/7. 
• Chop the sweet potato into cubes (leaving the skin on), put in a roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil.

•  Put these in the oven and cook for 30 minutes until the skins are slightly crispy.

• While the sweet potato is cooking fry the onions, garlic and bacon in a little olive oil until the onions are soft and the bacon starts to crisp up. Once the sweet potato is ready, add these ingredients to the roasting tray and mix together.

• Lastly crack the three eggs into the sweet potato hash, spacing them out evenly and put back into the oven for a final 4 minutes. You can modify this time depending on how you like your eggs - I personally like them a little bit runny so the yolk mixes in to the rest of the ingredients when you cut it open.

• with a spatula or fish slice, divide into quarters and serve. 

Let me know what you think - If you decide to give the recipe a go please post a picture on Instagram and tag me in it @Nearlyyummymummy. I'd love to see your yummy mummy brunches!