Fingers Friday

BBC Good Food Pizza Florentine

We all have our little traditions, whether they are personal or even family ones. In this household after an extremely busy and trying week we have Fingers Friday.

The last meal of the working week is what I would call a blessing for it is eaten with our fingers and if I think I can get away with it no plates or glasses either to wash up.

It is not the most nutritious meal of the week in fact I would say it has almost no nutrients in it at all but boy! Oh boy! is it delicious; finger lickin’ good.

I don’t drop standards too much so it is not a ready-made product nor is it a take-away though, of course, you can do those if you so wish and I admit, that I have succumbed in the past, when I have been seriously pushed.

No the last meal of a Friday is home-made Pizza eaten in front of the box and washed down with something naughty such as a cider for me and, shock horror, fizzy drinks for the boys.

It’s a meal we love to make and spend hours mulling over. Will German Salami be nicer than Frankfurter sausages and do either go with mango? Should one use goat’s cheese, cheddar, mozzarella and brie on the same base or should one stick to one cheese only.

It doesn’t matter as we all have our own. Although with that in mind you inevitably have to share as you get great cries and exclamations when everybody looks at your offering and decides that it looks much better than theirs

 “What does yours taste like?

“Yours looks better than mine.”

“I don’t like Gherkins on this!”

“I wanted pineapple not grapes!”

In the end we all land up sharing. However, being generous I give you a top tip if you want to eat your own Pizza in peace opt for the spinach and Florentine egg –it looks so unappetising that my boys refuse to even contemplate it.

For a real fab Pizza Florentine  check out the BBC Good Food site here! Or just follow this:

Ingredients:

1x Pizza base ( or make your own like me in the bread maker)

For Sauce

1x 400ml tin chopped tomatoes

Clove of garlic

Finely chopped onions

Squirt of Sundried tomato paste

1 tsp of sugar

Salt 

Pepper

Handful of herbs de Provence or herbs to your liking

For Topping

Couple of handfuls of fresh spinach (or frozen)

Nutmeg

Butter

Salt

Eggs

To make sauce:

Chop and sauté onions and garlic till lightly golden and soft

Add tomatoes

Season

Add sundried tomato paste

Add herbs

Simmer until nicely thick. 

Florentine Topping

Wilt spinach with butter and nutmeg to taste do not overcook or it tastes yucky

Smear pizza sauce onto base. Pop into oven.

Drain spinach of all fluid extremely important or else you get a soggy pizza.

Add spinach topping and hollow out dips for egg. Crack eggs into dip and pop back in oven for about 4 - 6 minutes until the eggs are backed.

I like to leave my yolks runny but only if I am eating with a knife and fork. It is NOT a good idea to eat runny yolks in front of the TV as you tend to get it all over your front...

Enjoy!

I've eaten half a pizza and I think I'm going to be sick...

I've eaten half a pizza and I think I'm going to be sick. It's not that I've eaten too much, it's just the enormity of how I did it. I was  like a ravenous dog whose master is just about to come in through the door and catch me at it. I am sure it's not a good thing to bolt food like that.
Now I am trying to work out WHY?
Of late I have been so well controlled about food but today has been one of those days. I had to eat. It started off so well with bacon and eggs but by the time I got back off the school run I had to have 2 stale ginger biscuits (they should be called snaps but  they hardly do that after two weeks in the cookie jar). I love stale ginger biscuits, so much nicer than the fresh crunchy ones, they remind me of cake mixture. I should have restricted myself to 'just the one' but the temptation was just way too strong. I lumbered on until lunchtime when I bolted a small bowl of pasta and pesto left over from the boys' supper the night before with a hunk of bread and again fell into temptation with the last two ginger biscuits
Everything OK until the boys' supper tonight when I was revoltingly like the Wickedest Whippet. I mean I positively growled at the children as we fought over the last peices and I wolfed down all their crusts. The dogs were MOST put out.
To assuage my guilt I ate three clementines.
Now looking back at the amount of food I ate today I see it's really rather lacking in the old green stuff stakes and a tad high on the old carbs but in my defence I needed it, I was hungry and tired, oh and stressed. I gather not a good combo when you are trying to lose weight.
I think I had better start again right now with a relaxing bath and a good book, perhaps I will be calm enough not to eat again when my husband gets in from work. I know he likes me to have supper with him but today he'll have to lump it. I will not sympathy eat just to keep him company.
The piazza keeps repeating itself and I feel kinda bloated...eeew, pardon me, I won't say what happened just then but I feel an awful lot better now.
Off to soak in my bath and dream of celery sticks....