Herb and Cheese Scones

I've been experiencing high blood pressure since Luke was born last year, well it actually started at 38 weeks pregnant and it hasn't returned to normal yet, in fact it's quite high. I'll have to wear a 24 hour blood pressure monitor next week to get a better handle on it. However in the meantime I'm trying to make some changes to help it as well like less stress (easier said than done!), more physical activity (thanks to our new family member, Murphy the dog this is going well) and changing my diet. I've switched to low fat / skimmed products and really have to watch my salt in take, I have a ridiculous craving for salt, its scary. This seems to be my doctors main cause for concern. It just so happens that my mum has a cook book for everything including recipes that are high blood pressure friendly. So I've been experimenting and wanted to share the recipes here in case there is anyone else who may find them helpful :)

Ingredients:

9oz Self Raising Flour
1/4 tsp Bread Soda
1 1/2 oz Butter
1 tblsp Snipped Fresh Chives (Or dried chives if you don't have fresh)
1/4 tsp Rosemary (or whatever herbs you prefer)
2oz Cheese, cheddar, mozzarella whichever you fancy but reduced fat
175ml Buttermilk
1 Egg White, lightly beaten

Method:

• Pre heat oven the 230 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with parchment paper or lightly coat with cooking spray
• Mix together the flour, herbs and bread soda in a large bowl
• Rub the butter in until mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs
• Stir in half of the cheese (I did a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella)
• Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the buttermilk
• Mix with a fork until a soft sticky dough forms. I found I had to add a bit more buttermilk here 
• Drop heaping teaspoons of the dough on to the baking tray, or grab a small handful and put it on the tray like I did. You get about 15 scones out of this. I did them a bit small so made the next batch bigger and got 7 scones out of the mixture.
• Brush them with egg white and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
• Bake for approx 12 minutes or until golden 

These are lovely just out of the oven with some unsalted butter or served cooled down with a slice of ham.