Ricotta & Courgette

1st May 2017

I should be better at writing this blog in a timely fashion...

So more salady recipes as we enter summer! First, we got a big slab of ricotta cheese and topped it with honey, lemon zest and chilli powder and baked it in the oven.

Meanwhile, I finely chopped some pepper, chilli, spinach and added some courgette spaghetti to a bowl.

When the cheese was supposed to be browning on top (the honey was getting golden I guess...?), I added the pistachios for a further few minutes to roast.

Finally this was all mixed together with a little pesto to create a creamy salad. It was a great lunch option for a couple of days, although pretty high in calories when you think about the cheese and nuts. Proteinous!

Black Eyed Bean Stew with Herb Smash

30th April 2017

I'm really into spicy food right now so I quite fancied giving this one a go. 

To start, the leek was chopped very finely and fried gently in some coconut oil. After a few minutes, chilli and garlic were added too. I included some mushrooms and courgette for additional veggie goodness. 

When the veg was beginning to brown, the black eyed beans and passata were added to the pan along with the juice from half a lemon. I chopped the remains of the lemon into segments and put them in the pan for flavour whilst the stew simmered. 

Meanwhile, I made the "herb smash". Fresh coriander, green chillis, garlic, honey, sunflower oil and lemon juice were put into a blender and blitzed together. Chopped walnuts went in next for a light blitz to create a smooth green paste. Although I perhaps put in too much oil since it was a little on the runny side. I also stirred in extra pine nuts for good measure. 

Finally, once the passata had reduced significantly, I mixed in chopped spinach for the last couple of minutes. 

This was served in a bowl with the herby dressing on top, along with some pitta bread. Despite the three chillis in here, it wasn't spectacularly spicy. I will have to add extra chilli flakes when I reheat the rest. Really need that spice kick at the moment!

Carrot Cake

22nd April 2017

For my boyfriend's birthday, I baked one of his favourites - carrot cake. I borrowed the recipe from his sister, Kerry the Lady of Cakes: https://theladyofthecakes.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/carrot-cake-cupcakes/

It was a pretty simple cake recipe to do, and a good one to do after so long away from my cake tins. First, the wet ingredients were combined in the mixer, the butter, eggs and sunflower oil. Next the grated carrot, raisins and orange zest were mixed in, and I included some of the orange juice too. 

Finally, the flour, bicarbonate of soda, nutmeg and cinnamon were mixed in until smooth. The cake batter was quite runny but this is apparently fine. Instead of cupcakes, I poured the mixture into two sandwich tins to make a larger sandwich cake. 

This was baked for 40mins which my oven decided to brown a little too much! Thankfully nothing was damaged. 

While the cakes cooled, I made up the cream cheese frosting. I've never ever been good at frosting, even following recipes to the letter. This was no exception! I beat the butter with a wooden spoon until fluffy and then mixed in the icing sugar to made a slightly crumbly consistency - so far so good! Then I added in the cream cheese bit by bit until about two thirds quantity to make the frosting. It was juuuuust turning too runny at this point. I just don't even...

I trimmed a bit off the top of one of the cakes to make a flat top, spread in a third of the frosting and lay the second cake on top. The rest of the frosting was spread over the top with a palette knife and the cake was put into the fridge to help the frosting set...and prevent the top sliding off!!

The cake was delicious, and I thank Kerry for the fantastic recipe. It went down a treat with Carl and we devoured the thing in less than 3 days! 

Quinoa, Plantain and Flapjack - Welcome back!

27th March 2017

Hi blog-face!! It's been again. I've been so bad at quick starchy meals lately. I just got back from a week in Italy and boy do I need to purge my body and eat vegetables again. 

I've been using my newest cook book lately (insert name) which has tonnes of recipe trees to create salad and goodness bowls. This is an excellent idea and means you can work from the same page for multiple meals. 

But tonight I tried something a little Caribbean. I miss the Caribbean!

To start I weighed out the quinoa, adding twice as much water and a stock cube and left it to summer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile the tin of black eye beans was put in a pan with some chilli powder and cinnamon and slowly boiled off the liquid. And in a larger pan, the leeks and mushrooms were sautéed.

Next I peeled and stoned the avocados and mashed them in a bowl with lime juice and chilli powder. Once the beans had reduced down I mashed these slightly in another bowl. 

Finally the plantains were peeled and sliced and gently fried on either side. I've had plantains before and they were super sweet and soft, but mine just got harder. I added a little water and salt to the pan to soften and flavour it a bit. It mostly had the texture of potato than banana. Maybe I need to try this again for the sweeter flavour. 

Dinner was assembled with the quinoa in the bottom, a spoonful of beans and leeks, topped with some plantains and finally the guac. It was quite tasty overall, and very different to anything I'd made before which was exciting. I realised it was 100% vegan also which was an added surprise.

But also, let me tack onto this post the flapjacks I made for the work bake sale the other week. Far beyond healthy I made double quantities, meaning there was 500g butter and 500g sugar in one large pan and I almost had a heart attack looking at it! I made an orange marmalade flapjack, so added some orange zest and juice to the mixture, and finally drizzled marmalade syrup all over the top for a beautifully sticky topping. 

Slightly Spiced Sweet Potato and Chickpea Quinoa

 17th January 2017

Remaining on the health kick this week also and exploring my new cookbook. I'm working my way through the "15 minute meals" which do take closer to 30 minutes...so who knows how long the 30 minutes - 1 hour will take when we get there!

To start, I fried some jumbo spring onions in some coconut oil. Small cubes of sweet potato and carrot was added to the pan and fried for 5 minutes, then went in the chickpeas and turmeric which was all fried for a little while longer.

Meanwhile the quinoa was added to a pan of boiling water with a stock cube and left to simmer until all the liquid was gone. Today I figured out that a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water makes the best quinoa.

The creamed coconut was dissolved in a jug of boiling water, which was then stirred in with the veg and left to simmer.

Finally, the spring greens were added to the pan and cooked for a few minutes until soft. This was served out on top of the quinoa. It was a deliciously mild coconuty dinner that fed me for a few days. I might be back on board with quinoa!

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Later in the week I used up the remaining sweet potatoes by baking them and having them with soft cheese and veg. I'm enjoying being healthy again!

Spicy Cauliflower, Paneer and Pea Rotis

9th January 2017

I enjoyed rotis so much whilst in Barbados last summer, that I'm not sure why its taken this long to make my own. I used another recipe from my new book which was exciting and it was different yet just as nice as the Bajan rotis.

To start I fried a bunch of spring onions in coconut oil. Which was fine. And then I screwed up the recipe a little. I added the frozen peas to the pan (which I shouldn't have done) in a bid to save on the washing up. When these were thawed and cooked I tipped out the whole lot and attempted to mash them as per the recipe. I think the spring onions should have been kept separate.

The mashing failed somewhat, so I just stirred in the chilli, coriander and lemon juice in a separate bowl and put to one side.

More coconut oil was added to the pan along with small cauliflower florets, turmeric and curry powder. Next I threw in cubes of paneer cheese to fry until the veg was softened.

I warmed up the rotis in the microwave and then added the curried cheese and veg, topped with the pea and chilli mix and finally some freshly chopped mint and coriander. It was the perfect post-gym tea.

One Pot Spaghetti

4th January 2017

Happy New Year!! Its January and therefore its time for a health kick and therefore better cooking and more exercise. I've started the year with all the gym classes and I have a brand new pan and a brand new cook book for dinner inspiration: A Modern Way To Cook by Anna Jones. This first recipe is from page 1.

The first instruction was to put the spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, lemon zest and juice in a pan with a litre of water, some oil and salt. This was brought to the boil and left to simmer for a short time. I added some mushrooms also.

Once the pasta had begun to soften, I added handfuls of kale at a time and stirred it into the spaghetti pot. This was cooked with the lid off to allow the water to continue to boil off. 

This was absolutely easy peasy to do and was served out as soon as the water was pretty much all gone. I topped the pasta with some fresh basil. Despite being a recipe for 4-6, I ended up with 7 portions and will be eating spaghetti for a week! Delicious.