Easy peasy (almost) cheesey pasta - dairy free baby led weaning supper

One of the advantages of baby led weaning is that by and large Harry eats what we do. Today that included salmon with this couscous salad. However, sometimes I've either entirely lost inspiration or we're going to be eating something unsuitable. There's actually very little we eat that's wholly unsuitable but sometimes a spicy chilli, curry or something nutty might be on the menu and on those occaisions I do need a quick go-to for Harry.

For these reasons I have a  drawer of the freezer stocked up with portions of chicken couscous, tomato and butternut squash pasta sauce, and my dairy free brocolli pesto. However, even they require defrosting and yesterday I completely failed to get anything out. I know. Mum of the year right here!

From somewhere in my head popped the phrase - Easy, peasy cheesey pasta - a tribute to Bing bunny if ever I heard one. We love Bing bunny in this house. Me possibly as much as Harry. Easy peasy cheesey pasta was a lunch recipe that Bing and Sula helped Ama prepare in one episode, and it struck me as perfect for a quick and easy supper for my little bunny too. That said, naturally we needed to make sure our cheese was dairy and soya free.

Easy peasy (almost) cheesey pasta

Pasta shapes - we use letters and I stop M from spelling out rude words
1 tsp Olive oil
1.5 slices of mozzarella style Violife cheese
Quarter cup of frozen peas
Quarter cup of frozen sweetcorn

*I totally meant to add some finely diced carrot, and compeltely forgot! I've since made it again and included the necessary carrots - Bing would be proud!

Cook the pasta in a panful of boiling water. Our pasta takes 4-6 minutes to cook which is as long as the rest of this takes to assemble
2 minutes before the pasta is cooked, add the frozen peas and sweetcorn to the pasta pan
Drain the veg and pasta in a colander and return to the pan on the hob, but turn the burner off
Slice in the cheese and add the olive oil - stir until the Violife starts to go melty
Allow to cool a little, then serve. I pop this straight on Harry's highchair tray, but if you do spoon feeding then this would work beautifully

Peas and sweetcorn are great for helping your baby to develop their 'pincer grip' but as with all baby led weaning meals, be prepared for a mess!

Easy, peasy (almost) cheesey pasta - it's a Pantry thing

Getting better - minestrone soup for the soul

We're all in the process of shifting these rotten bugs, and I always turn to soups to help. There's just something about a hot bowl with lots of veggies and other good things in it that makes me feel better.

It was actually a suggestion at Slimming World that I try making soup - one of the things I struggle with is snacking. Biscuits and tea had become a bit of a habit during my pregnancy and then to 'keep me going' when breastfeeding. It was a habit I needed to shift, and happily I seem to have managed it. That said, fruit in the middle of winter is only ever going to have a limited appeal, and a cup or bowl of soup keeps me going nicely. This is the second time I've made my minestrone and although it's not in the slightest bit authentic I do really like it.

My minestrone (serves 6-8)

1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sticks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
3 peppers - I use red and yellow, diced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 box passata
1 big splodge tomato puree
2 big handfuls of small pasta (or just break up some spaghetti)
2 pints of chicken/ veg stock
Fry light

Spray a big saucepan with Fry light and soften the onion, garlic, celery and carrots for about 10 minutes or so. If it starts to stick, add a splash of the stock
Add the other veggies, give the pan a good stir
Add the tomatoes, pasta and tomato puree, and fill the tomato tin up with water and add that too
Add the stock and leave to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes
After the soup has been simmering it should be nice and thick - add the pasta and if it feels like it might need it, another tinful of water
Turn the heat up so the pan's at a gentle boil for 7 or so minutes to cook the pasta through.

It's now ready to serve, you could garnish with shredded basil, and if you're not on Slimming world or dairy free (or both!) a big handful of grated chese in the middle of the bowl would be fabulous.

Don't feel restricted by this recipe though - if you have tinned beans, then add some for some extra fibre and protein (and if you're me to make it go a bit further although this makes lots and lots). Lardons would add some extra flavour, or even chopped leftover ham - if you've done a ham in Coca-Cola lately it's a great way to use up the end of the joint. Which is now making me want to do another ham. If you've got some courgettes or mushrooms, they'd be nice additions too.

I don't serve this with bread, because of the pasta. But I know that soup is always better with bread for dunking.

Stuffed butternut squash - a Slimming World recipe

I'm not doing too badly at Slimming World - steadily losing a pound or so a week. I struggle with snacks, as there's only so much fruit that is appealing and in season at this time of year and as I can't have dairy products, lots of the suggested snacky bits are off the table for me.

I'm finding lots of inspiration for recipes on line, and either adapting things like paella, or using other people's slimming world recipes as a starting point for my own tastes. I've set up a Pinterest board for recipes that already are suitable, or I think could be adapted... it's here, and if you'd like to be added to submit either things you've tried or dishes you've found online then drop me a line in the comments, or via email.

This is one of those recipes - adapted from here. I ended up making a few changes, based mainly on the fact that I tend not to shop specifically for a recipe any longer - see this post for why. I actually really enjoyed it and would definitely make it again. I would also say that for us, this easily did 4 portions, plus loads of the topping for the freezer.

If you're doing SP (which I haven't yet) I think this would work as there's no carbs in there. If you know SP well, and could comment below, that'd be terrific. 

Stuffed Butternut squash

1 butternut squash, halved lengthways
300g chicken breast (it was one of that week's Special buys at Aldi, otherwise I'd have used thighs)
1 red onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sticks of celery finely diced
1 large (or 2 small) carrots, finely diced
1 red & 1 yellow pepper, finely diced
250g (or so) mushrooms, quartered
Big splodge tomato puree
1/2 head cauliflower, whizzed up to rice in the food processor
3/4 pint veg stock (I use the low salt bouillon from Marigold)
2 tsp paprika - I think the sweet smoked paprika would taste fantastic, but I don't have any in
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp red chilli flakes
Salt & Pepper
Fry light
If you have it, then cheese from your HEA - we used a little pecorino as it's sheeps cheese and Harry seems to be able to tolerate this.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Halve the butternut squash, scoop out and discard the seeds* and then scoop out some of the flesh to make a nice sized hollow for the filling. Dice this and put it to one side for the filling
Season the 2 halves of squash, spray with fry light and put, skin-side down on a baking sheet - bake for 20 minutes or so

Your veg and chicken all want to be diced about the same size. Spray a large pan with fry light, and soften the onion, garlic, celery and carrot for about 10 minutes. If it starts to stick add a splash of water
Add the chicken and cook until it's lightly browned
Add the rest of the veggies - peppers, mushrooms and butternut squash
Pop in the tomato puree, spices and chicken stock
Add the cauliflower, give everything a good stir, turn the heat down and let it simmer uncovered.

Now I should say this made bucketloads - enough to freeze at least half for another day. Which is great as we enjoyed it. It'd also be lovely with a baked potato, and if you had a HEA (and aren't dairy free) then some feta or halloumi would be amazing. 

Fill the butternut squash halves with the chicken mixture, top with the cheese if you're using it. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melty/ browned.

Serve with steamed greens - I had kale and brocolli.

Souper soup on Saturdays

Each weekend through the winter I make a batch of soup - there has to be enough to do at least 4 portions for us over the weekend, and then ideally enough for me to have for lunches through the week. Whilst soup runs the risk of being an uninspiring lunch, I do enjoy putting different flavours together to stay interested.

The soups I usually make are vegetarian and it's rare I buy 'ingredients' as it were, I'm much more likely to look at waht's leftover in the fridge and then add that to spices, pulses etc to amp up the flavours.

Whilst I've been making soup on and off for years, at the moment my motive is about saving money - buying lunch can work out at about £4-£5 a day, which when you're on a budget, works out at a scary £120 per month. In comparison, taking your home made soup works out at around 50p per portion (if not less).

I've mentioned before that I'm no snob stock wise, bouillon or cubes are both fine by me, I just always watch the salt content if I am using bought stock.

This week I made a spicy carrot soup - I made it a bit quicker to cook by grating the carrots in the food processor (but you could easily do this by hand, or be less demanding and give the soup some time).

Spicy carrot soup

Olive oil
7-8 big carrots, grated
Half a cup of red lentils
1 litre veg stock
1 teaspoon Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds

Dry fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop
Put the carrots, lentils, cumin seeds, stock and chilli paste into a big pan and bring to a simmer
Cook for 20 minutes to half an hour
Take off the heat and blitz - I use a handheld stick blender
Serve with crusty bread and butter for dunking

 Other soups I've made:

Lifechanging soup
Tomato and cannelini bean
Chicken soup
Split pea and frankfurter

I'll try and keep updating - this week's concoction is Sweet potato and butternut squash (with a sneaky secret ingredient)

Spicing up my leftovers with Gran Luchito

Just before we moved, Gran Luchito sent me a couple of jars of their chilli honey and paste. The trauma of moving meant that they didn't really get touched for a while and although I knew they were in my cupboards I was doing a lot of what we call 'point and pray' cookery so they didn't get an opportunity to feature.

A couple of weeks back I used the leftover roast beef to cobble together a keema-esque curry. I used my usual spices: cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, garlic, ginger and garam masala but still felt that something was missing. In went some of the smoked chilli paste, and while I'm sure it's not in any way shape or form authentic, it was exactly what I had in mind.

Last week, I was doing a leftovers lunch - the recipe for which is below, and again a good teaspoonful of the chilli paste, plus a couple of teaspoonfuls of the honey were exactly what I needed to lift it.

I find the smokey flavour of the chilli really works - there's no discernable punch of pure heat, but a much more complex - almost chocolatey aspect. Whilst I'm not a fan of food that is purely hot (there was an incident once of sharing out a plate of chilli that I couldn't bear it was so violently spiced) I love balance of heat that smoked chilli gives.

Leftovers lunch

Cooked rice - any quantity (I know some people have issues with leftover rice causing food poisoning and I don't dispute that at all. I just choose not to worry too much about it as I'm only cooking for myself and M.)
Grated ginger - about a thumb sized piece
2-3 cloves of garlic
Chilli to taste
Half tsp Gran Luchito chilli paste
Leftover veggies - I used the odd half onions, peppers, carrots, some slightly elderly mushrooms and some sweetcorn lingering around, but equally you could probably use most anything you have to hand. I wouldn't try potatoes though.
1-2 eggs
Soy sauce
Gran Luchito honey
Leftover herbs - I used coriander, but equally have used

Heat some oil up in a wok and add the chilli, garlic and ginger. Add the onions and cook down, then add your other veggies and stir until they're starting to soften
Tip in the cooked rice and continue to stir so that it breaks up
Add soy sauce, a couple of teaspoons of honey and continue to stir
Make a well in the centre of your pan and break 1-2 eggs in and stir them continuously to scramble. Stir the eggy mix into the rice and veggies
Add any herbs you have knocking around and taste to check your seasoning. Add more chilli, honey, soy etc to taste
Serve in a bowl and eat from your knees while pondering excel spreadsheets

I like this meal becuase it eeks the rice and veggies out for a few more meals. Especially towards the end of the week when you've not really got enough of anything to do anything specific with them, this kind of 'fridge bottom' recipe means that you don't end up with a solitary half onion mouldering in the salad tray. For me it fulfills the need at lunchtime for something hot, tasty and filling and keeps me going without that dreaded afternoon slump.

As less of a leftovers recipe, and more of a formula I'm going to enter this into this month's credit crunch munch - not only is it cheap in itself as all the ingredients tend to be fresh or convenient storecupboard staples that I have in the house, but having this to hand means I don't find myself tempted by the delights of the sandwich shop and save myself around £5 per day!

Credit crunch munch is normally hosted by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab food for all. This month Michelle is hosting, and I do like the sound of her pull apart bread.

Remembrance sleepover, batch cooked bolognaise

This weekend heralds Fourth Friern Barnet Guides annual Remembrance Sunday sleepover, seventeen girls and all 4 leaders will be parading on Sunday as part of the local Remembrance service. As I type I imagine (hope) neckers and t-shirts are being ironed, extra layers for under uniform being packed, school shoes being cleaned. And that's just me. 

As the girls are willingly giving up their Sunday to participate in something important, we have a sleepover the night before - we're combining our Confectioners badge with giant jenga, the chocolate game, and making poppy brooches. 

Tomorrow we'll be bag packing in our local Tesco to raise some much needed funds for the unit - we're in desperately in need of our own, lightweight Patrol tents, and other things like new baking equipment, sewing kits and some camp uniform as well as subsiding tickets for Wellies and Wristbands next year. We're hoping that bag packing will help us towards those targets, and we'll also be using the day as as opportunity to raise awareness of Guiding in the local area and with any luck, recruit some new Adult leaders. 

If you've got people being that busy then obviously you're going to need to feed them. We had a Guide chat with the girls on Tuesday and pasta seemed to be the general consensus - most are having it with a traditional bolognaise, some with a vegetarian version of the same, and a couple will have theirs with cheese and butter, but supplement that with carrot & cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes. 

This meant, that while running a temperature and fighting off a fluey bug I found myself in Asda this afternoon with a list, a trolley and a single minded ambition to get the food for the sleepover sorted. 

In case you're wondering, to make Spaghetti sauces for twenty one people, your shopping list looks like this:

8 tins chopped tomatoes
8 cloves garlic
4 onions
1 large box (750g) mushrooms
12 peppers
12 carrots
Half a butternut squash
1 parsnip
Tomato puree
Oregano
Marmite
2 kg lean minced beef

Vegetarian Bolognaise

Dice 4 carrots, half a butternut squash, parsnip, 4 peppers and about 250g of mushrooms
Blitz 1 onion, 2 sticks of celery and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor
Add oil to a large pan and heat up gently
Add the onion, celery and garlic and cook gently for about 15 minutes
Add the carrots, butternut squash and parsnip with a splash of water
Put a lid on the pan and let the veggies steam for about 10 minutes
Add the rest of the veggies, stir in and let cook down for 5 - 10 minutes (until the mushrooms start to colour)
Add 2 tins of tomatoes a large sprinkling of dried oregano, a tablespoon of tomato puree and a tsp of marmite
Leave over a low heat for about half an hour until most of the liquid has reduced

After this, I've put the sauce in a large foil tray, let it cool and will reheat in the oven tomorrow. I wouldn't usually use root veg in a bolognaise type sauce, but courgettes and aubergine are out of season and we work on a budget of £5 per head per day for food. The sauce I made today works out at £0.88 per head £18.49 in total. If you add the cost of the pasta in, it's £1.02 per head.

Bolognaise

Split the mince into 4 portions - for each portion, use the following quantities

Blitz 1 onion, 2 sticks of celery, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 peppers, 2 carrots and 100g of mushrooms
Cook down until softened
Add mince and cook through until browned
Add 2 tins of tomatoes, a large splodge of tomato puree and a teaspoon of marmite
Add a large sprinkle of oregano
Cook down until the sauce is thickened and the liquid reduced - for about half an hour or so

I did this 4 times, and working on the basis that one portion of that does 4-6 adult portions, I figure that we should easily accommodate 17 hungry guides and 4 hungry leaders. Please god let it, as there's now nothing else in my cupboards! 

And after all that... what did I end up having for my supper? You've guessed it

And if you've ever wanted to know what the shopping for 21 people for a 24 hour sleepover looks like...

Sunday Baking: surprise muffins

Photo credit: That'll be me! I learnt to focus folks! Now for staging..

The thing about getting to the point both literally and emotionally where you feel comfortable and settled is that you can start to build the things you enjoy into your life as opposed to them always feeling like they're tagged on to the end of another too long day. 

For me this is meaning that I'm finding time (and M is supporting me) to blog, and most excitingly of all helping me to take better pictures. You'll notice that the most recent (non Instagrammed) ones are so much better than I usually manage it all credit has to go to M for them. If he'd step forward I'd suggest we offer him a round of appluase, but in absence of that I've made him muffins. The special thing about these muffins is that they're something he likes, and I don't - white chocolate and I do not get along. 

He doesn't know yet about their secret ingredient as the Belgian Grand Prix was on (Go Jensen!) whilst I was making them, this will probably pop up in his inbox tomorrow, so sorry M. 

White chocolate surprise muffins

5oz grated parsnip
3 large eggs
6 floz sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large bar white chocolate chopped up into small chunks
8oz self raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cake cases
Whisk together the parsnip, eggs and sugar until light and foamy
Add in the sunflower oil, vanilla, chocolate and make sure everything is whisked in
Fold in the flour gently and spoon either an ice-cream scoop or 3 dessert spoons of batter into each
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, take out and leave to cool

M will be taking them in his packed lunch. I like to delude myself that the secret vegetables will make him healthier, whilst not denying him his RDA of cake. 

Don't forget that my Simple Summer Round up competition ends tomorrow - so make sure you've entered to win £50 of Asda vouchers

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to: Tomato & mozzarella salad

 

But let's not call the whole thing off.

 

I said this week was going to be dedicated to simple summer essentials, and was keen from the outset to include my favourite summer salad: tomato and mozzarella.

 

But first, some background (or waffle - you decide and feel free to skip this paragraph). Growing up, salad for us, like many working class families, included the ubiquitous iceberg lettuce, watery tomatoes (although cherry were always my favourite) and cucumber. A summer staple, served with leftover roast meat or ham for packed lunches. The amazing thing about being a market shopper is the fact that you had to buy seasonal produce. Now it seems odd that those of us on lower incomes were embracing through necessity something which is now seen as a desirable indicator of one's ethical status and an appropriate choice to make. But enough preaching, you get the picture; salad = boring. And I have to admit it took me a long time to move away from the familiarity of that prescriptive recipe as it were. I remember a flatmate at uni adding dressing and mango to a chicken salad and thinking it wonderfully decadent. Adding croutons and thousand island dressing (yes, I know, kill me now) was my next step, and then - once again spurred on by Mr Oliver - I started to experiment. Watery tomatoes were replaced with home grown (actually that is a lie I distinctly remember my grandma growing tomatoes in her greenhouse and indulgently letting us eat them straight from the plants). Peppers were added and dressings experimented with. Over time I discovered first rocket, and then watercress preferring to grow my own in window boxes and plant pots than use the bagged, extortionate supermarket versions.

Today salad is once again a summer staple, it's largely diet friendly and means I get an extra serving of my five a day.

The produce Asda sent me was calling out to be made into a salad and my tummy was calling out for that to be my favourite. I'm including two ways of making this, not because I'm showing off, but because if you're left with some overripe tomatoes then slow roasting them first works best.

Now just before I get any further I want to address (possibly reiterate) the mozzarella equation:

• If you're eating mozzarella raw, such as in this salad - buy the best you can afford. The taste does make a difference. Please don't remortgage your house though, stay within reason.
• If you're cooking with mozzarella buy economy/ basics branded. In blind taste tests when the cheese has been cooked people categorically can't tell the difference.

 

Mozzarella and tomato salad (fresh tomatoes)
 

 

If you store your tomatoes in the fridge, get them out at least an hour before making this as it means you can taste the flavour of the fruit as opposed to just the cold.

 

Around 1 large or 2 medium (really, use your judgement) tomatoes per person

 

Mozzarella - usually balls are around 250g and I allow half a ball per person
Fresh basil or if you've had a glut of herbs you needed to preserve, a drizzle of basil oil. See tomorrow's post for details.

 

Slice the mozzarella and tomatoes about the thickness of a £1 coin
(I can't believe I just typed that, slice them how you want!) if you've not got a super sharp knife use a serrated one as it makes slicing tomatoes easier.

 

Scatter over fresh basil leaves, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Or just salt, pepper and your herb oil

 If I'm being fancy I arrange them on a plate, alternating the tomato and cheese. If, on the other hand I'm making lunch for me I whack it all in a bowl and scoff greedily sat in as much sunshine as either the office, training room, front step or balcony can muster!

 Mozarella and tomato salad - take two: using overripe tomatoes

 

 

Halve all your ripe tomatoes and place them on a baking tray cut side up. Sprinkle with salt & pepper (and if you've got some fresh thyme lying around add that)
Drizzle over olive oil
Cook in a preheated oven - 200 degrees C ish for about 45 minutes, until the skins are just starting to blacken and the tops are wrinkly

Serve with your mozzarella, save the olive oil-y juices though and use that as a dressing with some basil

 

 

The roasted tomatoes will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. Bring up to room temperature before using them though

So there you have it, my salad history and mozzarella and tomato salad two ways. What more could you want?

Leftover leftovers? Read on...

30th December - picture update, please ignore the dirty cooker!

Still picture free, hopefully the last post in this state, before an influx of beautifully shot, framed and focussed photographs. Well, one can hope. I'll still be taking them, so let's just go for non blurry and vaguely pretty.

Last post we looked at turkey leftovers and some easy recipes to use them up. Now despite having only bought an 8lb turkey, both leftover dishes, and the original Christmas roast and two days of sandwiches still left me with a carcass and some meat. What to do? Well, read on for starters

Turkey soup

For me, Christmas isn't Christmas without turkey soup. For years after she enjoyed making it I would cajole, sweet talk, and berate my mother into making it, mainly so that I could live off it for most of January. We would eke it out farther using red lentils, but this recipe (or guideline) doesn't add those, purely as I didn't have any. It also thickens it up beautifully if you want it to have a bit more oomph.

First off, take any leftover veg and pop them in your food processor (or even use a stick blender and a bowl) to puree. Set this aside.

Soften an onion, carrot and bay leaf in some hot oil in a big pan, Add in any leftover meat (really go to town and remove every scrap you can from the carcass), season, and add turkey stock - see below - and bring to a simmer. Cook until everything is soft, then add your pureed veg, and blitz with a stick blender until you reach a consistency you're happy with. Bring back to the boil and serve with fresh bread.

Turkey stock

Normally I make stock in a pan with 4 pints of water on the hob. Sometimes I just don't have the energy for even that. Christmas is one of those times. Just put your carcass in a slow cooker, fill it with water, and a small handful of peppercorns, pinch of salt, a bay leaf (or any herbs you have lying around) and an onion chopped into quarters, and a carrot broken into two. Leave on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10. The strain off the bones and there you have it, stock.

This stock is great in the risotto I talked about yesterday, and makes a great base for the turkey surprise pie, or the soup above. If you don't want to make any of those, then freeze it, and any leftover meat until you're ready to.  

Also, it's just worth bearing in mind the expense of a turkey - all in all, this will work out at around 24 portions of varying meals from an 8lb turkey. That's value for money in my book.

Meal Planning Monday: Leftovers galore

As anyone who follows me on twitter will know, Mark and I harvested (is that the word?) his homegrown potatoes today, and as a treat I roasted some tonight with a chicken, and basically the works, butternut squash, steamed spinach and brocolli, and stuffing. It was yum. However, I'm working away from Wednesday so we have basically half a chicken (and then some) to use up before then. Cue immediate flailing panic!

Here's the potatoes - the margarine tub is what we thought we would fill - the hastily located washing up bowl is what we did fill!

So this week's meal plan, will take us up to Wednesday and then pick up again on Saturday morning.

Monday: Leftover roast chicken, in sandwiches with leftover sweet potato and ginger soup. (I made this on Saturday, it is also known as Lifechanging Soup (TM) in this house - it's a Skye Gyngell recipe that I adore)

Tuesday: Was going to be butternut squash and chorizo chilli with cornbread, but I think more leftover chicken with buttered and minted potatoes and veggies. I also need to make the stock from the chicken carcass after Guides.

Wednesday: I may take chicken salad with me to save me from hotel food.

Friday: I'm meeting a friend to go out, but as I'll be coming straight into London and out with her I'm not sure what I'll get to eat.

Saturday: There's every possibility that I'm going to be flat out exhausted on Saturday - yesterday I looked and felt dreadful, and the housework alone wiped me out, so we're going to see - if I'm shattered, I'll probably do the chilli and we'll watch trashy tv/ DVDs but if not we're going to the theatre. Ghost and Rock of Ages are on my shortlist. Mark is going to kill me if we end up with tickets to see Ghost.

Sunday: I honestly don't know. Leftover chilli maybe?

Lunches for me will be chicken salad, and lots of fruit.
Breakfasts - well I'm still trying to finish up the neverending box of the world's dullest museli, but should I ever finish that then it's back to fruit with Total Greek yoghurt and a little bit of raw honey. Which is officially my favourite breakfast. Ever.

Which takes us into next week - thankfully a week at home.

Global Fusion Taste Team: Garlic, chilli and ginger

There's been a little bit of excitement in the Pantry of late, which should hopefully produce some interesting posts going forwards. Today is the first in a series of posts in my role as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team. I answered a callout on Twitter for team members (I'm always a bit reticent to do that as I'm never sure I'm 'good' enough - well that's not true, I know I am, I just know that this blog and it's little following *waves* aren't up there with the big hitters) Anyway, this week a big box arrived, which had he been here would have led Mark to roll his eyes and ask if I've been online shopping at Lush again. In it was, a pinny, a recipe notebook (stationery and a pinny - can Worldfoods read my mind?) as well as a huge range of sauces and dips for me to try, work with and feed Mark with over the coming weeks. Excited? I am.

So Wednesday night loomed and courtesy of a meeting at work being cancelled we had a night in together. Off to Sainsos we went with the first challenge looming in my mind. It involved a garlic, chilli and ginger, dipping, or stir fry sauce. Having spent much of the recent weeks in hotels a stir fry really appealed, with lots of veg and some brown basmati rice.

Ginger, garlic and trinity are often hailed as the 'holy trinity' (apologies for the blasphemy) of Chinese cooking, and if I'm just doing a bog standard stir fry I will press or chop a couple of cloves of garlic, grate variable amounts of ginger and chop up a chilli as my base. Initially I thought the jar would work as a sub for these, but on sniff test and finger taste I felt it needed a bit more oomph for my tastebuds. On investigation, the recipe suggestion was to add more, so lesson learned - READ things in advance Penelope. I should also say that the last time I did a stir fry out of a jar it was about 10 years ago and I intially worried that it was going to be that incredibly cloying sweet synthetic taste I remembered, however this was light, fresh and not at all syrupy.

I should point out here that Mark likes things significantly milder than I do so I actually made two generous dishes from one jar of sauce, and both those dishes did two solid meals. Mark had his leftovers for lunch the next day, and mine went in the freezer for a later date.

Pantry Prawns; courtesy of Worldfoods

1 clove of garlic, pressed
Large peice of ginger grated
(to my shame) teaspoonful of lazy chilli
250g prawns (Mark had 2 chicken thighs finely sliced, and cooked until brown)
Red pepper chopped
Courgette chopped
Onion finely chopped
Spinach
Sweetcorn
(I forgot I had edamame beans and green beans in the freezer, but had I remembered I would have added those too)
Half a jar of Worldfoods Chinese ginger, garlic & chilli sauce

In a large pan or wok, heat up some flavourless oil and add your garlic, chilli, ginger and onion. Sweat the onion off, stirring constantly
Add prawns, and cook until they turn pink,
Add vegetables and cook until they just start to soften
Add sauce and reduce down

It took, less than 10 minutes to cook this, bearing in mind I also did a chicken one that was missing the extra spices, and rice as well. Perfect for a quick, easy supper when you've been at work all day and done battle with Mr Sainsburys to boot. You'll see from the pic, that I had got out soy sauce to use as a condiment as I hadn't added salt at any point, but really didn't feel that the dish needed it - I'm terrible for underseasoning things though so do a taste test yourself, and add soy or salt to taste.

The only thing I think I would do different again, would be to add some coriander at the end to freshen it up.

So, there you have it, my first challenge as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team... watch this space for more installments, including my favourite - Pad Thai!

Nasi Goreng: add your own showtune here...

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to new shoes, a new pencil case, and of course - what to put in our packed lunch box. For me when I was at school it was always sandwiches - peanut butter and banana were my favourite - and one of my best friends Liz, taught me well that you add the banana at lunchtime so it's not brown! These days I really struggle with sandwiches - Mark has them every day, and when I try I just find them dull. As an alternative I tend to go for salads in the summer (this week, pea shoots, feta, prawn, tomato and sprouted seeds - also known as everything that was reduced in Sainsburys).

In the colder months, I have a lot of homemade soups, sometimes with homemade bread (when I'm watching what I eat, without), also leftovers. Now these aren't practical for a child's lunchbox unless you have a thermos - Lakeland do some pricy, but wide necked ones that I think would be amazing for my lunches, actually I look at them and think about ordering every time. There has to be a cheaper alternative for kids out there and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

With my lunch I have fruit - a lot of fruit, this week it's black grapes, plums, a banana and an apple and normally a Nakd bar. This allows me to graze throughout the day at work, which works for me if I don't have time for a proper lunch break. Mark has crisps, a sausage roll, peice of cheese, cereal bar, a banana and some dried fruit. We're quite different, but it's what suits us best.

 This week, I'm having a Pantry take on Nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice salad. Unusually for me,  I'm straying into the realms of cooking with tofu for the first time. Now, I had most of the base ingredients in my fridge and pantry, but had to buy the tofu, and edamame beans. However the amount of lunches this has made is extraordinary. There's definitely enough for the rest of the week, and I'll portion out the rest in the freezer for next week too. You could serve this hot - in a thermos or if your office has a microwave, or eat it cold as a rice salad.

 Penelope's Pantry does Nasi Goreng

Light olive oil
2 cups of brown basmati rice - cooked and cooled
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp lazy chilli
2 thumb size peices of ginger grated
4 spring onions finely chopped (all the way up - use the green parts too)
1 cup of chopped red pepper
1 cup of edamame beans (I used frozen)
1 cup of sweetcorn (again I used frozen)
200g tofu (I used smoked) finely chopped
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cook the rice in double the volume of boiling water (I use Delia's infallible absorbtion method) and leave to cool down.
Heat up some olive oil in a big wok or large pan, and when it's hot, add the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook through until this mix becomes aromatic - stirring all the while
Add the rice, and stir through so that the base ingredients aren't stuck on the bottom of the pan, but are mixed through (this way your garlic won't burn and go bitter)
Add the pepper, edamame beans, sweetcorn and tofu and cook through, stirring for about 5 minutes
Make a well in the middle of your pan and add your beaten eggs. Stir them so that they scramble and then mix through the rest of the rice
Cook through for another couple of minutes and then add the soy sauce.

Now I've tasted this and feel it's missing something - thinking back to my Lifechanging soup (TM) I think it's the sourness that it needs an edge - a friend has recommended adding a tablespoon of the pickling vinegar from a jar of pickled veg. I don't have any in, so will go without but would add that as a change for next time.

I think it's worth mentioning that traditionally Nasi Goreng would have chicken and prawns added, but costs at the moment mean I'm reducing my meat intake again. The tofu worked out far cheaper for the quantity that this made. Whilst the eggs make this unsuitable for vegans, those could easily be left out, and if you're a hardened carnivore or pescatarian again, amend it to suit you.
So that's my packed lunches sorted for the forseeable. A tasty, veggie alternative to sandwiches.

Home is where the heart is meant to be: Couscous salad

The thing about working away from home and eating restaurant food is that I find I crave vegetables (yes I know I'm weird), food I can eat from a bowl on my lap, in my pyjamas. I just don't think they'd be down with that in a Harvester. Although I should say - Harvester for the win at being able to eat what you want as it suits you - sadly though, still not in your pjs.

So, it probably makes me something of a sad loser to admit that I spent a large part of Friday daydreaming about a couscous salad. Yes, I know. Something spiked with brightly coloured, fresh veggies, with lots of protein and flavour that tasted - wholesome. I know that's not a flavour, but that's what I wanted.

So Friday afternoon came and I popped up to Waitrose, as my fridge was almost completely bare - I would have added a picture here, but that would have entailed showing you the fact that it also needs a clean out with some bicarb in hot water and I'm not keen on my slatternly tendencies being on show for the whole world to see. I picked up some couscous and feta (both from their essentials range), working on the basis that I was sure I had odds and sods to use up in a fridge-bottom style...

However, the fridge wasn't completely bare - here's what I found in it:

A handful of dried up fresh mint
Two handfuls of equally dried up parsley
A tomato
Half a red romano pepper
Some spring onions that were only slightly wilted
Garlic
Lazy chilli
Half a cucumber that was looking very sorry for itself
A centimetre or so of homemade salad dressing in an old jam jar
And a bottle of rose with one glass left in it!

Also in the pantry I found the end of a packet of pine nuts, and some Marigold bouillon

I boiled the kettle and measured out 1 cup of couscous into a salad bowl
I added 2 teaspoons of bouillon and 2 cups of boiling water, stirred it all in, covered with a clean, dry tea towel and left for 10 minutes
Meanwhile, I chopped up the tomato, cucumber, pepper, spring onions and feta up into a small dice
I finely chopped the mint, parsley and garlic
I toasted the pine nuts in a dry pan until lightly browned

When the couscous was cool I added all the ingredients above, a teaspoon of lazy chilli and the leftover (shaken up) vinagrette. Everything was stirred in and served in a large bowl with the rose. It was exactly what I wanted - and made loads - which meant both Mark and I had it for dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday I did a discount run around Waitrose, picking up a packet of prawns and a packet of feta, and a bag of peashoots - I added half of each of these to the remaining cous cous and had it for dinner on Monday. As an added bonus, packed lunches on Tuesday and today were the remains of all of those and some cherry tomatoes and alfalfa/ radish sprouts as an undressed salad. Yum.

I know it's not exciting to talk about those meals we make at the end of the month to make the budget stretch further, to use up the odds and ends from a veg box or a shop, and it's not a recipe per se as you could use anything languishing in your fridge but this is real life - we can't all be knocking up Jamie's 30 minute meals or Delia's suggestions every day - sometimes we just need something that nourishes us, that is tasty and that doesn't cost the earth. I know I do.

Coming up... Mark's mum sent me back a whole load of plums from their tree, mint from the garde and crabapples she was given, so for the cost of some sugar I'll be presrving madly this week. Also a long awaited foray into a nasi goreng inspired by something I saw on the Food Channel when I was off sick before I changed jobs.

Whatcher gonna do? Make courgette fritters...

I can't believe that actually scans... clearly I missed my vocation. Anyway, when not listening to the National theatre cast recording of Oklahoma! or catching up on all the Groff based episodes of Glee I've actually managed to do some cooking. I know, I was shocked too.

It's that time of year again when the veg are glutting (is that even a word?) but inevitably whatever you choose to grown in your allotment, veg plot, the pots on your balcony, patio or drive has gone mental. Courgettes, runner beans tomatoes all seem to pick the same time and just produce loads and loads of veg. Normally I do a lot of blanching and freezing, but that demands you pick things just as they're ripe and as I've mentioned recently I've just not been around enough to be able to time that well enough.
Instead I've found myself looking for new ways with old favourites - courgettes normally become courgetti spaghetti or get used up in ratatouille that I then freeze as a base for bolognaise or pasta bakes when it's colder and I need the comfort of carby, cheesy goodness.

However, even in my house there are only so many times you can rustle up aforementioned pasta dish before Mark looks at you with despair in his eyes. So with four courgettes languishing, unloved in the veg drawer I turned to recipe books with no luck - well I did contemplate resurrecting courgette brownies, but as I keep harping on, I'm trying to be healthy and as Mark can't eat dark chocolate (don't even ask) that would have meant either foisting more cake off on my landlord, or eating it myself. Such hardship. Well, not fitting into my jeans is.

So to google it was - and surprisingly Courgette fritters were the answer to my prayers. The web is practically teeming with recipes for them - who knew? Allrecipes was the recipe I chose, and despite not having half the ingredients (more on this presently) they were an indupitable success.

The other thing that's going on for me at the moment, is a shortage of funds. I've been in my new role for a month but am yet to have a full salary, that plus this being the first time ever I've had to work with expenses (or expensives as they're known in our house) and it's meant I'm cutting costs. So, my fridge is currently bare save for some Greek yoghurt, a bottle of cider left over from the Hertfordshire County show, 2 Lush solid perfumes and an eye mask that helps with my migraines. Anyway, this has meant aside from bare essentials I'm trying not to shop.

So here are Penelope's penniless Pantry courgette patties.

4 courgettes, grated (I use the food processor)
2 eggs, beaten
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
8 tablespoons of plain flour
200g mature cheddar grated
Pinch of salt
Teaspoon of chopped red chilli
2 tablespoons of light olive oil

I prepped the courgettes, cheese and onion in the food processor (you could easily chop and grate but it was Friday and I was tired), and tipped them out into a big mixing bowl
Add the eggs, flour, salt and chilli and stir until you get a thick mixture
Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan, when hot, drop heaped tablespoons of mixture into the pan, and leave for about 3 minutes before turning over and cooking on the other side.
As I finished each batch of three, I popped these in the oven on a low heat until we were ready to eat.

We had them with Greek potato salad, sausages and regular salad.

This easily made 12 large fritters, you could use a dessert spoon and probably nearly double this if you wanted more, smaller patties, or make one large fritter that fitted the pan, and slice it up. I had all these ingredients in the house, so this was incredible economical for me. You could follow the original recipe and use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan, and omit the chilli but for me these were tasty and moreish.

Apologies for the lack of picture, the camera has gone a bit strange and a whole load of pictures I took have just vanished. I'm bound to make these again soon and will update when I do. Guides honour.

The distance you have come: Harissa lentil salad

My second lentil based post in a week. Clearly they're like buses.

I really love the music of Scott Alan, his music allows one to be contemplative and is often what I listen to when I'm feeling low. Late last year when I was verging on homeless and things weren't great, friends Louise and Karen suggested listening to The distance you have come and it really seemed to sum up what I was thinking.

Anyway, this week I've left my job of nearly five years working for a local authority, for an opportunity to develop my skills and take some new chances working in the Learning Disability sector. It's a big jump, scary and exciting all at once and I hope it's going to afford me the opportunities for happiness at work, which in turn will mean for more settled, less emotional blogging. Fingers crossed and all that.

So this was my last week of work - as always Sunday night found me up later than planned, multitasking in my pyjamas: breaking in new shoes I wanted to wear on Monday, making lentil salad, talking to Mark on the phone - all of which I did with aplomb and finnesse, surrounded by a lot of wet washing (what IS up with the weather lately?). The lentil salad was another I'd offered to test for Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and I'm pleased to say it was without the drama of the spicy tomato lentils.

It was surprisingly low faff, and easy I popped half a cup of lentils into the stock in my big pan and let that reduce down for just under half an hour, then added chopped cucumber, finely shredded greens, red and green peppers, and some mushrooms (I like my lunches to be as good for me as possible - it justifies afternoon cake). I stirred this in until the greens had wilted, and added the amazingly scented harissa powder, lemon zest and juice and a tablespoon of olive oil. Suddenly what had seemed fairly plain and ordinary was lifted into something extraordinary, fragrant and lightly spiced, with the zing of the lemon behind the harissa. I'm really looking forward to trying it for lunch tomorrow, but I have to say, tasted from the pan in my pyjamas and heels I give it a thumbs up.

The recipe is here, and I think really flexible - as you can see I upped the veggies considerably, and you could easily change them for ones you like -I just used what was lurking in the fridge.