How do you like your eggs at lunchtime? Fridge bottom chilli spiked eggs

As I'm trundling through this dairy free process I'm not just bemoaning a lack of tea, but also it seemed that all my quick, go-to whilst breastfeeding, can be eaten with one hand lunches contained cheese, or milk, or chocolate. Digestives, mainly chocolate digestives. New options needed to be found, options with flavour.

Last week, I had half a packet of wholewheat pittas leftover from some earlier homous and pretty much nothing else in for lunch. A quick scour of the cupboards showed that we were out of pasta and similarly the fridge had some brocolli, a lot of milk (we must change the order with the milkman) all the bits of cheese I can't eat and some jelly I'd made the night before. As I'm pretty sure that jelly doesn't constitute the sort of balanced diet you need while breastfeeding, I did that thing of checking the cupboards again and decided on eggs. I normally scramble eggs with milk and butter, but in the absence of these just popped a little olive oil in the pan. Veg wise I literally used up what we had, but if we'd had mushrooms or ham would have happily added those into the mix - this is an ideal, fridge bottom dish.

Fridge bottom chilli spiked eggs

3 eggs, beaten lightly
Salt & pepper
1/4 red, green and yellow pepper
1 tsp olive oil
 Wholewheat pitta toasted
Tabasco sauce
Red chilli

Chop your red chilli and peppers into a fine dice, and gently cook in a small frying pan in the olive oil until just softened
Beat the eggs into a jug and season with salt and pepper
Add the eggs to the veggies and stir until cooked through
Sprinkle in tabasco to taste (liberally if you're me)
 Serve in toasted pittas and enjoy

If you're not dairy free, please add a load of good, strong grated cheddar. Just don't tell me how good it tastes. Please. 

I know some people might consider eggs to be dairy, but our paediatrician is happy for us to continue eating them for now.

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.

November favourites

Last month's October favourites post seems to have been relatively popular so I thought I'd do another to let you know what I've been enjoying cooking with, using and making in the pantry this month.

November's been a funny month - busy on the Guiding front, cold - oh so cold - and somewhat stressful. But nonetheless there has been plenty of time for pottering, baking and whatnot.

Hot chocolate - the temperature drops and suddenly the extra calories are but something to be dismissed. I am quite fussy, it has to be either drinking chocolate that you make with milk or proper cocoa. And it has to be Green & Black's. All the way. As it's an evening only treat it's spiked with amaretto. I try to kid myself that as it's made with skimmed milk it's not too bad for me. Try to kid myself you'll note.

Eggs - well not eggs themselves, but omlettes. Again I don't know if it's the cold weather, but on a few occasions this month when I've been doing the dance of the bare cupboards, I've found myself reaching for 2 eggs, a knob of butter, splash of milk, salt, pepper, some elderly mushrooms and the heel of cheese that languishes at the back of the fridge

Couch to 5km - this month has seen my progress continue to build and the only thing holding me back is time. Leaving home at 7am and not getting home until after Brownies/ Guides or working away all week aren't particularly conducive to fitting in a run. This week I've taken my kit away to Poole with me, but am still a bit wobbly about running in the dark (and without headphones it seems).

Nigella's Kitchen - I got this book for Christmas last year and I've not really cooked from it, so I've deliberately pushed myself to pick a couple of recipes this month. I suspect my New year's resolution will be to cook a new recipe  from a cookbook each week.

Cake spice - or sweet, mixed spice. I'm actually out of this at the moment, but it's my go-to spice when I want to spice a cake or bake at this time of year. All at once it tastes of Christmas, winter and autumn depending on what it's paired with and it's earthy sweetness has something about it which says 'home' to me.

And finally, my nutmeg grater, passed on to me from Mark's mum. I think I'm right in saying it was actually her Mum's, and I love it. I use nutmeg a lot in cooking at this point in the year and the grater and the spice make me smile each time I use it.

So what about your favourites this month?

Carbonara - potentially contention causing

I love carbonara, it's a relatively new thing for me to eat and make as growing up I was anti most dairy products. Truth be told I'm still anti lots of dairy products as I can't eat them without shall we say, unpleasant side effects? However, occaisionally I think diet be damned and decide to make M's day with his favourite dish, carbonara.

Last time I made it, I had some fantastically fresh asparagus that I cooked briefly in with the pasta water, and then tossed through the sauce. Not conventional, or strictly a carbonara really but I really liked it, as sometimes it's nice to have a foil to the richness of such a dish.

Recipe wise, carbonara is epically straightforward, however when I posted these instagram pics I was met with a flurry of dissention - cream isn't an authentic addition, and the asparagus caused some of my twitter followers to have conniption fits. That said, it's how I like it; based on the Nigella recipe in Feast under the heading of dishes for romance - although I do make it by eye now. I should just add that I don't use the quantity of pasta Nigella suggests, not just with my waistline in mind - but 500g between two people? Really? There is no way I'd be up for anything post 250g of spaghetti, much less any romance! It'd be peppermint tea and a lie down in front of Episodes or The Big Bang Theory only!

I'm going to blog two recipes here, firstly my take on the Nigella one, and secondly my Dad's recipe, I make them both, interchangeably but, understandably Daddy's has sentimental value. I still have the print out of the email he sent me with it in - from 3rd May 2001.

125 - 200g pasta
1 packet of streaky bacon, chopped up
2 tsps olive oil
Sherry glass/ half a wine glass of vermouth
4 eggs
50 g (ish) parmesan
Lots of black pepper
60ml of double cream
Nutmeg, freshly grated

Cook the pasta as per pack instructions (unless it's wholemeal, normally 10 minutes in salted, boiling water)
Gently heat up the olive oil in a big pan
Add the bacon and cook down gently at first to render down the fat. Then turn the heat up and cook the bacon until it's crispy
Add the vermouth (you can substitute with white wine, but as I don't drink that much - honest - I keep vermouth in the house to use instead) and reduce down until it's syrupy
Beat the eggs, cream, parmesan and pepper together in a jug or bowl
About a minute or two before the pasta's ready, add a ladleful of the water to the bacon and vermouth
Drain the (now cooked) pasta and add to the pan with the bacon in
Toss the bacon through the pasta and add the egg mixture, continuing to toss it through
Add more pepper and some grated nutmeg, and serve promptly

I don't add anything side-dish wise to this, if I were to, it would be a green salad with a tart dressing to cut through the richness of the sauce. It only takes ten minutes (at most) to cook, and is perfect Friday night fare. I wouldn't do it for more than 4 people though, it's ideal for two, but many more than that and it would be unwieldy.

This time when I added the asparagus, it was to the pasta pan, about 3-4 minutes before it was ready, and then just drained it with the pasta.

Parental Pantry Carbonara (typed out verbatim)

Chop lots of smoked streaky bacon into small pieces - you can use pancetta if you want to be Italian, but not the chunks of pancetta
Slice a clove of two of fresh garlic, according to taste
Open a carton of double cream - half a pint
Grate a piece of fresh parmesan - about a cupful in all
Liberate 2/ three fresh eggies (I said verbatim)

Cook bacon nicely till just starting to crisp
Add the garlic just before it's ready
Pour over half a pint of double cream and warm through until hot - DO NOT BRING IT TO THE BOIL IT DOES NASTY THINGS (his capitals, it was pre shouty capitals)
Add fresh eggies and half the parmesan, stir until it thickens NEVER ALLOW TO BOIL

Whilst all of this is going on, cook spaghetti according to the packet
When complete mix spaghetti and sauce in bowls, coat spaghetti with rest of parmesan and black pepper

Enjoy

All my love

Daddy

*goes off to weep gently into tea over happy memories* If you make this one, make it with love. For me.