On insta, I have seen so many creative recipes for Halloween! So, today as I had to work and will be late coming home! I thought I would make a nice suprise sweet treat for my boys when they come back from school! I needed something super quick and the boys love oreos so I made some bats with them and spider designs!
All you need is 2 oreos per bat, break one in half and stick them down with white chocolate or icing as the wings, add some candy eyes. For the spider web, I drizzled the white chocolate and added a chocolate chip for the spider body and black icing for the legs!!
For our dinner, I made hot dog mummies as I saw this recipe post from Warburton. So simple to make and delicious! I will be making this again! In the hot dog bun, add some ketchup, grated cheese, hot dog from the tinned/jar, add more cheese and wrap it around with the bacon to make it look like a mummy. You can use olives for the eyes, I didn’t have any at home so I used some grapes! Put them in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes GM6 and enjoy!
Nigella is one of my favourite cook author and I have purchased many of her cooking books! One of my favourite recipe is from her ‘Nigella Express’ book is the ‘Merguez with Halloumi and Flame -Roasted Peppers’. This is such a simple dish to make and prep so I always make sure that I have a jar of roasted peppers in my pantry and have the halloumi and chorizo in my fridge as they have a longer fridge life. I remembered when I first looked at this recipe, I couldn’t find any Merguez which is a spicy sausage so I used Chorizo instead and include a few pork sausages in the dish as well as we love our meats! 🙂 I have made a few adjustments to her recipe.
Ingredients: 1 chorizo sliced up, 6 – 8 pack of sausages of your choice, 1 block of Halloumi cheese, 1 jar of Roasted Red Peppers and 2 x tbs of oil, 1 x tsp lazy garlic, 1 x tsp of mixed herbs and 1 x tsp oregano.
Method:
Preheat the oven the Gas Mark 7 and put all the sausages in a big roasting tin with the oil. Cook for approx. 10 minutes so that the sausages are abit browned.
Cut the halloumi in to 5mm slices and lay them around the sausages, take the peppers out and put them around the cheese and sausages. You might want to cut them into smaller pieces and drizzle the oil on top of everything and sprinkle all the herbs.
Cook for 20 minutes or until when the sausages is cooked. Serve with some crusty bread and salad.
Sometimes, I add some boiled potatoes in the tin and roast them with all the other ingredients. Makes the dish more filling and we have this with bread because there are a lot of juices. We normally have left overs for the next day, and it taste even better as all the flavours are absorbed.
I have been quite lazy lately with learning new vegetarian dishes and cooking the usual food for our ‘once a week veggie’ day like jacket potatoes with tuna or seafood pasta etc.
In my Good Food Magazine, August edition, I saw a recipe using beetroots, I only really eat beetroots in salads and the ones that I buy in the supermarkets are already diced or pickled. I have never used a raw beetroot before so it is a challenge!!! 🙂 I wonder what our kids would think of it as it would pink pasta! 🙂 I can’t wait to see what it turns out like!
Ingredients – 2 x large beetroots, peeled and chopped into chunks, 1 x tbsp olive oil, 2 x onions finely chopped, 4 x celery sticks, finely chopped, 4 x carrots, peeled and finely chopped, 1 small bunch of basil, 2 x garlic cloves finely chopped, 400g wholemeal pasta, 75g of creme fraiche and 100g feta.
Method:
Boil the beetroot in a pan of salted water for 5 minutes and use a slotted spoon to take the beetroot out and leave the water aside.
Put the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onions, celery and carrots and cook for 8 mins until softened. Finely chopped the basil stalks and celery tops, and add the garlic and fry for a 1 minute.
Tip the pasta in the same water that you used to cook the beetroot and cook the pasta for about 20 mins. Drain and reserve 200ml of the pasta water and tip the pasta back into the pan.
Meanwhile, put the beetroot with half of the vegetables, most of basil leaves and crème fraiche into a food processor. Blitz until smooth and add the reserved pasta water to make into a thick mixture.
Stir this sauce through the pasta and add the remaining vegetables and season. Divide it up and crumble over some feta cheese on top and scatter with the remaining basil leaves. Enjoy!
It was nothing like I have made in the past, even Dan raised his eyebrow when he saw the dish and Gray kept asking why is it pink!! Lol! It was very delicious and felt extremely healthy to eat!! The pasta sauce is quite thick but really sweet! We had plenty for leftovers and it was more flavorsome the next day!! I would definitely be making this again!! It was just alotnof chopping required!
From my childhood and still now, steamed eggs has always been a family favourite dish to eat at dinner time. My boys love it too when their ‘Por-Por’ (grandmother) makes it! I have asked my mum for the recipe! It is actually really simple but sometimes it’s still and a hit and miss when cooking it!! Even my mum sometimes messes up the cooking time!!
It basically has 3 ingredients, eggs, milk and water!! Use 3 x eggs and mix it in a measuring jug, then pour warm water approx. 100ml and top it up with milk so that the whole mixture measures up to approx. 400ml. Stir everything and pour into a metal pot for steaming, you can add a pinch of salt to it if you want. My mum’s tip is to make sure the water is boiling hot like bubbling before you pour the eggs in. Steam for 5 minutes on the maximum gas setting, I would normally steam this for 10 minutes and then switch it off and leave the lid on for awhile so that the eggs can set. The eggs should have a bit of a wobble when you take it out and looks set at the top. If it is still liquidly, then steam for another 5 minutes. Add some light soya sauce on top and serve with your other dishes and boiled rice. Also, you can add chopped up spring onions on top but i just leave it plain for the boys!
My boys love this dish as this is their favourite and can eat the whole dish between the two of them!! This is the only ‘Chinese’ dish that I can make from scratch! I know how to cook more ‘Filipino’ dishes!! Although, I am hoping to explore more Chinese cooking in the future as I have got a few cookbooks! 🙂
I went to an Oriental Food shop and I love browsing all the different sauces and mixes as there are so many flavors to explore. Also, I especially love looking at their snacks and sweets. I can spend alot of money as I can’t help myself!
I only had a Japanese curry dish a handful of times in the past and remembered it being a sweet taste rather than a hot Indian curry taste which is spicy!
I brought this Japanese Curry mix for £2.50, I didn’t realise you had to use the whole block! I thought inside would be lots of cubes like when you buy your usual chicken/veg stock. It was a thick block so I guess it would be very flavorsome.
All you need is potatoes, beef, carrots and onions and serve it with boiled rice! I accidently threw the packaging away and I can’t quite remember the exact instructions!! But, it is written on the back of the packaging and from what I can remember, it was really easy to make! Just lots of chopping initially, frying the beef first and then adding all the vegetables with some water and then adding the stock right at the end. It probably took about 30-40 mins to make. It was strange though because I thought you would add the stock first to get the deeper flavoring but it was right at the end that you would do it! I didn’t add anything else to it at all!
The curry was very delicious and the sauce was not too thick or thin. The flavour tasted really authentic so am really pleased with this brand and definitely be buying this again!
It was my husband’s turn to cook for a vegetarian dish and he decided to make a gnocchi and tomato bake from BBC Good Food website. Normally, I would fry with hot oil and add mixed herbs and rosemary and some butter to it towards the end so the texture is crunchy outside and still soft inside. I think, I saw Nigella cooking using this method in one of her TV programmes in then past and have always fried the gnocchi since.
So, when he said he was going to bake it, I really did wonder how it was going to taste! Surprisingly, the dish turned out really nice and you only need a couple of ingredients and it was super easy to make! I will definitely try out more gnocchi recipes being baked as it is such a different texture from being fried. I might have a look out to see what other recipes that you can make with gnocchi and try them out!
Ingredients: 1 x tbsp olive oil, 1 x onion chopped, 1 x garlic clove crushed, 400g can chopped tomatoes, 1 x red pepper (deseeded and finely chopped), 500g gnocchi, handful of basil leaves and half a mozzarella ball, torn into chunks.
Method:
Heat the grill. Heat 1 x tbsp olive oil, fry the onions and red pepper in a pan. Stir the garlic clove and fry for 1 minute. Then, add the chopped tomatoes and gnocchi and bring to a simmer.
Let it bubble for 10-15 minutes until the gnocchi is soft and the sauce is thickened.
Season it and add the basil leaves (torn) and transfer to ovenproof dish. Scatter the mozzarella cheese and grill for 5-6 minutes until it is bubbling and golden.
I really like lasagnas, when I go to Italian restaurants, I always order a pasta bake or lasagnas! I don’t like making lasagnas because I find it too fiddley! You have to make two different sauces and then when it comes to assembling it, I never know which order to do it! We have found the best lasagna to buy is from Lidl, (meat version), the texture is really nice, not soggy and it has alot of beef! It’s one of our favourite dish to eat for our dinner!
My brother in law made us a veggie lasagna a couple of months ago and it was really delicious so I asked where he got the recipe from. He got it from the BBC Food’s website. I love it when it says ‘preparation time is less than 30 minutes’ as in reality, it took me over 40 minutes to prepare everything, I must be an extremely slow chopper! LOL!
I followed this recipe and the lasagna was huge!! The only difference with this set of instructions, I put the spinach right at the bottom rather than mixing it in with all the other vegetables. I found that I didn’t have enough layers as per the instructions, I am not sure whether it was because my oven dish was too big so I didn’t have enough fillings to make up the layer! I always don’t know how to do the layering and get confused with the instructions! my husband rightly said to me, why I didn’t check it out on youtube! LOL! Next time!
The veggie lasagna was delicious, power packed with all the vegetables and extremely filling and we had leftovers for the next day! Took me ages to make so maybe I would make this again if we are having friends round because it is a nice dish to share! 🙂
I have always fried my risotto in a pan but I have seen recipes that you can bake it in the oven and wondered how does it cook because you are meant to be stirring it all the time!
From my BBC Good Food May’s magazine issue, there was a recipe called ‘Baked tomatoes, mozzarella and basil risotto’ which I thought would be good to try out for our June’s veggie dish. I added some mushrooms and courgettes into the dish as it felt strange just having it with only tomatoes!
I was really surprised with how simple the method was as I wasn’t sure how the risotto was going to cook but it cooks in the stock and it was a bonus that it didn’t take long to cook! It was very delicious and the texture was great! The texture was soft but you have the crunchy bit from the breadcrumbs! I would definitely make this again! There was enough made for left overs for the next day!
Ingredients: 2 x tbsp olive oil, 1 x onion finely chopped, 300g arborio rice, 850ml vegetable stock, 100g cherry tomatoes halved, chopped up mushrooms and courgettes, handful of basil leaves chopped and save some to serve, 25g parmesan cheese grated, 150g ball mozzarella, torn into small chunks, and 25g Panko breadcrumbs (any will do).
Method:
Preheat the oven to GM6. Heat half of the oil in in a casserole dish, then cook the onions for 8 – 10 mins until golden. Add the mushrooms and courgettes and fry for a few minutes. Scatter the rice and mix well until coated and pour the hot vegetable stock and give a quick stir. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and stir the tomatoes, basil and half the parmesan and season everything. Flatten everything with a back of spoon and then add the mozzarella evenly into the risotto. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and remaining parmesan and drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil. Put the dish back into the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked through. If you want a more deeper crust, then you can grill it for a few minutes. Mine, was just fine from the oven and then scatter some basil leaves on top and serve!
It’s National Vegetarian Week this week so I thought it would be good time to learn a new vegetarian dish for this month. I saw a recipe in Lidl Summer leaflet which was a Creamy Coconut and vegetable Karahi. I have never really explored cooking Indian dishes, I have only made one Chicken Curry from scratch and that was using my friend’s recipe but many years ago! I guess, because i am not a huge fan of chillies and ‘hotness’ and the spices are really strong! I tend to buy the jarred sauces and add the meat in or get a takeaway! 🙂
This recipe seemed quite straight forward, it was just alot of cutting and chopping up all the vegetables. I eased off the chillies mixture because i don’t like it so hot! I am glad that i used a big pan for this, at one point when i tipped all the vegetables in, it wasn’t going to fit!! So, please make sure you have a big pan or you can cook it in 2 batches when making this!
Ingredients – 4 x tbsp oil, 2 x onions sliced, 2 x medium potatoes – peeled and chopped (I used a small bag of baby potatoes), 2 x carrots, peeled and chopped, 1 small aubergine chopped, 1 courgette chopped, 1 red pepper and 1 green pepper chopped, 250g frozen peas, 2 tsp easy chilli, 4 x tsp chilli flakes, 2 tsp easy garlic, 2 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tomato diced, 5 x tbsp coconut milk, 4 x spring onions, 1 handful chopped coriander and some salt to season.
Method:
Blitz the tinned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes and leave it aside.
In a large pan, heat the oil and fry the onions until soft, add the potatoes and carrots and fry for 5 – 8 minutes.
Tip all the other vegetables and all your spices to your liking and season.
Cover the pan and cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are par-cooked but not mushy. Make sure your potatoes are cooked.
To finish the curry, add the add the tomatoes into the vegetable mix and cook for 2 – 3 minutes before stirring in the coconut milk. Simmer for approx 5 minutes, serve with rice and garnish the dish with chopped coriander.
I would definitely make this again although my hubby said, ‘why don’t you add some meat to it next time!!’ I think i would prefer this dish without the meat.
With the left over coconut milk, i used this to make a coconut pound loaf cake which i will share this with you next week! 🙂
My husband, Dan has got an account on TikTok – @running2resonate – he loves to run so please feel free to look him up and he is on insta aswell! ! I am not on this platform but he showed me a video clip using Feta cheese as everyone seems to be posting about it. I watched the video and thought, wow, that’s incredibly easy and just by chance, I have got a feta cheese block in my fridge! lol!
So, for this month’s vegetarian dish, I decided to join in the popular feta cheese pasta craze!! lol! I was really surprise as to how little ingredients you need to make this but you can always add other vegetables and herbs to it according to your preference. I couldn’t eat just pasta with tomatoes plus I don’t think Dan would be too satisfied with this so I added some spinach to it aswell and served it with garlic bread!
Ingredients: Full fat feta cheese block, a box of small tomatoes – can be mixed, pasta, garlic, olive oil, chilli flakes and mixed herbs. I included half a bag of spinach and a bunch of basil leaves.
Method: Pre heat the oven to GM6 and use a big oven dish. Put the tomatoes in and then add the feta cheese block in the middle of the dish, sprinkle your herbs, garlic and drizzle some olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes or so until the cheese looks quite golden and the tomatoes are bursting.
As your dish is in the oven baking, cook your pasta and reserve some of the water for the sauce. Once your feta cheese is ready, add your pasta and your spinach and just mix everything together. If it is too dry, then add some of the water from your pasta. Lastly, add some basil leaves to garnish! And that’s it! So simple and an easy quick dinner. I will definitely be cooking this again and add different vegetables to it like courgettes or mushrooms etc.
Aunty G's Kitchen 