Food Adventures

So I've become quite a resident of the kitchen these last few weeks (sorry feminists), I'm not sure why but I think maybe it's a productive form of procrastination?! Slash missing good home food. I love cooking shows like River Cottage, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Great British Bakeoff etc etc and I would love to be a skillful chef! Really been keen to try out new recipes recently - here are some things I've been trying out...

(NB: in case it isn't obvious, none of the photos are mine. But let's just pretend that's how good my food looks).

Potato Rosti

Not an overly healthy dish with a good bit of carbs and oil, but so nice for a change for a hot at-home lunch. I got my recipe from 200 Veggie Feasts but here's a similar one. Top tip: serve with a fried egg on top.

Aubergine Gratin

Another one from 200 Veggie Feasts. Pretty healthy and a kind of carb-less lasagne. I would definitely change my recipe a bit if I did it again though - mine had an overly intense tomato and basil taste. Give it a go though (start here).

Chicken Curry

I'm pretty new to curries so I started with an easy one - here. For such a straightforward dish it was really tasty - and would be a great basic recipe to add to. I added some sultanas and desiccated coconut.

Coconut Flapjacks

I used some of the left-over coconut to add to a basic flapjack recipe (like this). Yummy!

Butternut Squash, Tofu and Pea Curry

And another from 200 Veggie Feasts. Again, quite nice but I'd tweak it if I made it again. Could do with another strong flavour next to the butternut cos it really dominates. Still, a fun adventure! Here's a twist on it using pumpkin instead.

Stir Fry

I've started stir-frying a fair bit cos it's easy, cheap and healthy! Add noodles (wholegrain if you wanna be good!), chicken (season with Mixed herbs while cooking) or whatever veg (sugar snap peas are the best!). A really simple sauce is to mix a tablespoon of Soy Sauce with half a teaspoon of honey.

Couscous

Also an under-rated dish! Mix dried couscous with hot water with dissolved stock cube. Add seasoning/sultanas/roasted veg/lemon juice.... Quick, simple, yum.

Onion Gravy for Bangers and Mash

There's not many recipes I've done a number of times, cos I tend to get bored repeating them! But this is a winner. From Sam Stern's Student Cookbook which I got free from a newspaper! Yummy addition to a simple dish. This one looks similar. Add sage.

Shepherds Pie

A Classic.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter icing and Choc flakes

Created these the other day as a treat for some friends! Just a simple cupcake recipe with added vanilla. Used a crushed Galaxy Ripple sprinkled on the top of butter icing to finish it off! (And some lovely Ikea cases of course).

Hope I've inspired you!

Here's a little something to make you smile. I find it funny how seriously people take food sometimes.