Do you want an egg Shell?

Tuesday 27th January - The anti toad in the hole Mash and cabbage

2009-01-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

A weird mix of teas as Chris had his wisdom tooth taken out and was struggling to eat.

I made him Mash potato and cabbage with gravy so he had food he could eat without chewing!

I myself had toad in the hole type tea but without toads!

I used courgette onions peppers and cut them up tiny tiny and put them in a microwaveable bowl squeezed a bit of ketchup in there and whacked it on for a couple of minutes mixed it and then threw it into my batter mix, which I am not going to bore you on how to make as most of you know and those that dont will probably use the packet stuff or look it up for fun! :OP

I filled the Yorkshire pudding tray with my yorkshire pizza pudding mix and then topped each little one with a pinch of cheese... twenty minutes in the oven on quite a high heat and voila beautifulness lovely little snack served with a pile of salad and a dollop of your favourite sauce!

Make this eat this it is party food and fun fun fun!

Monday 26th January - Chickedy China the Chinese Chicken...

2009-01-30T13:10:00.000-08:00

新年快樂
Happy New Year

Ok so I text Chris saying 'It's Chinese New Year'
He text back saying 'We should have one.'
I text back 'Would be rude not to!'

So we had roast pork curry and boiled rice and fizzly pop prawn crackers.

Nice, Mrs Mei Wah Thanks :O)
( she is Gok Wans Aunty!!)

Saturday 24th January - Pesto Pasta

2009-01-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick throw together with the left overs from the cupboard really. Chris had already eaten something whilst out having fun and I just wanted something quick and easy.

I boiled some pasta bows (YAY... twice in a week!) drained them and then added a couple of spoons of red pesto from a Jar (i'm not a snob! hehe!) I gentle dry fried some courgette onion and peppers and then put them in the pasta. Grated a wee bit of mature chedder on the top and then to finish a few toasted pine nuts from the store cupboard!

Yummy food in my tummy very fast!

Friday 23rd January - Creamy Egg Curry à la Egg

2009-01-30T12:42:00.000-08:00

YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY

Talk about one extreme to another... this was absolutely amazing and very very easy!

First of all I boiled the eggs 4 of them to be exact! then I deshelled them and left them to one side.

I heated a bit of olive oil in the wok and added an onion and made it lovely and golden then I added 2 heaped tbsps of curry paste I used pataks Balti stuff, then I threw in a can of tomatoes about a teacup full of water (my measuring jug broke :Op) then I stirred in a tea cup full of peas garden ones from the freezer :O) then I cut the eggs into quarters and added them along with 4 tbsp of low fat greek yoghurt and served it with rice.

I urge you to try this even if you originally thought to yourself ''yuk eggs in curry?!'' If you like curry and you like boiled eggs you will LOVE this!!!

9/10 cheap tasty and made in 40 mins!

Thursday 22nd January- Cheesy bread pudding

2009-01-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

Disaster Alert!!

Ok so I knew it would happen... I thought it looked great sounded like a fab idea like bread and butter pudding only savoury and with cheese and eggy.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

No No No

There were so many things not right about this and the first being that I had forgotten to specify that I wanted white bread and I was bought brown bread and it went rubbery and spongelike and NO NOT RIGHT NOT GOOD!!!

0/10 will never make it ever again and you know what? I think for good measure I am going to forfeit ever being able to make Stilton and Walnut Tart and Halloumi and pepper cous cous so I can rip this revoltingness out of the cookbook!!!

Monday 19th January - Spring Veggie Pasta

2009-01-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

Because each week I just sit and look through all the cookbooks we have for inspiration and this week I got most of my inspiration from a Veggie Cookbook most of the dishes this week are meatless! But suprisingly Chris hasn't minded too much!

One of the most exciting things about pasta for me, is the many varieties it comes in. I love all the different shapes and nothing is better than finding a recipe which involves shaped fun pasta!

This tea involved pasta bows which I havent had for years and definately make tea more fun!

I cooked the pasta according to the packet instructions, then in the last five minutes I put a can of Broad beans in, to heat through, (I had really wanted frozen broad beans but the supermarket we used that day didn't have any!) While the pasta was cooking I heated a bit of olive and put in a chopped onion to cook until softened, then I added the garlic and the courgettes and cooked over a medium heat for about five minutes The I put in 3 ripe plum tomatoes and a splash of tabasco sauce :O) Yummy a little kick :O) then I cooked and stirred for about two minutes.

I drained it all tossed it into a bowl all together threw a lovely ripe avacado on the top and pasta bows not your uncle we had a lovely pasta dish! It went down very well and I think it will be a definate favourite on the lovely summer evenings I am expecting from 2009!

9/10 for ease 8/10 for tastiness and 9/10 for great value!

Sunday 18th January Glazed Lemon and Pepper Chicken

2009-01-18T11:02:00.001-08:00

Hmm not the best photo of tea but I was in a hurry to dish up and get Chris off his xbox.

Yummy I love Cabbage but not as much as the butternut Squashy stuff :O)

This was really nice and so easy no maintenance at all.

I made the glaze with some spoons of clear honey, lemon zest grated on the tiny grater, about 8 screws on the pepper grinder and a bit of garlic puree and then the juice of the lemon (which hurt like buggery as my hands are covered in papercuts! typical!) mix mix mix and then pour in my pyrex which was lovely and cheap from Woolies. Then I had to get the chicken out and cut into it a bit just to make gapey bits then I threw that in the sauce and left it there for half an hour... meanwhile I cut up some little potatos and the cabbage and then I put the potatos in the sauce and cooked it in our electric oven for half an hour at the heat with a blue dot on (there are no numbers as I have cleaned them off :O) but this is the medium to hot one prob 200ish.) Then I cooked the cabbage but I like it to stay a wee bit crunchy so I didn't over do it :O)

It was really nice it dished up nicely and now I am looking for some nice plates so the presentation is as perfect as how our teas are tasting :O)

Yum Yum I am happy today....

6/10 a bit too much with the allergic reactions (lemon juice maybe?) but the chicken tasted perfect.

Friday 16th January Squash with Tomatos and Chick Peas

2009-01-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

Another lovely one, I think my new favourite vegetable is butternut squash.

A butternut squash cut in half with a bit of Olive Oil brushed over it then I flicked some balsamic vinegar on it (I don't think I put enough on to change the taste, but it made it look pretty and patterned when it was cooked!)
I roasted it for 45 mins and whilst it was in the oven I made the chick pea bit. It was super duper easy and hardly and maintenance but it looked like it took ages to cook once on the plate...

Can of chick peas, tomato puree, garlic puree, vegetable stocka bit of caster sugar and onion wizzed into a saucepan and stirred beautifully :) leave to simmer whilst the squash is in the oven then spoon the sauce over the Squash putting it beautifully in the centre of the squash and voila I served it with Green beans as I didn't fancy POPEYE SPINACH... haha

Mum loved it, Courtney hated the Squash and Chris liked it all round 7/10 again

Thursday 8th January

2009-01-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

A whole bloody day cooking and I didn't get to eat any of it on the day!!!

I cooked two massive Lasagnes (Shelley's secret recipe) and they were to take with us to the great Center Parcs weekend. They were eaten and enjoyed by seven people along with salad and garlic bread.

I also made a Bacon and Tomato Cobbler which suprised me at how great it turned out and again it was for Center Parcs so no eaty it on Thursday :O( Everyone liked the bacon cobbler and have had requests to make it again. but I want the Hallowe'en tea again!

Lasagne 9/10 (stable and centrifigality good)

Bacon Cobbler 8/10

Wednesday 7th January Hallowe'en Bean Hot Pot

2009-01-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

Oh My God! This was really really good!

Beans good, squash good, beef good - what's not to like?!

I know it isn't Hallowe'en time but I really thought this looked great and the seasonal veg is all still about so I thought I would give it a go anyway!

It is definitely a winner! For me anyway (Chris not so much)

I chopped an onion and cooked it until it was brown - but not burnt and black :O)
then I tipped in a potata peeled and chopped into small chunks (I hate that word!) Then I added the mince beef and mixed it about a bit and made sure there were no massive lumps.
Then I stirred in a couple of tbsp's of curry paste and let it cook for a bit to make it firery :O)
Then I threw in (I'm not a careful cook) half a butternut squash, seeded and chopped into again small chunks then I put half a pint of boiling water on to it and left it simmering on the hob for half an hour.... SMELT AMAZING!!! Then I tipped in a can of (baked beans but don't tell anyone they are the secret ingredient!!!)
Then I cooked it for five more mins on a medium heat then served it with big oven baked bread.

yummy

Chris gave it a 7/10 But I loved it nice comfort food and I gave it 8/10

Tuesday 6th January Vegetable and Bean Bake

2009-01-08T02:06:00.000-08:00

This was amazing and it looked just like it did in the book!

I am going to make this again and next time I plan to make a few changes like adding some extra veg and using some other beans aswell.

It looked so beautiful... I almost didn't want to eat it. I will take a photo of it next time and share the recipe for anyone who fancies a vegetarian feast!

Main ingredients were, Onion, Cannelloni beans, potato, tomato puree, tomatos, courgette and s sprinkling of cheese... Served with mountains of our favourite garden peas :O)

Again I added my own touch to this one like a sprinkling of cayenne pepper for a little kick and next time I think I can bump this up a point on the rating!

Rating 8/10

Monday 5th January - Chicken and Apricot Stew

2009-01-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

Ok so I am gonna catch you up quickly on what we have had so far and how we rated it (well they are Chris's ratings, but I generally agree with them)

Chicken Stew was really easy to make and it took about an hour and twenty minutes, It was really nice, but I think it would have been even nicer if I had added some carrots to it.
Main ingredients Chicken, apricots, onions, olive oil and we had it served with rice and peas. yummy.

I wont bore you with a recipe as there is no picture! But it went such a rich colour, slightly helped by the 'splash of red wine' I cheekily added and I also threw in the whole bag of apricots for good measure as I didn't think 12 was enough :O) hehe!

Rating 7/10

My Kitchen Year 2009

2009-01-08T01:35:00.000-08:00

After binning all the left overs and waste from December, I realised just how much money we were throwing away. We always go to the big supermarkets (usually hungry) and do the awful thing where we just buy random stuff. Most of which goes out of date before we have chance to use it, or we plan to use it and then get a take away as we are too lazy to cook that night... for whatever reason.

Well 2009 that stops. There is a new plan for a New Year.

1. Stop wasting money by wasting less shopping and having less take aways
2. Be healthier in our food choices
3. Plan a weekly Kitchen diary
4. Be more adventurous with cooking

Each week in our Kitchen Diary we are going through recipe books and writing down what we are having each day. Then I write up an ingredients list for the week and take it shopping, buying ONLY items on my list.
Here in my Kitchen blog I will write of the successes and I am sure the times where we have to up and go out for dinner due to a kitchen disaster! (we are talking about me here, who dropped a whole jar a chilli out of the cupboard on top of her curry!)

So it is what it is, I'm not Nigella, so dont expect anything too fancy. I'm just here to have fun and save a few pennies along the way.

P.s I am not one of those who take New Years Resolutions lightly... I have just gone the whole of 2008 without Chocolate, and I am still going strong! YAY!!