Happy Hundred with Super Salmon

It is a happy occasion today... my hundredth post! I would have planned to make it about a cake or something... but I didn't realise until I came to write about this evening's meal just now! Never mind, this is still a great celebration meal!

I planned to have my salmon fillet from the freezer tonight, for no particular reason other than that I fancied it! With it, I made something I used to have a lot for lunch when I was younger. I made cous cous with cherry tomatoes. My mum used to make it for me, and I love it! I believe it may be a Nigella Lawson recipe, although I'm not entirely sure. It called for garlic oil, which I don't currently have, so I fried a finely chopped garlic clove in sunflower oil for a few minutes, which I think did the job just as well! The salmon fillet, I grilled. I would have steamed it... but I don't have a steamer. Not that it matters, as I like grilled salmon just as much. Acctually, salmon cooked anyway to be honest. Smoked... grilled... baked... steamed... anyway. The recipe for the cous cous used 100g, and a serving is 50g, so I have the other half for lunch tomorrow- just like old times!

Homemade garlic oil!

Before...

And after!

I love the way you can see it slowly change colour.

This looks absolutely delicious, if I do say so myself!

Glamorous Greens and Toasty Tea

I am going to start with something I made a while ago, but didn't acctually ever post about- my green smoothie. I had seen green smoothies in many places on the internet, but had never acctually tried one. I happened to have an excess of spinach, so I thought it was the perfect time to have one! I went for a simple recipe to start, as I wanted to see what the 'original' was like before I started playing around! The ingredients were spinach, a banana, milk and about a teaspoon of honey. To be honest, it was probably sweet enough without the honey, but I do have a bit of a sweet tooth! It was really nice, and you honestly can't taste the spinach. I might have to accidentally (on purpose) end up with an excess of green veggies to try another...

Look at that colour! Fabulous. You must be green with envy...

Now the toasty tea. I bet you won't guess what it was by looking at the ingredients...

In the bag is cheese... no? It was... pizza! Well, pizza of a sort. I toasted the two slice of bread a little in the toaster first to stop them going soggy with the toppings. While they were toasting and the sweetcorn was cooking, I chopped the tomatoes quite finely for a 'sauce', and grated the cheese. Then I just added them in the order like you would do if you were making a pizza- tomatoes, sweetcorn, then cheese! It only took a few minutes under the grill, and there you have it, a quick solution if you fancy pizza but don't have one in the house, or the time to make one. You could also use tomato puree or ketchup instead of fresh tomatoes to make it more 'pizza-like', but I quite like the fresheness of the cherry tomatoes.

My toppings waiting to go on.

Yum!

 

 

I was going to cut the bread into circles so they were more pizza shaped... but I forgot. Oh well. Next time!

Easter Excitement

Sorry I have been absent for a while, but I have been so busy! Good busy though, as I am home for Easter and we have been doing lots of nice things... Including going to Carluccio's for lunch. I will say nothing more except look at the menu. It will speak for itself.

First... Easter cross stitches. On one of our many excursions, we went to Hobbycraft, and they had several mini Easter cross stitches. My mum chose three, and I have done them to use as Easter decorations. We only got them Saturday, and I finished them today- but honestly, they are little!

Second, and perhaps the most surprisingly... I have made a trailer! Yes, a proper trailer to go behind a car. Well, I helped my dad make it. I cut some pieces out with a jigsaw, painted, and screwed in some nuts and bolts. I was so strong, I even managed to snap a bolt in two! It is very cold outside today so my outfit might look rather odd, but it kept me warm so I don't care.

Next, a lovely lasagne. I made Nigella Lawson's Calabrian Lasagne for tea, which is traditional in the sense that it has tomato sauce and beef. However, it also has mozarella, ham and boiled eggs within the layers! My family really like it, and even if you're not sure, I strongly urge you to try it! You might be surprised.

Last, but by no means least, a birthday card. This card was for a 40th birthday, so I made it lovely and sparkly and bright so it was a little bit more special. I have to say, I am very pleased with it, Nd I think it is the best card I have made in a while.

I hope this selection has made up for my absence... Look out for Easter baking in the next few days!

I left my camera at university, and as my phone seemed to be uploading photos I didn't use my parent's camera... But they didn't! I swear I will do a massive post with ALL the missing photos as soon as I figure out what is wrong with it!

Filling Fiery Beans

Even though I obviously chose it, I was a bit (just a teeny bit!) concerned that what I had chosen for tea tonight wouldn't be filling... I needn't have worried! After just under half I was getting full- but I finished it of course, it was too good not too. And happily, I even have it again tomorrow!

The recipe in question is Curried Beans. I have had ones out of a tin before, so I wanted to see how my culinary skills would match up! I rather liked mine acctually... When I was looking at the recipe, I saw the words curry and raisins, and thought, yep, gotta have it. And I'm glad I did. The beans I used were cannellini, althoug the recipe also suggested haricot. As well as the raisins, it also had apple in it, so it was nice and sweet, but the hot curry paste stopped it being TOO sweet. When the whole mmixture was simmering, the raisins plumped up beautifully, and I do like a plump raisin. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I can't wait to have it again tomorrow. This one got a big tick next to it!

See, here the raisins are just starting to plump up...

...Now they are really chubby!

Quick Curry Conundrum

There is one Quick Chickpea Curry that I make quite a bit, but I came across another recipe when I was flicking through my recipe books, figuring out my menu for this week. I thought I'd give it a go, as it used some ingredients that I was getting anyway, and it also gives me great satisfaction to tick off recipes that I haven't done before! It was fairly similar to the other one, except that this one had spices and spinach in. Apart from that they were, honestly, pretty much identical. My dilema now is, which one do I make next time? I like to be fair, so I will probably end up alternating between the two!

 

 

The recipe also said to serve with naan if you like... If I'd have thought about it I would have saved the half a naan I had for lunch the other day (I had the other half with the Dum Aloo, which you can read about here, and as it was from frozen I couldn't refreeze it). But, my lunch was very very nice, so to be honest I'm not complaining!

Nearly Frozen Frittata

I always plan my meals a week in advance, and tonight I had planned to have Pasta Frittata. A few days ago, considering the large amount of spinach I have, I decided I would try a spinach smoothie. I have seen them mentioned in quite a few places, and just wanted to give it a go! I also have lots of milk that needs using by Friday, and quite a few bananas, so it seems it was meant to be. I was going to have it for lunch one day this week, but not sure I will be able to now. I considered having it for tea tonight, but after a lot of careful thought, I went with the frittata after all!

I thought pasta was a bit of a strange ingredient for a frittata, but I needn't have worried, it went very well. This is a speedy supper you can whip up in a hurry, and you will most likely have the ingredients to hand as well, which is always a bonus- a garlic clove, an onion, cheese, eggs and pasta. That is all. The pasta does need to be cooked before you add it, but it can be cooking while you prep the onion and garlic, so it works out quite well acctually. It said to serve with any green vegetable, so of course you know what I went for... spinach of course!

Pots and Pans and Random Recipes

Quite a random collection of things this evening, but that's the way it goes sometimes!

To start off, birthday cupcakes! I am the self-appointed birthday baker of the flat, and this time around I made Lemon Cupcakes. I liked the recipe because it was just a bung everything in the bowl and mix like mad! Sometimes I like doing something more involved, and having a good potter round the kitchen, but this time I appreciated the 'bung and bake' method. The icing was the same, so quite a quick recipe all in all. Although I made the cakes yesterday and iced them this morning, they could be done fairly quickly if you wanted. The decoration was silver balls, which was perfect because I already had those!

Now, tea yesterday and lunch today. My dinner yesterday was simply a crusty roll and garlic and herb soft cheese, which I had with some spinach due me buying a rather large bag! But anyway. That isn't the story... I didn't know whether it would be nicer toasted or untoasted, so I did both! I cut the roll in half and toasted one half, whilst leaving the other untoasted. And I have to say, they were equally nice! On the toasted half, the cheese melted a little bit into it, and the untoasted half was lovely and soft and light. There were two rolls in the pack, so I had the same sort of thing for lunch today. Half toasted and half untoasted, with spinach, but also with a few raisins, brazil nuts and a boiled egg! It was a really nice weekend lunch, and didn't take long to prepare at all, as I did most of it while the egg was boiling.

 Tea...

 

And lunch- not  a pretty picture I know, but never judge a book and all that...

A little roll I made with a giant spinach leaf, a bit of egg white, some roll and cheese, dipped in egg yolk!

 

 

 

Breakfast today... This was my mum's made up recipe, and I have to say, it was delicious! It is plain yoghurt, banana, blueberries and oats. I wanted to layer it in a glass, but mine aren't big enough! I tried to layer the fruit and yoghurt in a bowl, with the oats on top, but you couldn't really see it... never mind, it didn't affect the taste at all.

 

I think tomorrow morning I will layer the oats in as wel...

See, there is fruit in there!

 

Bit of everything. Yum.

 

 

Home run! Well done to those of you who have managed to stick it out this long, I promise this next recipe is worth it! Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Indian food. And spinach. And potatoes. This recipe is all three. And I got to use my slow-cooker. Even better. I made Dum Aloo (spinach and potatoes) and served it with half a naan bread and mango chutney. I have never had a Dum Aloo with tomato in before but I really liked it- how could I not!- and will definitely be having it again. One thing though. The temperature. The recipe book said high. I thought this was a but strange, but went with it as I had never done the recipe before. It definitely did not need high! Even after me turning the temperature down to low after a few hours. it still burnt a little around the edges! I don't think it impeded the taste though, it just meant I had to eat tea an hour earlier than I wanted to. But it was nice enough that I have forgiven the recipe book... I have however made a note for next time. LOW. Definitely low. The stress of this made me forget to stir in the spinach and let it wilt, so I had to add it separately to the portion I ate, and put some in the freezer bag with the other portion. It didn't mix in as well, but I microwaved my portion for a minute to wilt it a little bit so it wasn't so bad. Full of ideas, me...

 

I think I need a bigger plate...