Showing posts from January, 2017

Butternut Squash & Sage Macaroni Cheese

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know all about my obsession with macaroni cheese and variations of it. I made a Sweet Potato and Feta Mac n Cheese recently and thought it couldn't get any better than that. Well, I was wrong! This  Butternut Squash and Sage Macaroni Cheese is seriously yummy and the ultimate comfort food at this time of year. I baked a halved butternut squash with a whole unpeeled garlic clove and a handful of sage leaves in a low oven until really soft and tender.  All the lovely baked veggies were then whizzed up in a food processor to a smooth consistency before stirring into the regular cheese sauce I make for Mac 'n' Cheese. It gave the dish a lovely rich colour and the garlic and sage added a beautiful delicate flavour. Obviously the butternut squash adds some nutritional value to the macaroni cheese recipe, but more importantly it gives it this amazing creamy texture too....without the calories. It tastes so good and is


Chinese Chicken & Cashew Nuts

Did you know Chinese New Year - the year of the Rooster-  begins on Saturday? Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac (I was born in the year of the pig apparently!)..and this year it's the Roosters turn, the 10th animal in the cycle. If you're celebrating with friends and family this weekend make sure you try this super easy  Chinese style Chicken and Cashew Nut dish. Serve with a big bowl of egg fried rice...and don't forget the prawn crackers! It tastes just like my favourite dish from the local Chinese takeaway. TOP TIPS FOR MAKING CHINESE CHICKEN AND CASHEW NUTS Make sure your frying pan is really hot before frying the chicken. Add more veggies like baby corn, mushrooms or mangetout. Serve the chicken and cashew nuts over some egg fried rice or soft noodles. Make it spicy by adding 1 chopped red chilli at the same time as the onion. Make is vegetarian by replacing the chicken with quorn pieces


Milk Chocolate & Fudge Cookies

These Milk Chocolate and Fudge Cookies make the perfect after school snack for hungry kids. My lot are usually starving when they get home from school, especially if they've had after school sports clubs (here it's swimming on Mondays, football on Wednesdays, netball on Thursdays and tennis on Fridays!). I usually try and palm them off with some fruit before tea but sometimes they NEED a glass of milk and a homemade cookie to satisfy their hunger pangs....and sometimes Mummy needs one with her cuppa too! TOP TIPS FOR MAKING CHOCOLATE AND FUDGE COOKIES Swap the milk chocolate for white chocolate or dark chocolate if you prefer. Add a handful of raisins or chopped apricots to the cookie dough for extra goodness. The cookies freeze really well so stash some away in the deep freeze and pull them out the night before you need them. If you don't have Maple Syrup use ordinary Golden Syrup or Honey instead. OTHER COOKIE RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE Chocolate


Creamy Caramelised Onion, Grana Padano & Proscuitto Pasta

You can forget the diet with this Creamy Caramelised Onion, Grana Padano and Proscuitto Pasta recipe - but the calories are SO WORTH IT! This is my all time favourite Saturday night dinner in front of the TV with a cheeky glass of dry white wine. Ahhh I'm dreaming about it now! The onions are cooked for a really long time to bring out their sweetness which contrasts so well with the nutty pine nuts and salty proscuitto. I use marsala in this recipe, which is a fortified wine from Sicily, but ordinary white wine would work OK too. If you did want to try and cut the calories a little bit, you could use half fat creme fraiche instead of the double cream, but I think if you're going to enjoy it, enjoy it in its full glory and go for the double cream! You wont be sorry - just do an extra 20 minutes of exercise the next day if it makes you feel better. That's my tactic. TOP TIPS FOR MAKING THIS CARAMELISED ONION, GRANA PADANO AND PROSCUITTO PASTA Cook the onions s


Vanilla Bundt Cake

An easy vanilla bundt cake recipe with fresh raspberries, and a dreamy vanilla drizzle icing. This is one special cake! I love how pretty bundt cakes are, and this simple vanilla bundt cake with fresh raspberries, is no exception. What makes a bundt cake, a bundt cake? A bundt cake, is a cake that is baked in a bundt tin, shaping it into a distinctive doughnut shape. The shape is inspired by a traditional Gugelhupf (popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). The cake batter needs to be a lot more moist that other cake batters, because so much of the cake's surface is exposed to high temperatures. I made this bundt cake in a 27cm bundt tin, but if you have a smaller tin, just fill it to two thirds full and use any remaining mixture to make some muffins. This really is the perfect cake to brighten up your day! Top tips for making bundt cakes Grease, grease and grease that bundt tin, and then add some flour and tap it around before getting rid of a