Fish fingers are usually such cliched kids’ food. Some fish fingers are truly suspect with mushy white stuff that bears more resemblance to mashed potato than fish. Recently though I had opportunity to try these monster fish fingers from the newly revamped Tesco Finest range. “You’re feeding them those on a play date?” said my…
Eating In
Traffic Light Spaghetti
It always amuses me how a whimsical name can turn a dish into child friendly feast. I have called this traffic light spaghetti purely because it features a red, amber and green vegetable but the entertainment factor for Ted saying it was spaghetti with traffic lights was too much to resist. You could use…
Blini with Apricots
I don’t drink tea. I should say that up front. Can’t stand the stuff. But studying the Schwartz flavour forecast to prepare this post and flavouring stuff with tea was featured so here we are. I grew up being familiar with Schwartz, my mother had aprons and tea towels with their branding on. As you…
Leftover rocket pesto
You can make green pesto from many leaves other than basil; not being a fan of fragrant basil I prefer a sparky pesto made from rocket leaves. Neither do you need to rely on pine nuts, I often use other nuts or seeds to make pesto. Thirdly, you don’t need parmesan to make pesto either;…
Pulled Pork Noodles with Savoy Cabbage
We ate these pulled pork noodles around Chinese New Year last week. Using leftover roast pork from Sunday lunch you can whip up this speedy supper in around 15 minutes. For the original roast meat I’d been inspired by a slow cooked pulled pork recipe in February’s Delicious Magazine. Waitrose were doing a similar piece…
Easy leek and potato soup
We like our little family rituals and soup on Saturday is one of them. I like nothing more than sending Nick and Ted off to the playground to practise bike riding, have the house to myself for a bit and knock together some homemade soup using up bits and pieces left in the fridge –…
Smokey cheese and parsnip mash
Two ingredient recipes, we like those don’t we? I saw a smoked cheese challenge but discovered my supermarket only sold one variety – which was the same one everyone else was using. Wanting to be a bit different I remembered two local Turkish shops sold lots of smoked cheese, it must be popular in Turkey….
Spicy Lentils
Beans and pulses are the foundation of low cost healthy food but try as I might, I can’t get my six year old to eat them. He does however have a penchant for curried stuff therefore I thought I might be in with a chance with this Mighty Spice Express Moroccan lentils recipe. I’d been…
Fridge Bottom Soup
Saturday lunch so often means soup in our house. Prior to every supermarket trip I’ll do a sweep of the fridge bottom drawers and see what can be used up in a soup for lunch or maybe a curry that night. Leaving a nice clear space for the fresh new ingredients I’m about to stock…
Blue cheese dauphinoise
Now I never claim to be an expert. And I never claim to triple test things unless I have. Today I didn’t. This blog is all about what we had for dinner and what you see is what you get. I have waxed lyrical about canned dauphinoise potatoes from French supermarkets. Today I was making…
Pasta bake
It’s been a while since I bought jars of sauce. I used to use them quite a bit when I worked full time but since becoming a more confident cook I’ve been less reliant on them. Possibly no longer having the incentive to save glass jars stopped me buying them. The cellar shelves were rammed…
Cheese and potato pie
How I loved school dinners. Before they were privatised that is. Old style school dinners, before they started serving food on prison style plastic moulded trays. I believe kids are more likely to eat proper meals when they’re served on proper plates. It disgusted me when in around 1990, Walsall’s local education authority contracted out…
Garlicky mashed potatoes
“We’ve got the dark nights again” as my Grandma used to say. Despite 30c temperatures late last week probably most of us have had a taste of autumn over the weekend; coats are being donned for school once more. A nip in the air is as good as excuse as any for some rib sticking…
Boursin beef baguette
Bashing the hell out of a lump of meat is always a fun task. Ted came running downstairs to see what all the noise was about. You can make a couple of flash fry steaks go a long way if you cut them into strips for sandwiches. I stretched two of these steaks into lunch…
Left over beef bolognaise
Using minced beef in pasta sauce is a staple dish for many of us – but there’s no need to limit yourself making minced beef dishes with packs of ready minced beef. I had two cooked flash fry steaks left over plus one cold lonely beef burger off the barbecue. Come supper time I chucked…
Tender chicken in pesto and Boursin
Dead easy, tenderest juiciest way to cook chicken in under 30 minutes. Did you ever bake a chicken breast in nothing more than curry paste and yogurt? The results out of the casserole dish aren’t visually pleasing but I promise you tender tender chicken guaranteed with very little effort indeed. So I wondered how it…
Stuffed peppers with black-eyed bean chilli
I’ve never stuffed a pepper in my life so I figure if I’m going to do it I ought to make six at once. I think I’m a convert. After all, it only takes a quick lop off of the tops and a scooping out of the seeds and you’ve an instant casing for a…
Ciabatta pizza with salami and chilli pesto
I paired these two ingredients last week in my cichette Venetian style appetisers. Since I had a fair bit of each ingredient left they resurfaced in last night’s supper, a speedy tray of ciabatta mini pizzas. Ciabatta keeps for a good week unopened in the fridge. I often buy a loaf if I’m anticipating guests…
Huevos rancheros
I foxed my husband on Saturday. He said “what’s for lunch” and I replied in an enthusiastic faux Spanish accent, huevos rancheros. My husband doesn’t speak Spanish, nor for that matter do I.
Guacamole
Cooling down with hot guacamole…. Bought guacamole can be a lacklustre experience, whereas I’ll accept shop bought hummus (my own is better if available) I really can’t stick shop bought guacamole. The slightest tinge of grey from the avocado really turns me off so only fresh will do. Finding avocados just how I like them…
