Now, I’ not sure if I’ve missed something but the lentils started to dry out quickly in the pan so I tweaked the recipe slightly, added a little cream and we ended up with this…

Ingredients

• 1 Tin of green lentils
• Coriander
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1 Small onion
• 1 Teaspoon Ground cumin seeds
• 1 medium chilli finely chopped and de-seeded
• 1 Tablespoon double cream
• 6 Tbsp water
• 2 Tuna Steaks
• 4 Tomatoes

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2. Halve the tomatoes and roast for 30 minutes - start the rest of the cooking after 15 minutes
3. Finely chop the onion, garlic and chilli
4. Put lentils in a a pan with the copped onion, garlic and chilli and the cumin seeds
5. Add 6 tablespoons of water to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes
6. Meanwhile start to griddle the Tuna - ours were well cooked
7. When lentils are cooked, take off heat and stir through the double cream then add the coriander leaves
8. Serve Tuna on top of lentils with roasted tomatoes around the side

But it’s the happy times I wanted to (eventually) share with you all and the reason I have been off my food.  We’ve been baking a little baby :)

The other good news is that I am just about back to eating more ‘normally’ and am even venturing into the kitchen again.  It is the only time I have ever been off my food and Hubby didn’t know what to do with himself when all I could managed for tea was a crumpet!

I’ve held off until today to blog about this as it was our 20 week anomaly scan this morning.  All seems to be ok and it looks like the Little One is going to be a girl - despite us both thinking it would be a blue one!

So in the last 20 weeks, this is what we’ve been baking ;)…

My mum kindly offered my services a few weeks back to bake some cakes for the cake stall at the Zoes Place Summer Fete.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, come Saturday evening post-baking it seemed altogether exhausting.  We arrived to set up our stall very last minute, but despite the rush, it was nothing less than a huge success.

Every year Zoe’s have a cake stall & the local Greggs bakers supply them with numerous freebies to sell so we had a front stall of homemade cakes and a side stall of Greggs baked goodies.  I am pleased to say that the homemade cakes sold out quickly & we were left with lots of Greggs muffins and cookies but by the end of the day everything had been eaten.

Between us, we made:

• 3 sandwich cakes
• tray of rocky road
• tray of mars bar rice crispy bake
• 24 sponge cakes with icing
• 24 rolo cupcakes
• chocolate muffins
• blueberry muffins
• chocolate cornflake cakes

We’re not sure of the final figure but it looks like we made just over £200 which will be doubled by my mum’s work, so it was certainly worth an exhausting days baking.

Ingredients

• 2 Tuna Steaks
• 1 lime
• 1 red chilli
• Olive oil
• Tin of mixed beans (Soya beans, Chick Peas, Pinto Beans, Black Eye Beans, Red Kidney Beans & Aduki Beans)
• Mixed salad leaves - we used rocket, spinach and watercress
• 3 tomatoes

Method

• Rinse Tuna & put in a dish so that they can lie down next to each other
• Squeeze juice of lime & a good glug of olive oil over tuna
• Chop chilli finely & add to tuna - cover dish & pop in fridge for 20 minutes
• Put griddle pan on to heat up
• Drain tin of bean & rinse well
• Put tuna in griddle pan, pour over excess liquid, season with salt and pepper - cook as you like it
• Place a good handful of leaves on a plate, sprinkle over a good handful of beans & place tomatoes around the side
• Place tuna steak on top of salad & serve

Delicous and healthy, even if I do say so myself.

Tonight we were supposed be enjoying sausages from Hollies Farm Shop in Northwich (a new discovery when we bought a new car from the area a week or so ago).

However, Anthony had to have a tooth out this afternoon so wasn’t up for anything but soup and with sausages on the intended menu, that certainly means he really couldn’t eat anything.

Back to the mushrooms though. Every time I make something like this it is just thrown together at the drop of a hat, no recipe in sight. Tonight’s was quite delicious & I thought it about time I share (& post!).

Mushroom & Thyme Pasta for One

• 6 Chestnut mushrooms
• 1/2 small white onion, chopped
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• 2 Tablespoons low fat creme fraiche
• Pasta

Method

• Put pasta on to cook (10-12 minutes)
• Fry onion in a little olive oil & a small pinch of salt until soft
• Add thyme sprig (a few leaves can be removed from sprig as this will be taken out before serving)
• Add mushrooms until soft
• Season further with pepper
• Stir in creme fraiche, take off heat
• Drain pasta & mix

Braised Chicory for two - lunch sized portion

• 2 pieces of Chicory
• 4 slices prosciutto chopped into small strips
• Salt & Black pepper
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon water
• Juice 1/2 lemon
• 100ml double cream

Method

1. Butter a small oven proof dish & put oven on a low heat (100°c)
2. Arrange chicory in the bowl and dot with little knobs of butter & the strips of prosciutto
3. Season with salt & pepper
4. Put a piece of greaseproof paper over the dish & put on lid (mine didn’t have one so I used tinfoil)
5. Braised in oven for 40 minutes until tender & lightly browned
6. Take out of oven and add lemon juice & cream
7. Serve with crusty bread

With everything going on I’ve not been making many exciting new dishes & resorting to quick, easy, tried & tested ones so I’ve not had much to report.

The only nice tasty meal I can report back about is a steak & cous cous salad we enjoyed a little while back…

Quite a simple cous cous with green beans, a little red onion and chickpeas served with a steak cut into slices & marinated in a little oil with some spicey herb rub.  Quick, simple but very nice.

I had intended on following Bill Granger’s recipe for Lamingtons themselves but the sponge mix didn’t set and with 6 eggs in it I wasn’t overly surprised. So after a quick re-think I whizzed up a batch of Nigella’s trusty cupcakes and then topped each with lamington icing.

I wont bore you with the cupcake recipe now I’ll just tell you about the chocolatey topping…

Ingredients (to top 12 cupcakes)

• 50g dark chocolate
• 125g icing sugar
• 5g butter
• 30ml milk
• 60g desiccated coconut

Method

1. Put icing sugar, chocolate, milk and butter in a heatproof bowl & melt over a simmering pan of water
2. Put the coconut on a plate
3. Dip each cupcake into the melted icing mix, ensure each cake has a generous coating
4. Dip into the coconut
5. Leave to dry

Whilst this recipe isn’t a runny yolk one, it is another tasty way to start your day

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• 4 free range eggs, as fresh as you can lay your hands on ;0)
• 2 tortilla wraps, rolled & sliced into strips
• Tablespoon oil
• 1 tomato, de-seeded & chopped
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 green chilli - though I may swap for a red chilli or use 2 for more heat next time

Method

1. Heat oil in pan & then add tortilla wraps until crispy golden brown
2. Remove these strips to a plate & fry the tomato, onion & chilli for 4 minutes (no need to add more oil)
3. Whilst cooking whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt & pepper
4. Add strips of tortilla back into the pan
5. Add eggs & mix gently
6. The eggs will set into an omelette style with the tortilla pieces
7. Serve

Recipe courtesey of Nigella, Express

Here is my slightly altered recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, or 2 small ones, finely chopped
• Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 heaped teaspoon medium curry powder
• 12g fresh ginger, grated
• 1 green chilli, finely sliced
• salt & pepper
• 1 x 420g tin chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 1/2 400ml tin of coconut milk
• 125g mushrooms, halved (or cut into tiny little bits for Husbands who don’t like them much)
• Juice of half a lime
• 1 stick of lemon grass (bruised)
• Large bag of spinach

• Basmati rice to serve
• Naans, optional - see recipe below

Method

1. Heat oil in large pan (I used a deep frying pan) and fry onion and garlic until soft
2. Add curry powder, fresh ginger, chilli, salt and pepper & stir
3. Add chickpeas, coconut milk, mushrooms, lime juice and lemon grass
4. Simmer for 30 minutes
5. When rice is ready to be drained, add spinach until wilted - rice can be drying whilst this happens
6. Serve with rice and naan bread

The recipe also calls for Thai fish sauce & soy but to be honest I didn’t think it needed anymore flavour adding (nothing to do with the fact that I forgot to add these!!)

I though it would be fun to make some naan breads too & found a recipe in the same cookbook. If you are going to make these I’d suggest you start these first & leave them to rise for 30 minutes before starting on the curry.

Ingredients (makes 12)

• 450g strong white bread flour
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 60g butter + a little extra for brushing
• 4 tablespoons natural yoghurt
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 egg
• Nigella seeds

Method

1. Put flour, yest, salt and baking powder in a food processor
2. In a small pan, warm the milk, yoghurt & butter
3. Once butter has melted take pan of heat & add the egg and bicarbonate of soda
4. Add this liquid to the food processor and wizz to a dough - I needed to add extra milk as it as too dry
5. Once a ball of dough has formed leave in a warm place covered with a damp cloth
6. Leave to rise for an hour (mine didn’t look like it has risen much, but don’t despair!)
7. Knock back dough with food processor then divide into halves - I have frozen one half, not sure if this will work!
8. Each half should be divided into six small balls to be shaped into naans
9. Leave these naans to settle for 10 minutes
10. Heat a frying pan - I put mine too high so I’d suggest a low-medium heat
11. Melt remainder of butter & brush into one side of the naans & sprinkle with Nigella seeds
12. Cook in a dry non-stick frying pan for a couple of minutes each side