Hungry Jenny

Cherry and Cinnamon Muffins (butter free)

2012-02-22T20:33:00.003Z

I can't get enough of cinnamon recently. With the push of the daily breakfast goal from the recent Healthy Every Week Challenge, I've since been eating porridge most mornings, using cinnamon instead of sugar to sweeten it up. And I think this daily intake of cinnamon has got me a little addicted to the stuff. In a good way of course.

As well as adding to savoury dishes, like the Chilli Con Carne Pie I made the other week, there of course had to be a cake involved in this run of cinnamon fun.

Cue these sweet Cherry and Cinnamon Muffins!

This is a really quick cake mixture to whip up, and the combo of cherry and cinnamon is enough sweetness for it, without needing a large mountain of sugar as well. Just er, 50 grams instead. Which isn't half bad for 6 muffins ;-)

Ah, cinnamon, is there anything you can't do?

Cherry and Cinnamon Muffins (butter free)

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Makes 6:

125g dark cherries, halved
100ml skimmed milk
50ml olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
150g self raising flour
50g sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Gently beat the milk with the oil and egg in a small bowl.
2) In a large bowl, sift in the flour, then mix in the sugar and cinnamon. Fold in the halved cherries.
3) Pour in the milk mixture, then gently fold in until just mixed.
4) Spoon the mixture into 6 muffin cases, about 3/4 full.
5) Bake for about 20 minutes until risen and you can pull a toothpick out clean.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

Say NO to Takeaway: Try Making Lime and Coriander Pork with Wholegrain Rice Instead!

2012-02-19T10:37:00.001Z

So a wholegrain rice dish might not be the first thing you think of as a takeaway alternative. But with all these other colourful ingredients that go into this particular dish as well, you soon won't notice.

This Thai-influenced rice dish is relatively easy to make, but you definitely need to get hold of fresh lime and coriander to make it truly spectacular.

Now I'm partial to a bit of a dried spice and herb (I've a whole shelf of them!), but for a dish like this, always, always go for fresh coriander. You can use the ground packaged stuff if you must, but the flavour just won't be as intense.

The veg, as mentioned earlier, is purposefully colourful - indeed, this usually impacts my recipe creation alot - I think it makes for a better dish when there are at least 3 or 4 different colours on the plate. And certainly a good way to try out new ingredients ;-)

Enjoy!

Lime and Coriander Pork with Wholegrain Rice

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Serves 4:

500g pork escalopes, chopped
1 lime
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped + a fresh handful, roughly chopped
300g wholegrain rice
600ml boiling water
200g sugar snaps, halved
150g sweetcorn
2 red peppers, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped

1) Squeeze the lime juice (retaining 1 tbsp) into a bowl with the soy, honey, oil and the tbsp of coriander.
2) Gently bring the rice to boil in the water with the remaining tbsp of lime juice. Turn down to the lowest heat, then leave to simmer for 30-35 minutes until the water is absorbed. Switch off the heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
3) Fry the marinated pork in a hot pan for a few minutes. Add the sugar snaps, sweetcorn, peppers and spring onions, frying everything together for about 5-7 minutes.
4) Tip the whole lot into your steamed rice pan along with a handful of fresh coriander. Mix everything together and serve.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too.

Friday Pie Day: Sweet Potato Starter Pie

2012-02-17T08:33:00.000Z

When thinking of making a starter, the word 'pie' perhaps doesn't immediately spring to mind. Ok, maybe a wee goat's cheese tart or something.

How about a Sweet Potato Starter Pie?

Alright, so this might sound like a pie that is a bit past its season. But it's not that kind of sweet potato pie.

This is not your sugary, spicy, custardy filling type pie. And certainly not a dessert or side dish, as perhaps traditionally served in its usual form.

This is an individual, single-serving pie and more of a savoury dish - the cooked sweet potato is mashed with creme fraiche, chopped tomatoes and onions.

This kind of starter is best followed by a lighter main - so perhaps you could go for a warm salad, like a Grilled Sesame Pork and Cucumber Salad, or a Butternut Squash and Rocket Salad. Nothing heavy like a rice, potato or pasta type dish!

So hopefully you can see that as a starter, Sweet Potato Pie kind of works - but only if you don't go too carb-crazy afterwards. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Sweet Potato Starter Pie

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Makes 4 (using 3.5" ramekins):

300g shortcrust pastry
300g sweet potato, peeled and chopped
125g can of chopped tomatoes
100g creme fraiche
50g red onion, finely chopped

Fresh salad to serve

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Divide the pastry into 4 equal parts. Roll one out onto a floured surface into a small circle. Transfer to line a ramekin dish. Repeat for the other 3 pastry pieces.
2) Cover with foil and fill with baking beads. Bake blind for about 12-15 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool.
3) Meanwhile, gently boil the sweet potato chunks until just cooked - don't left them soften too much. Drain and mash.
4) Turn the oven back on to 200 degrees C. Mix the tomatoes, creme fraiche and onion carefully into the pan of mash.
5) Spoon equally into the 4 baked pie crust ramekins. Bake for about 25 minutes until the top just starts to darken.

Serve with a bit of fresh side salad, and you're ready to go!

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other vegetarian recipes you might enjoy.

Mini Chocolate Chip Stars

2012-02-14T19:21:00.002Z

Shortbread epitomises everything I try to cut out every now and again in baking - butter, sugar and flour.

I've done a few shortbread recipes now, with small variations like using almonds, coconut, and flavouring up with citrusy ingredients, chocolate and jam, but the three main ingredients remain.

I've always pondered over trying to make a butterless, or a sugarless shortbread, but even with the many butter free and sugar free recipes I've managed to do, I can't bring myself to try this just yet.

With those three core ingredients, I feel like I would instantly take away the shortbread nature of the whole thing, and be left with something quite different. And the texture of that beautifully soft yet crunchy bite of shortbread clearly is not something to be messed with.

What needs to be done then is to simply enjoy them in those times of need for a cheeky treat. So here are 45 chocolate chip shortbread stars for you, in their full shortbread goodness ;-)

Mini Chocolate Chip Stars

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Makes about 45 stars (2" cutter):

75g white sugar
150g butter, softened
225g plain flour
Juice of half a lemon
Some ice cold water
50g chocolate chips

1) Beat together the sugar and butter in large bowl.
2) Mix in the flour. Squeeze in the lemon juice, and start to bring the mixture together, kneading into a dough. Add a tablespoon of cold water at a time if needed. Wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Cut the dough in half and roll out one half onto a floured surface.
4) Using a 2" star cutter, stamp out as many stars as you can, then repeat with the other half. I managed about 45 stars in total!
5) Transfer to 2 lined baking trays. Press a few chocolate chips into each star. Bake for about 12 minutes until lightly golden.

They will still be a little soft when you bring them out, but will firm up as they cool, and stay mighty soft to the bite.

More cookie recipes here!

Friday Pie Day: Chilli Con Carne Pie

2012-02-10T16:00:00.003Z

Ah, chilli con carne, the old classic. My housemate Anita often cooks it for dinner and I've been pondering over recent weeks over how to turn it into a pie.

A while back, I did make these Mini Chilli Con Carne Pies, which were essentially little tortilla pots, complete with a tortilla 'lattice' pie top.

This time though, I wanted something more substantial, a proper size pie. But I didn't want to just stick chilli con carne filling into a normal shortcrust pastry base.

A potato topping wasn't too appealing either, and would have made it look too much like a shepherd's pie. So I started thinking about what chilli con carne is served with.

Rice? Hm, I tried a kind of rice crust before with this Egg Pied Rice but that felt like a bit too much hard work.

Then, I had it...

Cous cous!

I rather naively thought that if I stuck cooked couscous on top and baked it for long enough, it would somehow merge into a solid yet tasty pie crust top.

Well, it didn't completely fall apart when I came to cut the 'slices' but it was certainly messy! It was in the oven for an hour and it was just starting to crisp around the edges - but I couldn't wait any longer. I had covered it with foil from the start to stop the top from burning but I wonder if next time it should be finished off under the grill to help it set more.

Needless to say, the chilli con carne inside was deliciously piping hot and well worth the wait :-)

Chilli Con Carne Pie

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For an 8" pie dish (serves 4):

275g lean beef mince
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/4 tbsp cinnamon
150g couscous
Juice of 1 small lemon
175ml hot beef stock
75g red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated
2 tomatoes, diced
200g can of chopped tomatoes
150g carrot, diced and boiled
125g kidney beans
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

1) Mix together the soy sauce with the oil, cumin and cinnamon in a bowl with the mince. Allow to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
2) Put the couscous in another bowl. Squeeze over the lemon juice, and pour in the stock. Cover and set aside.
3) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Add the mince to a hot pan to brown for 4-5 minutes, followed by the onion and garlic.
4) Add the tomatoes, carrot, kidney beans, cayenne pepper and chilli powder, stirring everything well for another 5 minutes.
5) Transfer the mince mixture to a pie dish. Carefully spoon the couscous evenly over the top. Cover with foil, then bake for about an hour until the top starts to crisp.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

The Blameless Cake With No Name

2012-02-09T17:00:00.006Z

Poor innocent little fellow.

There are times where I get ideas in my head and they turn out just how I intended (or, on the rare occasion, even better!) Other times, the idea just turns into a Hungry Jenny Faux Pas that does not warrant a recipe, or just goes plain wrong.

This one presented a slightly different issue however.

I can't seem to give this one a proper name!

"I just want to be loved, and eaten..."

Oatmeal is one of my favourite ingredients to bake with and I wanted to make a cake that would taste really...well, oaty. So in short, I wanted to make a soft flapjack in the shape of a cake. The problem with this though is that I can't call it a flapjack - because I don't want it to sound like a pancake to those who read this from the other side of the pond.

In the past, when I've made 'British-style' flapjacks, I've got around the name game by calling them oat bars.

Clearly this one is not a bar. But I can't just call it an oat 'cake' either, because that's something else as well! I wondered whether oat 'slices' could work, seeing as you cut a cake into slices - but putting it together with 'oat' still somehow makes it sound like a bar.

I could have perhaps called it a granola cake - but the only granola ingredient it contains is the oats really. This has apple chunks, banana and peanut butter so is not exactly granolafied. It is also bound together with olive oil rather than syrup or honey.

So what name did I end up with?

Er, Apple and Peanut Butter Oat Triangles...

Hm. Suffice to say, this is a temporary name until I can figure out a better one. Any better ideas welcome!

Apple and Peanut Butter Oat Triangles (dairy free)

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For an 8" round tin (8-10 slices):

150g rolled oats
100g self raising flour, sifted
50g sugar
1 apple (100g), skinned, cored and cubed
1 banana, mashed
3 tbsp peanut butter
100ml olive oil

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the oats with the sifted flour and sugar in a large bowl. Fold in the cubed apple.
2) In another bowl, mash the banana with the peanut butter and oil. Tip into the oat mixture and fold in well.
3) Transfer to a lined round tin, then bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden and set. Allow to cool before cutting into 8-10 triangles.

Other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

#gethealthy Week 5: The End of the Challenge...and Back to Square One

2012-02-07T17:51:00.008Z

Well, the first month of 2012 is officially over. Ok, so I'm a few days late but you know what I mean.

It's also meant the end of the January Healthy Every Week Challenge.

So, if you have followed a weekly goal like this for a good month, you should be well pepped up to continue the same way for the rest of the year, right?

Well no, not exactly.

You can have challenges set for you by someone else, and be rallied on constantly to help you achieve those goals. But that doesn't just mean going through the motions of each challenge. You need to make sure that the goal matches what you want to achieve, so that you can make it work for you.

And for me, that was kind of the obstacle.

At the start of this challenge, I wanted to use it as a way to explore healthy weight gain. Here's a quick recap of the goals:

Week 1: Eat Breakfast
Week 2: Eat More Whole Grains
Week 3: Cook at Home
Week 4: Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

If you read the roundups about each of the above challenges, you'll have seen that none of them were particularly alien to me. But I didn't have a clue how to go about them with the healthy weight gain goal in mind. And to be honest, it's only now on reflection of the challenge, that I've realised what I need to do:

Just eat more.

Yes it's completely ridiculous. It's a statement that is obvious as saying to someone who wants to lose weight, "Just eat less and exercise more." Go ahead, slap my forehead and shout "DUR!"

But the reason why I've declared such an obvious statement is because this is the extent of my knowledge on the subject of healthy weight gain. And knowing to 'just eat more' simply isn't enough.

And so the end of this challenge has brought me back to the start again. I did aim for this challenge to push me into looking specifically into this, and it's definitely done that.

Over the past few weeks, I've started to research specifically into healthy weight gain. And yes, as expected, the hunt for this info seems to be a weight-gain-needle in a weight-loss-haystack situation.

But I've realised that there is help out there. And it has opened up so many questions and ideas that I just haven't figured out what to do with it all yet. So you'll have to watch this space to see what happens next...

Other Hungry Jenny healthy food thoughts you might be interested in

Friday Pie Day: Orange and Ginger Turkey Crumble

2012-02-03T15:37:00.000Z

Savoury crumble?

Yes, please!

Ok, it looks a bit weird and er, crumbly but it was quite a messy one to work with on camera! It works well as an individual pie serving though - you don't have to worry about dishing this out and slopping it messily onto a plate to serve.

Use turkey thigh/leg meat for this if you can, as it will stay lovely and moist whilst in the oven. No-one wants dry meat now. The turkey is marinaded in fresh orange juice, grated ginger and soy sauce. Extra orange segment chunks are added into the pie filling along with some veggies, and for even more orangeness, orange zest is mixed right into the crumble topping.

I served this crumble with some new potatoes - boiled and then chucked into the oven along with the crumble. You can add some side veggies too if you like, though be warned, the crumble alone is pretty filling!

Orange and Ginger Turkey Crumble

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Serves 2 (using individual pie dishes, approx 350ml):

100g self raising flour
50g butter, cubed
75g cheddar cheese, grated
2 oranges - juice and zest of 1, the other skinned and chopped into small chunks
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ginger, grated
175g turkey thigh, cubed
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
100g cucumber, cubed
100g mushrooms, sliced

Boiled sliced new potatoes to serve

1) Sift the flour into a small bowl. Rub in the butter, then mix in the cheese and orange zest. Set aside.
2) Squeeze the juice of 1 orange into another bowl. Mix in the soy sauce and ginger. Add the turkey and mix well to marinade. Place a few spoonfuls of the marinade into a cup, then mix in the cornflour. Set aside.
3) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Add the oil to a hot pan, followed by the marinaded turkey. Fry for a few minutes to brown.
4) Add the cucumber and mushrooms, heating through for another few minutes. Turn the heat right down, then stir in the cornflour mixture and orange segments.
5) Transfer into 2 individual 350ml pie dishes. Top evenly with the crumble mixture, then bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is lightly golden.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Hungry Jenny Bites Back

2012-02-01T17:18:00.000Z

Woah, I just realised that exactly a year ago, I went for my jaw op!

It's scary to realise how quick that year went. Looking back though, the recovery process, both physical and mental-wise, felt like it was going on forever.

Being the dunce that I am, the two main concerns I had before going in were:

1) What will I eat?
2) How will I survive without my training (aikido, capoeira, dance)?

What I hadn't really thought about though, was the pain I might experience. When I came to, I thought I'd woken up during the op! I was pretty freaked out.

The first couple of weeks were a blur but I certainly wasn't thinking about food or training! My mum told me that during the first week, I said to her that I didn't feel like the pain was going to go away. I don't even remember saying that. Ek.

All I can remember from those first weeks was feeling completely exhausted from not being able to sleep properly, having crazy dreams when I did manage to sleep and a constant dull weight on my head, neck and jaw the whole time.

And despite this, I kept thinking, it was just a small op, quite routine in fact. I mean, how scary must it be if you go for a MAJOR operation? And that's when I thought, pull yourself together, stop thinking about the pain and just focus on getting better.

About 6 weeks in, I was starting to eat more solids. At the start, I was being fed very watery rice porridge, lukewarm babyfood and soup. I did plan to write a food diary, as it would have been interesting to see how the transitions from liquid to solids progressed.

Of course, that would just another thing that fell right to the back of my mind as I recovered! In a nutshell though, I went from this...

A more mashed-mushed-up version of course

to this...

I only had this, my first steak, a few months ago actually, in October. It was well worth the wait ;-)

What's even weirder though is the mental side of it - my mind is still trying to comprehend my jaw being in a different position. It's hard to explain, but whenever I eat, it feels like my jaw is going to eat as if it was back in the original position - so it feels backwards to me.

It took me a long time to move onto chewier and crunchier foods - I still can't bring myself into biting into apples just yet. And there are times where my jaw does start to ache alot if I er, overeat a bit. Yes, the Hungriness is ever present, no matter what.

But I'm almost there!

#gethealthy Week 4: Getting Out Of Your Fruit and Veg Rut

2012-01-29T14:00:00.000Z

It's the last week of the #gethealthy January Challenge and with these weekly goals in place, it's quickly made me realise how easy it is to fall into foodal habits - whether good or bad.

This week's goal was to eat more fruit and vegetables. Now, I've always been a fruit and veg fan, I can't get enough of the stuff - twice a week I go to the local market to stock up on the stuff.

But this week, when I was at the market, I took some time to have a proper look around. And this was when I realised that I tend to just buy the same fruit and veg every week.

Nothing wrong with that I guess - it's better than no fruit and veg after all. But I saw so many things that I have never bought, or rarely buy - the simple reason being that I just wouldn't know what to do with them. And that's just a bit of a silly attitude to have, isn't it?

So how do you get out of such a fruit and veg rut?

Well, there's two simple ways I'd like to suggest, the next time you're shopping for fruit and veg.

1) Buy one piece of fruit/veg that you've never or rarely bought before
2) Choose a piece of fruit/veg that you normally buy - with the intention to create a new dish with it

Ok, so maybe they both sound a bit simplistic - but it's just a suggestion for the first step you might choose to take. For example, with the first one, it's not about finding a completely obscure vegetable that you've never even heard of - just something that you might have shied away from before.

For me, one of the veggies I want to try properly is rhubarb - I've never tasted it before (that I can't remember), and the sight of it at the market with its big poisonous leaves always scares me. But it's not in season at the moment so this experiment will have to wait!

Of course, there's other ones I plan to try, but for the timebeing, I want to leave you with something I made following the second step - choosing a fruit/veg that I normally buy (in this case, blueberries), and creating a new dish with it...

Grilled Paprika Pork with Blueberry Sauce

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Serves 2:

4 lean pork steaks (250g)
2 tbsp paprika
1.5 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

100g fresh blueberries
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey

Some steamed rice and veggies to serve

1) Put the paprika in a large bowl with the honey and olive oil. Add the steaks, mix well and leave to marinade for 15 minutes.
2) Switch on the grill to the highest setting and transfer the steaks to a grill tray. Grill for about 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.
3) Meanwhile, gently heat the vinegar and honey in a small pan. Add the blueberries, gently pressing them to heat through.
4) Pour the blueberry sauce over the grilled pork, and serve with some steamed rice and fresh veggies.

You might also find a bit of fruity inspiration from these salads and curries to experiment with, to work more fruit into your diet.

Friday Pie Day: Creamy Coconut Salmon Pie

2012-01-27T08:13:00.003Z

Yes, it looks a bit of a mess

But don't knock it!

I was at my friend Grace's house the other weekend for dinner and part of it she made was these gorgeous dauphinoise potatoes. The proper kind too, fluffy and creamy all the same time!

Normally with dauphinoise, you put the raw pots in the dish, pour cream over the top and leave to bake for ages (in a nutshell). Grace was saying how she parboiled them in milk before finishing them off in the oven, to speed up this process.

Ping!

That's the lightbulb going off in my head - what a great idea for a pie topping I thought. Now I've done a potato topping with cream before, but it got me wondering what it'd be like with coconut milk. Mm!

I was a little wary of parboiling the potatoes in coconut milk, since it thickens as you boil it. But I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I kept it on a low simmer and stirred it every now and again to avoid the whole thing turning into a big potato coconut clump.

It didn't take that much longer to cook the potatoes through actually (than if I'd just boiled in water). There is however the slightly arduous task added here - removing the potatoes, so that the remaining coconut milk can be poured into the pie filling.

With the softened potatoes in the thickened coconut, it can be very easy to break them. And you want to keep the slices intact, so that they can be arranged nicely on top.

So if you try this at home, be gentle!

Creamy Coconut Salmon Pie

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Serves 3-4:

350g potatoes, sliced
400ml coconut milk
400g can of salmon
200g cucumber, diced
175g celery, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
Juice and zest of 1 lime
100ml double cream

1) Put the sliced potatoes in a pan with the coconut milk. Bring to a slow boil, then leave to simmer for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are just cooked, stirring carefully at regular intervals, as the milk thickens. Take the pan off the heat.
2) Preheat the oven on to 180 degrees C. Carefully remove the potatoes onto a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving the coconut in the pan.
3) In a 2 litre casserole or pie dish, mix together all of the remaining ingredients, except for the double cream. Pour over the coconut milk from the pan.
4) Add the potato slices over the top of the pie to cover, then pour over the double cream evenly. Bake for about half an hour, until the potatoes go golden.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Restoration of the Strawberry Cake

2012-01-25T08:20:00.001Z

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a soggy slip-up in an attempt to make a strawberry cake.

Now, a faux pas of this kind is usually enough to put me off having another go for a while.

But in this case, I had to get on the case and try again quickly!

I had promised my Capoeira teacher, Bia, a big strawberry and white choccy fan, that I would bring some cake to the first class back after Christmas.

Now I hadn't baked for her before and so when I ended up with the sad and soggy cake of past times, I just couldn't bring myself to take that in!

So I downsized and reworked my failed recipe into cupcake form. What with it being last minute, making it the evening before class, I prayed and crossed my fingers that it would work.

And it did!

Ok, so I almost burnt them, as some of the white chocolate chips at the top were getting a little black. But they certainly weren't soggy and instead were fluffy and sweet - just as intended (unlike the first time round).

Phew, strawberry cake restored, hurrah!

Strawberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes (butter free)

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Makes 12:

1 egg
125ml skimmed milk
3 tbsp olive oil
150g self raising flour
50g white sugar
75g strawberries, finely chopped
75g white chocolate chips

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly beat the egg with the milk and oil.
2) In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour with the sugar. Fold in the strawberries and chocolate chips.
3) Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, then fold until just mixed.
4) Transfer to a lined cupcake tray, then bake for about 25 minutes until risen and lightly golden.

These cupcakes are butter free - here are some other butter free baking recipes that might take your fancy.

#gethealthy Week 3: Cheap (and Less Greedy) Ways to Cook More at Home

2012-01-23T17:11:00.014Z

Ok, I've got to admit that I went a bit backwards with this weeks #gethealthy challenge to cook more at home.

It's all very well trying to cook more at home. But at the same time, you have to tackle cooking healthily at home and within a reasonable spend too. And this week I've realised the full extent of my greediness.

I've always been under the impression that I'm quite a frugal grocery shopper - I go to the market to buy my fresh fruit and veg, and try to avoid buying random food on the go.

But the thing you get with writing a food blog is you end up constantly buying more food than usual. (Funny that.)

Note I said 'thing' and not 'problem' - I love buying food, I do. And I love eating it as well. So I'm not about to start scrimping on what I eat, no.

Time to focus on cheap and less greedy ways to cook more at home then I think:

1) Start collecting a jar of change and use this to get your fruit and veg from your local market. You can buy as much or as little as you like, and still get a bargain either way.
2) If you can't get to a local market, always go for loose produce at the supermarket - it usually works out cheaper than buying the prepacked ones, and you can pick the best of the bunch.
3) Do your food shop when you have somewhere else to go afterwards. Having a time restriction means you won't end up buying the entire shop by accident.
4) Find the opportune to double or triple your cooking when you get down to it - now you've got a lovely cooked lunch or dinner for the next day, or leftovers to freeze for another lazy day.
5) When making carby things like pasta, rice or potatoes, make the effort to measure out portions - it's too easy to overdo it with these.
6) Although it never beats the fresh stuff, stock up on dried herbs and spices. Keep them visible (I keep mine lined up on a
7) Finally, don't be afraid to eat your cupboard down and throw something together that's completely random. It might just work.

For instance, take the er, Baked Bean Macaroni dish I made this week (at top of post), using stuff I had kicking around. Granted, I did have a randomly weird craving to try macaroni and baked beans together - but it turned out a lot tastier than I thought.

It probably isn't that fitting under the whole 'healthy' theme but it was definitely a homecooked meal so that's something, right?

Baked Bean Macaroni

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Serves 2:

200g macaroni pasta
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
4 celery sticks, chopped
75g mushrooms, sliced
75g red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, grated
400g baked beans
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper
100g grated cheese (I didn't have any at the time, but imagine this would be the killer!)

1) Gently boil the macaroni in lightly salted water. Drain and keep warm.
2) In another pan, fry the celery, mushrooms, onion and garlic in the oil over a moderate heat for about 4-5 minutes.
3) Turn down to a low heat and add the baked beans. Slowly simmer, adding in the cayenne pepper, constantly stirring until the beans are piping hot.
4) Pour in the drained macaroni, and mix well before dishing up into two bowl. Top with grated cheese.

Other recipes you might like for home-cooking inspiration

Friday Pie Day: The Awkward Chocolate Crumble Pie

2012-01-20T08:10:00.001Z

Do you ever have those moments where you plot something out in your head, with the promise and visualisation of the most amazing thing? And thus, as it comes into fruition, it just all falls into place, sometimes even more beautiful than expected?

Well, this wasn't one of those moments.

I had this idea in my head of twisting up a traditional apple crumble. On the face of it, it doesn't sound that elaborate at all - I wanted to use pears and bananas instead, with a chocolate almondy crumble on top.

Whilst working out my recipe ingredients, I remembered that I already had some butter in the fridge to use up. Ah, perfect for the crumble, I thought. Of course, I didn't think to double check I actually had enough. Which I didn't - I needed about twice as much.

By this point, it was already too late - the oven was preheating and the fruit was already mixed in cinnamon, sitting patiently in the pie dish to be topped with the crumble.

I figured I could just make half of the crumble amount I had planned to and just try to spread it out more. That didn't work. So I quickly transfered the fruit into what I thought was a smaller tin.

But it wasn't - I couldn't fit all the fruit in, so the depth was definitely smaller, but the surface area was probably about the same!

So, I resorted to spreading the crumble topping out as thinly as possible, which felt a bit like unyielding cement - the kind of topping I had made was aiming for a slightly hardened version to make it set more pie-like. Unhelpfully, it seemed to be setting as I tried to spread it out.

The only saving grace of this awkward pie was that it actually turned out to be very tasty indeed - I just need to make sure I get all the ingredients next time so that I can write it up properly...

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?

Say NO to Takeaway: Garlic Up a Veggie Stir Fry Instead!

2012-01-19T20:25:00.000Z

When I was younger, I used to hate garlic. Pooey and weird tasting. I just didn't understand it.

My mum tends to put whole cloves of garlic in her cooking, and so as I was growing up, I always had that Fear of accidentally scooping whole cloves up into my mouth. Ick!

Of course, since then, I've become Hungrier for a far wider variety of foods now. Including garlic. I'm still not in the habit of buying it regularly, so it's something I tend to overuse when I do buy it - because I'm always surprised by how much flavour a little clove can add. Yes, everytime. Stupid I know. But the perfect little ingredient to whip into a homemade takeaway dish, yeh!

So where the Garlic is it?

Well obviously I've spoken about garlic far too much in this post already. But it hasn't been omitted from the photo above, no. I still can't handle eating whole cloves. So I always grate it. Yep, right into the sauce it goes.

This Easy Garlic Veggie Stir Fry has a really simple sauce: white wine vinegar - and a chuck load of garlic. What are the odds?

I probably did go overboard a bit here as I used 4 cloves here - for 2 portions ;-) But it's delicious!

Easy Veggie Garlic Stir Fry

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

2 'blocks' of wholewheat egg noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp groundnut oil
100g sugar snaps
50g mushrooms, sliced
2 orange peppers, sliced
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 garlic cloves, grated

1) Gently boil the noodles for 7-10 minutes until just cooked. Drain in cold water, toss in the sesame oil and set aside.
2) Add the groundnut oil to a hot wok. Fry the sugar snaps for a minute or so, followed by the mushrooms and peppers. Lower the heat slightly, then mix in the vinegar and garlic.
3) Finally, add the cooked noodles, and carefully toss everything together before serving.

If you liked this, you might want to try making these other takeaway alternatives too.

#gethealthy Week 2: Having Your Wholegrain Cake (and eating it too!)

2012-01-15T19:01:00.000Z

Can you believe we're only halfway through January? It's also the second week of the January Healthy Every Week Challenge, and it's been an interesting one.

This week's challenge was to eat more whole grains. Beefing up your fibre intake, satisfying your stomach for longer, boosting your energy and just generally being a bit more superior than their refined counterparts.

The simple way to go about this, which I decided to go along with, is some simple substitutions. Wholegrain rice instead of white rice, wholewheat pasta instead of white pasta, and bran flakes instead of cereal. A fairly painless way to work in the whole grains.

Then as I was thinking about my next weekly cake to make for aikido, I realised that I've never gone wholegrain with my flour before.

Generally, I try to healthy-up my baking by omitting things like butter and sugar. But I've rarely done anything about toning down all that refined flour.

Time to do an experimental cake with the wholegrain effect, methinks.

I wasn't holding out that much hope, to be honest. The more I researched about wholegrain flour, the more nervous I got - dry, dense, bitter, tough - these unfriendly cake words kept popping up in descriptions of wholegrain cakes gone wrong, and I wondered whether I should just part-substitute the flour in one of my older recipes instead of going the whole hog.

Well no, frankly. I didn't see the point of part-substituting - I wanted to make this as much a wholegrain cake as possible! But as I looked back through my recipes for inspiration, I came across these Cranberry and Nutmeg Breakfast Muffins that contain bran flakes. Yes, this is the one to adapt to make a full-blown wholegrain cake.

The changes I made were small - sifting the flour an extra couple of times to get it as fine as possible to make it less dense and adding more oil than I usually would for a white flour cake to compensate for the danger of dryness.

I also changed my method of mixing slightly - usually, I tend to use the muffin-mixing method of mixing dry and wet ingredients separately before combining (for the purely technical reason that this method is er, just easier to remember). This time however, I used the creaming method of beating the sugar with the fat (ie the oil), which is meant to make cakes fluffier and help them rise in a lovely light manner.

So did it turn out dry, dense, bitter and tough?

Quite the opposite - moist, light, sweet and soft!

With the low sugar, and extra wholegrain content from the bran flakes too, you can sneak in an extra slice when you come to eat it and not feel guilty about it. Well that's how I felt anyway...yes folks, you can have your wholegrain cake, and eat it all too ;-)

Wholegrain Berry Cake

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8" round tin (8 slices)

75g bran flakes
100ml orange juice concentrate
1 egg
75ml olive oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
50g white sugar
100g wholemeal/wholewheat plain flour
1.5 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
75g mixed berries

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Crush the bran flakes to crumbs in a bowl. Add the orange juice, mix well and set aside.
2) In another bowl, beat the egg with the oil, vanilla and sugar. Gently mix in the bran flake orange mixture.
3) In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Fold in the berries, then the wet mixture carefully until just mixed.
4) Transfer to a lined round tin, then bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown and you can pull a fork out clean.

Other Hungry Jenny healthy food thoughts you might be interested in

Other healthy baking recipes you might enjoy.

Friday Pie Day: Veggie Potato Pie with Paprika Crust

2012-01-13T16:05:00.005Z

Ugh, I'm getting fed up with January already. It is d r a g g i n g by so slowly. I cannot wait for the days to get lighter. The last pay day seemed like an age ago, and the next one is taking forever to get here. That miserable cloud just won't shift.

Ah, the January blues have hit.

Ooh...

Surely a comforting potato pie will help?

There's nothing a good pie can't fix!

This was something that I was just playing around with really, with the stuff I had in the kitchen. Yes, this is what I end up doing when I'm just mooching around the house, when I can't be bothered to face the cold outside world!

The potato is cooked first and mashed with creme fraiche to make it nice and creamy, then I just mixed in what veg I could find in the fridge. I didn't even bother cooking the veg first either! The potato should ideally be cooked and cooled so that it doesn't soggify the pie crust.

Finally, the paprika I randomly decided to add in a pinch as I was making the pastry - and ended up giving it a lovely smokey kick.

Serve this with a fresh side salad and a sunny smile :-)

Veggie Potato Pie with Paprika Crust

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8" pie dish (8 slices):

150g plain flour
1/2 tsp paprika
Pinch of salt
75g cold butter, diced
Some ice cold water

350g potato, chopped
Pinch of salt
100g mushrooms, finely chopped
75g broccolil, finely chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
150ml creme fraiche
150g cheddar cheese, grated
Juice of 1 lemon
Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1) Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the salt and paprika. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture.
2) Add a little cold water and knead into a dough, adding more water if needed. Wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Roll the dough out into a large circle on a floured surface and transfer to your pie tin. Cover with foil, fill with baking beads and stick in the freezer whilst waiting for the oven to heat.
4) Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely.
5) In the meantime, gently boil the potatoes in lightly salted water. Drain and allow to cool.
6) Preheat the oven again to 190 degrees C. Transfer your cooked potato into a large mixing bowl. Spoon in the creme fraiche and mash well. Add all of the veg, lemon, coriander and two thirds of the cheese. Gently mix together.
7) Spoon into the baked pie crust, and scatter over the remaining cheese. Bake for about half an hour until the top starts to brown.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other vegetarian recipes you might enjoy.

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Soggy Strawberry Cake

2012-01-11T21:58:00.000Z

Well it had to happen sooner or later.

My first faux-pas of the year, hurrah!

It was one of those moments where I knew something wasn't quite right - but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

When I was bringing the mixture together in the bowl, it was a little sloppier than I'd expected, but I didn't think anything of it. The alarm bells should have been ringing at that point really. Of course, they only started ringing in my head after the cake went in the oven.

My thought process then went off a bit like a tubelight:

Hm, it's odd that it was so sloppy...
Let me have a look at at my recipe notes again...
So I calculated that bit right, yes...
And that bit...yep...but hold on...
Did I work that bit out...DAMN IT!
I put in a third less flour than I was meant to!

(See? Tubelight - slow, slow, blink...ping!)

I actually then had this crazy idea of whipping the cake out, sifting the extra flour in, mixing it back up and returning it to the oven. Thank goodness I didn't go through with this. That surely would have made it alot worse!

So what became of the soggy cake?

Well luckily, it turned out to be pretty edible (sogginess aside). I took it into work, warned them of the sogginess and left it out for them to try as they dared.

Yummy noises were made and it all got eaten - and I know that lot would not have gone back for more out of politeness!

Needless to say, I'll be starting from scratch to put together this recipe again...

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas?

#gethealthy Week 1: Team Breakfast All the Way!

2012-01-08T18:03:00.000Z

So Week 1 of the Healthy Every Week Challenge has whizzed by already. This week's challenge was to eat breakfast every day.

Now you hear how breakfast should always be eaten daily, and that if you skip it, you're actually more likely to put on weight. Hm, well gaining pounds is something I do want to do, so there seems to be a simple maths solution here:

Start skipping breakfast more = I'll put on more weight.

Brilliant!

Erm, how about NO?

There's no way I'm testing out that theory. It's Team Breakfast all the way! I can't function without eating something first thing. The problem I've always had is that I'm usually still hungry afterwards!

So this week, I went back to the old classic health food of slow-releasing energy - the Oat - and have a go at making granola. It's one of my favourite oat-based breakfast meals, but I've always just bought it from a supermarket. Tasty and easy yes, but no doubt high in sugar and other hidden monsters.

The great thing is that you can put what you fancy in it. It does take half an hour in the oven, but you can double or triple the recipe as you wish and stick in an airtight container to last you a couple of weeks ;-)

Easy Granola

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 300g (4 portions):

100g rolled oats
50g dried fruit (eg raisins, apricots)
25g hazelnuts, chopped
25g brazil nuts, chopped
25g sunflower seeds
25g ground almonds
50g honey
50g olive oil

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the oats with all the fruit, nuts, seeds and ground almonds in a large bowl.
2) Add in the honey and oil, then roughly stir to coat the oats as much as possible.
3) Use your hands to roughly clump bits of the granola together and transfer to a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
4) Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool before serving.

Serve it with a few generous spoonfuls of natural yogurt and a bit of fresh fruit. Or simply pour over some ice cold milk. If you need some other way to sweeten it up, try some flavoured yogurt, or flaked coconut.

Now the Big Question - will it actually keep you going? Well I'll tell you this now - granola is deceptively more filling than it looks. Food didn't even enter my mind for about 2 hours afterwards. Yes, Hungry Jenny got full at last!

Pour out less than you would for normal cereal - trust me, just go for half a cereal bowl's worth and you'll be sorted and raring to go. Hurrah for breakfast!

Other Hungry Jenny healthy food thoughts you might be interested in

Friday Pie Day: Cheeky Tarts for Leftover Christmas Chocolate

2012-01-06T16:26:00.019Z

Leftover Christmas chocolate? Ok, so it's possible you might have scoffed the whole lot already. But I really hope you haven't chucked a load of it away in a bid to cleanse yourself for the New Year, or anything crazy like that.

Yes, it's all well and good doing a detox or whatnot, but that really does not justify throwing (or even giving) away chocolate. That's just wasteful.

What you should do instead, is make some Cheeky Chocolate Tarts. And do you want to know the beauty of this devious plan?

You can freeze them - and therefore have a mountain of chocolate tart goodness at your disposal. (Well, 12, with this recipe)

There is a challenge to this recipe though. And that is getting to the freezing stage. Because you will want to eat one as soon they're chilled. And when you eat one, you'll want another.

But. Be. Strong.

Stick them in a few freezer bags, and you'll be thankful later in those times of chocolate need. Yes, you should be healthy. But don't deny yourself a treat every now and again ;-)

Cheeky Chocolate Tarts with Almond Crust

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12:

125g plain flour
125g ground almonds*
100g cold unsalted butter, diced
Some cold water**

200g chocolate of your choice, broken into chunks
200ml single cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp flaked almonds

*Sub the ground almonds with plain flour if you do not wish to use almonds.
** You can also use 375g premade sweet shortcrust pastry instead of making this pastry, in which case, go straight to step 3.

1) Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the ground almonds. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb mixture.
2) Add a little cold water and knead into a dough, adding more water if needed. Wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3) Roll out the dough onto a floured surface. Using a 3.5" cutter, stamp out 12 rounds and transfer to a lined cupcake tray.
4) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cover with foil and push baking beads into each hole. Chill again for 15 minutes whilst waiting for the oven, then bake for 12-15 minutes until brown. Allow to cool completely.
5) Gently bring the cream to a slow simmer in a large pan. Take off the heat, then stir in the lemon and vanilla. Add the chocolate, moving it around gently until melted.
6) Spoon into the cooled almond cases, and once a little cool, top with the flaked almonds. Cover and leave to chill for at least 4 hours.

My ones here have Guylian Belgian chocolate and Ferrero Rocher. Pure indulgence, mmm...

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

Other chocolate recipes you might enjoy.

A Weekly Challenge to #gethealthy

2012-01-05T18:56:00.042Z

Right, so I decided earlier this week to get myself up to a healthier weight. But I don't know how to go about it. I have some vague ideas, but it's pretty safe to say that there's alot more info out there about how to lose weight rather than the other way around.

So what do you do, if you can't work out the steps to reach your goal?

Get help!

I follow the Food Network's Healthy Eats blog, and they've recently put a callout to food bloggers and healthy eating enthusiasts to take part in their 'January Healthy Every Week Challenge.' You are set a weekly challenge over the month, in the hope that you'll develop healthy habits for the rest of the year and beyond.

As I read into it more, I thought it'd be the perfect way to kickstart my efforts to put on weight.

Healthy Eats have broken down the month as follows:

Week 1: Eat breakfast daily
Week 2: Eat more whole grains
Week 3: Cook at home
Week 4: Eat more fruits and vegetables
Week 5: Stay on track

None of these are alien to what I try to do anyway but the point of the overall challenge is picking up healthier habits. I mean, you might think that you eat fairly healthily, but is it really doing anything?

This is what I've come to realise looking back over the last year - that although I enjoy eating healthily, keeping active and all that, I know I actually need to get myself up to a healthier size.

So what I hope to learn from doing this challenge is to have a better understanding about healthy weight gain. I'm not looking to just 'fatten up' quickly and hibernate for the rest of the year! There are sure to be some lardy adventures along the way though ;-)

So perhaps now you might be feeling inspired to take part in the challenge too. You can follow Healthy Eats on Facebook, @healthyeats on Twitter and get involved with the discussion to #gethealthy.

If not, hopefully you'll find it entertaining enough to follow me on my challenge - I've no idea which way it will go, but it should be interesting...!

Other Hungry Jenny healthy food thoughts you might be interested in

A Sneaky Start to 2012...and a Reality Check

2012-01-03T18:03:00.005Z

Ok, so it's 2012, the start of a new year, a time to state new resolutions and all that. I was all over this, thinking yes, I'm going to make a proper healthy list of goals - 2012 is the year where it's all going to go good.

And now that it's 'already' the 3rd Jan? Erm, well, I have to admit that I've only got as far as jotting some random ideas down onto the sticky notes on my desktop. And made some sneaky mini muffins.

Oops.

But hold on, I've got a point to make here!

It's too easy to declare a vague goal like 'cut out junk food', but what does that leave you with? A stronger craving for 'bad' food, with no real action to cut it out. So it's fine to say that you want to cut out junk food, but only if you put some actual steps in place to follow this through.

I'll admit that I've only got to the vague goal-setting stage so far:

Put. On. More. Weight.

There, I've said it. Yes, this is something that has bothered me - and kind of ignored - for a long time. It was only when I was looking back over some recent photos and saw one in particular that shocked me a bit:

No, not because I seem to be kicking a small girl in the face (I intended to, in a Capoeira-friendly kind of way). It's just not quite the picture of health that I'm happy with.

Aha, some people say, you're a health and fitness nut anyway, so maybe you should just eat more greasy food and stop running around so much. But that's the problem, I love being active, and I like the challenge of good nutrition with things like healthier baking. Plus I want to try and put on weight in a healthy way, not clog up my arteries.

Everywhere you look though, it's all about weight loss, slimming plans and diets. If you want to lose weight, you find guidance on breaking this down into smaller actionable steps such as 'Eat off smaller plates' or 'Add in an extra portion of veg' for example.

But there seems to be very little advice about healthy weight gain. And this is why I seem to be falling at the first hurdle - I just don't know what steps I need to put in place to achieve this.

So that's my next step - to work out the steps! In the meantime, I'll sneak in the recipe for these Mini Apple and Cinnamon Muffins for you to enjoy, whilst I work out how exactly I'm going to work on this Hungry Jenny challenge for 2012. I think it will turn into a very interesting journey ;-)

I'll keep you posted...

Mini Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 36 mini muffins:

1 egg
125ml skimmed milk
3 tbsp olive oil
150g plain flour
50g brown sugar
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp baking powder
150g apple, skinned, cored and finely diced

1) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly beat the egg in a bowl with the milk and oil.
2) In a larger bowl, sift in the flour with the sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix in the diced apple.
3) Tip in the wet mixture and fold in until just mixed.
4) Spoon into a couple of lined mini muffin trays (mixture fills about 36 holes). Top each with a little more brown sugar if desired. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until risen and brown.

Friday Pie Day: 2011 Pie-lights

2011-12-30T18:36:00.001Z

Last year I did an Ode to Pie to celebrate the Friday Pie Days of 2010.

There's been some ups and downs of Friday Pie Day itself this year it seems. So rather than do another cheesy poem about the year's Pies gone by, here's a quick recap of 2011 Pie-lights (and er, a lowlight) instead...

For once, I remembered National Pie Day and celebrated with a twist on the classic steak and mushroom pie with the Beef and Mushroom Puffs above.

My jaw op did not defeat my pie-eating and managed to get my pie fix with Pie Shakes instead - no, not blended up beef pies, but a kind of healthy strawberry oat one!

There was a point though, where I was contemplating the notion of scrapping Friday Pie Day altogether...

...but this was a moment realised on April 1st ;-)

So there were plenty more pie celebrations to be made in 2011, including a global Pie Party, set up via Shauna Ahern aka Gluten Free Girl. Shauna managed to sweep the pie loving world into making a pie and blogging/tweeting/Facebooking about it on 5th July.

Of course, I couldn't resist this and jumped on this Pie Party wagon with these Strawberry Lemon Cream Pies...

I also had a little pie celebration of my own with the One Hundredth Friday Pie Day, celebrated, naturally with a hundred pies! (Of course, not making and eating them all on that one day.) Looking back, I don't know how I had the brainwork and patience to compile that post now!

And this may sound silly to you, but the final pie-light I wanted to share was that I finally managed to work out how to make puff pastry painlessly and quickly! (Just need to work on all the other types of pastry now...)

So there you have it, hope you've enjoyed the pies this year and that you'll be hungry for more in 2012...

Pie out.

my other Friday Pie Day adventures.

I'd like to say that I've grown up over the last 12 months...

2011-12-28T23:35:00.260Z

Nov 2009

Dec 2011

...but I really don't think I have.

At the end of the year, I like to look back over the photos I've taken - not just of food, but from general life as well. And I'd almost forgotten that I had my jaw op only earlier this year.

These two photos are the closest I can find to a before and after. Not quite the White Swan moment I was expecting, but looking back at this year's photos and events questions what has really changed this year.

Now I'm not the most confident of people anyway but I try not to stress about what others think of me. The jaw op certainly wasn't an aesthetics thing - in fact, it was only after I was advised to have the op to avoid future problems that I started to get self-conscious about it.

Yes, being an 'adult' wearing braces wasn't exactly a confidence booster, and since people are already constantly surprised by how 'old' I really am (27 if you're wondering), I did find myself retiring into my shell that little bit more.

So you can imagine my relief when the Day of the Brace Removal finally came, back in April. At last, I thought, perhaps now I'll start to feel a bit more grown-up, a bit more self-assured.

Coincidently, the last 12 months has been lain forth with engagement announcements - my sister, Hungrier Jemma, and 3 of my best mates (evidently with their respective other halves, not with each other). My housemate Grace also moved out recently to live with her boyfriend in his new pad.

Me? Well it's pretty safe to say that I'm definitely starting to feel that pressure of the need to grow up and well, stop acting like a silly child.

But you know what?

I really just can't help it.

The more people wag their fingers at me saying that the clock's a'ticking, that I need to start settling down, the stubborn side of me sneaks out a little bit more - and just makes me want to stick my tongue out at them. And that my friends, is confirmation, despite appearances in the first two photos, that I've still a long way to go to make better of myself...

Bring on 2012! (I s'pose)

Friday Pie Day: Turkey Cranberry Tart

2011-12-23T20:04:00.000Z

Alright, so this isn't the most photogenic of pies, this was a kind of last minute thing...

...and the recipe at first glance may sound quite long-winded too.

Enticed, yet?

Now I'm not a fan of recipes which have loads of steps in - it just makes it sound like too much hard work. But although this particular pie is not actually that strenuous to make, it just seemed impossible to write it in less than 10 steps!

It's one of those pies when you sort of prep a few things simultaneously. In this case, whilst the pastry is being blind-baked, the cranberry mixture can be cooked and cooled - and all the while, you'd have the turkey happily marinading in the corner.

Ok - so I've probably made this sound elaborate already, but it's really not. You can pretty much take this recipe how you please and cut corners with it, if you want - for example, using premade pastry, or even buying a ready-baked pie shell. You could also buy cranberry sauce if you don't fancy making your own.

And of course, you can adapt this to use for Christmas leftover inspiration...

Good luck!

Turkey Cranberry Tart

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8" pie dish (8-10 slices):

150g plain flour
Pinch of salt
75g unsalted butter, cold and diced
OR
250g shortcrust pastry

200g turkey breast, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
125g fresh cranberries
50ml orange juice concentrate
Juice of 1 small lemon
75g sweetcorn
50g mushrooms, sliced
100ml double cream
1 egg, lightly beaten

If using premade pastry, go straight to step 3.

1) Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt. Add the butter and rub in to a breadcrumb texture.
2) Add a little cold water and knead into a dough, adding more water if needed. Wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Roll out the dough into a large circle on a floured surface, and transfer to line the base and sides of a non-stick pie dish.
4) Cover with foil and baking beads, then bake blind for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool.
5) Put the turkey in a large bowl with the soy sauce, oil and nutmeg. Leave to marinade for at least 15 minutes.
6) Add 100g of the cranberries to a pan and cover with the orange and lemon juice. Gently bring to the boil, then turn right down to simmer through, mashing the cranberries gently to a pulp. Allow to cool completely.
7) Turn the oven back onto 190 degrees C. Fry the turkey in a hot pan for a few minutes to brown, followed by the sweetcorn and mushrooms.
8) Spoon the cooled cranberry pulp to the base of the tart. In a bowl, beat the cream with the egg, then pour into the tart.
9) Gently add the turkey mixture, then nestle in the remaining cranberries.
10) Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the filling is set.

Pie out.

Read my other Friday Pie Day adventures.