Chopped salad with Ginger Dressing

This is a delicious salad which is great on his own or as a side dish.  

Crunchy, healthy and delicious.  Great vegetarian food or a side dish with spicy grilled prawns.

Goats Cheese Salad

I love salads which combine warm and cold ingredients and this super special salad takes delicious, creamy, melting goats cheese and mixes it with a spiced dressing and pepperly leaves.  Delicious.

Roasted Vegetables with Feta Cheese

This past week I've been full of cold and generally off my food.  All I've been eating is anything with loads of spices to try and shift the bunged feeling.  Today, at last, I'm starting to feel better but the weather for the year is still cold and miserable so I put together this dish of lovely summery roasted vegetables.

My herbs are looking fabulous right now with all the wet weather this week and it helped cut through the lingering dullness from my snotty nose.

I mean, look at that?  How you can still feel anything but summery and healthy when that was your lunch?

Chorizo Rice

I've been making this recipe for years.  Traditional paella does not contain chorizo but after trying an inauthentic recipe with it in, I realised that if I just made a rice dish with the chorizo, it would be a pretty tasty.  Also as you miss out the saffron, this makes this recipe pretty cheap.  The extra smoked paprika flavour means you don't need much chorizo for this dish either.

Harissa Lamb Chops with Cous Cous

I had a sudden lusting for lamb while in the supermarket today.  Lamb isn't something I eat a lot of but there is something delicious about lamb with Middle Eastern and North African ingredients.

Roast Pepper Sandwich

I love a "different" sandwich.  My son, sadly, gravitates towards ham whenever he's given a choice but sandwiches can be as boring as white bread with wafer thin ham or as interesting as this little beauty.

This is a delicious but messy sandwich; have napkins nearby.  If you'd like to eat this with more decorum and less goats cheese on your chin, use cold bread and allow the peppers to cool before assembling.

Fruit Kebabs

An unashamedly childish recipe here.  I used to have a blog Mamacook all about food for kids and this was one recipe I made loads but never got round to blogging.  There are loads of ideas out there for healthy and fun foods for kids and one of them is fruit kebabs.  The downside though is the stick.  What is the fun in the boring stick and if you use a skewer it's a bit risky for younger kids too, you don't want sharp wooden sticks going in their mouths...

Well I have an answer I came up with a few years ago and it is so simple!

Chicken with Haricot Beans

I love haricot beans, pulses are a great way to contribute towards your 5 (or 10 a day) while also getting a great source of energy, a fantastic alternative to pasta, rice or potatoes.

This recipe is not exactly healthy but it is delicious and reheats surprisingly well.

The Ultimate Steak Sandwich

This morning I went on a 6.5 mile training run.  I had a plan for a healthy lunch but in the supermarket there was a beautiful looking fillet steak which was reduced so this was my delicious lunch.

Yes, this is indulgent, no way is it healthy but this is all about one of the greatest sandwiches you'll eat.  It's a bit messy to eat so have a napkin nearby.  Cucumber and tomatoes are optional, some rocket leaves would be lovely as well.

This is also a great way to pad out a small steak.  If you served this with one or two side dishes this would be a great meal for two.

Sherry Trifle

People who know me well know I hate trifle.  I've even ranted on this blog on why trifle is so wrong.  Why don't I like it?  It's sludgy like babyfood but with a whack of sherry.  I tend to prefer food which requires my teeth!  People often use really cheap ingredients into a dish which is basically assembly rather than cooking and expect the finished result to be great.  This is a dish where no ingredient can hide.

So I challenged myself, is it possible to make a trifle I would enjoy eating?  Well it turns out that yes, it is and this is it!

Vanilla Cupcakes

I love vanilla.  It is a much underrated spice.  Vanilla is associated with "plain" or "not exciting".  I think it's time to give it more love.

Vanilla is the flavour people leave in a Neopolitan pack it equates with "no flavour" which is wrong... well I think it deserves more than that.  It is the delicious fragrance of patisserie.  It's time to rediscover it.

Teriyaki Salmon with Salad

I used a pre made Teriyaki sauce for this recipe and it was brilliant.  It made the fish delicious and juicy.  It's also great cold if you want to cook two pieces and save one in the fridge for the next day.

Day 9 of 10 a day

On the home stretch and today I feel fantastic.  It's like I've gone through the lull and come out of the other side.  I woke up at half past 5 with a smile on my face.

Cauliflower and Pea curry

Pulses are great in curries, I often make them with chickpeas which are great but I wanted to make something different.  I have to admit the substitution of carbs and meat for cauliflower somewhat passed me by.  I tried cauliflower rice and it was disappointing.  The idea of "cauliflower steak" also doesn't appeal so it was with some trepidation I made a curry with no meat, no pulses and as cauliflower with the main ingredient.

I needn't have worried.  This is delicious.  The great thing about cauliflower is it's like a flavour sponge, it just sucked in all the gorgeous flavours from the sauce.  Did I care or even notice this dish is vegan?  Nope.  Did I miss the meat?  Not at all.

Linguine with Rocket (Arugula) and Prawns (Shrimp)

After a quick trip to a running club, I was desperate for something quick, fresh and tasty.

Nuoc Cham

Nuoc cham is a dipping sauce served as a condiment in Vietnam.  It is frankly delicious and sums up that sour, spicy, salty, sweet combo which is so great.

I will give you the recipe here for how to make nuoc cham yourself and also give you a couple of ways it can be used.

Steamed Syrup Sponge Pudding

My son is a fan of a traditional pudding, (he's a middle aged man in a 6 year old's body.)  His favourite things include dishes like apple crumble, sponge puddings, lemon surprise pudding etc. Anyone who wants to steal his heart when he grows up just needs a traditional British recipe book!

In any case, I bought some syrup sponge puddings recently from the supermarket then after we both had one, agreed that I'd forgotten traditional British puddings are actually fantastic, I thought I'd try to make some myself.

Traditionally steamed puddings would be just that, steamed over a pan of water for a long time but this is where a microwave comes in and works a treat.  Obviously you must use microwave safe cooking bowls.  I saved them from the puddings I bought but ceramic ones would also work (but would be harder to turn out, butter them well.)

Chicken and Vegetables with Sticky Honey and Ginger Sauce

I decided to do a chicken and vegetable stir fry which was more veg than chicken.  Sometimes it's great to have a small amount of meat in a dish, it's a great way to make it a bit healthier and count towards your 5 a day.

This dish contains a whopping 170g of lovely vegetables, more than 2 of your 5 portions a day.

Prawns with Quick Pickled Cucumber

I hadn't made quick pickled cucumber for a while but it is absolutely delicious in a salad like this or accompanying a stir fry.  This is a sensational, light starter but you could make it more substantial by adding more vegetables or noodles.

I love the mixture of the soft, tangy pickled cucumber, the gentle spicing from the pickle and sweet chilli sauce and the hot prawns and crunch of peanuts.

Chestnut and Mushroom Soup

I'd recently bought some cooked vacuum packed chestnuts and I had some chestnut mushrooms in my increasingly dwindling fridge stocks so an idea came to life to combine these most seasonal of ingredients.

The flavour of mushrooms is great but the slippery texture in a soup isn't ideal unless you combine it with something starchy.  I'm not a fan of potato in soups but I love using other vegetables to thicken soups and stews and why not chestnuts?

Chestnuts are a bit of a faff to prepare from raw which is why I used pre cooked ones here but they are bang in season and make this delicious, filling and thick soup which is a delight of wintery flavours and also smooth as silk.