Spinach Lasagne Rolls

I made this a few weeks ago when I was making a conscious effort to eat more spinach for iron. I found it on one of my favourite blogs Skinnytaste. I made it the night before we were going to eat it and then just put it in the oven when I got in from work (love it when I'm that organised!).

I used fresh lasagne sheets from Sainsbury's, they're really wide so I cut them in half length ways and made two rolls with one sheet. I finished it off slightly different to the original recipe in that I covered all the rolls in the tomato sauce and sprinkled on the the mozzarella (shredded a mozzarella ball in the food processor). The carrot made the sauce quite sweet so I might use less carrot next time.

Source: Skinnytaste 

For a pasta dish it was really light and genuinely delicious! A perfect midweek meal that freezes well too! 

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Nigel Slater's Spaghetti Bolognese

All this talk of beef and horsemeat made me crave Spaghetti Bolognese today. I've made this version before, its Nigel Slater's. Its really rich and tasty. The recipe includes milk and red wine which might sound strange but works really well.

The recipe suggests cooking it in batches and freezing it, a really good idea but with Mr A's amazing capacity for food, we hardly ever have leftovers in our house so I'd have to make huge, industrial size quantities. Having said that if I get really organised before baby comes I am going to make extra portions of meals and freeze them. I'm probably not going to have the time or energy to cook once baby comes. Although I know Mr A won't let us go hungry and will cook us up some meals too!

What's your favourite freezer friendly meals?

 

Mr A's spag bol mountain:

 

 

 

I'm putting this recipe forward for the 'Dish of the Month' challenge hosted by Farmersgirl Kitchen. I know this recipe isn't particularly challenging or different but it tasted bloody good when Spaghetti Bolognese was exactly what I wanted!

 

 

 

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Easy Dessert: Pavlova

We had friends over for dinner at the weekend. We had poppadoms, dips and onion bhaji's to start and Butter Chicken for main. Dessert is always an after thought for me, I'd much rather spend most of my time on the main that fraffing out with dessert - not sure why? I've never really had a sweet tooth, maybe that's why, although looking at my last couple posts I wouldn't blame you for not believing that!!

Pavlova has to be the easiest dessert ever and that's what I made at the weekend. All it is, is ready made, individual meringue, berries (or any fruit), double cream and icing sugar. Job done!

So, what's your favourite easiest recipe?

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Raw, Vegan, Gluten Free Chocolate, Hazelnut Cheesecake

I can't believe it's taken me this long to write about this. Late last year, we decided with some work friends that we would start our own version of 'Come Dine With Me', we've had two evenings so far and they've been so much fun. The first night was themed, we all went dressed in costume from our chosen decades.

Charlotte 1940's, David 1980's, Kirsty 1920's and me 1950's! 

I realised that night that eating food cooked by other people in their homes really is one of my favourite things to do! Not sure what that's about.... growing up our lives revolved around food and eating with lots of family and friends so I have lots of good memories of this. Although not many memories of fancy dress and food, so thats got to change!! Anyway one of my friends doesn't eat gluten, so when I was looking for gluten free desert inspiration I came across the mother of all deserts at 'The Sweet Life'.

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It's a chocolate and hazlenut cheesecake and it tasted delicious! I made it over three days because each layer has to set before you add the next layer, a bit labour intensive but so, so worth it! It's very rich too so it can go a long way if you serve smaller portions. Enjoy!

My version;

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Sausage, Kale and Black Eye Bean Soup

According to the midwife I need to up my iron intake. Rather than taking more supplements I've been trying to increase my iron levels by eating the right foods so I came across kale. Per calorie, kale has more iron than beef!!! Its also high in vitamin A, C and calcium. So I think me and kale should become best friends during this pregnancy.

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I came across this recipe on Pinterest and its on 'Bev Cooks' blog. Mr A made it for us the other night. I came home from a really crazy day at work to find a big, hot bowl of this waiting for me. Proper, tasty comfort food with a  bit of kick...

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Turkish Style Leek Stew

One of the questions you’re asked regularly when you’re expecting is whether you have any cravings. All I seem to be craving is food 24 hours a day 7 days a week! But recently I've been craving my mum’s food... that is Turkish food. I think this is because its usually really comforting and good for you because its heavily based on vegetables. I don’t normally cook Turkish food since mum is in the country at the moment and I could never cook like she does. I've started to cook more recently but no matter what you do, it never quite tastes like mums! 

Recently I tried ‘prasa’, which is leeks, stewed. Mum explained how to do it and I found a few versions online here and here. This is mum’s version;

2 large leeks cut into rings

4 carrots cut into half rings

3 tablespoons of uncooked rice

400ml chicken stock

1 tbsp tomato paste

Salt

Olive oil

Dash of vinegar

Saute the carrots and leeks in olive oil until almost soft, add rice stirring occasionally for a few minutes. Add salt, stock and tomato paste and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally, adding more water if necessary. Add vinegar just before the end. Afiyet olsun! (bon appetit in Turkish)

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Baked Aubergine

I love it when you have all of the ingredients to make the one thing you crave at that exact moment. In my case it was stuffed baked aubergine inspired by this recipe I found on Eat Drink Paleo;

I changed the recipe up a bit;

1 large aubergine
Tinned Tomatoes
Garlic Clove
Fresh Mint
Cheese (I used cheddar but would have used parmesan if I had some)
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 220 C. I cut the aubergine in half and fried it over a high heat in some olive olive oil. I read somewhere that frying aubergine in really hot oil stops it soaking too much oil. Put the two aubergine halves in the oven while you make the sauce. Fry chopped garlic, making sure they don't brown too much. Add tinned tomatoes and simmer until reduced. Take off heat and add mint. Make a hole in the aubergine to add the sauce, I did this by mushing up the flesh of the aubergine a bit. Add the sauce and put back into the oven. Reduce heat to 190 and bake for around 20 minutes. Add cheese, its ready when the cheese is melted and golden. I had this with tzatziki. My version is no way near as pretty but it tasted really good!

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And baby makes three....!

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Yep, Mr A and I are expecting our first baby!! I don't want to say too much as I want to keep it private but I'm sure the progress of my bump will come up in future blog posts. I will say this baby is very much wanted and has made us both very, very happy!!!

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