Three B Pasta! Tagliatelle with bacon, blue cheese and broadbeans!

One of the great benefits of my new running regime is being able to indulge in carbohydrates without the added guilt. Pasta is a runners friend and this fact pleases me greatly. Probably healthier to have with a tomato based sauce but we all need a treat every now and then!

For 2 greedy adults you will need;

200g dried tagliatelle
2 thick rashers, cut into bits
200g broadbeans, peeled weight*
50g blue cheese, I used Cashel blue
1 fat clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
150ml of Avonmore cooking cream

Boil some water and put the tagliatelle on to cook, according to pack instructions.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the minced garlic.
Add the bacon bits and fry until slightly crispy.
Add in the broadbeans and stir well.
Add the cooking cream and the blue cheese and simmer on a low heat.
Drain the tagliatelle and add it to the pan. Give it a good stir before piling onto warmed plates.
Serve with garlic bread, roasted vine tomatoes, green salad or just on its own.
Delicious, creamy, flavoursome and quick!

* I couldn't lay my hands on any fresh broadbeans so I used canned ones. Not as vibrant in colour as the fresh but not a bad substitute. Use the fresh ones if you can.

Healthy Pot Noodle

I recently bought the book "River Cottage Veg Everyday" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and already it has taken pride of place in my cookbook collection. I fully admit to being a meat lover, I like nothing better than a big juicy steak or a plate of lamb chops to up my protein and energy levels but after seeing all the lovely recipes in this book I can see how people survive without meat. I won't be turning vegetarian anytime soon but I have loved the recipes I have tried.

This is a gorgeous quick & fresh lunch dish that I amended slightly to suit my tastes, that is the great thing about being confident in the kitchen, anything goes!

To serve two people you will need;

2 nests of quick cook noodles, I used Sharwoods fine egg noodles
1 vegetable stock jelly
1 carrot peeled and then sliced very finely
12 sugar snap peas, finely sliced
4 scallions, finely sliced
6 baby corn cobs, finely sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp of curry powder
4 tsp soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime

Put the noodles, carrot, sugarsnaps, corn, chilli, ginger and scallions into a pot. I used two small kilner jars, which worked out perfect.
Place stock jelly and curry powder in a jug and pour on 3/4 pint of boiling water. Stir well and pour straight on top of the noodle mix. Cover and leave for 8 - 10 minutes stirring once or twice.
Add the lime juice and soy sauce and serve immediately.

What a great little dish to throw together in minutes. My boys are big fans of any noodle dishes and they devoured these little pots of goodness. I am always droning on about the benefits of feeding your children healthy meals and plenty of fruits and vegetables but that's our job as parents. The children are rarely sick and I put a lot of that down to their diet. No better children to devour a packet of sweets in minutes but I don't mind that as long as they getting their vitamins and minerals through their meals I know I doing a good job!

Thanks for reading & happy cooking! xx

S'mores Brownies!

When it comes to baking I am very impatient. I never leave anything to cool for as long as I should, never allow melted chocolate to sit and cool before adding cream, am always impatient to ice or decorate whatever I have baked but this recipe I urge you to allow to cool fully before attempting to slice up! Being my usual impatient self I couldn't wait and my kitchen looked like it had gone to war with Dr Oetker himself!! S'mores brownies are a big hit over on pinterest so I couldn't wait to try my own version of them. However I need to practice them to make them look as perfect as ones I have admired!!!

You will need;

200g digestive biscuits, in crumbs
100g butter, melted
175g sugar
175g soft butter
150g self raising flour
125g drinking chocolate
4 eggs
100g dark chocolate, in pieces
200g mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a brownie tin.
Add the melted butter to the crumbed biscuits and press into the bottom of the tin. Refrigerate.
Mix the flour, sugar, butter, hot chocolate and eggs together until a runny mixture is formed.
Add the chopped chocolate and combine.
Pour on top of chilled biscuit base and place in oven for approximately 45 mins or until brownies have just a slight wobble in the middle.
Remove from oven and place a layer of marshmallows on top. I cut each mini marshmallow in half to allow full coverage of the brownie.
Place under the grill and watch very carefully! Wait until very slightly browned then remove immediately!!
At this point you should allow to fully cool, then refrigerate before cutting up into 16 bars! I however attempted to slice them up there and then, this involved several knives, a spatula, a cake server, a breadboard, several plates, a restless 4 year old, a medicinal brandy, two tea towels, a dish cloth and twenty sticky fingers. Am slightly exaggerating here but you get the picture, DO NOT SLICE UP STRAIGHT FROM OVEN!!

I am going to attempt them again soon if only to try and get a perfect shot of a couple of them instead of just this lonely little one!!

Old Fashioned Lemon Loaf!

My children love having a little treat after their dinner and this is one of their favourites. Once they have made a good effort and eaten all their vegetables I don't mind them having something sweet. Everything in moderation and all that! This is such a handy cake as literally it is made and in the oven in minutes, no messing around. One bowl and one loaf tin equals delicious lemony delight!

You will need;

225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
1 lemon, zest and juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Grease and line a loaf tin.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Mix well between each addition.
Sift in the flour, zest and juice and combine well.
Pour into the lined loaf tin and level off with back of spoon.
Bake in oven for approximately 45 mins or until a skewer comes out of centre clean.

To decorate;
You can decorate this cake anyway you like. Icing sugar mixed with some lemon juice or orange juice and poured on top to set is delicious. Cream cheese beaten with some lemon juice and icing sugar is another alternative. For this one I fried some thinly cut slices of lemon in 2 tablespoons of sugar and allowed to cool on some grease proof paper. I dredged the slightly cooled cake with icing sugar and placed the slices on top. Like most of my favourite recipes anything goes. Play around with it and try different combinations until you find the one you love! Hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family do! xx

Competition!!

Time to run another little competition on my blog! I adore the two greedy Italians and for one lucky winner I have a copy of "Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy"! I have been blogging for 15 months now and am really enjoying it! I would love a few more followers on my blog page, so simply to enter all you need to do is to follow my blog. If you are already following you will automatically be entered! Competition closes the 27th of April and is open to all!

Pear, Caramel & Chocolate Brownies

When I was growing up I always wanted a house where people liked to call into, have a coffee and a slice of cake and above all feel welcome. When I was growing up my mother was a firm believer in "keep yourself to yourself". She had great neighbours but really we only ever entertained relations at home. There was no such thing as coffee mornings, lazy lingering lunches or fun dinner parties. I on the other hand like nothing better than spending time with my pals and their families, I love seeing all the children play together and learn how to share and interact with others. One of the brilliant advantages of my evening job is that I am always free during the day to enjoy these pleasures. I cherish this time with my children and friends, I realise how lucky I am to have those precious hours and I relish each one of them! Today I had four of my lovely friends here and six children. Noisy but fun. These brownies were a huge hit and were declared the nicest treat I have ever baked, eh problem is how do I improve on that???

For these delicious squares you will need;

175g sugar
175g soft butter
150g self raising flour
125g drinking chocolate
4 eggs
100g dark chocolate, in pieces
4 pears, peeled, cored and chopped
150g dulce du leche

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line/grease a brownie tin.
Mix together the sugar, butter, flour, drinking chocolate and the eggs until you have a runny mixture.
Fold in the chocolate pieces and the pears.
Pour into the brownie tin and swirl the dulce du leche through the mixture.
Bake for 45 mins or until there is a slight wobble in the middle.
Cool in the tin for 30 minutes before turning upside down onto a wire rack and peeling off the parchment paper.
Turn onto a bread board once cooled and cut into 16 squares.
Try and resist having more than one!!!!

Happy Birthday Sid!

Everyday for the last 14 years there has been something not quite right in my world. On 12th October 1998 my families world changed forever when my dear Dad passed away. Always the "soft" parent who we could wrap around our little fingers he left an enormous hole that would or could never be filled. He was only a small man but to us he was always ten feet tall. Ever loving and ever giving, we simply were his world. There isn't a day goes by when thoughts of him don't enter my head. Above all things I wish that he could have met my children, it's not a very nice experience bringing your children to a graveside to meet their Grandad whom you know would have been a fantastic role model in their lives. Unfortunately such is life, bittersweet memories of what was and what could have been. Memories in the head and no more to be made but always love. So happy birthday to my dear Dad, hope you are being as well looked after now as you looked after us then. xxx

Comfort food was a must today so soup was in order. I had this in a cafe recently and enjoyed it so this is my recreation of that.

Chestnut, Parsnip, Apple & Curry Soup.

You will need;
50g butter
2 medium parsnips, grated
2 apples, cored and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
435g tin of chestnut purée
1 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp dried sage
500ml hot vegetable stock
Salt & pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the parsnip which you have grated. Cook for 4 minutes.
Add in the chopped celery and apple and cook for two further minutes or until slightly soft.
Add the curry powder and stir well.
Add in the chestnut purée, sage and the hot stock. Season well.
Cover and simmer for five minutes.
Remove from hit and blend until smooth. I sieved mine after blending to get a really smooth soup.
Serve with a drizzle of creme fraiche and maybe some homemade brown bread with lashings of real butter.

P.S. Ring your mother or father and tell them how wonderful they are and how lucky you are to have them. Life is too short to be all coy and shy about our feelings, let them know how you feel. xxxx