One Pan Corgetti Carbonara

I received a Tesco Orchard Voucher for £2 off Tesco Fruit and Veg, so I decided to buy something I wouldn't usually buy. I bought some courgetti, a spaghetti substitute made from courgette, because I'd heard a lot of people taking about it.

I decided to make a healthier Carbonara using the courgetti, as I love Carbonara but it's not the healthiest of dishes. My thrown together recipe is found below. I served it with some baby sweetcorn I also got with my vouchers. Both I and the hubby loved it. Suggestions on improvements would be welcome :)

Ingredients (serves 2)
Small amount of cooking oil
Courgetti - Can be bought pre-prepared in Tesco, or made using a spirlizer.
Bacon - fat cut off
Garlic - I use garlic powder as it's easy to store, but fresh garlic does just as well. I used the equivalent of 1 garlic clove.
50ml Milk
1 Large Egg
Handful of Grated Cheese - Traditionally Parmesan is used, but I used extra mature cheddar because that's what we had in!
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in frying pan. Cut bacon into small pieces, discarding fat.
2. Fry bacon in oil. When bacon is cooked add the Courgetti and garlic, stirring regularly. Cook for 4 minutes.
3. Whisk together milk, egg and half of the cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. A bit at a time, add the milk/egg mixture to the frying pan, stirring continuously. Allow egg to cook through and reduce for 5 minutes, or until liquid is mostly gone.
5. Serve with cheese sprinkled on top.

Incredibly Simple Cupcakes

I recently posted a youtube video showing you how to make cupcakes following the incredibly simple recipe that has been passed down from my great grandmother. This is one of my favourite recipes, one I make time and time again.

In this blog I'm going to give the full recipe, as well as some adjustments and experiments I've tried over the years that add a twist to these really simple cakes

Ingredients (makes about 16 cup cakes if using medium eggs)

2 Eggs
Self Raising Flour
Sugar
Butter
(optional) Baking Powder and Milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C
2. Weigh the eggs, still in their shells. Take note of this weight. This is the weight of flour, sugar and butter you will need (e.g. if your eggs weigh 200g, you need 200g of flour, 200g of butter and 200g of sugar).
3. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until combined and the mixture drops from the spoon. Add a teaspoon of baking powder before mixing if you want the cakes to be extra fluffy. If the mixture doesn't get to the correct consistency, add a small splash of milk.
4. Spoon into cake cases and bake for 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool, and then decorate or simply dust with icing sugar.

Adaptions

Once you've mastered the basic recipe, making changes can keep things interesting. Below are cupcake variants that have been tried and tested by my friends and family.

Banana Cup Cakes - Replace 1 egg and some of the sugar with a ripe banana - These are even more delicious if filled with raspberry jam!
Chocolate Chip Cup Cakes - Add chocolate chips to mixture before baking
Cinnamon and Pecan Cupcakes - Add a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon to the cake mix, and decorate with whipped cream and pecans.

Have you got a favourite go-to baking recipe? Please comment and tell me what it is, I'd love to know!

Eat well for less

I've really been enjoying the BBC's Eat Well For Less series. It's full of good advice about feeding a family healthily on a budget, as well as dispelling a lot of myths about food.

I've not found it overly helpful though, because as a family we're well within the normal spending range for our family (we're a couple, and spend about £40 a week on groceries, which is about average for a family of 2). We tend to cook our own meals, we've steered clear of takeaways since we came up with a meal plan, we don't usually buy branded products and we shop at a budget supermarket. Surely we can't make any more savings?

Then I came across the absolutely fascinating Facebook page! The people running this claimed they could feed a family of 4 for half of my budget. I genuinely didn't believe it. But I've been reading through their menus, and it seems with some careful planning a bulk buying you really can feed a family for as little as £20!

I'm not sure we have the storage space for 3 months worth of food (especially as our flat has issues with damp, and I wouldn't want to lose that much food if it went bad!) but I'm taking it as a personal challenge to get as close to £20 a week as possible. I'm going to try to buy a month's worth of freezables and non-perishables in advance, and then buy perishables week on week. I think initially it will be more like £30 a week, but we'll see where we'll get.

Do you have any top tips for buying in bulk? What about buying in bulk when you don't have a car (which we don't!) I'd love to hear them!

Handmade Gifts for Guys

Having done numerous internet searches in the run up to birthdays and Christmas, I know I am not alone in finding it difficult to make gifts for the men in my life. Somehow it's easier to think of things to make for female friends and family, possibly because handbags, jewelry and scented candles can be given as many times as you like, as long as you pick a different design. Lots of lists for "gifts for men" are full of cliched, ugly, unhelpful ideas that would probably bore or insult a lot of the guys I know. This is a list of gifts that I have made and given that have been well received. Some of the suggestions may seem a little odd, but as with giving any gift, the best gifts are personal and thoughtful. If the friend is a little odd then the best gift will be too!

Food
Food is a welcome gift for everyone, man or woman!

Homemade food gifts are lovely, and there's lots of ideas. Chocolate bark is an easy, no bake idea and there are loads of recipes around. I tried Martha Stewart's S'mores bark recipe last Christmas and lots of people asked for more. The trick with making chocolate bark is to use good quality chocolate - you could go even further and find out your loved one's favourite chocolate brand to make sure the gift appeals to their taste!

For bakers in the family, why not give them all the ingredients for their favourite biscuit or cookie in a jar? Kids Chaos has the instructions for some delicious cookies, the ingredients of which look great when layered in a jar!

For those not inclined to cook, shop bought food thoughtfully selected can make a food hamper, especially when put in a home decorated box or basket. My dad loves Christmas Pudding, and so I sought out a tiny, single portion pudding, so he didn't have to share it! Good quality coffee, a posh brand of tea bags, a favourite sweet treat, or even a guilty pleasure (do they have a strange fondness for pot noodles and ketchup?) can make a gift funny and personal.

Remember to take into account any allergies or intolerances others have. Food gifts, especially of treats, given to people with allergies and intolerences are often doubly appreciated!

Hobby Gifts
Taking an interest in someone's hobby is a sure way to make a thoughtful gift. You can personalise gifts with applique or embroidery.

Sport: Small draw string bags for golf tees and balls.  The same could be true for other sports. A tennis racket cover with a pocket for balls for example.
Team Themed Gift: Sports fans love things that feature the colours or logos of their favourite team. I used the free patchwork bear pattern from McCall's to make this Wigan Athletic bear for my brother, and this idea could easily be adapted to suit any sports team.

Cooking: Try an apron, oven gloves, potholders or a personalised tea towel.
Outdoors: Crochet or knit a warm hat, gloves or scarf for those who love to be outdoors. Fingerless gloves or wristers are great for those who like to do work with their fingers, such as gardeners, as it will keep their hands warm without impeding their ability to work with their hands. Fingerless gloves are also great for anyone who loves to write or type. This simple crochet tutorial is easy to follow along with and is adaptable to different striped patterns and sizes; make in your loved one's favourite colours.

One male friend of mine is an avid cosplayer, and I made him a sewing kit for Christmas, so he can repair any damage to costumes when he's away from home. This might not be a typical "masculine" present, but showing I understood his hobby was a great way to show I took an interest in his life.

Sewing a Gift: It's all in the fabric!
It's not just women who appreciate a homemade apron, quilt or cushion. Choosing a fabric thoughtfully makes all the difference.
My husband loves tartan fabrics, so I included lots of tartan squares when I made him this quilt.

My brother plays the guitar, so I took to ebay to find a guitar patterned fabric to make him a cushion.

Sometimes it can be expensive or difficult to get a fabric patterned with a particular theme, but you can usually find fat quarters on ebay for a couple of pounds. It's also worth keeping an eye out for special fabric when in the local fabric shop. If you can't get enough fabric to make a whole item, why not use a fat quarter to make a pocket or add some applique? Use a plain fabric in a matching or contrasting colour for the rest of the gift, and this can look very effective.

Rainbow Trout Recipes

I've recently joined Tesco Orchard, a scheme run by Tesco that lets you try products for free in exchange for reviews and opinions. I got my first voucher in the post this week for fresh fish. I was delighted, as I've been trying to get more Vitamin D into my diet to help the MS, and I knew fish could help.

After a quick google search the fishmonger was able to recommend rainbow trout as a fish high in Vitamin D, so I decided to use the voucher to try it out!

With the help of my husband we cooked two delicious fish dishes.

Having not cooked much fresh fish before we cheated and went for a pre-made sauce! We settled on a Schwartz Sweet Chilli, Lime and Coriander sauce, and it was scrummy.

We rubbed the trout with olive oil, salt and pepper, before wrapping in tin foil and baking at 200C for 25 minutes. We served this with the sauce, boiled potatoes and green beans.

We had two fillets left, and so the next night we used the rest of the sauce to make a vegetable and noodle stir fry, including pepper, mushroom, and home grown spring onions (see my youtube video on how to grow your own spring onions). This was a great tasting way to use up the left over fish, and the flavours went wonderfully together! I didn't feel confident putting the fish in the stir fry, as there were a few small bones in the fish that I felt would have been a bit more difficult to detect if served in that way.

I enjoyed both these dishes tremendously and I really want to eat fish more often. Do you have any favourite fish recipes to share? I'd love to read them!

Menu Planning

I've recently been watching The Box on BBC1. It's a cooking show where contestants are given a box of ingredients and challenged to cook a meal. On a recent episode one contestant was given a box marked "leftovers". In it was some cooked pasta, boiled potatoes, half a bell pepper, cooked salmon and the stalk from a floret of broccoli.

The contestant visibly groaned when he saw those ingredients. I felt a thrill of excitement. I can make a meal out of that! One of my greatest culinary achievements to date was learning from my housemate how to make leftover broccoli stalks tasty! No gourmet food in our house, but nothing ever goes in the bin.

I love cooking. I find it relaxing to prepare food, I love trying a new recipe or idea out in the kitchen. I love opening the fridge, seeing what we've got, and coming up with a bizarre concoction out of leftovers. My husband is a capable cook, but he is not the king of leftovers. He needs a recipe, and all the ingredients laid out in front of him. If he's not got something on the list he begins to panic.

Recently I've been all but banished from the kitchen. I get numbness in my limbs which means I can't tell if I get hurt, and my arms will spasm out of my control, causing me to drop or throw things (like pans of boiling water, or knives). My legs hurt if I stand for long periods of time. I manage to cook maybe one simple meal a week, and even then I probably shouldn't. So the burden of food preparation has fallen on my husband.

Suddenly, we found we never had the right food in the fridge. We were reaching for the takeaway menu more often than was reasonable (or affordable!). And we found ourselves arguing about food, about the cost, on a fairly regular basis.

So we sat down and planned a menu.

At the beginning of the week we write down 7 meals we want to eat. Then, based on that menu, we write a shopping list. We include one meal I can safely cook for a day when I'm feeling well, and one "easy" meal for a night we just can't be bothered, so something like a frozen pizza. If my husband hasn't cooked it before I will write out a simple recipe for him, or find him a simple recipe online.


We then ensure that we buy all the ingredients needed to make those meals, and not more (so there aren't any leftovers for me to fret about throwing away!). We don't designate a meal to a given night because my condition is so changeable. We never know when I'm going to have a good day.

We're three weeks into this new plan, and we've not yet had a meal out or a takeaway, which is a big step for us, and a huge saving financially!

It's been hard to let go of the control of the kitchen, but my husband is so much happier for it being arranged in a way he feels comfortable to cook. Not only has he started to feel comfortable with preparing our meals; this morning I was woken with pancakes for breakfast.