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!