I hate the salads in the UK.  A few pieces of limp lettuce, a bit of cucumber and tomato. No dressing. Can you say boring. I have gone salad mad. I can not get enough. Fruit or veg. Its Spring. Bring it on. So here is what I do for a real kick ass salad. A meal. I love it.

Take your lettuce, what ever kind you like. Even try mixing some different kinds. I love adding spinach. Wash it and spin it in a salad spinner. I found my salad spinner at Aldi for like £3. It dries of the lettuce and you can just put it on a zip lock bag and it last for a few days.

On a big plate or a large bowl take a good handful of the lettuce. Add to it and or all of the following

Chopped red pepper, tomato, cucumber, chopped celery, carrot (take your peeler and make strips) apple chunks, pear chunks, avocado, feta cheese, linseed, cashew, almonds or walnuts.  Feel free to also add chicken chunks, or tuna, or bacon if you like.  Add anything you like. That is the beauty of it

Then dress it. I do it really simple. Drizzel olive oil and medina balsamic vinegar.  You can do olive oil and lemon too. Or take some Mayo or olive oil, add some French brown mustard, white wine vinegar and honey.

Enjoy.

I threw this together tonight and it turned out really good. Should be pretty good for us too. This is what I used, but use what you have in stock.

I used can beans except for the lentils. We soaked the lentils over night. I think doing this again I would pre-cook the lentils a bit as they still seemed a bit tough. If you want to use dry beans make sure you soak them over night. Don’t forget to check for stones as sometimes dry beans have little stones in the bag. Can beans are fine really. You can get them pretty cheap too.

I finely chopped 1 onion, 1 yellow bell pepper, and several stocks of celery. I would of added Carrots but they where past their sell by date for sure. I then sweated them in olive oil for a good 10 mins. Make sure that they are sweated down.

To the sweating veg I added the spices. I used about a tablespoon of dried parsley,  a tablespoon or a bit more of dried Thyme, and about a 1/4 tsp or so of ground coriander seed and about 1 tsp of salt. I always try and add the spice to the oil. Its seems to make the oil infused and the whole thing comes out better.

I then added the beans.

The pre-soaked lentils ( 1 quarter of a small bag. It really makes a lot) 2 cans of Cannelloni beans, a can of red kidney beans, a small can of mixed beans. Really you can use any beans you like. I love the cannelloni beans and I love butter beans. They are white and light in flavour.

I poured a pre-boiled kettle of water over the beans and added about 4 or 5 vegetable oxo cubes. I covered the beans but didn’t add a ton of water above the bean line.

I boiled it for about 40 mins. It turned out really tasty.  The beans seem to naturally thicken the stock. Just make sure that you stir it so nothing sticks or burns to the bottom of the pan.

Bag of pasta

a few chicken breast

Good hunk of butter

large Tablespoon or so flour

1 cup or so of Chicken broth

small container of creme fresh

1 lemon, or lemon from one of those plastic things.

Cook up a bag of pasta, Drain

Cook up some chicken chunks, smaller chunks is better.

In a pan, melt some butter, then add flour and make a rue. Stir constantly for about 1 min. Then add about a cup of chicken broth. Stir until its thick. Add Lemon juice and about a small carton of creme fresh (you can use sour cream or a heavy plain (Greek) yogurt too I am sure)  Stir and heat through. Add Chicken to it. Then pour it over pasta.

I love these. I love to have one after a meal, or just a snack. I think they are pretty low in fat and calories and pack a lot of punch. I will never buy them again because I have spent a fortune on a package and can make them so cheaply.

1 box of icing sugar/powdered sugar

2 or 3 tsp peppermint extract

2 or 3 tbls water

70% 0r higher dark Chocolate.

Put most of the sugar in a bowl, hold a bit back if you are going to roll them flat. Add the peppermint and the water. mix.  It will become like a lightly sticky dough. Think of making bread dough. If you need to add more water then do so. If its to messy and sticky add more sugar.  You will see the consistency start to come together.

When its mix you can put more icing sugar on a board or counter and then roll flat (just like a dough) then use a cookie cuter, small glass or what not and cut out piece. Or you just make them into little balls and either press flat or just leave in a small ball shape  (or drop shape even) Place on a greaseproof sheet/wax paper. Let sit for a few hours to dry (turn over to dry both sides ) or better yet, leave over night.

In a dutch oven or easier yet, in a measuring cup melt the chocolate. Put the measuring cup in the microwave on medium and melt slowly.  Pour a thin layer of the chocolate over the mint.  I either spoon it on, let it dry, flip it and put it another layer on the back, or if you have balls, drop them in and roll them around and leave them to dry.

Once they are dry you can store them in an air tight container. That easy.

My sister in law gave me this recipe. I love it.

1 head of broccoli chopped into small pieces

bacon cooked crispy can crumbled.

Rasins ( I used dried cranberrys sometimes)

Sunflower seeds  (I used cashews too)

1 small chopped red onion

Blend everthing in a really big bowl.

Then add the dressing:

1 cup or so of either Mayo or sour cream (or creme fresh)

1/4 cup  sugar

1/4 cup white wine vinegar.

Taste and add more sugar or vinegar if needed. Stir into salad mixture.

Sometimes I do have to make more dressing depending on how much salad I make. I love this salad. Its so good and so easy to make.

Wide Egg noodles.  Boiled until ready… about 19 mins

Chicken cut into small chunks

Shallots or small onion, chopped fine

Mushrooms, peeled and chopped into halves or quarters.

Paprika  2 tbls or so

Thyme 1 tsp or so.

Salt and pepper

Creme Freshe or Sour Cream

Add enough oil to a pan to cover, add the thyme and paprika to it for a few seconds. Then add the shallots, Mushrooms and Chicken. Cook until the chicken is done. Add salt and pepper to taste.  When the chicken is cooked through turn heat to low and add creme fresh and mix in and heat through.

Pile noodles on a plate and put sauce over.

So you want to make something yummy with that pumpkin, but not sure how to?  Don’t worry, its easy peasy.

First, cut the top off  and scrape out the guts with a big spoon. Make sure you get all the strings. Then, after you separate the seeds and toast them, cut the pumpkin down the sides into 4 or so big quarters. Spay a little non stick spay on a baking pan and place the pumpkin quarters down with the skin out.  Place in an oven and bake at around 300f or 180c.  Back for 45mins to 1 1/2 hr depending on the size of the pumpkin. Just check around 45 mins by poking a sharp knife in. If is slides in easy its done. The skin will also be brown. Pull out of the oven an cool.

Once cool then scape all the pumpkin flesh out into a big bowl.  If you are going to use the flesh for soup or pies, then press it through a sieve. This gets all string out and makes a nice, smooth soup. If you will be using it for cakes, breads muffins or what not, then no need to sieve.

Roasted pumpkin seeds are yummy and very healthy. They are very easy to make, so don’t them out.

Seperate the seeds from the strings. Give them a rinse in the strainer. Take a baking sheet and add a touch of oil and spead it with a piece of paper towel to keep them from sticking.  Pour the seeds into a bowl and add just a drop of oil and mix to coat. Then put them on the tray and spread them out into one layer.

preheat oven to around 180c. Put the seeds in for about 25 mins total. Stir at around 10 mind. They should be golden brown.

Spinkle just a bit of salt when you take them out and let them cool.

Enjoy.

I found this recipe on a site. Its from Jamie Oliver but for the life of me I cant find it again. I went out today and picked up the ingredients from memory so I hope I got it right. It sure tasted good.
What you need…

Cooked Pasta Shells. Follow instructions on the bag. I used about 3/4 of the bag for 3 of us for a full meal.
Streaky bacon (normal American bacon) Cut up about 10 slices into bits. I will admit that I used left over Italian prosciutto That we had left over. Cut up, raw ready to go.
1/2 cup of frozen peas.
Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese. About a handful
Small-ish container of creme fresh. Sour cream could be used I am sure
Mint. I used dry.

Just as the pasta was close to being finished, I put some olive oil in a frying pan and heated it up. I added the mint to the oil for a few seconds. Then I added the bacon and cooked for several mins until is was cooked through. Then I added the peas in and let that cook up a bit. I added the creme fresh and stired. Add the cheese. Stir well. (If it seems a little thick add some water from the coooking pasta. This is another trick I have seen Jamie do. Thanks Jamie) Then add the pasta and stir.

I wasnt really sure about the mint but its really nice. Its easy and not expensive at all.

I looked at a whole bunch of different recipes and combined them to come up with this. My husband loved it. So I thought I better blog it so I remember how I did it.

1 onion chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

1 celery chopped

Fry them up in oil. Sweat them longer then you would think as they seem to still be crisp although they looked well cooked. I added to the sweating veg…

bay leaf, oregano, salt, paprika, garlic powder, a few veg oxo cubes

When its all sweated down add a little hot water and …

cooked smoked sausage.  (if its not cooked then I would cook them at the begining I would think)

2 cans of red beans

1 can of chopped stewed tomato

Let it simmer for about 15 mins.

Serve over hot cooked rice.