Fried halloumi fingers

For my sister's birthday, my mum and I decided to do a Greek themed night. I did the starters (this halloumi, feta and spinach filo pastries and greek salad) and for main we had pork stifado (instead of beef), and lamb and feta kebabs with cous cous. Everything was so delicious, it all worked really well. I don't have the recipe for the stifado, but there are lots of good ones online - it's basically a casserole type dish made with beef, red wine, stock, cinnamon etc. so had lots of rich flavours. The halloumi was really good it has such a strong flavour, and a crisp texture from the sesame seeds which we coated them in.

Serves 5

- Block of halloumi

- olive oil

- sesame seeds

- dried oregano

1. Cut the halloumi into strips

2. Brush both sides of each piece with olive oil and coat in sesame seeds. I did some without sesame and with dried oregano instead.

3. Pour more oil into a large frying pan and fry the cheese on a high heat until golden and crispy. Serve with a sprinkling of dried oregano.

Enjoy :)

Italian chicken bake

I bought the 'Eat In' magazine yesterday which I love, but don't usually buy because it's £2.50 and quite thin! Having said that, it gives me so many brilliant ideas for meals or baking, and offers really good tips on things like matching different herbs to different ingredient. The recipes are also really easy to follow and the photography is great. So I spent most of my train journey home yesterday with my head in this magazine; I even started to annotate some of the recipes!? Haha. I made this last night, and I only changed two things from the original recipe: not using pepperoni on top (my mum doesn't like pepperoni), and adding my favourite ingredients for Italian cooking, which if you read my other posts, is of course, balsamic vinegar! I served this dish with a bit of pasta, but I can imagine it working just as well with rice or even potatoes. Or just a larger portion of the bake with some cheesy garlic bread mm. 

Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 1/2 onion chopped (I used 1 small onion)
- drizzle of olive oil
- 2 chicken breasts, sliced/chopped
- sprinkling of garlic granules
- sprinkling of dried oregano
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
- 60g ball of mozzarella, sliced
- 25g sliced pepperoni (I didn't use this)
- salt and pepper


1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6. Fry the onion in the oil, until translucent.
2. Add the diced chicken to the pan and brown for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and fry for another couple of minutes. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and bubble for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into an ovenproof dish. Top with the sliced mozzarella and pepperoni, if using, and bake for 25 minutes or until bubbling. Season and serve with a carb of your choice!

Enjoy :)