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 :)

Mint chocolate cupcakes

I made these yesterday for my sister's birthday celebrations tonight, and they were so delicious! Chocolate and mint is always the perfect match, and with a mint aero bubble on top, what could be better? These look really cute and taste surprisingly light and refreshing. I used a large star piping nozzle that I recently brought off Amazon and you can really tell the difference - I think these look a lot more professional than previous cupcakes I have made - it's definitely worth the money. These would also look good decorated with after eight mints.

For the chocolate sponges (makes about 24)

- 225 margarine/butter (or both)

- 225g caster sugar

- 4 eggs, beaten

- 225g self raising flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 2 tbsp semi skimmed milk

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- 4 tbsp cocoa powder

For the peppermint buttercream

- 150g unsalted butter

- 225g icing sugar

- 2 tbsp hot milk

- 4 tsp peppermint extract (according to taste)

- few drops of green food colouring

- mint aero bubbles, to decorate

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Line a few cupcake trays with cupcake cases.

2. Beat together the marg/butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding flour occasionally if curdling occurs.

3. Sift the remaining flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl, then gradually whisk in the milk and vanilla essence.

4. Spoon into the cupcakes cases and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes. Leave to cool on a cooling tray.

5. For the butter cream, cream together the butter, sugar and milk until smooth. Add the peppermint extract and food colouring and stir thoroughly. Taste and if necessary add more of the peppermint.

6. Using a disposable piping bag and a large star nozzle, pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcakes - be generous! Place a mint aero bubble on top and voila!

I ran out of buttercream and so decorated the remaining 3 cupcakes like this, ha ha ha it makes me laugh:

Enjoy :)

Double chocolate cookies

I don't usually bake cookies that often because I can never find a simple recipe that works well for me. I like cookies to be softer and have a more chewy texture rather than just crunchy. Although these cookies do have a crisp texture at first, they also have a sort of brownie like texture which I love. This is mainly from using soft brown sugar instead of caster. They are really chocolatey and delicious. I am yet to create a cookie recipe that is crunchy with soft chocolate chunks in, so in the mean time, try these out! I'm sure they will be popular with friends and family as they were with mine.

Makes 24

- 125g butter, softened

- 125g soft brown sugar

- 50g caster sugar

- 1 egg, beaten

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 125g plain flour

- 35g cocoa powder

- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 75g chocolate, cut into chunks (mixture of milk and dark)

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Line several baking trays with baking paper.

2. Beat together the butter and both sugars in a bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.

4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb of soda and mix until well combined, then stir in the chunks of chocolate.

5. Spoon the cookie mixture onto the baking trays in small, round balls, spaced well apart from each other.

6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy :)

Summer smoothies

It's been such a lovely sunny, hot day here today even though it's September now, woo, so these cold smoothies were perfect for today. I have also had a really bad cold these last few days (surprise surprise) so although I haven't had much of an appetite, I've been trying to eat as healthy as possible. I really wanted to make the pineapple and spinach smoothie that I've posted on here about before because it has lots of yummy and nutritious ingredients in, and in the end I made two different smoothies. The purple (and more attractive) one is exactly the same as the pineapple and spinach one, just without the spinach! They are both really delicious, I had the spinach one with my lunch and am going to have the sweeter one after dinner later!

You can find the recipe for the smoothie here - it is low fat natural yogurt, frozen berries, fresh pineapple, fresh spinach leaves and some water.
This time I added a little more of everything (particularly yogurt) so it made two drinks rather than just one. I also added some fresh blueberries as well as the frozen berries. Add everything but the spinach into the blender then pour half of it into a glass.

Add the spinach to the remaining smoothie in the blender, continue to blend, then pour that one into a glass too!

Enjoy :)

Herb puff pastry sausage rolls

Credit goes to my mama for this post, since she made these, and was the one who came across the pastry with the recipe on the packaging. I just wanted to share this with you guys because they were soooo delicious, the best sausage rolls i've ever tasted! I've had home-made sausage rolls before but they were just the standard sausage cut in half and rolled in plain puff pastry with some beaten egg and seasoning - they are good too but you should definitely give this recipe a go, it has a lot more flavour. The pastry is from Sainsbury's in the fridge section (not freezer, although you can freeze it) - it is the ready rolled herb puff pastry. The recipe is on the packaging but I will write it here anyway for you to look at.

Ingredients (serves 6)

- 1 pack of Sainsbury's ready rolled herb puff pastry

- 250g lean minced pork

- 100g lean bacon, finely chopped

- 1 medium onion, finely chopped

- 50g fresh breadcrumbs

- 1 egg, beaten

- pinch grated nutmeg

- salt and pepper

1. Remove pastry from the fridge 20 minutes before use, and pre-heat the oven to 200 degree / gas mark 6

2. Mix the mince, bacon, onion, breadcrumbs, 3/4 of the egg, nutmeg and seasoning together until well combined.

3. Unroll the pastry and cut in half lengthways. Spread half the filling along the centre of each pastry strip. 4. Roll up the pastry to enclose the filling, leaving the join underneath.

4. Using a sharp knife cut each length into 10, and make 2 shallow cuts into the top of each. Brush with the remaining beaten egg.

5. Place on a lightly greased baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through and golden.

Enjoy :)

Skinny chocolate and cranberry muffins

This is a recipe I got straight off the BBC Good Food website so I'm just going to link the recipe rather than writing it all out because I feel like it's copyright or something like that. I usually either create my own recipes or alter existing ones slightly but this time I didn't change a thing!

Here is the recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/252615/skinny-chocolate-and-cranberry-muffins

So first of all, how cute are these cupcakes cases!? I just got them from Sainsbury's the other day in Nottingham so they should be selling them in most stores around the country at the moment if you're looking for some pretty cases.

As you can see, the muffins didn't seem to rise very much which was a pain, but I guess it's because they're 'healthy'. Don't expect these to be some sort of miracle muffins that taste amazing but are really low in fat, because although they do taste good, they are not like normal cakes or muffins because they don't have the normal butter, sugar etc. The fats have been substituted for natural yogurt and oil, which is also why these muffins were quite dry after a few hours of cooling. What we did was just heat a muffin in the microwave for 10 seconds every time we wanted one, because the texture is just so much better when they're warm - it makes them more moist etc. I love the other textures in these from the cranberries, I think dried fruit in cakes is scrummy so that's definitely a plus. They also have a really strong chocolate flavour which makes these more appealing. Give them a try if you're trying to be healthy but still need a cake fix or something sweet, but don't expect them to be the best thing ever - there is a reason why cakes are so good - because of the fat and sugar in them!

Enjoy :)

Penne with pesto and field mushrooms

I bet you're thinking oh god not another post about pasta and pesto... sorry, I just couldn't resist! This is my all-time favourite meal when I want something quick, satisfying, delicious and not too unhealthy (so most nights, haha). Two ingredients - pasta and pesto, and you can do so many different things with them. This is pasta, green pesto, green beans, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, field mushrooms, fresh parmesan and some caramelised onion chutney mm mm. I would usually just add green beans, mushrooms, onion and spinach like here, but recently I've started liking cherry tomatoes a lot more and had some large flat mushrooms in the fridge which I wanted to bake in the oven. This is vegetarian so for those who have to have meat with dinner, chicken and/or bacon are brilliant with this too, and probably salmon or tuna, although I have yet to try that. This is a perfect dish for students who will nearly always have pasta and a jar of pesto in their cupboard - onions are really cheap to add in, as are tomatoes and green veg to make sure you're being fairly healthy. Parmesan is expensive so have it without or grate some cheddar cheese on top if you wish. I have some friends who cook pasta and pesto almost every night at uni but it's different each time because you can add so many different things, so it takes a while to get boring. I didn't use onion or garlic in this recipe because I wanted to keep it all to one pan, so this is also ideal for students who are trying to save time and don't want to do a lot of washing up!

**I will be making some posts in the near future of easy but delicious meals for students, as this has been requested, so check back if you're in need of some recipes to follow or just some tips and ideas on how to eat well on a budget!**

Serves 1

- 90g wholewheat penne

- 2 large field mushrooms

- olive oil

- handful of fine green beans, cut in half

- cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

- 1/3 jar of green pesto

- fresh parmesan, grated

- few leaves of fresh basil, torn

- 1 heaped tsp caramelised onion chutney (optional)

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees.

2. Brush the mushrooms in olive oil and season. Place on a baking tray, cover with foil, and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

3. Cook the penne pasta in boiling water according to packet instructions (around 15 minutes)

4. Add the green beans to the pasta water when the pasta has about 5 minutes remaining on the cooking time. Drain together and return to the pan.

5. Stir in the cherry tomatoes and pesto until the pasta is coated.

6. Remove the mushrooms from the oven when soft all the way through and place on a plate, and serve the pasta on top / next to the mushrooms.

7. Sprinkle with parmesan and fresh basil, and serve with caramelised onion chutney if you wish.

Enjoy :)

Coffee and mascarpone cupcakes

I made these for my mum's birthday since she loves coffee cake, like this tiramisu cake which I made for mother's day here! I usually always just stick to buttercream to ice cupcakes (I would've done coffee buttercream for these), but I thought a cream cheese frosting would be a nice change. It does mean you should probably keep them in the fridge though, as the mascarpone might go off otherwise, but I found that if anything it made the sponge more moist so keeping them cold worked great! You can decorate these with anything you like - walnuts would look really good placed on top and are the perfect match for coffee, but none of us really like walnuts so that's why I didn't do that. We tried to find chocolate coffee beans but couldn't which is a shame because they would have looked perfect. In the end I used these chocolate hearts which are really cute - they came from Sainsbury's, I think they were the Silver Spoon brand. These decorations will be particularly perfect for Valentine's day. The cupcake cases are from Ikea last year so they probably don't do them anymore. I love the colours and designs but always get annoyed because they're tall, slim cupcake cases, and I don't have a suitable cupcake tin to bake them in, so they lose their shape and it means the sponge doesn't go higher then the case. This really annoys me because I don't think the cupcakes look as good aha. Sorry for the long introduction! In short, these cupcakes make a really nice change and are super moist and flavoursome so definitely give them a try if you like coffee flavoured cakes.

Makes about 12
- 100g butter, softened
- 100g soft brown sugar
- 100g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 2tsp coffee mixed with 100ml water
- pinch of salt
- dash of milk

For the mascarpone frosting
- 200ml mascarpone
- 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- the remaining coffee

1. re-heat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees, and line a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and fold in the flour and baking powder.
3. Stir in the coffee, a pinch of salt and a dash of milk until creamy.
4. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden.
5. Leave to cool on a wired rack.
6. Meanwhile, to make the frosting, whisk together the mascarpone, sugars and coffee. Once the cakes are cool, spread on top.

 7. Decorate the cupcakes with anything you like - chocolate hearts, coffee beans, walnuts, grated chocolate etc etc. Don't forget to store in the fridge!

Enjoy :)

Moroccan Lamb

I made this meal a few weeks ago in an attempt to make two lamb steaks a bit more interesting. I looked up various Moroccan lamb recipes and most of them were slow cooked and different cuts of meat so I had to make quite a few adjustments. I nearly always use smell to decide what I should put with what, and this is especially important when adding spices in this dish, but I had a blocked nose at the time so cooking this was a bit of a nightmare. It also meant I couldn't really taste it  very well when eating it - all I know is that it was very hot in my mouth (spicy hot), but I am a massive wimp when it comes to spice so if you enjoy spicy food this will probably seem very mild. My mum said it had a lovely flavour so I'm trusting her and sharing this with you guys! The honey and apricots will add a sweetness to counteract the spice, which will go perfectly with the warm cinnamon and tomato flavours.

Serves 2
- 2 lamb steaks
- olive oil
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 300ml lamb/beef stock
- handful of dried apricots, quartered
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- handful of pine nuts
- handful of parsley, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 / 160 degrees. Rub oil on the lamb steaks.

2. In a dish, combine all the spices, and rub the lamb steaks in the mixture until coated. Keep in the fridge for half an hour.

3. Fry the onion and garlic in a large pan until soft. Add the lamb steaks, browning each side. Then, add the tinned tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has started to reduce.

4. Next, add the apricots, pine nuts, honey and parsley and stir.

5. Return the mixture into the dish and cover with foil. Cook in the oven for about an hour, or until the meat is tender and the sauce reduced. Serve with rice and vegetables!

Enjoy :)

Chicken and mushroom pie

*I have made this before - the recipe is here, but wanted to post some better photos as I made it tonight for my mum's birthday and absolutely loved it again!*

I served it with creamy parsley mash again and spring greens mm mm. Make sure to check the other post for the recipe because you don't want to miss out on this delicious meal

Enjoy :)