macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese, mac & cheese… it depends where you’re from as to what you call this. It can be boring or it can be very exciting. This is definitely the latter! I often make macaroni cheese as one of my “quick” dinners, when I don’t feel like slaving away for hours in the kitchen. It can happen.

This recipe is so SO good. It’s definitely tasty, and gives an extra something to a can-be-boring dish. The original recipe has tomatoes in, which I can agree with. My boyfriend however insisted that I “shouldn’t mess with a good thing”… Next time I’m cooking for myself I’m definitely adding the tomatoes in they don’t offend me, and sound like they’re gonna do good things to this dish.

Another thing, this gets better with age. Left-overs (If there are any) will go down really well!

sticky fried rice

Times are busy at the moment, I’m cooking but I have no time to write here, which makes me sad. I try though, I try. This is a tasty tasty dish, and so easy to make. I’m a fan of all the ingredients in this, and being vegetarian friendly definately helps.

Of course, a bit of meat could easily be added to this! Don’t ask me what though, I wouldn’t have a clue. But if you’re a fan of the meat, don’t be put of this dish because of the lack of it. The stickyness of the rice along with the egg, ginger, garlic and leeks (don’t forget the spring onions too!) makes it so moreish – It made me go back for seconds thirds.

spinach, cheese and tomato quiche

Quiche… I’m not always a fan. I was always given the store-bought type, which had a funny texture… I didn’t care for it much (sorry, mum). I don’t think I’ve actually had quiche for about 10 years. But when I saw this recipe on Quinn’s Baking Diary my mouth drooled.

It was the tomatoes. Definately. I love a tomato (in fact, I tried “sundream” tomatoes today… amazing). but the whole thing is totally easy to make and has a lot of flavour. Best eaten straight from the oven of course!!

spicy sweet potato gallettes

A word to the wise, before I start this post. When using puff-pastry, remember to defrost the pastry before you get going. I forgot. I thought “oh well, i’ll run it under some hot water and it will be fine”… It looked fine, but when it went in the oven I could see that something was wrong. Yes, the water stuck the pastry together and it didn’t… Puff. It was thin, and it would have been so much more amazing if it had been puffy and light. So, I’m sure you won’t make the same mistake I did. Not that you would do such a silly thing anyway…

Gallettes. I’m a big fan of them, as you can do so much with a gallette, and it’s so simple. Roll out the pastry and top it with anything you like basically. This combination is my new favourite, and I had to share it. And look how pretty and colourful they look! They smell as good as they look.

Gallettes can be eaten as a starter, or as a main dish with some sort of salad or wedges alongside them. I also eat mine as a snack, warmed up the next day. Easy to store in the fridge (depending on your toppings), or roll out as much pastry as you want, when you want it.

garden pizza

I’ve never made pizza from scratch. And I love pizza. So when I was thinking about what to make myself for dinner, I decided to have a go. And it’s easy! There’s no reason anyone should buy a ready made one at all. This recipe can obviously be changed toppings-wise, so add your favourite ingredients. This Garden Pizza is made with my favourite pizza toppings.

Take note, the pizza dough recipe makes more than enough, but can be stores in the fridge until you need it. Just take it out and let it come to room temperature when you need it.

mixed vegetable bake

So I don’t want to cook cupcakes all the time because of many reasons. But mostly because I always end up eating a large majority of the batch as my boyfriend doesn’t really like cakes! This does not work out well for me as i scoff them all in two seconds.

I don’t often cook meals. I’m more comfortable baking: cakes, muffins, cookies, the lot. But sometimes I can be found cooking “real” food. Oh, I’m a vegetarian. So it’s unlikely to find meat in the food I cook. And this recipe concerned me. Would it be tasty? Or would it be boring? I had found it in a food magazine (I cannot remember which, I’d written it down two years ago and never tried it) so hadn’t got any reviews. But I adapted it; missed bits out, added bits in…

It was a surprisingly tasty vegetarian dish. I enjoyed it, and had it two days in a row. It would be interesting to have it with pasta too and make a pasta bake out of it (add the pasta in when you put everything in the casserole dish and perhaps extend the cooking time until the pasta is done), or even boil some rice to have along side it. It’s up to you. I had it with a salad, and really enjoyed it.