Caramelised Onion, Mushroom and Bulgar Pilaf

 This was really delicious. The combination of the slightly sweet onions with the mushrooms and spinach was fantastic and I really like the bulgar, which I haven't had for quite a while. I'm going to try and find a variety of way to use it over the next few weeks. I ate this cold, so it's just as good cold as hot and I served it with a rose veal escalope for an extra 3 ProPoints.

Caramelised Onion, Mushroom and Bulgar Pilaf (adapted from www.weightwatchers.co.uk)
(Serves 4)
(6 WW ProPoints per serving)

240g bulgar wheat
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
225g mushrooms, thinly sliced
120g spinach
salt and pepper

Cook the bulgar wheat in a pan of boiling water according to the packet instructions.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden and tender, about 8 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are golden and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until spinach wilts, about 1 minute more.
Spoon the bulgar into the frying pan and stir over low heat until well-combined. Serve.

Spicy Sausage Pizza

In an attempt to use up the merguez sausages I have, I'm finding all sorts of interesting things I can do with them. The latest offering is a sausage pizza! Instead of using peperoni or salami I slice the merguez and used them instead, the slight spiciness was delicious.

Spicy Sausage Pizza (adapted from Good Food Magazine October 2007)
(Serves 2)
(11 WW ProPoints per serving)

1 large (25cm) pizza base
2 tbsp basic tomato sauce
1/4 red onion, sliced
2 merguez sausages, cut into thin slices
1/2 tomato, sliced
1/2 ball light mozzarella
handful basil, optional

Preheat oven to 210C.

Put the pizza base onto a baking sheet and spread over the tomato sauce, leaving a border around the edge. Top with the onions, tomato, sausages and, finally, the cheese.

Cook in the oven for 10 mins until crisp. Scatter with basil, if using.

Apple and Sultana Cake

In my second foray into baking to use up my leftover flour I made cake! As I looked through my cupboards trying to find things to put in the cake that didn't mean leaving the house, I found a bag of sultanas and a cooking apple. I was really looking for a traybake recipe and that's what the original recipe is, but I didn't have enough eggs or a tin suitable for a traybake so I halved the recipe and went for Apple and Sultana Cake.

I also ended up not doing my book group that day, so I put the cake in the Staff Room at work where it was devoured by hungry teachers! It was all gone by break time and I got some lovely comments about it.

Apple and Sultana Cake (adapted from Jam and Clotted Cream)
(Serves 8-12)

112g butter, softened
140g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
handful of sultanas
1 medium bramley apple, peeled and sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and vanilla and sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in until smooth. Add the sultanas and pour half the mixture into a lined baking tin.

Scatter the sliced apple on top and then cover with the remaining batter.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden

Chicken Fajita Lasagne

Today is damp day. Everything from my bedroom is currently in my living room and that's where I slept last night on a pull out bed. The damp is hopefully being solved today and then it'll be a little while before painting can start and the skirting board can go back. I know when it's done it will look fantastic, that just seems a long way away at the moment!

With the second half of the jar of fajita sauce used in the Chicken Enchilada Courgette Boats made the other day, I made a Chicken Fajita Lasagne. I love using tortillas instead of lasagne sheets to create Mexican style lasagnes, it just works so well. This was delicious and really simple to make. I added in a bit more veg than the original recipe called for as it needed using up and I served it with some sour cream and chopped avocado.

Chicken Fajita Lasagne (adapted from You Big Eejit)
(Serves 1)
(17 WW ProPoints per serving)

cooking spray
2-3 chicken breasts
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red or yellow pepper, chopped roughly
1/2 small courgette, chopped
1/2 jars fajita sauce
2 corn tortillas
grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Spray a pan with cooking spray and fry the chicken for a couple of mins. Add in the onion, pepper and courgette and cook until soft. Add in the garlic and cook for 1 min more. Pour in 2 jars of fajita sauce, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile get out a small lasagne dish and spray with cooking spray. Cut the tortillas in half place half a tortilla in the bottom of the dish, followed by half the chicken mixture, layer another half tortilla on top and then the rest of the chicken mixture and then the last two half tortillas on top. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.

Bake in the oven for about 30 mins or until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling. Serve.

Carrot Soup with Dill and Mustard

I made this soup last weekend for the friends who helped me destroy the wardrobe. I served it with ham sandwiches and it seemed to go down well. I loved it anyway, it was nice to have a change from the more common Carrot and Coriander Soup. I am adding this to this week's Souper Sunday dreamed up by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen. I make soup almost every week so I thought why not!

Carrot Soup with Dill and Mustard (adapted from River Cottage Herbs Handbook)
(Serves 4-6)
(0 WW ProPoints per serving)

cooking spray
1 onion, peeled and sliced
500g carrots, peeled and sliced
800ml chicken or vegetable stock
15–20g bunch of dill
1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and carrots. Once they start to sizzle, reduce the heat, cover the pan and sweat the veg, stirring once or twice, for 10 minutes. Add the stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 12–15 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

Meanwhile, cut the top quarter off the bunch of dill and set aside for serving. Discard the stalks from the remaining dill, then roughly chop the frondy leaves. Add the chopped dill to the soup and simmer for another 2 minutes only. Add the mustard, then purée the soup with a hand blender, season well with salt and pepper. Serve.

Meal Planning Monday

After a hectic last week, I had a lovely weekend pottering and sorting.

I had new curtains put in my living room and a new blind in the kitchen on Saturday which seemed to take up most of my day as the guy had to physically build the track for the curtains whilst at my house. I also went down to Oxford Street on Saturday and did a bit of shopping, the whole street and Regent Street were closed off to traffic and even at 5pm it was heaving!

On Sunday I went to the Bloomsbury Ephemera Fair at the Royal National Hotel and scouted out a bit of WW2 ephemera as well as a couple of 50s and 60s cookbooks. I then spent the rest of the afternoon putting the flat back together a bit and moving things in preparation for the damp being sorted next week. It's still chaos but I'm going to have to learn to live with it as I can't put anything back for 8 weeks whilst the plaster dries!

This week should be steadier than last week and sees a french class, 2 zumba classes and a party in the evenings and then I am off to Northumberland for the weekend to buy lots of lovely Northumberland cheeses! On the way back we are stopping at the Bowes Museum and to see the Feast Your Eyes exhibition, which is all about food in art and going to the Wives and Witches: Taking Tea with the Georgians and Victorians talk by Dr Annie Gray, which I'm really looking forward to, especially as we get to sample period tea time treats! Annie did the Game Cookery afternoon that I went to a few weeks ago, which was superb, so this promises to be an interesting afternoon.

So without further ado here is this weeks meal plan:

Monday
Salmon and Avocado Rice Salad
Chicken, Spinach and Blue Cheese Pasta

Tuesday
New Potato, Pea and Ham Salad
Salmon and Prawn Bake with Pasta and Pesto (WW Fresh and Easy Everyday)

Wednesday
Soy Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad
Nigella's Mexican Lasagne

Thursday
Cajun Turkey Wrap with Sweetcorn Salsa
Sticky Glazed Gammon with Bulgar Wheat

Friday
Out at a training course
Sausages and Mash with Leeks

Saturday
Salami Pasta Salad
Away for rest of the weekend

Check out At Home with Mrs M for some more helpful Meal Plan ideas.

Chinese Prawns and Broccoli

This was a very quick and easy dinner. I miss eating lots of Chinese and Japanese food but for whatever reason I seem to have stopped. Given that I'm still aiming at a healthy diet and stir fries and Japanese food are some of the healthiest meals around that's a bit odd., but hey other things have taken over. I will definitely have to start again as I love the freshness of the veggies with fish or meat and this ticked all the right boxes.

Chinese Prawn and Broccoli (adapted from WW Cooking for One)
(Serves 1)
(8 WW ProPoints per serving)

1 tsp cornflour
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce
100g raw peeled prawns
cooking spray
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
100g tenderstem broccoli, trimmed
50g mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
1 spring onion, sliced finely at an angle

Mix together the cornflour and cayenne pepper. Add the soy sauce and mix well. Add the prawns and mix again. Set aside in the fridge to marinade for 30 mins.

Heat a non stick frying pan or wok until hot then spray with the cooking spray. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a second before adding the broccoli and mushrooms. Stir fry over a high heat for about a minute.

Add the rice wine, then the prawns and 5 tbsp of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 mins until the prawns turn pink. Simmer for a further 1-2 mins, then add half the spring onion. Cook for 1 min.

Sprinkle over the remaining spring onion and serve over 50g rice for an extra 5 WW ProPoints.

Tuna Rice Salad

This morning I went to an ephemera fair near Russell Square. I bought a couple of 1950/60s cookery books and some World War 2 stuff. I love rifling through the boxes of stuff and seeing what I can find. I have a collection of World War 2 home front ephemera and I'm starting to buy more and more cookery books and pamphlets from the 50s and 60s, I love the colourful covers and the fantastic advice inside.

This salad feels like a bit of a throw back, its really easy to make and tasty and filling. A brilliant lunch to take to work.

Tuna Rice Salad (adapted from Good Food Magazine August 2010)
(Serves 1)
(10 WW ProPoints per serving)

1/2 120g tin tuna
50g white rice
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 tomato, cut into small chunks
1 tbsp peas
1 spring onion, sliced
1 tsp parsley, chopped
3-4 large green, stoned and chopped
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil

Cook the rice according to packet instructions, add the peas for the last 4 mins, drain and then run under cold water. Put into a bowl.

Flake in the tuna, then mix in the peas, peppers, tomatoes, spring onions, parsley and olives, if you're using them.

Stir through the mayonnaise, lemon juice and olive oil and season to taste.

Chicken Enchilada Courgette Boats

I have shiny new curtains and a shiny new blind in the kitchen. It looks so good now it's in and finishes of the kitchen, only a year after it was completely redone!! I love the different styles of plate of blue plates!




Needless to say the flat was in even more chaos than usual today but Smudge and I got through it and things are slowly getting back to normal. Well I say that, but half my living room is still functioning as my wardrobe and will be for the next 9 weeks or so whilst the damp is sorted and then the plaster dries, it will be so good when it's finished.

This is a Mexican inspired dish and if I'd managed to grow a courgette the right size would have been made over the summer but every time I left the courgettes to grow they turned into enormous marrows seemingly overnight! So I had to buy a larger one from the supermarket and use that. This was delicious and less watery than one would imagine. I served it with sour cream and a chopped baby avocado.

Chicken Enchilada Courgette Boats (adapted from Closet Cooking)
(Serves 2)
(9 WW ProPoints per serving)

4 medium courgettes, cut in half lengthwise
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder or to taste
1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
2 heaped tbsp sweetcorn
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 jar enchilada sauce
1 tbsp coriander, chopped

Place the courgette halves in boiling water for a minute, remove and let cool. Hollow out the courgette halves with a small spoon reserving the removed flesh.

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.Add the garlic, cumin and chili powder and saute until fragrant, about a minute.

Add the reserved courgette flesh, chicken, corn, oregano, 3/4 the fajita sauce and cilantro, cook for a few minutes and remove from heat.

Spread 1/4 of the fajita sauce over the bottom of a large baking dish, place the zucchini in the dish, stuff them with the filling and top with the cheese.

Bake in a preheated 190C oven until the courgettes i is nice and tender and the cheese has melted, about 30-40 minutes.

Sesame and Ginger Coleslaw

I love the fresh taste of coleslaw and I love playing around with the traditional recipes and looking for new twists on this dish. I made an Asian style coleslaw back in June for my birthday barbecue, without mayonnaise. This time I made an Asian style coleslaw with the mayo. I like the combination of both sour cream and mayo rather than all mayo as I feel that it lightens the dish up. This was fantastic in a smoked sausage and coleslaw sandwich.

Sesame and Ginger Coleslaw (adapted from Closet Cooking)
(makes 8 sandwich filling servings)
(1WW ProPoint per serving)

1/2 small cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
bunch spring onion
3 1/2 tbsp reduced fat mayonnaise
3 1/2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream or creme fraiche
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste
1 handful coriander, chopped

Mix the mayo, sour cream, rice wine vinegar, honey, ginger, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt, pepper and coriander in a bowl.

Add the cabbage, carrot and spring onion to the bowl and mix well to combine.