Ingredients (serves 4):

Chicken marinade

• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 3/4 tablespoon of chilli powder
• 1/2 tablespoon of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon of paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 chicken stock cube (crushed)
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
• Grind of pepper
• Dash of chilli flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon of cumin
• 1-2 tablespoon(s) of olive oil

Other:

• 400g Sliced chicken breast
• 1 large onion
• 2 or 3 peppers
• 1/2 tin of sweetcorn
• 8 flour tortillas
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of basil
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sliced cheese

It is best if you can marinade the chicken for 24 hours like I did, but anything above a few hours will give good results also.  Start by combining all of the marinade ingredients (leave the olive oil until you’ve finished stirring), stirring well.  Add in the chicken and make sure it is thoroughly coated.  It’s a good idea to do this in a snap-lock lunchbox or similar.  Leave this in the fridge overnight ready for cooking.

The next day…

Start by pre-heating the oven to around 180 degrees.  Next, put the tinned tomatoes, basil and chilli flakes into a pan, bring to the boil and then simmer whilst you do the other prep.  Slice the onion and cut the peppers into strips.  Continue stirring the tomato sauce and reduce the heat if necessary.

Heat up a frying pan to a high heat and add in the chicken, adding a little oil if it sticks too much.  Cook that for 3-5 minutes until the meat turns white.  Add in the peppers and onions and stir for another 3 minutes.  Finally, add in the sweetcorn and stir again for a minute or so.

Get an oven dish and the tortillas ready.  Load up each of the tortillas with some of the chicken, pepper and onion mix, roll them up tight and place with the fold facing downwards into the oven dish.  Repeat this until either your chicken mix or tortillas are exhausted.  Cover fully with the sliced cheese and then pour over the sauce.

Put into the oven for 20-40 minutes until the top starts to crispen and go black on the peaks of the tortillas.  Serve up with a side salad simply dressed with balsamic vinegar.

Another pizza but this time I’ve decided to try out a stuffed crust one! I’ll be using proper mozzarella, not the processed stuff that you’ll find in normal highstreet pizzas! 🙂

Ingredients:

Dough

• 200g self raising flour
• Pinch of salt
• 100ml of warm water
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Base Sauce

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of basil
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• 1 squeeze of tomato sauce (in-place of sugar: tip from a friend)
• Some salt and pepper to taste

Topping

• Leftover honey mustard beef
• Pepperoni slices
• Mozzarella cubes
• 3 rashers of bacon (fried off beforehand)
• Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!
• Half an onion (sliced)
• 1 tomato (sliced)

Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees C.

The base and sauce were made as before (4th January).

To make the stuffed crust you’ll need to first stretch the pizza base out over the edge of the pizza tray by about 4cm; do this steadily all the way around the pizza.  Then you’ll need to slice some mozzarella into 1cm square strips and place around the edge.  Next, fold over the excess dough forming a sealed tube all the way around.

Next add the sauce, sliced onions, cheese and the other toppings.  Place in the oven and check after 5 minutes, either rotating or moving to a lower/higher shelf dependant on how it’s looking. Continue checking it every few minutes.

Serve up striaght away once cooked and enjoy the full stuffed crust experience!

NOTE: If you’re going to load the pizza up as much as I did I’d recommend either making a slightly thicker base (20-30% more should do it) or par baking the base for 2-3 minutes before taking it out and adding the sauce and toppings etc.  I only found this out after creating such a monster pizza! 😀

Ingredients:

• ~1kg beef joint
• 800 grams of charlotte/new potatoes
• Mixed veg – carrots, broccoli, cauliflower
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of wholegrain mustard
• 3 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 1 spring of rosemary leaves (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp of thyme

Heat the oven upto around 160 degrees C whilst you do the other jobs.  Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and put in the potatoes for around ten minutes on a simmer.  Place the veg into an oven dish and cover with the chopped rosemary, thyme and garlic cloves along with a slug of olive oil.  In a bowl mix up the honey, mustard and a tablespoon of olive oil; this will be used for basting the meat throughout the cooking process.

Once the potatoes have been cooking for 10 minutes remove them from the heat, drain and return to the pan.  You should now put a lid on top of the pan and shake the potatoes lightly until the skin fluffs up a little; put these to one side.  Sear the beef in a pan before place on an oven tray and spoon a little of the honey mustard mix over.  After the beef has been in for 20 minutes add the potatoes to the same pan and put the oven dish of veg on a lower shelf.  You should spoon some more marinade over the beef at this point and a little over the potatoes.  Allow the beef, potatoes and veg to cook for 40 minutes.  You should try and baste the meat and potatoes with the juices and the rest of the honey/mustard mix every ten minutes or so.

Once the beef looks done remove it from the oven, cover with tin foil and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes; switch the oven off but keep the veg in there.  When the beef has rested slice it up and serve with some of the potatoes and veg.  Spoon a little of the meat juice and honey/mustard mix over the dish to finish.  Enjoy! 🙂

PS: The leftovers make an epic packed lunch; makes all those soup eaters in the canteen jealous, hehe!

I was getting taken out for a big lunch today and just wanted a light breakfast so knocked up the simple meal below.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• 4 slices of white bread
• Half a dozen rashers of bacon
• 300 grams of mushrooms
• Chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper

Heat up a pan and add a little oil followed by the bacon.  Cook for a few minutes to your liking and then add in the mushrooms.  Sprinkle over some chilli flakes and continue stirring until the mushrooms have reduced down – around 5 mins normally.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve on hot buttered toast.

This is a really punchy flavoured dish but is easy and quick to prepare!

Ingredients (serves 2):

• Spaghetti
• 1 x tin of tuna
• 4 anchovies (chopped)
• 1/2 tablespoon of capers
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic (finely sliced)
• Dash of chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 50g of olives (black or green)

Start by gently frying the anchovies, garlic and chilli flakes in the oil until the anchovies start to fall apart.  When they do, add in the tuna and stir around for a few seconds before adding in the tinned tomatoes.  Bring it to the boil whilst stirring and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.  After ten minutes you can put the spaghetti on to cook into vigorously boiling water!  A few minutes before the spaghetti is ready you need to add the olives and capers into the sauce and stir around.

Drain off the spaghetti and return to it’s pan and then add the sauce and toss/stir to ensure the sauce is spread evenly throughout the pasta.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 x eggs
• 3 rashers of bacon
• 1 x bagel
• 4 x tablespoons of milk
• Salt and pepper

Mix the eggs and milk in a bowl until it has an even consistency.  Heat a pan up and start cooking the bacon.  Put the egg and milk mix into another pan (preferably non-stick) and put on a medium heat.  Allow to heat through for 30 seconds before starting to stir constantly.  The mix should become fluffy and transform from being a liquid into a more solid state.  Lightly toast the bagel and serve on a plate, top with the scrambled egg and bacon rashers along with a grind of salt and pepper.

Ingredients:

• 50g butter
• 450g stewing lamb steak (diced)
• 2 lamb/pig kidneys (diced)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 15g of plain flour
• 300ml of lamb stock
• 1 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
• 500 grams of potatoes (sliced)

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.  Heat up a pan, add in a little butter and brown off the lamb steak followed by the kidneys, remove from the pan and place to one side.  Add a little more butter to the pan and add in the sliced onion and carrot and cook for 3 minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 30 seconds.  Shake the worcestershire sauce in and pour in the stock.  Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and add in the meat; allowing to simmer for a minute or so then remove from the heat.  Grease up an oven baking dish with the butter and add in the lamb and stock mix.  Cover the meat mix with the sliced potatoes and baste the top with a little melted butter.  Place onto the middle shelf of the oven and allow to cook for at least an hour, or until the potatoes go golden brown.

Serve up straight away!  You can serve some extra vegetables or some crusty bread on the side.

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti
• 1 x tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon of basil
• 1/2 teaspoon of oregano
• Salt n pepper
• Meatballs (see previous day’s burger mix)
• Parmezan cheese

Start bringing a pan of water to the boil whilst you crack on with other stuff.  In one pan add in the tinned tomatoes along with the basil, oregano and a little salt n pepper.  Bring this to the boil and then allow to simmer whilst you’re cooking the meatballs.  Heat a flat pan (griddle possibly), add a little oil and add in the meatballs.  Cook them on a medium heat to ensure they cook all the way through but allow the outside to go a little well-done.  Once the water is boiling add in the spaghetti and cook until done to your liking.  When you put the spaghetti in you can add the tomato sauce in with the meatballs and stir around until the spaghetti is done.

Drain the spaghetti off and plate it up along with several meatballs and a serving of the sauce.  Sprinkle lightly with parmezan and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 700g Beef mince (this made 2 burgers and a ten meat balls)
• 1 x onion (sliced)
• A few rashers of bacon
• Sliced cheese
• American style fries
• 1 teaspoon of Thyme
• 1 teaspoon of Basil
• 2 x eggs (whisked)
• Sliced tomato
• Lettuce leaves
• Salt n pepper

Preheat the oven to cook the fries.  Combine the beef mince, thyme, basil, whisked eggs and a little salt and pepper in a bowl and mix until it comes together into a ball.  Tear off chunks of the mix and make into burger sized patties (I also made meatballs for the following night as I was going out, so needed something quick to prepare).  Put the chips into the oven.

Heat up a pan, add a little oil and cook the burgers, turning occasionally.  After a couple of minutes of cooking put the bacon and the onions into the same pan to cook.  Keep an eye on the chips.  You can put the bread bun into the oven to crispen a little whilst the rest of the cooking is happening.  Near the end, add on a slice or two of cheese onto the burger and allow to melt.

Once everything is done you can plate up!  Place the bread bun (sliced in half) onto a plate and on one side place the burger along with the bacon and some onions.  On the other stack up some lettuce leaves and sliced tomato.  Add the fries to the side, combine the two halves of the burger and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Serves 5-6
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 8 sausages – cut into quarters
• 1 carrot – sliced
• 2 peppers – sliced
• 3 tins of tinned tomatoes
• A dozen mushrooms – sliced
• 1 glass of red wine
• 1 tea spoon of sugar
• 1 tea spoon of paprika
• 2 tea spoons of basil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Start by heating up a pan, adding a little oil and browning off the sausages. Once cooked, remove them to one side. Add a little more oil into the pan and add in the garlic and onion; cook for a few minutes before adding in the chopped carrot, pepper and mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Add in a glass of wine and allow to reduce. Once that’s simmered for a few minutes add in the tinned tomatoes along with the sugar, paprika and basil and return the sausages to the pan. Bring to a boil then reduce the temperature and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes. Check it every 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once cooked you can serve it with some new potatoes, bread or pasta; tonight I went for some bread!
Enjoy!