Borderline OCD?

When it comes to deciding what is a suitable take-away to go to, people usually have the same criteria...Price, Taste and Proximity. Add one more factor and you've got me! 

Does the take-away serve the food in plastic or foil containers? 
Foil=goodbye
Plastic=come to mama

Originally this factor became important after I lost a tupperware which I had paid approximately £3 for. Well, that was unacceptable and couldn't happen again... what a waste of money!

I decided right then that I was no longer taking my lunch into university or work in anything that I couldn't get for free. You may say that take-away containers are technically not free but in my mind they are because most people throw them away! 

And well, you were always going to buy the take-away anyway weren't you...

When does it stop being weird and start being really useful?

Well, aside from not wasting any money if you accidentally lose your tupperware (or accidentally leave it dirty in a bag for two weeks and then can't bare to use it again even after you've cleaned off all the mould) they're really good for storing things in your fridge. 

My life can get quite busy sometimes and I know it will get even more busy when I'm working on placement next year (my degree has a year in industry) so it is great to spend one morning or afternoon at the weekend or one evening just sorting out my fridge or food for the week. 

Usually it doesn't take too long for me to prepare my non-junk fast food because my ingredients are already prepared (post on how I save cooking time by prepping in advance coming soon). So I make up some easy dishes and keep them all in my free containers until I want to heat them up. 

It basically means that if I come in from a horrible day or I'm in a rush to get somewhere I can just grab one container and pop it in the microwave and my dinner is ready. And yes sometimes I am too lazy to wash up a plate as well so I eat it out of the container. But also I can just grab a container and take it with me for lunch as well. 

It probably takes a few hours out of my life on a sunday morning but if I spent 30-45mins a night cooking on weekdays that would be 2hrs 30-3hrs 45 used up. So if I spend any less than that prepping then I'm winning. But lets be honest, there is always more free time at the weekend so its better doing it then anyway.

I'll post a picture of all my prepped meals next time I've done them but I've only got 2 containers left in the fridge right now so it wouldn't be a suitable example!

When did the useful collecting become unhealthy?

Yes, you're right some of them don't look like take-away containers... they're Haribo tubs (still free in my mind)!

Gooey Oreo Cookies

Today I've been feeling a bit down and stressed with revision so I decided I deserved a yummy treat. I was absolutely craving a gooey warm half baked cookie. I had no chocolate chips in so decided to get creative... then I remembered I had mini oreos!

Ingredients (only for 4 cookies):

2tbsp softened butter

3tbsp white caster sugar

2tbsp brown sugar

8oz Plain Flour

2tbsp water

1tbsp Vanilla Essence- I didn't have any today :(

1 packet of mini oreos

Firstly mix together all the sugar and the butter until it is nice and smooth. Then add the water and the vanilla extract... make sure you mix it nice and fast so it doesn't go all curdled like it did for me (oops, told you I don't know what I'm doing). If it does curdle just add some of the flour, but if not add all of the flour straight after anyway.

Mix it all up so it looks like this...

Now you can add in your mini oreos or if you don't have any then whatever you want to put in instead.

Pop some grease proof paper on a baking tray and put a bit of butter over the top of it so the cookies don't stick to it.

As you can see the recipe says it makes 4 cookies but my photo only has 2...because well, I made my splodges wayweigh too big (pun intended).

I thought it would make them more gooey inside but it probably didn't in the end. Also you could probably make 6 or 8 cookies from that amount of mixture but I just couldn't resist eating some of the dough!

If only it were socially acceptable to be obese... I'd be in my element.

Pork and Apple Sausage Pasta

This is a lovely way to make a pasta dish more exciting or to do something a bit different with your sausages. You can use a whole variety of sausages to do it... I've used Pork and Bramley Apple today but sometimes use Pork and Honey Chipolatas.

Ingredients (serves 2):

3 Pork and Apple Sausages- You can alternatively use pork sausage meat and just chop up an apple into small chunks and add them to the pork.

1 Onion

1 Clove of Garlic

1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes

1 Chicken OXO Cube

Pasta (I used Fusilli), just as much as you normally make for 2



Firstly, pop the kettle on to boil (you need enough water for the pasta and for the chicken stock).
While its boiling, take the sausage meat out of the Pork and Apple Sausages, which is a lot easier than it sounds. Make sure your sausages are fully defrosted if you have had them frozen. Make a slice along the length of the sausage but don't go all the way through, just deep enough to break the skin. Then using a fork to keep the sausage still, take your knife under the skin and peel it to the sides. Then just scrape the meat out of the skin with the edge of your knife. It's really easy just go with it...

Now pop the pasta on to boil and make up about 200ml of chicken stock.

Fry up the diced onion, chopped garlic and the sausage meat in a little bit of oil. Don't be tempted to eat any even though it will smell absolutely incredible.

Once its all cooked through add 150ml of the chicken stock and the tin of tomatoes. Turn the heat down a bit and let it all simmer for about 10 mins.

By now your pasta should be cooked. Drain it and add it to the pan if there is room (I do this so that I can check that the pasta-sauce ratio is correct and its easier to mix it all up in the pan without spilling). If you don't think there is enough sauce then you can add the rest of the stock.

Serve it up and grate a bit of cheese on top (any kind is fine really, I used Cheddar)

Enjoy!

Spanakopitta (Spinach and Feta Parcels)

So I had never had Greek food before I started going out with my current boyfriend Tom, then he took me to his family's favourite restaurant and now I'm obsessed! Unfortunately, there are no Greek restaurants where I live at University so I don't get to have it as much as I'd like.

Last year I decided I was going to try to recreate the spinach and feta parcels I had the first night I ate Greek food. I thought it would be an absolute disaster, but Tom said they were the best he'd ever had... and we weren't still in the white-lies keeping each other happy stage of the relationship! It must have been beginners luck!

Here's how I made them...

Ingredients (for 12 parcels):

1 large bag of fresh Spinach

Butter

Feta Cheese

Just-Roll Filo Pastry (I'm a cheat... pastry is not my forte)

A sprinkle of plain flour for rolling

Firstly I melt the butter in a pan and add the spinach to cook for a couple of minutes, until they start to look soggy.

Then I take them off the heat and let them cool down before mixing them with the feta. While they're cooling down I roll out the fill pastry and cut them into little 10cm squares. There needs to be 2 pastry squares per parcel that you want to make.

This took a while the first time so the spinach was cooled but when you start to get used to doing this you can usually have a sit down or watch a bit of TV in between.

When the spinach and butter have finally cooled pop them into a mixing bowl and add the feta. Be careful not to add all of the juicy watery stuff that is in the feta packet as this makes them a bit too soggy. Mix together the ingredients in the bowl until they've made a sort of lumpy paste.

Then you want to lay out the pastry squares diagonal to each other so they look like this...

Sorry I didn't take a picture of this step but I'm sure the diagram makes sense. Plop a teaspoon of the paste into the middle of the squares, be careful not to put too much in as they can overflow a lot. Then grab the corners of the top square and try to make them meet each other at the top... and do the same with the bottom square.

Once you've done this for all of your parcels just pop them in the oven for 15-20mins at 180degrees. The parcels taste a lot better warm so if you are planning to save some for another time then I recommend cooking them for only 12-15mins so that you can pop them in for 5mins before you want to serve them at a later time.

Prawn and Mushroom Linguine

This is a really quick meal! Btw if you notice the kitchen looks different to usual thats because I'm at my parents' house not at University at the moment. I love cooking here there is so much space and the utensils are such good quality (Happy Emily!) 

Ingredients(serves 1):

About 10 King Prawns

A knob of Butter

1 Small Onion

1 Garlic Clove

2/3 Button Mushrooms

Salt and Pepper

1 Scoop of Vanilla Ice-Cream (don't knock it until you've tried it) 


Firstly, boil the kettle and pop the linguine on to boil. 

Then, I melt the butter in the pan and then fry up the onions, garlic and prawns in it (which makes them taste incredible). Again, because you know by now that I don't like soggy mushrooms, I add them later but you can do them now too if you want. Make sure you have enough butter in so that its nice and juicy like in this picture. 

I prefer to cook them on a lower heat for longer which stops all the juices from drying out.

Just as the pasta is al dente (nearly cooked) I add the mushrooms and the scoop of ice-cream to the pan with the onions and prawns. I fry them all up for a while, letting the ice cream melt to make a sweet creamy sauce. It is really nice to use the ice cream but it does mean you have to use a bit of salt and pepper to counteract the flavours or it gets a bit too sweet. 

Then I strain the pasta and add it into the frying pan (with the heat turned down low). Once its all mixed in I just check to see if there is a good enough sauce ratio and if there isn't I add some more butter/ice-cream/double cream...any will do.