Food: Red Onion, Beetroot & Goats Cheese Bruschette

If you’re looking for a decadent lunch, or perhaps just looking for ways to use up beetroot, (that’s how I found this recipe) then you’ve come to the right place!

This really is the tastiest lunch, perfect for a Saturday afternoon with a bottle of Prosecco! The recipe gives instructions for bruschette but I’ve found it’s just as good (and a lot quicker) with a fresh baguette. I’ve made this twice now, and the second time not realising I bought Greek Crumbly Cheese (I thought Greek said Goats for some reason – cue the opticians) but it still tasted good.

Makes 8
For the bruschette
⅓ baguette
Olive oil
Dried rosemary, crushed  (optional)

For the topping
1 tbsp olive oil
450g red onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
450g cooked beetroot, diced
Salt and black pepper
200g soft goat’s cheese
Rosemary leaves, to garnish (optional)

1 First make the bruschette. Cut the bread into 8 slices, then brush each slice on both sides with olive oil. Sprinkle both sides with a good pinch of crushed rosemary. Place the bread on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 150C/300F/gas mark 2 for about 20 minutes, until crisp. Cool on wire racks. They can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept in an airtight container.

2 Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions, cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until they’re very tender, stirring them every 5 minutes. Add the sugar, wine vinegar and beetroot, then simmer gently, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, season and cool.

3 Spread the bruschette with goat’s cheese, top with caramelised onion and beetroot and a piece of rosemary, and serve.

I found the original recipe on the Guardian.

Food: Good ol’ mac ‘n’ cheese!

Oh I love a good mac ‘n’ cheese, I really do….just all that cheesy gooey goodness!I found a great recipe over at the BBC Good Food website and added cherry tomatoes and little chunks of chorizo which makes it even better and a bit more substantial. The hardest bit is trying not to burn the cheese sauce!

The best bit though, has to be the crispy breadcrumb topping to give it a little bit of crunch, and of course served with a bit of garlic bread.

It’s only an iPhone pic unfortunately as its getting harder to resist eating it straight away!

Find the basic recipe here!

Food: Spicy lamb meatballs with sweet potato fries & corn

This is a great recipe I’ve adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s, as I just didn’t have all the ingredients or be bothered with a food processor on a weekday evening and this was still really delicious!

The trick is, to pan fry the onion and crushed garlic first and then combine into the fresh lamb mince – you can then adapt it from there and add in what you like for flavour! I used a lot of paprika, a pinch of cumin, tsp of mustard and some dried chilli flakes for a nice kick. Simply use an egg and bread crumbs to bind (with your fingers), roll into balls and chuck in amongst the sweet potato fries in the oven till done for a nice easy tray bake dinner. Once done, drizzle the meatballs with lemon juice and serve with sour cream and corn on the cob – gulp! It can be a bit time consuming, but definitely worth it for something a bit different.

Food: Blueberry & raspberry lime drizzle cake

This weekend my Mum gave me 2 punnets of blueberries as she over ordered on a food shop so my baking partner in crime Jem and I decided to research some blueberry baking recipes and found this gem!  The lime twist on the drizzle was such a great alternative to lemon and the mix of blueberries and raspberries works really well – definitely serve straight from the oven with extra drizzle! Find the recipe here at BBC GoodFood. (We just cooked it in a standard cake tin and baked for an extra 5-10mins) Would be great in the summer for a BBQ so I’ll be making this again in a few months for sure.

With the leftover fruit, I also knocked up some American style pancakes for breakfast this morning (and lunch!) – the perfect remedy for a cider induced night before! Find the recipe here – worked perfectly with lots of golden syrup – gulp!

Food: Venison Steaks with sticky redcurrent and port sauce

Have you ever have had a meal where you savour every single bite and wish it would never end, then sit back and think damn this is why I love food! Well this was one of those delicious moments, but first of all, I’ve got to admit that a) I can’t take credit for cooking all of this delicious dinner and b) this photo just doesn’t do the taste any justice!

The boyfriend – oops – no, fiancé :), brought home a third of a whole deer recently including these medallions, and I could not recommend this venison recipe enough! As the other half knows how to cook a good steak and crispy homemade chips, I just found a great sauce to go with it, you can find the recipe here – I also added a spoonful of honey instead of the orange and it worked brilliantly, the whole thing just melts in the mouth! You need to try this – and yes it does taste like beef, but lighter and healthier 😉 win win!

Food: Apple & Almond Dessert Cake

OK OK…yes it does look a little…well done but I’m still getting to grips with my oven! Surprisingly though, it wasn’t dry in the slightest because of the thick layer of apple.

This cake was one of easiest and tastiest I’ve made which is always a selling point – maximum taste, minimum effort – I recommend this to anyone and it certainly went down a treat with the family – a definite crowd pleaser! I might even add in a little cinnamon next time for a festive twist.

This is best served warm with ice cream, cream or crème fraîche  – get the recipe here!

Food: Sunday Shanks

First off all, apologies for the awful photo quality, it was taken on my iPhone last minute! But I’m glad I did take a photo, this was a seriously good Moroccan lamb shank dish from my Jamie Oliver app and made a great alternative to a traditional Sunday lunch. It was a pretty simple chop and chuck in kind of recipe, but as it was a Jamie Oliver recipe, there were a lot of ingredients to chuck and buy but well worth it for a special Sunday dinner!

Here’s the recipe (serves two)

Food: Chocolate Tiffin

This sweet treat is pure indulgence, and even better – involves no actual baking! The recipe is from an extract of the new Gü recipe book in the You Daily Mail Sunday supplement. I’m actually eating this while typing, just so good!

Get the recipe here! I used half ginger biscuits and would use more chocolate on top for a thicker layer. You really have to press the biscuit base down to get some even layers – I clearly didn’t do that but it still tastes amazing!

Food: Pick a Pepper!

Here we have our first home grown peppers that the boyf has been growing in our little greenhouse! Funny choice to grow really as he cant actually stand the heat of them but I’ll be disguising them in stir fry’s, curries and might try and stuff some of the jalapeños! From the top we have just one normal green pepper, jalapeños and red hot chilli peppers.

Food: Lemon and thyme tray-baked cod

Another recipe from my beloved Jamie Oliver app and surprisingly for me, another success! Anything with lemon is a winner for me though, definitely one of my favourite ingredients for both savoury and sweet. I also baked a lemon drizzle cake recently but it just didn’t last long enough for a photo!

Here’s a very basic run down on the recipe. While boiling some new potatoes, drizzle some olive oil and thyme on a chopping board and roll the cod pieces in it then wrap the cod with bacon or pancetta and set aside until the pots are half cooked. Then spread out the pots onto a baking tray, layout the tomatoes in and amongst the potatoes then place the bacon wrapped cod bits on top. Drizzle half a lemon and some olive oil across it all and shove in the oven – simple! Serve with a rocket salad, I dressed it with a a mixture of lemon, olive oil and wholegrain mustard which was sooo good!