Week 23 - Spinach Lasagne

The inner kid in me reacted to the name of this dish with a big 'yuck'.

Despite the fact I have made this, eaten it and enjoyed it I still have a natural 'yuck' reaction to the word spinach! 

Yuck, yug, yug, yug, yug

Once I manage to suppress my inner kid, I quite enjoy spinach; be it in salad or in a cooked dish.  Throw in some ricotta and tomatoes and slam it between sheets of pasta, it's a winner.

Recipe Here.

Rating
Taste - 15/20
Cost - 5/10
Difficulty - 4/10
Prep Time - 4/10 
Overall 56%

Week 22 - Mac & Cheese

A vegetarian recipe blog without a Mac & Cheese would be like a house without a toilet.......you know, the obvious thing missing?  Anyway fear not, the blog house I'm building now has a toilet so I'm ready to start having parties.

Maybe not the best analogy of my life, but Mac & Cheese it is.

I don't really have a recipe I follow for Mac & Cheese, it's an old favourite that I just sort of make up as I go.  Luckily I have just made up a recipe as I go.  It's an awesome dish, but not something I like to eat regularly as it's not the healthiest.

Classic

Recipe 

• ·         Cook 150g (ish) of Macaroni in salted water.
• ·         Melt two dessert spoons of butter on a high heat, mix in two dessert spoons of flour to make thick paste.
• ·         Remove from heat and gradually stir / whisk in ½ pint of so of 1% milk
• ·         Once smooth sauce is formed, bring to the boil and throw in a handful of grated *cheddar and about 1/3 handful of parmesan.  Stir until all cheese melted and you have a thick cheesy sauce.  Add salt and black pepper…….Maybe add a bit of chopped parsley or onion and fried garlic for a new taste?
• ·         Drain pasta and mix with sauce in a 2L Oven Proof Bowl, top with a pinch more cheese, salt and pepper.
• ·         Bake on 400F for 20mins.
• ·         Finish off under grill to brown top.
• ·         Leave dish to stand 10mins before serving.
• ·         Serve with a dash or two of Malt Vinegar (Trust me)
• ·         Eat

*I often throw in any other left over cheese and reduce cheddar accordingly.

RatingTaste - 15/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 4/10
Prep Time - 6/10 
Overall 62%

Week 21 - Veggie Enchiladas

Close up view of enchiladas

It was a feast!!  The leftovers kept us going for days.  A bit on the sweet side, but I still looked forward to lunch every day this week.

Maybe make half if you try it.

Recipe here

Man + Food = Man Food

Rating
Taste - 14/20
Cost - 5/10
Difficulty - 5/10
Prep Time - 5/10 
Overall 58%

Week 20 - Caponata

So one of my numerous blog fans sent me a recipe to try.  Well infact he sent me two recipes to try and this is the first of them.  A Caponata.

The Caponata would not score well for aesthetics!

"What is a Caponata?" I hear you ask.  Well to be honest I didn't know either, well no more than the 'sweet and sour aubergine dish' description on the recipe!  

So to save you the trouble of asking google, I have done it for you:

Caponata is a Sicilian aubergine (eggplant) dish consisting of a cooked vegetable salad made from chopped fried eggplant and celery seasoned with sweetened vinegar, with capers in a sweet and sour sauce.

Numerous local variations of the ingredients exist with some versions adding olives, carrots and green bell peppers, and others adding potatoes, or pine nuts and raisins.

Caponata is typically used as a side dish for fish dishes and sometimes as an appetizer, it has also been used as a main course.

Luckily for the Caponata I have no rating for aesthetics as it wouldn't do too well, but on the other scores the Caponata held it's own, the only negative I have is that it doesn't work too well as a main dish; keep it to the side as google suggests!

Rating

Taste - 13/20

Cost - 7/10

Difficulty - 6/10

Prep Time - 6/10 

Overall 64%