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%

Week 19 - Rich's Pasta Sauce

To date in this blog, I have made recipes I've either been given or found in recipe book or on the internet.  This week, I decided to try something new......creating my own recipe!

I'm no Jamie Oliver (I only weigh 75kg!) or Gordon Ramsay, but I do enjoy cooking and I only ever losely stick to a recipe.  Every once in a while I'll wing it and create something based on no recipe.......this is one of thos concoctions.

So what inspired this meal?  I hear you ask.  Well, erm, my inspiration was the ingredients in the cupboard and fridge that I thought would work.

My own TV Show may be a little way off

I'm sure demand for Rich's Pasta Sauce will be high, so I have taken the liberty of typing out the recipe (below), but I thought I should put the rating here at the top of the page as it's inevitably something anyone would check before making the meal!

Rating

Taste - 14/20

Cost - 6/10

Difficulty - 6/10

Prep Time - 5/10 

Overall 62%

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Onion

1 Clove Garlic

1 Carrot

2 Celery Stalks

1 Tin Tomatoes

1 Tin Chickpeas

Lump of Cheese

1 tsp Thyme

½ tsp Rosemary

100ml strong Vegetable Stock

Pasta – I used supermarket stuffed squash pasta but fresh pasta is always a winner

Method

• Chop the onion, and soften on low / medium heat.  Add the chopped carrots, celery and herbs and cook for further 5-10 mins.
• Add tomatoes, stock, chickpeas and leave to simmer for 20mins.  Meanwhile cook pasta.
• Combine pasta and sauce and top with some  grated cheese.

Week 18 - Lentil Cottage Pie

I can hear the questions already 'Is a Cottage Pie still a Cottage Pie when it has no meat?'.....   Yes.

According to the internet:
The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791,when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor (cf. "cottage" meaning a modest dwelling for rural workers).

So by my reckoning anything covered in mashed potato is a Cottage Pie.........unless it's a fat guy with a fetish.

Anyway, veggie cottage pie is awesome, a few parsnips in the mix for an added tang to the topping.  The only drawback is it's a bit of work to produce.  Recipe is here.

Covered in mash = Cottage

To summarize; veggie cottage pie is awesome, a few parsnips in the mix for an added tang to the mash.

Rating

Taste - 15/20

Cost - 5/10

Difficulty - 4/10

Prep Time - 4/10 

Overall 56%

Week 17 - Refried Bean Fajitas

A while back a friend sent me a photo of a couple of bits of paper with recipes on them, so I thought it only fair to give them a whirl!  First up were Refried Bean Fajitas.  The photo in it's full glory can be found here.

Refried Beans or Dog Food.....you decide!

Back in my old days as a meat eater, it is fair to say I was a fan of Chicken Fajitas, one of my favourite sunday night meals; beautiful with a nice cool glass of beer.  Nearly half way through my challenge, I am over the 'it's not the same without meat' phase..... but to be honest, on this occasion it wasn't.  There was something missing, meat (sorry veggies!).  That isn't to say this isn't a wonderful easy and tasty meal, but it is always going to have to stand up against the chicken equivalent and sadly, it failed there. 

Don't be put off though, the meal was tasty and really simple to make so it has a lot going for it (as reflected in the scores).

Fajitas!!!

Rating

Taste - 15/20

Cost - 5/10

Difficulty - 7/10

Prep Time - 4/10 

Overall 62%