Home Sweet Home - Leicester version

So it's our Easter break now, Marianna is stuck in Norwich still, but is soon to be venturing to Morocco for a surf trip. Totally rad man,
Whilst she's exploring the cultural edible treats of Morocco, I'll be sampling the old recipes of my childhood. Sunday lunches is what I've missed the most, and I've had three in the last three days. I was greeted home to a roast chicken, then we had roast lamb, and finally roast pork. Whatever people say, my Dad makes the best roast dinners!

Since I can't blog about being a student for a while, I thought I'd do a quick post about what we usually eat at home - when the rents are paying!
I obviously eat a lot more meat. We are one of those households that will eat meat every day of the week, except one, on which we'll have fish. We're also very seasonal, for example, salads we only really have when summer comes around, with some nice cheeses, cured meats and crusty bread, the rest of the year we have soup, soup, and more soup.
Anyway, I'll post a few pictures of my Dad's recent roast dinners. I'll ask Marianna to do a quick post too when she's back in Norway, it's interesting to see what each of us eat when we're not cooking together!

Roast Pork (with crackling!) and stuffing and roast veg, (We also had 'potato straw' which is just a simple fried potato cake type thing  - not on the picture because I was told I was getting in the way!)

Roast Lamb studded with garlic - I actually started this trend in roasts, I saw it on a recipe for 'Greek Lamb'. We had it with mashed potato yorkshire puddings (you can see how we make them below), veg and a red wine and cranberry jus.

To make the mashed potato containing yorkshire puddings, you simply make the mashed potato and pour the batter mix over them. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Ensure that the oil in the yorkshire tray is hot beforehand, by placing in the oven for 5-10 minutes before assembling.

Veggie Lasagna

So it's been a while since I've done a blog post. We've been busy lately, since it's the end of term we've got a lot of deadlines (I keep failing my lab classes and having to resit them over and over - most stressful thing ever. Seriously, who thought that making creams and ointments would be so hard.) Marianna is busy saving the world as usual, and has been playing a lot of gigs.
This was one of our very early recipes that is truly a delight! It's one of my favourites!

Ingredients for 4 portions:
1 Courgette - you can throw in whatever veg you have left over!
1 Onion
2 Spring Onions
1 Aubergine
1 Pepper
Half a punnit of Mushrooms
Lasagna Tomato Sauce - I found these at Aldi real cheap, for both jars it was £1.50. Alternatively use  pasta sauce, pasata or even just bog standard chopped tomatoes.
Lasagna Cream Sauce - I have no idea how to make a creamy cheese sauce, and I can't afford to try right now. Nor do I have the time to try! Alternatively, use the cottage cheese between layers too, it's just as good! We only used a third of the jar for this recipe.
Pasta sheets - we got a box of these for like 80p and they've made about 5 or 6 lasagnas!
Handful of spinach
Cottage Cheese - we always head straight for the low fat cottage cheese with added chives. Yum!
Tomatoes (optional)
Price per portion: £0.75 (crazy, I know check out our shopping lists to see how it's done!)

1) Start by prepping the veg (except spinach), try not to chop it too large or it'll be a hassle to get out the dish when you serve. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2) Cook in a pan, with a little oil, for 5-10 minutes until soft. Add the tomato sauce (or chopped tomatoes, a 'lil garlic and some herbs - basil or oregano will do, or if you're lazy like us, the classic mixed herb tactic is the way to go!)

3) Let it simmer for another ten minutes.

4) Add a layer of the lasagna mix to the bottom of an oven proof dish. Pop some lasagna sheets on the top, then layer with the cream sauce (or cottage cheese if you skimped out on the cream sauce.)
Repeat until you've ran out of lasagna mix - if you run out of space, save the mix - either freeze it or make a pasta with it the next day..

5) On the last pasta sheets (on the top), spread the cottage cheese over it, sliced tomatoes (if wanted, we only added it because we had some leftover!) and a handful of spinach. Pop in the oven for ten minutes, cover with foil to prevent the spinach going black (we made that mistake before!) then cook for another 40 minutes Be patient, it;s worth it.

6) Serve up and enjoy!

(Sorry for the lack of a picture, it's getting late here and I don't want to bother Marianna in case she's sleeping - she's the expert photographer. I'll add one when I get it!)

GOT IT!

Brunch and lunch ideas

Hey guys, sorry for being bad bloggers. We might not blog every single day as we are busy students with lots of coursework, LCR nights and hangovers.... But we will (a couple of times a week maybe?) try do a little post to get you guys going on your cooking and hopefully inspire you to eat healthy and yummy food!! oh I am sorry if this blog post is poorly written as Charlotte is not here to help me out with spelling mistakes, grammar etc.... don't judge!

This post is basically about ideas for lunch and brunch!
This sunday we had a very simple brunch: toast, scrambled eggs and a fresh salsa on top made of tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, lime juice and salt and pepper! Simple, healthy and so damn good (like the LCR on tuesdays hah lol).

Another brunch we had, you could also have as dinner or lunch, was some roasted veggies with sunny side eggs on top. We used sweet potatoes, onions, courgette, brussels sprouts and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. SO YUM, especially when you cut the yolk and it kinda becomes a sauce over the veggies! mhmhmh (errrm no I'm not flashing my tattoo if that's what you're thinking.......)

The last thing I will write about in this post is this weeks bulk lunch! So we had the pasta salad last week which was so good. This week we made a tuna paste, and we made loads so it will definitely last for the entire week. This way we don't have to think about lunch everyday, it's just there!! in the fridge!!! We use it as a spread to put on toast, crackers or rice cakes, or if you have some salad leafs you could make a nice little salad of it, or if you feel extra hungry: a tuna sandwich!! We used flavoured tuna from aldi (black pepper and lemon), celery, sweet corn, grated carrots, some lime juice and light mayo!

Enjoy your lunches/brunches guys!! Lot of love from Marianna, the rice cake addict!