Recipe: Turkey Mozzarella burgers

Turkey Mozzarella Burgers

-Turkey mince

-Mozzarella

-mixed herbs

-Salt and pepper

What to do:

Mix mince in a bowl with herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Make into patties double the amount you're serving as half will make a topping.

Place a mozzarella piece in the middle, Top with a pattie.

Fry for 20-30 mins, check inside if cooked flipping several times.

These were delicious even my boyfriend liked them and he doesn't like healthy things usually. After this I had half an apple and two go yoghurt bars and I've almost drank a litre and a half of water which is so good.

Recipe: Spinach and Mushroom pasta

(Image via Big apple Little Kitchen)

So I'm trying this flexitarian diet which is where breakfast and lunch are vegetarian and then dinner can have a little meat, this makes me want to get more creative with my cooking as well. I'm just doing it to eat more vegetables in my diet not because I want to become vegetarian and I enjoy some vegetarian dishes anyway.

Anyway so I cooked up this tasty spinach and mushroom pasta since they're my favourite two ingredients.

You will need:

-Mushrooms

-Onion

-Spinach (I used frozen, fresh will do)

-Spaghetti

-Milk

-Flour

-Mixed herbs

-Salt and pepper to taste

Firstly saute the mushrooms and onion in a frying pan. Start cooking the spaghetti now too follow the packet instructions. Then add milk and flour to the frying pan (sorry I don't have measurements I freestyled) stir whilst sauce thickens once thickened add spinach and mixed herbs, if you've used frozen spinach here cooked until defrosted. Next add the cooked spaghetti to the frying pan and make sure its all covered in sauce. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Volia.

A tasty vegetarian dish, I believe if you used something like chestnut mushrooms it would give a lovely woody flavour.

Recipe: Blueberry Tart

Pastry:

-225g Flour

-1 egg

-2 Tablespoons Caster sugar

-2-3 Tablespoons Cold water

-125g Butter

Filling:

-300g Blueberries

-125g Sugar

What to do:

- Grease a tart or cake dish.

-Rub butter into flour until like breadcrumbs, Stir in sugar and add water to slowly form a dough.

-Refridgerate pastry for an hour.

- Stir in sugar with blueberries.

-Put the pastry in the dish and add blueberry mixture.

-Cook at 180 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes until pastry is golden.

Recipe: Caramel Apple Upside down Cake

This was my first tricky cake ....also I guess this is becoming a bit of an amateur food blog.

Cake mix:

110g butter

110g sugar

110g flour

2 eggs beaten

Apple base:

30g butter

30g sugar

2 apples

1/2 tsp cinnamon

What you need to do:

- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.

-Grease your cake tin, peel and core the apples line the base of the tin with them and sprinkle cinnamon on them.

-Cream together the butter and sugar.

-Add flour and the beaten eggs.

- For the caramel part, heat butter in a non-stick pan.

-When the butter begins to melt add the sugar to the pan.

-Pour the caramel sauce onto the apple base, then add the cake mixture on top of this.

-Cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

- To remove the cake from the tin, wait for the caramel to cool a bit maybe 10 mins then get a dish with hot water put your cake tin in this and a knife round the edge. Put a plate on top and flip. If some of the caramel is stuck or if there is not enough make another batch of caramel and pour on.

(I've adjusted the cooking time from the original recipe by Phil Vickery a professional chef, due to my cake coming out half cooked, he suggested 10-12 minutes)

Recipe: Mexican Lasagne

I didn't mean for this to start becoming a food blog, but it seems it has with all these recipes, I have some stuff to review though as I received my giveaway winnings from Evey chua. Anyway on with the recipe.

This came about because one my boyfriend always took more of the filling for fajitas than me so I'd end up with more bread than the healthy stuff, so to stop this mexican lasagne.

Mexican lasagne

You will need:

-Tortillas (we used about 6 but we have a small tray)

-Kidney beans

-Chicken (about 4 medium size pieces)

-Chopped tomatoes (canned)

-1 bell pepper

-1 onion

-Tex mex seasoning

-Cajun seasoning

-Herbs

- Salt and pepper to taste

-Cheese

First you cook like you would fajitas, brown bitesized pieces of the chicken with chopped onion and pepper.

When brown add seasoning, I guess for this part but a tablespoon of each should do it.

Next add kidney beans and chopped tomatoes and herbs. Stir through until everything is coated nicely.

Then get out your baking pan, layer two tortillas on the bottom then add the chicken mixture and then add two more tortillas layer with cheese and then add more chicken mixture.

Continue this until you've run out of ingredients.

Then bake in the oven for 30 mins or until baked through, if the cheese on top browns too quickly cover with foil.

Recipe: Apple Pie

So since I'm trying to shed this stone I have gained, which is about 6kg, and more I've decided no chocolate and make healthier choices. So my boyfriend the other day asked me to make apple pie now with no custard or ice cream it should be fine if I have a small slice, plus it has fruit in it which makes it healthy right? Well apart from the pastry which is mostly butter (-_-').

So for this kind of healthy pie you will need:

Pastry (if you can't make your own or are short for time buy ready-made shortcrust)

-225g butter at room temperature

-50g sugar

-2 eggs

-350g flour

Filling

-1kg apples

-140g sugar

-1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

To make:

-Mix the butter and sugar with your hands (it can get a little messy), break in the eggs and stir with a spoon. Now add the flour slowly with a wooden spoon, begin to clump it up with your hands to make a dough ball, then refrigerate for 45 mins (I left mine overnight).

-Peel and slice the apples so they're in small chunks.

-After pastry has been chilled, heat the oven to 190c/170c fan or 350F if your oven is like that. Mix 140g sugar with the cinnamon and then coat the apples in this mixture . Cut a third of the pastry, then roll the rest out and line a pie tin thats 20-22cm and 4 cm deep, I used a cake tin it was fine, Put the apple mixture into the pastry lined tin.

-Make the Pastry lid with the third of pastry you cut off earlier. Seal the edges you can make a fancy crust pattern using a fork if you would like. Make five little slashes on the top so steam can escape. Bake for 40-45 mins until golden and then let sit for 5-10 mins to cool a little bit.

Can be served hot or cold.

In other news I've received some eyelashes I ordered unfortunately they don't come with glue and My friend Ivana received her Christmas package and she liked it. And I finally got paid from my Christmas job and have been looking for a new one.

Recipe: No Butter chocolate cake!

I don't know about healthier its just that it was getting to the end of the year and everyone is poor, but we all love cake.

For this recipe you will need:

• 2 eggs
• 215g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 200g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 160ml olive oil ( Actually used vegetable oil, I'm a student can't afford luxuries)
• 60ml low-fat milk
• Cocoa powder, extra, to dust

To make this you will need to :

-Preheat the oven to 180C(350F) line a 19cm cake tin with greaseproof baking paper.

-Mix the eggs and sugar together until a pale yellow colour, then add the vanilla and mix.

-Combine flour and cocoa together with the sugar mixture, it should get a bit like dough but don't worry.

- Then add the oil and milk and mix until combined, it goes like a brownie mixture.

-Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30 mins or until there are crumbs on a skewer.

-Leave to cool and dust with the extra cocoa powder.

- Best part eat it nomnomnom!

This is actually my celebration cake for getting this semesters work done, it stresses me out but i know it'll be worth it in the end.

It tastes like brownie which I'm not complaining about.

Comfort Food

(Disclaimer not my photo)

My comfort food is usually anything involving potato and/or cheese and the bacon was an added plus.

All I did was gain these ingredients enough for two or one if you're having a particularly bad day.

-4 medium potatos

-Cheese (about a handful or more)

-Bacon ( about 4 rashers)

Chop potato into wedge like shapes and depending on how you like your bacon ( I like mine crispy) put small chunks of bacon in with the potatos on a baking tray at 180C or 350F. Just before they are due to come out add a handful of cheese and melt. Serve and instantly feel better.

What is your comfort food?

Also for those of you wondering my DVD project is coming on okay now although I still need to test it (my boyfriend just tested it and it works hurray!) and make a front cover but its almost to handing in. Also need to print the flowchart.

Money wise, still no news on that front. Rang the job centre my appeal is still going through, Student finance sent a letter and refused to tell me so I could tell my mum to fill it out. Also called my Christmas job but no-one picked up (-_-') so will try again tomorrow so I can find out my shifts for working. Then tomorrow, hand in, probably call my mum / work and maybe the crisis loan people so I can actually pay my rent. For those of you worrying my situation should be better in the new year and I can contribute with fun posts and maybe more recipes, I'm hoping to bake tonight so maybe I will post the recipe to that at some point.... Should really queue posts up for when I'm not feeling up to blogging so i won't bore you with my sadness.

Ciao xxx

Recipe: Mushroom risotto

(not my picture but it looks a bit like that)

Cheat's mushroom risotto

-Handful of mushrooms (I used button, but you can use shiitake, chestnut or anything you can find a mix of them is always tasty)

-1 onion

-Cup of rice

-1 tablespoon of creme fraiche ( sour cream would work as well)

-Garlic (1 clove i actually used garlic salt)

-Stock cube (you can use chicken or veg)

- pinch of salt and pepper (if you didn't use the garlic salt)

1. Boil the rice with the stock cube and water that way the flavour gets into the rice.

2. Once rice is boiled, fry the onion and mushrooms together with a bit of butter and/or oil.

3. Once onions are lightly browned, Add the boiled rice in, if you think it might get a bit dry add extra water in.

4. Add garlic salt, creme fraiche and pepper.

5. Mix and serve, Garnish with herbs if you have them.

I hope you enjoyed this, i might be doing some more recipe posts later.