Last week I was at home, waiting patiently for a delivery that was meant to come anytime between 7am and 7pm (such a helpful timeframe, not) and then it dawned on me – it was nearing lunchtime, I was pretty much under house arrest and I hadn’t thought to buy myself anything to have for lunch. First world problems I know, but bear with me.

I scoured the kitchen, but unfortunately my fridge resembled a scene from the Arctic (barren, white and cold) so I rooted through the cupboards to see what I could find there. Luckily I always have a bunch of tinned things on hand (because you never know when you’re going to get snowed in?) so I got thinking. I banned mayonnaise from our house a while ago and started making Mr H tuna and sweetcorn ‘mayo’ using tahini, lemon juice, cumin and tamari instead and he loves it, so I thought what if I sub the tuna (which I don’t tend to eat because of the mercury content amongst other reasons) for mashed beans instead? It didn’t look like Mr delivery man was going to turn up any time soon, so I had time to experiment. Continue reading →

Shepherd’s pie is just the ultimate comfort food isn’t it? Whatever the season it just makes you feel all warm and lovely, like a big hug on a plate. My mum used to make it quite a lot when my brother and I were little so it also evokes happy childhood memories, as I’m sure it does for lots of you guys too.

Continue reading →

Are you one of those people who (like me) always have complicated orders in restaurants? Because there’s so many things I try not to eat, I’m always asking waiters and waitresses if they could please ask the chef to make it without this ingredient, or could I sub this for that, and please could I have the dressing on the side? I do feel a little sorry for them having me as a customer, although when I’ve visited the States I’ve noticed it is more and more commonplace for people to chop and change their meals so much they end up with a totally different dish to what is on the menu. It just seems to be a lot more acceptable over there to do that, same goes for doggy bags (which I think are the best idea ever as portions can be so big and I hate food waste so much). Continue reading →

I never used to be bothered about cauliflower. It always seemed to me to be a bit bland and boring (maybe because of its colour) and we didn’t have lots of it growing up apart from cauliflower cheese which I hate, so I’d never really warmed to it until fairly recently. When Mr H and I visited India a couple of years ago we wanted to eat as authentically as possible which meant that our diet consisted mainly of the most amazing vegetable curries for breakfast, lunch and dinner, served with freshly baked breads or rice. Cauliflower seemed to feature heavily in a lot of the dishes we tried (and loved) and I can totally see why; it’s like a blank canvas and works so well with all different kinds of spices. Our friends in India have definitely worked out how to get the most out of their cauliflowers, that’s for sure. Continue reading →

Thai food is one of my favourite cuisines as it’s just so full of flavour and many typical dishes use coconut milk (and not cream or yogurt) to give them a creamy texture, which is a big tick in my book!

I’m partial to a Thai green curry when we go to our local Thai restaurant, but this isn’t super often (I much prefer cooking at home to eating out, and so does our bank balance I suppose) so I’ve been busy creating my own version which is just as yummy but lots healthier as its packed with loads of colourful veggies (and uses hardly any oil). That’s the other thing I find about eating out – most restaurants seem to make their food really oily which is weird as you’d never add that much oil to your food in your own kitchen so why do restaurant kitchens have to be any different? Who knows.  Continue reading →

Yakisoba literally means ‘fried buckwheat’ in Japanese, and is traditionally a street food dish made of fried noodles with veggies (and sometimes meat) and flavoured with a delicious sweet and slightly tangy sauce. It’s super easy and pretty cheap to make (which explains the street food element) and for these reasons it’s definitely one of my go-to weekday dinners for myself and Mr H, especially if I don’t have heaps of time on my hands. Continue reading →

Butternut squash is one of my favourite veggies – it’s so amazingly good for you (lots of vitamin A and antioxidants) and it tastes so delicious too! However, the thing I don’t like quite so much about butternut squash is the time (and elbow grease) it takes to peel and chop it into chunks. Which is why these butternut boats are so fab, all you need to do is chop the squash in half, take out the seeds and pop it in the oven with some olive oil and it comes out beautifully roasted and soft. Continue reading →

I used to love coronation chicken, but never put too much thought about what went into it, it was just yummy and a great sandwich filler. Fast forward to me looking up how to make it one day and I was shocked – chicken, yogurt, spices and raisins, I mean who on earth came up with that? It’s like the world’s most random combination, but somehow it just seems to work. Also, as it was created for the Queen’s coronation banquet in 1953 it must have been an even crazier concoction back then, as in post-WWII England I don’t think many people were busy cooking with curry powder. How times have changed hey? Continue reading →

This dish, originally made with spaghetti, translates from the Italian as ‘spaghetti in the style of a prostitute’. Now the more judgemental of us might not want to touch such a thing with a bargepole let along a fork, but let me remind you of the classic movie ‘Pretty Woman’ before you go slut-shaming my dinner. Continue reading →