Pumpkin and Gnocchi Gratin

Around eight million pumpkins are expected to be thrown away in the UK after Halloween this year - and according to this Guardian article, only a third of consumers will cook and eat any of them.

I didn't get around to carving a pumpkin this year but did buy two, for some photos with my little girl!

I then made use of them in various ways - soup, pie, and this pumpkin and gnocchi gratin. The recipe is from an old issue of Weightwatchers magazine; but I added bacon lardons as well (if you want it without, this makes a nice vegetarian dish). I also used more cheese and allowed more gnocchi per person.
This is really tasty - I'm not a huge fan of gnocchi as it's very doughy and needs more than just a tomato sauce, but it works wonderfully in this recipe - you could also substitute the pumpkin for butternut squash.

Serves 4
400g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 small red onion, cut into wedges
4 tbsp. chopped fresh sage - I used 4 tsp dried sage to keep the cost down
200g bacon lardons
low fat cooking spray (or oil if you are not following Weightwatchers)
500g gnocchi
250g tomato passata
5 tbsp. grated cheddar

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with foil and spray with non stick spray or pour in a little oil. Roast the pumpkin, garlic, onion and sage, and sprinkle over some salt and pepper then toss in the oil. Roast for 20-25 minutes until the pumpkin has softened.

Meanwhile fry the bacon lardons in a frying pan.

Cook the gnocchi in boiling water according to the pack instructions - it only takes a few minutes.

Squeeze the garlic out of its skin and mash with a fork, discarding the skin. In a large ovenproof dish mix the garlic, pumpkin and onion, bacon lardons, gnocchi, then pour over the passata and gently mix in. Finally sprinkle over the cheese.

 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes; serve with a green veg like broccoli or a salad and garlic bread.

A lovely winter warmer, and a good way to use up pumpkin so it isn't wasted.

 

 And here's my little pumpkin herself!

 

I'm sharing this with Cook Blog Share, hosted by Easy Peasy Foodie.

Eggs Bunnadict

Here's an Easter twist on one of my favourite breakfast or brunch dishes, eggs benedict - it uses hot cross buns, hence the name eggs bunnadict!

The name comes from a dish served by the ETM bar group, which owns bars like the Botanist in the City of London - I haven't actually been to them but read in the Evening Standard about a dish they were serving over Easter: strawberry marshmallow and vanilla and coconut panna cotta on a hot cross bun base. It sounded awesome but I preferred the idea of making something savoury - and when I heard that Marks & Spencer had launched some savoury cheese and onion hot cross buns I decided these would be perfect for the base.

I couldn't get hold of any unfortunately - I asked staff in one M&S Simply Food and they had never heard of them and seemed surprised when I said M&S had recently announced their launch (do they not pay any attention to internal communications?!) and then suggested I try again in a few weeks - after Easter. Hmm.

M&S were then very helpful via Twitter and checked stock at two other stores local to me but said they didn't have any in stock, which was a shame (at least they knew what I was talking about this time!).

I knew there was no way I would have time to make my own hot cross buns so decided to take a punt and make eggs benedict on normal i.e. sweet hot cross buns and see how they would turn out... I was a bit nervous as my husband doesn't like sweet and savoury together and declared the bacon brownies I made from a Nigella recipe "an abomination". So it was a nice surprise when he said bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on a toasted hot cross bun shouldn't work... but strangely did!

So there you go - if you want a new way to enjoy your hot cross bun this Easter, try this Eggs Bunnadict!

Puff Pastry Cheese, Bacon and Spring Onion Tart

This is an easy meal idea that is great for an informal dinner with friends, as it can be assembled before your guests arrive and then can go in the oven 20 minutes before you want to eat. You can play around with the toppings as well to use whatever you fancy - it's a good way of using up odds and ends in the fridge as well.

Simply take a piece of ready-made puff pastry - around 200g per person should be plenty, and I made each person their own - and roll out on a lightly floured surface into either a circle or square shape (or something in between!). Place onto a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Chop a few rashers of bacon and fry along with some chopped spring onions. When cooked, remove from pan and allow to cool.

Spread the pastry base with garlic and herb-flavoured soft cheese then scatter over the bacon and spring onion. Grate some cheese - Cheddar works well - and sprinkle over the tart. I also added some crumbled blue cheese.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes or until the pastry has risen and is golden. Serve with a green salad.

I'm sending this to Cook Blog Share, hosted this week by Easy Peasy Foodie.

Healthy Spaghetti Carbonara with Spiralized Vegetables

Spaghetti carbonara is an easy go-to dish if I want to make something midweek that's fast and doesn't involve a lot of meat, as I don't think it's good to have a big portion of red meat every day. Since I'm doing Sugar Free September I was trying to think of ideas. Simple (as opposed to complex) carbs are off the menu at the moment, as when your body breaks down pasta or potatoes it converts the starch to glucose. So doing Sugar Free September means no potatoes or pasta, though I have recently discovered gluten-free pasta which your body doesn't convert to glucose in the same way.

My fall-back when I haven't been eating pasta is spiralized vegetables, and I realised I'd never actually made a simple spaghetti carbonara using spiralized vegetables.

 

I decided to use spiralized butternut squash and courgette though you can experiment with any different veg that you like. Chop some bacon and fry in a large pan then add the spiralized veg with a little water and cook for a few minutes until the veg has softened and the water has largely evaporated.

Add either single cream, plain yogurt or even crème fraiche combined with a beaten egg and stir into the pan.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese to serve.

5 Easy Lunchbox Salads you can take to work for lunch

I've been eating a lot of salads lately, and taking one in to work every day for my lunch. It's cheaper than going out and buying one every day and this way I can put exactly what I want into it. Sometimes I get into a bit of a rut eating the same salads every day and end up looking around the internet for inspiration so I thought I'd share my current top five.

Please excuse the simple presentation - this is literally how I take the salads into work for lunch!
First up is really easy - any types of lettuce that you like, topped with feta cheese and chunks of fresh watermelon. A light vinaigrette dressing goes well with this. I usually eat this salad with a packet of ready cooked chicken pieces for protein and to make it more filling.

This salad is my latest addiction: pear, blue cheese and walnut. Again you can use any type of lettuce as a base, and if you like things like cucumber add it in (I don't). I used gorgonzola - I was going to use Roquefort but couldn't get any, but this worked really well. Top with peeled and sliced pear and a handful of walnuts. This goes well with a blue cheese dressing.

 

A different type of cheese for this salad: goat's cheese with bacon lardons (you need to cook the lardons first then let them go cold before adding to the salad). Use on a bed of your favourite lettuce. This goes well with a wine vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing.

 

 

 

This one takes a little longer to make but is good if you want something more substantial for lunch or to take on a picnic. Cook some pasta and drain; while it's still warm, toss through some green pesto from a jar, add some crayfish or prawns (I used crayfish here) and some pine nuts. You can serve this hot or cold.

Finally a bulgur wheat-based salad. This one does take a bit of preparation but you can make a larger quantity in one go. Put the bulgur wheat in a bowl and cover with water; leave for 15 minutes and then drain. Bring a pan of water to the boil - you need roughly three cups water to one cup bulgur wheat. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes and drain off any excess water.

I used cubes of roasted butternut squash in this salad; sweet potato works really well. If you don't have time to cook, you can buy tubs of roasted sweet potato, butternut squash and carrot to add to salads from Tesco. I've also added feta cheese and some fresh parsley.

 

 

I've certainly got no excuse to have the same thing every day for lunch now!

Bacon and Cheese Omelette for Beginners

Can you believe I've never made an omelette before? I don't actually like eating them and it had never really occurred to me to make one, until I was trying to think of something to make my husband for lunch that wasn't a bacon sandwich! I had used several egg yolks in making this chocolate ice cream and couldn't decide what to do with the egg whites as I didn't fancy making meringue. I realised that I could make an egg white omelette - I added an extra egg with the yolk for a bit more colour.

Given I had to google how to make an omelette, I can't be the only person out there who doesn't know how to make one, right? So here's what you do:

Mix the eggs in a bowl with a fork. I'd allow 3 eggs per person. Add some salt and pepper.

Chop up some rashers of bacon and fry, then set aside.

Heat a little butter in another frying pan and pour in the egg mixture; tilt the pan to spread it out evenly.

When the egg is part-cooked, sprinkle with grated cheese and the chopped bacon and continue to cook until the egg is completely set. Turn over and cook on the other side; fold in half onto a plate to serve.

My husband really enjoyed it; I might have to cook him eggs like this again!

Bacon and Cheddar Scrolls

I've started doing my shopping in Sainsbury's a lot more - there's a large store only a few minutes' drive from my house, but as I'm still a relative novice when it comes to driving, I only go first thing or I struggle to get into the spaces in their car park! I recently picked up a copy of Sainsbury's magazine at the till and found lots of recipes inside that I wanted to make. As my fiancé loves bacon and would eat a bacon sandwich for lunch every Saturday and Sunday every week if he could, I get rather bored of it (so he gets a bacon sandwich every few weeks). As soon as I saw this recipe for 'bacon and cheddar scrolls' I knew it would be a winner with both of us as it was something different but still within the bacon category!

This recipe makes quite a few (I can't remember exactly how many) so to serve two people I would halve the quantity.

400g wholemeal bread flour
100g white bread flour
7g yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
50g melted butter
1 tbsp light brown sugar
300 ml lukewarm water

For the filling:
4tbso grainy mustard
8 cooked rashers streaky bacon, crumbled or sliced
100g grated mature Cheddar cheese
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced

In a large bowl, mix the flour and yeast. In another bowl,  mix the melted butter, water and sugar. Fold in the flour.

Knead for ten minutes if doing by hand; otherwise about five minutes in a stand-mixer (I was very glad of my Kitchenaid at this point!). Grease a large bowl and put the ball of dough inside. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about two hours to prove until doubled in size.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle on a lightly-floured surface and spread with the filling.

Roll up from the long edge like a Swiss roll and slice into rounds.

Lay each slice on its side on a greased and lined baking tray, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove until doubled in size. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200 C and bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes. Best served warm as part of a breakfast or brunch, but you could also leave these to go cold and take them on a picnic.

I'm sending this to Bready Steady Go, hosted by Lucy at BakingQueen74.

Breakfast Burritos

This is more of an idea than a recipe as you can include almost anything you want - but until recently it hadn't even occurred to me to make one of these before. They make a nice change for a breakfast/ brunch/ even lunch - a different way of serving a full English that means you need to cook less food (one sausage per person is enough for instance) so a little goes a long way - good perhaps if you are cooking for crowds.

I cooked some hash browns in the oven plus a couple of sausages, several rashers of streaky bacon and some scrambled eggs. I used Mission Deli wraps as they are really big.

Spread a little hot sauce on the wrap if desired, and sprinkle over grated cheese. Pile in the cooked breakfast....

.. wrap, and enjoy! I didn't take any photos of the finished dish but I still can't get the hang of how to fold burritos anyway! These made a nice change for lunch as my fiancé pretty much always wants a bacon sandwich at the weekend and I'm trying to find ways to do different things that he will still like!

French Toast Stuffed with Cream Cheese and Caramelised Pecans

Breakfasts in American hotels are always awesome (even in cheaper chain hotels which all seem to have waffle makers!) and the River Inn of Harbor Town in Memphis was no different. We stayed there for three nights and had some great breakfasts, many of which involved maple syrup. Instead of giving us a jug, we had miniature bottles which were so cute I couldn’t resist keeping one that I didn’t use as a souvenir, to use in cooking at home.

I’d had a brioche loaf in the freezer after not using it when I had friends staying so decided this was the perfect thing to use to make French toast. I wanted to make it a bit more interesting and remembered one hotel I’d stayed in gave us French toast that was stuffed with cheese and came – I think – with caramelised pecans. It turned out to be very easy to make, and delicious when served with crispy bacon!

 

You need:

2-4 slices brioche loaf per person

Handful of pecans

50g butter

50g caster sugar plus 1 tbsp

1 egg

Dash of milk

Dash of vanilla flavouring

Fry light or oil for frying

About 100g cream cheese

Bacon to serve on the side

Maple syrup to drizzle over the top

 

 

First make the candied pecans – place 50g butter and 50g sugar in a small pan and heat until the sugar has melted. Add the nuts and stir around to coat.

 

Cut the brioche loaf into thick slices and use a sharp knife to make a pocket in each slice as best you can. Fill with some cream cheese.

 

Mix a beaten egg with a dash of milk, 1 tbsp sugar and a splash of vanilla and dip each slice of bread into it.

Place in a hot, lightly oiled frying pan – I did these in two batches or you could use two pans, as the bread needs to sit flat. Turn once or twice until browned.

 

Meanwhile fry the bacon, in this case the crispier the better.

 

Serve the stuffed French toast with the pecans scattered over the top and the bacon on the side, and pour over the maple syrup. A very indulgent but enjoyable breakfast or brunch!

I'm sharing this with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter this month is M - in this recipe, M is for maple syrup.

I'm also sending this to the Club Sandwich, a new blog challenge hosted by the Crafty Larder and Cakeyboi.

Finally also to Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen as the theme is eggy breads, puddings and pastries.

The Ultimate Cheese Toastie Wrapped in Bacon

 

 

I saw this on Facebook ages ago and kept wanting to make it so one day decided we would have it for lunch at the weekend. This was before I got engaged and decided I needed to start a pre-wedding diet of course!

 

It’s very easy to make but very effective as my fiancé thought I was making him a bacon sandwich. Slice some cheese very thinly and place between two slices of bread.

 

 

Take some bacon – the streaky kind works best as you get long thin pieces. Wrap these around the sandwich so it is completely encased in bacon.

 

 

 

You don’t need much oil at all in the frying pan as the bacon releases plenty of grease itself but I sprayed the pan with a little Fry Light just to get it started (I definitely wouldn’t add liquid oil!). Heat the pan and place the sandwich in; cook on both sides until the bacon is done.

 

 

When you cut into the sandwich you will see the cheese has melted – it was awesome! I recommend having half a sandwich with some salad….