Mushroom and chive tagliatelle

I picked up a recipe leaflet today at Asda and thought it looked extremely tasty. I bought the ingredients whilst there and cooked it tonight. Absolutely delicious!

10g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion sliced
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
500g chestnut mushrooms sliced
150g baby button mushrooms
150ml white wine or cider
200ml low fat creme fraiche
3 tablespoons fresh chives chopped
350g tagliatelle
Salt and black pepper

If using dried pasta then get that on straightaway. If fresh pasta is used cook that in the final two minutes of the recipe.

Melt the oil and butter and add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add the mushrooms and white wine and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the creme fraiche and half of the chives. Season to taste and heat through. Mix the cooked pasta with the sauce and serve immediately. Garnish with black pepper and a few long chives.

I added a good grating of parmesan cheese on top.

Banana and raisin loaf

This is very easy to make and tasty.

225g Self Raising Flour
100g margarine
150g raisins
2 tablespoons of honey or golden syrup
2 eggs
100g sugar
3 bananas mashed

Rub the margarine into the flour, then add the raisins, eggs, honey, sugar, and bananas.

Mix thoroughly and then bake in a greased loaf tin at 180 for approx 1 hour.

Macaroni Cheese made with Campbells soup

This is a recipe I have made for many years. I probably first made it when I was about 18 or 19 and now both my daughters make it.


To serve 4
8oz of macaroni
One tin of Campbells Tomato soup
One onion chopped
3-4 oz of strongish cheese (cheddar, red leicester or even the cheap ones from Asda or Sainsbury)

Method

Cook the macaroni in plenty of salted boiling water. Chop the onion and fry in a pan with a teaspoon of oil. Add the soup. Stir continuously until heated through. Add all of the cheese and stir in until melted. If the sauce is very thick then just add a splash of milk. When macaroni is cooked, strain and add to the sauce. Stir round.

You can sprinkle breadcrumbs and cheese on top and pop under a hot grill for 5 minutes if you want to.

Mushrooms with cheese

Mushrooms with cheese

Large field mushrooms
Cheese

Clean the mushrooms put small chunks of cheese around the stalk. Pop into a baking tin and bake in oven for about 10-15 mins until mushrooms are cooked and cheese is all bubbly and melted. These are great on the barbecue too.

Garlic Monkey Bread

I make this when we have a barbecue because everyone can just dig in. It's also good for informal family meals to accompany chilli, or spaghetti bolognese.

Before


After

For the dough you will need:
4 cups of strong plain flour
1 sachet of easyblend yeast
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 cloves of garlic crushed

To coat the dough
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 bunch of parsley chopped finely
6 oz of butter or margarine

To make the dough put the ingredients into a bread maker. Mix on the dough setting. When ready take out. Leave to one side for a few minutes whilst you melt the butter/margarine in a pan along with the garlic and parsley. When melted put to one side to allow to cool a little. You will now need a greased baking tin.

Divide the dough up into lots of little dough balls and roll around in the garlic butter and just place into the tin. Continue with the rest and just pile into the tin. This is a great activity for kids to get involved in. When you have used up all the dough then pour the rest of the garlic butter over the monkey bread. Leave to one side for about 10 mins to rise a little.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven 180C

For a variation you could sprinkle on some grated cheese and have garlic and cheese monkey bread.

Green Bean Salad

If you grow beans in your garden you can get very bored with just cooking them hot as a vegetable. My daughter loves this recipe and it's a way of using them cold in a salad.




Green beans either whole if small or cut into a pieces
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic crushed
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons of wine or cider vinegar

Cook the green beans in water until just tender.
Run under a cold tap to cool off
Mix all the other ingredients together thoroughly then add to the green beans. Toss and serve.

Microwave Flapjack

Thankyou to Simon for this recipe



Flapjacks

Ingredients

Makes 12 pieces

100g (4oz) butter or marge (I use Flora).
50g (2oz) soft brown sugar – I use dark muscovada – gives great flavour
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150g (6oz) rolled oats
75g (3oz) mixed nuts (for best flavour, chop your own whole nuts rather than ready-chopped)

Method

Lightly grease a 23cm ( 9 inch) square shallow glass dish.
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and heat in microwave until melted.
Stir the melted mixture until all one colour.
Mix in the golden syrup, chopped nuts and then rolled oats. Mix thoroughly.
Press the mixture into the glass bowl and level the surface.
Cook on max power for 3mins 50 secs in a 850/900 watt microwave. Longer time in less powerful microwave.

Leave to cool. Cut into squares / rectangles when cool to serve when cold.

Click here for Simon's site

Prawns in pasta

This is quite a spicy sauce and delicious.



450g prawns
2 tins of tomatoes
2 teaspoons of marjoram
two glasses of white wine(any will do)
2 teaspoons of chilli powder (or to taste) we like it hot
2 cloves of garlic crushed
a teaspoon of olive oil
If you are not trying to lose weight some single cream (optional)
1 teaspoon of sugar (I find this takes of the acidity of the tomatoes)
Optional some parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste



Gently fry garlic in oil (make sure you dont burn it) Add wine and heat up to boiling Add chlli powder and majoram Add tins of tomatoes Cook for about 20 mins (gently simmer) Add single cream if using Add a couple of table spoons of parmesan cheese and stir in until melted Add Prawns and heat through thorougly but dont overcook Season Pour over cooked pasta with more parmesan if liked

Low Fat Humous

This is really easy to make and is less calories than the normal version of Humous. My daughter who is a vegetarian loves this.

1 Can of Chickpeas
1 tablespoon of fromage
lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper

Blitz all ingredients in a food processor. You could add some peppers, chillis, garlic etc to taste.
Use for dipping vegetable sticks into.