EAT A RAINBOW

Recipe: Rainbow Salad

Time taken: 20 minutes tops

Ingredients: Some leaves, some cheese and some seriously colourful veg. I leave it up to you!

Hi readers,

Sunday’s come! The last and best day of the week… the day of rest. Have you been having a restfully festive day? I do hope you have! It’s now only four (YES FOUR!) days until Christmas, readers. How did that happen? Where did the days go?? Have I really eaten twenty one advent calendar chocolates already?! I know all old people say it but really I swear December goes faster every year. Not at all in a funny way. It’s dizzying.

So today HAS been lovely, I’ll give it that. I endured a visit to see my grandparents and was rewarded with only minor racism to deal with in conversation. Love them really. Next, me and the Father Bear attended a family get together over pub lunch and ate some gorgeous, really interesting food. And caught up with lots of lovely relatives from afar as distant Nottingham. Presents were swapped! Then it was off to the cinema with the Mother Bear. And this was a real treat.

Readers, (don’t be too jealous!) we went to see a live screening of a matinee performance of The Nutcracker, by the Bolshoi Ballet Company in Russia. !!!!!!! Can you believe it? You can really do that now! This is one of the biggest, oldest classical ballet companies in the world. They’re INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED. And we got to go to Cineworld in Sheffield and attend the premiere of their Christmas performance, as if we were in Russia. Like, I was clapping along with the Russian audience at the end of each scene. It’s mind blowing.

As was the show! The ballet was, literally, breath taking. I can’t enthuse enough. Just for so many dancers to be so synchronised and polished, and to be able to do the things that they do! It was unreal. Should you get the chance to attend the cinema screenings of their Swan Lake performance in January, or the chance to go to bloody Russia, definitely do not turn this down. It’s something you DO NOT want to miss. Whether you take an interest in ballet or not (or even dance!), I fail to see how anyone could not be impressed by what they do. It’s like… HOW DO THEY DO IT?! Just unreal.

Buuuut, as festive as my wonderful day may have been… the countdown to Christmas is starting to scare me a little, readers. I don’t want it to end! And you know what’s even scarier than this? The countdown to the New Year! Bet you hadn’t even though of that one yet, eh? Well, now you have! (Sorry!) In ten days’ time it’s going to be 2015!! Unbelievable.

Suddenly life’s all about a fresh start with new horizons and unknown adventure. The next twelve months could hold anything. Just anything! And the prospect is… daunting. I’m sorry to have reminded you that if the days of 2014 were grains of sand in an hourglass, time is almost up. I am. But, to make up for this, I have one positive thought for you to hold with you and carry into the New Year. This is it: Summer will come. Without fail, unless something awful should happen to you (touch wood not!), in the next six months you’re going to be feeling warm sun on your skin. The wait for this is heart breaking, readers, but it will come.

It’s going to be like this, I promise

Thinking about this, I read a news article earlier today which said ‘Tis the season for comfort food!’ and I thought… really?? Like, obviously, IT IS. We eat more shit now than at any other time of year. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But, surely, tis the season also of so many better things than comfort food! Like spending time with family, giving gifts and taking some time off work. And you can still do all of those things while enjoying healthy food a little of the time, right? This way, you enjoy the comfort food so much more too, because it’s still kind of a treat to you, not just your everyday menu for a fortnight.

So, readers, I made a salad. Last night, I was sick of the festive conveyor of comfort food we’re all stuck on, and I was thinking ahead about 2015 and dreaming of summer. And I really fancied a salad. Wanted one! Not to be good. Not to deprive myself ahead of the big day. I JUST WANTED SALAD. And I made a really good one! I poured a summery rosé wine, just like in the photos, and chowed down on some seriously healthy stuff.

My gorgeous tea!

Rainbow coloured stuff! I read online, readers, that colourful food lifts the mood (healthy food does this too!) and it’s FUN so I want to inspire you all to…

a)      Think positively about the New Year. There could be twelve incredible months ahead of you, starting in ten days’ time. How exciting!

b)      Make a salad EVEN THOUGH IT’S DECEMBER. Because I bet you’ll really enjoy it and your body will literally LOVE YOU for it.

And…

c)       Make your salad into a rainbow! There isn’t any reason not to. Do you have a reason why not? No, you don’t. Raaaaainbow tiiiiime!

HOW, you ask? Well, the way I did it. I got a bag of mixed leaves and chopped up some cucumber, celery and spring onion. This is the standard stuff: the usual culprits. Then I ALSO added to my salad some cherry tomatoes, yellow pepper and radishes. Red, yellow and pink!

Can you see all the colours?

I normally love a balsamic dressing to jazz up a summery salad but we didn’t have any in at home, so I flicked a little salad cream over my rainbow and this worked a treat, as a substitute. Oh, and feta cheese! I crumbled some tasty feta cheese on top of this salad, for a taste of Greece. And it was delicious. This was a true taste of summer, in bleak mid-winter. So go make one!! Really, get your bum in gear and treat the inner you to a rainbow of goodness. Not to guilt trip you all so close to Christmas, buttttt remember the quote I wrote of the other day? “Love yourself enough to live a healthy lifestyle”. Yes sirree.

And, if you fancy a taste of adventure, go CRAZY with your salad. This could be your last of the year! Throw in sunflower seeds! Walnuts! Pomegranate seeds! I personally loooove to make a salad with grilled halloumi cheese and black olives, readers. These are my ULTIMATE salad ingredients. Squeaky and salty they are but GOD they’re good. It made me a sad that we didn’t have any in at home because nobody else likes them. On Earth, maybe. Do ANY of you like them?? Anyone out there?

Throwback to an olive-packed halloumified salad of mine!

Whatever you choose to include, I challenge you to fit one more salad into your 2014, readers. Can you cram in as many colours as I did?? Bet not! I ate that rainbow to the groundddd! And here’s a thought, I bet there’s a big chance that over in Russia the whole Bolshoi Company of ballerinas (hundreds of them!) are tucking into salads tonight. And every night, I bet. You’re eating the food of ballerinas. Does life get better? Ummm... hell no!

Get jazzy with it. And let me know if you have any salad tips! Which cheeses do you include? Do you add fruits to salad? I’m not convinced about this, but I could be persuaded to give it a try! I welcome all salading tips, please. :)

Ride the rainbow safely,

Hayley

09/01/2015 Note:

Readers, I'm entering my salad into a 'No Croutons Required' competition!

Check the competition out here:http://foodandspice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/no-croutons-required-soup-and-salad.html

This is run as a joint project between the following two lovely lady bloggers:http://foodandspice.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/

Check them out and wish me luck x


 

FAIL SAFE FUSILLI

Recipe: Italiano Pastapieces

Time taken: Half an hour

Ingredients: Wholewheat pasta, a little oil, Philadelphia/pesto/tomato sauce & any veg you can dream of

Hello there readers,

Welcome to the new week! It’s Monday again, but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Mostly, and quite often, it’s a bad thing. But not today! Today readers, this is a good Monday!

It’s a good Monday for me because tonight the Geography Society at Newcastle Uni are hosting their Christmas meal on the Quayside… at Newcastle’s oh so swanky Pitcher & Piano! I’m so excited! Tonight I’ll be getting my Christmas dress out again and dolling up for our special meal. Almost all of my course mates are going, and we get champagne and professional photos and then a 3 course meal!! You can’t knock it. Last year we had a lovely time and I’m really hoping for a top night with the girls later. I’m very excited!

So that’s why my Monday’s a good one. How about yourself? Wrack your brain and I’m sure there’s something positive about your day today. I’m confident that there is!

Anyways, today I’m determined to eat small seeing as we’re having such special food at the restaurant later. So I haven’t been whipping up any magic in the kitchen today. But I’ve been meaning for a while to share with you my key to the simplest student tea around: pasta.

I think it must be true that every student in the UK cooks pasta AT LEAST once a week, if not more. It’s such a versatile dish and there are so many variations and twists to be had with it! When you’re feeling rough, you can boil some up and eat it plain as a test of whether or not you’re keeping food down. When you’re in a hurry, you can get some ready-made pasta (in a fridge pack or in a tin like ravioli or even in a frozen ready meal) and there’s your tea ready in 5 minutes flat. And when you’ve time to spare you can craft a full on lasagne or whip together a pasta bake, and stick it in the oven for an hour. All these dishes have the same wonderful foundation: pasta.

And a lot of days, readers, I just like to make regular veggie pasta! It’s a cracking tea. There’s no whistles or bells to it, but you can’t fault this tea for its belly filling quality!

Here’s how I regularly rock a veggie pasta meal:

1. I set the kettle boiling and pop a couple of handfuls of brown pasta into a saucepan.

2. When it boils, I pour the water into the pan and put its lid on. I get this on a hob to heat for the next twenty minutes.

3. I chop up my veg.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Anything goes here, readers! My favourite veg to throw in a pasta dish are olives, peppers and mushrooms. But, literally, there are no bounds. Anything you have in your fridge will probably work fine.

4. I heat some oil into a frying pan and tip in my veg.

5. I fry my veg for ten minutes.

6. I put a plate or bowl in the microwave to heat for a couple of minutes.

7. I remove my pasta from the heat and drain it using a colander, then return it to the saucepan.

8. I turn the heat off my veg and tip them into the saucepan with the pasta.

9. To the pan I add either a tomato stir-in sauce, a dollop of pesto or a dollop of Philadelphia cheese, depending on whether I want a tomatoy, basily, or creamy pasta.

10. I stir this up over a low heat for a few minutes, sometimes I season with salt and pepper, and then I serve my tea!

Pasta con Tomato

 

Pasta con Pesto

 

Pasta con Philly

 

And that’s all there is to it! Now, I imagine you’ve all made pasta before. I’m not revolutionising student cooking here. But have you made it like I do? How do you do it?? Which is better? I like my tried and tested method and I think it generally turns out a tasty tea. Carnivorous readers of mine, would this tempt you to switch the meat in your pasta dishes for some veg, perhaps?

I think this is a solid, sure-fire filler of a tea… and it’s never once let me down. So, even though I’m having fun trying out new recipes at uni and documenting them in this blog, I can’t pretend that there won’t be days still where I won’t reach for the pasta. Everyone does! And I hope this inspires you to maybe try something new with your pasta, the next time that you do.

Party safely,

Hayley

 

 

 

MIDDLE EAST MASTERPIECE

Hi readers,

My day today has been BUSY. It's been quite a way to start the week! I'm. Shattered. Beyond. Belief. But hopefully Monday has been more forgiving for you! I hope you've had a special day in some way or another :) Was anything special today? Something, surely? Even just a little thing?

I've been so busy today that quite a few things overtook Chefbehereing prioritywise. Sorry. Until I REALISED . . . I couldn't call it a day without mentioning the marvellous throwing-together-of-things that occurred this lunchtime! I wouldn't call it cooking, or even remotely a recipe. But it tasted good and made for a very decent plateful of food!



Recipe: Falafel & lemon pepper couscous salad

Time Taken: 20 mins

Ingredients: Ready-made frozen falafel, dried couscous, houmous, pitted black olives, cucumber, lemon juice, paprika & black pepper.

I placed the frozen, ready-made falafel in an oven preheated to 200 degrees C for a quarter of an hour. Meanwhile, I depotted my couscous into a lovely ramekin and tapped a dash of paprika over the top of it. I sliced my cucumber and then quartered the slices into bite-sized amounts. I fished a dozen olives from my jar. I filled half of a second ramekin with couscous grains, a pinch of pepper and a dash of lemon juice. I added boiling water until the dish was full, covered it and left it for a few minutes. I tipped my couscous onto a plate, along with the houmous, olives and cucumber that I'd prepared. I safely removed my falafel from the oven and added them to this plate. I served it up.

And tucked into this!

This made for a gorgeous lunch for an on-the-go day when I new I wouldn't get much by way of tea later on. It worked out well! And you can throw together any combination of things you have in the house, I imagine, with a similarly successful result. Lacking anything green? This would have worked just as well with tomatoes or peppers, rather than cucumber. No fresh ingredients at all? How about you try out tinned sweetcorn to replace the cucumber? Be creative!

Readers, even on days when you're so harried you're formulating to-do lists on the loo, this is proof that you can still magic up something edible and fun. I know you can.

Keep it up!

Hayley