WHATEVER... IT'S THE WEEKEND!

Nana Mug

Time Taken: Ten mins or so

Ingredients: 4 tablespoons of plain flour, ½ a teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, a good shake of cinnamon, a ripe banana, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of oil, a dash of vanilla extract & maybe a splash of milk. Optional: a handful of pecan nuts or raisins or choc chips, or anything you like really.

Hi readers,

It’s Fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I have that Friday feeling already! Whoooooooo! Mexican wave! Everybody now! All together… FRIDAY! FRIDAY! FRIIIIIIIIIDAY!

Basically, I’ve got the weekend off work and this never happens. I’m ditching the dissertation and all my cares, bussing it home and it’s my lovely Father Bear’s birthday today. Most exciting.

I say to everybody, whether you’re working or studying or whatever you’re doing this weekend… ditch your cares. You don’t need them! Whatever anti-feminist messages there are in the Fifty Shades film… whatever rose prices are this year… whatever the weathers messing about doing… wherever we’re at with global warming… LAY IT DOWN, PEOPLE.

Just… let it all go. You’ll feel better. See if you can muster a proper smile. Have a go at a random act of kindness, maybe. Do something unexpected. Shake things up. Live a little.

And DEFINITELY eat cake. Because, why not? Always eat cake. This week, in the flat at uni, it’s been a tremendously good week for cake! Tiddy’s very lucky boyfriend turned 21 and so she baked him a 3-tier lemon and blueberry cake masterpiece. Then, Dr Davies took to Easter about 2 months early and baked us all a batch of Crème Egg brownies! How lucky are we?

I missed her brownies last year as I’d given up chocolate for Lent and so this was A BIG DEAL for me. So, so good. They were tremendous.

I haven’t had much time this week for any baking mastery myself. Althoughhhhh, I did come up with another wonderful cheat recipe for making cake in the microwave! I know… ANOTHER ONE. I definitely need to get it together and detach myself from the microwave. The Great British Bake Off is back this week and has DEFINITELY inspired me to stop cheating and get my proper bake on again. It has shamed me.

Howeverrrr, just for now, here’s one final way to cheat your way to CAKE using only a few ingredients from the cupboards. I won’t tell how you made it, if you don’t. This latest recipe is for a big favourite of mine, Banana Bread, and while it definitely doesn’t match the real deal… this recipe does taste magnificent. Really. And it saves you and actual hour of your life, compared with baking Banana Bread in the oven. An hour which you can spend carefree!

To get your cheat on and bake a Nana Mug in just ten moves, here’s wotcha do…

1. Take 2 mugs out of the cupboard.

2. In the first mug spoon in 4 tablespoons of plain flour, ½  a teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add a good shake of cinnamon.

3. If you’ve got ‘em, chop up a handful of pecan nuts and throw them in the mug, too. Stir it up!

ChefBeHere Top Tip: No nuts? How about a handful of raisins or choc chips? Go wild!

4. In your second mug, mash a banana.

5. Add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of oil and a dash of vanilla extract. Stir it up!

6. Slide the contents of your mug of goo into your mug of flour. Stir it up!

7. Then, because there’s bound to be flour stuck in the bottom that you can’t reach, tip it all back into the other mug. Keep on stirring!

ChefBeHere Top Tip: If you’re mix seems quite solid then maybe add a splash of milk to loosen it up. It depends on how big your banana was, and so on. Just use your good judgement, chef.

8. Pop your mug mix into the microwave to warm for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, stick the kettle on for a brew.

9. After 2 minutes, does it look like cake or cake mix in your mug? If it’s cake then you’re good to go! If it’s mix then probably give it another minute.

10. Then with your mug of tea and your mug of cake, go get comfy and enjoy your lovely treat.

Here’s my very own Nana Mug!

And that’s all there is to it. This recipe barely even requires ten moves. It’s seriously simple! Plus, no butter or eggs so, unless you’re adding milk, this recipe is entirely cupboard-based. Nothing fresh involved. You could have been a hermit in your home for like a fortnight or more (though I don’t advise this) and still be able to make a Nana Mug. It’s that good.

And it tastes like home! Be sure not to heat for too long in the microwave, or to start with a really thick mix, because then I think this recipe has the potential to be dry. Because there’s no jam or peanut butter or applesauce for moisture.

But mine went great! Tasted like heaven. Quick, easy, cheap, simple. Very student. Very me. And, I hope, very you! Go give a Nana Mug a try and go have a good weekend, everyone. Shoo.

Cheat safely,

Hayley

 

Will you BEAN my Valentine!

Italian Bean Bowl

 

Time taken: 20 mins

Ingredients: 2 veggie sausages, half a tin of butter beans, half a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a carrot, a stick of celery, a clove of garlic, some fresh basil, a teaspoon of sugar, oil, and salt and pepper.

Hi readers,

Good morning! I hope you’re well and you’ve had a wonderful start to your day, and a good start just to the week in general. It’s a big week! This is the week of looooove. Saturday is Valentine’s Day!

 

So, I realise Valentine’s Day isn’t for everyone. It enrages people year upon year. The idea of having a specific day for people to be loving and caring on… is an eyebrow-raiser. Every year people will say:

“It’s so American and commercial and fake!”

Or

“Yeah, we’re going anti-Valentine’s and sticking a horror film on.”

Or

“I’m a regular romantic I do this stuff all the time, so Valentine’s? It’s just another day for me.”

 

The complaining begins.

People get really divided. And face pressure to compete with other couples. And get nervous about what their partner might be expecting from them. And, generally speaking, wish Valentine’s would just go away.

 

But, I’m here to say, I like the idea of Valentine’s Day! You don’t need to do anything for it and we don’t need a day for love. But isn’t it just… nice? It’s nice to be reminded to treat those around you and show a little love and caring. How can that be a bad thing??

 

Readers, this weekend I’m heading home to Sheffield! HURRAYYYYY! It’s been a long while since I’ve been home now and I’m counting down the minutes until I can spend time with the family. Literally, I’m beyond excited to see them all.

 

And so this Valentine’s weekend I’m going to be spending time with my loved ones at home. No chocolates or roses coming my way this year, certainly no Fifty Shades, but I’m pretty happy all the same. And I hope that you all also get to show a little love this weekend, in one way or another… and that love comes back your way in return.

 

So, today I’m going to share with you the recipe for a very simple and quick-to-make, but really surprisingly tasty tea, which I cooked for myself a few days ago! Up in Newcastle, I’m running down my fresh food stocks a little, ahead of my visit home. So this recipe came about, readers, because I was getting creative and trying to throw a meal together from the ingredients that I had in my cupboard. I wasn’t expecting a lot!

 

But the Italian Bean Bowl was borne from my kitchen wizardry… and it tasted pretty fine! This is a warming bowlful of food made from very cheap ingredients, which fills you up to the brim. And requires MINIMAL cheffing expertise.

 

So, if you’re looking for some foolproof food to dish up for your Valentine this Saturday, to impress them with your culinary skills, maybe? Or you’re looking for a hearty bowl of food to remind you of home comforts, until you next get to visit family at home? This could be your Recipe of Destiny.

 

Here’s how to throw together your very own Italian Bean Bowl (like a mama make it!) in just ten easy steps:

1. Heat your grill.

2. Chop your cherry tomatoes in half, slice your carrot and celery, and chop your garlic up as small as you can.

3. Brush your veggie sausages with a little oil and pop them under the grill to cook.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Check the pack first because not all veggie sausages need to be oiled in order to cook. I was using Quorn sausages but you can use any kind that you like!

4. Heat some oil in a frying pan, and fry your carrot, celery and garlic for 5 minutes until your veg soften and begin to brown.

5. Add your cherry tomatoes, chopped tomatoes and sugar to the pan.

6. Stir it up! Season with salt and pepper.

7. Tip your beans into the pan along with a splash of water. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, turn your sausages over in the grill so that their other sides can cook.

9. After 5 minutes, remove your sausages from the grill and chop them up into bite-sized amounts.

10. Stir into your bean mix along with the chopped fresh basil. Then serve your food up in a bowl!

And here’s a shot of my Italian Bean Bowl from the other night. :)

 

Suuuuuch a tasty bowlful of food. This Italian Bean recipe is one that’s very tomatoey and very rich, but really quite good for you, I believe! I count 4 of your 5-a-day of fruit’n’veg in this bowl, and only good carbohydrates in sight! Beans are filled sky high with protein so eating this bowlful for tea should power you on in into the evening for some night owl study work, or maybe charge you up for… some romancing.

 

Either way, I hope you find a new favourite recipe in this Italian Bean Bowl and that it inspires you to use up some of the tins that you have stockpiled in your cupboard, now that all the snow warnings seem to have passed.

 

Readers, feel the love this week and have some fun in your kitchens.

Date safely,

Hayley


 

PERFECTION IN SIMPLICITY

Peach Muggler

 

Time taken: Quarter of an hour

Ingredients: 6 peach slices, 4 tablespoons of plain flour, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter, half a teaspoon of baking powder, a splash of milk and a dash of cinnamon! (Optional: a handful of pecan nuts).

Hi readers,

I hope you’re all well on this wonderful, sunny start to our weekend. I came upon a quote yesterday on Instagram, which read:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. It is easy to forget that a perfect morning is only three ingredients away: coffee, pups and sunshine. Find perfection in simplicity.”
(groundsandhounds, Instagram).

 

I think this is so true!! At a time when everyone is stressed and rushed and overrun with work… I advocate just sacking it off at the weekend. Keep things simple! Take some time to yourself and be kinder to yourself than maybe you normally would be. That bath you considered? That magazine you almost bought? That new music album you really want to listen to?? Put the other things on hold and treat yourself!

 

Another way to treat yourself is, of course, with food! One of my friends this week, Ville, her life was changed while eating out at a restaurant this week by a Peach Cobbler. She got in touch specifically to tell me that I need to…

a) Eat Peach Cobbler, and

b) Figure out how to make it at home so she can eat it all the time.

 

And you can’t say no to a face like that! I’ve never eaten Peach Cobbler before so I was MOST intrigued, readers. Butttt I looked online and a lot of the recipes made big baking dishfuls of Cobbler that feed a family. I’m only one person. And I didn’t know whether I was going to like this dish. Also, I’m a person that HAS had a lot on her plate this week. So, when I happened upon a recipe for Peach Cobbler for one, a recipe that you can make in a mug using the microwave… I was sold.

 

Here readers, without further ado, is the secret to throwing together a cheat’s version of this pudding, Peach Muggler, in ten easy steps…

1. Arm yourself with 2 (yes… 2!) mugs.

2. In one mug spoon a decent table spoon of butter.

3. Pop this in the microwave for up to a minute until the butter melts.

4. Add 2 tablespoons of water and a splash of milk (optional) to this mug, and stir in with the butter.

5. In your second mug (preferably, a big one) spoon 4 tablespoons of plain flour.

6. Add 2 tablespoons of white sugar, half a teaspoon of baking powder and a dash of cinnamon.

7. Stir together all the dry ingredients that are in Mug 2. Then, add them to Mug 1 and stir it ALL into one mix.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: If you happen to have been MOST irresponsible with your money while you were in the supermarket and, as a result, you have pecan nuts in your cupboard (I’m guilty) then chop a handful of them up and add them to your batter. They add some crunch to your Muggler!

8. Take a tin of slices peaches and drain it. Tip most into a Tupperware and pop them in the fridge to eat another time.

9. Save about 6 peach slices. Lay these in a square of kitchen roll and try to dab them dry using the roll, so that they won’t soggy up your Muggler with peach juice.

10. Finally, add your peaches to the mug (either sit them on top of your cake or stir them in). Microwave for one minute. Leave to rest for maybe half a minute. Then, microwave for another minute. AND FEAST.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: The reason for the rest half way through microwaving is that, if the same thing happens to you as it did to me, your Muggler mix might froth a little in the microwave. Like a science experiment! I think maybe the peaches react with the batter?? Who knows! Anyway, the froth tastes amazingly sweet, but just watch for it overtopping the mug while your Muggler warms.

And you just made Peach Muggler :)

 

This makes for a VERY sweet, extreeemely indulgent mugful of cake to treat yourself to in an evening. I love it. This recipe is super easy to make, with cheap, simple and really basic ingredients. PLUS there’s fruit in Peach Muggler… so it scores points for health in my books.

 

 

And it just tastes wonderful! It’s frothy and sugary and cinammony. Everything you need in life! Please, please… be kind to yourself, readers, and go bring Peach Muggler into your life. Keep things simple this weekend.

Froth safely,

Hayley

Congratulations & Curry

Chef’s Own Curry

 

Time taken: Half an hour

Ingredients: A carrot, a stick of celery, a handful of cherry tomatoes, some fresh basil leaves, a clove of garlic, a vegetable stock cube, oil, two tablespoons of curry paste and one of tomato puree. And a naan bread.

Hi readers,

Today you’re feeling… ? How does that sentence end? How are you really feeling? Think about it. Honestly, today I’m feeling doubtful. About everything. Life. I find that once you let one doubt in, they all hit you at once.

 

Should I spend more time working? Or less? Eat more? Or less? Sleep more? Or less? Talk more? Or less?? Should I have come to uni? What will I do after? Where is my life heading and where will I be in a year? Who will I be, what will I do, which city will I live in? Will it all be worth this?!

 

Me and many of my friends are going through a time of uncertainty. Worry. Stress. Pressure. Panic. Fear. Which, funnily enough not at ALL, is a subject I’m writing a 10,000-word dissertation on.

 

And some days it has you down. All of it does. There’s ALSO tons of really good things going on in my life too. But, you know, some days you let things get to you. Tomorrow will be better.

 

Things at home in Sheffield are very positive because my Brother Bear has been offered a wonderful opportunity! He’s going to start on a top notch, well paid, really competitive engineering apprenticeship in September!! It sounds like a REALLY solid scheme he’s earned himself a place on. Literally, everyone at home’s so proud of him. He went all the way to Nottingham for an interview, risked missing a Sheffield United game over it (!!!) and he aced it!

 

To me, my Brother Bear’s still about six year’s old with spiky hair, a Lightsaber and pockets full of Crazy Bones. And now he’s going to be a man with a van. What is life???

 

 

To celebrate his big news, everyone’s been out for a curry tonight at home. As is the tradition on such occasions. And so, following suit, I’ve made a curry here too! I’m joining them in spirit. And sending long distance high fives to my Bro!!

 

If you’ve occasion for a curry, he’s how to throw one together in ten easy steps…

1. Heat your oven to 200˚C.

2. Prep your ingredients! Chop your carrot and celery into small chunks. Cut your tomatoes in half. Very finely chop your garlic and then shred your basil leaves.

3. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add your garlic, carrot and celery.

4. Cook for a few minutes until your carrot is tender.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep everything moving around the pan so that nothing has the time to burn!

5. Crumble your stock cube into the pan and add your curry paste, along with half a mug of water.

6. Stir it up! Then leave to simmer for ten minutes.

7. Meanwhile, flick either side of your naan bread with a little water and pop it into the oven to warm.

8. When the curry in your pan has thickened and doesn’t look watery, add your tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and basil leaves. Stir it up!

9. Flip your naan over in the oven so that its other side can warm.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I would pop a plate in the oven with it to take the chill off the plate. You can't get in there though, no matter how chilly you are.

10. After a few minutes, take your plate out of the oven along with your naan bread. Cut the naan into quarters. Spoon your curry over the top and serve up!

Here’s my delicious curry from earlier tonight :)

 

It really isn’t a hard dish to make! You don’t need to travel to India or taken a course in spices. You don’t need to convert to Hinduism or seek approval in an ashram from a mystic guru, before you can have a try at one. Flippin’ eck. It’s just a curry. And, so I hear, this is actually a British dish the way we make it. It’s home grown. There’s no advanced culinary knowledge required. No exotic components. A curry is as simple to prepare, readers, as the plot of a Bollywood film.

 

Plus, you don’t need to make a vat of the stuff and then eat curry for the rest of 2015! A common misconception, that is. This recipe makes for ONE PORTION of very fiery, tomato-y curry. It’s extremely filling and tasty. Also, very healthy and nutritious. Without ANY expensive or hard-to-come-by ingredients. And you can switch up the ingredients all you like! Anything goes. Onion, mushroom, cauliflower, peas… loads of veg work in curry. You decide.

 

I enjoyed this tea far more than I expected to. So, I may not have been eating out at a restaurant at home with the Fam, that was true. And a shame. But this didn’t stop me from tucking into some decent grub, all the same. I don’t know if I’ve once before cooked curry without a jar of Lloyd Grossman’s to hand… until today. Now there’s no going back!

 

Readers, I urge you to make the move with me and give homemade curry a try. There’s nothing to stop you and nothing to lose! And you just might really like this. Don’t doubt it. And don’t doubt yourself.

Spice safely,

Hayley

Biker's Pie

 

 

Time taken: An hour and three quarters, I reckon. 

Ingredients: 200g Quorn mince, 1 onion, 1 stick of celery, 1 carrot, half a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato puree, a veggie Oxo cube, 2 teaspoons of cornflour, a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, a teaspoon or Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper. Plus, 400g potatoes, a leek, 2 tablespoons of reduced-fat crème fraiche & some oil.

Hello readers,

Good evening lovely people! Greetings from Newcastle-upon-Tyne! Today here on this first Monday of February it is dark, bitterly cold, reasonably windy, not a cloud in sight for shelter… this is a bloody HARSH climate we’re living in. It’s coooooold.

 

It’s like how I imagine Scotland or Norway. Or Finland. Or Antractica! Literally, there are a lot of Newcastle students from down south thinking WHAT IS THIS. And international students here that are thinking THIS IS A PLACE PEOPLE GO TO, TO DIE!

 

Newcastle is a cruel, cruel world right now. The cake consumption in my house has gone through the roof. There’s a lottt of cake being eaten here. It’s a Cake Fest. A cake-o-rama. WE’RE CAKING IT UP PEOPLE. We’re strong, empowered women. Battling our way through winter – one Mug Cake at a time. :P And so life isn’t that bad. I hope you’ve had a not-so-bad Monday wherever you are. And that you have something to be thankful for on this evening. Even if it’s only cake.

 

So, last week it was my turn to host Floss for tea. We keep taking it in turns to host, so that one of us gets a night off cooking. Like husband and wife. At the time last week, it was a terrifically cold day (when isn’t it??) and I was full of cold and feeling bloody rubbish. So I wanted to make some proper food to serve for tea, to warm us both up and help me to fight off my cold, and to impress Floss with my fabulous culinary skills!

 

I had the idea to try and make a shepherd’s pie, but I don’t think I’ve ever done this by myself before. I tend not to bother with family-sized dishes when I’m normally only cooking for one. But this night I wasn’t! So I set about googling and found a recipe by the Hairy Biker’s with lots of vegetables in, which looked delicious. You can view their original of the recipe HERE.

 

I downsized the recipe’s quantities so that it would make either 4 sensible or 3 bear-sized portions (we’re all bears here), and then vegetarianised its ingredients, and voila! A hearty new recipe to try. This recipe requires quite a few ingredients to make, but none of them are fancy and if you potter about in the kitchen on a regular basis then, chances are, you’ll have a good number of them in. I was surprised how many I had! There’s nothing fancy or unusual involved. Just a lot of regular stuff.

 

Here’s how to cook up a big dish of Bikers Pie like I did, in ten easy steps:

1. Heat your oven to 220˚C. DEFINITELY sort yourself a cuppa and turn on the radio for this one. Prep your ingredients! Chop up your carrot, celery, onion and leek, and have these ready on a chopping board. Peel your potatoes and then chop these up until you have 400g of potato cubes ready, which you can sit in a saucepan for now.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: There’s a lot of ingredients involved here in this recipe, A LOT, so I recommend getting them all out of the fridge, the freezer and your cupboards, and sitting them together on the counter. That way you can’t forget or misplace anything. In theory.

 

2. Take the biggest saucepan you have and heat some oil in this. Add your mince, carrot, onion and celery to the pan. Cook these for about ten minutes until they’re lightly browned.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep prodding everything about so that it doesn’t singe! Stay focused on your pan.

3. Boil the kettle. Sit your Oxo cube in a measuring jug and then pour 250ml of boiling water over it. Stir vigorously, with a firm arm, until your cube dissolves and you’ve made stock.

4. Open your tin of tomatoes and pour half into a Tupperware to keep in the fridge and use another day. Pour the second half of the tomatoes into your pan, along with the stock, your tomato puree, and your Worcestershire sauce and herbs. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper into the pan.

 

5. Stir it up! This is your pie filling all together now. You can leave it to simmer for forty minutes and take a quarter of an hour break yourself.

 

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I used this time to recover the kitchen, then clear the dining table and set it nicely to be ready for dining with Floss later. You can just dance around though.

6. Then, boil your kettle and fill the pan containing your potato cubes with water. Pop a lid on it and set this pan to boil for the next 20 minutes. Give your pie filling a stir and take ten more minutes for yourself.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I used this time to make myself presentable for dinnertime. I had been looking, as my flatmate Brummanie would say… somewhat ‘dishevelled’. But you should just chill. Remember to always stay hydrated while Cheffing.

7. Back to the kitchen, heat some oil in a small frying pan and fry your leeks for 5 minutes until they soften. You can take them off the heat when they start to brown.

8. Drain your boiled potatoes into a colander then return them to their pan. Add to the pan a couple of dollops of crème fraiche and a sprinkle of black pepper. Arm yourself with a masher. Enthusiastically mash your potatoes until they’re fluffy and smooth, but with a few lumps remaining. Stir your leeks into the mash.

9. Mix your cornflour with a teaspoon of cold water until this forms a smooth paste, then chuck it in your big pan of pie filling and stir for a few minutes. The cornflour should thicken everything up a little in the pan.

10. Finally, pour the contents of your pan into an ovenproof dish. Spoon dollops of mash over the top of your filling. Then, use a fork to spread the mash about until it covers all of your pie filling and this has a smooth surface. Safely transport your Bikers Pie into the oven to bake for half an hour until it has turned golden and the filling is bubbling. Take it out and serve it up!

Here’s my Biker’s Pie greeting the world

 

And there you have it! This is a proper filling, proper wholesome, really British dish. It’s one for winter, definitely. But with all the veg involved in this version and the Quorn, and as you aren’t throwing any cheese over it, I don’t think it’s actually that bad for you! The Hairy Bikers have done us proud and made a waistband-friendly version of this classic, one that tastes scrumptious.

 

I liked this very much and Floss seemed to as well. Plates were cleared! Then, I liked it again a couple of nights later when I reheated leftover Bikers Pie, for an easy tea after work. This saved well in the fridge and microwaved well for a second night’s feast. I imagine you can freeze this too, if you like.

 

Overall, the recipe took some doing. You need an armful of ingredients, a couple of hours to spare and with 3 pans involved there’s a fair bit of washing up to do! BUT, really, they’re all simple, cheap ingredients. You get loads of breaks throughout the cooking, to have a chill and sit down. And a tea tasting this lovely quite justifies doing a few measly dishes, in my opinion.

 

So gather your stuff and get this on! Change up your diet from an endless parade of Mug Cakes.  Feed a friend, feed a few friends, or just feed yourself a few times over. Bikers Pie is one that’s worth the effort.

Mash safely,

Hayley