Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake

I have this Aunt, I've mentioned her before on here. She occasionally helps me out with a spot of cooking when I'm in a hurry. This Christmas she helped me out with the sprouts and swede & carrot mash as she knows that I prefer to be drinking fizz enjoying time with the children on Christmas morning rather than peeling and mashing. From time to time she also makes us a lovely lemon meringue pie.


Today my dear Aunt Bessie made a lovely Roasted Vegetable stuffing, which I decided to use in an easy peasy pasta bake. The kids (except Jack) loved it, Sam asked for seconds & wants it again tomorrow. 


You will need:


Aunt Bessies Roasted Vegetable Stuffing Mix
tbsp olive oil
Chopped onions - did you know you can buy these ready chopped & frozen..genius idea!
Sliced Mushrooms - ready sliced & frozen too!
tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
100ml water from the cooked pasta
grated cheese

• Make the stuffing up as per directions on the box

• Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions & mushrooms gently

• Add the stuffing and cook for 1 minute

• Add the tinned tomatoes, water and tomato puree, stir until combined

• Mix with the cooked pasta and pour into a large baking dish and cover with grated cheese
• Bake in a 190 degree (C) oven for 15-20 minutes until browned

Deep Filled Leftovers Pie

With all the overspending at Christmas I'm trying to put off a Supermarket shop until the weekend in an attempt to use up various leftovers and all the food-that-we-didn't-need-but-bought-because-it-was-Christmas. The first problem that arose was not having any bread. An easy solution would be to put the older two children on school dinners for the remainder of the week but as Jack still needed a packed lunch I decided to make a loaf in the breadmaker - problem solved. If only we had a cow, some chickens and an orchard we could be self sufficient!


Next I needed to make dinner and use up leftovers from a dinner made in between Christmas and New Year that I had put in the freezer. It consisted of a couple of pork chops, some carrots, broccoli and potato and I needed to stretch it between five without anyone feeling like that were eating less that half a pork chop each. I decided to make a pie but as I'd used all of my regular plain flour up on the run up to Christmas baking a gingerbread house and biscuits  it was necessary to use wholemeal. 


The recipe is as follows :


For the pastry
250g Plain Wholemeal Flour
pinch of salt
110g butter, cubed
4tbsp cold water


For the filling
2 cooked pork chops*
cooked carrots*
cooked broccoli*
cooked potato*
1/2 pint milk
5 tsp cornflour
100g Wensleydale & cranberry cheese**
1tsp Dijon mustard


* or any other leftovers
** or any other cheese 

• Either rub the butter into the flour & salt with fingertips, or use a food mixer or food processor which is much easier, until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Add the water and mix until it starts to come together, wrap in clingfilm & refrigerate for 15 minutes.
• Roll out pastry to cover the base of a pie dish and enough for the top.
• Cut the chops and vegetables into bite size pieces
• Boil the milk and add the cornflour mixed to a paste with a little cold water or milk - add a little at a time as you may need more or less cornflour to thicken to custard consistency.
• Stir in crumbled cheese and mustard, then stir the sauce into vegetables/meat
• Spoon filling into pie dish and lay the pastry on top
• Crimp around the edges with a fork and brush all over with milk
• Bake in a 180 degree oven for approx 45 minutes - or until golden brown

not looking too appetising yet

ready for the oven

fresh out of the oven

I served the pie with honey roasted parsnips and mixed vegetables (both from the freezer).
My pastry will never win prizes and always develops holes when I'm rolling out but I must admit this did taste good. The decorative leaves were partly to use up excess pastry and partly to cover over the cracks.
Verdict from the family taste testers : Delicious (well all except Jack who gagged on the pastry and refused to eat any more).

Easy Peasy Beany Chilli

I love my slow cooker but I usually forget about dinner until past lunchtime, by which time it's too late to start cooking in a slow cooker.


But when I'm organised I like to make a veggie chilli (just don't tell the husband that it's got no meat in....).


It's a very easy recipe, I just chop & throw in the pot, I don't bother with the 'frying off' as that just creates more washing up and the whole point of a slow cooker, in my opinion, is the beauty of 'one pot/less washing up' cooking. Since receiving my Cryotex knives it has made the whole chopping process a lot quicker and easier.


Here's my recipe - you can adjust the intensity of the chilli by adding more chilli flakes or chilli powder or leaving it out completely if you like a mild chilli - the cayenne pepper adds enough spice for some.


Ingredients


1 Onion - chopped
2 Small Carrots - chopped
1 Courgette - chopped
1 Small Butternut squash (approx 450g) - chopped
2 Garlic Cloves - chopped or crushed
290g Can Chilli Beans (in the chilli sauce)
400g Can Chickpeas
400g Baked Beans
1/2 Pint boiling water
1 tsp Paprika
1tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Crushed Chilli Flakes




Throw in the slow cooked, give it a mix and turn onto high and leave for around 4 hours before turning down to low for a further 2 hours or until you are ready to eat it.


And as if it didn't have enough veg in already, I added a couple of scoops of Kidz 5 a day to give it a richer flavour.....and to ensure that we all get our 5 a day!


Serve with Baked Potato/Rice and Cheese, or in a bowl with some crusty bread....