Food heaven

Day 1 - Lunchbox lunches

As I mentioned in a previous post I struggle with deciding what to make for lunch everyday and I find myself bored with the usual sandwich. So on a search for lunchtime recipes I have come up with another leftovers version of calzone - specifically designed for lunch and to use up the leftover veggies and meat from a Sunday roast (or mid week roast - what ever day you decide to have it). I cooked roast lamb and roasted the veggies I had in the fridge - beetroot, cherry tomatoes (I roasted these for a short period of time and then soaked in balsamic), parsnip, red and brown onion (we over ordered on the onions in our weekly shop), carrots and courgette. Using the rest of the dough from last weeks pizza I rolled it out to a thin pizza sized base and then placed cut up lamb and veggies on half of the dough, leaving about 2 cm from the edge to pull it all together. I ladeled over gravy - only a little bit, I didn’t want the base to go soggy and the placed on foil and put in the over at 200 degrees celcius for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I removed the foil and let it cook on the bare shelf to crust up the bottom for another 10 minutes. I took it out of the oven, cut it in half, wrapped it in foil and placed it straight in the fridge so that it would cool quickly. So far it looks good and the little bit I tasted, was great - but will let you know tomorrow. 

Snack - homemade pesto with carrots and celery - yum!!!

prettylittlepieces:

Bleu Cheese & Walnut Tartlets

My sister (oursat) found this great blog via tumblr with this fantastic recipe for blue cheese and walnut tarlets - perfect picnic food I say and we have everything but the leak and the celery salt. I think these are a must for our first picnic food. What do you think. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the link for the recipe.

Calzones - leftover style

Today’s Saturday and our groceries are being delivered this afternoon. Although when I looked in the fridge this morning I realised we have rather alot of vegetables leftover and how did I not see all those tomatoes before I ordered more that are still in the fridge (that will teach me for doing my online shopping at work). So with that in mind I pulled out what was left of the spinach leaves, courgette, cherry tomatoes, beans and asparagus as well as a clove of garlic, sprig of fresh rosemary, an egg and some crumbly cheese that neither my sister or I have eaten (very surprising since cheese usually last only a day). I had also made pizza dough on Monday night that was still wrapped snuggly in plastic. I did a quick check online to see if there was anything that I might need to consider when making a calzone and then started.

In a pan I fried the vegetables in olive oil with a teaspoon of butter for flavour, adding the garlic and rosemary. Be careful not to over cook the vegies as they are going in the oven for another 12 minutes. Once they were ready I rolled out the dough into an oval shape (about thin pizza dough thickness) and placed the vegetable mix on one side, leaving enough room to crimp the edges together (about 2 cm). I fried the egg to it was still runny and placed on top of the vegetables and crumbled the cheese over. I folded the dough over and pushed the edges together so they were like little waves. I put on foil and placed in the over for 12 minutes.

My sister who thought it smelled ok, but was dubious about the whole concept of spinach in a calzone and not something dripping with cheese decided to try ‘a little bit’. Her verdict was a successful recipe. Not for the carb free though.

Note about recipe: Leave out the egg - it didn’t add any real flavour to the dish and put the calzone on the oven shelf for the last couple of minutes of cooking to crisp the base. Great lunch recipe - very much like a cornish pasty.

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peanut butter cookie

I had the urge for something with peanut butter, so I googled peanut butter cookies. I went to my favourite websites, Jamie Oliver and Nigella - nothing. So I broadened my search and found a recipe that suited all of the ingredients in my cupboard - well mostly. The recipe I found called for white sugar and brown sugar. The only problem is that we ran out of white sugar last week and I forgot to replace it in my grocery shop this week. Yes I could have gone to the store which admittedly is less than a five minute walk away, but that would have meant actually leaving the house - not an appealing thought! So instead I replaced the white sugar with brown, although a little less as I thought that the brown sugar might overpower the recipe ( I googled other recipes and they all had the combination of both). I also wanted to add a little depth to this that wasn’t just about peanut butter so I added a tablespoon of golden syrup. Since brown sugar is wetter than white I had to add more flour to compensate. See my recipe below.

What a lovely day yesterday. My friend A came over for lunch. I had intended to feed her chicken soup and then the poached chicken salad and of course the rice Krispy treats for afters. The plan was a good one. However when I started putting together the salad I wasn’t willing to wait until I heated up the chicken soup before eating it. It really is that delicious! A agrees, she left with a bag of rice krispy treats and the recipe for the salad (thank you Jamie). I’m going to try it with haloumi this week. 

We then went to the Clocktower markets in Greenwich where a treasure trove of delights can be found at such great prices. I ended up buying a pair of shoes. I shake my head as I say this. I really don’t need another pair of shoes, but they are a gorgeous pair of burgundy heels and vintage to boot! They only cost £8. How could I not buy them for that price, they would have been deeply offended. 

I have to also admit to buying another two pair of shoes that in my defence only cost £10 each and will be essential when summer arrives (if it arrives this year). A pair of flips flops (or thongs as we call them in Australia) so cute, that I find myself wanting to wear now, but it is a little too cold outside. The second paid are a pair of wedges to wear when I wear linen pants (which is most of the summer). I couldn’t resist. I only have one pair of wedges and they are not far from being unfit for wear, so really I was saving myself money for the future! It was weird buying shoes for summer when it was cold and dark outside and it was only 5 o’clock. They are still gorgeous. I’m thinking of trekking over to Highgate today as really want to see the cemetery where Dracula is said to have been born ( as in Bram Stoker version, not Vampire Diaries version).