As Valentine’s Day is usually overlooked in our household due to my birthday being the day after we decided to have our Friday night treat as a bit of a Valentine’s by kicking up dinner a notch or two. We eat well but rarely will treat ourselves to something like a steak. I created this steak salad with crispy potatoes, artichokes and pine nut salad dressing from celebrity chef Valentine Warner‘s Aphrodisiac Menu For Two that he’s created specifically for Valentine’s Day which is inspired by ‘robust, flavoursome food and aphrodisiac inspired ingredients’.
Budget Crayfish & Prawn Salad
Ok, I know what you’re thinking. How can crayfish and prawns be budget? Someone remarked the other day that my lunch looked ‘so expensive’ in a fairly judgemental ‘why are you spending so much money on food, you’re irresponsible’ way. This kind of annoyed me because I know that I don’t overspend, I like to think I’m pretty good with money and love to eat good food but don’t want to spend the earth on it. In my teeny household we spend max £40 a week on food for two people and we eat this kind of ‘fancy’ salad at least once a week. This is one of my favourite lunches that I’m having at the moment and it’s well within our budget. I shop at Lidl so these are the roundabout prices for there, they occasionally chop and change though, so take them with a pinch of salt.
Low-Calorie Raspberry Overnight Oats
I’ve seen overnight oats everywhere recently, Pinterest, Instagram, Buzzfeed, you name it, they’re all over social media! I’ve wanted to try some for a while but I wasn’t keen on eating it cold, I think it’s a bit gross. So, here’s a little recipe I made out of a few different ones I had a look at which can be eaten hot or cold! The macros per portion are approximately 170 calories (before you add extra toppings) 5g of fat, 23g of carbs and 6g of protein. I really like these, they taste great and are so quick to prepare the night before and even quicker to heat up in the morning.
10 Minute Protein Flapjacks
I stole this recipe of one of my friends from work and decided to share because it’s super yummy (thanks Becki)! The macros are around 8g of protein, 18g of carbs & 4g with around 150 calories which is pretty good for a clean eating kinda snack. Check out the recipe below if you like the look of these.
The Copthorne Meatball
I admit it, I’m not the best cook. But, when Copthorne Hotels asked me to recreate their chef Mark’s recent recipe it sounded to nice to turn down. Check out the recipe and what it’s supposed to look like (!) here. The Copthorne Meatball is a seriously meaty and homely dish. There’s nothing better than mashed potato and gravy in my opinion, so let’s get to it!
Homemade Guacamole Recipe
The thing about me is, I love food and I quite like cooking but I’m a lazy cook and if it’s just for me, like it has been for pretty much 3 years of my university life, I’ll cook something big like chilli or lasagne and make it last 3 days or do something simple such as spicy chicken with some pasta and veg. So, there you have it, my cooking repertoire.
Baking a Battenburg!
The summer holidays will always mean moments of boredom for small people. It was our lovely Abby’s (our Nanny, we call her Abby as it’s short for the Spanish for grandma… long story short) birthday yesterday and she’s coming to stay tonight. We thought we’d make her a cake and it killed two birds as it kept little G occupied for an afternoon.
