Easy Tomato and Spinach Pasta Sauce

The fastest pasta sauce in the world! Ready??

You will need:

Handful of tomatoes

Handful of spinach

Fresh basil (just under half a handful)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Add a splash of olive oil into a pan. Add the tomatoes - I used baby plum tomatoes and left some whole and roughly diced the rest. Stir over a medium heat. 

Add the red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and bring to boil. Then reduce heat and add the spinach and basil. Stir until spinach has wilted and is dark in colour. 

Add this to your pasta and you are done! This is a nice, sweet sauce with minimal mess! 

Enjoy! 

Vegetable smileys

This is basically a fun version of bubble and squeak! If you have leftover veg, this is a great way to use it up (and sneak loads of veggies into a meal!)

I'll list the ingredients I used below, however you could really use any vegetables you want:

1 portion of leftover mashed potato

1 sweet potato

1 handful of peas

1 medium sized carrot

Handful of spinach

1 garlic clove

1 white onion

Breadcrumbs

2 tsp corn flour 

Salt and pepper to taste (optional)

If you aren't using leftovers:

Peel and dice the potato, sweet potato and carrot. Place in a pan of water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until cooked through.  Add the peas and boil for a further 6 mins. Drain and leave to cool.

In another pan, add your onion (diced) and a splash of olive oil. Once the onion starts to brown, add the garlic (diced) and spinach, stir until spinach starts to wilt and turn soft and dark in colour. 

Leave to cool. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 180C.

Once all cool, add all ingredients into a food processor 

and blend until a smooth consistency. 

Transfer into a bowl. If the consistency is quite wet, add the corn flour and a good sprinkle of breadcrumbs.

Next take a spoonful of the mixture and roll into a ball in your hand. (As mine was quite sticky I found having dry hands really helped... So this did mean having to wash and dry my hands after every smiley!)

Then flatten into a circle.

Using the end of a spoon, add your eye holes.

And the same for a mouth!

Line a baking tray with tin foil - as I was paranoid these would stick, I sprinkled a bit of flour and breadcrumbs over one tray and wiped a light coating of oil onto the second tray - just to check which would work best! (I can confirm that they both worked equally as well! But I'm maybe slightly leaning towards the oil method!)

Cook in the oven for 20-25 mins or until starting to turn golden. 

And there you have it! Hidden veggies, fake chips and smiley faces all in one! What's not to love!! I've left a few of these over for the boys tea tonight, the rest are going straight into the freezer stash! 

Chocolate and Banana Overnight Oats

This is an incredibly indulgent breakfast! But apparently it is healthy?! So it's all good! I don't really have much of a sweet tooth, but since Christmas and the overwhelming stash of chocolate coins, this boy has quite the taste for it! Since he has not been too well the last week and not eating much lately, I thought I would give him a bit of chocolatey treat to try and entice him to eat! This is super easy to make and really tasty! 

For this you will need: 

100g oats

70g milk

1 banana mashed

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp cacao powder

1 tbsp of honey/maple syrup/agave nectar 

Method

Mix all of the ingredients together and place in the fridge overnight (or 1 hour at a minimum) 

The oats and chia seeds will soak up the moisture and will become a nice, thick consistency. 

The jar I used had enough for a 2-3 portions. However I did end up having a portion myself! Enjoy!

Pork and Beef Spaghetti Bolognese

I always thought the authentic way to make Spag Bol was part beef mince part pork mince, which is what this recipe is, however on further inspection, it would appear that the authentic version contains pancetta rather than pork mince, but hey! This is a cheaper alternative and I'm sure Jamie Oliver once made it this way... Anyway enough with the blabbing, here is the recipe!

You will need:

1 small tray of beef mince

1/2 small tray of pork mince, or 2-4 pork sausages (I used pork and leek sausages which were in the reduced section of the supermarket!)

1 large white onion

1 large carrot

1-2 sticks of celery 

1 tin tomatoes

Tomato purée

2 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Olive oil

Italian seasoning or herbs of your choice

Pasta - I used a mix of wholewheat and white spaghetti as that's all I had in the cupboard!

First prepare your veg: peel and dice the onion, carrot and celery and place in large saucepan. Add a splash of oil and fry on a medium heat for 3-4 mins until onion has started to go soft. Peel and dice the garlic and add to the saucepan. Then fry for a further minute.

Add your beef mince and break up with a wooden spoon. Stir until browned. 

Then add your pork mince. Or in my case - sausages. If you are using sausages, cut open the skin and squeeze out the mince.

Stir, breaking up the mince.

Then add your tinned tomatoes.

Break up the tomatoes (if whole) and stir well. Then add the tomato purée. I used  around 3-4 tbsp (just under half a tube). Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low. 

Let the sauce simmer until all veg is soft (roughly 20-30 mins). Meanwhile cook your pasta to the packet instructions. Before draining, take 2 tbsp of the water the pasta has cooked in and add to the Bolognese sauce. Then drain and serve up! 

I managed to get quite a few portions out of this (including two adult portions for my parents - not pictured!) Lots more for the freezer stash! Enjoy!

Pizza: Part 2 - Roasted Vegetable Pizza Sauce

I absolutely love roasting vegetables for either a pasta sauce or pizza sauce. It's more tasty and you can hide loads of veggies in there!

For this I used:

1 red bell pepper

A handful of various tomatoes (cherry tomatoes, salad tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beef tomatoes etc.)

1 garlic clove peeled

1 small red onion peeled and diced 

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tsp Italian seasoning (or herbs of your choice) 

Olive oil

(You could use any vegetable you like, I sometimes like to add aubergine, courgettes etc.)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Dice all larger vegetables and place in oven roasting dish. Add the onion, garlic and whole tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and mix so all veg is evenly covered. 

Place into oven and roast for around 20 minutes or until all veg is soft.

Then use either a normal blender or handheld and blitz until it's a smooth consistency. 

Add the tomato purée and herbs and mix together. 

You can either use this as a pasta sauce or a pizza sauce, I used this for both! 

For your pizzas...

Preheat oven to 200C

For your pizza dough, please see this recipe. 

Cover oven tray with tin foil and lightly dust with flour to stop dough from sticking when cooked. 

On your pre rolled pizza dough bases, spread a thin layer of the sauce.

Top with whatever toppings you want to use - I used mozzarella, grated cheddar, ham and sweetcorn. I would have used more veg as a topping, but wanted to keep it relatively simple as the boy has been so fussy lately!

Then cook for roughly 12-15 minutes or until cooked through.

I then froze off a load of these for my freezer stash, as they are great for freezing.

Pizza: Part 1 - Dough

We have pizza night in this house probably a bit too often - but we usually start cooking this once the boy had gone to sleep so he tends to miss out! I thought this time I'd save a bit of dough over and make the boy some mini pizzas for the boy and top up the freezer stash at the same time!

Dough recipe

We like to follow a BBC Good Food recipe as its really easy and the dough always turns out really good! But make a few tweaks...

Ingredients

500g plain flour (with extra for dusting)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp dried yeast (we use Allinson Easy Bake Yeast)

400ml warm water

Place flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix together. 

Add yeast to warm water and stir thoroughly. 

Make a well in the middle of the flour and add 1/3 of the warm water solution. Mix together with hands, kneading slowly adding more water as needed. You may not need to use all of the water and you can add more flour if the mix is too wet. Knead for a few minute each time you add any water. You will know it's the right consistency when the dough just stops sticking to your hands.

Once you have your dough ready, place it into another mixing bowl which has been sparingly greased with olive oil and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave somewhere warm (e.g. An airing cupboard or near a radiator) for around an hour. 

Then dust a clean, dry surface and rolling pin with flour. Separate the dough into even portions (depending on the size and amounts you are planning on making). A fist sized piece of dough would roll out to be around a 9 inch pizza, but this will vary on how thick you want your base and crust. 

Once you have rolled your pizza dough into flat shapes, you can start to add the toppings of your choice.

See my Pizza Toppings recipe for more inspiration!

Banana, blueberry and oat muffins

The boy has a tendency to demand a banana, have one bite and not want any more! And there's only so much banana I can force myself to eat! So instead of wasting a perfectly good banana, I searched Pinterest for a good banana muffin recipe.

I used this recipe and it was really easy! 

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

• 340g self raising flour
• 25g oats (plus an extra handful for sprinkling before baking)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1 egg, whisked
• 125ml milk
• 3 tbsp Greek or natural yogurt
• 60ml vegetable oil
• 150g blueberries

However, looking back at this recipe, I didn't use yogurt as I didn't have any and just realised I didn't use oil either! Didn't see that in there! They still turned out ok, but I would probably use those next time!

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a muffin tin with 12 cases.
2. Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir together until well combined and sticky.
3. Add in the blueberries and gently fold them into the dough.
4. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and sprinkle the spare oats over the top of the muffins.

5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are firm and golden brown.

6. Leave to cool before tucking in!