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! 

Carrot and Coriander Soup

I haven't had carrot and coriander soup for years! I went through a phase of eating it every day for lunch when I was in high school and understandably went off it completely! But I quite fancied it and thought it would be a nice meal to try on the boy. This is really easy and super tasty (excuse the pun!)

For this I used:

2 large carrots

1 white onion

1 clove of garlic

1 1/2 pints vegetable stock 

Pinch of salt and pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp ground coriander 

Handful of fresh coriander chopped 

Olive oil

Method

Peel and dice carrots and onion. Place in a pan with a splash of olive oil and the ground coriander and nutmeg. Let the veg sweat for around five minutes. Add the garlic and sweat for one minute.

Then add the stock and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and let simmer with the pan lid on for around 20-30 mins until all veg is cooked through. As I prefer a thicker soup, I left this to simmer for longer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add the chopped fresh coriander (leave a bit to sprinkle over the top when serving).

Then using a handheld blender, I blended this until smooth. 

This made quite a few bowls, I was expecting to get a bit more out of it, but maybe if I didn't reduce the liquid I might have got more! Still it was enough for our lunch and a few for the freezer stash! 

Sweet Potato Wedges

Sweet potatoes are a great healthy alternative to normal potatoes - and really tasty. We love to eat them in various ways, our favourites being as either chips, or just roasted!

For these chips I used one small potato as I was only making a small portion, however to make a big batch I'd go for two large potatoes.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato

Olive oil 

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.

Wash the potatoes and scrub the skin to get rid of any dirt.

Cut potatoes into wedges (I leave the skins on - that's all the nutrients!) 

Drizzle with olive oil - around half tbsp 

(**you can always add salt, pepper, paprika, mixed herbs etc at this stage of you wish!)

Place on oven tray and cook for 35-40 mins or until they have cooked through. 

If they look a little black - don't worry! I find those the tastiest as it's quite sweet/caramelised! 

Jerk Seasoning (+ jerk chicken!)

I can't believe I didn't post the recipe for jerk seasoning from when I made jerk pork before! I always come back to my blog to find recipes I've previously made as I have a rubbish memory and was stumped when I couldn't find that recipe on here! I had one chicken breast to use up and thought it would be the perfect chance to make jerk pork for the boy. Luckily Google (bbcgoodfood) made my life a bit easier - here are the ingredients for a great jerk seasoning:

• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp black ground peppercorn
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
  
  

  
  

  
  
• 2 tsp ground allspice 
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper (optional to add more!)

• ½ tsp ground nutmeg

This apparently makes up a 'small jar' of seasoning, however for one chicken breast I halved the amount and there was still loads left over. 

Method

Place all the above into a bowl and run over meat until evenly coated in the spice. 

For jerk chicken:

Preheat oven to 150C

Place coated chicken in tin foil and fold up corners so it's almost a boat shape (as above).

Then bake for 25-30 mins. The chicken should be soft, yet white all through.