My Mushroom Pate

I love the idea of pate, but really struggle to eat it because I can't stand offal. As such, I've played around with a few ingredients and come up with my own vegetarian one that's absolutely delicious and so, so easy to make!

Tasty Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

Winter is the perfect excuse to enjoy delicious homemade soups. I tend to make batches and freeze them in individual portions, so that I can defrost a different one each day for my lunch at work.

SimplyCook.com

I recently discovered a fantastic company called SimplyCook.com. They describe themselves as "a group of people dedicated to helping others cook great food easily at home" - and based on my experience - that's exactly what they are!

Coconut Dahl

This dahl is quick and simple, but is perfect on its own or as an accompaniment for a good, homemade curry such as my almost chicken balti.

L xx

Egg Fried Rice

I love egg fried rice. It's so versatile and will accompany so many different Chinese dishes. Here's my recipe for delicious homemade rice, which means you can control what's in it and also save some money by cooking at home rather than ordering takeout!

L xx

Arrabiata Spinach Spaghetti

Sometimes you just want an easy dinner, made from store cupboard ingredients and requiring minimal effort. This is one of those!

The BEST Chilli!

Hot food is one of my favourites. Not so hot that it annihilates my tastebuds, but hot enough to leave my lips buzzing. I love to cook chilli because it is so versatile - enjoy it with rice, nachos, on jacket potatoes, over a salad - even cold inside a pitta bread or tortilla with some salad!

Almost Chicken Balti

One of my favorite things to do, is create delicious dishes. This is a recipe that I was given years ago, that I have since tweaked in my own way. The result is similar to a balti - perfect served with shop bought naan bread and some rice, to quash those takeaway cravings!

Roasted Rhubarb

Rhubarb is technically in season in May here in the UK - but my plant is already flourishing in my back garden!

Chicken with Leek Potato Cakes & Wild Garlic Mushroom Sauce

There is something very special about cooking with foraged foods. Whether it's berries, leaves or flowers, it's a sense of achievement knowing that you went out and picked it yourself, before creating a wholesome meal.

This recipe is utterly delicious. You can scale it up or down to create a starter, or feed more people, and the mushroom sauce is fantastic by itself with some toasted ciabatta.

Healthy,easy pizza

As part of my healthy eating/diet plan, I've been curious to find a way to enjoy the naughtier foods that I love, without undoing all my hard work.

A healthy kebab fix

I've somehow (ok, I know how *snaffles cake*) managed to pile on three stone in the last two years. I thought I was fine with it, but just recently I have been feeling rather like a baby rhino trying to get into a slim woman's clothes - it's just not working. I feel heavy and a bit gross, so have decided to start eating healthily (with the odd treat thrown in of course) and be more active, to lose a little of this weight. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like I have to, I'm doing it for me - because I want to.

Proper Homemade Leek & Potato Soup

Between Christmas and New Year I was feeling really sorry for myself. As well as my children insisting on waking up at 5.45am every day, despite the fact that we all had two weeks off (yay..!), numerous delicate mornings following too much fun with friends the night before, and the usual Christmas mania, I had a nasty case of sinusitis.

One Pan Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice

So I couldn't think of a creative name for this - all I can say is... Wow.

I discovered the recipe on Facebook of all places, one of those timelapse videos, and thought - that sounds amazing. I tinkered with the recipe a little, after all, I am a fussy bugger, and came up with the recipe below. It's delicious!! And only needs one pan, so minimal washing up - which is ideal in my eyes!

Sweet and spicy and oh so good.

I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting recipes to try. Ways of making the usual weeknight dinner a little more interesting. Quite often, I'll have a play around in the kitchen and just see what happens.

Salsa chicken. For reals.

Always rushing, always multi tasking, always hungry.

Salad. But good.

Every year starts with the intention to eat well, exercise more, and drink less. By January 2nd that's all gone out of the window and I'm snuggled up on the sofa in my comfies, stuffing my face with chocolate and glugging wine.

Recipe for disaster...

Valentine's is fast approaching, and I find myself in the usual quandry - not wanting to embrace the forced romanticism, still wanting to "make the effort", not wanting to fob my children off on someone else...