* Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree Stir Fry

I LOVE Hot Smoked Salmon. I have a hard time not eating it straight out of the fridge, with only my fingers for garnish. You can't disguise the fact that you've just raided the fridge and helped yourself to a rather large flake of the stuff, because it's quite strong smelling in it's smokiness. So I leave the fridge foraging for when no one is home and the windows are wide open... and for when I've locked the cat in the garage. If I don't lock the cat in the garage he comes charging in through the cat flap at the first whiff - meowing "CHRISTMAS" at top volume.

This Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree Stir Fry was born of a want for kedgeree and pure unadulterated laziness. I can't be bothered to cook up a storm most mornings and I want my first meal of the day to take as little time as possible to prepare so that I can stuff my face in a leisurely fashion and enjoy a pint of coffee whilst I wake up... plus - I don't like egg white. Kedgeree usually involves egg of some description. Boiled, poached or fried depending on the person cooking it. I honestly wish I could stand the texture of egg white because I would love to try Eggs Benedict or Huevos Rancheros but after 44 years it just ain't gonna happen. So I tend to stir a whole beaten egg into my kedgeree as a substitute and it works better with the stir fry method than any other...

... and there's that whole need for speed thing...

* Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup {Meatless Mondays} + "Eggs" Winner

I have another new favourite soup, and it's this one. This Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup is getting it's own bank account, it's so good.

Really. Even Neil enjoyed it, and he doesn't like broccoli.

I probably wouldn't have offered him a bowl of it, if he hadn't asked what smelled so good when it was bubbling away on the stove. When I told him what it was, he said he wouldn't mind trying some.

So when it was cooked, I pushed the spoon into his face with a whole "Choo-choo here comes the food train." pantomime, to which he responded with "Please don't ever do that again." and "I'll eat that." A huuuuuuge compliment from my man of few words.

Neither of us are fans of soups that use flour as a thickener (though I do make them), so I used a carrot to thicken this soup, and to add a slightly golden colour - which makes this a gluten free soup. Also, this recipe uses the whole broccoli - both florets and stems.

I'm now trying to think of more ways to get him to eat broccoli because I love it, and it's far easier to cook one meal for both of us than two separate ones. Though this doesn't happen too often because although he's a man of simple tastes - Neil will try virtually anything (that isn't a flapjack), that I put in front of him.

It's that or starve.

Now it's time to announce the winner of the Michel Roux "Eggs" Cook Book Give Away from last Monday.... drum roll please...

and... the winner iiiiiiissssss.....

Katrina Pearce (comment number 2) - congratulation Katrina, your book is on it's way!

Thanks to everyone who entered xx

* Winter Minestrone

This is my absolute new favourite soup.

I know I shouldn't favour one recipe over any other... they are all my babies (kinda), but this one would get more pocket money than the others, for definite. I wish I could claim it as all my own idea with a touch of aren't I a complete genius thrown in, just to keep everything on the me, me, me.... but this Winter Minestrone Recipe is one I adapted from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa - to suit my own cooking style and recipe ingredients.

In otherwords, I made it as easy and lazy as possible. I really can't be bothered to cook pasta separately (as per Ina's recipe) then throw it in the pot when it's cooked - it cooks just as easily in the soup itself, as it does in a pot of boiling water - and there's less washing up to do. Win win.

I know it's on a Monday that I'm posting this, but it's NOT a Meatless Monday Recipe - it has bacon in it and chicken stock. I'm still no good at planning ahead when it comes to bandwagons I could jump upon. The fact that I've managed a few Meatless Mondays posts in recent months is pure coincidence and nothing to do with planning whatsover - I don't cook for my blog as much as I cook for me and Neil... especially in the cold, dark months at the end of one year and beginning of the next, because I have a hard time taking decent photographs in the light.

Which leads me to a favour I need to ask - Neil has mentioned buying me a decent digital camera for Christmas (I currently have a little point and shoot) and I was wondering what any of you might suggest I should look at? Our budget would be in the region of £300 (just under 500 American dollars). Any advice would be truly appreciated!

Thanks guys xx

* Sweet Potato and Chana Dahl Soup {Meatless Mondays}

I know... you've all been waiting with bated breath for yet another chunky soup recipe. Haven't you.

I'm going to take your deathly silence as assent and plod on with the post.

This Sweet Potato and Chana Dahl Soup Recipe is a copycat of a Baxter's Soup by a similar name - except mine is a damn sight cheaper and has less calories... which wasn't the ultimate point but you can't have too much *happy* when it comes to food.

The point was... actually I don't know what the point was. I forget.

Anyway.... I've ended up with an exceptionally scrumptious and healthy soup that'll serve as a dinner if you're not craving steak and chips (fries), and works perfectly as a filling and healthy meal if you're doing the 5:2 diet... which I am. Sometimes successfully... other times... notsomuch. It seems to depend on how much cake there is in the house at any one time. 

If there isn't cake, it's really not a good idea to make cake, especially on a day when you are meant to be fasting because all sorts of things can (and do) happen... like finding yourself licking the butter cream off of the whisks or suddenly discovering your tongue in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Neither are good situations to suddenly come to your senses in. 

It's also very difficult to work out the exact amount of calories in 20 licks of coffee butter cream and 5 tongues of coffee cake batter.

Though I promise I did try.

Not.

* Creamy Tomato Soup

Up until a couple of years ago, we had a medium sized greenhouse in the back garden that was chock full of tomatoes every September... but only above waist height.

This is because the dog likes tomatoes, and if we didn't get to them quickly enough, she'd wander in whenever she felt like a snack and chew the bottoms off of all of the tomatoes she could reach. As she got older, she'd just suck them as she walked by - so we never took a chance on picking anything that was at Sammy's head height.

We got rid of the greenhouse two Summers ago, because neither of us had the time to pay it the attention it needed - and although life is certainly easier without having to disinfect it annually, replace broken panes and lovingly tend the vegetables on a daily basis... I miss it.

I haven't made a tomato soup with fresh tomatoes in two years, and there's nothing quite like it. So when I "came by" (in a totally legal fashion without actually purchasing them)... a kilo of fresh tomatoes - I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

Make a pie... kiiiiidding!!!

My mum makes a lovely Mediterranean style tomato soup with peppers and whatnot in it, but this creamy version has always been my own "go to" recipe because it uses up my bendy carrots and reminds me of Heinz tomato soup... but without the indigestion.

Years ago, when only a little girl (many, many, MANY moons ago) - my darling mum introduced me to mashed potatoes with a tin of tomato soup poured over the top... because it's what she used to have when she was a little girl.

My mum is the reason that my bath towels don't meet in the front.

* Corn, Three Pepper and Orzo Soup

Yes I know it's yet another bloody soup recipe. You really should be used to it by now.

My eating habits haven't changed much in forty years so they're hardly going to change in the single year that I have been food blogging... maybe if I'm still at it in twenty years you will be able to expect something different... but only because I will have cooked every, single soup recipe on the planet by then.

Or not.

Somehow I doubt that we're going to find out.

No. I really don't expect to be dead within the next twenty years. Well it's not in the plan, at any rate -I just doubt that in twenty years I'll still be food blogging. I'm hoping to be living on a Caribbean Island, in a hut, on the beach. Someone else will be doing the cooking.

I can dream.

Anyway... this soup is an adapted version of a creamless corn chowder by Cara at Big Girls Small Kitchen (Link to original recipe at bottom of page). I absolutely loved it when I cooked it, about a year ago (so did Neil), and was tempted just to repeat the recipe this time - it was that good... but I had extra peppers to use up and am still attempting to locate and divest myself of all of the pasta that I have accumulated and hidden throughout the house...

... I had my hands on a bag of mini farfalle in the supermarket the other day and for the first time ever my brain decided to get in on the action and question whether or not I actually needed another type of pasta in the house. We had a minor altercation. I lost. I came home without the mini farfalle.

I am no longer in a relationship with my brain.

* Spicy Tomato and Chickpea Soup {Meatless Mondays}

I absolutely loved this soup. It was filling. more-ish and nommy and although I have previously harboured a vindictive and somewhat unreasonable hatred of chickpeas in the past - I now love them too. Not quite as much as I love cheese, or spinach or mayonnaise... but we're working on our relationship a bit at a time and it's slowly moving forwards.

Me and chickpeas... we is now friends. 

I think this is mostly down to the fact that I stopped buying cheap supermarket *own* versions and started paying out a few extra pennies for better quality ones. There's a world of difference that you wouldn't expect in something so simple. 

Neil has always liked chickpeas, and has dipped out in the past because I've only cooked with them rarely... and Neil doesn't cook. Like... ever...

... the last time he made anything, it was a BLT and he brought it up to me as breakfast in bed. I don't know what he did to it, but it was the soggiest, pappiest most disgusting thing I have ever bitten into! Thankfully, he buggered off downstairs and I was able to flush it down the toilet. I was positively STARVING come lunch time because I didn't tell him.... not for about five years anyway...

...when it would no longer damage his ego. Not quite sure why I waited so long. I really didn't want him to cook again, and I'm pretty damn glad he never offered.

But that's between you, me and the gatepost.

* Roast Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I've attempted to cook a chicken and vegetable soup on about four occasions just recently, and have remained unimpressed with each of my endeavours until this one. Each previous version has had similar vegetables in it, but every time it's all come out a bit... well... bleh.

The temptation to stick a load of herbs and spices in, or a spoonful of curry paste... or even a tin of tomatoes has been HUGE... but if I'd done that I wouldn't have had the soup I wanted. I just wanted something fairly simple and wholesome that would taste... I dunno... a bit... English, maybe. Or maybe I was aiming for a bit Summery. Who knows.

So... there I was, yet again thinking "Sod it, all these ingredients and I'm still not sure I like this bloody soup." I opened the fridge door and stared vacantly inside it, looking for divine inspiration (I do this A LOT... at least, that's what I tell Neil I'm doing when he comes in the kitchen and discovers me with my head in the fridge for the eleventieth hundredth time that day)... when I spotted the mustard, sitting in the top of the fridge door, frantically waving it's little hands in the air shouting "Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!".

So I did. And it worked.

It took until this time to end up with something that I thought was tasty enough to share... and it was all down to a couple of heaped tablespoons of multi-grain mustard. There's a huuuuge chance that it's going to become my new spinach, and go into just about everything that I cook because it worked a little miracle on my soup. It gave it the flavour I'd been looking for that every previous version had been missing.

Even cream hadn't helped it's forefathers.

*Sigh*... I like cream.

* Spicy Butternut and Black Bean Soup {Meatless Mondays}

At last... it's a Monday and I have vegetarian fare to offer up for the band wagon that I am jumping onto - Meatless Mondays.

Before starting a food blog, I had no clue that such a thing existed and quite frankly I think it's brilliant.... and not just because I can finally "Get in there"... honest.

We're a family that don't have issues with meat, one way or the other... or issues with a lack of it - so I do manage to insert the odd meatless meal without anyone actually caring enough to go on a hunger strike. Plus, meat is so bloody expensive that occasionally it helps the budget to miss it out.

I have a friend who once, accidentally (after a few too many glasses of wine), forgot to put the chicken in a chicken supreme. We all ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it (we too were very, very sloshed). The fact that she got away with it, made me deliberately give it a shot a week later, and I made a chickenless chicken stew with dumplings. No one noticed. For years!!! Cheapest stew I ever made. One of the nicest too.

I KNOW that's not the idea behind Meatless Mondays! But a little slip up like that, does make you question your food priorities. Of which I have many. Priority number one being that "Thou must consume one's own body weight in chocolate... on a weekly basis". However, having meat on a daily basis, isn't one of mine, or my familiy's priorities. So... today I get to play.

I can't/won't guarantee that I'll ever join in Meatless Mondays again. I've been food blogging for nearly 9 months and this is the first time that I've coincidentally cooked, eaten and been able to blog meatless fare on a Monday.

So no holding your breath until next Monday...

... because you'll die. For real.

* Slow Cooker Chicken Brunswick Stew

Finally, I've had another success with my slow cooker!

The dog looked on in desperation as we cleared our plates (this time)- the poor thing actually starts to get excited when I pull the slow cooker down off the top of the fridge. She's so sure that whatever is going in it, is going to end up in her - whilst Neil and I eat fried egg sandwiches... again.

NOT this time!

Okay. So. It's not exactly a very original recipe, and it was designed to go in a slow cooker... which makes me feel like I'm cheating somehow (don't ask me why. I don't know why!!!)... but it was lush. Very. I'm not normally a huge fan of chicken thigh meat that has been cooked in any sort of liquid because the texture differs from dry cooked thighs, and can be almost rubbery...

NOT this time!

The meat was melt-in-the-mouth GAWJUS. Even if I do say so myself.

The original recipe called for almost twice as much sweetcorn and beans, but I wanted a chicken stew with veg in it. Not a veg stew with chicken in it. It also required flour, but quite frankly I figured it would thicken up enough when cooked, without any additional help, so I left that out too. It worked. I have super powers.

Amazingly, I did NOT stuff a wodge of spinach into this one, because I didn't have any. GASP!

I make no promises for the next one though.

Me and spinach... we is in a rel-AY-shun-SHIP.

* Coconut Lime Prawns with Noodles

It's been a tad quiet around here of late, for a number of reasons. The biggest being that I just haven't had time to cook anything blogworthy, and when I've attempted to (via my new slow cooker because suddenly I've forgotten that I have other cooking appliances... like.... gosh, I dunno AN OVEN!!!) - it's all gone drastically wrong and ended up in the dog. I'm not joking.

Also, I haven't much felt like this is MY blog, since I first signed up with google adsense just over a month ago. Not their fault, but all of a sudden Abbe's Cooking Antics stopped being about the cooking and the recipes and the odd bit of "Hello my name is Abbe I'm NOT as good at the game of life as I want to be"... and started being purely about traffic - how to increase it etc. Apparently, using the word f*ck (which I nearly haven't), is NOT a great way to maintain a relationship with your advert providers either... so I stopped using it. For a while.

Anyway, long story short - the adverts are gone and this feels more like it's my own private space again, where I can write what I want and cook (or try to) what I want too - rather than what I think I should (not that I have, but it's the thought that counts). Believe it or not, what pleases me, usually pleases you lot too. My traffic has been decreasing very slightly, since I took too much of an interest in it! Turns out, some of you actually prefer the real me, to the dumbed down version... ARE YOU MAD?!?

I've also remembered how to use the oven/stove for food other than chips (fries). If I'm eating chips I know I'm not in my happy place. I don't like chips. So... this next recipe was a rather quick and tasty pasta (sort of) dish with big, beautiful prawns... oodles of creamy coconut milk... and a wodge of spinach...

... because I couldn't help myself.

I never can.

* Lemon and Parsley Couscous

I love couscous. Hugely. If my life depended on it - I couldn't give it up. It's so incredibly easy to cook and it's my comfort food above all others.... however... Neil hates it, so more often than not I'll have whatever he's having out of ease. Lazy, but that's life and I know I'm not the only person that does it.

I never realise quite how much I miss it until I've made a slight effort and am actually eating it - usually with just a knob of butter swirled through it. It's rare that I add anything to it because I genuinely enjoy it just as it is comes. Not exactly life altering.

Adding lemon and parsley to it isn't exactly life altering either, but I've never done it before (don't ask me why, I don't know why!) so was very pleasantly surprised that it worked as well as it did. You know what it's like - the simple things require what you believe is a bit less effort, and it all goes a tad skewiff because you've gotten cocky and lazy and just stuffed a whole lemon, unpeeled and unjuiced into a bowl of raw couscous along with a handful of unchopped parsely - dirt and all... Then stand back in amazement when your somewhat dormant cooking genius gets up off the sofa, packs it bags and grabs a one way ticket to El Salvadore... all without a backwards glance...

... even the simple things require the tiniest bit of effort sometimes. Not always something that I remember or can even be bothered with... and when I can... I usually have one vital missing ingredient - like errrrr.... couscous.

I didn't. I had the couscous. I had everything....

Cue *birthday dance*.

* Mexican Pasta

I had intended to update with a recipe on Monday evening, but when I came home from a somewhat long day in various parts of Devon and Cornwall.... Neil gave me the news that he had been made redundant.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I've been holding my breath for the past six years, waiting for this to happen. He works (worked - whatever) in the construction industry, and the fact that we made it this far into the recession without him being made redundant, was not only a bit of a miracle, but had also almost convinced me that we might make it out the other side.

We haven't.... and neither did the rest of the team that work in the South West of England. Everyone has been made redundant. The firm that they work for ( a HUGE international company), will employ contractors rather than their own team of men in our little tiny corner of the world.

Neil was convinced that they'd be scraping him off of various parts of the county, after he told me. I think he was more fearful of my reaction, than of actually being made redundant... I surprised the living daylights out of the pair of us when my only response was "Oh well, we'll get through it."

I have been dreading... DREADING... this, since he started work for them 18 years ago, near the end of the last recession. I'm not a pessimist, but once you've lived on benefits and finally manged to get off of them, your worst nightmare is that it happens all over again... well - here we are again, and quite frankly - no one has died. In truth, I almost feel relieved that now that it's happened I no longer have to wonder if it will.

We're luckier than a lot of the men laid off - we're not just starting out - struggling to furnish our home or pay a mortgage, we have no little ones to feed and clothe, we don't smoke or drink... and we're twenty years older and wiser. When we moved into this house we had no bed to sleep in... just one sofa that my mum gave us, an old fridge freezer and a washing machine that my dad bought us, an oven that Neil's mum bought us and sent through the post!!!... and a bed for our son that a friend lent us.

Obviously we'll have to economise, and I imagine that one of the things to be hit will be the food budget... *sob*... so it may get interesting around here for a while, until one or both of us have new jobs... or we've won the lottery...

Ah well....  Here's to a new adventure in this zig zagging road through life. Nothing ever stays the same, does it!

There is a recipe here - honest. Just click the link below :)

* Moroccan Style Chicken Soup

I have a new passion... Instagram! Yeah, I know the rest of the world discovered it when men were still living in caves and wiping their backsides on badgers, but it's a very recent discovery for me... AND. I. LOVE. IT.

I sort of knew it was there, but honestly wondered what all the fuss was about. Then about a week ago I was bored and somehow or other I downloaded the App. I no longer remember why. I no longer care why. I just know that I. LOVE. IT.

All of a sudden, every opportunity is a photographic one... taking the dog for a walk, meeting my oldest BFF - Kerry - at the beach for lunch and a stroll, the cat snoozing, the cat stretching, the dog eyeballing me while I should be taking her for a walk.... fooooood (obviously). I even took a photo of the washing blowing on the line. Oh yes I did. Didn't share that one though. That would have been passé.

There's a heck of a lot of feet, on instagram. Just random photographs of feet. I've painted my toenails (and shaved my toes) just in case I'm over taken by an incredible compulsion to point my phone-cam downwards and click away.

I'm fairly sure I will. In fact... I might have already succumbed.

If you wanna see what colour my toenails are, come say hello at abbes_antics ;)

I really should try to remember the point of all this, shouldn't I. There is a recipe, there always is. It's soup. Or stew, depending on what time of day it is and how hungry you are. This one is "to die for"...

... much like my undercoating.

* Cauliflower Cheese

I LOVE Cauliflower Cheese. Especially one with an extra thick cheese sauce... however... I am aware that for many, this particular food stuff is their Kryptonite.

Well.... they ain't writing this blog. I am. If you want to get back at me for writing up a recipe that you don't like, you can spam me with images of Aubergines.

I HATE Aubergines.

Don't like licorice much either, so if you can find a way to combine the two - I'll do a little dance and donate it to you. Seriously. Stuff will jiggle...

...moving on...

I am ker-nackered. Today I have been swimming. After swimming my mate Trina offered me a HUUUGE muffin with lemon curd and fresh cream. We had earned it (Truly). She had barely picked hers up off the plate and I was already licking my fingers clean. If she hadn't had her hands full (HUUUUGE muffin... HUUUGE) I think she would have applauded me. Hell... I nearly applauded me. Pif paf poof and gone.

Okay, maybe I hadn't earned more than the lemon curd and the cream.

Okay.  

Just the lemon curd.

I really should have stopped at "Aubergines" , shouldn't I.

* Sausage, Bean and Vegetable Casserole

This time last year, I'd put my boots in the back of the cupboard and swapped them for an array of sandals. My thick cardigans and jumpers were folded up, put in the top of the wardrobe and were being ignored in favour of t-shirts and light weight jackets... and my toenails were painted in spring colours...

This year is a little bit different.

...I've just walked the dog... in a woolly hat. Of course, I was wearing more than just that (don't even go there)... but a woolly hat? In April? I almost came back and got my scarf when the wind picked up as I walked down the hill! Last year on my birthday (which is around this time of year), I was wearing chiffon... chiffon!!! ... with my sandals et al when we went out to dinner to celebrate. This year - boots, jeans and a long black snug woolly jumper... and a jacket. The woolly hat would have spoiled my strategically messy hair or I'd have worn that too. One can't really sit down to dinner with a bad case of "Helmet Head" and feel that ones husband is finding one attractive.

Chiffon!!!

What on earth is going on? Didn't we have a bad enough year weather wise last year? Did it not rain cats and flippin' dogs from April until December? I so desperately want to blame the government for the weather... or people with really bad hair... or New Age Travellers (who are sooo new age that they don't actually travel)... but I can't. Because apparently it's not their fault.

The only comfort - other than turning the dial up to three on the electric blanket - is that warming winter recipes manage to find their way to the table a bit more often than they might otherwise... and this one fits the bill rather nicely.

I debated whether or not to call it a straight forwards "sausage casserole", but it's got soooo much in it, that the other ingredients were worthy of a mention. It's one of those meals that will take virtually any vegetable that you have at your disposal, that you want to use up. I had half a butternut squash and a slightly sad parsnip that were perfect for bunging in with the rest of the veg.

There's so much in it, that you really don't need anything more than a few thick slices of crusty bread to go with it.

...and some grated cheddar if you really can't help yourself. 

Which I couldn't.

* Seafood Paella

I've been a busy bee this past week - painting and decorating a bedroom for my mum. I've been covered in white paint freckles from top to toe and at one point you'd have been forgiven for thinking I'd been dipping my hands in the paint pot rather than bothering with a brush... not exactly a french manicure.

I decorate a bit like I cook... the end result is always - okaaaaay... mostly - worth the effort, but the utter carnage I leave in my wake can leave even me... awestruck.

This would probably amaze my friend Trina, because I'm fairly sure she thinks I have OCD (mainly because she said so). She saw inside my cupboard under the stairs yesterday and stopped just short of taking my temperature - my cupboards are organised to within an inch of their lives. Not because I am tidy and organised when given the time, but more because I have a temper that makes anything that isn't nailed down - fair game.

I have lots and lots of stuff in my cupboards. It's a small house. If I can't get to what's in them - I break stuff. Stuff that is in the way of other stuff. Stuff that I need. Just... stuff. So it's safer, cheaper and more expedient for me to be able to get at all of that stuff, without testing my patience... of which, I have none.

Happily, this Seafood Paella didn't test my patience either and was fairly quick and easy to put together, which meant we didn't have to survive on take-out whilst I was becoming the next Michael Angelo.

I kid you not. My undercoating is "To Die For".

* Chicken Biryani

Guess what I did???!!!

I MADE A FACEBOOK PAGE!!! I did, I did, I did.

I've held off on doing it for quite some time, because I didn't want to share what I've been up to in my spare time with everyone that actually knows me ( a few people knew because I can't keep my mouth shut and because my darling mummy can't keep hers shut either). I wasn't sure what their reaction would be, and it really mattered. Plus I'm a little bit vain and I wanted to tidy up the furniture a bit before inviting everyone in for a cuppa and a slice of cake... or three.

Even after I'd created the page I wasn't sure if I was going to invite my mates to *like* it. But I accidentally posted one of my recipes on my personal page. I was immediately messaged on my mobile phone by Charlene (who I love because she takes no prisoners), saying that she loved my blog. Have to confess that I panicked slightly and thought "OhMyGodI'mNotReadyYet!!!!", but she just kept on saying nice things... mainly recipe titles with drooling words and demands that I get in the kitchen and cook something now.

Everyone needs a Charlene.

Her reaction convinced me to just go for it and invite them all (and all of you) into my little corner of the food blogging world.

I'm so glad I did. They were amazing, and funny and kind and supportive and I'm feeling a little bit lucky right about now.

Right. Enough about them. Lets talk about me. There's a facebook widget in the top right corner of the page. If you want to click *like* you'd make my day. I promise not to plague your facebook pages with random poop that is completely unrelated to what I do in my kitchen.

There is actually a recipe in here somewhere for Chicken Biryani. It's dead easy and dead quick and dead tasty. Just click the linky below to find out :)

* Chicken, Chorizo and Borlotti Bean Stew

Yes, it's yet another recipe with beans in it - this time they're purple ones. Sort of. I can promise you that it's not the beans recipes that you're going to get sick of though -it's the chorizo ones. I bought a *job lot* because I LOVE IT and have had to use it up whilst it's still fresh. Which I don't mind at all, because I LOVE IT but you might not. So... I'll try to be kind and space them out a little, but I'm promising nuffink... because... well... I LOVE IT.

Apparently, I also love a lot of other food. Weight watchers has not been going well for at least the past 4 weeks - I haven't tracked my food intake, even though I have tracked the points for 99% of my recipes. My weight remained the same for 4 weeks - which is better than going up, but not as good as going down. Which disappointed my brain no end.

I think me and my brain need to have a conversation about what constitutes a miracle. It has much higher expectations of weight loss, than I do. It also has a nasty habit of making me keep my eyes shut when I get on the scales on a Friday morning. How on earth am I supposed to see how much I weigh, through my eyelids??!!??

Imagine our surprise (yes, I am referring to myself with a plural...) when I managed to prise my eyes open this morning, and we discovered we had lost 2lbs. My brain had a little party that involved streamers, popping noises and an imaginary kazoo... and I got straight on the phone to ask my mate if she'd like to go swimming again... at which point my brain caught up, stopped blowing on it's imaginary kazoo and put on it's swimsuit.

A frilly pink one with yellow spots.

I can't take her anywhere.

* Chilli Con Carne

I think everyone must have a favourite version of Chilli Con Carne. This is mine. It's based on a Jamie Oliver recipe from Happy Days with The Naked Chef and I'll confess that before cooking it Jamie's way, I had no clue how to make a chilli taste good. I could make a chilli. I just couldn't make one that I wanted to eat more than once.

The recipe called for two 400g cans of kidney beans, and I honestly thought "Whoa there cowboy!" I didn't even like kidney beans in the singular, let alone two whole plurals of them. Still, it's what the recipe said, so it's what I did.... that was many moons ago now, and the very beginning of my addiction to all things *pulses*. If I can stick a plural of beans into anything - I stick a plural of beans into everything.

You may have noticed this.

I fart A LOT. Which is fun if you are me, but not so much if you're with me. Or so I'm told.

There's no chocolate or coffee or horsemeat in this chilli - just good spices, the usual ingredients, BEANS... and love.

Yes.

There is love in my chilli.

It's how I roll.