* Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce {Fat Free}

I'm still in a constant war with my weight, but I've finally begun to win more battles than I lose. You can probably tell by the fact that I've been labeling my recipes with Slimming World Syns rather than calories or points... that I have given the Slimming World WOE (Way Of Eating) a go... and so far so good... kind of - I have friends that have lost double the amount of weight that I have in half the time but I honestly don't care because this time it's staying off... again - kind of.

Most slimming world recipes drop cooking fats/oils and full fat products such as coconut milk, mayonnaise etc in favour of low cal sprays and low fat product alternatives, plus they don't tend to use any type of cream or butter and these have been my main concessions. I gave the fat free natural yogurt, fromage frais and quark a shot for a month or so in quite a few recipes - and hated them so have found alternatives. I'm not combining frog spit with calves ear lobes (not that that's what Slimming World is), so rest easy that all you have to do to unslimmingworld my recipes (currently) - is to swap back in the cooking fat/oil and full fat products... if that's what floats your boat. Personally my boat had stopped floating because it was weighed down with so much arse and I'm not getting any younger despite not telling anyone when my birthday is. Apparently, the fact that they don't know - doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Who knew??!!??

This Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce (Did you see what I did there? I bolded it... in case you forgot why you were here... I know I did.) came about because I was looking for a recipe to use up some rice and came across quite a few recipes for enchilada rice casseroles... I decided to make my own enchilada sauce to go in one because of the whole "boat that doesn't float" thing (plus I don't like jarred sauces) and it was scrumptious.

It was also easier than bunging on a pair of flip flops and flipflopping down the road to Sainsbury in the pouring rain. Those buggers get slippy when they're wet and I'm not ready to swap them for welly boots just yet. Plus Summer. It is still Summer. Until September 21st. The planet might not know it, because apparently it no longer takes any notice of The Calendar (wish my birthday didn't)... but it is.... still... Summer...

Kind of.

* Vegetable Macaroni Cheese Bake {Meatless Mondays}

Just recently I tried the 5:2 fasting diet, where I could eat normally (hah...) for five days and only eat 500 calories for two days... in each week. My brain took it upon itself to totally ignore the word "normally" and proceeded to use my hands to stuff my face with anything that wasn't nailed down and was even vaguely edible... on the five days, and then it cried itself to sleep on the two days.

My bum and my brain are in cahoots, apparently they both want to be bigger and one is aiding the other. This is not a good thing.

So... having grounded my brain and forbidden it to associate with my bum... I've joined Weight Watchers... again. Fourth time might be the charm... might. I've already lost 5.5lbs in one week, but this could just be the whole "This is new and we're making an effort this week" thing that I do. I know I do this. It's a personality defect that I have grown to accept, if not love.

This Vegetable and Macaroni Cheese Bake is one of my better efforts at cutting out the cr@p and adding in loads of veggies. It is adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe, but I've opted to use butter and flour to thicken the sauce, rather than cornflour. Butter adds a smidgen of flavour that makes me feel like I'm not depriving myself. I also use my microwave in this recipe - but you can go all *holier than thou* if you choose and soften your veggies in a more traditional manner. This way worked for me.

It was a hugely filling meal and even if I don't stick to Weight Watchers, I will definitely be making it again. It was great straight from the pan, scattered with cheese, and just as nice baked in the oven for a few minutes.

Of course, I saved a few Weight Watchers pro-points for rather a large glass of wine to go with it. Made my brain very happy... if not my bum.

* Sausage Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

I love it when a recipe works better than expected. These Sausage Meatballs in Tomato Sauce were absolutely scrumptious in a non *in yer face* way. They were so easy to put together that I expected to be bowled over with blandness.... plus I haven't had much in the way of taste in the past couple of weeks because of my VERY BAD COLD.

There.

I will never mention it again.

The sauce was slightly sweet and light due to the use of a carrot. I've not done that before, but they needed using up (doesn't everything?!?) and it was worth a shot. I know it's not a new idea - people have been sticking carrots into tomato sauce since time immemorial (whatever that means), but I haven't - so I wasn't sure that we... I... would like it.

But we did. Well, of course we did. I could hardly write a recipe up and say "Don't do this, it's dis-GUS-tin'!", could I?!?

Well I suppose I could, but then you'd hardly come back for more.

* Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti (and fresh cherry tomatoes)

I bought a jar of pesto in Aldi the other day, and it's been sitting in the fridge waiting for me to pop it's top and put it into to something ever since. So I made this Pesto Chicken with Spaghetti.

I was hoping it would be a much more vibrant green, but then I suppose you get what you pay for.

You can make your own pesto - I'm sure - and although I am a complete snob when it comes to convenience food as a general rule, when it comes to this sort of thing I currently don't have the inclination to blitz a bunch of basil with the other necessary ingredients to make my own fresh pesto... as soon as I do, you can be sure I'll let you know in the form of a recipe.

You can almost guarantee that I'll be a complete convert to fresh pesto only, but until then - the jarred variety will do.

I'm afraid I will never, ever, ever... ever... be a fresh mayonnaise convert. It takes too long and I never like the end result anywhere near as much as I like the stuff from a jar... preferably Hellmanns and LOTS OF IT. If there were two food stuffs that I would rather die than live without, mayonnaise would be one of them. The other would be cheese. All and any variety. Cheese. Life without cheese would not be life at all.

There's cheese in/on this pasta (of course) and some fresh Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes from my garden. I fancied something quick and tasty that would use up the tomatoes, some creme fraiche (I KNOW!) and let me pop my pesto top. 

I have popped my pesto top, and it was good.

The end.

* Chicken Mozzarella with Tomatoes

OhMyGod this recipe was LUSH! I didn't know what to call it.... Chicken Mozzarella With Tomatoes... Smothered Mediterranean Chicken... Pizza Pepper Chicken Bake. Seriously, food naming is almost more complicated than baby naming. At least it is for me.

All the while I was pregnant, my baby was going to be called Thomas (even if it was a girl)... but when they plonked him in my arms I took one look at his strawberry blonde hair and ginger side burns and realised he was actually called Joshua. See... simples.

Not so simple when naming a recipe... When I look at food - the possibilities are endless. You want to tell everyone what's in it without giving them a list of ingredients. Which is really hard... especially when you're like me and stick bell peppers into virtually everything. It all starts to sound a bit "samey" after a while... so... I stuck three different titles into a hat... and... well... lets just say I put the first two I pulled out, back in...

This was another of those "hate food waste" recipes, that involved using up a couple of fresh chicken breasts, and some mozzarella - I very nearly made a pasta bake (stop groaning) - but I'm getting a bit bored with those (stop clapping), and whilst I'm doing the 5:2 diet I feel as though everything that I can eat on a normal day has to be worth eating.

I rather desperately wanted carrot pancakes for breakfast this morning. I have never made nor eaten a carrot pancake in my life. I have no idea if they are awful, if they are gawjus or if they even work as a recipe. I have not yet delved into google to find out... but you know I'm gonna... and you know I'm gonna share when I do...

... Oooooohhhhh I feel a Meatless Monday post coming on...

... unless they're sh*t.

* Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake

I'm becoming the "Queen of Hate Food Waste" just recently, with all the food I'm managing to use up. I think it makes me just slightly more inventive when I cook based on need rather than on want.

I'll try to explain....

I occasionally buy ingredients to cook for a specific recipe that either I have come up with, or I've found whilst trawling through various cook books or across the interwebz. It's really satisfying to cook from a recipe, but I often have half a jar of this or half a tub of that left over when I'm done - because I mostly use fresh ingredients when cooking. I then get left with an ingredient or three that has a shelf life.... like spinach, creme fraiche, harissa paste, cream cheese (never, ever do I have chocolate anything left over... ever) - to name but a few. If you're a repeat reader you already know about the spinach and the creme fraiche - if you're not a repeat reader - go do your homework... links have been supplied!

This Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta Bake made use of some cooked left over chicken and the remnants of a tub of Philadelphia, and I honestly don't think I'd have come up with it if Melanie Jean on my facebook page hadn't made a request for a chicken and tomato pasta dish with no basil and only a little garlic. I was just gonna bung the chicken in a sandwich for Neil and eat some cream cheese on crumpets until both were gone. Not overly inventive, eh?

This was one of those meals that you could cut the time in half by simply not baking it in the oven, just dish it out straight from the pot if you're in a hurry and grate some cheese over the top. I baked mine because I had the time.

It was nommy.... and there were left overs.... 

... Be still my beating heart ;-)

* Slow Cooker Mexican Meatballs

OhMyGod I can't stop making (and eating) these meatballs. I think Neil is on the verge of leaving me for a vegetarian - if he can find one that will have him - that's how often I've made them! He's the main wage earner so I've stepped the meatballage back a bit (in case he leaves me and takes his wallet with him), but as soon he's not looking... we're having them again.

I'm not normally a huge fan of meatballs. They mostly remind me of bolognese... but lumpy, and making a straight forwards bolognese is a lot less hassle and a lot less messy. I'll eat 'em, but only because Neil likes them...

... not so with these ones!

They are tender, melt in the mouth, little spicy balls of heaven. Heh. I just read through that last sentence again. I like it. Little spicy balls of heaven. Lovely.

Because of that little bit of heat, we've chosen (I've chosen. I'm the one that does all the cooking. I'm in charge. I am THE BOSS. Evil laugh.) to eat ours with rice. It works really well with white basmati, but brown long grain adds a bit of gnarly nomminess to the dish.

They freeze incredibly well (probably too well... I'm tempted to put these on the menu daily) and are a great way of using up any bell peppers that you have lying around in your fridge, gasping for air.

Yet again, it' a recipe that I've adapted from The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney, and another rousing success for my slow cooker. Poor, poor dog sinks into a state of depression when she sees me get it out now, because she knows she's not even going to get to lick a plate.

I lick my own.

Addendum (love that word) - There's a great *link up* on a Friday at Simply Living and Eating and I've posted this recipe there. Check out the page to find more fab recipes, just click on the image or link above.

* Chicken Pizza Pasta Bake

I love home made pizza and make it all the time but as yet have never taken the time to photograph and share it. Possibly because I know there will always be another opportunity.... which is good, because I'd fully intended to make and photograph a pizza this time but I was halfway through making the pizza sauce when I realised I didn't have any strong bread flour to make a pizza base, so I had to raid the cupboards for something else to take it's place... which is par for the course in this house.

Thankfully, I've developed a new shopping addiction... it doesn't replace the old one - there will always be spinach in my fridge (well duh!)... I've been on a bit of a pasta purchasing splurge just recently, and have gone from the bog standard macaroni, penne, spaghetti and fusilli sitting in neat rows in glass jars on my shelves... to just about every type of pasta I can lay my hands on that I have never cooked with, including the tortiglioni in this recipe, all wedged into various nooks and crannies throughout the house.

It's a small house.

So.

This is one of those recipes that just sort of 'happened' in a good way. Neil loved it. I loved it. I'll be cooking it again. I have a positive plethora of pasta to use up.

If we have a nuclear war - I'm set. Though it could get a bit dull after the seventh year. Perhaps I should turn my purchasing power to rice and grains as well...

...just in case.

* Bolognese Sauce

I have several Bolognese Sauce recipes, it all depends on the ingredients I have available at the time. Today I had everything I needed for this one.

When were kids, my mum's bolognese had mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and bay leaf in it. But no bacon or other vegetables. It was her standby meal for when she had a houseful of teenagers to feed... she always had a houseful of teenagers to feed. She'd finish work at 5pm and phone me to find out how many we needed to cook for, anything more than four and it was bolognese.

When I was nineteen, I started to take over a lot of the cooking for the family, because I had... ummmm... unwittingly.... added another family member. Nope. Didn't marry anyone (that would have been too easy). I had a baby. So... I did my bit to help out.

It was also around about that time, when my brother brought his first serious girlfriend home. So our somewhat chaotic household that had already got a gazillion teenagers camping out in the living room on a daily basis... suddenly added two more.

We ate A LOT of minced beef during our teen years. I think  that mum and dad considered building an extension to get away from us all, at one point. It didn't happen though, because although it must have been hard work, they were the reason that all of our friends felt so welcome, all of the time.

That and my mum's bolognese, obviously.

* Creamy Bacon, Mushroom and Tomato Tagliatelle

I've been attempting to stick to some sort of routine as far as updating is concerned, and I think I managed a week before it all went tits up! I was aiming for Monday, Wednesday and Friday - but for whatever reason I can't schedule a post for a certain time, so have to do it all *hands on*... I know. I can get it fixed. Just haven't got that far yet. Life has this godawful habit of getting in the way...

...aaaaaaaand I have a brain that flushes stuff out once it gets full. So I forget stuff. Never important stuff. Just... *stuff what I might need at some point in the future* - like (for instance) the ingredients that I used for this particular recipe. I've just had a mild panic attack whilst staring at the photographs and thinking "OhMyGodHowDidIMakeThis??!!??"

Not only did I forget all of the ingredients... I also forgot that I knew that I would forget all of the ingredients. Read it again. It makes complete sense.

So guess what I did?  Guess. Go on.

Apparently I rescued myself!!! I've just wandered in here to make a new post, debating (rather fervently) whether or not to blag it or cook the flamin' thing again, only to discover that in amongst the posts was a post titled "Creamy Bacon, Mushroom and Tomato Tagliatelle" in draft form.

I HAD ALREADY WRITTEN THE RECIPE OUT!!! Hah. Go me. With big brass shiny knobs on.

You know what this means don't you?

I am officially an adult.

I've stuck little gold stars all over my face, as proof.

* Chicken with Creamy Apple Sauce

I tried sooooooooooooooooooo hard to get a decent photo of this dish, all plated up.

Didn't happen.

It's a GAWJUS sauce - sweet and sharp and savoury - but it's not exactly photogenic when you've gone a bit mad and smeared it ALL OVER EVERYTHING.

It was only supposed to be spooned - ceremoniously - over the chicken, but somehow it escaped the confines of my intentions and ended up being used as a gravy to cover my entire dinner. Same thing happened to Neil's plate.

I blame the chocolate brownies... I was thinking about how long it would be suitable to wait after dinner, until I could have another one. Did I actually - in fact - have to eat dinner to have a brownie? How many brownies were left?

What if I just licked one - pre dinner?

When I came to... it was too late. The sauce was on everything. There was nothing left to do but dig in.

* Marinara Sauce

I have to stop myself from calling this Pizza Sauce, it does so much more than that - but that really is what it is.

This is the type of sauce you can fiddle with until it's exactly as you like it. It's a topping for pizzas, and is lovely stirred through pasta, as well as spooned over chicken etc - it's fairly versatile and very easy to cook. 

I've been using this recipe almost as long as I've been using the basic pizza dough recipe. 

I've tried a few - some with fresh tomatoes, some with tinned - some with white wine, some with red, others with none. This is the one that I always come back to, it's simple to make and I always have all of the ingredients to hand. 

Although there may always be a bottle of *something alcoholic* in the cupboard, there's rarely wine unless it's been bought as a gift. Wine makes me stoopid. Very. This recipe doesn't have wine.