* Coconut Prawn Curry {Hairy Dieters}

Although I've always been on the voluptuous side of voluptuous, I have never really had a problem with my weight until I hit my fortieth birthday a couple of years back. All of a sudden it mattered. Oddly (or not) I have always struggled with my age... always... right back as far as the age of twenty four (many, many moons ago *sob*) when Neil bought me a bunch of flowers the day before my twenty fifth birthday because "You seem a bit bummed out about your birthday tomorrow".

Sweet.

He hasn't bought me flowers since. His excuses vary from "It's been so long, you'd wonder what I'd done wrong if I did"... to "The only flowers you'll be getting from me will be on your funeral wreath".

Wuuuuv. Twuu wuuuuv. 

I digress (what's new?)... in December last year I started up with Weight Watchers Online for about the fourth or fifth time and it lasted until Christmas Eve (ish), which is what I'd more or less expected - because I have the attention span of a rabid gnat when it comes to following any sort of plan... plus Christmas. Really. If you expected any different you seriously haven't been paying attention. I am offended. So... any weight that I lost before the Christmas period I gained back with big brass knobs on and a side of Christmas Pudding.

I've considered trying 5:2 again, Rosemary Conley, calorie counting... stapling my face shut. I've bought both of the Hairy Dieters Cook Books in a bid to inspire myself into Thindom and as yet, have only cooked the one recipe from them. This one. Coconut Prawn Curry. It's pretty scrumptious. So I thought I'd share it.

I have actually lost a couple of pounds this week, simply by walking the dog a bit further and a bit more often... I got up this morning to discover she'd placed a "Do Not Disturb" sign beside her bed and she's hidden her leash.

I'm tempted to shout "Walkies" just to see if she bites me.

* Butternut Squash Lasagne {Meatless Mondays}

I've experimented with this Butternut Squash Lasagne a few of times now. The first time I used a bechamel sauce and cut the butternut rather large. It was too rich and sweet and the butternut wasn't a particularly nice texture to come across whilst eating it... not a good thing when the whole bloody dish is being prepared on the basis of using the butternut to start with... and it was sloppy.

I don't like sloppy lasagne... I like gin... (you have to have a tv and know your Aldi adverts to appreciate the last sentence).

So... I like lasagne that holds it shape when you dish it out - it makes it look like you're an expert at much more than just making lasagne. Truly.

Next time you visit a restaurant or friends house and they serve up a sloppy lasagne - even if it tastes great - you're going to think about the fact that you are judging them on so many more levels than just their ability to cook the lasagne. If you're eating out, at the very least you're going to think you're paying too much. If you're at a friends, you're going to pray that they haven't attempted a trifle for dessert.

Well... that's what my brain does... I don't get invited anywhere but mother's for dinner (JOKING PEOPLE!).

The butternut for this lasagne was diced much smaller than previous versions, so sort of melted into the sauce, aaaaannd I used creme fraiche instead of a bechamel sauce and it cut through some of that sweetness. Plus all I had to do was spoon it out of it's pot, rather than stand stirring and whisking and praying for a lumpless sauce.

This lasagne held it's shape.

I reckon I could tackle a trifle. 

Maybe.

* Creamy Leek and Bacon Pasta Bake

Hi. My name is Abbe and I'm a spinach-a-holic.

There. I've said it. Can we move on now? We can?!? Good.

In case you haven't guessed it already, there's spinach in this recipe. You don't have to use spinach, but something green and suitably easy to cook with - will do in it's place. I'll leave that up to you because I have no clue what you've got in your fridge. In my fridge... there was spinach.

I wish I could be the type of person that could lay out and shop to a menu for the week/month and cook according to what I'd written down. But I'm not, and I can't.... which is why I'm always using up the remains of a bag of spinach and half a pot of crème fraîche. If I even attempt to stick to a plan I feel like an utter failure on day one, when instead of eating a beautifully roasted chicken (because it says Day 1: Roast Chicken, of course)... we're eating pizza and garlic bread out of the freezer....

It's like there's a mini rebellion going on in my head, that I have no clue about until I'm half way through eating a meal that I didn't actually cook... and Neil says "Thought we were having roast chicken today?". I actually get pissed off with him. Not with me. With him. How dare he point out that yet again the rebellious part of my personality has won the day, because she has a bigger stick than the rest of them?

So... to avoid the feeling of yet again not quite getting it right, I hardly ever plan a meal but instead raid the fridge about 2 hours before we're going to get hungry, and cook a meal based on what needs using up the quickest...

... which is usually spinach.

* 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.

* 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.

* Spinach and Chestnut Mushroom Risotto

This risotto recipe was born of the need to use up yet more spinach... there's currently a ban on purchasing spinach, in this house. Seeing as I'm the only one that ever does any actual shopping in this household - it would appear that it's not actually the household that is banned from buying the spinach...

It's me.

I'm banned from buying spinach.

Now if only I knew how to enforce such a ban, it might actually work.

However... I'm fairly sure that the next time I'm in a supermarket (tomorrow), that a bag of spinach will unerringly find it's way into my shopping trolley - with absolutely... no. help. from. me. Really.

I love cooking (mostly) - but I don't love cooking risotto (ever). It's a labour of love. One that I can only donate time to if I have a good book. So I can stir the pot lovingly whilst reading something suitably interesting, but not so interesting that I forget to add more hot stock and the risotto drys to a crisp and has to have a half hearted burial service in the kitchen bin.

Nope.

It's got be a book that holds the attention for three minutes at a time, possibly four.

I've yet to find a book that does this. So I had to lovingly stir this particular risotto whilst singing the track to Adele:21 in my head. Got a bit carried away by the time I'd reached Set Fire To The Rain - and was singing at full blast into the spoon that was supposed to be lovingly stirring the pot...but happily, the noise did not kill our dinner.

Or our appetites.

* Sweet Potato and Spinach Gratin

It didn't matter what I did with this gratin, it would NOT take a decent photograph, and I'm not photographically skilled enough to make it look awesome. Which it was. Totally. So please don't let it's somewhat Seventies demeanour, put you off.

It was lush.

It was also incredibly easy to wack together whilst I took a lunch break from spring cleaning my lounge. Yes. I said "spring cleaning my lounge". Yes. I have hit my head. Bashed it on the breakfast bar yesterday when I was fishing around underneath it, for Neil's slippers. Stood up before I had cleared the bottom of the thing and 24 hours later I find myself covered from head to toe in dust bunnies, sporting this seasons "Mop and Bucket Look". Tres chic.

The dog spent the entire day crashed out on my bed, for fear of getting roped into helping. That and the fact that at seventy seven human years old, she couldn't take all the whirling dervish that was going on, so I took pity on her and treated her to a trip Upstairs. Upstairs is somewhere that she's not usually allowed access to, unless mummy is staying out for the night - in which case, daddy sneaks her Upstairs at bed time so that they can snuggle... without mummy knowing...

... that is, until she discovers the dog hairs all over the bed (Eeeeewww), and the chew toy wedged under her pillow (Double Eeeeewwww!!!).

Obviously, it's okay when I let her up there. I'm in charge.

* Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup

No... don't run away. I know it's another soup recipe, but it's a good one. Honest.

Actually, it's better than good. I've had trouble not sticking my head in it.

AND... it's surprisingly Weightwatchers Friendly. Well, it surprised me. I honestly thought when I was adding up the propoints on the recipe widget at Weightwatchers, that it would come in at a HUMUNGOUSLY high amount per portion, and that I'd have to eat air whilst everyone else stuffed their faces...

Not so... Happily. There were cries of "OhThankGod!" and a brief, bell-less Morris Dance around the kitchen, before I got stuck in... then I remembered I wasn't actually supposed to be eating it yet. I had to wait until dinner time. Dammit.

I really wouldn't have eaten it if it was OTT on the points front, because I ate and drank enough to sink a small fleet of ships when I went out to lunch with my girlfriends on Saturday. It was only supposed to be lunch, but we were having such a good time that it ended up being all day and most of the night. We were very... very... merry.

I danced too close to the speakers in the pub, and have been deaf in one ear for two days. My feet hurt. My head aches... I feel twice my age and half as sprightly.

But it was SO worth it!

* Cheese and Spinach Penne with Walnut Crumble

I don't know about you, but my favourite recipes are ones that tend to use up whatever I've got lying around the kitchen. It's great to go out and buy ingredients for a specific recipe, but for me it's much more satisfying to come up with a way of using up the remnants of the fridge.

I absolutely HATE food waste.

Don't get me wrong, I've not undergone a personality transplant and suddenly become "Mrs Organised" (that's my mum) - I do end up chucking out the odd piece of long forgotten blue cheese... that started out life as a just an ordinary piece of cheddar but has managed to wedge itself in the back of the fridge underneath a punnet of chestnut mushrooms and has decided that it's cold and somewhat lonely and would very much like a fur coat, please. A blue one.

An almost permanent victim of my lack of organised eating/cooking, is beansprouts. They're not expensive - about 60p for a bag of 200g (possibly more)... not really the point, I know... I can never ever find a use for 200g of beansprouts. I stick half in a stir fry one day then spend the following two days avoiding eye contact with the other half, until they turn brown and I have no choice but to throw them away. I have a major brain fart when it comes to this food stuff. What does anyone do with a plethora of beansprouts? Seriously, I'd love to know.

The one thing I can't bare to put in the bin, is spinach. I love the stuff, which makes it slightly easier to find ways of using it up. Mostly I just bung it into whatever I'm cooking.

Genius.

I know.

* Turkey Pastitsio

This was meant to be a Turkey and Spinach Lasagne, but when I checked the cupboard I didn't have enough dried lasagne sheets (of course I didn't - I was bound to revert to form at some point), and I've been so busy that I really didn't have the time or the inclination to go back down to the shops (I live at the top of a hill). Plus - I have pasta of every shape and size, secreted in jars and packets throughout the house... at least - that's how it sometimes seems!

Well. Except for lasagne sheets.

I figured I might as well make use of the macaroni and make a pastitsio instead, and utilise the last of the crème fraîche et al and make a quick cheese sauce to stir through it.

Pasta again, but Neil didn't seem to mind - I bribed him with a promise of sausage, egg and chips tomorrow - and Josh wasn't around to complain about only liking simple food.... which, to him,  is anything between two slices of bread. Crisps, usually.

This is incredibly easy to make, and is a really nice alternative to lasagne. Beef or otherwise.

* Cavatappi with Four Cheese Sauce, Chicken and Chorizo

I have two of the most beautiful nieces in the whole wide world and I really don't see enough of them. Life has the most God awful habit of getting in the way of the things we want to do, as opposed to the things that we have to do.... anyhoo... a couple of weeks back we all got together - minus my son who doesn't *do* anything under 3ft if it isn't covered in fur (I'm referring to my nieces) - and went to my brothers local Wetherspoons for a "pub lunch".

It's a bit of a dive, and you never order the same meal twice because it's never that great. However - it is the ideal place to eat out and not have to worry about how much noise the youngest niece has decided to make or the fact that the oldest one only wants a plate full of potato. Or that you spend half of the meal repeating everything that's said - to mum - because she's half deaf and mostly in her own little world. It's relaxing.

This time, I ordered a pasta dish that had huge potential to be lovely and fell flat on it's face at the last hurdle. It had a hint of *processed food* about it, which spoilt it. It was just a bit too plasticky to be passed off as *fresh*... so... I made my own version last night.

And it was heaven.