say hello to tiger prawn and chorizo spaghetti with fresh vine tomatoes.

HelloFresh has taken the UK by storm with their fresh, flexible and friendly approach to food. Encouraging seasoned cooks to challenge their tastebuds and newbie foodies to try cooking at home, the ingredients are pre-portioned with recipes cards to make midweek meals and weekend treats as easy as they can be. You simply customise your weekly menu and choose your delivery time to cook your favourite seasonal food from scratch.

When HelloFresh got in touch to try out one of their recipes (believe me, it was a tricky decision) I went for one of my favourite flavour combinations. Smoky chorizo and seafood! Tiger Prawn and Chorizo Spaghetti with Fresh Vine Tomatoes, to be precise.

There's a little story behind this one too. This was inspired by Head Chef Patrick's trips to a little Spanish eatery in Borough Market, where he became best friends with the head chef and started to work in the kitchen at weekends. Like me, his favourite recipes included the beautiful Iberican combination of seafood and chorizo. Who can blame him? In just 25 minutes, here's how you can make it too.

slow cooked beef with gnocchi.

A wholesome, comforting beef recipe which is super simple to make and won't break the bank either. This season, Red Tractor and Simply Beef & Lamb are leading the #LivePeasant campaign to encourage every day home cooks to embrace a more simple, rustic approach to cooking. Stew and casserole recipes are at the heart of the campaign, making affordable cuts of beef and lamb tender and tasty using traditional one-pot methods. 

This slow cooked beef recipe is teamed with warming cinnamon, spicy cayenne pepper and smoky paprika before being stirred through with gnocchi and topped with fresh parsley. Just perfect!

guinness cupcakes.

Another Nigella Lawson favourite. I've adapted her deliciously indulgent Guinness cake recipe to create cupcakes. Complete with a hint of chocolate (okay maybe more than a hint...) these Guinness cupcakes are make with a moist stout infused sponge and topped with moreish cream cheese frosting. 

sausage, spinach, mozzarella and egg pan bake with debbie&andrew's.

A Mother's Day breakfast treat for that special person in your life. With this Sunday 6th March just around the corner (note: remember to put that card on your shopping list), I've teamed up with debbie&andrew's to create a breakfast recipe to make her smile. This one pan wonder is so simple to rustle up and can even be made with leftovers. Inspired by Andy Bates' sausage, spinach and egg bake, I've made a version which switches mushrooms for red peppers and cheddar for mozzarella. Of course don't forget fresh flowers and a cuppa just the way they like it. 

the part time vegetarian by nicola graimes: a recipe book review.

The Part Time Vegetarian by Nicola Graimes (RRP £20.00) is, as the name suggests, a collection of vegetarian and almost vegetarian recipes. The author, who spent almost thirty years of her life as a vegetarian, admits how more recently she has found herself introducing a small amount of fish and meat into her diet. A lifestyle known as flexitarian, whereby although not completely meat-free is made up of informed choices around sustainability, health, welfare and seasonality. 

Reverting to non-vegetarianism may come as a shock, and possibly a disappointment to the passionate veggies of the world. Actually if you look at it the other way, the book provides brilliant inspiration for vegetarian recipes for someone like me who does eat seafood and meat on occasion. I've was veggie for almost ten years through my childhood and often dine out without even realising that I've picked the meat-free option. So as someone who eats veggie meals around five times a week, frankly this book is right up my street. 

carluccio's spinach balls with courgette and chilli penne.

Known as Penne Giardiniera, this classic spinach balls recipe is a popular dish on Antonio Carluccio's restaurant menu. Loosely translated as gardner's penne, this pasta delight is packed with a huge portion of spinach and secret courgette in the fresh and spicy sauce. 

Luckily for us, it can be found in the Carluccio's recipe book too - simply named Pasta. I bought the recipe book for my foodie friend's birthday. And since we both love making homemade pasta, it make sense to make this dish together over a glass of wine on a Friday night.

chocolate orange nutella cheesecake.

if you hadn't yet tried the stunning nutella cheesecake a la nigella lawson, you seriously need to get involved. this week i made a chocolate orange twist on the cheesecake recipe with the fabulous new 6 in 1 aura hand blender from russell hobbs. 

a cheesecake was the perfect recipe to try it out on, since you need to blitz, whip and blend like nobody's business. what's more, the lovely lot over at russell hobbs sent me a personalised nutella. absolute happiness in a jar, with my name on it.

chocolate and salted caramel molten puddings from the great british bake off.

with a sweet tooth like mine, you can't help being excited for bake off dessert week. although i'm still not sure i understand the theme, as everything sweet and baked is a dessert to me! so after my attempt at florentines from biscuit week, i had a go at a self saucing dessert. 

you'll have to forgive me on being late on the scene, my oven broke this week so all baking had been put on hold... until now! i'm really rooting for kate this year and loved her chocolate and salted caramel molten puddings. so armed with ice cube trays of caramel, a strong whisking arm and a lot more time on my hands than in the baking tent of doom, i set about these saucy puds. 

stem ginger florentines.

florentines are one of my favourite things from our local bakery birds, which has been around since i can remember. if i'd been on the great british bake off, i would have been pretty confident at what one looked like with the amount i've gobbled down. yes even the signature zig zags in the chocolate. 

however, i hadn't the first idea about how to create one. actually not only is this the first i've baked florentines, but it's the first time i've baked along with gbbo. so i looked up a classic french florentine recipe from delia herself (if mary is the queen of baking then delia is the princess, right?) and set about the challenge.

mackerel and beetroot potato salad.

i found this mackerel, beetroot and potato salad recipe on the bbc good food website and just wanted to share how it turned out. the element that took the longest was boiling the potatoes - after that it's just a case of throwing the chopped ingredients together with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. 

spinach, chickpea and cauliflower curry.

whilst looking for a new curry to try on the bbc good food website i came along this delicious sounding chickpea, tomato and spinach curry. so this week i decided to try it out along with the little change of added cauliflower. and let me tell you it was absolutely lovely if i say so myself! and quite a few of your five a day too which is always a winner for me :)

glazed chicken teriyaki.

a massive fan of japanese and japanese inspired food, i can often be found in my local yo! trying out their latest specials. so when i recently got in touch with hq, i was so pleased when they sent me a copy of their delicious teriyaki chicken recipe :)

want to make it too? here's how...

crab and leek tart: hairy bikers' recipe.

i first saw this crab and leek tart recipe on a lazy weekend morning on the hairy biker's best of british. if you've not seen this programme before i really suggest you try and catch it or find it on iplayer - as the title suggests they roam around beautiful great britain creating delicious dishes from the local ingredients in that area. i think this one might have been orkney (do correct me if i'm wrong i was too distracted by the look of the tart!) and wow wow wow it's a fantastic combination!

nigella lawson's crab linguine with chilli and lemon.

I wish I could say that I invented this delicious crab linguine recipe but alas it another of the lovely Nigella's. 

With my fave combo ingredients of garlic, lemon, chilli, peppery leaves and of course seafood - I can't get enough of this dish. It's gorgeous as a main meal but any leftovers are amazing the next day served cold as a light lunch. 

Shopping list.
(Serves two)
♥ 120g linguine
♥ 170g white crab meat
♥ Two garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
♥ One red chilli, sliced and deseeded
♥ Half a lemon lemon, juice and zest
♥ Sea salt and pepper
♥ 75ml good quality olive oil
♥ Rocket, to serve

I do get a bit frightened of de-seeding chillis and wash my hands every 3 minutes. but other than that this is such a simple recipe. In short, you boil the pasta whilst putting the rest of the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar, tossing them all together with the crab meat at the end. 

I made it with white crab meat, not with a mixture of white and brown in Nigella's recipe. It is quite expensive at £2-£2.50 for a 170g tin but it's so worth it when you think about how much you might spend on this in a restaurant. I also used a mix of watercress and rocket but ended up using mainly rocket. It's becoming an addiction.

Click to try the crab linguine with chilli and watercress a la Nigella! Or try out my other seafood recipes here...

chocolate macarons: a recipe in pictures.

just the right crunch, a little chewy and a whole lot of chocolatey. this chocolate macaroon (or is it spelt macaron?) recipe really is to die for. i stumbled across this recipe on my fellow foodie maria's blog the mixing bowl, where she reviewed secrets of macarons recipe book by josé maréchal. something i will certainly be buying in the near future!

from the aging of the egg whites to the grinding of the ground almonds, it really is true with macaroons; everything matters. 

here are some photographs of my culinary adventure. the recipe can be found here. i should add that this is my first time trying out this recipe and probably about my fifth time cooking with egg whites, meringue techniques etc. i'm pretty sure i made them a little too big aswell. but this is a fool proof recipes and if you are a more experienced baker i'm sure yours would turn out even better :) what's more - they tasted amazing!