courgette, spinach and feta filo tarts.

cute little courgette and spinach tarts, topped with feta, encased in filo and baked until extra crunchy. i had them for dinner with a salad and took a couple into work, although they'd make great party food or for kids' lunch boxes too. 

pearl barley risotto.

i do love me a good risotto, namely with lots of garlic, sweet softened onion and an abundance of seafood. lately i've gotten into risotto with a twist, switching out the infamous arborio rice for some wholesome pearl barley. 

i've seen it in a few restaurants so thought i'd have a go myself, treating the pulses exactly as i would when making risotto. italians would probably shake their heads at this interpretation of a risotto but it really is super tasty with a little extra bite, plus it keeps you fuller for longer.

spanakopita: a taste of kefalonia.

spanakopita (span-oh-kop-it-ah) is a greek pastry which is traditionally made from spinach, feta, dill, garlic and onion layered up between filo pastry sheets. the earthy flavour of the spinach married with the creamy, tangy cheese, aromatic dill and flaky pastry work perfectly for this light, summery dish. 

in particular, this recipe is inspired by kefalonia, a beautiful island to the west of greece which boasts sandy beaches and natural caves. i could image myself enjoying this al fresco with a cold glass of crisp sauvignon blanc, at a villa overlooking the ionian sea. 

goats' cheese, spinach and red pepper puff pastry tart.

this is my current favourite "cheat eat" which would be perfect for an easy midweek meal, sliced up with a salad for lunch or cut into pieces as party food. all you need is a puff pastry sheet, a sauce base and some tasty toppings! here i made it with tomato and marscapone sauce, wilted spinach, sliced somerset goats' cheese, half a red pepper and a couple of button mushrooms. put it in the oven on 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes and bam it's ready to devour!

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 :)

homemade spinach, ham and ricotta ravioli.

having made my usual rustic parcels in previous ravioli making, i was so excited to try out this proper ravioli press. it was a little gem i found in my local tk maxx - amongst a pretty impressive baking section of various sized piping bags, decorating tools and cake tins. fellow foodies i urge you to go check it out, this ravioli maker set me back about £2. 

i feel like instead of a crazy cat lady i'm going to be a crazy foodie gadget lady found cuddling my bamboo steamer and pasta maker. i've previously made crab and dill ravioli, boursin and sundried tomato ravioli and red wine venison ravioli so this time i really fancied something with a thick ham and cheese - so i thought i'd try spinach, ham and ricotta filling!

five-a-day vegetable lasagne.

just wanted to share this yummy and healthy (ish) vegetable lasagne i made for my friends at the weekend. one of my friends is a veggie so i decided to plonk as many vegetables as i thought would go together into a pan, add tomato sauce and layer up in a lasagne. 

i was pretty pleased with the results and they even went back for seconds... yay! i like to think this would be almost all your five a day in one go. though the cheese probably cancels that out. let me know if you try it! :)

this was also the first thing i've made in my new kitchen. if you follow me on twitter you'll know i've been super busy moving house lately - still got lots of posts to write up even from my old kitchen!

ribeye steak salad with balsamic dressing.

this was a really quick and tasty lunch i made at the weekend; ribeye steak cooked rare with spinach, rocket and balsamic dressing. 

in a grill house once, i was told that ribeye tastes better cooked medium as it melts the fat throughout the meat and gives a marble effect. however, i'm too much of a vampire for that and i never pick very fatty steaks. my favourite way is to get the pan as hot hot hot as it'll go and blast the steak two minutes each side, only turning once and browning the edges to finish. 

then, slice it up. place on the salad. drizzle the balsamic. and devour.

salmon and spinach lasagne.

shopping list

♥ three salmon fillets
♥ one bag of spinach
♥ one white onion
♥ three cloves of garlic
♥ three fresh lasagne sheets
♥ 250g mascapone
♥ a handful of dill





begin by wrapping up the salmon steaks in tin foil with a splash of olive oil and a little black pepper. put them in the oven for around 20 minutes whilst you prepare the filling for the other layers.












for the spinach layer, begin by cooking the chopped onion and garlic in a pan with a touch of oil or butter. then little by little add the spinach until wilted. this will take around ten minutes.





next, prepare the mascapone layer by mixing in a handful of dill and lots of black pepper. 




by this time your salmon should be mostly cooked and flakey enough to make a salmon layer - the key is that it still stays quite chunky. don't worry if it isn't fully cooked as it will be when baked later.



i began by putting the salmon in the bottom of the lasagne dish, followed by the spinach and onion mixture, followed by a sheet of lasagne.




then put a layer of mascapone, salmon and spinach. any order is fine really as long as have two layers of salmon and enough mascapone to go on the top at the end.


bake for 30 minutes at 200 degrees, or until the top is golden brown. 

and voila! 

parma ham and mozzarella risotto.

shopping list.
♥ 80g of arborio risotto rice per person
♥ a ball of mozzarella
♥ a few slices of parma ham per person
♥ a jug of vegetable stock at the ready
♥ a knob of butter
♥ a couple of cloves of garlic
♥ a red onion
♥ a bag of spinach
♥ a cheeky dash of white wine
♥ as much parmigiana reggiano cheese as you fancy

this is probably one of my favourite meals so far. i came across it in a restaurant in prague last easter and instantly wanted, no needed, to recreate it.

the key to a good risotto is preparation. you need to have all your ingredients chopped, boiled, grated and on stand by to avoid any disastrous consequences. rice stuck to the bottom of a pan is just never good in the washing up pile. and it doesn't taste half as good either.

so for this recipe, begin by putting the kettle on to make the stock. there are no rules on how much to make, but as i said you don't want any unexpected rice-sticking situations so go for one cube and the biggest jug you can.

next chop up your onion and garlic. you also need about two handfuls per person of roughly chopped spinach, but keep some if you want to decorate with afterwards. plus the spinach leaves taste AMAZING with the parma ham parcels.

you also need to chop the mozzarella into slices. i'd say you get about six to eight per ball. wrap the parma ham around the slices and arrange on a tray to grill later. this is something i sometimes leave to do whilst the rice is absorbing the stock, just so i don't get too impatient. though this is with experience. well, i say experience, more just overdosing on risotto.

you will also need to grate some parm reg. this may seem like a lot of prep, but think how excited you'll be will all the little bowls of ingredients around you. it'll feel like masterchef. maybe even invite a bald cockney and a dr fox lookalike round to taste and judge your masterpiece.

okay so now you can start. begin by throwing the knob of butter into a pan (literally if you like, everyone loves an ainsley harriott) followed by the onions. keep it on a low heat as you only want to soften them. if it starts looking like the onion grill/pit at a fast food van, stop and begin again. the better you do the onions, the nicer the risotto will be. if they are burnt then you will really taste it later.

next add the chopped garlic. again make sure they do not go much more than a golden brown as if they do your risotto will have a bitter taste.

drum roll please. you are now ready to add the risotto rice. add the rice to just the onions and garlic at first to lightly toast and infuse the rice. then after no more than a minute, add a dash of the stock.

then next part is a waiting game. keep adding the water bit by bit over about half an hour and stirring to keep the rice moist. nurture it as it were your child. no walking off to check your facebook feed or re-organise your blackberry contacts, oh no. you may also add a little wine or black pepper to taste.

about five minutes before you think the risotto is ready, put the parma ham parcels under the grill on a medium heat. at about the same time, stir in the chopped spinach to the mixture. and lastly, stir in some grated parm reg to taste. the more you put in the creamier your risotto will be. i would say less is more, as you could add more cheese on top later.

these last few steps should mean that your risotto and parcels are ready at the same time. the risotto will be ready when the rice has softened and there is no watery stock left in the pan. the parcels will be ready when they look crispy and the cheese is melted, as in my picture.

serve and arrange with the parcels and a few spinach leaves on top. perhaps a crunchy twist of black pepper and a sprinkle of parm reg to finish. and then, enjoy!

oh, and if you need any more convincing of how amazingly tasty this dish is. i actually spent an extra ten days in prague due to the icelandic volcano flight cancellations. and this, my friends, is what got me through.