CARROT CAKE OVERNIGHT OATS

I definitely find that eating a nutritious, filling breakfast sets the tone for my whole day's eating. However, with two little girls to get fed, dressed, kitted up and out the door by 8.30am, mornings in our house can be hectic and if I'm running short on time I often find myself skipping breakfast.

That's why I'm loving overnight oats right now. When I get up in the morning, all I have to do is grab the bowl from the fridge, take a spoon out the drawer and dig right in! Sure, they take a bit of pre-preparation but I can honestly say that I put can them together in five minutes flat (usually while I'm cooking our evening meal) and one batch will last me two breakfasts.

Overnight oats need never become boring because it's so easy to change up the ingredients for new and exciting flavour combinations. Carrot might seem like an odd ingredient to use but, trust me, it totally works!

Carrot cake is my absolute favourite cake so these carrot-cake-inspired overnight oats were always going to be a winner for me. They marry together all the delicious flavours of the a traditional carrot cake - the sweet carrot, warming spices, juicy sultanas and hint of zesty orange - and the walnuts add a welcome crunch against the soft oats.

Carrot cake for breakfast? Yes, please!

Carrot Cake Overnight Oats

Serves 2

80g rolled oats
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground mixed spice
40g sultanas
25g walnut pieces
1 carrot, peeled and finely grated (about 80g prepared weight)
finely grated rind of 1 orange
400ml semi-skimmed milk or unsweetened almond milk
1 tbsp maple syrup

Put the oats and spices in a large bowl and mix until the spices are evenly distributed. Add the sultanas, walnuts, grated carrot and orange rind and stir well.

Divide the mixture between two bowls (or jars/leak-proof containers if you intend to transport the overnight oats). Pour half the milk into each bowl - it should just cover the ingredients. Top each with 1/2 tablespoon of maple syrup and stir gently, then cover with clingfilm or a lid and chill in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, simply give the mixture a good stir and dig in.

Tips

• I prefer to use finely grated carrot in this recipe because it softens nicely overnight; coarsely grated carrot retains more of its crunch.
• I've used cow's milk but you can, of course, use non-dairy milk. I've tried this recipe using unsweetened almond milk and it was equally delicious.

CHICKEN & VEGETABLE CHOW MEIN

Takeaways are a great treat, especially at the end of a long week when you just want to flop in front of the telly with something tasty to eat and a nice glass of wine. However, they can be a very expensive option, not to mention hugely calorific as it's always tempting to order far more food than you actually need (eyes-bigger-than-belly syndrome). And I've lost count of the amount of time I've sat around impatiently waiting for a takeaway whilst knowing full well that I could have made it myself in less time.

This recipe is my take on chicken chow mein and, whilst it's is probably far from authentic, it's one of my favourite Chinese-style meals. It's essentially a stir-fry (although with the small quantity of oil I use, the vegetables end up being steamed rather than fried) with added seasonings to give it a real flavour kick. This is a great fall-back option when the cupboards are bare because it relies on mostly storecupboard ingredients, plus a few fresh vegetables that can be varied depending on whatever odds and ends you have in the fridge. It's also a good way to use up leftover roast chicken - simply add it with the beansprouts and spring onions.

My kids are still not mad keen on mixed-up foods so this isn't something I make for them at the moment but I hope to in the future. I sometimes find that giving them a deconstructed version of a dish (in this case, plain noodles, chicken and raw vegetable strips with soy sauce on the side for dipping) can help introduce them to new meals so I will probably try doing that.
  

Chicken & Vegetable Chow Mein

Serves 2 generously

125g dried medium egg noodles
1 tbsp groundnut oil
5-cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
350g skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and cut into julienne slices
4 spring onions, shredded lengthwise
2 handfuls of fresh beansprouts
½-1 tsp crushed chilli flakes (optional)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil. Add the noodles and bring back to the boil, then cook for 3-4 minutes, or according to the packet instructions. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat the groundnut oil a in a large saucepan or wok over a high heat. Add the ginger, garlic and red chilli and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and continue to cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes, or until the chicken is sealed all over.

Stir in the peppers and carrot and cook, stirring frequently, for a further 3 minutes. Add the spring onions and beansprouts and continue cooking for 1 minute, or until the vegetables are softened and the chicken is cooked through.

Add the drained noodles along with the chilli flakes (if using) and soy sauce and, using tongs, toss well to combine. Finally, drizzle over the sesame oil, toss briefly and transfer to serving dishes.

Tips

• It's best to have all the ingredients chopped and ready before you start cooking (getting all your ducks in a row, so to speak). There's a fair amount of  preparation to do with this recipe, but this is more than compensated by the super-quick cooking time.
• If the noodles are cooked before you're ready to add them to the chicken and vegetables, drain them and toss in half the sesame oil to prevent them from sticking together in one big clump.
• This recipe is really adaptable - the chicken can be replaced with pork fillet, rump steak, prawns or Quorn pieces - and it's a good way to use up whatever bits of vegetables you have lurking in the fridge too. Just make sure that everything is chopped thinly so it cooks evenly and add any vegetables that require a longer cooking time to the pan first. If you have any salad leaves that need using up, throw in a handful along with the noodles and stir to wilt.
• Crushed chilli flakes are pretty fiery so if you are cooking this for kids it's probably best to leave them out at the cooking stage - you can always sprinkle some over the adults' portions at the end.

CHICKEN FAJITAS

 

I must admit that I'm not exactly at the forefront of culinary trends these days, but it hasn't escaped my notice that tacos are a big thing right now. In our household we don't really do tacos but fajitas have long been one of our favourites. And that got me thinking - exactly what is the difference between a taco and a fajita?

I did a little research (where would we be without Google?) and have discovered that the term fajitas (which is Spanish and translates as 'little belts') actually refers to the meat (traditionally marinated, griddled skirt steak cut into strips) rather than the dish itself. A taco on the other hand is more a method of presentation where a filling - which can be anything really - is placed on a tortilla and served either open-faced or folded. Apparently, those hard taco shells you can buy in the supermarket are not traditional in Mexico, where corn or flour tortillas are used in tacos (although the tortilla may be fried to make it crispy). The really interesting thing about all of this is that it means that a fajita can be a taco but a taco can't be a fajita - so it turns out that I've been making tacos all along!

You might not think of spicy food as family food, but actually my 5-year-old will happily eat fajitas. She doesn't like peppers or onions, so she'll have her chicken cooked in a separate pan with some sweetcorn. She enjoys making up her own fajita (or  should I say taco?), adding the grated cheese and dollops of yogurt, and rolling it up. I'm still working on the 2-year-old - she likes the tortilla, sweetcorn, cheese and yogurt so far. I think it's definitely worth persevering as I've found that other foods have been accepted eventually if I just offer them enough times.

Chicken Fajitas

Makes 4 fajitas (enough for 2 adults as a main meal)

1 tbsp vegetable oil
300g chicken breast, cut into strips
2 tbsp fajita spice (follow link for my Home-made Fajita Spice Mix)
½ green pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
½ red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
juice of ½ lime

To serve
4 flour tortillas
1 small or ½ large avocado, peeled, diced and tossed in the juice of ½ lime
55g Cheddar cheese, grated
125-g pot full-fat natural yogurt or soured cream

Heat the oil over a high heat in a large saucepan. Add the chicken strips and fry, stirring frequently, for 5-8 minutes, or until the chicken is sealed. Add 1 tablespoon of the fajita spice, stir to coat the chicken in the spice and cook for a further minute.

Add the peppers, onion and the remaining fajita spice and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. Pour in the lime juice and continue to cook, stirring frequently, over a high heat for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened and the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Divide the chicken mixture between the tortillas. Scatter over the avocado and grated cheese and top with dollops of yogurt. Fold in the two opposite ends of each tortilla, then roll up to fully enclose the filling. Cut in half and serve.


Tips

• For beef fajitas, use strips of rump steak instead of the chicken.

HOME-MADE FAJITA SPICE MIX

For many years, I used a store-bought fajita spice mix whenever I made fajitas. It was pretty tasty, but I worry about salt content when it's food I'm giving to my kids so I decided to try making my own. It took a few attempts, but I'm really happy with this version and I won't be going back to buying expensive ready-mixed sachets. Other than the garlic and onion granules, I already had all the ingredients I needed for this in my cupboard.

I tried making this without any salt all but it lacked the flavour punch it needed. I don't think one teaspoon of salt is too bad though, not when you consider that this amount of spice is enough to flavour the filling for eight tortilla wraps.

Home-made Fajita Spice Mix

Makes about 35g/4 tbsp
1 tbsp mild chilli powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp onion granules
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried chilli flakes

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Transfer to a small airtight container until ready to use.

Tips

• For a recipe using this spice mix, follow this link to my Chicken Fajitas recipe.
• You could easily double or treble the recipe so you don't have to mix the spices each time you make fajitas.
• This mix is fairly kid-friendly in terms of its spiciness, but could easily be pepped up by using hot chilli powder or increasing the amount of chilli flakes.   

HONEY, ALMOND & PECAN GRANOLA

January is all about getting into healthy habits, right? I've got into the rather bad habit of skipping breakfast recently - I know lots of people don't eat breakfast but, for me, it's a diet disaster because I end up feeling ravenous mid-morning and snacking on biscuits and other unsuitable stuff.  Having this granola in the cupboard means that I'm more likely to be tempted to eat breakfast and I've been having it with low-fat Greek yogurt and fresh fruit to pack in extra protein and nutrients.

Now I know that granola is possibly a little on the sweet side to be considered a health food (or even an everyday food) but at least by making your own granola you know exactly how much sweet stuff there is in it. You can also tailor it to your own personal preferences - many commercial granolas contain lots of sugar-heavy dried fruit (especially raisins, which I'm not a fan of) so I like the fact that this version is fruit-free.

I was actually surprised at how simple this was to make - and it smells amazing when it's cooking! It's a good one to make with kids too because they can weigh out the ingredients and mix them together and, to be honest, it's difficult to get wrong. The only real danger comes from the potential to burn it, which is why I've used a fairly low oven temperature.

Honey, Almond & Pecan Granola

Makes 450g

200g jumbo oats

50g sunflower seeds

25g pumpkin seeds

50g flaked almonds

25g pecans, broken into small chunks

75ml honey

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.

Place the oats, seeds and nuts in a large bowl.

Put the honey, oil and vanilla extract in a small jug and beat until combined.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until the oat mixture is thoroughly coated. Tip onto a baking tray (you'll need to use one with a rim) and press down with a spatula.

Transfer to the preheated oven and bake, stirring halfway, for 20 minutes, or until light golden brown. Leave to cool on the baking tray, then transfer the granola to an airtight container.

Tips

• You want the granola to form clumps so resist the temptation to stir it too often once it's in the oven. I stir it halfway through, then press it down with a spatula before returning it to the oven.
• If you want to add dried fruit to the granola, stir it into the cooled granola (rather than baking it).
• Regular vegetable oil that you can buy in the supermarket (UK ones anyway) is usually rapeseed oil. It's a good neutral-tasting oil that is low in saturated fat and high in mono-unsaturated fat.
• Please note that nuts (especially whole ones) can be a choking hazard for young children - personally, I wouldn't give this granola to any child under 5.

BROCCOLI & STILTON SOUP

January is definitely a soup kind of month - there's something immensely comforting about eating a steaming hot bowl of soup when the weather is as chilly as it has been lately. It's also a great portable lunch - I often used to pack up a thermos of soup when I worked in an office. I admit that this recipe is not all that dissimilar to the Cauliflower Cheese Soup I posted a while back (link here) but I hope you'll forgive me because the end result tastes quite different. Although the cheese (and butter) in it might not be so great for the waistline, this soup does at least deliver one of your five-a-day. It's also s(o)uper tasty!

If I'm perfectly honest, my main reason for making this soup was to use up the last of our Christmas cheeseboard. We had a really nice selection of British cheeses this year - creamy Somerset Brie, crumbly Wensleydale with cranberries, tangy vintage Cheddar and strong blue Stilton. I do love a good cheeseboard, but I'm not someone who regularly eats cheese on its own so most of the leftovers were used up in cooking. I just love how oozy and gooey cheese goes when it's melted - yum! There are loads of tasty ways to use Stilton in cooking - my favourites are to add nuggets of it to macaroni cheese and to crumble it over a mushroom or squash risotto.

Broccoli & Stilton soup

Serves 3-4

10g butter
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
150g (peeled weight) potato, peeled and cut into 1-cm cubes
225g broccoli, separated into florets
750ml vegetable stock (I used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder)
100g Stilton (or other blue cheese), cubed
freshly grated black pepper and nutmeg, to season

Heat the butter and oil in a large saucepan over a low–medium heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute. Add the potato, increase the heat a little and cook for 5 minutes.

Put the broccoli into the pan and pour over the stock - don't worry if the stock doesn't quite cover the broccoli. Bring to the boil, then partially cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the broccoli is very tender.

Season to taste with plenty of black pepper and nutmeg. Remove the pan from the heat and, using a hand-held stick blender, process the soup in the pan until smooth (or leave the soup a little chunky if you prefer).

Add the Stilton to the soup, return the pan to a low heat and stir until melted. Transfer to bowls and serve.

Tips

• Skip the butter if you're counting the calories - it's there for the flavour but the soup will taste perfectly fine without it.
• I use the broccoli stalk as well as the florets - just remember to peel off and discard the thick outer skin before slicing.
• A stick blender makes the job of blending soup incredibly easy but you can, of course, use a blender or food processor instead. Just allow the soup to cool down a little before processing and work in batches if necessary.
• I like my soup thick, but feel free to add extra stock (or even a little milk) if you prefer a thinner consistency.

NO-BAKE WHITE CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE

I made this cheesecake for one of our Christmas Day desserts this year (to go with the more traditional offerings of sherry trifle and Christmas pud). It proved popular with everyone so I've already decided that cheesecake will be a permanent feature of our Christmas Day menu in future. Yum!

The great thing about this recipe is that it is really easy to adapt. You don't have to use white chocolate - dark chocolate and milk chocolate work just as well - and you can also use different varieties of biscuits in the base or fruits in the topping. I chose raspberries because they're my oldest daughter's favourite fruit yet we don't have them very often, and they have the additional bonus of being a rather festive colour!

Here in the UK, this style of cheesecake with a biscuit base and cream cheese topping is probably more widely known than its baked counterpart. Not all recipes will contain chocolate in the topping but I find it a useful ingredient because it means that the topping will set without using gelatine. Besides, what recipe can't be improved by chocolate?

I haven't even mentioned the best bit yet. This recipe is so easy to make. Standing-on-your-head-with-your-hands-tied-behind-your-back easy! There's no baking involved (just a bit of gentle mixing) and it can be made in advance too. The only thing that could possibly go wrong - and I'm only mentioning this because it has happened to me - is that you could burn the chocolate when you melt it. Consider yourself warned!

No-bake White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake

Serves 8-10
Biscuit base
175g digestive biscuits
75g unsalted butter, melted

Topping
225g white chocolate
150g full-fat soft cheese (I use Philadelphia)
20g caster sugar
375ml extra-thick double cream
225g fresh raspberries
white chocolate stars, to decorate (optional)

Line the base of a 20-cm round springform cake tin.

Crush the biscuits to make fine crumbs. Place in a bowl, pour in the melted butter and stir until the biscuit crumbs are thoroughly coated. Tip into the prepared tin and press down using the back of a spoon to form a base with an even thickness. Place in the fridge to chill whilst you are making the topping.

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Place in the microwave and heat on MEDIUM in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring in between, until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the soft cheese in a large bowl, add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate, then gently fold in the cream. Spoon the cream cheese mixture on top of the biscuit base and smooth the surface. Return the tin to the fridge to chill for 3-4 hours, or overnight.

Run a sharp knife around the inside edge of the tin, then unclip the tin. Transfer the cheesecake to a plate and arrange the raspberries over the top. Sprinkle over the white chocolate stars to decorate, if using.

Tips

• To crush the biscuits into crumbs, I tend to put them in a strong freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin. This is a job you can easily delegate to your kids - just keep an eye on them (mine can become a little over-zealous when it comes to bashing). You can do this using a food processor if you prefer.
• Another way to melt chocolate is to set the bowl over a saucepan of  gently simmering water and stir regularly until melted. Just make sure that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water and that none of the water gets into the chocolate.
• Whichever method you use for melting the chocolate, it's best to remove the bowl from the heat source before the chocolate is fully melted as the heat of the melted chocolate should be enough to melt any remaining solid bits of chocolate. 
• It is important to use full-fat soft cheese in this recipe because the topping won't set properly if you use a lower-fat version. It'll still taste nice though!  
• I tend to use extra-thick double cream in this recipe for ease of use - you don't have to whip it before using, thus saving a bowl's worth of washing up! You can use regular double cream instead, but you will need to whip it until it forms very soft peaks before folding it very gently into the soft cheese and chocolate mixture.