KUMPULAN MASTER BLOG

Courgette and Mushroom Pesto Pasta- a quick and easy pasta dinner with sauteed mushrooms, courgette and pesto. Perfect for 'Meat Free Monday' or a quick weeknight meal. While I make most meals from scratch myself, these days, there are still staple convenience items that are 'must buys' for me. A jar of pesto is absolutely one of them. Fresh home-made pesto is absolutely delicious, but when you need a quick dinner, a jar can't be beaten for speed. Unfortunately, shop-bought pesto tends to be made, as is tradition, with parmesan, so doesn't fit the vegetarian bill, if you are vegetarian for ethical reasons. There are now brands available such as Sacla Organic Vegetarian Pesto, which would make it truly vegetarian though. This pasta dish is about as quick and easy as they come. You simply need to pan fry the courgette and mushroom with some onion and garlic, cook the tagliatelle and then mix it all together along with some classic pesto. Quick, delicious and easy....

10 Back to School Dinner Recipes- 10 recipes that are child-friendly and easy to make for weeknight dinners, including some vegan and gluten free recipes. We're headed towards Back to School season. How did that happen so quickly? At the end of July, the 6 weeks stretch out before you and then, poof, gone! I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of meal planning most of the time. I need to be organised and be prepared for the days when I'm not going to have a lot of time to cook dinner. But, in the school holidays, I stop doing my meal planning board and fly by the seat of my pants. Sometimes, shock horror, I decide what's for dinner about 20 seconds before I make it, ha! That just doesn't work for me during term-time though, so it's time to start preparing to be more organised. With all that in mind, I have gathered together 10 easy dinner recipes that should become staples on your back to school meal plans. Take a look!

Avocado Salad Pittas- pitta breads stuffed with creamy avocado salad and fresh coriander- a quick and easy vegetarian lunch option, ready in 10 minutes. Jump to Recipe We have just had a very brief respite from this year's heatwave and now it's back with a vengeance. When it's hot like this, I really struggle to think of anything that appeals to me food-wise. These quick, avocado salad pittas did the trick though. I could have eaten double the amount, easily! To make Avocado Salad Pittas, you just need avocado, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, cucumber, mayo, fresh coriander and lime juice. There's very little prep- just a bit of chopping, mix it all together and then you've got a refreshing filling for a summer lunch. Put it in pitta bread like I do or pop it on crackers, use as a crumpet topping- it's very versatile. On a cooler day, it makes a nice topping for a jacket potato too. I prefer my pitta breads lightly toasted. Two reasons- 1) it gives them a bit of...

Bruschetta Brunch Crumpets- an easy brunch recipe for summer, using some classic bruschetta flavours, and it takes less than 10 minutes to make. Now that's a quick meal! Jump to Recipe I don't often get the chance to have brunch but it's always a treat. That perfect mix of breakfast and lunch foods- yum. This is such an easy brunch recipe, but it looks just a little but fancy, as though you've made lots of effort. So, if you serve it up to others they should be impressed! To make Bruschetta Brunch Crumpets, you simply toast your crumpets, spread a good layer of cream cheese on them, top with cherry tomatoes and red onion and finally drizzle with some pesto. See- such an easy recipe! Serve it with some fruit and you've got brunch in just a few minutes. It's so quick that you can decide to make it on a whim, no need to plan ahead. If you want it to be truly vegetarian, you'll need to get a special pesto as most are not vegetarian due to the parmesan content.

Creamy Leek Pasta- a quick creamy vegetarian pasta dish with leeks, courgettes and peas. Can be syn-free on Slimming World if you use Quark. Dinner ready in 20 minutes. It's been a while since we had anything new for our Meat Free Monday dinner, so this Vegetarian Creamy Leek Pasta was a real treat. Creamy Leek Pasta is not only creamy and deliciously tasty, but also bright and colourful with green veg amongst the pasta. Pan-fried leeks, and courgettes, plus some peas, give the creamy leek pasta its colour and fresh flavours. If you're fan of other green veg, like spring greens, you could throw that in too. The trick to making sure that the vegetables don't end up as green mush, is to fry the veg for just enough time and to cook the peas briefly so they all have enough bite to them to add interest to the pasta. I like to use spirali pasta because the leeks wind around it and it just looks pretty! You can use whatever you have in the cupboard though. For the creamy sauce to...

Quick and Easy Garlic Mushroom Linguine- a quick, vegetarian pasta dish using a selection of different mushrooms, perfect for quick weeknight meals. Jump to recipe So here we are with another Meat free Monday recipe- Garlic Mushroom Linguine. If you're looking for vegetarian recipe inspiration, pasta is always a good place to start. Creamy, garlicky pasta is an even better place to start! I'm quite a fan of mushrooms. They are so quick and easy to cook and there are so many tasty types to try- Button, Chestnut, Porcini, Shitake, Oyster, Portabello, even woodland varieties. The best thing about mushrooms for me though is how perfectly they are complemented by garlic. They just belong together! This recipe for Garlic Mushroom Linguine ticks so many boxes for me. It's quick and there's very little prep and absolutely no fancy cooking skills, so it's super easy as well. I prefer to make it with a few different varieties of mushroom for more flavour and texture, but if...

Asian Salmon with Noodles- a quick and easy recipe for salmon marinated in soy, ginger, lemon and other spices and served with stir fried noodles and vegetables. I have been trying to share this recipe for a simple Asian marinaded salmon for about three weeks now. In the meantime we have eaten it at least 3 more times and I have enjoyed it more each time. It's a very simple salmon marinade with some classic Asian flavours- soy, ginger, garlic, honey. It's delicious when used to top off noodles, but if you're more of a rice fan that works too. I choose to pan fry it because crispy skin is delicious! It's a great meal for packing in some veggies- peppers, onion, broccoli, beansprouts, cabbage, whatever you fancy will add some lovely crunch against the soft salmon and noodles. If you have sesame oil, or can get some, then it's worth using for both the salmon and the noodles because it gives a more authentic flavour overall. If you can't, don't worry, your usual...

Creamy Salmon Pasta- penne pasta in a warm pasta salad with salmon, peppers and peas, mixed with fat free yogurt to keep the calories down. Syn free on Slimming World if you use spray oil. Jump to recipe So the summer holidays are nearly over, it's not long until we are back to school, and it's definitely time for me to get back on the MyFitnessPal wagon! To try and get things started with a bang, I wanted to make something new. I served up this Creamy Salmon Pasta dish, which is also syn free on Slimming World, and comes in at around 600 calories (less if you're not as big of a pasta monster as I am!) The creamy sauce is achieved with fat-free Greek yoghurt, which gives it a really nice tang. I personally like the Liberte brand because I find it thicker and creamier than others, but any plain, fat-free yoghurt would work. Mixed together with stock, veg, salmon and your favourite type of pasta, it makes a quick and delicious dinner. I could easily have eaten a second bowl,...

Feta Cheese Salad with Balsamic Dressing- a simple feta cheese salad, quick and easy to make for lunch or a starter, with a home-made balsamic dressing. Jump to recipe With the warmer weather over the last few weeks (and the heatwave that I really wasn't a fan of), all I have wanted to eat is salad. That has encouraged me into looking for a bit more variety in my ingredients. Lettuce, tomato and cucumber on their own gets old fast, and there's really no excuse for a boring salad! This weekend, I was in the mood for something Greek-style and I had a block of feta cheese in the fridge. I added a few delicious salady bits to contrast with the soft saltiness of the feta, whipped up a garlicky balsamic dressing and hey presto- a simple feta salad. The feta really is the star of the dish. If you can't be bothered to roast the peppers you can either put them in raw, or buy roasted peppers in a jar. It's absolutely delicious served as a starter, or with some crackers for lunch...

Quick Summer Fruit Crumble- a quick summer dessert using blueberries, raspberries and blueberries. Serve it up with ice cream or custard. Use frozen fruit if you can't get fresh. Jump to Recipe I am so ready for Summer to come round the corner, so I can put away my winter wardrobe, plant up up my garden and start carrying my sunglasses wherever I go. I want to eat strawberries, avocados and salad and sit in the garden on sun-loungers. Doesn't seem like much to ask, but summer is being quite contrary... One of the other great things about summer is all the delicious fruit that comes into season- strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, blackcurrants, nectarines. I love it all! We're not quite in the season for those fruits yet in the UK, although some early British strawberries are knocking around. I use the BBC Good Food Season Table to keep an eye on when I'll be able to find the fruit I want. In my determination to bring summer on, I decided to...

We visited family in Canada earlier this year; beautiful place, lovely people. At the end of our holiday, I carefully transported some genuine Canadian maple syrup back in my suitcase, wrapped in ziplock bags and a layer of socks! it was the good stuff, A-grade, and tasted absolutely a world away from the nasty slop from the bottom of the barrel that they export to Europe. Wise people, keeping the good stuff for themselves! The bottle's half-empty now, and I know I won't be able to go back to the low-grade syrup that we used to buy. So, in celebration of of the delicious maple syrup we have left, I used some to make a sweet and spicy marinade for chicken, and served up this Spicy Maple Chicken with rice. It was quick and delicious and the sharp spice of the cayenne pepper was a good contrast to the sweetness of the maple syrup. If you made the marinade in the morning and put the chicken in before you went off to work, Spicy Maple Chicken would make a very quick and convenient d...

This week I made some salmon fillets marinated in a beautifully simple sweet chilli sauce. I got the salmon fillets out for dinner because I had discovered that I seem to have built up a stockpile of salmon fillets in my freezer this month! This prompted me to go for a total reorganisation of my freezer. I absolutely hate food waste and I didn't want to find anything with freezer burn, or beyond the 3 month rule in a few weeks time. I decided to just get everything out and see what was what. Note to self- stop putting things in the freezer with the semi-clear plastic bags still wrapped round them, because you can't see what's in there! There was only one thing that needed throwing away; some tortilla wraps that were past their best.

Tuna Crunch Pasta Salad- a twist on the classic tuna mayo with sweetcorn. Chopped fresh peppers and spring onion add some crunch to this summer recipe. It makes a quick and easy lunch and is Slimming World Friendly. Jump to Recipe Pasta salads get quite a bad rap at times- gloopy, bland and so on, but I love them, especially in summer. It took me a few years to realise how much I loved them though, due to bad experiences at school. This was because there were often pasta salads served in the summer and they were truly revolting; very sweet and always tasted the same, no matter what the ingredients were. I found out later that they had been making the pasta salads with salad cream... I know, the very idea is revolting. Can't believe I ever managed to eat it! Pasta salads can be absolutely delicious, if you get the balance right (and don't use salad cream!) Given that pasta is soft, it works best if you balance that with some other firmer textures. For this pasta salad, I wanted ...

Potato Salad with Bacon- new potatoes mixed with bacon and spring onions and dressed with mayonnaise. A quick and easy summer side dish for your buffet or BBQ. Jump to Recipe I love potato salad, really love it, especially if it's a delicious home-made one with new potatoes. The first time I ever had potato salad, it was a packaged one from a supermarket. Inside were little cubes of almost hard potato, pieces of white onion and a very watery, acidic sauce, which I am guessing was supposed to be mayonnaise. Needless to say, I didn't like it. I was quite young at the time and it was only a few years later, in a Home Economics lesson, when I made a real potato salad for the first time, that I realised it wasn't supposed to taste like that! Last weekend I was making a buffet lunch and I wanted to pep up the side dishes a bit. I started with the Lemon and Garlic Giant Couscous Salad and then moved onto the potato salad. New potatoes, check. Spring onions, check. Mayonnaise, che...

Home-Made Houmous- it's quick and easy to make your own houmous and this recipe can be adapted to suit your own taste. Great for buffets, parties and lunches. Jump to Recipe There's something about houmous... (or hummus if you're anywhere except the UK!) that really makes me feel like summer has arrived. The first time I ate some, I was totally wowed by the taste. It probably seems strange now, but houmous wasn't readily available in the 80s when I was growing up. It started to appear in the early 90s and now has entire sections of the "dips" section in the supermarket devoted to it. My first experience of houmous was of the plain kind with carrot sticks- gorgeous. Now, I hardly know what to choose from lemon and coriander, roasted red pepper, piri piri and so many others for my houmous fix! At university, I had a house-mate who made her own houmous and swore by it for warding off colds and minor illnesses. I don't know if there's any truth to that, b...

Lemon and Garlic Giant Couscous Salad- a fresh zesty salad, the perfect side dish for your buffet or BBQ. Jump to Recipe This giant couscous salad was one of my offerings at a family party. This weekend was supposed to be my husband's birthday lunch at a local restaurant. After all the organising to get everyone in one place at one time, at the last moment we realised it was the local regatta. Chances of finding a parking space for the booking we had made, were very slim, so on Saturday we cancelled and I started a bake/cook-a-thon to make lunch for everyone at home! I made home-made bread rolls with various fillings, lemon cakes , chocolate cheesecake brownies , home-made houmous , and potato salad with bacon. I was looking for something that would be suitable as a side dish and would double up for people watching their weight, as we had a couple of guests who were in that mode and I know it's difficult. I love side dishes. I am always attracted to them at BBQs, possibly more...

Do you go through phases of being totally uninspired by what to make for dinner? I do every now and again, and last week was one of those times. I was stood in front of the meat cabinet in the supermarket for ages just staring- beef, pork, bacon, chicken, turkey... I briefly turned round and looked at the fish, and then back to the meat. No ideas and I didn't fancy anything we usually make. In desperation I bought chicken breasts, thinking- there's always something you can do with chicken breasts! At home I then stood staring into the cupboard, hoping for inspiration, an unopened bottle of smoked paprika caught my eye. My Dad loves smoked paprika, but I haven't really ever used it. The idea of BBQ flavours seemed a good one, so I thought honey would work as the sweet to match the smoky flavour of the paprika. It's definitely one of my favourite chicken marinades, of those I have made recently. I really want to try it with slow cooked chicken as I just have a feeling tha...

A recipe for Giant Cous Cous was one of the first I published here. I still cook with it regularly, especially in the summer. It's great for lunches. This spicy recipe is one I made for my husband when he started Slimming World. He was finding it hard to be inspired at lunchtime, when he was so used to having sandwiches. I tend to cook extra at dinnertime so there's leftovers for lunch, but on this occasion, there wasn't! It's delicious hot, but it's fine to have cold the next day too. He had it just as it is, but you could add some grilled salmon or left over cooked chicken to make it a bit more substantial. If you prefer it even spicier, then add a teaspoon of chilli powder as well. To make this Slimming World friendly and syn free, use powdered harissa and spray oil.

Garlic and Lemon Linguine with Chargrilled Chicken- a very simple pasta dish of linguine and mushrooms in garlic and lemon oil, with added flavour from the chargrilled chicken. Dinner ready in 25 minutes. Jump to recipe When we were on holiday in Canada, we went to a restaurant called The Spaghetti Factory a couple of times. It specialises in different pasta dishes and serves them up with a free salad or soup and garlic bread. Delicious! One dish that we had there was a garlic linguine with chicken. I really enjoyed it- there was a real kick of garlic in the linguine. At the time, I said straight away that I was going to try and make something similar at home. This garlic and lemon linguine with chargrilled chicken is my attempt to do just that. It's different to what we ate in Canada, but has similar flavours. Lemon and garlic give the linguine and mushrooms a ton of sharp flavour to contrast against the caramelisation on the chicken. It's very garlicky, so you might want to ...

Cajun Chicken and Bacon Traybake- a quick and easy recipe with roasted potato, red pepper and onion, perfect for quick weeknight dinners. Syn-free on Slimming World and under 500 calories. Jump to recipe The trouble with being on diet plans is that you need to be organised. No getting in from work and thinking what shall I have for dinner, I can't be bothered to cook, let's get take-away! It all needs to be thought of in advance. So, it was a bit awkward last week when we were just getting started and I found myself without any planned dinner. It needed to be quick and fit in with Slimming World for my husband's diet. And so the Cajun Chicken and Bacon tray bake was born! I love a tray bake dinner. It's so easy- chop it all up, throw it on a baking tray and hey presto! You need 2 baking trays for this recipe as the key to getting it cooked quickly is space between the different food on the tray. One baking tray is for the potatoes so they'll get nice a crispy when...