Perhaps I should rename my blog 'All That I'm Blending' I've been making so much soup recently. But that's the joy of soup isn't it? You can pretty much throw what you've got hanging around into the pot and miraculously out comes a steaming hot bowl of marvellous soup. My red lentil and tomato soup is no different. Made using what I had in the cupboards and fridge this felt like a meal concocted out of nothing; and I have extra portions in the freezer Red Lentil and Tomato Soup
Perhaps I should rename my blog 'All That I'm Blending' I've been making so much soup recently. But that's the joy of soup isn't it? You can pretty much throw what you've got hanging around into the pot and miraculously out comes a steaming hot bowl of marvellous soup. My red lentil and tomato soup is no different. Made using what I had in the cupboards and fridge this felt like a meal concocted out of nothing; and I have extra portions in the freezer 
If you're chopping the florets off the broccoli and throwing away the stalk you're missing out. The stalk has that delicious broccoli flavour and can be used in so many ways. My broccoli stalk and sesame soup recipe is one of the things I like to use the stalks for but you can also chop them finely and add them to stir fries, pasta dishes and roasted veg.
Ingredients
You will need (for four portions):
Oil for frying1 onion, roughly 
There's something special about watching the steam rise from a hot bowl of soup after you've been working in the garden all morning; you just know it's going to fill you up. My smoked bacon and kale soup came about simply to use up some ingredients in the kitchen. I cooked up enough for six portions so there's plenty in the freezer for a wet and windy day. We have rather busy weekends and when lunchtime comes it's nice to stop, take some time 
I love koftas in a curry. More often than not they are lamb based and I wanted to try and make a vegetarian version. My spinach and potato kofta curry came about because I wanted the main part of it to be roughly based on saag aloo. This is a bit more effort than some of my other recipes, but, I've made double batches of both the koftas and the sauce and frozen them so I can have it again with no effort at all!
ingredients
You will need 
There's a very good reason why this is an easy vegetable lasagne: there's no béchamel! One of the things I love most about lasagne is how comforting it is, all those layers of pasta and sauce, so I didn't want to miss any of that by cutting out a few steps. It's still creamy and cheesy but only uses one sauce. This is such an easy recipe and you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand.
ingredients
You will need (for four portions):
1 
I had such a craving for some proper oat and raisin cookies. Ones which are crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle and about the same size as my face. I've tried several recipes in the past and they've tended to be not quite what I'm after in my perfect cookie. Until now. If you're after a healthy cookie I wouldn't read on any further.
ingredients
You will need (for 10 cookies):
225g unsalted butter, softened200g light brown sugar50g 
I often find that I buy nuts or seeds to make something particular and I get left with a few grams of them here and there. That's where my store cupboard shortbread comes in. This year I am attempting to use up ingredients in my cupboards and I thought I would start by using the last few dregs of cocoa powder and some leftover hazelnuts; I am so glad I did.
Ingredients
Makes 12 pieces of shortbread:
175g plain flour1 tbsp cocoa powder50g 
You know those small pasta shapes you can buy which are ideal for minestrone? Well, it turns out they make a really good pasta bake. I found this out by accident when making my creamy lentil pasta bake and looked in the cupboard to find only teeny tiny bows to hand. This is a seriously tasty and very filling vegetarian pasta bake which is crammed full of veg with a little added double cream for a touch of weeknight luxury.
Ingredients
You 
In my perfect world, a mince pie would be 70% pastry, 30% mincemeat. It's not that I don't like mincemeat I just don't like too much of it. That's where my mince pie crumble bars come in. A thick layer of buttery shortbread, a spiced mincemeat middle and further crumbly shortbread on the top. Let's be honest, it's mostly biscuit with a hint of Christmas. Perfect.
Ingredients
You will need (for 12 mince pie crumble bars):
300g softened 
At Christmas there are four things that I like to do: eat, go for walks, play games and watch festive television shows. I do like to plan ahead and this year is no different with my Christmas meal plan. With a plan in place there's no last minute rush to the shops for those forgotten ingredients and no blank looks when someone says "What's for dinner?". With a little bit of careful planning, some batch cooking and a few shortcuts I am looking forward 
