I suggested we go to a local garden centre that we had never been to before but I had seen others mention on Facebook in the past. I checked the website and saw that the cafe – Belle & Joe’s – had been voted the best garden centre cafe in 2013 by the Nottingham Post.
As we only have a small kitchen we don’t have room for a lot of gadgets, I literally have room for my kettle and (smoothie) blender that I use every day, add some post, a lunch box, two fruit bowls and some water bottles and it’s more than cluttered! If you’re lucky enough to have a bigger kitchen than us and have a bread maker you can do the first bit of this recipe in it, saving some time.
This recipe serves 2 adults and 2 small children but makes lots of sauce so if making for more people you can increase the number of sausages you put in. If making for 4 like us and you don’t want to serve all the sauce for dinner you can save some and have some with pasta for lunch or dinner the next day.
This recipe serves 2 adults and 2 small children as part of a buffet lunch. We like to eat it with grilled halloumi cheese, sautéed spinach and salad potatoes. It tastes great served straight away but even better when it’s been left for a few hours or even eaten the next day.
You do need a bit of time to make the sauce as it tastes better when the meat has been cooked for a few hours and so breaks down. If you don’t have time in an afternoon to keep checking on it in a pan, you could try making it in a morning and leaving in the slow cooker on a low setting all day.
We’re having a bumper crop of courgettes at the minute thanks to some amazing sunny weather and lots of rain too. I’ve also had two rather large marrows because I missed them underneath all the huge leaves and didn’t go down to the vegetable patch for two days because of the rain. I came up with this recipe and it worked really well, Oliver asked me as soon as he’d finished when i could make it again so I consider that a win!
My boys love this. We’re big fans of fish in this house and eat it at least twice a week. Salmon and tuna are our favourites. This recipe is so simple. I like to make it at lunch time so it can marinade in the fridge for a few hours. You can eat this with a stir fry with noddles or rice or why not try it with potatoes and green veg.
This is a really summery salad. I love to make it for a summer’s evening barbecue or have it for a work lunch. I eat it with a big spoon of houmous and beetroot salad. It would also go great with some warm green veg such as green beans, spinach or tender stem broccoli.
This granola is so simple and quick to make and you can store it for weeks in an airtight container. You can eat it straight out the jar as a snack, with milk and/or yogurt for breakfast and you could always add in some fresh fruit, cherries would go great. I like oat milk and Alpro plain soya yogurt with almond or The Coconut Collaborative plain coconut milk yogurt.
If you were to ask my boys what their favourite foods are their answers would be the perfect mix of English and Italian, just like them! They love Yorkshire Puddings and Pancakes, Pizza and Pasta. They absolutely love a roast dinner with gravy. As an English person it’s such a tradition and I have to say it’s my favourite meal too. Unfortunately I don’t make a roast very often as I don’t make the time to. Sometimes it seems like a lot of work and I’m not very creative with the chicken leftovers (I tend to stick to the same two recipes – chicken pie or risotto) but when I do it’s definitely worth it and there is no fuss from the boys and always clean plates at the end of the meal. Who doesn’t love a Sunday roast?