Salmon & Avocado Mash

The other night Faye and I found some salmon steaks in the freezer and decided to get cooking. 

This was so easy to make because all you do is pop the salmon in the oven and get cracking with the quinoa, which, by the way, is really quick to cook, speedier than rice and pasta!

I heard about avocado mash from Russell from SBC on Instagram, and considering that I love avocado,  and I love quinoa, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

I've made it several times and it's a tasty alternative to rice or pasta, because, frankly, I do get quite bored of those.

Two Salmon steaks

1 medium sized leek

Quinoa or Bulgar wheat, amount depending on portions

1 vegetable stock cube

1 clove of garlic

1 avocado

2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 200C, and whilst you're waiting for it to heat up, chop your leeks into disks and pop half into the bottom of a little foil parcel, place the salmon on top and season with S&P.

Whilst the salmon is cooking away grab a pan of boiling water, add the stock cube and the quinoa or bulgar wheat,  I used a mixture of both, boil until fluffy, and drain using a sieve.

 Mash up your avocado so it's completely smooth, and mince or finely chop the garlic.

Add both the garlic and the avo into the quinoa, 

Squeeze in a bit of lemon juice and season.

It should go a slightly unappetising light green colour, but persevere, because it's really tasty.

After about 20 mins of the salmon being in the oven, take it out and check it. If it's done, all systems go,  pile it all on a plate.

  
I can't have dairy, Faye and Tilly had their suppers a little differently, they had their salmon cooked with a little cream cheese and served with what looked like the creamiest mash in the world, I didn't mind though because the avocado makes the quinoa taste so creamy that you wouldn't know it was dairy free.

Skinny Veggie Egg Fried "Rice"

Bloglovin' is full to the brim with cauliflower rice recipes, I've already given my 2 cents, but here's another 2, this time inspired by Rose's recipe, just in case fish didn't tickle your taste buds.

I hate cauliflower. The smell of it cooked makes me think of smelly, old socks, and although I eat odd things, they're not really what I'd like to scarf down  snaffle.

But this isn't just a game changer, it's a game changer and a half. 

This cauliflower was £1, and once you've blitzed it all up, there's tonnes of the stuff, so if there's just you, pop some of it in a tupperware box and then you can make another meal in a few days.

Perfect for a student budget.

For a feast for two:

1 cauliflower

1 tsp sesame oil

2 spring onions

Frozen sweetcorn

4 button mushrooms, sliced

Tofu (optional)

Soy sauce

Hot sauce

1 egg

First grate your cauli, you can pop it in the blender, like I do, or get a large cheese grater and get grating.

This was my first time cooking with tofu, I did really like it, but I guess it's an acquired taste so it's not everyone's first choice.

Cut it open...

Then wrap with lots and lots of kitchen roll and squeeze firmly, but gently to remove as much of the water as possible.
Cut how much you want or need, gently though because it slices like butter, and not out of the fridge butter, butter that's room temp, so good luck.

  
Heat a frying pan, add a dash of soy sauce and throw (gently) your tofu in and cook until lightly browned.

Whilst the tofu is browning, chop up two spring onions and add the frozen sweetcorn with the sesame oil into the cauliflower rice.

Put this pan on the heat and add the mushrooms.

Add some soy sauce...

Keep stirring around about now because you don't want anything to get stuck to the bottom because crunchy rice ain't nice.

Create a little well in the rice, and crack in your egg.

Sort of beat it with the wooden spoon then scramble it as it cooks on the bottom of the pan.

This is one of my new found loves, Sriracha, it's a hot sauce that I found via Cassey Ho, it's so delicious, thicker than Tabasco and packs a huge punch of flavour, I got mine from Tesco.

I only added a teensy bit of this because I didn't want to go crazy!
Stir in your tofu and then serve!

Look at how full these two bowls were! This wasn't even all of it!

And if there's any leftovers (which there were), you can just polish them off (which I did)!

This recipe probably could have fed three, but I'm a bit of a feeder (I'm not actually, for those who don't know me) and it's better to have some left over, than not enough!

Cauliflower is the best source of vitamin C, after citrus foods, has tonnes of fiber, potassium (which gets your kidneys to get rid of waste products), and folic acid, so, if you're wanting to get pregnant, get your cauliflower oooon.

Mirin-Glazed Salmon With "Rice"

If I had to choose my "Top Ten Favourite Main Meals", this would be in it, I have a huge amount of favourites but this really is so tasty and Lucy and I always pestered our mum to make it for us.

She first discovered this Nigella Lawson recipe a few years ago, over time we've chopped and changed it. 

Nigella suggested we use sushi rice, we don't. Unless you like the taste of fishy rice pudding, which is what it reminded us of. Nowadays, we usually use basmati rice or if we're feeling funky, lots and lots of stir fried veggies (super tasty), but after all the hype about making cauliflower rice, I wanted to try it with this recipe.

For two-

Half a cauliflower head

1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 salmon steaks

30ml mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)

25g light brown sugar

30ml soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 spring onion, shredded

Cut your cauliflower in half and cut the half you are using into little trees.

Toss these into a blender or grate them or use your desired instrument of torture and continue until it's fine, like this.

Leave your cauliflower for now, you won't need it for a little bit.

Measure your mirin and soy, then pour into a shallow dish with the sugar and the rice vinegar.

Marinate the salmon in the sauce for 3 mins on the first side and 2 mins on the other, you don't need to be precise about this, I normally just plop it in, potter about, come back and turn it, you know, be relaxed, it's not the end of the world.

Heat a large, non stick frying pan and add the fish to it, and dry fry it, making sure the fish doesn't stick to the bottom. 

No crusty bottoms for us.

Just before you flip (the fish that is, this recipe isn't that annoying, I hope), put the cauli in a pan with a little bit of sesame oil, toss this about so it doesn't get stuck to the bottom and it all warms through.

Flip when the steak looks about 1/4 pink, from the bottom up, rather than orange, then pour the marinade that was left in the dish over the salmon.

Take it off when the salmon is pink all round (all in all about 4 mins), and it looks like this:

Pile your plate high with "rice", lay your salmon on top, top with the spring onions and drizzle with the marinade in the pan.

This doesn't actually taste of cauliflower.
After a few incidents with rather smelly steamed cauliflower, I think it's horrible but you can't really taste it at all with the sauce, plus it fills you right the way up, so no rumbly tummies before bed (my worst nightmare)!

I recently made some egg fried cauliflower rice for Josh, he loathes cauliflower, and his reaction was "I didn't expect to like it, like at all, but I really do! Can you make it again?", plus my mum's been requesting it too, I think I've got myself a winner!!

Breakfast Bars

Breakfast is one of my three favourite meals of the day. I actually think about what I am going to eat when I wake up as I am falling asleep in bed, sound sad?
Maybe, but I like my food.

Anyway, I need energy first thing in the morning otherwise I'll be grumpy until lunch, and I've found that oats are the only thing that really keep me feeling full, plus, my Mum says to me "Eat breakfast like a King" and who am I to disagree with that?

T

I saw this recipe on The Londoner a little while back, all the way back in January to be precise, I've been wanting to make them but I haven't been able to find a dairy free version of condensed milk.... Until now!
Scouring the Internet has its uses, and somewhere in the deepest depths I found a sweetened condensed milk recipe, which I actually prefer to the real thing!

For the whole shebang, you'll need:

2 eggs
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp. plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

350g oaty muesli (I used half oats and half this Dorset Cereals one... Tropical!)
50g goji berries
70g cranberries

Preheat your oven to 130°C / 260°F.

First combine your eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, you'll probably want to use a whisk or a fork because things could get a little lumpy.

Then add your oaty stuff, coating all of it in the sugary mixture, then finally adding your dried fruit.

Press down into  a brownie tin, or a round one like I used and pop in the oven for about 30 to 40 mins, depending on how chewy you want them.

How easy peasy was that?
This recipe is so simple to do, plus, making it on a Sunday night means longer in bed the next morning because you can grab one of these and run!

Or, if you have more time, get up early, make some hot chocolate, grab one of these and crawl back into your cave (snuggly, warm and inviting bed).

I wouldn't just leave these for breakfast though guys, take away the words "Breakfast Bar" and replace it with "Healthy Fruity Flapjack" and you're onto an all day winner!