Cauliflower Mac and Cheese Bake

So, you've eaten most of the meat in the fridge before it goes bad, and now you have a cauliflower sitting there in the crisper, judging you, wondering when it gets a chance to shine.

This is a quick midweek dinner, and adds some delicious veggies to this rich pasta bake. It's filling, creamy and goooood. Think of a cross between cauliflower cheese and mac and cheese. Cheese is a great common denominator.

Now, it's vegetarian as a base recipe, unless you go and add bacon (which I did). I cooked the bacon in the oven and then added the sliced bits in at the end. But it would be perfectly lovely without that.

Chicken and Mozarella Pasta Bake

My guilty food pleasure is M&S ready meals. I normally have no tolerance for cutting corners in cooking when I feel that it is to the detriment of end product, but sometimes you just want (or need!) something ready to immediately throw in the oven. However, I also like to know what’s going into the food I eat, and the fussy part of me (a remnant of my childhood) appreciates that I can pick and choose exactly which ingredients are used. You’ll notice, for example, that I rarely cook with tinned tomatoes, because I hate those big pulpy bits that you can get. A nice sieved passatta is much preferable for me! Keep it smoooooth.

Anyway, back to the point, my absolute favourite M&S meal is a tomatoey, chickeny pasta meal which comes in a massive dish and which I have attempted to recreate numerous times, to no avail. So I decided to ditch all recipes and just wing it.

And it turned out well! I am in love with this meal – yes it takes quite a bit longer than a ready meal (mainly because of the cooking time of the sauce) but it is also fresh and delicious and flavoured exactly the way I like it. And there's enough food to last for days! Yum yum.

Pizza Topped Burgers

How's that for a slice of fried gold?

Mmmmm, hello weekend!

What is a girl to do when she has some pepperoni which is about to go past its sell by date and she bought too much mozzarella?

Well..

Pizza burger time!

I’ll confess, I’m not a big cheese fan. I don’t like the texture of it when it isn’t cooked, and I really don’t like cheese that is strong smelling/tasting. For me, mozzarella is the perfect cheese – it’s got that classic “stringy” cheesey texture and it doesn’t taste overwhelmingly cheesy. I have tried to incorporate it into my life as much as possible.

The secret to the mozzarella here is to keep the heat trapped in to allow it to melt all over the burger. Unfortunately it doesn’t get crispy on top, I think I’d probably need a working grill for that! Everytime I put the grill on, the fire alarm also goes off..

Serves 4

Mozarella and Roasted Squash Pasta

Ooh, autumnal cooking, I do like you.

I’m always looking for delicious pasta bake dishes for mid-week dinners. You see, I love to cook, but I really really love eating. So much so that I am incredibly impatient when it comes to cooking dinner after work. I will not be lovingly stirring a risotto for an hour when all I want to do is stick my head in a box of cereal for some nutrition.

And then, the clouds parted and heavens opened because I found this delightful little recipe, that even makes enough for leftovers! Dream.

This could very easily be a veggie recipe but I added the bacon last minute as I had a few rashers to use up, and they did add a lovely smoky, salty aspect.