Coffee Muffins

Last Christmas I asked for a copy of Ottelenghi’s Plenty. The plan, as with all good plans, never came to much – but the idea was to kill two birds with one stone:

• Matt and I would eat a more healthy vegetarian diet, at least a number of times a week.
• And next time I had my best friend (and vegetarian) over for dinner I would have a wealth of different recipes to choose from. Recipes that I know and love myself.

However it didn’t work that way and the book ended up on the shelf (in fact it was lost in the basement for a period), when I finally opened it up – I was in a panic.

Somewhat stupidly I had just agreed to do a Christmas dinner for my friends, for the first time to anyone ever. I had given myself less than one week to prepare. I’d had an entire year but my vegetarian repertoire was as pathetic as before. I read Plenty cover to cover, I scoured the internet, foodgawker, the guardian Christmas food sections, but found nothing that looked special enough for a vegetarian Christmas meal.

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Despite the relaxing necessary this weekend I did want to post something food related. Don’t worry I am multitasking and breaking in my wedding shoes at the same time. Is it worrying that the word I most associates with shoes after 30 minutes is “ouch”!

This braised beef dish is another great autumn recipe perfect for a Sunday evening. I got this recipe for Rich Braised Beef with Melting Onions from the October edition of Good Food, and it appealed to me as it was so simple and I had all the ingredients I needed.

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Budget or healthy, so often these two things don’t go hand in hand. Healthy fresh vegetables are for example are often more expensive than fast food.

This recipe combines the two by reducing the amount of red meat in your bolognese sauce and replacing it with puy lentils. Voila – healthier and more budget conscious!

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Some recipes need to work harder than others to impress, a beautifully colored spring salad with bright green leaves and vivid red tomatoes is easy to sell to others. Similarly (but at the opposite end of the spectrum) a pizza oozing cheese, topped with pepperoni and a side of chips is always going to go down well.

However some dishes just don’t have it that easy. Take this recipe for baked fish and puy lentils, it has fish – but not the covered in batter and fried kind – and brown unappetising lentils.

I was full of excitement when I first found the recipe, but as I start to cook it the in-trepidation grows, I’m worried about the response I’ll get from Matt.
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On a Sunday I like to roast some vegetables for dinner, I always roast too many so they can be used in other recipes during the week. Especially for week nights where if I did start to roast a vegetable, dinner would be after 8 o’clock.
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For me perfect winter food is warming, rich and easy to make, there is less hovering over the stove, less stress. This “pie” is exactly that, instead of making a meat pie incased in pastry you make the meat filling then top with a square of puff pastry on the plate!

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Another Sunday another lazy blog post. This Sunday we had Matt’s Dad round for lunch. I have made this roast chicken a couple of times before using thyme, but since I now have a rather large rosemary plant weed I used that instead.
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