An Easy Cupcake Recipe that Saved the Day

Who would have thought an innocent cake could cause so much trouble? It all started when The Husband innocently suggested he would make a cake to take into work, like he has done many times before. Except he forgot that this day was stock take, which involves 25 people, more than twice the usual cake-consumers. One cake was never going to be enough. What he didn't realise was, when you increase the volume of cake, the potential for disaster increases too. Here's what happened next, and how a decent fool-proof cupcake recipe can always put things right. Save this one for when you need your cakes to turn out right the first time!

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Special Fried Rice

This is the last in our series of easy student recipes and it's a favourite in our house. It's been a bit difficult to make into a recipe, actually, because I'm so used to just throwing things in, I had to really think about the measurements! It's another recipe which is great for using up leftovers and the ingredients are very flexible. Try adding pineapple, or peas, or you could replace the bacon with ham, or make a vegetarian version by leaving the bacon out and replacing the chicken with quorn. It's a great opportunity to experiment and make this dish your own. I hope you've enjoyed our fun recipes, click the link to try our Easy Stuffed Peppers. 

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Stuffed Peppers

Moving day is fast approaching for students all over the country, and I'm still digging through the archives to find the best easy, low cost recipes to help them on their way. Today's recipe is number five in the series and is vegetarian. I didn't think it would be possible to improve on the simplicity of the last recipe, but, believe it or not, this one contains just two ingredients. That's right, two, but it's such a big cheat, it looks like it took lots of effort and is also pretty nutritious. If you are not vegetarian, you can serve these as part of a ham or chicken salad, but they make a pretty yummy lunch as well.

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Cheesy Pork Steaks

Day four of our student recipes, and they are getting even easier! If you haven't been keeping up, I have been making some of our easiest recipes into easy to follow recipe cards, that students can take with them as they embark on their new chapters. Hopefully it will lead to a less noodle-filled existence! This recipe only has three ingredients, and requires very little preparation. It takes half an hour to cook and is really delicious. It is a clever twist on what would otherwise be quite a boring meal and can make you look like you really know what you are doing with this cooking lark, even when you don't! Recipe 3 is here. 

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Corned Beef Hash

Day three of our student recipes and this is one of the first recipes I learned to cook. It's a real comfort food favourite and there are variations of it around the country, including this Panakalty recipe from Sunderland. Corned beef isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be, but is a handy tin to have in the cupboard, in case you can't get to the shops and is often on offer in some of the budget shops that are all over our high streets these days. This recipe shows how to transform a simple tinned meat into a delicious, home cooked dish, using just four additional ingredients. The uncooked mixture can also be folded in pastry to make the most delicious Corned Beef Pasty too, if there's any left over. Recipe 2 is here.

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy French Bread Pizza

Day two of our student recipes and this one is particularly popular with young children too. It's very cheap to make because you can use food you have in the house for the toppings, even your fridge leftovers. Vegetables, cooked meats, even fruit, you can let you imagination go wild! It's a great way of finding out what you do and don't like on a pizza and to ensure all your leftovers get used up, saving you, or your student offspring, money. Baguettes and French sticks are often reduced to clear in supermarkets towards the end of the day, so there is more potential to save money, and you could even go for a flavoured bread for an added twist. Recipe 1 is here.

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Sausage Casserole

If you have students starting University soon, this may be the series for you. All this week, I will be posting recipe cards, which you can download and print, featuring some of our favourite easy, cheap recipes. You can either give them to your nest-flying offspring to take with them, or use them to teach younger children how to cook. It's never too early to learn about budgeting and cooking your own meals, and these are so easy, it's a great place to start. Children are more likely to eat something they cook themselves, so it can help expand their menu a bit too! This Sausage Casserole contains just four ingredients and takes under half an hour to make. 

Easy Chicken and Bacon Pasta

This recipe is so easy to make, it's barely a blog post at all! I thought it was a good time to post it, as a new batch of students are beginning to think about life at university. If you click the Recipes tab, you'll find lots of other easy-to.make recipes for practising cooking skills, most requiring just a few, low cost ingredients. Our two favourites are Easy Sausage Casserole and our Baked Salmon recipe. Today's recipe is a bit of a cheat, because it involves a tin of soup, but it's cheap and tasty, so I think it's acceptable. Read on, to find out how you can turn a tin of soup, into this...

Carrot Soup with Asda's Wonky Veg Box!

For Day 5 of Wonky Veg Week, I thought we had better make some carrot soup, as it's one of L's favourite foods. It's a great way to squeeze some nutrition into children, as it's quite sweet and a fun colour and is often a favourite for a cold winter's day. Our veg is starting to run out now, but it has lasted well and was definitely worth the £3.50 it cost for the 5kg box. So far it has made; Leek Pastry Slices, Stuffed Peppers, Spanish Omelette and has provided the veg for our Sunday roast. Not bad for the outlay and it's been fun thinking up imaginative recipes, whilst getting away from boring convenience foods. 

Easy Stuffed Peppers with Asda's Wonky Veg Box

Yesterday, I offered my first impressions of Asda's latest big idea to lessen waste and boost the profits of farmers, as well as providing cheap, healthy food to customers. The Wonky Veg Box is packed with imperfect seasonal veg and provides a wealth of opportunities to get creative with meals. Today's recipe will take care of the green peppers and use up the cabbage left over from yesterday's roast dinner. Stuffed pepers look quite exotic when served, but are ridiculously easy to make, as is the homemade coleslaw. It's all pretty healthy too! 

Cheesy Apple Pork Steaks

Do you suffer from apathy in the kitchen? Are you bored with standard meat and gravy dishes?! I flipping am, but I also don't always have time to think up exciting meals from scratch. Wholesome homemade food is always a prefered choice, but it's not always possible to have all the ingredients and time. Sometimes, you want something almost as easy as a takeaway, but without the expense or health implications. So,  here is another of my ultra-lazy, super-easy, meal twists, to transform a dull meal in minutes. It's so easy, it doesn't even need words. It just needs:

Bacon, Egg and Cream Cheese Bagel

This is quite possibly the most delicious breakfast roll you will ever eat. The sweetness of the cream cheese and the saltiness of the bacon are the perfect taste combination and the egg adds a wonderful texture to the finished dish. It only contains four ingredients all of which are widely available. Like all my recipes, it is astoundingly easy to make and the longet time is spent cooking the bacon and boiling the eggs, after that it's ready in moments.

Making Basic Biscuits Better, with Betty Crocker!

I am a massive fan of these little cookie mixes, by Betty Crocker. I'm actually a huge fan of Betty Crocker in general. The tubs of icing are so convenient and last for ages, even when they've been opened. I use them all the time in my quick mix recipes, like this quick mix sponge cake. If you are entertaining though, or want your cookies to look a bit more 'homemade' (ahem), they can seem a bit, well, flat. Here a couple of ideas to pep them up a bit, without really making much effort, because you want to save all your energy for the eating part, don't you? 

An Easy Salmon Recipe for the Barbecue

My family love barbecues. Perhaps a little too much. I think they would have barbecues for breakfast if I let them! I don't mind them and enjoy being outdoors and the social aspect, but I find burgers and sausages get a bit samey after a while. So, when I found a half side of salmon reduced to £1.50 in the bargain bin at the supermarket yesterday, I decided that had to be the answer to my barbecue boredom. But what to do with it... Inspiration came in the form of another bargain buy, a bag of limes for 9p! Here's how to make a delicious salmon dish to add some interest to your usual barbecue meals. 

Strawberry Ice Cream Milkshake

We love strawberries and are always trying to think up new and different strawberry recipes. This super simple strawberry milkshake recipe is so easy, it's a lovely one to get children involved with. It's brilliant fun and perfect for cooling down during the summer months. The taste and texture is very reminiscent of the milkshakes you get in a certain fast food restaurant, but contains real fresh fruit, for extra health benefits. If you don't have strawberries, you could try substituting another fruit, such as raspberries or bananas. As with a lot of my recipes, the amounts aren't set in stone and can be adjusted to taste without completely ruining it. All you need is....

Emergency Biscuit Replacement Hack!

Don't you just hate it, when it gets to the point in the evening where you really don't want to go out, and you suddenly realise, you've forgotten to buy something vital. So, this evening there was mass panic when the choccy biccies ran out and we had to think fast. I had some shortcrust pastry left over from a jam tart failure (don't ask) so we threw together this epic recipe, that will replace your biscuit supply easily and without having to go out. bonus!

Nutritious, Low Cost, Three Minute Scrambled Egg!

The humble egg often gets overlooked these days as part of a healthy diet, but, in terms of nutrition versus cost, you really can't 'beat it' (ahem). Containing just 70 calories each, along with high quality protein, there are also a host of B vitamins, minerals and even trace elements of Phosphorus, all packed into its relatively tiny shell. There are lots of different ways to create a healthy lunch, with hardly any effort, using eggs and it's a great way to fill you up and prevent that pesky mid-afternoon snack craving. There is a recipe for  Lazy Eggs with Ham here, but today, I thought I would share with you a favourite of mine, which takes just three ingredients and literally two minutes to cook.

Caramelised Carrots Make Veg Fun!

This caramelised carrot recipe is very simple to make, using just a few ingredients, and is always really popular with children, due to the sweetness. Happily, it offers a good way to get vegetables into even the most reluctant vegetable consumer. However, as they do contain sugar, they are not the healthiest of vegetable options, so are probably best reserved for a delicious occasional treat. They do get children used to the texture of vegetables though, so might be one to consider if you are in possession of a really committed fussy eater.

Why Pay More for Hot Chocolate?

I recently ran out of hot chocolate and was surprised to find out just how easy it is to make a really delicious hot chocolate, using just milk, sugar and Cocoa. This particularly appealed to me, because I don't get on well with dairy and try to avoid it if I can. The shop-bought hot chocolate I was used to was one you made with water, so the milk was already added. Not only does this mean you have to suffer the dairy content, but also, like all processed foods, there are lots of other ingredients too that aren't strictly necessary. Take this example from Tesco. This is a list of ingredients for their Value hot chocolate;

Space Age Strawberries; Making Fruit Exciting for Children!

My daughter has been the big sister to a fussy eating younger brother for years and during that time she has come up with lots of fun ways to encourage him to try new foods. I don't know why she is so good at it, I think it's partly the imagination of youth and partly the fact that she is close enough in age to him to still remember what it was like to be suspicious of food! Her latest invention is a novel way to jazz up some strawberries. This simple recipe makes them more appealing to little, and bigger, picky eaters and it involves a product I am a huge fan of. It's not especially cheap, contrary to my normal food posts, but it does last a long time, as a little goes a long way. Dr Oetker Shimmer Spray is so much fun, your food will never be the same again!