Tag: vegetables

Oven Pasta Bake

itsangie1 Comment

Hello everyone, I hope your day has been well.

With the winter season officially being in full effect for a while now, homemade pasta is definitely a winner for most people. Something filling and warming on those really cold and rainy days. I’ve included a range of vegetables to keep it healthy and nutritious. For a healthier version you could swap to wholewheat pasta, mozzarella instead of cheddar and reduced salt/sugar pasta sauce.

Recipe: Oven Pasta Bake (serves 2-3)

Ingredients

150g fusilli

100g sweetcorn

1 tin tuna

1/4 onion, finely diced

50g kale, roughly chopped

1 carrot, grated

440g pasta sauce

3 slices of cheese

Method

  • Cook the pasta a few minutes less according to the packet.
  • In the meantime, preheat the oven to gas mark 6.
  • Prepare all of the ingredients and place into a large bowl, except the cheese slices.
  • Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the bowl and mix everything well.
  • Place the pasta mix into an oven dish and break the cheese pieces over the top.
  • Put in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.
  • Serve straightaway and enjoy.

Follow my Instagram for more food.

Stir Fry Noodles with Chicken

itsangieLeave a comment

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve had a great day!

Today, I’m sharing a common favourite takeaway meal loved by so many people in the UK. The stir frying technique originates from Chinese, where meals are cooked in a wok using a little oil. I don’t order takeaway food so often but the last time I ate stir fry noodles from a takeaway, they were so greasy and I didn’t enjoy it that much. My version is so much more healthy and you can get the pleasure of making it yourself.

Here I am sharing a recipe that I have created from searching online and the flavours all go together so well and it tastes amazing, with the tanginess from the vinegar and sweetness from the sugar. I’ve also added some of my favourite vegetables like broccoli and carrot for that extra nutritious crunch. Also, I made this meal for myself, but if you are making it for more people you can easily double the ingredients or tailor it to your preferences.

Recipe: Stir Fry Noodles with Chicken (serves 1)

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

4 small chicken fillets

Chunk of broccoli – cut into smaller florets

70g egg noodles

1 garlic clove – crushed

2 inch of spring onion – finely sliced

2 tbsp soy sauce

10ml white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

Sprinkle of chilli and salt

50ml water

2 bunches of kale

1 inch carrot – cut into sticks

1 tsp tomato ketchup

Method

  • Set the oven to gas mark 6 and heat some oil in a pan.
  • Fry the chicken in a little oil for a few minutes each side and place in the oven along with the broccoli for 15-20 minutes until fully cooked.
  • In the meantime, cook the noodle according to the packet, drain and set aside.
  • Then fry the garlic for 3 minutes, add the soy sauce, white wine vinegar, sugar, chilli and salt. Mix in the water leave to reduce for 5 minutes.
  • Next add the noodles, kale, spring onion and carrots to the pan and stir together, making sure everything absorbs the flavours in the pan.
  • Once the broccoli and chicken are cooked add them both to the pan and mix together and serve.
  • Enjoy this delicious meal

Please follow my Instagram for more food.

5 Steps to going vegetarian

itsangieLeave a comment

Hello and welcome back to my blog. I hope everyone is okay and being productive with their time.

I recently went vegetarian for the first time in my life for 30 days and it was…. different! It was something that I had wanted to do from a few years ago and I was occasionally eating vegetarian meals and reducing my meat consumption and I just decided to go for it. In this post I’ll share with you how I successfully ate vegetarian meals for 30 days.

Top 5 steps for going vegetarian or changing your diet:

1. Plan, plan, plan. By this I mean to plan everything you will need in order for it to be successful. I did my research and looked through magazine recipes, recipe books and online for inspiration. I also made a list of all of the vegetables that I liked eating so that I could create my own recipes.

2. Write recipes and weekly meals. Get a notebook and plan 30+ recipes including all the ingredients needed and a step by step method so you know what to do.

3. Shopping list. At the start of each week, plan which 7 meals you are going to eat and do a shop for those items.

4. Get others involved. I live at home with my family so I was able to get my sister involved in helping me make the meals and actually taste it too, which made the whole process more fun.

5. Enjoy it. This step is all about embracing the change and sticking to your goal. Although I didn’t enjoy every meal I didn’t give up because it was something that I set out to do and it was all a part of the experience.

I would like to say that I my background is based on food, I decided to take a more practical route once I left secondary school and I studied Professional Cookery because at that time my dream was to become a cook and at a younger age, have my own food show on TV. Some time after that I decided to study Nutrition and I got my degree not long ago, my current job is in a different field but my passion for food, nutrition and good health throughout the body still remains.

Please comment below your favourite vegetarian meal so that I can try them out or any tips you have for changing your diet.

Thank you for reading, see you in the next post xx

Follow my Instagram for more food.

A Little Bean Appreciation

itsangieLeave a comment

Sometimes you’ve just got to take the time to really appreciate the beauty in nature. These broad beans are pink and purple they almost look magical, the colours are so pigmented and really stand out. The broad beans look so pretty and are very nutritious. Life can get really busy at times so always make the effort to just sit and appreciate the wonders that surround you, be it a broad bean, other foods, furniture, technology or the trees outside 🙂 

​

​

​
I’m not sure what dish these beans will be apart of, maybe a stew, soup or used in a salad!! They are locally grown too in an allotment which is always good…

One Pan Dish

itsangie2 Comments

My amazing ‘Sweet Vegetable Cottage Pie’ this is a great vegetarian dish, really simple for anyone to cook for dinner.  I actually topped this off with some mashed sweet potatoes but didn’t take a final picture but here’s what it looked like in the pan.

​Ingredients
Olive oil
½ onion finely diced
2 handfuls of lentils
350ml vegetable stock
Canned tomatoes
150g pasta of your choice
½ broccoli cut into small trees
1 carrot grated

Method
1. Heat the oil in the pan and gently fry the onions until slightly soft.

2. Place the potatoes into water to boil for 7 minutes then mash.

3. Once the onions are cooked add the lentils and veg stock, simmer for 10 minutes. Next add the canned tomatoes, pasta and broccoli cooking for a further 5 minutes.

4. Now pour the mixture into an oven dish and sprinkle with the carrot the cover evenly with the mashed sweet potatoes. Bake in the oven for 30 mins!! Yum.