SIPIDI! ~ January Round Up

I've tried lots of new recipes this month. A few of them have included one of my favourite things. Chickpeas.

These are the ingredients for Spanish Chickpea and Potato Bake.

It looked so good when it came out of the oven that we dived right in and I forgot to take a photo. The filling smells wonderful as it cooks. The Mechanic actually commented on it when he walked in the door that evening. This almost never happens. It's topped with sliced potatoes, which crisp up in the oven and spread with sun dried tomato pesto. Delicious.

Hummus is regular fare around here and often on the lunch menu. There are some unusual variations in Anna Jones' book, A Modern Way to Eat, using different pulses. The Happy Pear has a trio of hummus recipes too. The beetroot variety is a fantastic colour. I've not tried that one yet, but the roasted carrot version is lovely.

A quick mention for avocados,  which Deb talked about earlier in the week. Another favourite lunch staple of mine and something I've been having on toast for the last twenty years. Lots of great variations on the theme, if you're stuck for inspiration.

Links to everything on my Meat Free Pinterest board. If you've joined in with SIPIDI! this month leave a comment so that I can find your post and I'll pin you to the board. Have a great weekend.

Memorandum Monday ~ Chilli

January seems to be the month of foodie Monday posts. This week is no exception.

On Saturday I cooked Mexican Leek and Blackbean Chilli for the first time....

It was most welcome after a 200 mile round trip, in the driving rain, today.

Joining in with Sian, whose idea it is to share something new we learned or a first.

Memorandum Monday ~ Chocolate Mousse Cake

If you missed it last week, Sian has had a shake up of Me on Monday and asked us to share something we did for the first time, or something we learned that we didn't know before, instead of our previous weekend recap. This little beauty covers both bases, although I hadn't thought of the thing I learned until I started typing.

It was a wet and windy Saturday afternoon here in Dorset and we'd decided on hot dogs and soup for dinner. While I was caramelising the red onions, I had a quick flick through my new cook book and came across the Chocolate Mousse Cake. I had everything except the flaked almonds and it looked pretty simple to throw together. It was. The hardest part was working out the new quantities.

It contains quite a lot of sugar so I cut down the recipe. It uses 5 eggs, which I changed to 3 and reduced the other ingredients accordingly. Divide by 5 and multiply by 3. Fairly easy when you're working with grams, not so much if the recipe were in ounces or cups. It still made eight good sized portions and was delicious.

What did I learn? How to line the base of a springform tin, something I hadn't used before, without the faff of drawing and cutting a circle.

Simply cut a square of baking parchment/greaseproof paper, a bit larger than the base of the tin. Now comes the slightly tricky part, where you feel like you need two pairs of hands. Place the paper on top of the base and put the base inside the tin, tucking the corners through to the outside as you do so. Clip the tin together and tug the corners of the paper until it lies nice and smoothly in the bottom of the tin.

The recipe is from the Happy Pear cook book, but I've tracked it down online if you fancy it. My tin is 20cm, rather than the 23cm specified and my quantities were:

100g margarine
160g caster sugar
180g dark chocolate
3 eggs
40g ground almonds

Happy Monday to you. Have a great week.

SIPIDI! ~ January

I've been having a rethink of the way we eat as a family and myself in particular. I was a vegetarian before I had my children and really it's just laziness that has kept me eating meat. The effort of cooking two separate meals became too much, with a challenging toddler and a small baby to look after as well as a part time job.

We've had "Meat Free Monday" for several years now and we quite often have a second meal during the week that is vegetarian and fish on at least one day. The Mechanic cooks home made chips on a Saturday. I have egg and mushrooms with mine, while everyone else has a meatier option.

That's four days covered and it doesn't seem quite so daunting any more. There will be some days when I'll eat vegetarian and the rest of the family will have their usual fare and other days when we will all have the same. To that end I'm looking for meals that I think my hardened carnivores will love. The Sweet Potato Quesadillas above were a big hit.

As was the Ultimate Chilli from The Happy Pear. I've also made this soup, found on their YouTube channel, to use up my vac-packed chestnuts. I only added 2/3rds of the stock suggested as I like my lunch soups nice and thick. On the strength of these two recipes I've ordered the cook book and I'm looking forward to trying a few more new things this month. I'll keep you posted.

All these recipes are on my Meat Free Meals board and you can find more information about SIPIDI! here.