Halloween Themed Snacks with Primula

I really love Halloween. It is a great excuse to have some family fun with a spooky twist. I love dressing up, watching scary movies and eating Halloween themed food. It's a monstrously good time of year!

As part of the Primula Blogger Club, I have been creating some seasonal snacks using Primula Cheese, which have been a great hit with the family. Here are three quick and easy recipes to feed your little monsters this Halloween.

Cobweb Muffin Pizzas

Ingredients (per 2 muffin pizzas)

1 muffin
tomato paste
Primula Original cheese
1 cherry tomato, sweetcorn kernels and slices of red pepper for garnish

Method

Slice the muffin and spread with tomato paste.
Pop into the oven at 200 degrees for about 6-8 minutes.
Use Primula squeezy cheese to draw a cobweb on each half.
Using a half tomato, two sweetcorn kernels and eight strips of red pepper, make a spider to garnish the muffin pizza.

Handy hint - transfer Primula to an icing syringe for finer lines.

Smoky Primula Dip served in a pumpkin

Nothing says Halloween like a gorgeous, orange pumpkin. They make such a lovely centrepiece for an autumnal table or a Halloween party. I have used one as a holder for a dip, and surrounded it with tasty things to dip in it! Instead of attempting to hollow out the whole pumpkin and filling it completely with dip, I've simply taken off the top and scooped out enough flesh to pop in a glass ramekin dish. It looks really effective, is more hygienic and means you can re-use the pumpkin afterwards.

Ingredients

Half a tube of Primula Original Cheese
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon of smoky paprika

Method

Simply mix the ingredients together and sprinkle a little paprika on top.
Serve with carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, radishes, celery, crackers or crisps.

Cheesy Sausage Roll Mummies

Ingredients

5 veggie sausages (I used defrosted Quorn sausages)
1/2 sheet of ready rolled shortcrust pastry
Primula Original Cheese
a little milk for glazing
tomato paste for making eyeballs

Method

Cut the sheet of ready roll pastry in half lengthways.
Cut the pastry into five strips.
Spread a thin layer of Primula onto the pastry strips.
Wrap each sausage with the pastry, with the cheesy side facing inwards!
Leave a 2cm piece of sausage showing at the top.
Pop into the oven on a prepared baking sheet at 200 degrees.
Cook for 15 - 20 minutes until golden.
Don't worry if the cheese oozes out - it adds to the effect!
Use tomato paste to make red eyeballs on the top of the sausage to complete the mummy.

These tasty, cheesy little sausage roll mummies are perfect for buffet food or for an after school snack for the kids. The Primula layer adds a lovely cheesy twist to this classic savoury treat.

However you celebrate Halloween this year, I hope you enjoy some family fun and make some wonderful memories!



The Primula Blogger Club is a paid for partnership.

New Orleans Style Bean and Rice Casserole - a recipe for when it's cold outside

As part of the Veetee Rice Blogger Community, I have created a vegetarian recipe for a tasty, wholesome family meal for when it's cold outside. Using a pack of Veetee microwave New Orleans Style Rice, it is quick and easy to make a warming pot of Bean and Rice Casserole. It is a one pot meal, perfect for the winter, flavoured with the tastes of the deep South - chilli, smoked paprika and earthy kidney beans. The recipe makes a big pan full, perfect for feeding your hungry hordes!

New Orleans Style Bean and Rice Casserole

Ingredients 

2 red onions chopped

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 carrots chopped

2 potatoes chopped

1 sweet potato chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes with garlic and chilli

1 tablespoon tomato puree

300ml vegetable stock

3 cans of beans (kidney, aduki, chickpeas, butter, black etc)

1 teaspoon coriander leaves
1 teaspoon smoked paprkia

ground black pepper
(1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a spicier dish)

1 pack Veetee New Orleans Style Rice

150ml coconut milk

oil for frying

Method

Put onions into a large saucepan and gently fry for 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add chopped vegetables and fry for a further 5 minutes.

Pour in tomatoes, tomato puree and stock and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer.

Add drained beans and corander and ground black pepper and simmer for 25 -30 minutes until vegetables are tender. (Add boiling water if it starts to boil dry.)

Microwave the rice for 2 minutes and add to the pan, stirring through.

Continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes until thickened.

Stir through coconut milk and heat through.

This dish is also great for the slow cooker. This is how I made it. Add everything except for the rice and coconut milk to the slow cooker and cook on high for 1 hour then on medium for 3 hours. Add heated rice and coconut milk and cook for a further hour until rich and thickened.

Spooky Halloween Recipes - Melon Monster Face and Eyeball Spaghetti

Aldi has some great Specialbuys for Halloween this year. They also have some fantastic Halloween recipes that will make some devilishly delicious meals, snacks, drinks and desserts for your little monsters! All the ingredients are available in store at Aldi's great prices, so you can impress your guests for less.

Here are my favourite two recipes from the collection that I have made. Both recipes were pretty straightforward and the family loved them. The end results were quite impressive and the Melon Monster Face would make a fantastic centre piece for a Halloween party table.

I've included the prices for the ingredients bought from Aldi (prices correct as of 28/10/2015).

Melon Monster Face

Ingredients:

1 Watermelon £1.99

4 ripe Plums 59p pack

4 Satsumas 99p pack

4 Funsize Eating Apples 59p pack

Method:

Cut the top off the watermelon.

Carefully scoop out all the flesh, cut into small chunks and remove the pips.

Cut a large mouth and some eyes into the side of the watermelon.

Core and chop the apples.

Peel and segment the satsumas.

Halve the plums, remove the stones and chop.

Mix the watermelon chunks, plums, apples and satsumas together – put into the watermelon, with some pouring out of the mouth onto a plate.

Eyeball Spaghetti 

Ingredients:

400g Cucina Italian Spaghetti 49p

1 x 500g Jar Cucina Pasta Sauce 69p

1 x pack mixed peppers 89p

1 x 200g pack Lyttos Greek Feta  99p

1 x pack cherry tomatoes 99p

A few basil leaves 29p pack

Method:

Cut a thin slice off the top of each tomato, with a small teaspoon scoop out some of the centre, push a cube of feta cheese into the hole shaping into a round – repeat with the rest of the tomatoes.

Make pupils using basil.

Cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the packet.

Chop the peppers into small pieces, add them to the pasta sauce in a saucepan and heat through.

Drain the pasta, serve with the sauce.

Divide between 4 bowls and pop a pair of tomato eyes on top.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe for Halloween from Holland and Barrett

It's just a couple of weeks until Halloween and the supermarkets are stocking pumpkins in readiness for when we carve our Jack O'Lanterns. But pumpkins aren't just for creating spooky seasonal decorations, they are also good for eating. Not only do they taste good, they also are packed with nutrients. They are rich in beta-carotene, which helps good vision, skin health and the function of the immune system. Pumpkins are also a good source of fibre and contain potassium. Pumpkin is also packed with zeaxanthin, an antioxidant that helps to protect the eyes from age-related degeneration. The seeds are nutrient dense, high in protein and contain unsaturated fat. The seeds also contain phytosterols for heart health and trypothan, which the body uses to produce serotonin in the body to help maintain normal mood.

The traditional way of enjoying pumpkin is in a pie. This is a recipe by Natasha Corrett, created in collaboration with Holland and Barrett's free-from range. This healthy take on the traditional pumpkin pie is perfect for Halloween.

PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE

Serves  6–8

For the crust:

50g (1¾oz) dates, pitted

65ml (2½fl oz/¼ cup) hot water 

1 tbsp sunflower oil

200g (7oz/2¼ cups) ground almonds

¹⁄8 tsp ground nutmeg

For the filling:

600g (1lb 5oz) pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tbsp sunflower oil

3 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp mixed spice 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp coconut flour 

2 tbsp agave syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3, and line a 15cm (6in) tart tin with baking parchment.

Soak the dates for 10 minutes in the measured water, then drain.

Put all the crust ingredients into a food processor and pulse until they come together to form a ball. Carefully tip the ball into the tin and press the ‘dough’ evenly all around.

Prick the dough and bake for 15–20 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before adding the filling.

Roast the pumpkin with the sunflower oil for

20 minutes until it is soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Transfer the roasted pumpkin to a blender and whizz until smooth. Then add the eggs, spices, vanilla extract, coconut flour and agave syrup and blend again until you get a super-smooth mixture. Scoop the mixture up and transfer into the crust and bake for 30–40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

***

If pumpkin pie isn't your thing, Holland and Barrett stock a range of pumpkin products that are nutritious and perfect for this time of year. Great for healthy snacking!

Meridian Organic Pumpkin Seed Butter 170g £3.29
Freed Gluten Free Crispbread with Cheddar and Pumpkin Seed 160g £2.89
Biona Organic Spiced Pumpkin Soup 680g £2.69
Neal's Yard Wholefoods Pumpkin Seeds 400g £7.99
9 Bar Pumpkin Mixed Seed 50g 99p
Rude Health The Pumpkin Bar 35g 99p

Find these in store or online at www.hollandandbarrett.com.

Holland and Barrett also stock a great range of Free From treats for children for Halloween. Perfect for vegetarian and vegan children or children with food allergies or intolerances. No one needs to miss out on Trick or Treating with goodies such as Orgran Outback Animals Chocolate Cookies Multipack £3.37, Goody Good Stuff Cola Breeze sweets £1.49 and Moo Free Bar Crunchy Banana £2.70.

The Storecupboard Challenge #onamission

Five Ways with Wraps - quick and easy meal ideas using food from the store cupboard!

It's the final week of my Mission Wraps Lunch Less Ordinary Blogger Challenge.  So far I've let Freddy make lunch and eat it in a den, Kizzy has rapped a wrap rap, I've made wraps inspired by The Avengers and we've done a blind taste test of inventive wrap fillings.

This week is a challenge perfect for these times of austerity...we've been challenged to do a week of meals using store cupboard staples, Mission Deli Wraps and a meager £5 budget.  That is five meals using only things I've got in the house and a few essentials.  Not only do the meals have to be cheap they also have to be fun and make a lunch less ordinary for us to enjoy!  We need to be creative and outgoing and make something that stands out from the crowd.  Challenge accepted!!

My store cupboards and freezer are quite well stocked so with the £5 budget I purchased cheese (£1.67), eggs (£1), soya cream (79p) and mushrooms (£1).  These are the recipes I came up with, all made using tins and jars from my cupboard and packets from my freezer...and of course, Mission Deli Wraps. They are great recipes for using up leftover bits and bobs in the fridge, so use them as a guide for meal ideas and get creative.  I call it kitchen alchemy!!  Knock up a lunch less ordinary without spending too much of your hard earned money and without letting any of your weekly shopping go to waste!!!

Wrap Lasagne

An quick and easy alternative to pasta lasagne that fits perfectly into a round ovenproof dish!

Quorn mince
Can of green lentils
Carton of tomato and roasted onion passata
Squeezable garlic and basil taste
Mission Deli Wraps Wheat and White
Grated cheese

Put lentils, Quorn, passata and a teaspoon of basil and garlic paste in a saucepan and cook through.
Layer the filling with wraps in a round ovenproof dish  and sprinkle on grated cheese.
Bake it at GM6 for 25 minutes.
Serve cut into wedges.

Easy Enchiladas

A family favourite in our house! It's easy and you can use any leftovers to tweak the recipe.  Using a jar of ready made salsa (I use Morrison's value salsa which is only 69p) makes an excellent creamy enchilada topping sauce in a flash.

Quorn Pieces
Onion sliced
Mushroom Sliced
Sweetcorn (half a can we had leftover in the fridge!)
Can of butter beans
Sachet of Fajita seasoning

Quorn Multigrain Deli Wraps

Small pot of single cream
1 egg
Jar of salsa sauce (the sort you use to dip tortilla chips!)

Fry up the onions, Quorn pieces, mushrooms and seasoning.
Throw in beans and sweetcorn (and anything left lurking in the fridge!)
Roll a spoonful up in a wrap and put into ovenproof dish.
Make sauce by mixing egg, cream and salsa.
Pour over and sprinkle cheese on top.
Cook at GM6 for 25 minutes.

Wrap Bowls

A fun way to serve up any dinner leftovers or meals you have frozen.  Plus you can eat the serving bowl afterwards!!

1 Mission Deli Wrap per person
1 portion of stew, curry, bolognese sauce ...anything goes!

Make a tortilla bowl by pushing wraps onto the underside of a muffin pan and baking at GM 6 for 10 minutes until crispy.

Serve with a tasty filling.  We used a homemade red lentil and chickpea curry that I had previously frozen in the freezer.

It's pretty, it's fun and it's totally delicious!

Mini Quiches

A super quick, super easy, healthy alternative to calorie and fat heavy pastry!  The wrap base is a perfect way of making a quiche using an egg and cheese and any chopped veg you have in the fridge!

(per six mini quiches)
1 Mission Deli wrap
1 egg
Grated cheese leftovers
Any finely chopped veg you have (we used some slightly bendy old spring onions!)
Ground pepper

Using a cutter, or by cutting around a plastic cup with a sharp knife, make six rounds of wrap, slightly bigger than the holes in a fairy cake tray.

Whisk egg and add grated cheese...any types.  It's a great way of using up leftovers.

Add any chopped up vegetables you fancy.  Again, use up leftovers.

Season and then spoon onto wrap rounds.

Cook at GM6 for about 10 minutes.

Crispy Crumb Topped Pasta

Making the mini quiches meant we had a lot of off-cuts of wraps, which we would not waste!  It wouldn't be in keeping with the store cupboard challenge!  So I used them to make a crumb topping.

Tortilla wrap off cuts

Parmesan cheese

teaspoon of mixed herbs

ground pepper

Put the ingredients into a food processor and blitz them to a fine crumb.

Make a pasta sauce (I used pasata, mushroom and Quorn pieces with Italian herb seasoning and garlic paste).

Pour over cooked pasta in an ovenproof dish.

Sprinkle over the crumb.

Bake at GM6 for 20 minutes.

I am so impressed with how versatile Mission Deli Wraps are, and I have had so much fun experimenting with the food in my kitchen!

Thank you to Mission Deli Wraps for this fabulous challenge.  Follow Mission on Facebook   for lots of fun and inspiration plus details of how to win £10,000!!

Discover Mexican Food for Cinco de Mayo

Mexican food is a favourite cuisine here Inside the Wendy House, so when we were offered a selection of Discovery products to help celebrate Cinco de Mayo (5th of May), I jumped at the chance.  Any excuse to cook up a delicious Mexican feast!

We received a bag containing Perfect Fajita Kit, Fajita Season and Sauce, Green Jalapeno Relish, Garlic and Herb Soured Cream and Medium Salsa.

I was also challenged to come up with a recipe using some of the Discovery products to share here on my blog.  So here is my recipe for Vegetarian Cinco de Mayo Enchiladas using Fajita Season and Sauce and the Fajita Kit.

Ingredients

Discovery Fajita Season and Sauce

Discovery Tortilla Wraps

250g mushrooms sliced

2 onions sliced

oil for frying

bag of Quorn Pieces

150ml single cream

1 free range egg

Mexicana cheese grated

Discovery Sour Cream

Discovery Jalapeno Relish

Method

1:  Fry onions and mushrooms for 5 minutes then add Quorn pieces and continue to fry.
2:  Add pot of Fajita seasoning from the Season and Sauce and cook through until coated.
3:  In a jug, mix together the cream, egg and Sauce (from the Season and Sauce).
4:  Fill and roll each Tortilla Wrap with a spoonful of the spicy Quorn, onion and mushroom mixture.
5:  Put into an ovenproof dish and cover with the creamy sauce.
6:  Top with grated Mexicana cheese.
7:  Put into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.
8:  Serve with Discovery Sour Cream and Jalapeno Relish and a side salad.

Delicious and very easy to do!


So enjoy a fiesta this May the 5th and celebrate Cinco de Mayo with your own Mexican feast, made easy thanks to Discovery foods!

Quick and Easy Vegetarian Recipes!

I really enjoy making vegetarian meals that my family enjoy.  Quorn plays a big part in my repertoire and I've been getting a bit experimental, coming up with my own ideas for using it.  From hearty slow cooked Italian inspired stews with Herby Cobbler to warm us up in this Wintry weather, to Satay Sticks to accompany our Chinese New year meal, to a Wellington to accompany all the roast dinner trimmings.

Here are my recipes which I hope will inspire you to give veggie food a try, even if it is just for one day a week.  (They are guaranteed to be 100% horsemeat-free!)

4 sliced carrots

1 small chopped swede

2 chopped sweet potatoes

2 chopped potatoes

2 sliced red onions

2 crushed cloves of garlic

carton of tomato passata

1/4 pint boiling water

1 teaspoon of Italian herbs

1 bag of Quorn chicken style pieces

1 single veggie stock pot pod

8 oz flour

4 oz margarine

1 teaspoon of Italian herbs

milk to form a dough

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker (except the Quorn) for about 4-5 hours.   Add the Quorn and continue cooking for another hour.  Make the cobbler by rubbing the fat and flour together.  Add herbs then make to a stiff dough using milk.  Roll to an inch thick and cut out rounds using a small cookie cutter.  Arrange on top and then finish off in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Pack of Quorn pieces (defrosted)

1 pack of Satay Marinade

This is so easy and worked so well.  Simply marinade the defrosted pieces in the satay marinade.  Then thread onto wooden skewers that have been soaked in water.  Pop in the oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes.  Serve with veggie Spring Rolls and Vegetable Noodles.

1 Quorn Roast (defrosted)

1 pack of garlic & herb stuffing

1 packet of SOS Mix (veggie sausage mix)

1 packet of puff pastry

Slice the Quorn Roast in half lengthways.  Make up stuffing and sausage mix and combine.  Cover the Quorn with the mixture.  Roll out the pastry and place the stuffing coated Quorn on lengthways.  Wrap the pastry around and glaze with milk.  Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Slice and serve with roast dinner accompaniments.

Slow Cooked Five Bean Chilli Recipe

I love my slow cooker.  It's taken me a while to see the full potential of my Crock Pot but I think I am now giving it the usage it deserves.  It is just so easy to throw the ingredients into the pot in the morning and then it is ready to serve up at dinner time with no further effort required.  The healthy, cooked from scratch meals are so easy to make and I feel like a domestic goddess (albeit fraudulently because it is just so easy to do!!)

Today I am making my lazy cook's Five Bean Chilli using Napolina beans.  Tinned beans are a main staple in our home.  They are convenient, nutritious and versatile plus I think they taste good too!

Ingredients

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 carton of passata

2 chopped onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 teaspoons Gourmet Garden chilli

2 teaspoons Gourmet Garden coriander

1 can of Napolina butter beans

1 can of Napolina kidney beans

1 can of Napolina chick peas

1 can of brown lentils

1 can of Napolina cannelini beans

4 oz sliced mushrooms

1/4 pt of vegetable stock

(You can throw a bag of Quorn Mince into the pot an hour before serving if you like.)

Method

Literally throw it all in at 10am after the school run is done.

Serve it with rice and creme fraiche at 5pm when the kids are back home and hungry!  It's easy to make, nutritious, delicious and warming in this cold weather.

I was sent a selection of Napolina beans but the recipe is my own.  Napolina beans are priced at 79p a tin and are available from all good stockists.

Food For Thought...Veggie Prawn Biryani

When people hear that I am a vegetarian, they usually ask how I can live without bacon.  The answer to that is easy, I do not miss bacon at all.  It never really did it for me...all that rind, fat and gristly bits just put me off. However, prawns are another matter.  I really miss prawns.

Most other meat products have a veggie alternative thanks to Quorn and soya, but no such alternative existed for prawns.  So imagine my joy when shopping at Tesco at the weekend when I saw Linda McCartney had brought out new meat-free King Prawns!!  (I lead a very sheltered life, I'm sure most normal people wouldn't react with such euphoria at the prospect of TVP prawns!!)

So last night, prawns were once again on the menu, making a Biryani using leftover rice from the night before.

Ingredients

2 onions chopped

2 cloves of garlic crushed

8 oz mushrooms chopped

Tablespoon of curry paste

Tablespoon oil

Pack of meat-free King Prawns

seasoning

Cooked Basmati rice

Handful of frozen peas

Fry the onion in the curry paste and oil in a wok type pan.  Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until tender.  

Microwave the cooked rice until hot (safety first!) then add to the spicy vegetable mix, throw in the peas.

Meanwhile fry the frozen meat free prawns in a little oil for 15 minutes then add to the rice mix.  

Cook through and serve with a vegetable curry sauce.

The meat-free prawns are really a lot like how I remember prawns...fishy and a little bit rubbery textured.  Spookily prawn like (from what I can remember!)  Another option for my veggie cookery!

I'll continue to post my favourite family recipes in my Food For Thought posts, sharing the vegetarian love!