Chicken and rice in a chard parcel

One of the more random meals we've had recently, inspired by the fact there was a load of Swiss/rainbow chard in the fridge after a trip to the allotment.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into chunks
1 onion, finely sliced
10 large leaves of chard
dried thyme
about half a mugful of rice (or whatever cooked rice you've got lurking in your fridge)
1 small courgette, diced
1 green pepper, diced

1 tin of tomatoes
a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all make your tomato sauce - it's a doddle. Simply tip the tin of tomatoes into a large frying pan, add a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While that's going on, cook your rice (or extract it from the fridge). Sling it into a large bowl.

Add a slug of olive oil to a frying pan, and brown your chicken. Tip it into the bowl of rice. Add the onion, pepper and courgette to the chickeny pan (you may have to add a little extra olive oil), and cook on a low heat until they've softened. Tip this lot into the bowl, and season with salt and black pepper - you should now have everything you need for the filling.

Plunge the large leaves of chard into a pan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes, until they've softened. You're now ready to wrap...take each leaf, and plonk a good spoonful of the filling in the middle. Fold over the edges of the leaf to make a parcel, and place in an ovenproof baking dish.

Once you've done all the parcels, drizzle the tomato sauce on top, until they're nicely covered. You could top it with a little cheese too, before you sling it in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until everything is heated through and piping hot.

Chicken, coconut and potato curry

This one was a bit of a 'let's see what there is in the fridge and chuck it in' curry. Makes enough for 4.

You'll need:

1 large chicken breast (or whatever cooked chicken you've got hanging about), sliced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, sliced
a handful of spinach
4 or 5 mushrooms, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
about half a block of creamed coconut, dissolved in about a tin of hot water
2 teaspoons dried ginger (fresh would be even better)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

Chuck the onions and garlic in a frying pan with a little oil, and fry until translucent. Add all the spices, and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the chicken, and stir, coating it in the spices. Cook for 4-5 minutes, and then throw in the pepper/mushrooms/spinach/whatever, and stir round until they're soft.

Add the tin of tomatoes, and stir in the coconut/water. Tip in the potatoes, and bring everything to the boil. Leave to simmer for as long as it takes the potato to cook - the longer the better (45 minutes or so), though you may have to add a little extra water if it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Eat with lots of basmati rice, and a scattering of cashew nuts on top.

Aunty Michelle's lamb tagine

We've eaten this in England and France, and it's fab. Today was no exception.

You'll need:

1kg cubed, boneless lamb (I did it today with lamb shoulder on the bone, and just cooked it for longer)

1 tablespoon ground ginger
1-2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

3 garlic cloves
4 large onions, finely chopped or grated
olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt
a handful of dried apricots
50g raisins/sultanas
50g flaked almonds
1 tablespoon honey
300ml tomato juice (I used water and a good squirt of tomato puree today)
1 can chopped tomatoes
300ml lamb stock

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C.

Mix the spices in a bowl, add the cubes of lamb, and coat evenly. Brown the lamb in a large frying pan (you'll probably have to add some olive oil to stop it sticking). Sling into your casserole dish. Fry the onions and garlic in the pan, until soft (again, you'll probably need a little olive oil). Tip these into your casserole dish too.

Add the apricots, raisins, flaked almonds, honey, tomato juice, chopped tomatoes and lamb stock, and season with a little salt. Cover your dish, and cook in the oven for at least 2 hours. You could do this on the hob too - just be prepared to add a little extra water if it looks a little dry.

Eat with couscous, and the inevitable courgettes.

Ratatouille

We returned home to be greeted by the largest courgette ever on the allotment. (Seriously, it was about a foot long). This is probably not the world's most authentic recipe for ratatouille, but it did have the benefit of using up about a third of the monster...

Makes lots and lots. We ate this with meatballs and rice, and I'll probably also puree some of the leftovers to make a pizza topping.

You'll need:

1 medium aubergine, cubed
1 large onion, finely sliced
a couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 monster courgette, cubed
1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of tomato puree
lots of black pepper and Mediterranean herbs
2 bay leaves

Sling the onion and garlic into a frying pan, and add a large slosh of olive oil. Fry until they've turned translucent. Add the aubergine, and fry until it's softened. It absorbs a lot of olive oil, so you may need to add another large dollop.

Throw in the courgette and pepper, and fry for a couple of minutes until they too have softened. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes, another tin full of water, and the tomato puree. Season with a good sprinkling of dried Mediterranean herbs (think oregano, thyme etc), and a couple of bay leaves. Bring the sauce to the boil, then leave to simmer for a good 30-40 minutes - the longer the better.

Ricotta and tomato spaghetti

This made a ridiculously quick tea after a traipse about Hadrian's Wall in the mist and murk.

You'll need:

enough spaghetti for three
half a pot of ricotta cheese (about 125g)
a couple of large, ripe tomatoes
a large onion, finely sliced
two cloves of garlic, finely chopped (I used a bulb of wet garlic, which gave the same effect)
a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil
a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
lots of black pepper
some dried chilli flakes

Tip the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer until it's al dente.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in half the olive oil until they turn translucent. Finely chop the tomatoes (you could deseed them, but I can't be bothered with faffing about).

Drain the spaghetti, and toss with the onions/garlic/tomatoes. Divide into bowlfuls, and dollop some spoonfuls of ricotta onto each portion. Drizzle over some balsamic vinegar, and a little extra olive oil. Season with lots of black pepper, and a sprinkling of chilli flakes.

You and your dad insisted on a scattering of capers on your plates too.

Chicken cacciatore

Back from a week in the sunshine in France with Grandma and Grandad, we needed some comfort food - Gateshead is freezing cold, rainy and windy.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

4 chicken thighs (skinned)
1 onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 large courgette, sliced
1 tin of chickpeas
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary
2 bay leaves
3 or 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped (or a small pack of lardons)
a splosh of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

Depending on how much time you have, you can either leave the thighs whole (they'll take longer to cook this way), or take as much meat off the bones as you can (which gives you the added bonus of making chicken stock with the leftovers).

Stick the onion and garlic in a pan with the bacon and a little olive oil. Fry for 5 minutes or so, until the onion has turned translucent. Add the chopped rosemary and chicken, and fry for another 5 minutes or so, until the chicken has browned. Chuck in the tin of tomatoes, about half a tin of water (you could go the whole hog here and add wine instead), a splosh of balsamic vinegar the sugar and the bay leaves. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked (this may well be nearer 30-40 minutes if you're using the chicken thighs whole).

Chuck in the courgette slices and chickpeas, and simmer for another 5 minutes, until the courgettes have softened and the chickpeas heated through. Season with lots of black pepper and a little salt, and you're done.

We ate this with some couscous and chopped coriander (and sneakily added a few dried chillies on the top).

Butternut squash stuffed with fragrant rice and feta

You're not a fan of butternut squash at the moment, so you had bolognese and rice for tea. It was the first time you really got the hang of the whole knife and fork thing (mainly because your Dad explained it to you in terms of Thunderbirds rockets).

This makes enough for 2. You'll need:

1 large butternut squash
cooked rice (I used about a mugful of dried rice)
half a pack of feta cheese, cubed
a large handful of fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
a large handful of fresh coriander, chopped
lots of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. First of all, you need to sort out your butternut squash - halve it, and scoop out (and discard) all the seeds and stringy stuff. An ice-cream scoop is quite handy for doing this bit.

Then you'll need to hack out a bit of the flesh (again, the scoop is quite useful for this), to give you room to stuff in the rice. Don't discard this - roast it in the oven, and shove it in some soup.

Drizzle a little olive oil into your butternut squash halves, and stick in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, tip the cooked rice into a large bowl, add the parsley, coriander, feta and lots of black pepper and mix well. This is the stuffing that's going to go in your squash.

After it's had 30 minutes in the oven (and the flesh is nicely softened), bring it out and stuff it with the rice mixture. Put it back in the oven again for another 20-30 minutes, until the rice has heated through, and any bits of feta peeking out the top have browned.

Decant onto a plate, and eat. You could have it as it is, but I ended up making a tomato sauce to go with it:

You could eat this as it is, but I made a tomato sauce to go with it. You'll need:

half a tin of tomatoes
a slosh or two of olive oil
a tablespoon balsamic vingegar
black pepper
a few flakes of dried chilli

Chuck half a tin of chopped tomatoes into a frying pan with a splash of olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Add a little black pepper and a few chilli flakes, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or so, until it's reduced.

Fish parcels, with tomatoes, olives and parsley

A funny old day today - we went to the Baltic this afternoon, which was unusually uninspiring (all the kids things in the Quay on Level 2 just looked battered and old, and there didn't seem to be much that engaged you).

We ended up taking so long at the supermarket afterwards (thank you Tesco, your new layout is most unappreciated) that tea had to be something bung-in-the-oven-quick that would cook in 20 minutes while we watched a bit of telly.

You'll need:

a fillet each of white fish or salmon (we had pouting, which I'd never come across before, but was cheap in Morrisons. I think salmon would have been better - it was a bit bland)
half a jar of black olives
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
some long stems of parsley (we are still inundated with the stuff, even in March)
a little olive oil
black pepper

Turn the oven on to about 180 degrees C. Take a large piece of foil (squareish), and place a fillet in the centre. Chuck a tablespoon of cherry tomatoes on top, add 8-10 black olives and a couple of stems of parsley, and drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Season well with black pepper.

Fold up the foil into a parcel, and then place on a baking tray (if it leaks, you don't want fish juice all over the floor of your oven). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so - depending on the thickness of your fish.

We ate ours with some boiled, buttered potatoes, and some shredded cabbage.

Sausage, tomato and red wine pappardelle

Today was so beautifully warm that I spent the afternoon tidying up the garden. All the bulbs you helped me plant are just starting to poke through.

You helped me pick the recipe for tea too (you love looking through the food pictures in magazines, especially the cakes). It's based on one from Olive, but changed about a bit as I don't particularly like fennel.

You'll need:

some sausages (I used tiny chipolatas, which I chopped into small pieces)
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped (I also added a leek, because we're overrun with the things at the moment)
a glass of red wine
a tin of chopped tomatoes
pappardelle (these are big fat ribbons - oversized tagliatelle)

Fry the pieces of sausage until they're browned. You probably don't have to add any extra oil here, but keep an eye on them just in case. Add the onion (and leek) and garlic, and fry until they've softened.

Pour in the red wine, and let it bubble away furiously for a couple of minutes. Chuck in the tomatoes, and leave the whole lot to simmer for 15-20 minutes. You probably want to add some black pepper here too.

Cook your pappardelle in a large pan with lots of boiling water until it's al dente (shouldn't take long - maybe 8-10 minutes). Drain, and then tip it into the tomato and sausage sauce. Swish round, and serve with some curls of parmesan cheese.

Cannelloni with squash, feta and tomato

You've spent most of the afternoon racing cars down the loop the loop track. We've discovered (a) the lighter they are the better and (b) when you hang the track off the door, they fairly zip down.

It was a bit of an experiment for tea. You hated it, and had a banana, followed by bread and marmite. At least you tried a couple of mouthfuls...

Makes enough for 4.

You'll need:

a squash, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
half a small(ish) pack of feta cheese (you could also try ricotta)
a tomato sauce or passata (I made my own from half an onion and a tin of tomatoes)
an onion, finely chopped
dried thyme, black pepper
grated cheese
cannelloni (or lasagne sheets)

First of all you'll need the oven on, at about 200 degrees C. Chuck your squash into a roasting tin, and splosh some olive oil over it. Bung in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the squash is tender. (Keep the oven on when the squash are done - you'll need it later on.)

In the meantime, make a tomato sauce (saute some onion in a frying pan until it softens, then add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some black pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and leave to simmer for half an hour).

Fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it goes translucent. Put it into a blender with the feta cheese, some thyme and lots of black pepper. Once the squash is tender, take it out of the oven and stick it into the blender too. Smash the lot together, until it forms a thick paste.

You then have the delightful task of filling the cannelloni, which is a right pain. There's probably a technique to it - Jamie Oliver does it by cutting off the corner of a bag, and squashing the stuff in, or an icing bag would also be a good plan. I shoved it in with a small teaspoon, which was a bit messy. If you hate the idea of all this, you could just sandwich the squash mixture between some layers of lasagne.

Once your cannelloni are filled, place them in a roasting dish (the one you did the squash in would be a good move), and pour the tomato sauce over the top. Liberally sprinkle your grated cheese over the top, and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or so, until everything is bubbling furiously and the cheese on the top is golden.

Prawn, pepper and tomato pasta

We spent this morning filming for your Dad's promo video, in a freezing cold alley. You were surprisingly amenable...

Tea was unsurprisingly swift.

You'll need:

a tin of tomatoes
a large onion, finely chopped
a red pepper, diced
a green pepper, diced
a slug of balsamic vinegar
lots of black pepper, and dried oregano
half a bag of frozen prawns, defrosted (the larger the better - ours were definitely on the shrimp side)
pasta (bows are good)
capers (to garnish)

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it softens and goes translucent. Add the peppers, and cook until they've softened too. Chuck in the tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, oregano and black pepper, bring to the boil, and simmer (you'll need to leave it for a good 23-30 minutes if you want a nice tomato-y taste).

Stick your pasta on to cook (at the regulation three handfuls per person). After a couple of minutes, slide the prawns into the tomato sauce, and let them cook gently for 5 minutes or so, until they're hot.

Drain your pasta, and tip into the sauce pan. Swish it all about until all the pasta's coated with the sauce, and drop a few capers on top. Ladle out into some bowls, and away you go. A little grated cheese/mature cheddar/parmesan on top would be a bonus.

Tomato and lentil soup

Lentil recipes we have known and loved, number 9,476.

You'll need:

an onion, finely sliced
a clove of garlic
half a mugful of lentils
some vegetable stock (I saved some sweetcorn cooking water)
a tin of tomatoes
half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and coriander seeds
salt and black pepper

Fry the onion and garlic, together with the cumin and coriander in a little olive oil, until the onion has gone transclucent. Add the vegetable stock (I must have added about a mugful), and the lentils. Leave simmering away for 10 minutes or so. Chuck in the tomatoes, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Season to taste with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Puree with the hand blender, taking care not to cover the kitchen. You could add a little creme fraiche to it, I guess, but that's fancy talk.

Salmon, tomato and pepper pasta

We ended up at the Tyneside Cinema today, watching the free news reel screening. I'd forgotten how magical it is when the curtain rises up to reveal the screen - you were entranced.

Tea was a bit of a leftover-fest. I used the three or four spoonfuls left of yesterday's peppers in a smoked paprika and tomato sauce and added a little more water and tomato puree to make enough for the two of us.

I then poached a little piece of salmon (Morrisons had some fantastic salmon trimmings last time we were there) in a little hot water for 4 or 5 minutes (you need just enough water to cover the fish). I flaked the fish, checked obsessively for bones, and added it to the tomato sauce, along with a little extra black pepper.

We ate our fishy pasta covered in grated cheese. Your tiny grater has been very popular.

Peppers in a smoked paprika and tomato sauce

We spent this afternoon cruising up and down on your bicycle, rolling out playdoh, and baking scones. It was a bit action-packed...

We ate the peppers with yesterday's leftover pilau rice (your Dad always makes enough to feed a small army), and some chicken legs, roasted in the oven with lots of salt and pepper.

You'll need:

a couple of peppers, sliced (we had red and yellow today, your favourites)
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
a large-ish onion, or 2 small ones, sliced
a tin of chopped tomatoes
a squirt of tomato puree (depending on how watery a tin of tomatoes you've got - top tip, Lidl's are fairly awful)
half a teaspoon of smoked paprika
a teaspoon of thyme
a teaspoon of runny honey
lots of black pepper and a little salt

Fry the onions and garlic in a tablespoon or so of olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the peppers, and fry until they, and the onions, are soft. The more olive oil you use, the glossier and richer the sauce will taste.

Bung in the herbs and all the tomato-type products. Bring to the boil, and then leave to simmer for 15 minutes or so. Have a taste and see what you think - add some salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of honey if the paprika is a little harsh. Leave simmering for another 20-30 minutes - while whatever you've got to eat with it is cooked.

Spicy spinach and tomato

Just the thing to go with very sticky spare ribs and some plain boiled rice, after an exhausting afternoon making Captain Jack a sports car.

You'll need:

a bag of spinach (there was probably about 300g left in ours)
an onion, sliced
a tin of tomatoes
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or if you've got fresh ginger even better - a couple of cm would be great)
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (or ground cumin, if anyone's particularly fussy about crunchy bits)
lots of black pepper, and a little salt

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until it's soft. Then, add the spices, and heat for a minute or two. Chuck in the spinach, and swish around, until it's coated in the spice mix. Add the tomatoes, bring to the boil, and then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

tuna, tomato and caper pasta

This is probably the thing we eat most often when we come in tired from a long day - it only takes 20 minutes to make, and everything can come out of the storecupboard (bar the onion).
We'd been in town this afternoon (finding you some 'climbing shoes', otherwise known as black plimmies) so there wasn't much time to make some tea.

You need:

1 tin of tuna (doesn't have to be anything fancy - in fact in brine is better than in oil)
1 onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
a tablespoon of capers
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a squeeze of tomato puree
a couple of bay leaves and a fair sprinkle of thyme
lots of black pepper
pasta of your choice

Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until they are translucent. Add the tomato puree, and cook for a minute or so. Chuck in the tin of tomatoes, and add a splash of balsamic vinegar and the herbs. Bring to the boil, and then simmer vigorously for 10 minutes or so, before adding the tuna (flaked), and a tablespoon of capers. Simmer gently for however long you can, depending on how hungry you are.

It worked well with pasta twists today - the sauce gets caught in the twists quite nicely.

Lemon and rosemary chicken with feta and tomato salad

We made Captain Jack a dress this afternoon, at the Shipley Art Gallery (they were having a Top Shop Toy Shop day...).

To celebrate his cross-dressing exploits (picture to follow on View from Nappy Mountain sometime soon), I stuck some chicken in the oven for tea.

You'll need:

a couple of chicken pieces
half a lemon, sliced into large chunks
a drizzle of olive oil
some rosemary from the garden

Chuck the chicken in a roasting dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the pieces, thrown in the lemon and rosemary, and stick a bit of black pepper on top. Roast in the oven at around 200 degrees for an hour (or until the juices run clear when you stick a knife in the chicken).

We ate this with a green salad (natch), a rice, onion and pepper salad (does what it says on the tin, and was really to use up yesterday's rice that we'd had with the sticky pork ribs), and a feta and tomato salad.

2 large tomatoes, preferably fairly ripe, and sliced
whatever feta you've got left in the fridge (assuming you may have cooked roast vegetables, feta and couscous earlier in the week)
some nice balsamic vinegar (although maybe not as nice as the stuff I accidentally bought in Morrisons on Monday that I thought was £1.99 and turned out to be £5.99...)
salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and leave to marinade for half an hour.

Sausages with spicy tomato and chickpea couscous

A bit of a cheat, really, as the only thing I cooked today was the sausages and couscous - the sauce was made a few weeks ago and has been languishing in the freezer for a day when we got in late. We spent the afternoon in Leazes Park feeding the ducks, clambering in the playground and eating ice cream, so there really wasn't much time to be terribly creative for tea.

To feed all three of us, you need

6 large sausages (3 for your Dad, 2 for me and 1 for you - although you often nick some of mine as well...)

tin of tomatoes
one onion, sliced
tin of chickpeas
tomato puree
cinnamon/cumin, maybe a little paprika
veg - a pepper/courgette/aubergine, whatever you've got
a clove of garlic

Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until they're translucent. Add the pepper/courgette/whatever, and fry for a couple of minutes more until they soften slightly. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and cumin, and if you'd like it spicy a teaspoon of hot paprika or chilli powder/flakes, and a squeeze of tomato puree. Fry for a minute or two.

Then add your tomatoes, and probably half a tomato tin of water. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for 15 minutes. Add your chickpeas, and cook for another 15 minutes minimum - it'd benefit from about an hour altogether, I reckon.

Cook your sausages - I quite like bunging them in the oven, or grilling them. You could also put them into the sauce to cook - just put them in at the same time as the chickpeas, and make sure you cook them for at least half an hour.

Serve the sauce sloshed over some couscous (about 6 handfuls-worth of grains seems to work for the three of us), with some green salad. There's usually enough sauce left to stick a couple of portions in the freezer.