Family Foodies: top lunchbox ideas

December 4, 2013December 5, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, RecipesTagged children, Eat Your Veg, Family Foodies, lunchbox, recipes6 Comments

If you ever feel stuck in a rut when it comes to preparing your children’s lunchboxes, you’re sure to find a few new ideas here. I know my children would be over the moon to discover any one of these tasty treats in their packed lunches, and I’m sure they would be the envy of the school dining hall.

So without further ado, I have great pleasure in bringing you this month’s Family Foodies lunchbox round-up. We’ve lots of tasty savoury bakes to get things started, including some clever ways to sneak a few veggies into the kids.

Savoury Vegetable Cake from Allotment 2 Kitchen

These savoury cakes from Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen look just the ticket for satisfying growling tums and will ensure your little ones are well on their way to their five-a-day, with their filling of carrots, French beans and cauliflower florets.

Apple & Smoked Cheese Pasties from The Garden Deli

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who doesn’t like a homemade pasty, and children in particular seem rather partial to a stuffed pastry creation or two. Smoked cheese is popular in our house, which happens to be the filling of these wholesome pasties from Sarah at The Garden Deli, along with her homegrown apples and sage for a fantastic flavour combination.

Mini Lunchbox Pasties from Bangers & Mash

More pasties, this time from me. These mini pasties are filled with minced beef, carrot and hard-boiled egg and flavoured with a dash or Worcestershire sauce and a little black treacle. I’m rather addicted to using treacle with beef, since discovering it recently in a Higgidy Pie recipe for chilli beef.

Chilli Corn Chocolate Muffins from Chocolate Log Blog

When I first read the name of these, I have to admit I assumed they were going to be sweet muffins but I was completely wrong. These inventive bakes from Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog feature Cheddar cheese, manzano chilli, paprika, garlic, 100% dark chocolate (“for extra umami”) and sweetcorn for a gorgeously chewy texture. Intrigued? I certainly am.

Pumpkin, Walnut & Poppy Seed Muffins with Cheddar Cheese from Lavender & Lovage

More savoury muffins up next from Karen at Lavender & Lovage, and again featuring Cheddar cheese but this time with the seasonal addition of pumpkin with walnuts and poppy seeds. My girls would be thrilled to find these in their lunchboxes, although I can also see myself serving them up at home with a big bowl of hot soup.

Cheesy Pumpkin Scones from Eat Your Veg

Lou at Eat Your Veg uses more pumpkin in this next entry, and here she succeeds in sneaking it into these incredibly tempting cheese scones. I like the idea of scattering pumpkin seeds on top for a delightfully crunchy topping.

Cheddar Cheese, Apple & Sage Scones from Bangers & Mash

Savoury scones are a regular lunchbox filler in our house, so here’s another scone idea from me. Like Sarah at The Garden Deli with her beautiful pasties, I’ve gone for a cheese, apple and sage combination. This recipe makes around 12 scones, which ought to see you through quite a few lunches, but in actual fact they were all eaten within the day here.

Honey Mustard Sausage Plaits from Mint Custard

I often have cravings for sausage rolls, and when I saw both these sausage plaits from Becky at Mint Custard (and the next entry) I couldn’t stop thinking about sausage rolls for ages. I’ve never thought to include sausage rolls in a lunchbox before, but what a sound idea, although I am thinking as much of my own lunchbox as my children’s.

Gluten Free Sausage, Bacon and Apple Rolls from the Gluten Free Alchemist

Lunchboxes can be even more of a challenge when you have to stick to a gluten-free diet, so this recipe from Kate aka the Gluten Free Alchemist will be something of a Godsend for many. Made with homemade gluten-free shortcrust pastry (using potato and gram flour) and filled with bacon, apple (more apple – hurrah!) and gluten-free sausage meat, I am literally drooling as I include this entry…

Mini Tarts from Bangers & Mash

You might have gathered I’m rather fond of mini what-nots for lunchboxes. As well as mini pasties, these mini tarts always go down well with my children. They’re very versatile and you can fill them with just about anything you (or the children) fancy. Or whatever you happen to have lurking in the fridge.

Hedgehog Rolls from Eat Your Veg

I often find that when kids have helped to cook something, they’re much more likely to eat it and I can’t imagine many children not enjoying making and eating these cute little hedgehog rolls from Lou at Eat Your Veg. And not just hedgehogs, but tortoises, flowers and snails too!

Luchito Honey Glazed Ham from Eat Your Veg

Lou also offers us this majestic glazed ham, which I am definitely bookmarking to make at Christmas. Her children enjoyed thick slices of this to fill hedgehog rolls in their packed lunches. What incredibly lucky children!

Bento Sushi Rice Shapes from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary

Elizabeth offers us a whole array of lunchbox ideas in her entry, including ingenious ‘ants on a log’, but it is her sushi rice shapes that I can’t wait to try first. They’re so simple but so effective; my daughter’s response when I showed her the photo was “Wow! Can we have those?”

Sweet treats

And now it’s time for some sweet treats. I like to think when I include a little sweet homemade something in their lunchboxes, it’s as if I’m sending a hug to my children while they’re at school. A bit twee perhaps, but I can be like that sometimes.

Bread Pudding from The Crazy Kitchen

I’d never have thought of including bread pudding in a lunchbox but after seeing this post from Helen at The Crazy Kitchen it suddenly seems like a very good idea, and one that would keep the kids’ tummies full all afternoon. I’m not sure my bread pudding would end up looking quite this beautiful though…

Chocolate, Orange & Cranberry Cookies from Utterly Scrummy

Just looking at these cookies makes me feel all Christmassy – what a great idea of Michelle from Utterly Scrummy to use chocolate orange (from her husband’s not-so-secret stash I might add) along with cranberries for a fabulously festive flavour. Personally, I think these would be far too good for the children, and would probably end up hiding them away in my own secret stash…

Super-Fruity Banana Loaf Cake from Eat Your Veg

For someone who says she’s not a baker, I’m always so impressed by the cakes Louisa posts over at Eat Your Veg. Doesn’t this fruity loaf cake look delicious? Plus it’s pretty good for you too, featuring no less than three bananas, dried apricots, sultanas, wholemeal flour and she replaces the usual butter with coconut oil and yoghurt. A perfect sweet treat for the kids’ lunchboxes I reckon.

Spiced Muesli Cake from The Crazy Kitchen

More festive baking next, this time in the form of a spiced muesli cake – a second brilliant entry from Helen at The Crazy Kitchen. It’s great cold in lunchboxes, but also makes for a comforting pud served warm from the oven with ice cream or custard. This cake really wouldn’t last very long in our house!

Soul-Cakes from Lavender & Lovage

These pretty Soul-Cakes from Karen at Lavender & Lovage are a cake-cum-biscuit, traditionally made on All Soul’s Day (just after Halloween) and were distributed by the rich to the poor of the parish. They are very easy-to-make and would be perfect with your afternoon cuppa, but do make sure you save a one or two for the children’s lunches.

Easy Iced Lime Cake from Fab Food 4 All

My children’s school provides hot meals twice a week and when I ask them on those days what the best thing they ate was, it’s invariably an iced sponge cake of some description. So what a good idea to include it in their packed lunches too, and this iced lime cake from Camilla at Fab Food 4 All looks just the recipe to try.

Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Muffins from Leeks & Limoni

These muffins look really rather decadent but according to Katharine at Leeks & Limoni they’re actually quite virtuous. They contain no butter at all and only a little sunflower oil, and of course there’s the pumpkin too. What’s more they’re incredibly easy to make. I’m sold!

Dried Fruit & Nut Balls from Bangers & Mash

These fruit and nut balls sound so virtuous, you really wouldn’t expect them to taste good but trust me, they really do. Although a little part of me is wondering how they’d taste if they were dipped in some gorgeously dark chocolate… By the way, my girls’ school is OK with nuts (as ingredients in cakes and biscuits etc) in packed lunches, but do check your school lunch policy before sending these in.

So there you have it, our Family Foodies’ round-up of tasty recipes to help you put some pizzazz in your lunchboxes. But there can only be one winner.

And the winner is…

Our guest judge this month is Caroline Job, the mum of three behind the inspiring website that is Lunchbox World. You should pay the site a visit as it’s packed full of lovely recipes and helpful hints and tips, plus lots of cool lunchbox-related products. So Caroline knows a thing or two about what makes a good lunchbox filler.

This is what Caroline had to say:

“I was delighted to be asked to judge this month’s round-up. Having set up the Lunchbox World business back in 2009, when my three kids started having packed lunches at school, lunch boxes are never far from my thoughts. Helping you put the fun back into packed lunches has always been my mantra!

“When I look out for new lunch box ideas, I am always thinking: they have to be fun, something the kids will eat, nutritious and above all, attractive and easy for them to eat. If they can be bite-size or in their very own portion, I feel it goes down into their tummies that much quicker! If we think it’s boring, the kids will too, so it is always worth the time and effort to make it FUN! I aim for the kids to bring home those lunch boxes empty (ie eaten), which then puts a smile on my face, as I then think “job well done”.

“There were so many fun, tasty, and nutritious entries, it was a tough decision. It would have been great to taste them all! But there were three that jumped out at me. The hedgehog rolls from Eat Your Veg are such fun and I am sure any kid finding them in their lunch box would gobble them up immediately! But I hesitated as the prep/cooking time was a long one. I was also drawn to the bite-size mini tarts by Bangers and Mash, but I was looking for something a bit more festive for this time of year.

Then bingo! I saw the delicious cranberry, orange and chocolate cookies made by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy. These tick all the boxes for me and they’ve got the festive flavour too.

So because it’s Christmas, I have a fun prize for Michelle. Hopefully every time you use it you’ll think of Lunchbox World. A fun dotty lunch box with matching picnic mat, that folds up into approximately A4 size, so very portable. Don’t feel you have to wait until spring though, you can picnic indoors as well as outdoors!

Thanks again for inviting me to judge your competition. If you are looking for more lunch box ideas, tips, hints and recipe ideas, do have a look at the Lunchbox World blog, where there are posts on family fun too, and the main Lunchbox World website, which is all about the world of lunchboxes!”

Congratulations Michelle on your thoroughly deserved win. Drop me a line with your address and your prize will be winging its way to you very soon.

Thank you to all our bloggers for sharing their lunchbox recipes. December’s Family Foodies challenge is now open over at Eat Your Veg and the theme this month is, rather appropriately, Kids Christmas. Louisa and I look forward seeing your fun and festive family recipes!

The Spice Trail: cooking with cinnamon

December 4, 2013December 28, 2013Posted in Competitions and challengesTagged buyagift, cassia, challenge, cinnamon, recipes, the spice trail19 Comments

Share your cinnamon recipes and win a Tasting Experience for two

Our next stop on The Spice Trail takes us to the world of cinnamon, one of the most evocative spices I know.

When I smell cinnamon, I immediately think of sweet, sugary things like apple pies and Danish pastries, or rich fruit cakes and mulled wine at Christmas time. But of course, cinnamon (and its close relative cassia) are also a glorious ingredient in many savoury dishes and you’ll find it widely used in Mexican, Middle Eastern and Asian cuisine.

So this month I’d love to hear how you like to cook with cinnamon. Share your recipe posts by 30 December and at the end of the month I’ll bring you a round-up of sensational dishes celebrating cinnamon.

Win a Tasting for Two Voucher from Buyagift

And at the end of the cinnamon challenge, one lucky winner selected by our guest judge will receive an amazing Tasting for Two voucher from the good people at Buyagift.

With this tasting experience, our lucky winner and their chosen companion will get to discover a whole world of new tastes, textures and exciting flavour combinations. Whether you love sweet or savoury, great British grub or international cuisine, there’s a great selection to choose from – including refined afternoon teas, olive oil tasting, sushi making, cookery classes, brewery tours and wine tasting experiences. What’s more they are available at a wide range of venues right across the UK.

How to enter The Spice Trail

Display the The Spice Trail badge (on the left and also available here) on your recipe post, and link back to this challenge post.

You may enter as many recipe links as you like, so long as they feature this month’s key ingredient, cinnamon – be it stick or ground, and feel free to use cassia bark as well.

Send your recipe URL to me at vanesther-at-reescommunications-dot-co-dot-uk, including your own email address and the title of your recipe or post. The closing date this month is Monday 30 December 2013.

If you tweet your post, please mention #TheSpiceTrail and me @BangerMashChat in your tweet and I’ll retweet each one I see.

Feel free to republish old recipe posts, but please add the information about this challenge and The Spice Trail badge. As entries come in, links to these will be added to this page.

At the end of the month a guest judge will choose a winning recipe and the winner this month will receive a brilliant Tasting for Two choice voucher from Buyagift. The winner will be announced in a monthly round-up of all the entries.

All entries will be added to The Spice Trail Pinterest Board.

I can’t wait to see what dishes you come up with for The Spice Trail. Any questions, please tweet or email me.

December’s entries

Low Sugar Parsnip Cake from Mamacook
Wholemeal Apple Pancakes from Mamacook
Spicy(ish) Lamb Meatballs from Mamacook
Speculoos Shortbread from Blue Kitchen Bakes
Christmas Trifle from How to Cook Good Food
Cinnamon Butternut Squash and Chicken Stew from Recipes From a Pantry
Leftover Turkey Chilli from Recipes From a Pantry
Butternut Squash Muffins from Recipes From a Pantry
Mince Pies with Spinach Pastry from Veggie Desserts
Cinnamon Raisin Focaccia from The Lass in the Apron
Festive Fruit Pies from Utterly Scrummy
Chocolate Gingerbread Christmas Decorations from Eat Your Veg
Cranberry & Cinnamon Swiss Roll from Blue Kitchen Bakes
Jacki’s Moroccan Lamb Tagine from Jacki
Snowflake Tear and Share Iced Buns from Bangers & Mash
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Golden Syrup Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting from The More Than Occasional Baker
Cinnamon and Date Cake from The More Than Occasional Baker
Spiced Plum & Apple Eton Mess from Bangers & Mash
Chocolate Brownies with a Hint of Orange & Cinnamon from Cook Eat Write
Christmas Cupcakes from Caroline Makes
Christmas Cinnamon Shortbread from Caroline Makes
Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls from Caroline Makes
Chewy Oatmeal Cran-Raisin Pecan Cookies from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Spiced Stollen Tray Bake from How to Cook Good Food
Low Calorie Rogan Josh from London Unattached
Orange and Cinnamon White Chocolate Shortbread from Chocolate Log Blog
Poached Pears with White Chocolate Cream from My Golden Pear
Slow Roast Lamb with Chicory & Winter Vegetables from Bangers & Mash
Gingerbread, Bramble & Lemon Trifle from Vohn’s Vittles
Mulled Cider from Bangers & Mash

The Spice Trail: your favourite chilli recipes

December 2, 2013December 30, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, RecipesTagged chilli, food blogger, kitchen nomad, recipes, spice, the spice trail4 Comments

Well, I have to say, if you’re looking for a new chilli recipe, this surely has to be the place to come.

When I first launched The Spice Trail challenge, I wasn’t sure what take-up would be like. I know how much I adore cooking with spices, but what about the rest of the blogosphere? The answer, it seems, is just as much as me. If not more.

This round-up of the first challenge in The Spice Trail is an incredible celebration of cooking with chilli, taking us all over the globe. From tagines and tarts, pies and pasta, to sweets, soups and salads – it’s all here.

So let’s hit the road on this month’s Spice Trail…

Slow Cooked Mexican Style Beef from Mamacook

Slow cooked beef brisket with garlic, chilli, pepper, tomatoes and paprika. You can just tell that meat is going to melt in your mouth, can’t you?

Kinda Vietnamese Chicken Salad from Mamacook

A fresh and tasty oriental salad featuring chicken thighs, fish sauce, garlic, chilli and lime, plus lots of crunch raw veggies, peanuts and coriander. A wonderful combination of flavours and textures.

Pineapple, Cinnamon & Red Chilli Frozen Yoghurt from Deena Kakaya

Just like Diwali, this frozen yoghurt is a feast for the senses, combining sweet with sour, chilli heat with chiller cool, and a touch of cinnamon perfume. And it looks pretty as a picture too.

Sweet Lychee and Hot Chilli Dipping Sauce from Deena Kakaya

According to Deena, her dipping sauce is as good with chips as it is spring rolls and “carries an exotic aroma, has a zesty and hot kick and is cheekily sticky.” If you like it hot and sweet, this is the sauce for you.

Chilli Oil with an Indian Accent from Deena Kakaya

So what’s a chilli oil with an Indian accent? Think garam masala and you’ve got the spice mix right there, giving this oil a wonderful aroma and gentle heat with just the right level of sweetness. Truly inspired.

Lamb, Butternut & Apricot Tagine from Eat Your Veg

This tasty slow cooked tagine is perfect for cheaper cuts of meat and a great way to ‘sneak’ vegetables passed unsuspecting little ones. And what’s more, it’s absolutely packed full of rich, intense flavours for a different take on the traditional Sunday lunch.

Homemade Harissa from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations

Harissa is a versatile chilli and garlic paste originating from North America, ideal for spicing up soups, stews, cous cous and rice dishes. When you’ve seen Chef Mireille’s homemade version, you won’t want to buy shop-bought again!

Chilli, Ginger & Persimmon Tarts from Chocolate Log Blog

Having never eaten persimmons, I am intrigued by these beautiful tarts, particularly as they also feature white chocolate flavoured with naga chilli. I am a big fan of chilli chocolate but generally find the flavouring is a little on the timid side. Naga chilli chocolate sounds right up my street, providing the perfect foil for the gingery persimmon custard in these tarts.

Slow Cooker Coconut Lentil Curry from Recipes from a Pantry

When you take a look at this curry, you just know it’s going to taste good and make you feel good. Simple lentils with exciting flavours: coconut, garam masala, curry powder, ginger, garlic and, of course, chilli. Plus it’s so incredibly easy to make; it’s one of those pop everything in the slow cooker numbers and simply leave for a few hours. “Now repeat after me,” Bintu instructs us. “I will go shove everything into my slow cooker and then make time for me, four whole hours for me, me, me…” You have been told!

Lamb Curry from My Golden Pear

Here’s a gorgeous “no-nonsense” lamb curry originating from South Africa, just like its creator Angela from The Golden Pear. It’s a sweet and spicy combination of punchy flavours – garlic, ginger, curry powder, chilli, apricot and cinnamon. Lamb with fruit and cinnamon is a fantastic combination – I really look forward to trying this one out on my family.

Plantain Peanut Soup from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations

This soup has gone right to the top of my ‘must make’ list. It originates from Africa and wherever African slaves were transported, you’ll find a version of this peanut soup. As well as plantain, it also features okra and green beans and a whole heap of tasty spices, and looks like the perfect dish to warm you up on a chilly night.

Sicilian Style Beef Chilli Pasta from Spurs Cook

How about this for a hearty pasta supper, with big chunks of tender, melt-in-the-mouth beef and packed full of spicy flavours? An easy-to-cook, one pot wonder you can stick in the slow cooker in the morning for a wonderfully satisfying meal all ready and waiting for you when you get back from work in the evening. Sounds good to me!

Cheryl’s Paella from Bangers & Mash

Here’s my mum’s take on a Spanish paella. It’s incredibly moreish and very, very tasty with an extra kick from some fiery red chilli. It’s not exactly a traditional paella, but completely gorgeous nonetheless.

Chocolate & Chestnut Spiced Loaf from Blue Kitchen Bakes

While I’ve seen chocolate and chilli come together in all kinds of dishes, I’ve never seen them together in a bread, and a savoury bread and that. But I am completely intrigued by the idea and will definitely have to give this bread recipe from Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes a whirl very soon.

Vegan Spiced Parsnip Samosa Pies from Allotment 2 Kitchen

If you ask me, parsnips and spices are a match made in heaven, and these cute little samosa pies look absolutely heavenly. These would be lovely for lunchboxes or picnics (dreaming of warmer weather) and I think they’d make a splendid addition to any buffet table this Christmas time.

Pork Meatballs and Pasta from Searching for Spice

Pasta with meatballs is my idea of the perfect comfort food, especially with the addition of a little chilli to heat things up a bit. And this entry from Corina at Searching for Spice looks like just the kind of bowl of meatball loveliness I could dive straight into.

Creamy Vegetable Soup from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations

Here’s another beautifully spiced soup, this time from Chef Mireille in New York. It’s a delicious way to use up vegetables lurking in the fridge, and using crispy fried slices of sweet potato as a garnish is an excellent finishing touch.

Tagliatelle with Lamb’s Liver from Bangers & Mash

My next offering is another spicy pasta dish, which I came up with for the £3 Cooking Challenge in support of the food charity The Trussell Trust. Chillies are a great way to add flavour to a dish when you’re on a tight budget.

Smoked Mozzarella & Chipotle Cornbread from Fromage Homage

This is such a fantastically evocative entry, with its talk of campfires and cowboys. While I’m not much of a camper, I can quite easily imagine sitting beneath the stars beside a roaring bonfire, tucking into this scrummy, cheesy cornbread as someone serenades me on a ukulele!

Chilli con Carne from Jibber Jabber UK

I was hoping someone would enter a chilli con carne this month, as it’s one of my all-time favourite chilli dishes, and Ness from Jibber Jabber UK has come up trumps. She describes it as the perfect Friday night meal for sharing with friends and family: “big bowls and happy memories.” Serve me a big bowlful of this chilli con carne and I’d be very happy indeed.

Luchito Honey Glazed Ham from Eat Your Veg

There is something just so satisfying about baking and glazing your own ham, and the idea of using a chilli-flavoured honey for the glaze has me practically drooling. I tried Luchito Honey recently in a fruit crumble and can vouch for the fact it is quite delicious. This would be a great way to prepare your ham this Christmas.

Winter Root Soup with Spiced Tadka from Cook Eat Write

Stacey’s spicy soup looks like a hug in a bowl but it is the spiced tadka, with caraway, paprika, garlic, parsley and chilli, that I really want to try. Next time I make a soup, I’ll definitely be preparing some tadka to drizzle on top. Oh yes!

Chilli Beef Pie with Spicy Potato Wedges from Bangers & Mash

I recently got my mitts on a copy of the Higgidy Cookbook and this chilli beef pie was the first recipe I tried. It is absolutely delicious and the idea of topping a stew with crispy wedges is truly inspired. I can’t wait to work my way through the other dishes in this book.

Joe’s Homemade Baked Beans from Eat Your Veg

Don’t you think these wholesome baked beans, flavoured with honey and a generous pinch of chilli flakes, would make a marvellous accompaniment to Fromage Homage’s cornbread above? I’ve wanted to make my own baked beans for ages, and now I think I’ve found the perfect recipe.

Chilli Con Carne with Black Bean Sauce from Reluctant Housedad’s Recipe Shed

Here’s another take on one of my favourite dishes. Keith, aka the Reluctant Housedad, has come up with not one, not two but three twists on the classic chilli con carne. He has used chunks of meat instead of the more familiar mince, a spiced butter at the end of cooking, and the unusual addition of Chinese black bean sauce; not an ingredient I’d have thought of using myself but I can imagine it works well. Very well indeed.

Peri Peri Sauce from My Golden Pear

Every food fair I go to I seem to end up with another bottle of chilli sauce to add to my ever-expanding collection at home. But no more. I have decided the next bottle of chilli sauce that makes it into my kitchen will be the homemade variety, and I now have two very tempting recipes to test out, starting with this vibrant peri peri sauce from My Golden Pear featuring no less than 20 hot chillies. My tongue is tingling in anticipation!

Scotch Bonnet Sauce from Tales from the Kitchen Shed

And here’s the other chilli sauce I can’t wait to cook up myself – this time a scotch bonnet sauce from Sarah’s Kitchen Shed, which she made with her own homegrown chillies. My husband is also a keen chilli grower so we have a regular stock of chillies here at Chez Bangers, and what better way to make the most of a chilli glut? Sarah used to sell her sauces to a local Mexican restaurant, so her recipe comes highly recommended!

And the winner is…

I have been enormously impressed by the sheer range and diversity of chilli recipes entered into this first month of The Spice Trail, providing so many hot and spicy dishes to satisfy my chilli addiction for quite some time to come. But there can be only one winner, and I’m very glad it’s not down to me to choose. That unenviable task went to Bryn Davies, one of the directors of Kitchen Nomad.

Over to Bryn…

It was a tough decision but I think the lamb curry from My Golden Pear has to win – it looks delicious! – closely followed by the honey glazed ham by Eat Your Veg.

So congratulations to Angela at My Golden Pear for winning the inaugural Spice Trail challenge. Drop me a line as soon as you can so we can arrange for your fantastic prize of a Mexican Kitchen Nomad recipe box to be sent out to you. And congratulations also to Lou at Eat Your Veg for coming in a very close second.

kitchennomadmexico — The Kitchen Nomad Mexican recipe box

Thank you to everyone that took part this month in the chilli challenge. The theme for December’s Spice Trail challenge will be announced very soon so watch this space!

Dried fruit and nut balls

November 30, 2013November 30, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, Recipes, VegetarianTagged Aga, almond, apple, apricot, dried apple, dried fruit, Family Foodies, fig, granola, lunchbox, nuts, walnut4 Comments

Admittedly, these might look like something you’d hang out for the birds in winter but trust me, these dried fruit and nut balls are delicious. Ask my children – they love them in their packed lunches or after school as a quick and healthy snack.

They’re very easy to make and the recipe is extremely versatile – play around with the recipe and add your own favourite nuts and dried fruits. I’ve used dried apple in this version as I’d dried some of our own apples as one way of storing them. If you’ve never tried drying your own apples, you really should. The apples develop such a gorgeously intense flavour and they have a wonderfully satisfying texture, rather like chewing on a soft toffee but with none of the sugar-guilt. My girls can’t get enough of them.

If you fancy having a go, here’s what you do.

Peel and core your apples and cut into rings. Sprinkle with cinnamon or leave plain if you prefer. Spread out on a baking tray and put in a very, very low oven for a few hours. If you have an Aga you could put them in the bottom oven or do what we did and tie with string and hang in bundles over the top. They’re ready when they’ve gone all wrinkly and have gained that lovely chewy consistency.

We eat them as they are, chop them up and mix into plain yoghurt, or add them to homemade granola.

But back to those dried fruit and nut balls. It’s simply a case of whizzing up all the ingredient in a food processor and then using your hands to shape the resulting mixture into balls or, if you prefer, bars. It’s a fairly messy business, which is probably why children quite like getting involved.

Dried fruit and nut balls

100g blanched almonds
100g walnuts
100g dried apple
100g dried fig
100g dried apricot
100g sultanas
20g dessicated coconut
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp apple juice

Put the nuts and dried fruit into a food processor and process until it you end up with a mushy, sticky mixture.

Add the oil and apple juice and whiz again briefly to combine.

Mould the mixture in your hands into small balls and store in an airtight container in the fridge (for a couple of weeks) or the freezer (for a couple of months).

I wrap individual balls in foil, like sweetie wrappers, when I put them in the girls’ lunchboxes.

Since my children enjoy them in their lunchboxes, I’m including both these fruit and nut balls and the dried apple in November’s Family Foodies challenge, which as you probably know has lunchbox ideas as its theme.

A taste of Somerset in a scone

November 28, 2013December 6, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, Recipes, VegetarianTagged apple, Cheddar, cheese, lavender & lovage, scone, somerset, Wells Journal7 Comments

This post originally featured in the Wells Journal on Thursday 28 November 2013.

I used to be something of a purist when it came to scones. The whole scone experience was more about the indulgence of the clotted cream and jam, rather than the scone itself. If I was being slightly adventurous, I might throw a few sultanas into the scone mixture.
But since a) having children and b) becoming a food blogger, a new scone-shaped world has opened up to me, particularly the seemingly endless possibilities of the savoury scone.

Savoury scones are a perfect standby snack for little ones (and adults) and I often make them for the children’s lunchboxes too. Courgette and cheese scones are favourites, as are butternut squash and red onion.

Think of Somerset foods and Cheddar cheese and apples will no doubt come to mind. I know, I know – the produce of Somerset is so much more varied than this ubiquitous pairing, but you have to admit our apples and cheese are world-class. If you were at the Wells Food Festival back in September, you’ll have seen the crowds around the cheese stall; all due to the fine reputation of our local cheeses.

And what better to enjoy alongside your cheese than a crisp, flavourful apple. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful variety available to us here, although we should remember that more than 50 per cent of Somerset’s orchards have disappeared over the last 50 years. This is something a number of local growers and projects are working hard to turn around.

So, for a taste of Somerset in a scone, how about a tasty cheese and apple scone, using a mature local Cheddar and a generous sprinkling of fresh sage? They’re perfect cold in your packed lunch but even better served warm from the oven, with a little salted butter and some extra slices of cheese or maybe some cold meats.

Cheddar cheese, apple and sage scones

Makes around 12

300g self-raising Flour
½ tsp baking powder
75g butter
125g mature Cheddar, grated
handful of fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
1 large eating apple, cored and grated
1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
150ml milk

Preheat the oven to 200ºC / gas mark 6.

Grease a large baking sheet and cover with baking parchment.

Pour the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together. Chop the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour using your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir two-thirds of the cheese into the mixture, along with the sage and apple.

Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the beaten egg and milk. Use a knife to bring together into a soft dough. If it is too wet, add a little more flour.

Lightly flour the work top. Roll out the dough to a 2cm thickness and use a pastry cutter to cut out your scones. Keep re-rolling the dough until it is all used up.

Place the scones on the baking sheet spaced well apart. Sprinkle the scones with the remaining grated cheese and bake for around 15 minutes until golden.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before eating.

These scones are an ideal lunchbox filler and so I am entering them into this month’s Family Foodies challenge, which I just happen to be co-hosting with Lou over at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is Lunchbox Ideas.

As the scones also feature fresh sage, I’m entering them into November’s Cooking with Herbs challenge, hosted of course by Karen at Lavender & Lovage.

And finally, as these scones feature local West Country Cheddar cheese and apples, I’m entering them into the Shop Local blogging challenge at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary.

Tagliatelle with lamb’s liver and a sage, chilli and garlic butter

November 25, 2013January 3, 2014Posted in Competitions and challenges, Meat, RecipesTagged butter, buyagift, chilli, food poverty, garlic, lamb, liver, offal, pasta, sage, tagliatelle, trussell trust12 Comments

Could you come up with a meal for at least two people for under £3? That’s the challenge set by the leading food charity The Trussell Trust in partnership with Buyagift with the aim of raising awareness of just how difficult it can be to eat well on a limited budget.

I managed to come up with a dish but it wasn’t easy, and I really wouldn’t want to have to work with this budget every mealtime. But for so many people in this country, it is the reality they face each and every day. While the UK might be the seventh richest country in the world, many people here struggle to put food on the table.

You can help raise awareness of the work of The Trussell Trust and the urgent need for us as a nation to tackle food poverty by taking part in the challenge and coming up with your own recipe. You can also visit the charity’s website for more ways to support their work, from donating to your local foodbank to raising money for them as you do your online shopping.

For my dish I decided to use liver as it is relatively inexpensive. Obviously a vegetarian pasta dish would have been cheaper still, but I wanted to see if I could manage a meat dish on this tight budget. I managed to buy 370g of lamb’s liver from my local butcher for just £1.48 and I only used half of it. A little liver goes a long way.

OK, so not everyone likes liver but I’m sure that’s because it’s generally been overcooked when they have tried it. In this dish it is sliced very thinly and fried for only a few minutes, so it is beautifully moist and tender. My husband doesn’t normally eat liver but he enjoyed this. Plus it was cooked in a very generous amount of butter, with lots of chilli, garlic and sage, so absolutely packed full of flavour. It actually tastes quite luxurious despite the cheap ingredients.

Tagliatelle with lamb’s liver and a sage, chilli and garlic butter

Total spend: £2.21½

250g dried tagliatelle (47½p)
1 egg (24p)
170g lamb’s liver, thinly sliced (74p)
2tbsp olive oil (13p)
75g butter (36p)
1 red chilli, finely sliced (22p)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (5p)
6 sage leaves, finely chopped (free from the garden)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the tagliatelle in salted, boiling water according to the packet instructions.

Beat the egg in a shallow dish, add the liver and coat well, and leave for a few minutes.

Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan over a low heat. When the butter has melted, add the chilli, garlic and sage and fry for a couple of minutes.

Drain the liver and add to the frying pan. Increase the heat to medium and fry for three to four minutes, turning frequently, until cooked through. Season to taste and remove from the heat.

Drain the pasta and add to the frying pan. Toss well to coat the pasta in the butter and distribute the pieces of liver. Serve immediately.

As well as entering this dish into The £3 Challenge, I’m also sharing it with The Spice Trail (where the theme this month is chilli), Credit Crunch Munch (hosted by Dinner with Crayons, Fab Food for All and Fuss Free Flavours), Cooking with Herbs (hosted by Lavender & Lovage) as it features fresh sage, and Pasta Please (hosted by The Spicy Pear and Tinned Tomatoes) as it contains garlic.

Mini lunchbox pasties and tarts

November 24, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, Meat, RecipesTagged beef, cherry tomato, lunchbox, pasties, pastry, pasty, savoury, tart4 Comments

When my oldest daughter first started primary school, I rather enjoyed packing her lunch boxes each week, seeing what new and tasty things I could think up to put in there. And yes, you guessed it, the novelty wore off after about half a term.

But every now and again I do try to put in a little extra effort. Most of the time my daughters are grateful for that effort, although we do have the occasional disaster when I wish I hadn’t bothered and had simply given them a cheese roll instead. These mini pasties and tarts get the thumbs up from my two though. So if you do find you have a little extra time on your hands at the weekend and you’re in a baking mood, make up a big batch of these to see you through the week. They also freeze well too.

Mini lunchbox pasties filled with beef, carrot and boiled egg

Makes around 20

For the pastry

250g plain flour
pinch of salt
65g butter, cubed
60g lard or hard vegetable fat, cubed
4 tbsp iced water

For the filling

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced
250g minced beef
1 tbsp black treacle
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

1 beaten egg, for brushing onto the pastry

For the pastry

Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter and lard/vegetable fat using your finger tips until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Gradually mix in the cold water using a knife until it comes together to form a dough. Bring it all together with your hands into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

For the filling

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the onion and carrot until soft and golden. Add the minced beef and fry until browned.

Next add the black treacle, Worcestershire sauce, dried oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a couple more minutes and then stir in the chopped egg. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / gas mark 6.

Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry until about 2mm thick. Using a cup or small bowl about 9-10cm in diameter as a template, cut out circles of pastry.

Into the middle of each pastry circle, spoon some of your beef filling. Fold the edges of the pastry up and pinch together to seal it into that classic pastry shape. Place each pasty onto a large baking sheet and when they’re all complete, brush the pastry with a little beaten egg.

Bake the pasties in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they are a beautiful golden brown colour. Enjoy hot or cold.

Next come the mini tarts. They are very versatile and you can add your children’s favourite ingredients. As well as cherry tomatoes, used here, we also include ham, sweetcorn, peas, chopped sausage, spinach, courgette, peppers – the options are pretty much endless.

Mini lunchbox tarts filled with cheese and cherry tomatoes

Makes 12

For the pastry

110g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g butter, diced
cold water to mix

For the filling

2 large eggs, beaten
100g Cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper
12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

For the pastry

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Rub in the butter to form breadcrumbs. Combine with water to form a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C / gas mark 6.

Grease each of the cups of a 12-bun muffin tin with a little butter and dust with flour.

Flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to around 2mm thick. Cut out circles using a fluted pastry cutter, slightly larger than the diameter of the cups in the muffin tin. Press the pastry circles into the muffin tin.

Mix together the eggs and half the grated cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the pastry moulds. Pop two halves of cherry tomato into each tart and sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese.

Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling is set. Enjoy hot or cold.

These tarts and pasties are my entry into this month’s Family Foodies challenge, which I am co-hosting with Lou at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is Lunchbox Ideas. We’ve already received some great entries – why not pop over and take a look? Or how about sharing your own favourite lunchbox filler?

November’s Family Foodies challenge: lunchbox ideas

November 1, 2013December 3, 2013Posted in Competitions and challengesTagged blog challenge, Eat Your Veg, Family Foodies, lunch, lunchbox, packed lunch, recipe challenge14 Comments

Hot on the heels of The Spice Trail, today I bring you news of a second blog event I am hosting here on Bangers & Mash this month.

Family Foodies is the brain child of Lou at Eat Your Veg and I was thrilled when she invited me to co-host this recipe-sharing challenge with her. October was the inaugural month and the Weekend Slowies theme attracted a fantastic array of tempting recipes, providing lots of ideas for delicious family food to cook when you have a little more time to spend in the kitchen.

Now it’s my turn to host the challenge and for November the theme is Lunchbox Ideas.

Every parent and carer knows how easy it is to get stuck in a rut when it comes to thinking up tasty and appealing fillers for packed lunches. So come on fellow food bloggers – let’s get together and pool our ideas for easy, healthy ways to fill our children’s tummies, make sure they get their five-a-day, tickle and tantalize their taste buds, all while giving them a loving, foodie ‘hug from home’.

Whether it’s suggestions for nutritious sandwich fillings or different types of homemade bread or wraps, new takes on salads or dips, or inspiring twists on muffins, flapjacks or other home-baked goodies – we want to know what your children love to eat in their lunchboxes and how to give them them the energy boost and brain power they need for the afternoon ahead.

Oh, and there just might be a prize for the best lunchbox idea at the end of the month too!

Family Foodie Entry Guidelines:

You may submit any recipe on your blog that fits this month’s theme, new or from the archive, and feel free to enter as many times as you wish. You’re also welcome to submit the post to other challenges too. If the recipe is not your own, please give the appropriate credit.
Send your recipe URL to me at vanesther-at-reescommunications-dot-co-dot-uk, including your own email address and the title of your recipe or post. The closing date this month is Thursday 28 November 2013.
Display the Family Foodies badge (above) on your recipe post, with a link back to both Eat Your Veg and Bangers & Mash, as well as details of this month’s challenge.
If you’re on Twitter, then please tweet your post to myself @BangerMashChat and Lou @Eat_Your_Veg and include the hashtag #FamilyFoodies. We’ll retweet all that we see.
You may enter from anywhere in the blogosphere, and we’ll happily post out any prizes.
At the end of the month a guest judge will choose a winning recipe. The winner will be announced in a monthly round-up of all the entries. Winners will get to display a Family Foodie Winner annotated badge on their blog if they wish and their recipe will go through to the Family Foodies Hall of Fame on each of our sites.
All entries will be added to the Family Foodies Pinterest Group Board.

I’m really looking forward to seeing your entries!

November’s entries:

Bread Pudding from The Crazy Kitchen
Savoury Vegetable Cake from Allotment 2 Kitchen
Apple & Smoked Cheese Pasties from The Garden Deli
Chocolate, Orange & Cranberry Cookies from Utterly Scrummy
Bento Sushi Rice Shapes from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Super-Fruity Banana Loaf Cake from Eat Your Veg
Spiced Muesli Cake from The Crazy Kitchen
Soul-Cakes from Lavender & Lovage
Honey Mustard Sausage Plaits from Mint Custard
Gluten Free Sausage, Bacon and Apple Rolls from the Gluten Free Alchemist
Cheesy Pumpkin Scones from Eat Your Veg
Easy Iced Lime Cake from Fab Food 4 All
Mini Lunchbox Pasties and Tarts from Bangers & Mash
Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Muffins from Leeks & Limoni
Chilli Corn Chocolate Muffins from Chocolate Log Blog
Luchito Honey Glazed Ham from Eat Your Veg
Pumpkin, Walnut & Poppy Seed Muffins with Cheddar Cheese from Lavender & Lovage
Cheddar Cheese, Apple & Sage Scones from Bangers & Mash
Hedgehog Rolls from Eat Your Veg
Dried Fruit & Nut Balls from Bangers & Mash

The Spice Trail: a new monthly event for food bloggers

November 1, 2013December 1, 2013Posted in Competitions and challengesTagged blog challenge, chilli, chillies, kitchen nomad, Mexican, Mexico, recipe challenge, spice, the spice trail, Thomasina Miers, Wahaca22 Comments

Celebrate cooking with spices and win a Mexican recipe box

This month a new challenge comes to Bangers & Mash: The Spice Trail – a monthly food bloggers’ event, showcasing dishes from all around the world that celebrate cooking with spices. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m ever so slightly partial to cooking with spices myself. Being a family cook with two daughters (aged five and eight), some people are surprised at how much spice features in my food and I’m often asked how I persuade my children to eat spicy food or whether I have to prepare them separate meals in order to satisfy my personal spice cravings. Thankfully my girls are pretty adventurous most of the time. They were introduced to spices when I was weaning them onto solid foods, and possibly even earlier – when they were in the womb. (Both babies were overdue and I consumed an awful lot of spicy curries in those final days of pregnancy hoping to bring on labour!) Jess and Mia might not always be up for hotter, pungent spices but they’re more than happy to tuck into foods flavoured with spices like coriander, cumin, paprika, cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon – the list goes on. Family food doesn’t have to be bland food. So through this new challenge, I plan to offer you some of the beautifully spiced foods I like to feed my family – and I hope you will join in and share your favourite spicy foods too. Every month there will be a different theme; sometimes a specific spice, other times a particular world cuisine or type of food.

November’s challenge: cooking with chillies

To launch The Spice Trail, our first month’s theme is Cooking with Chillies and I’m really excited to see what delicious chilli recipes you have up your sleeves. My husband and I are both self-confessed chilli-heads and it’ll be fantastic for us to have a stock of new chilli recipes to work our way through. Technically, chillies are only classed as a spice when they are dried or powdered, but I’m more than happy to accept recipes this month featuring fresh chillies as well. Quite simply, I love chilli in any form!

Win a Kitchen Nomad Mexican recipe box

Think of chilli and probably one of the first cuisines that comes to mind will be Mexican. That’s why I’ve teamed up with Kitchen Nomad for the winning prize for this first challenge, as their recipe box this month is full of the hot and spicy flavours of Mexico. The recipes in Kitchen Nomad’s Mexican box are from Thomasina Miers, an English cook, writer and television presenter. In 2005 she won the BBC cookery competition MasterChef, and she is founder of the Wahaca chain of Mexican street food restaurants. Dishes include stuffed chillies, black bean soup, rajas tacos and chilli honey crumble. I subscribe to Kitchen Nomad’s boxes and I am thoroughly enjoying working my way thorugh this month’s recipes and ingredients.

How to enter The Spice Trail

Display the The Spice Trail badge (on the left and also available here) on your recipe post, and link back to this challenge post. You may enter as many recipe links as you like, so long as they feature this month’s key ingredient – chilli (fresh, dried or powdered). Send your recipe URL to me at vanesther-at-reescommunications-dot-co-dot-uk, including your own email address and the title of your recipe or post. The closing date this month is Thursday 28 November 2013. If you tweet your post, please mention #TheSpiceTrail and me @BangerMashChat in your tweet and I’ll retweet each one I see. Feel free to republish old recipe posts, but please add the information about this challenge and The Spice Trail badge. As entries come in, links to these will be added to this page. At the end of the month a guest judge will choose a winning recipe and the winner this month will receive a fabulous Mexican-themed food box from the good people at Kitchen Nomad. The winner will be announced in a monthly round-up of all the entries. All entries will be added to The Spice Trail Pinterest Board. I can’t wait to see what dishes you come up with for The Spice Trail. Any questions, please tweet or email me.

November’s entries:

Slow Cooked Mexican Style Beef from Mamacook
Kinda Vietnamese Chicken Salad from Mamacook
Pineapple, Cinnamon & Red Chilli Frozen Yoghurt from Deena Kakaya
Sweet Lychee and Hot Chilli Dipping Sauce from Deena Kakaya
Chilli Oil with an Indian Accent from Deena Kakaya
Lamb, Butternut & Apricot Tagine from Eat Your Veg
Homemade Harissa from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations
Chilli, Ginger & Persimmon Tarts from Chocolate Log Blog
Slow Cooker Coconut Lentil Curry from Recipes from a Pantry
Lamb Curry from My Golden Pear
Plantain Peanut Soup from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations
Sicilian Style Beef Chilli Pasta from Spurs Cook
Cheryl’s Paella from Bangers & Mash
Chocolate & Chestnut Spiced Loaf from Blue Kitchen Bakes
Vegan Spiced Parsnip Samosa Pies from Allotment 2 Kitchen
Pork Meatballs and Pasta from Searching for Spice
Creamy Vegetable Soup from Chef Mireille’s Global Creations
Tagliatelle with Lamb’s Liver from Bangers & Mash
Smoked Mozzarella & Chipotle Cornbread from Fromage Homage
Chilli con Carne from Jibber Jabber UK
Luchito Honey Glazed Ham from Eat Your Veg
Winter Root Soup with Spiced Tadka from Cook Eat Write
Chilli Beef Pie with Spicy Potato Wedges from Bangers & Mash
Joe’s Homemade Baked Beans from Eat Your Veg
Chilli Con Carne with Black Bean Sauce from Reluctant Housedad’s Recipe Shed
Peri Peri Sauce from My Golden Pear
Scotch Bonnet Sauce from Tales from the Kitchen Shed

Recipes for Life: the final round-up

September 18, 2013Posted in Competitions and challenges, RecipesTagged eggs, flour, great british farmhouse cookbook, milk, recipes for life, sarah mayor, swallow charity, yeo valley12 Comments

So here we are – the final round-up in the Recipes for Life challenge. It really doesn’t seem like seven months ago since I kicked it off in partnership with SWALLOW, an amazing charity in Somerset supporting adults with learning disabilities to lead more independent lives.

The idea of the challenge was to find easy, wholesome dishes for members of their cookery club to try out and also to appear in their new fundraising cookbook. And each month food bloggers have done us proud, posting the most incredibly diverse and delicious range of recipes, based each time on just three simple, core ingredients.

Tracey O’Leary, SWALLOW’s cookery tutor says: “Thank you to all of the entrants of Recipes for Life. We have been amazed by the variety of recipes that have been submitted. It has also provided us with a good stock of simple, tasty and nutritious meals for our group to learn to make over the coming weeks and months!”

And Stephanie one of SWALLOW’s members, adds: “I have really enjoyed cooking, and eating, the winning recipes.”

This month, as well as announcing the winner of August’s challenge, we’re also naming one overall winner of the whole Recipes for Life challenge, who will receive a copy of Yeo Valley’s rather splendid Great British Farmhouse Cookbook by Sarah Mayor. I got hold of this book recently and it’s rapidly become one of my favourite cookbooks.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the entries to August’s challenge. I must apologise for taking so long to post this round-up – work has been frantic the last couple of weeks, and the blog simply hasn’t had a look in. But better late than never, eh? The trio of ingredients for August were eggs, milk and flour, possibly the most rudimentary of ingredient combinations you can get. As ever, food bloggers came up with a sensational selection of both sweet and savoury dishes, starting with…

…Mabintu of Recipes From a Pantry who gave us not one, not two, but three tempting pancake recipes: fluffy golden pancakes, gingerbread pancakes and banana pancakes. The latter are a personal favourite of mine; they remind me of lazy Sunday mornings and of course that classic Jack Johnson song.

Sylvia from Happiness is Homemade also brought us pancakes, accompanied by her gorgeous photography. Don’t these pancakes with raspberries and chocolate chip pancakes make you just want to reach into the screen and grab a spoonful?

One of Recipes for Life’s most loyal supporters from the outset has been Helen from The Crazy Kitchen, and in the final month she rustled up a couple of beauties: a deliciously simple h am and tomato pancake pizza and some very tempting white chocolate and cherry muffins.

I hadn’t heard of Königsberger klopse before but I really like the look of these German meatballs entered by Carolin at Mummy Alarm, and intend to try them out on my lot very soon. They are a traditional German meal, usually made from veal but Carolin created hers with beef mince in her family-friendly, budget version.

Claire from Under the Blue Gum Tree decided not to enter a clafoutis after “one too many claggy-clafoutis attempts” but to be honest I’m rather pleased she entered her Flammkuchen instead, as this is just the kind of food my family adores. It’s a bacon and creme fraiche tart, which originally comes from the Alsace region of France. Tasty and rather good-looking to boot. Ticks all my boxes!

Next up are these gorgeous Pea-nut-ella Rolls from Cutchi Kitchen, which I think would go down well at breakfast time or as an after-school snack. Anyone who likes Reese’s peanut butter cups will know how well peanut butter and chocolate go together and the thought of them together in a warm roll is making my stomach growl…

Sarah at the Garden Deli has been another regular entrant in the Recipes for Life challenge, and I’m really pleased she made it just in time with her summery Pizza Pancakes, filled with the essentials of a good pizza topping – tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. Simply delicious and so quick and easy to rustle up.

I left it to the very last minute to get my entry in. I made my first Tarte Tatin while we were on holiday in France and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make. I tried a Nigella Lawson recipe using Danish pastry, which works really well and is just as good eaten cold the next day.

There you go, that’s the final round-up and didn’t we do well? But who, I hear you ask, is August’s winner? Well…

* drum roll *

I’m very pleased to announce that August’s winner is Claire from Under the Blue Gum Tree for her scrummy Flammkuchen. The team at SWALLOW loved the fact it was a little bit different yet still very easy for their members to make themselves. So huge congratulations to Claire on her very well deserved win! A little gift from SWALLOW will be on its way via airmail to you very soon.

But of course, there’s still one more announcement to go. Who will take the prestigious title of overall winner of the Recipes for Life challenge? To be honest, it was an obvious choice. It just had to be Helen from The Crazy Kitchen for her sheer dedication to the cause. She has won the monthly challenges no less than three times – and in a row too – and has entered a CRAZY number of recipes, each and every one of them fulfilling our brief for tasty, wholesome and easy-to-make dishes.

Helen will receive a copy of the Great British Farmhouse Cookbook from Yeo Valley, who incidentally are also based right here in Somerset. We hope you like it!

So that’s it. The Recipes for Life bloggers challenge is over. But watch this space for news of SWALLOW’s new cookbook, featuring many of the recipes entered over the last seven months. And also watch this space for news of a another cookery challenge I will be launching very, very soon.

Thanks again to everyone that has taken part – both the team at SWALLOW and I are very grateful for all your support!