Tag: family recipe

Family Foodies: the Cheap and Cheerful round-up

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It’s been a month since the deadline for entries into May’s Family Foodies challenge – do you remember that one, the one with the Cheap and Cheerful theme? I could come up with a list of excuses as long as my arm for taking so long to bring you the round-up, but it would make for pretty dull reading.

It’s simply been a case of work, family and, well, life really, having to take priority – you know what it’s like. And so I had to take a little step back from the blog for a few weeks. But hopefully things are back on a bit more of an even keel now.

But I hope you’ll agree it was worth the wait. We received some brilliantly inspiring and inventive recipes for last month’s Family Foodies, so if you are looking for creative ways to make your grocery budget stretch that little bit further yet still serve up temptingly tasting meals, then this is the recipe round-up for you.

Cheap and Cheerful Collage

For starters, we have a couple of soups. There’s a vibrant 5 Minute Smoothie Soup (1) from Jac at Tinned Tomatoes, which as well as being super quick and super cheap, it’s also perfect for anyone watching their weight at just 42 calories a bowl.

Katie from Feeding Boys and a Firefighter also brings a hearty soup to our Cheap and Cheerful table, with her Healthy Mushroom Soup (3). It sounds absolutely packed full of flavour with those lovely earthy mushrooms, alongside lots of garlic and chives and if you want to lux it up, you can add a glug of sherry and a dollop of creme fraiche. Ooh yum.

How about an Easy Cheesy Muffins (2) to go with your bowl of soup. Luckily that’s precisely what Lou from Eat Your Veg has brought along with her. These marvellous mini muffins would be ideal for packed lunches and are also a great way to get the little ones involved in the kitchen, as Lou’s gorgeous son Jacques demonstrates.

Talking of lunches, I think these next two entries would make a lovely weekend lunch and would also be perfect picnic food. This Smoked Salmon and Asparagus Quiche (4) from Ros aka The More Than Occasional Baker looks really quite decadent even though it’s made from leftovers, while this Quiche Lorraine with Slow Cooked Pulled Gammon (5) from Camilla at Fab Food 4 All is fabulously “fuss and fiddle” free and makes the most of value gammon from the supermarket.

And how about this dish of Spinach, Chickpeas and Peppercorns (6) from Sudha at Spicy, Quirky and Serendipitous? Does it look delicious? It’s Sudha’s grandmother’s recipe and she makes it whenever she feels like she needs a hug from her. I love the way food can link us so directly to our loved ones.

Cheap and Cheerful Collage 2Linsy from Home Cook Food has three Cheap and Cheerful dishes to share. First of all there’s her Chanar Payesh (7), which is a Bengali-style cottage cheese pudding and a clever way of using up sour milk. Next she brings us a hot and spicy Sriracha Eggplant and Tofu (8) and she completes her trio with an Cheesy Pesto Pasta (9), perfect for a quick and easy, mid-week supper.

Not surprisingly for this Cheap and Cheerful challenge, we have a few more pasta dishes up next. Katharine from Leeks & Limoni gives us this very pretty bowlful of Penne with Speck and Leeks (10), which has universal appeal, just perfect for a family meal. Then a couple of pasta bakes up next. We have a Veggie Sausage and Pepper Pasta Bake (11) from Helen at Family – Friends – Food, a fun (and very tasty) way to use vegetarian sausages, and then a Meatball and Red Pepper Pasta Bake (12) from Alex at Gingey Bites, featuring lots of versatile and cheap ingredients, and very yummy looking meatballs.

Cheap and Cheerful Collage 3

If you saw the Mexican theme on The Spice Trail a couple of months ago, you’ll know I’m rather partial to Mexican food, and so I was very pleased to see a couple of burritos on the list of entries for Family Foodies. These Burritos with Cumin and Eggs (13) were the end result when Sudha from Spicy, Quirky and Serendipitous let her “imagination run wild” and what a delicious imagination she clearly has! Louisa at Eat Your Veg came up with these Veggie Burritos (14) for National Vegetarian Week back in May, and as with so much of her food, they are a very healthy and hands-on dinner for all the family to tuck into together.

These Beet Parathas (15) from Aneela at The Odd Pantry are a deliciously frugal dinner. Paratha is a stuffed, wholewheat flatbread and Aneela has stuffed hers with a fantastic filling made from just about every part of the beetroot that is then spiced to perfection.

My Braised Oxtail with Smoked Bacon (16) is up next, the first time I’ve ever tried cooking this extremely cheap cut, and I’ll certainly be coming back to it again soon.

And I have to say, I’m very tempted by these Guacamole Hush Puppies (17) from Gayathri at Spices Galore. They are her take on the hush puppies from the deep south of the United States, which are essentially deep-fried cornmeal fritters. Gayathri has added avocado, chilli and lots of fresh herbs to her version and I think they sound irresistible.

Cheap and Cheerful Collage 4Elizabeth from Elizabeth’s Kitchen has come up with a healthier and tastier version of the ubiquitous chicken nugget next with her Chicken, Apple & Sage Nuggets (18). I think I’d like these as much as my children.

Something that went down well with my own family was this Spicy Chana Dal Cottage Pie (19). While it’s not meat-free, the chana dal does help bulk out the filling and helps make a little meat go much, much further.

After all those savoury delights, I reckon it’s high time we had some sweet treats, don’t  you? Corina from Searching for Spice has made us these gorgeous little Oaty Banana and Raisin Bites (20), made from just three ingredients, they really couldn’t be easier to make. Small chewy clusters of oats, banana and raisins, baked in the oven, they sound almost too good to be true!

And how about this sumptuous Nutella Bread and Butter Pudding (21) from Helen at Family – Friends – Food? Custard, chocolate and bread pudding – sounds like a heavenly combination if you ask me.

Cheap and Cheerful Collage 5 Chocolate Cakes

Did someone say chocolate? If it’s chocolate on a budget you want then these next six entries will have you whooping in sheer foodie ecstasy on a shoestring. Last month Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog set an interesting challenge for We Should Cocoa: to bake a chocolate cake for less than £1. And I’m rather pleased that many of her entrants saw fit to also submit their entries to Family Foodies as well. I couldn’t believe it was possible to bake an edible cake for less than a pound, until I saw this little lot…

Michelle at Utterly Scrummy Food for Family’s Chocolate Cake for less than £1 (22) looks absolutely decadent, although it must be said the chocolate topping wasn’t included in the costings. But doesn’t that chocolate sponge look wonderfully moist?

Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog came up with two versions of a Chocolate Cake for £1 (23). There’s a malted hot chocolate cake, made using Horlicks (gosh, I haven’t heard that mentioned for quite a while), and then a banana hot chocolate honey cake. Both sound divine and I’m so impressed each one came in under budget. Just!

Admittedly Sarah from Tales from the Kitchen Shed used a smaller tin than normal for her £1 Chocolate Fudge Cake (24) but I think you’ll agree it looks like it must have cost much more than the 99½p it actually cost to make. It really looks rather extravagant and knowing how tasty Sarah’s recipes are, I bet this tastes the business too.

Caroline aka Caroline Makes went with a vegan recipe for her entry How to Make Chocolate Cake for Only £1 (25), and found it was actually cheaper to use plain chocolate from the basics range than use cocoa powder. I love how glossy that topping looks.

Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker used a packet cake mix from Morrison’s and even stretched to some peanut butter for her Chocolate, Banana and Peanut Butter Cake for £1 (26). Her secret ingredient was sour cream for extra lightness, and I love the fact she served up to people without telling them it was a budget cake and people were asking her for the recipe. Result!

Finally we have this very fine-looking Chocolate Syrup Cake for £1 (27) from Katharine at Leeks & Limoni, in which she replaced the butter with oil for a recipe she describes as a revelation. “The cake was really delicious,” she says in her post. “I mean, nicer than my usual standard chocolate cake and a cinch to make.” Who’d have thought that by cutting the cost on ingredients, you might actually stumble upon an improved recipe?

And the winner is…

So there you have it. Quite a collection of cheap and cheerful dishes, perfect for feeding a hungry family. It all goes to show, food doesn’t have to be boring when you’re on a budget. Although you do need to be creative and think out of the box a little, which of course isn’t always easy when times are tight and you have a family to feed, as I learnt a few weeks ago when my family and I took part in the Live Below the Line challenge. But some great ideas there to give us all food for thought.

But as ever there can only be one winner. And this month that much sought-after accolade of Family Foodies champion goes to Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog for her two very inventive versions of a Chocolate Cake for £1, and for coming up with such a fantastic blog challenge to run alongside the Live Below the Line campaign. Well done Choclette! A copy of the Passion for Juice smoothie recipe book will be in the post to you very soon – once you’ve sent me your address that is…

Thank you to everyone that took part in the Cheap and Cheerful challenge, and apologies once again for taking so long to bring you the round-up. Better late than never though, as they say!

family-foodies

Sticky toffee pudding

Posted in Puddings and desserts, RecipesTagged , , , , 15 Comments

sticky toffee pudding

When I was little, I really enjoyed school dinners. Strange I know, as most people seem to have terrible memories of the stuff dished up in the school canteen. In particular, I enjoyed the puddings, with the exception of school rice pudding which was truly ghastly and has succeeded in putting me off for life. But I did love the old fashioned sponge puddings, served up with thick custard, especially when it was the pink variety.

My children go to a small village school where they only have hot school dinners twice a week as they have to be brought in from a neighbouring school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I find myself interrogating the kids to find out what they ate that day and am always very jealous when I hear they had a hot pudding with custard.

We didn’t really eat those kinds of puddings at home when I was a child, although occasionally I’d be treated to one of those sponge puddings that came in a large tin. That’s why I really appreciated visits to my grandparents in Lancashire, as my Nana Barbara makes the best puddings ever.

When Nana came down to visit at Christmas, she brought some of her wonderful sticky toffee pudding with her, and I was in seventh heaven. Nana presented me with a large tray of the dark brown sponge cake to go in the freezer, with a jar full of toffee sauce. It’s been such a treat to be able to warm some up in the microwave at the end of a busy day at work and enjoy a bowl of blissful, homemade sticky stodginess.

Nana was kind enough to let me have her recipe, and because I’m a generous soul, I’d like to share it with you too. Enjoy!

sticky toffee pudding

Sticky toffee pudding

Feeds 8

200g dried dates, stoned and chopped
300ml water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g dark brown sugar
80g butter, softened
2 large eggs
vanilla extract
175g self raising flour

For the toffee sauce

150g butter
220ml double cream
150g dark brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C / gas mark 4.

Put the chopped dates and water into a saucepan and simmer over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until gorgeously thick and sticky. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and leave to cool.

Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy. Break in the eggs and add a few drops of vanilla extract, and beat it all together well. Carefully fold in the flour, followed by the gooey dates.

Grease a baking tin (20cm square) and line with greaseproof paper. Spoon in the mixture and bake for around 40 minutes until the sponge is firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a board and slice into 8 portions.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and then stir in the cream and sugar. Cook gently until the sauce has thickened and turned a glossy, dark caramel colour.

Serve the warm sponge cake in bowls and pour over the toffee sauce. It’s very good as it is but, if you want to push the boat out, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or perhaps a drizzle of cream.

This article was first published in the Wells Journal on 20 March 2014.

Chinese sausage and noodle soup

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This is not an authentic Chinese soup recipe by any stretch of the imagination. It’s something I concocted using ingredients from the store cupboard in an attempt to liven up another Savoy cabbage to arrive in the veg box.

It also features slices of Chinese sausage, which you should be able to get from an oriental supermarket, but if not feel free to substitute with any cured sausage that takes your fancy.

I made up the dish as I went along and was really rather surprised at just how tasty and moreish it ended up and have made it several times since. As it takes only half an hour or so to rustle up, it’s an excellent contender for a quick mid-week dinner when you don’t want to spend all evening in the kitchen.

Chinese sausage and noodle soup

Serves 4

1 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
½ onion, peeled and finely chopped
3cm piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 Chinese sausage (I used a skinny one about 20cm long), thinly sliced
½ Savoy cabbage, shredded
1.5l hot chicken stock
50ml light soy sauce
50ml Chinese rice wine (Shaohsing) or dry sherry
25ml black rice vinegar
80g egg noodles (I use either medium or fine)

In a large pan heat the oil and gently fry the onion until golden. Add the ginger, garlic and sausage and fry together for a couple more minutes.

Throw in the cabbage and stir-fry for a minute.

Pour in the hot stock, soy sauce, rice wine and vinegar and bring to a gentle simmer. Leave to cook for 10 minutes.

Add the noodles and simmer for another three minutes or according to the packet instructions. Serve and enjoy.

I’m also sharing this soup at the Fantastic Foods Friday supper party over at Justa’s Kitchen.

Pappardelle with courgette and basil

Posted in Recipes, VegetarianTagged , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

In the last year we have dramatically reduced the amount of meat we eat in the Bangers & Mash household. Don’t get me wrong, I could never give up meat entirely. I enjoy it far too much.

But there is no getting away from the fact that meat is expensive, both on the pocket and as a global resource. Good quality meat that has been responsibly reared and farmed is not cheap to produce. And I refuse to buy cheap meat because I dread to think what conditions the animals have been kept in.

So a major part of reducing the cost of our weekly meals has been to reduce the amount of meat we consume: less of it but good quality stuff when we do. I’m sure this must be much better for us from a health point of view too.

At first it was difficult, especially I think for my husband who has taken a little while to convince that you can have a fully satisfying meal without any meaty component. But for me it’s turning into quite an adventure, discovering a whole new world of vegetarian cuisine.

This pasta dish, pappardelle with courgette (zucchini) and basil, is one we eat quite often, particularly in the summer when courgettes are in abundance. I have actually been making it for years – it has been my staple dish whenever veggie friends came over for a meal. Now we eat it with or without the vegetarian guests.

It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. He makes it with tagliatelle but I tend to use whatever pasta happens to be in the cupboard. Pappardelle is my favourite for this. Oh yes, and I use much more garlic than Jamie.

Pappardelle with courgette and basil

5 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 courgettes, sliced very thinly
juice of 1 lemon
handful of fresh basil, torn
400g pappardelle (or pasta of your choice)
salt and pepper
100g parmesan cheese, grated

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Gently fry the garlic in 4 tbsp of olive oil for a minute, then add the sliced courgette and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the lemon juice and basil and cook for a few more minutes until the courgette is tender.

When the pasta is ready, drain and combine with the courgette. Season to taste, add most of the parmesan and remaining olive oil and mix well. Serve with some more torn basil and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Pork, black pudding and apple pie

Posted in Meat, RecipesTagged , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

I remember my Nana Barbara taking me to Bury Market when I was a little girl. I must have been about six or seven. What I remember most was seeing a pair of the most amazing sparkly, silver, strappy shoes. With heels. And I wanted them so, so much. But of course I didn’t get them. If I did, it wouldn’t be one of those memories that stayed with me forever I suppose.

If you took me to Bury Market these days, I don’t think I’d be looking at clothes or shoes, even of the silver variety. It would be the food stalls that would receive my undivided attention.

One item in particular I couldn’t leave without would be some proper Lancastrian black pudding. So it might be one of those food stuffs you don’t want to think too much about what goes into (it’s largely pork blood and fat, if you were unsure), but it’s a food I’ve loved since I was a child, especially as part of a cooked British breakfast. It’s probably due to my northern roots on my Dad’s side.

When I saw a recipe featuring black pudding on my Twitter timeline recently, I knew immediately I’d have to try it. @seldom_seen_boy had seen Brian Turner cook a pork and black pudding pie on that British institution of daytime television known as This Morning. I made a mental note there and then that the next time we had roast pork, I’d use the leftovers to make this pie.

So that’s precisely what I did, and it was very, very good. I wasn’t 100% sure whether the rest of the family would like it. My husband’s never been all that keen on black pudding and I thought the kids might turn their noses up at it too. Overall though it got a thumbs up. Only my seven-year-old was a little unsure, and about halfway through she started picking out the black pudding. But at least she had a go.

Personally I loved it. Who needs silver shoes when you have a black pudding pie, eh?

Pork, black pudding and apple pie

Serves 8

1 tbsp vegetable oil
30g butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large carrot, grated
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml chicken stock
350g roast pork, shredded
250g black pudding, diced
2 apples, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper
500g ready made shortcrust pastry
1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

Heat the oil and butter in a large pan, and gently cook the onion, garlic and carrot until they start to colour.

Add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock and simmer gently without a lid for 15 minutes. Stir in the shredded pork.

In a separate pan, fry the black pudding and apple until slightly browned. Then stir this into the rest of the pie filling. Season, bring to the boil, and then leave to cool.

Roll out half the pastry into a thin circle the same size as an ovenproof dish. Grease the dish and then lay over the pastry. Pile on the pie filling.

Roll out the second half of the pastry into a circle the same size as the first. Egg wash the rim of the pie and lay the lid over the filling. Press the rim, scallop the edges and cut a tiny air hole in the centre of the pastry. Brush with egg wash and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with mashed potatoes and onion gravy.

Maple syrup and banana cupcakes

Posted in Cakes and biscuits, RecipesTagged , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

My two girls almost ate us out of house and home during the Easter holidays. And now that they are back to school and nursery, they are coming home in the afternoon absolutely ravenous. There’s no way they can keep going until tea time without a quick snack as soon as they get through the front door.

These maple syrup and banana cupcakes are perfect, and they’re also good as a lunch box treat. They contain wholemeal flour and fruit so they’re also vaguely healthy!

Maple syrup and banana cupcakes

Makes 12

150g self-raising flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g Demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on top
1 tsp cinnamon
60g margarine, very soft
2 large ripe bananas
50g sultanas
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6 and line a bun tin with 12 paper cake cases.

Mix together the self-raising and wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the soft margarine and mash it into the flour using a fork until well combined.

Mash the bananas using a fork and stir this into the mixture, along with the sultanas.

Add the beaten eggs, maple syrup and milk and beat until the mixture is well combine and dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and sprinkle a little Demerara sugar on top of each one.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. Eat them as they come or make into more of a pudding by eating warm drizzled with more maple syrup.

 

Apple crumble muffins

Posted in Cakes and biscuits, RecipesTagged , , , , , , , 4 Comments

We’ve got another cake sale coming up soon at my daughter’s primary school. These are definitely one of the PTA’s most successful ways to raise funds. You should see the number of homemade cakes the parents bring in. It’s very impressive.

I have a couple of standards I usually bake, which I know always get snapped up. The first is the banana chocolate cupcake, which I’ve featured here before. And the other is the scrumptious apple crumble muffin, the recipe for which I’ve taken from Linda Collister’s excellent book ‘Baking with Kids’.

I like to think of both these cakes as being vaguely healthy since they contain fruit. Obviously they also contain lots of butter and sugar too, so I don’t think you can really claim they’re a substitute for one of your child’s five-a-day!

The apple crumble muffin is a big hit in our house. The perfect combination of cake and pudding.

And as they contain apple, I’m entering this muffin into February’s In Season Challenge over at Make It Bake It, where the theme this month is any recipe containing apples.

Apple crumble muffins

Topping:

50g butter
50g sugar
50g plain flour
50g ground almonds

Cakes:

275g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
1 lemon
150g butter
2 eggs
100ml milk
2 eating apples

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) Gas 5.

To make the topping, cut the butter into small pieces and put in a mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Work them together until it looks like crumble mixture.

For the cake mixture, sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl and mix in the sugar. Stir in the zest from the lemon and make a well. Pour the melted butter, beaten eggs and milk into the well, and mix gently.

Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cases in a 12-hole muffin tray. Core and roughly chop the apples and scatter on top of the muffin mixture, then sprinkle over the topping.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy with a cup of tea or a glass of milk!

Roast vegetable lasagne

Posted in Recipes, VegetarianTagged , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Lasagne has always been one of my favourite foods. I loved it when my mother cooked it when I was little and I now love making it for my own children.

It’s not a quick dish to prepare though. In fact I used to think it was a bit of a faff. But these days, when I’m juggling work and family, it’s one of the meals I’ll make once the kids are tucked up in bed and I have the kitchen to myself, generally listening to Jo Whiley on Radio 2, all ready to eat the following evening. There’s nothing nicer than getting back from work and simply having to pop supper in the over and it’s all done.

We’re trying to eat less meat in our house. It’s partly to save money, partly for environmental reasons and partly to eat more healthily. And this is one of those vegetarian alternative meals where you really don’t miss the meat. It’s packed with big bold flavours and the aubergine and courgette give it lots of substance.

Because this meal is such a favourite with my clan, I’m submitting the recipe to The Pink Whisk Challenge, which is dedicated to raising awareness of Save the Children and the Hidden Hunger campaign.

Save the Children is asking everyone to Name a Day, a day when they will do just one thing to help save children’s lives. And they are asking David Cameron to do the same. It is a terrible fact that we live in a world with enough food for everyone, yet hunger is still able to kill 7,000 children every day.  Can you help Save the Children put an end to this Hidden Hunger?

All the recipes gathered for the Pink Whisk Challenge will be collated and published in a Save the Children e-book to be sold to raise awareness and funds for the campaign. Do you have a family favourite to add? Please do. You have until 31 March 2012. Full details over at The Pink Whisk.

Use lots of fresh rosemary and keep the vegetables nice and chunky

Roast vegetable lasagne

Serves 6

For the roast vegetables

1 small onion, peeled and quartered
3 courgettes, chopped diagonally into thick slices
2 aubergines, chopped into large chunks
1 red and 1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced
6 cloves of garlic, skins removed
handful of cherry tomatoes
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
olive oil

For the cheese sauce

50g butter
40g plain flour
450ml milk
100g Cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper

For the tomato sauce

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 x 400g tins chopped plum tomatoes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

250g lasagne sheets
Extra grated cheese for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 200°C/gas 6.

Begin by roasting your vegetables. Place them all in a large roasting tray along with the rosemary and garlic. Season generously with salt and pepper, pour over some olive oil and toss together to cover the vegetables well. Roast in the oven for around 40 minutes, turning the vegetables halfway through, until they are tender and beginning to brown.

The roast vegetables with garlic and rosemary smell sensational

While the vegetables are roasting prepare the two sauces.

The tomato sauce is very simple. Fry the onions in the olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and stir together. Simmer gently for around 15 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Season to taste.

A very simple tomato sauce

For the cheese sauce, place the butter, flour and milk in a saucepan. Whisk over a gentle heat until it has thickened. Then stir in grated cheese until it has melted into the sauce. Again, season to taste.

When the vegetables are roasted, place a layer of these in the bottom of a large ovenproof dish. (Mine isn’t particularly large so I use a medium sized one and a small one.) Make sure you pull out the thick rosemary stalks. Nobody likes chewing on twigs.

Pour some tomato sauce over the vegetables and then cover with a layer of lasagne sheets. Repeat this process until you have filled your dish, ending with a layer of vegetables and then sauce.

Now pour over the cheese sauce. I like to wiggle the dish from side to side a little to make sure the cheese sauce seeps down the sides and through all the cracks.

Finally scatter some grated Cheddar cheese over the top. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes until the cheese is browned and bubbly and a knife inserted goes easily through the pasta.

Perfect served with a salad and some homemade garlic bread.

Who can resist the molten cheese on top of a big bowl of lasagne?