I've got the muchies!

Last night I ordered the mr to come home with some chocolate chips and brown sugar so I could make these. He came, I did, we ate- they were delicious!!

So easy too and only take 4 main steps! You will need;

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 tsp. of vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3 and 3/4 cups of flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 bag of chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 190
2. Mix together the butter, vanilla, eggs and sugar.
3. Add in the remaining dry ingredients, followed by the chocolate chips
4. Smooth into a baking pan (greased or foiled)
5. Cook for 15 or so minutes (best judged by your oven, but until nice and brown ontop)
6. EAT! especially best when eaten straight out of oven, all warm and gooey :)

Plus you can re-heat them in the microwave to add some extra gooeyness a few days later! Trust me though, these won't last a few days...

Enjoy and let me know how it goes if you try them!

Abiento x

I've got the munchies.

Over the weekend I semi moved into my friends parents house in a small surfing town on the north coast of Cornwall. Sunday night, Mike came for the night- we cooked dinner together, watched Michael Macintyre and had an early night :). We are both ill at the moment so a big bowl of  tomato pasta was perfect for us! Last night I decided to use up some of the leftover sauce and flourish up the same dish a bit.

Overall delicious and filling- plus I made a large portion so that I have some for lunch tomorrow! Here's my recipe :)

A handful of pasta
1 chicken breast
a handful of peas
1 large (and I mean BIG) mushroom
a few slices of chorizo (or salami, or other...)
some sort of cheese
tomato sauce (I used a tomato and herb store bought jar)
A handful of spinach plus another handful of rocket
Any salad veg that you like- I chose to use cucumber

Start by cooking off the pasta in a small amount of water, keeping it at a rolling boil and adding more water when necessary.

When nearly done, add the peas so that they cook with the pasta.

Meanwhile in a frying pan, cook off the chicken, followed by the mushrooms.

Drain the pasta and peas, replacing them into the saucepan. Add the tomato sauce and return to the heat. Chop up the chorizo and add that too.

In your bowl create a layer of salad then combine all the warm ingredients and pile up on top! Finish off with some yummy cheese :).

I believe that when it comes to Italian food, we all eat far too much of the carbs. The pasta in a pasta dish should not be the main ingredient, it should be about a third of it. So I tend to double most of the above ingredients (except for the chicken) to save some for another meal, then eat it with the salad. This way it is more nutritious, healthier and just as filling! This was a meal I really enjoyed and it was oh so simple. I love to just add lots of random veg and meat to a meal for a yummy combo. Next time I might try it with some kind of seafood as apparently cured and deli meats compliment seafood perfectly!

Enjoy and let me know if you try to make a similar dish! :)

Abiento x

A bit more inspiration

So in my life at the moment, my biggest annoyance is my finger. I pulled out a hang-nail, and now it is infected, swollen and HURTS. Man does it hurt.

However one of my greatest pleasures this weekend was to re-read parts of this lovely cookbook by Sophie Dahl.

image source

One our projects for this week involved finding a passage from one of our favourite books. As my collection of books has been in storage for a couple of years, I have a very limited supply of books that have been bought or given as gifts in that time. One of these is a much lusted after recipe book, full of Sophie's memoirs of her relationship with food.

I can honestly say that it touches me. I received it at Christmas last year, and spent the whole day lying in bed reading it. It was perfect, heart warming and inspires me to eat better, cook better and live better.

Have you read it? Or found a recipe book just as inspiring? Now on my wish list is her follow-up book... :)

Abiento x