Breakfast Granola | Recipe

Hello,
It's exam season at the moment, which means everyone I know and I are completely snowed under with revision. There aren't many things more depressing than cutting a lovely pub trip short because you know you've got to be up at 7 if you have any hope of getting a space in the library!

So because of this I've become a little bit obsessed with breakfast recently. It started with an unnatural addiction to cereal and then quickly progressed into a need to make my own granola. I looked up loads of recipes online but loads included honey (yuck), weird nectar substances or a thousand different types of nuts.

 I decided this was all too much. I made up my own granola recipe and it was so delicious that I've since worked my way through two big batches of it. Thought I'd share the recipe because it was just too good to keep to myself.

So first, I put 125g of butter and 100g of brown sugar in a pan. I melted them together until I had a nice caramel-y syrup.
Then I took that off the heat and stirred in about 250g of porridge oats, give or take a few handfuls
Once all the porridge oats were coated in the syrup mixture I added a few decent handfuls of raisins. You can add as many or few as you liked but I added quite a lot because I love them!
I also stirred in a few mixed, dried fruits and nuts. I bought them in a pack that said "breakfast mix" on it but really you can add whatever you like (I bet dried apricots would be really nice!)
Then I smushed all the porridge mix into a oven dish, I pressed it down quite hard so that the oats would bind together.
I put the dish in the oven at 200 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, every 5 minutes or so I stirred the mix around in the dish so that the oats at the bottom would get the same amount of bake as the ones at the top.
And there you go, wait for it to cool, pour some milk over and enjoy!

Cup of tea is mandatory.

This granola is so, so delicious! It fills you up for the whole morning because of the porridge oats and the dried fruit makes it super tasty. As well as this I think it's really cheap, much cheaper than buying boxed granola. I really don't think this cost me more than £3 to make and it lasted ages.

Give it a go, tell me if you like it. Or do you have a different recipe? Let me know and I can add it to my cereal obsession!
See you soon, Maisie x

Really cheap, really easy, really delicious!

Heyyyya,

Got a candle in the background - am I fashion blogger yet?

No the title isn't referring to whatever you think it is...just wanted to write a super quick post about a lovely dinner I made myself the other day. I'm definitely no Delia but I am a student who lives in a very cold house so I like food to be easy and warm and most importantly CHEEEAP

So it doesn't look like much but this dinner was delicious!

Firstly I chopped up a big potato in little chunks. Then I chucked them into a pan of boiling water with some frozen sweetcorn and boiled them until they were cooked all the way through. Then when they were done I put them in a frying pan with olive oil, paprika, mild chilli powder, mixed herbs, piri piri oil and fried until the potatoes were a bit crunchier.

After that I tipped a tin of tuna in and fried that all up a bit more and there you go!

Might not look that pretty but tastes nom nom nom

This meal literally took me about 15 minutes to cook and it was lovely and filling! Basically like a big chopped up baked potato but even better! The photos aren't that flattering but trust me it was delicious!

Have fuuuun

Thrifty Butternut | Recipe

Hellllo,

Normally when I go food shopping I'm really good! I am an obsessive list writer so writing a shopping list and sticking it suits me down to the bone! However, about a week ago I went to Asda and was ambushed by a butternut squash. I'm not sure what came over me, I had never cooked one before, I didn't know what to do with it and it sat sadly in my cupboard for a week. (This is literally as exciting as my life gets...sorry)

Anyway, today I decided enough was enough and I cooked the damn thing! I roasted half of it and made the other half in to curry and they're both absolutely delicious and considering the squash only cost me 95p it's a pretty cheap week's worth of dinners.

Here's my recipe for roast butternut squash:

First thing first, chop the bloody thing in half! This was really difficult for someone with no upper body strength (e.g me) so use a big knife! Scoop out all the seeds and keep them

Chop your squash into decent sized chunks and then lay them in a dish. Try to only lay them in one layer so that they all cook the same.

In a little bowl mix together some chilli flakes, cinnamon, mixed herbs, salt and pepper. If you've got a pestle and mortar now's the time to use it. I didn't have one so I used the back of a big spoon to smash them a little bit

Add some olive oil to form a herby paste. I also added a squeeze or tomato puree and some garlic puree (if you can't get hold of puree then it might be nice to put some whole garlic cloves in so that they roast with the butternut squash)

Smear this paste all over your squash making sure every chunk has some on it. Also, sprinkle some of the seeds you scooped out earlier over the top. 

Wrap the squash tightly in tin foil and bake at 180 until the skin becomes soft (this took about 40 minutes for me because my oven is rubbish but it could take as little as 20 mins). Once it's soft take the tin foil off and bake for another 10 mins.

There you go then! It's a little bit spicey so if you're not a fan of the heat you might want to use less chilli. I'm going to have mine for dinner tonight with some noodles and a bit of soy sauce! I also made a curry out of the squash but I haven't tried it yet. If it's nice I'll stick the recipe up here

Let me know if you make this yourself...let me know if you like it! 

Easy Peasy Cheesy Pasta | Recipe

Today, I had 5 pints of milk in my fridge which needed using up so I decided to make some pasta with a cheesy, tuna-y sauce.

Boil about 3 handfuls of pasta in seasoned water. Make sure to use enough water and stir so it doesn't stick to the pan. 

Heat about 1/2 pint of milk in a pan with a heaped teaspoon of plain flour. When that's heated add 2 handfuls of grated cheese (I used mature Cheddar but the flavour was a little overpowering so it might be better to use a Medium Cheddar instead). Heat until all the cheese is melted and the sauce is thick. 

Pile up the pasta and the sauce into an oven proof dish, stir in some tuna and then grate a load more cheese on top!

Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes to melt the cheese and get the top layer of pasta a bit crispy...

Enjooooooy!!!