Lentil, Butternut Squash and Chard Sauce

I haven't cooked with lentils for a while which is a big shame as they are a) delicious and b) very healthy and full of protein. So I decided to have a rummage through my old recipe books, and adapted this from a random vegetarian recipe book from the mid 1980s which I got second hand from a charity shop ages ago (yeh, I have a bit of an addiction to buying vegetarian recipe books in charity shops). The recipe originally called for carrots but I felt like butternut squash so I used that instead, so you could use carrots in you can't be fussed with the hassle of peeling/cooking squash. Also, if you're wondering where to get chard from, I just used a bag of bistro salad from the supermarket, which contained chard (and beetroot, yum!) but you could use spinach instead. In case you haven't realised, my approach to cooking is basically find a recipe and then modify the hell out of it depending on what ingredients I have at my disposal, haha. I had this with pasta, but I'm having the leftovers with cous cous tonight, as I'm confident that'll work too. You could also tart it up a bit by whacking some goats cheese into it too. Yumm.

Carrot Cake with Maple Syrup Butter Icing

I have to confess I was never a big fan of carrot cake.. until I started using this recipe, which I found in one of my old baking books. The butter icing isn't compulsory but it's amazing; if you can get hold of some maple syrup it really adds a bit of extravagance to the cake. The recipe calls for raisins, which is one of the few foods I strongly dislike, so I omitted them; I've included them in the recipe in case anyone wanting to make this has less strong feelings against them. This was actually a recipe for an average sized cake, but my ongoing obsession with fairy cakes meant I just made them instead!

Spicy Cajun Plait

Definitely one for the weekend this as it does take a few hours to make (although actual time in which you actively need to do anything is much shorter). I made this in my bread maker but its reasonably straightforward to make dough without one so I've included alternative instructions for making it by a hand. We ate this still warm from the oven, dipping it in salsa and sour cream dips, and slathering it with cream cheese. It was awesome.

Lemony Avocado Pasta Sauce

A very quick, very simple, very delicious dinner. Imagine whacking guacamole on a pasta sauce and you've got the right idea. When blended, the avocado is very creamy and it -just- works. I found this recipe a while ago here, and have been meaning to cook it ever since. I modified it for my own ends (cooked the garlic rather than using it raw, and added chilli) but it's a pretty simple recipe so not much modification needed. You don't have to add cheese to this  (e.g. if you are vegan or worried about fat content)  but I love cheese so yeh that was always going to be done when I cooked this to be honest...

Beetroot and Feta Quiche

Quiche tends to take quite a bit of time, but I find it is always worth it. I had an urge to cook with beetroot, since I really like it but don't ever cook with it as have never been sure what to do with it. Anyway, I decided quiche would be a good place to start experimenting with it, and it turned out great. I bought ready cooked beetroot from my local supermarket; make sure you don't get pickled beetroot if you also do this. I'd recommend it as it's far easier than cooking the beetroot yourself. A note: beetroot juice leaves the mother of all stains so be careful when chopping it! I had some shallots from the garden which I used, but you could just use a regular onion. If you have any leftovers, it'll make an awesome lunch cold.

Apricot Fairy Cakes

I've gotten a bit obsessed with fairy cakes recently, so expect to see several recipes in the near future... I modified this recipe from a recipe for peach cake, adjusting the amount of apricot and time baking time to suit cup cakes - you could easily just do this in a normal cake tin if you want (just increase baking time to 45 mins). These were very buttery, with the apricot flavour coming through when biting into the apricot chunks. I thought peeling the apricot skins would be hassle, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was.