Quorn Fillet Alfredo

Quite spontaneously today I decided I wanted to cook two new recipes in my slow cooker. Although I frequently use the rice cooker function, I have only used the slow cooker once before.
Both of today's recipes were inspired by Fix it and Forget it recipes, with assistance from a variety of other websites for advice on how to make alfredo sauce (not available in jars here, as it apparently is in the USA).

Quorn fillet alfredo, slightly eaten

 Apologies for the fact that this photo is, once again, terrible and taken after I had started eating. Photography is not my strong point.

Slow-cooker Vegetable Stew

When my mum came to visit we decided to make something in the slow cooker, and she decided it should be stew. So we raided my cupboards, stocked up on a few things and flung a bunch of ingredients into the slow cooker.

A colourful selection of ingredients (not exhaustive)

Exciting New Appliances!

For my most recent birthday a few days ago my mum bought me a gift I hadn't even realised I wanted - a KitchenAid! I'm so excited about trying it, although we have agreed that it wouldn't be sensible to keep it at uni with me, as it's too heavy to carry around and too valuable to leave in the kitchen. So I will be going to visit it until I have a home of my own.

Also coming up: new recipe, which I will call "some vegetables with Quorn pieces and chicken casserole packet mix in a slow cooker for three hours". It hasn't finished cooking yet but I have some work-in-process photos.

Spaghetti with Creamy Spinach Sauce

My first new recipe this term has been a roaring success! I got it from The Vegetarian Student Cookbook, which is one of the best recipe books I own. The recipes are simple without being dull, and there's a really good range. I don't make particularly extensive use of the cocktails section or the breakfast section (I have never in my life woken up with the desire to spend half an hour in the kitchen before getting any food into my stomach) but the main meals and desserts are all great.

Spinach spaghetti - simple and delicious!

New Year's Recipe Resolution

My cooking has been quite sporadic since I got back to uni this year. At the start of term it was going well - my meal planner meant I was cooking something new most days and I managed to get ahead with my freezer stash. That's a good thing since I somehow stopped cooking about half way through the term. It was a combination of work piling up, choir taking over and time feeling more stretched that meant I mostly fell back on pasta and sauce, and whatever I had in the freezer - mostly pasta sauce, oddly.

To Make Your Kitchen Complete

Sorry for the hiatus, I have not  really been cooking a lot lately due to a massive lack of time (thank goodness for my freezer stock! It should see me through to the end of term) but I did do some baking last week for a charity coffee morning, and I really miss having proper mixing bowls for the purpose.

All I have with me, in fact all I own, is a large plastic storage bowl. It does do the job, but it isn't really big enough and the seam at the base collects flour and is hard to clean. It's also very scratched and rough from being used so much.

I miss my mum's Mason Cash bowl! I had a look in Lakeland at the ones they're selling but they're the new ones, flimsy and not the same gorgeous cream colour on the inside.

This bowl is for sale on eBay and I'm resisting buying it because I can't really justify the expense, but I want it so much! There are often bowls on eBay and I look at them closely to see which ones are the nasty new ones (still nice really, but not the same feel to them) and which are the Real McCoy. Then I put them on my eBay watch list and forcibly resist bidding. Sigh. One day, when I am a real grown up person with a real kitchen, I will own a real mixing bowl.

The First Graze Box Arrives

Doesn't it look inviting? I love the packaging!

 I chose Thursday as my delivery day purely because it was the next available day when I ordered, but it is actually a sensible day. It's the day my money comes into my account (from my other account - a sort of self-restricting budgeting system that works surprisingly well) and it's the day before I go shopping, so I'm likely to be running low on food. So I was quite excited this morning when I got back from lectures and looked to see if the post had arrived.