Ratatouille-Style Mince

I'm in the thick of exams still and realised yesterday that I've barely seen a vegetable this week, except at church supper on Sunday night. So I decided to use up the remaining third of a courgette and the aubergine which have been languishing in Lakeland Stayfresh Bags (which are seriously brilliant, I think I bought this veg two weeks ago at least and it's still totally fine, it looks no more than two days old). I chopped them up, and threw them into my slow cooker with a bag of meatfree mince and a carton of creamed tomatoes.

Once it's cooked, I'll eat it with a serving of easy cheesy lentils to get plenty of protein in. I'm planning a run later this evening, so lots of veg and protein is the order of the day.

One of the fellows at my college tells us every exam season "don't eat beige meals". It's a simple rule of thumb, but an excellent one. I fear my diet has indeed been rather beige this week, but things will change the day after tomorrow when I'm finally free! I'm envisaging a mountain of spinach, I've been hankering for spinach all week.

Delicious Stew

Using another of my beloved packet mixes and my wonderful slow cooker, I made a delicious stew today. A leek, some frozen broccoli, half of the largest onion I have ever bought, two Quorn fillets and some random pieces of Quorn, all thrown into the cooker with a packet of chicken casserole mix (once again meat-free, although I had to check carefully) and cooked for seven hours. It was amazing to come into my room and have a hot, tasty meal ready for me - especially since for some reason I am feeling very wobbly this week. I haven't fainted at all but I keep becoming light headed. Coincidentally I've got a health check up next week so if I haven't wobbled all the way over by that point I'll bring it up.

Slow-Cooker Curry Experiment

The end result was bright orange and delicious

Because of my mission to empty and defrost the freezer, I haven't been cooking and freezing anything lately. Meals have been whatever I can get together quickly; risotto a couple of nights, sausages and salad in burger buns on others, until I have reached the point where my freezer now contains three almost-finished Quorn packets of various types, some broccoli, some bread and the last two pieces of spinach quiche. The trouble is that with term in full swing once more and my new schedule involving very early mornings but not much earlier nights, I'm not managing to cook dinner before I fall asleep. Last night I found myself eating a Graze box as my evening meal, after a lunch of salad leaves between mayonnaise-smeared bread, and I decided it was time to get sorted.

Slow-cooker Spinach Quiche

The second recipe I decided to make this weekend was spinach quiche, again inspired by Fix it and Forget it. It took two days to make, although the actual preparation time was more like two hours at the most. I made the filling yesterday and left it to cool overnight, and then added the eggs while the pastry was baking blind before putting the whole lot together.

I love the different colours from the soup and the cheese

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)