Cheat's Spaghetti

I am trying to eat a more Paleo diet (like a caveman!)
For me, that means no rice, pasta, processed foods, cakes biscuits etc.
Remember - I did say TRYING !   :-)

So, instead of a big bowl of steaming pasta, I served my Bolognese with cabbage.
Yes - cabbage!  Honestly, it's better than it sounds.
In fact, no-one even missed the pasta.

Finely shred your cabbage and lightly boil, or steam.
(Don't over do it - you still want it to have some bite)

When only chocolate will do

It was my Wedding Anniversary last weekend.   29 years.
I looked it up. The appropriate gift is new furniture!!
I waited and waited, but no new sofa or chest of drawers arrived   ;-)
So, I consolled myself with caramel and chocolate :-)

Millionaire's Chocolate Tart.

This is a ridiculously, easy to make tart and, despite all that chocolate and caramel, it's suprisingly light.

I didn't bother adding the vanilla to the pastry, and just used a sheet of ready rolled shortcrust.
You can see from the picture above, that my chocolate layer is a little thin, that's because I used the whole tin of caramel, and my dish wouldn't fit all the chocolate mix in.
It didn't spoil the taste, but next time I won't be quite so generous with that caramel :-)
You only need 100g of the dark chocolate, so you can afford to choose a good quality bar. I used Lindt Sea Salt, and will defintely try this again with some of their other flavours.

Mango and Radish Salad with Lime Dresssing

Here's another vibrant and tasty salad, perfect for a warm summer's day.

1 ripe mango, peeled and sliced
1/2 cucumber deseeded and sliced
about 8 radishes, halved
4 spring onions, finely sliced

Juice and zest from 1 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey

I had some blueberries that needed eating, so I threw those in as well  :-)
We had this with roast chicken breast, and it was delish.

Lamb chops with lime, cherry glaze

Here's a recipe that divided opinion. To me it was delicious, but my dh thought it was a tad heavy on the lime.
I will definitely make it again, with less lime juice.

The recipe came from a Rosemary Conley Magazine.
Serves 4

8 lamb cutlets
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp black cherry jam
1 tsp preserved giner
zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tsps chopped mint

Season the cutlets and brown them on both sides in a griddle pan.
Remove from the pan and keep warm in a low oven.
In a small pan, add the garlic, ginger, lime zest and juice and heat through.
Add a little boiling water if required. Add the mint.

Serve the lamb cutlets on a bed of buttery mash with the sauce spooned over.

Scandi Meatballs

Not a great picture this I'm afraid.
I think the food was steaming up my camera!

This is definitely one of those recipes for when you need a meal on the table, but you can't really be bothered with cooking.
It's a simple thing to throw together, using a can of mushrrom soup as a base for the sauce.
For more flavour I added some sliced mushrooms and a drop of Worcester sauce to the pan, with the onions and garlic.

Scandi Meatballs

Caramel Swirl Chocolate Brownies

Who can resist a rich, gooey, chocolate brownie?    Not me   ;-)
And here's a recipe that uses my favourite sweet treat - Carnation Caramel.

Find the recipe here at Nestle Carnation

Try and use a good, quality dark chocolate for these, it will make all the difference.
To serve the brownies, I cut them into squeres, put each square into a pretty cupcake liner and sprinkled them with icing sugar.