BLT - Scott and Beth Style

You cant beat a good old BLT. For those of you who don't know what a BLT is (I say this as my Grandad didn't have the faintest idea), a BLT is one of the world's yummiest sandwich consisting of Bacon, lettuce and tomato's. I like to have my with freshly cooked warm bacon but it can be served hot or cold. Scott and I do not tend to eat sandwich's for lunch very often, we usually prefer picking at random things in the fridge and making an odd combination of left overs and yummy things, but today we fancied a sandwich, and this one in particular. Another favourite of ours in Brie and cranberry, it's just so yummy!!!But like i said, today was BLT day so this was how we did it-

Ingredients:

French baguette, cheesy bread, whatever floats your boat.

2-3 pieces of bacon per person (we like smoked bacon)

1 large or two small tomato's per person

lettuce of your choice - We had baby leaf but something crunchy like baby gem would work well too.

butter

optional - tomato chutney

method:

Not that I really need to explain how to make a sandwich, it's more of a food inspiration for lunch times, but for those with very basic food knowledge (and you have to start somewhere, actually we were taught how to make a sandwich in cookery class at school one year, so it's not so silly!?)

cut open your bread and butter both sides. If you are using chutney you can spread that on now before the sandwich gets full of the other fillings.

Fry your bacon. I usually cut the rind off before cooking as Scott hates the fat, and I'm not a big fan either unless it's frazzled towards an inch of it''s life. Once the bacon is cooked, add it to the bread straight away, this will gently heat the bread and melt the butter which is extra yummy. Chop your tomato thinly and layer on the side of bread that doesn't have the bacon. now layer on the lettuce and 'sanwhich' it all together. We had to use cocktail sticks as we had overfilled (in a good way) our sandwiches and they were collapsing and leaking filling onto our laps :)

 And that's it! A very simple yet extra tasty option for lunch :)

Jazz up lunchtimes!

I love Hummus. I particuarly like Tesco's caramalised onion hummus, and went through a phase in Sixth form of eating a pot everyday with some cucumber and a stick of bread. Now I have it a lot less frequently as back in the day, but I have no started to try and make my own as a bit of an experimet. I waswatching river Cottage the other night and theres was an old version where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was talking about how we should try to experiment more with our lunches instead of opting for the standard sandwhich! I totally agree with this and have always enjoyed a selction of odd and deliciosu good opposed to a sanwhich (Not that I don;t like sandwchiches, I do, they can just sometimes be a bit monotanous) .

Making your own hummus is dead easy and you can jazz it up by adding caramlised onions, roasted peppers, lemon, chives, you name it!

Recipe from River Cottage

 Ingredient's :  

1 400g tin chickpeas

2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp tahini (i get mine form Morrisons)

70ml extra virgin olive oil

1tsp ceyene pepper

salt & pepper

In a bowl mix all the ingredients together except the seasoning then blitz to a puree in a food processor. Tip back into the mixing bowl, stir well and season. Spoon into a suitable hummus receptacle and serve with a good shot of extra virgin and an extra sprinkling of cayenne pepper.

Hummus can also be frozen so if you make too much you can always save it for another day :)

Caprese Salad

I've always been a lover of Italian food, and there's nothing that sums it up for me more than tomato, mozzarella and basil. This dish is THE simplest thing to make, but it's so delicious. Scott and I have been having it a lot recently ( a new food obsession) for dinner and as a starter for our main meals. 

 Ingredients;

1 Ball of buffalo Mozzarella

3-4 ripe room temperature tomato's

1 handful basil leaves

Extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

Cut your tomato's and mozzarella into thin slices, and lay them across a serving plate. Tear off some basil leaves and scatter over the top of the plate. Drizzle the salad with some good quality extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, an that is it! No fuss, but delicious and quick to make.

Enjoy :)

Watercress soup and ploughmans lunch

This recipe is my Grandma's and I've been eating it for years! It so easy to make, and pretty cheap to make too! It tastes creamy but doesn't actually have any cream in, so it makes me feel a little healthier which is always nice...

Scott and I had this soup for lunch today, with a sort of ploughman's platter. We are little piggy's I know, but we both both try to make all meal times special and enjoy creating new and old concoctions for breakfast, lunch and tea (and the naughty snacks in between).

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 potato

butter 1oz

1 packet of watercress, (roughly a handful and a half)

milk 1/2 pint

vegetable or chicken stock 1/2 pint

salt& pepper

Optional - Cream to drizzle on top.

Chop the onion and potato. Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the onion until transparent. Add your potato and watercress, milk and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce your heat, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blend in small batches in a blender/liquidiser. Return to the pan and season to taste.

To serve: You could add a drizzle of cream, but to be honest, it's already delicious and creamy enough.

I don't think I really need to explain this one, but the basics are that a ploughman's is a yummy lunch time dish with fresh bread and butter, a selection of cheeses and chutneys, with a little salad. I added some salami and ham because I was being greedy in Morrison's and couldn't resist them. Just cut everything into your desired sizes and display them prettily on a plate, and that's it!We had herby onion ciabatta, and a poppy seed roll which was really and fresh.

I don't usually round the corners of my pictures, but I thought I'd give it a go to see how they looked. What do you think?

Here were just a few cheeses that I picked up on the way home from college. The Brie was lovely, very mild which is how I like it, and the red Leicester was good too. I wasn't keen one the Green waxy one though, as the texture was a bit fatty, and the herby onion flavour wasn't very strong, so it just tasted a bit like plain cheddar. The snowdonia Cheese version however is amazing, but just a little out of my price limit for a Wednesday lunchtime!  But overall, a lovely lunch :)