Ingredients:

• 1 tsp groundnut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 2cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed/finely chopped/whatever
• 4 small carrots, halfed lengthwise and finely sliced
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp dried coriander leaves
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 chillies (or just the one if you’re not wanting it too hot) finely sliced
• 75g Greek yoghurt
• 2 large (bonless and skinless) chicken thighs (approx 250g), chopped into small 2cm-ish chunks
• 800ml chicken stock
• 50g (uncooked) basmati rice
• cornflour to thicken (optional)

Start by heating the oil in a medium-large pan, and sweat off the onions for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, carrot and half of the chilli, and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Transfer about 2/3-3/4 of the mixture to a small blender, and with a bit of water added, blend until you get a very smooth paste. Return the paste back to the pan, add all of the spices, and cook for a couple more minutes. Stir in the yoghurt (a small amount at a time, so that it doesn’t split), followed by the chicken and cook slowly until not-quite bubbling, before adding the rice and stock. Cook for ten minutes, or so, until the rice and chicken is cooked. If the sauce is too thin, add a couple of teaspoons of cornflour let down with a small amount of warm water, and stir into the soup.

Serves 4, and if you’re counting, each serving weighs in at a fairly lean 225 calories

• a pack of lardons
• two leeks, sliced into small rings
• an onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 swede, peeled and roughly cubed
• a pack of about six good sized skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• three cloves garlic, sliced
• handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• a bottle of white wine
• couple of handfuls of frozen peas
• couple of cups of chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6-8 dumplings made from packet mix

Brown off the lardons in a hot stock pot, before adding the leeks, onion, garlic and swede. You don’t need extra oil, just let them cook in the tasty bacon fat until they’ve softened up a bit, for about 5 minutes or so. Add the chicken, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, and turmeric, and stir about in the mix before adding in the bottle of white wine and frozen peas. Top up with the chicken stock until it looks like there will be enough liquid for about half an hour’s cooking, and sit the doughy dumplings made from the mix on the top.

Cook for half an hour and when almost done, throw in the chopped parsley and season. This can be served on it’s own in a bowl, or with a generous serving of mashed potatos should make enough for four people.

Chop 3 onions and fry off with a small splosh of olive oil in a large saucepan for 5ish minutes. Add 3 large potatoes, chopped (should be around 780g) and cook, covered for another 5 minutes. Chop the two 85g packs of watercress, and add with a litre of vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and cook until the potatoes are tender, which should take about 15 minutes.

Blend the mixture, while adding 500ml of semi-skimmed milk, a freshly grated nutmeg and some black pepper. Reheat to serve.

Chop a large onion. Chop up two cloves of garlic. Add to a big heated saucepan which has got some oil in it. Add some chopped mushrooms and a thickly sliced green pepper. Fry off for a bit, and add plenty of dried oregano and cayenne pepper, and throw in a can of kidney beans.

While this is cooking off, put around 120g of soya mince in a jug, and rehydrate with boiling water and a generous sprinkle of vegetable buillion powder. Lace with tabasco sauce and worcester sauce, stir and wait a bit until the mince has rehydrated before pouring into the pan. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste.

Put a dollop of marmite in the bottom of the can the tomatoes came in, add about a teaspoon of buillion powder and fill with any remaining boiled water, stir and add the liquid to the pan. Add more cayenne pepper and/or chilli flakes to taste, and cook for around 15-20 minutes until the chili is more sauce than liquid.

For the rice, boil up 250g of American easy cook rice with a splash of oil. Half way through cooking, add a couple of generous handfuls of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

This should make about six portions.

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
smallish chunk of ginger, finely chopped
6-7 medium-sized mushrooms, roughly chopped
can of kidney beans
can of chick peas
can of plum tomatos
1 green pepper, roughly sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tsp of tomato puree
handful of oregano
sprinkle of pepper
generous splash of soy sauce
few drops of tabasco to taste
juice of one lime

In a stock pot or large saucepan, cook the onion in a small amount of oil, until browned. Add the chilli, garlic, ginger, oregano and mushrooms and cook unto the mushrooms have softened. To the mixture add the chopped carrots, green pepper, kidney beans, chick peas, tomato and tomato puree, with the soy sauce and enough tabasco to taste. Season with pepper, and ensure there is enough liquid to cook for 20-25 minutes. About half way through, incorporate the juice of one lime. The chilli is cooked when the carrot has softened and the sauce has thickened. Serve with rice, or cous cous, or whatever you’d normally have a chilli with.

Ingredients
2 eggs per person
2 slices of bread per person
haloumi cheese
sliced ham
splash of milk
tomato ketchup
ground white pepper

For the eggy bread:
Beat the eggs with the milk, and add a generous sprinkling of pepper (just like for making scrambled eggs). Soak each side of a piece of bread, and cook on a lightly greased griddle pan turning every now and again until both sides are browned. If making lots then make sure they stay warm, while cooking the others.

For the filling:
Slice up enough haloumi cheese to comfortably fill each sandwich, and cook on the griddle until nicely browned. Add the cooked cheese with a slice of ham to each sandwich, and a smudge of ketchup (or brown sauce) if you’re that way inclined.

Ingredients
1/2 tsp dried, red chilli flakes
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2cm chopped galangal (ginger)
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
2 medium red chillies chopped and deseeded
1 stick of lemongrass, finely chopped
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1ltr chicken stock
2 medium potatoes, diced
2 chicken thighs
200ml coconut cream
1 large sweet potato, diced
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 spring onions, sliced
Juice of lime

Rehydrate chilli flakes in water for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic, galangal, turmeric, red chillies, lemon grass, shallots and oil and fry for about 20 minutes. That’ll make the paste.

To the paste, add the chicken stock and potatoes and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Blend until smooth and add the sweet potato, coconut cream and chicken and cook for another 10 minutes until the sweet potato and chicken is cooked. Then add the fish sauce and lime juice, and top with spring onion to serve.

115g butter
110g brown sugar
3 mashed bananas
115ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
175g wholemeal flour
100g wheat bran
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
handful of chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 190. Mix sugar and butter until ‘creamy’. Add mashed bananas, milk, vanilla, eggs and milk. Combine the flour, bran, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and add that to the mixture. Pour generously into muffin cases (this should make about 14 decent sized muffins) and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

I have eaten some and frozen some. They look like this.

Fry shallots and crushed chillies in a drizzle of oil for a few minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add mushrooms and balsamic vinegar, and cook until mushrooms are done. Stir in sundried tomato paste and chopped tomatos and heat through. Add spinach and cook for a couple more minutes until spinach is soft.

For a thicker sauce, forget the chopped tomatos and reduce the amount of tomato paste.