Chestnut, Cranberry & Cashew Broccoli - Bakemas 8

Beetroot & Broccoli Chickpea Crumble - Bakemas Day 4

Its Monday morning, December 4th and it seems I’m all ready for testing Christmas dinner recipes which is what we’re doing here today. I mean this doesn’t have to be a Christmas dinner recipe it can be an any night of the week dinner but I figured I’d get a head start so I have a couple of options.

Broccoli & Chorizo Stir Fry with Grilled Halloumi

If any vegetable could solve all my problems I imagine it would be broccoli...or peas, I do love a good bowls of peas, frozen or fresh, straight out the pod (although I'm usually too lazy for that). That makes it sounds like I like peas more than broccoli which is not true, I'd say they were on an even playing field but we're not actually here to talk about peas. But lack of sleep...broccoli can fix that right? I guess I'll let you know after I've devoured this. I vaguely and I mean vaguely got this idea for this from a sprout dish my mum makes for Christmas, I mean, the only ingredient that's actually the same is onions but it was still the spark. The longer I spent thinking about this the more things I added to it, although it's still pretty simple and has only a few ingredients so when you’re too tired or busy you can just throw it in the pan and have a healthy meal at the end of it which is definitely what I was in need of last week. I guess it’s debatable whether chorizo is healthy but broccoli is a super food so that pretty much doubles itself in health points so it kind of evens itself out. The halloumi was the last edition and only from this meal have I actually reveled in the joy that is grilled halloumi. My mum gave it to me years ago and all I could say was it was squeaky and I did not enjoy the squeakyness. I normally eat it straight out the packet but my love for halloumi has just grown to the point where I just don't care about the squeakyness anymore. Cheese is worth a little squeakyness.

Strawberry, Bacon and Grilled Goats Cheese Salad with Balsamic Vinegar

I'm a big salad lover, a big dressing-less salad lover. I'm not talking a bit of salad on the side of my plate, I mean a full on, all the trimmings, big meaty salad (although meat is not compulsory). I just mean I like my salads big, with a lot of spinach and literally any vegetable that's in the house. I'm trying to branch out a little bit this summer and be more selective with what I put in them, well, at least once a week, I think I'll always enjoy adding all the veg in my salad bowl. There's just so many salads to make and not enough summers days to make them in; it's already past summer solstice which honestly baffles me how it starts getting darker and summer has barely started in England. I still think official summer is mid july to the beginning of august because that's when the school holidays are, but I have a feeling that'll most likely be ingrained in my head forever.