Quarantine Date Night

Once a month me and my Boyfriend always like to treat ourselves and enjoy a proper meal out, but we were obviously unable to do this during April. We decided to take on the all roles of chefs, waiters and customers all together and enjoy each others company over a face-time date.

During the week we both flicked through the student NOSH book 1, which we both have and decided on a main and dessert that we would both enjoy cooking and eating. Oven Baked Risotto was the first course choice and Fruit Fool for dessert.

The NOSH student cook books are perfect and where i get a huge amount of my recipes from because the ingredients they use are all normal (things everyone has in their cupboards with no obscure ingredients) as well as affordable. each recipe comes with a picture and no more than 7 steps of instructions, meaning they keep it nice and simple. Here is a link to their website where you can browse what book would be best for you, (they have a good choice including gluten free and vegetarian only). https://noshbooks.com/category/our-books/.

Oven Baked Risotto-

This is a healthy dish that provides you with a balanced plate, leaving you feelings really good after eating it. it is quick and stress free to cook, overall taking 35 minutes, meaning you can enjoy it after a long day of working or straight after training. The recipe made 2 large portions so i had one for dinner and split the second into 2 smaller portions to have for lunch the next day.

INGREDIENTS:

low cal cooking spray

1 red onion, chopped

6 rashes on bacon, cut roughly into 2cm squares

1 mug of basmati rice

4 pieces of spinach

2 mugs of water

1 teaspoon of chicken gravy granules OR chicken stock cube

1 teaspoon dried basil

12 cherry tomatoes, halves

1/2 mug Parmesan cheese OR vegetarian hard cheese

pepper

STEP BY STEP-

1) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan/ gas 7

2) Spray a casserole (ideally 20cm x 20cm) with the low cal spray

3) Spray low cal spray on a frying pan and add the onion and the bacon. fry until bacon begins to brown.

4)add the rice and pepper.

5) Add the spinach, water, gravy granules, basil and tomatoes. stir together and bring to the boil. (until it is bubbling)

6) Pour into the casserole dish and cover with the lid or foil. cook in the oven for 20 minutes

7) Take out of the oven and stir in most of the Parmesan cheese, leaving some for the top.

Fruit Fool-

we made this dessert on face-time during the day, it is a good dessert to make when you are free in the day but want something sweet after dinner in your busy evenings when you might get back from training late or you have been studying for a long time it is a nice reward at the end. Fruit fool was quick and easy to make and even better that it didn't require any baking, as this is often where things can go wrong for me. the ingredients are cheap and if you don't use the whole packet they can be used throughout the week, for example the frozen fruit can be put into a smoothie. The recipe makes 2, they keep in the fridge for up to 4 days so you can leave the other one for when you want a sweet treat later on in the week.

INGREDIENTS-

250g of mascarpone cheese OR any soft cheese

1/3 mug of double cream, whipped

3 table spoons of icing sugar

1/2 lemon, zest and juice

100g of frozen summer fruits, defrosted

1 small white chocolate bar, grated

STEP BY STEP-

1)With an electric or manual whisk, mix together the cheese and whipped double cream and sugar. add the lemon zest and juice and mix well.

2)Add the fruits, leaving some for decoration. Stir them in with a spatula trying not to break or crush them too much.

3)Spoon into individual dishes and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

4) Put the grated chocolate on top and remaining fruits to serve.

After Making these dishes together and enjoying them at the table it felt almost as good as eating at a restaurant, if not even better because we knew exactly what went into our food and we could feel proud of what we were eating. Hopefully we wont be made to do this next month, but if we do, i won't be complaining as i actually really enjoyed both the experience and the food. oh and the company :)