dikitchen

To be perfectly honest, I love a tasty sandwich as part of my picnic basket! But sometimes a special picnic calls for something a little bit different. Our favourite portable picnic recipes: That’s my top 11 picnic food ideas! I Also need to do a special callout to some of my other picnic food ideas that didn’t quite make the top 11: Salted Caramel Millionaires ShortbreadChicken Chorizo Puff Pastry RollsPortable Apple CrumblesTear and Share Sausage RollsPigs in a Blanket RecipeChewy Amaretti CookiesAsian Chicken Lettuce Wraps...

Updated for 2019 with some of my favourite Chinese-inspired recipes! We may not take part in a lot of the traditional Chinese New Year activities such as lighting firecrackers and red paper decorations, but we do love to make our own homemade Chinese banquet. I love Chinese take-out as much as anyone, but it’s so easy to make some great Chinese dishes that are quicker, healthier and tastier. Here are some of the favourites I make at home: Orange Chicken: My copycat recipe of that Panda Express favourite - ready in 20 minutes!...

This homemade soup is the epitome of comfort. Usually I associate comfort food with recipes that are rich & creamy or sweet & gooey, but this soup hits the spot just as it is. I’ve been eating this soup since I was a kid. It My mum also makes a turkey version (a huge batch!) from the leftover turkey at Christmas. I remember coming home from nightclubs rather worse for wear in my late teens (the drinking age is 18 in the UK) and my mum heating up a bowl for me so I didn’t burn the house down whilst trying to heat it up myself!...

I think a good quality joint of lamb has got to be one of the most flavourful meats going. The natural fat in a lamb joint ensures the meat is juicy and succulent, and it’s actually a particular fatty acid in lamb fat that gives it its distinctive rich and slightly gamey flavour. According to Cook’s Illustrated “Meat Book” cookbook (note: this is an affiliate link. Also it’s one of my favourite books to understand everything you need to know about meat), grass-fed lamb is best - because a diet of this type (rather than grain-fed) results in a higher concentration of branched chain fatty-acids - which leads to a more flavourful and sweeter-tasting meat....

Just look at that soft and flaky fall-apart fish. Who needs a plate? I could just eat this straight off the baking tray!! Glazed with a salty, sticky chilli sauce it goes perfectly with some fluffy white rice or even some vegetable ribbons, like the ones I serve with my Thai fish cakes. I’ve got a bit of a thing for sticky glazes lately. I swear that if I came back in another life as an insect, i’d be one of those annoying wasps that hangs around the sticky puddle of ice cream on the floor....

I’m one of those people who panics if I don’t know where my next source of food is coming from. If we’re going out for the day, I like to research nearby restaurants and cafes. If we’re going on a long drive, I’ll pack snacks, and also check out en-route eateries. Even going for a hike involves checking if there’s a tearoom at the end. If there isn’t, then I’ll rustle up a quick picnic....

I’m on the meatballs again! We’ve had regular meatballs, one-pan spaghetti and meatballs, mozzarella stuffed meatballs, hidden veg meatballs , Smoky Meatballs, Chinese Curry Meatballs and even Halloween Meatballs. I haven’t even started on Swedish meatballs, Sticky Asian meatballs, BBQ’d meatballs or curried meatballs yet!. Okay, writing the word meatballs twelve times in the first few lines of a post is pretty ridiculous. I’ll stop now. So I made these, erm…....

Are you having a party this Christmas? Unfortunately we won’t be, as we haven’t quite finished our kitchen yet. The oven and hobs are being connected today, but we’ve still got a little way to go in terms of finishing work surfaces, building a dining table (Chris is making the dining table!) and getting other bits of furniture. So we’ll be travelling around to various relatives in the hope of being fed and watered....

Even for a carb-loving girl like myself, these parmesan courgette (zucchini) fries are a great alternative to toast for dipping into those soft-boiled eggs. I’m pretty atrocious at dieting, but for the past 9 days, I have been following what Chris calls ’the ridiculous diet’. It was really an attempt at losing a few pounds in a way that stopped me getting bored (I generally never last more than 3....

It’s one of those meals that has everyone at the table silent, except for the sounds of chomping and lip-licking. I’ve learned that I need to portion these out onto plates, rather than putting a platter in the middle of the table, otherwise arguments occur. Yes, there might be the right amount of tacos on the serving platter for the number of people eating, but if ONE piece of fish drops out of a taco, things can get physical!...

I can’t deny it, stuffing pasta shells is a bit of a messy job, but it’s so worth it for this garlicky spinach and cheese combo. I like to tell the kids that I’ve magically made regular pasta shells bigger with a little help from my wooden spoon wand. I’m pretty sure they don’t believe me, but it is fun when the kids think you have a few superpowers. My mum used to hide sweet around the house and then say a ‘magic word’ that would make them appear....

I’m going to start by letting you know that this isn’t a slimming world recipe! I am still on the post-Summer diet, but I made these lovely flatbreads during the summer - when I was allowed to gorge on bread and creamy things. This is one of the recipes that I created for my friend Lucy’s blog - Craftberry Bush. She kindly let’s me repost them to my blog to I can make sure you don’t miss out!...

For the first time ever, I spotted saganaki cheese in the supermarket! Yay! One of my very early memories from when Chris and I were first going out, was our trip to Rhodes in Greece. We hired a little suzuki jimny and drove around the island, taking in the sights. I remember seeing an old lady tending to her tomato plants, then plucking a few of the large juicy tomatoes out of her bucket and squeezing the juice into her mouth for a bit of refreshment on a sweltering day....

Sprouts coated with parmesan, then baked and topped with crispy bacon! Erm yes, I’ll have the whole tray please! Serving Suggestions Make your Christmas Dinner a special one with these recipes: The final speedy recipe in my series of four sprout side dishes (check out the others here – 3 cheese sprout gratin , honey balsamic sprouts with almonds and shaved sprout salad with honey mustard dressing). Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you)....

Coffee and Walnut Fudge didn’t set? Yeah, me too. So unfortunately I had to turn it into coffee and walnut fudge sauce and pour it over a mountain of chocolate cake balls. Disaster. A HAPPY, GOOEY, CHOCOLATELY, NUTTY DISASTER! Sorry, didn’t meant to shout at you there, but it is a dessert worthy of a bit of shouting. I felt I deserved a couple of these after finally joining the gym (I promised I would)....

Ok, I’m finally admitting to myself that Christmas is coming. So far I’ve buried my head in the sand and made no plans, bought no pressies and given the kids the ‘stare’ if I catch them singing Christmas songs or watching Christmas films (is it mean I make them wait until December for that?). Planning Christmas content for Kitchen Sanctuary and freelance work means we’ve already had the Christmas decorations out a few times in the last couple of months....

Why oh why does sugar rule me so. I want it. Chocolate, bread, cake, more chocolate, maybe some jelly tots and then a little more chocolate. If somebody could invent some kind of virtual reality gadget that could make celery and carrot sticks feel like I was eating chocolate and jelly tots I’d be most grateful. So even though I’ve created these healthier energy balls, I couldn’t resist the addition of a little chocolate!...

Today is the day, my book officially goes on sale. I’m excited, terrified and a little bit giddy. I made a little video to tell you a little more about the book: Why a salad book? Well first off, I love a good salad. It has to be a really good salad though. None of that default salad using just flavourless lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber. That’s the most depressing salad in the world....

Wagamama’s Firecracker Chicken, Have you tried it? Chances are, if you’re outside of the UK or the Boston area then you probably be haven’t. Which is a sad, sad thing, because this meal is soooo good. I’d love to tell you that I managed to steal the secret formula for this recipe SpongeBob style. But I didn’t. This is my closest estimation of the recipe based on: Tasting the original (many times of course!...

Jump to:📋 What do we need? 📺 Watch how to make it 🍽️ What to serve it with 🍲 More fantastic Salad Ideas Crispy Lamb Salad Recipe 💬 Reviews I finally got around to updating this recipe. I first published it on the blog 7 years ago (check out the embarrassing old photo at the end of this post), and since then I’ve made it countless times. It’s my most made ‘dinner salad’ - i....