Easy Homemade Pizza

Anyone Italian will probably hate this recipe - it's not really a proper pizza, it's just a simple, healthy variation that's tasty and should satisfy any pizza craving you have! It's not as salty or greasy as frozen ,shop-bought, or takeaway ones sometimes are, and doesn't really take that long - as long as you'd wait for a takeaway!

Ingredients for the base (two servings roughly):

• 170g or 6 oz of self-raising flour (something to always have in the cupboard for cake)
• 15g or 1/2 oz butter
• Up to 140 ml or a 1/4 of a pint of milk (whole or semi, doesn't really matter)
• Seasoning and dried herbs.

Recipe:

• Rub the butter into the flour in a medium-large mixing bowl. If you're unsure how to do this, look at the scone recipe here.
• Add a shake of dried herbs, a pinch or two of salt, and some black pepper, and stir it all together.
• Now start adding the milk slowly and stir it until it makes the dough. If it's too sticky add more flour and if it's too dry keep adding milk. You might need to knead it as well. 
• Now flour a baking tray and roll out the dough so that it fits. It should be about 5-10mm thick.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, and start thinking about the top of the pizza.

This is more down to personal preference. I like to put a squeeze of tomato ketchup on the top and spread it out so that it doesn't quite reach the edges as my base. You could also use tomato purée here, but I find that a little strong. I do sometimes mix ketchup and purée though. 

For my toppings, I like to fry 1 rasher of bacon cut up into pieces, a red pepper, and 4 mushrooms in a little olive oil. Start by frying the bacon and pepper over a medium heat for about 4 minutes, then add the mushrooms and continue frying until the bacon is done, and the pepper fairly soft.

Slice raw tomato and lay them on the pizza base, scatter the fried things on top and add lumps of mozzarella and grated cheddar or parmesan on top. Add some fresh basil leaves and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes - until the cheese is molten and slightly browning on top. 

Pre-cooking

Serve with some green leaves and salad dressing. Last year, I ended up buying a bottle of balsamic vinegar (not very expensive) and mixing my own dressing because it was cheaper. I always had olive oil for cooking anyway, so balsamic and olive oil was a tasty (and healthier) alternative. 

The protein in this meal comes from the bacon and cheese, and carbs from the base. This probably goes under the comfort food category, but is still healthy! If you buy one bag of salad, and eat half the pizza each day, you don't have any waste. Add some carrot, celery and any other fresh salad you can buy seasonally and cheaply for a balanced meal.

Those colours though

Tune of the day: Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit - The Box

Tip of the day: Plan your meals for a week and make a shopping list based on that, at least for a while anyway until you get to grips with the sort of things you need, and what you like and what you use up. Also try and overlap ingredients - so if you make something which uses half a pepper, use another recipe which uses half a pepper later in the week, such as a risotto, or the Moroccan Cous Cous in half quantities. 

---K

Potato Salad

This is a great salad to make if you've got lots of leftovers in the fridge and want something exciting to do with them.

It's best to do a large batch of the potato and apple and red onion and sauce (the base ingredients) and then have it repeatedly with different sources of protein and flavour added to it. Some options include cubed feta cheese (as I've done), smoked mackerel (Sainsburys does a cheap vacuum packed version that lasts longer in the fridge, 4 fillets for £2.42), or small pieces of bacon (better to buy large rashers and then cut up yourself as they are more cost effective and less fatty than lardons).

Potatoes in any form (even chips if they're oven baked) are a great source of long lasting energy, so even though this is just a salad, it'll keep you going long until your next meal.

This salad can be served hot or cold. As it's very hot at the moment I made the salad in the morning, wacked it in the fridge to cool and then ate it as a late lunch in the afternoon. Alternatively, if you eat it straight away and make sure all the cooked ingredients are kept warm, this can be just as appetising on colder days as a healthy winter warmer.

If my Mum makes this salad, she tends to plan her added ingredients by colour variation to make it more aesthetically pleasing, where as I just tend to bung in whatever ingredients I can find in the fridge. It's up to you, but obviously it would involve more planning ahead if you follow my Mum's technique.


Ingredients (makes 4 servings)

BASE 
4 medium/large potatoes
1 red onion (or a handful of spring onions)
2 apples
2-3 tbsp of greek/plain yoghurt
2-3 tbsp of mayonnaise
Seasonings

OPTIONAL EXTRAS
1/2 block of feta or 3 rashers of bacon or 1 fillet of smoked mackerel
A handful of radishes
A handful of gherkins
2-3 sticks of celery

Recipe

• Bring a saucepan of water up to boil and wash and chop up the potatoes into largeish chunks (no need to peel as makes potato shapeless and mushy when mixed).

• Steam the potato chunks on top of the boiled water (make sure you put the lid on) and turn the hob down to a medium heat.
• Leave for 20-30 minutes but keep checking them by sticking a knife through the chunks (they should be soft but still holding their structure well).
• Whilst that steams away, start prepping all your other ingredients.
• Obviously the size that you choose to chop up your fruit and veg to is your choice, but I would advise cutting up the red onion the most finely as it can be quite pungent in too large a dose.

• Once the potatoes are done, add in all your ingredients but leave your sauce til last. Use equal amounts of the mayonnaise and yoghurt and make sure that all ingredients are completely covered for optimum deliciousness. 
• If you want, keep back your source of protein til last as well and sprinkle on top to add to the finished presentation (doesn't matter if you don't though as long as it tastes good!)
• Don't forget to add black pepper and/or seasonings of your choice.
• Enjoy this salad and the hot weather!

Complimentary tune: Today Was A Good Day - Ice Cube or to rephrase, today would be a much better day with more ice cubes.

Tip of the day: Red onion is a much greater ingredient when raw and is therefore a great addition to most salads (buy them small sized). If you want to cook with onions use white ones, as they are cheaper and much more enjoyable when cooked.

---C

Macaroni Cheese

Macaroni cheese is one of those delicious homely meals that I love to eat, and so of course I make it at Uni. It's so easy to add goodness and extra flavour to every meal by adding as many vegetables as possible, so I always do, even to my version of macaroni cheese. Here, I've used bacon to add extra protein, but if you're vegetarian, the cheese content should provide enough, along with the protein in the wholegrain pasta, and vegetables. 

You may also be thinking that the thick creamy sauce can't possibly be healthy and must be full of fat, but there you'd be wrong. The thickness is provided by the reaction between the little bit of fat and the gluten in the flour. However, there is still fat in this meal, but you need fat in your diet, and if you bulk it up with lots of vegetables, you don't end up eating a lot!

This recipe serves four, but what I do is make it one day, put it in the fridge and cut off portions to heat up in the microwave (making sure it's piping hot all the way through) each day. Alternatively, wait until it's cooled down, and cut it up into portions to freeze. I always do this when it comes to exams so that I don't have to think about food when I'm stressed out revising; I can just whip a portion out of the freezer, bung it in the microwave for a few minutes and eat a tasty, healthy meal.

In terms of cost, vegetables are cheap and so nutritious, especially if they're in season, and the basic ingredients of flour and butter keep for a long time so are cheap if a little is used at a time, as in this recipe. Bacon is perhaps more expensive, but if you're particularly budgeting - use onion to add flavour instead (I explain how later).

Ingredients

• 2 rashers of bacon
• 1 red pepper
• 4-5 mushrooms
• 1 courgette, or 2 small courgettes
• 2 large tomatoes or 5 cherry tomatoes
• 1oz or 25g of butter plus a little extra for frying
• 1oz or 25g of plain flour
• 1/2 pint or 280ml of chicken (or vegetable) stock (just dissolve half a stock cube in boiling water)
• 1/2 pint or 280ml of semi-skimmed milk
• 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard (I always have a pot of this in the fridge, but it might be worth sharing with other people because it goes quite slowly!)
• Juice of half a lemon (or lemon juice to taste from a bottle)
• 3oz or 80g of cheddar or another mild-strong cheese. This is also a matter of taste. By all means add more or less as you please! The lemon juice helps to bring out the flavour.
• 5-6oz or 140-165g of wholegrain pasta
• Any vegetables you have lying around - I add carrots, peas, celery (which adds lots of flavour), sweet potato and parsnip.
• Fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper

The courgettes in this picture are from my parents' garden so they're small and one is yellow. Normally I just buy them from the supermarket! So are the peas, but again, normally I use frozen ones. Also, we had no wholegrain pasta in the house, so this is standard pasta.

Recipe

• Start off by cutting the pepper into chunks, and slicing the courgette, mushrooms and tomatoes. 

Tomatoes, courgettes, mushrooms and pepper

• Melt a knob of butter in a large pan and add the pepper, bacon and courgette. Fry them on a medium heat until the bacon is done and the pepper is soft, or for about 7 minutes. Put a pan of water on for the pasta and add a little salt.
• Add the mushrooms and tomato and continue frying for another 4 minutes. At this point also add the pasta, and set a timer for it according to the instructions on the packet. If you're adding carrots or celery, I'd recommend boiling them with the pasta at the same time, except for peas which you need to add with two minutes left to go.
• Add the butter, wait for it to melt, then add the flour and stir until all the flour has been soaked up. At this point it looks a bit weird, but bear with me! 

I had to scale quantities up to make it for my family, but the principle is the same.

• Once the flour has gone, add the stock and milk and continue stirring until it thickens. 
• Add the cheese, mustard, lemon juice and a few twists of black pepper. If you have fresh parsley cut this up and add it too. It doesn't matter if you don't though.
• Now taste, and season if it needs it. 
• Add the pasta and boiled vegetables and stir together until it's all coated.
• You can leave it at this point and freeze it/take portions of it as described at the beginning.
• OR you can scatter breadcrumbs and more grated cheese on the top and bake it in a large dish at 200 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

This is the final thing before it was baked. YUM.

If you're vegetarian and don't want to include bacon, you can add onion at the same stage as the bacon. You might need to alter the seasoning accordingly, by adding a bit more salt.

If you want to add a harder vegetable like sweet potato, it will need to be cut into small chunks and fried with the bacon and pepper, or boiled for twenty minutes. Alter the veg with what you have in stock, be flexible with the seasons and offers.

Complimentary Tune: Base Like Home - Lily Allen, because there's nothing like home comforts!

Tip of the day: Last year at Uni, I had a basil plant and a parsley plant in the kitchen. They're not too expensive and carry on providing fresh herbs if you keep watering them! Definitely worth it because they add so much flavour to any dish!

---K