Preparing for the week ahead

We had a day outside yesterday, trying some climbing at a new venue though we didn't get much done there. So today we got some chores done. I went into the lab in the morning to run some more samples and check the instrument was behaving itself. I came back and Andrew had cleaned the flat. Then we had cheese and pickles for lunch.

Andrew wanted to make my blog look a bit prettier, so I thought I should make some rock cakes. These are one of Andrew's favourite cakes, so he didn't mind either. As you can see from the picture that he even likes the cake batter! It is one of the joys of making cakes. I think you will agree that blog does look much nicer now, All due to Andrew's hard work!

I also made some savoury muffins for Andrew's lunch. They were sweetcorn, ham and cheese muffins. Andrew is on site at the beginning of the week, so th should make a good lunch.

• 200g self-raising flour
• 50g cheddar, grated
• ham sliced, couldn't say how much about 50g.
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150ml yoghurt
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 198g can sweetcorn, drained

• Heat the oven to 190oC/gas mark 5. Grease a muffin/bun tin.
• Mix flour, ham and cheese in one bowl. Mix the other ingredients in another bowl with 4 tbsp of water.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to combine.
  
• Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for approx. 20 mins until golden.
• Cool on a rack.
  

Tonight's dinner was a Moroccan inspire stew with lemon cous cous. This months beansprouts challenge is to eat one vegetarian meal a week. So this is a nice warming recipe to try.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• Veg ( I used 2 carrot, 1 small swede and 4 smallish potatoes), chopped
• 2tsp ground cumin, 1tsp turmeric and paprika, 1/2 tsp ginger and allspice
• 1 tin of chopped toms
• 150ml of veg stock
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• a handful of apricots
• 2 tsp harissa paste

• Gently fry the onion and garlic until soft. Then add the veg and fry for 5 mins.
• Add the spices and cook for a minute.
• Then add tomatoes, stock, chickpeas and apricots. Cook until veg are soft.
• Just before serving, stir in the harissa paste.
• Serve with cous cous.