Chickpea, Carrot and Feta salad

This has become one of my go to lunchs that I have regularly. It's so easy to make, healthy and is extremely light! I like that there is a lot of textures in this salad and isn't to time consuming to make the night before/in the morning

Ingredients

1/2 carrot
handful of green beans
1/2 tin of chickpeas
small red onion
handful of spinach
feta cheese
thyme
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Method

1. Cut the carrots into batons and sauté with a little olive oil, salt & pepper and thyme until they are al dente. Meanwhile, top and tail the green beans and boil in salted water for about 5 minutes so they too, are al dente. When done, leave to cool on the side.

2. Rinse the chickpeas and leave to dry and cut the red onion into crescent shapes (so there is a bit of crunch!)

3. Mix carrots, green beans, chickpeas and red onion with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar before adding the feta cheese and spinach. Taste and add more seasoning and thyme if needed.

Snickers in a Sandwich

My boyfriend and I both work/worked at Carluccio's in Dubai. They have the most amazing array of Italian products that are very high quality and very tasty. A little expensive, but I always find you get what you pay for.

There is a chocolate spread that has over double the content of hazlenuts than Nutella.

One morning when he was off work he sent me this picture of a sandwich - chunky peanut butter on one side, gianduja on the other and said it was one of the most amazing things he's ever tasted. So when I got home, he made one of these sandwiches. He wasn't wrong!!

Ingredients

Bread

Gianduja (or nutella)

Chunky peanut butter

Method

Toast the bread then spread the gianduja and peanut on the toast!

Chocolate and banana muffins

Since coming back from a two week holiday in Thailand, I've felt that I need to start being a little healthier in my choices for meals... I went a little overboard on the beer, rice, curry, spring rolls, drunken McDonalds... the list could go on. Also, because I've changed from a busy active job in the restaurant to an office based job where I sit down nearly all day, I need to start eating less junk and making fresh food everyday.

I gave myself a task of not buying lunch from cafeterias and takeaway outlets while being at work for a whole month... I didn't do too badly - I bought food maybe once a week, but I'm determined to do 100% this month. Not only am I eating fresh healthy food everyday, I am saving that cash to treat my boyfriend to something nice and the end of the month!

A little ironic, I know, that I've made muffins despite preaching about eating healthier. There was some over-ripe bananas that I had been avoiding so instead of punishing my boyfriend to eat 4 over ripe bananas in the space of 24 hours, I made some muffins!

Ingredients

3 very ripe or overripe bananas
125 ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs
100 grams soft light brown sugar
225 grams plain flour
3 tablespoons best-quality cocoa powder (sifted)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and line a 12-bun muffin tin with papers.
2. Mash the bananas. Stir stirring, add the oil followed by the eggs and sugar.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb together and add, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared papers.

4. Bake for 15–20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark, rounded. Remove from the tin after they've cooled for a few minutes!

Mine kept for about 3 days in an airtight box.

I would have made lemon & poppy seed muffins, but the UAE doesn't allow poppy seeds into the country.

Chewy white chocolate cookies

My boyfriend is a huge lover of Ben's Cookies and asked me if I could make some for him before I went on holiday to Thailand. I had used this recipe before when I was back in the UK so I thought I would re-create them here in Dubai.

Ingredients

250 g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

170g unsalted butter, melted

200g dark brown soft sugar

100g caster sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

325g chocolate chips

Method

1. I preheated the oven to 170 C (gas 3) and lined a baking tray with baking paper.
2  I sifted the flour, bicarb and salt all together and put to one side.
3. I creamed together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar for about 5 minutes so it goes velvety and a pale brown colour - the longer you do this, the more caramelly flavour you'll get when the cookies are ready.
4. Next, I added in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk and mixed as light and creamy as possible.
5. Then, I mixed in the sifted ingredients until just blended - no need to fold and you arn't looking to put air in the dough. I just used an electric hand mixer. The dough will be very sticky by now, but don't worry... It's meant to be like that!
6. I stirred in the chocolate chips by hand so they wouldnt end up in one place.
7. I got a table spoon of dough and dropped onto the prepared baking tray. I can get 6 on my baking tray and I have to do in batches because I don't have enough trays! Drop with about 5cm space between each one and the dough spreads out when it's heated.
8. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. I took these out when they were still soft in the middle as the cookie hardens a lot when cooled. I left them to cool for a few minutes before moving because they will break.

Emirati food

So, two of my friends were coming to visit me in Dubai. Line was doing some research about Emirati food before she came and she said we should try this place called 'Local Bites' on Jumeirah Beach Road.

It's a really small place and was very quiet and peaceful. We ordered a selection of bits with some Arabic coffee. I found the food sweet, even though in my mind it should be savoury. I would like to try other Emirati food but something a bit different

Spicy fish with couscous

This was the first dish I made for my boyfriend before we started dating. I wanted something that wasn't too time consuming and a little bit different (so I could impress!). I was looking through Jamie's (not so) 20 minute meals on iPhone app and chose on Spicy cod with lemon courgette couscous.

Due to living in the middle east, cod is either very hard to find or very expensive. So I chose a local fish (but I can't remember the name!) and also, courgettes are very expensive so I've learn to go without them.

You'll need -

2 garlic cloves
1 fresh red chilli
1 teaspoon ground coriander (I don't like fresh coriander)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 red onion
2 white fish (can either be fillets or whole - whatever you like)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
200g couscous
sprinkle of paprika
1 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Method

1. Finely chop the garlic and chilli.

2. Add a little olive oil in a pan on medium heat and wait until hot. Add half the garlic, all the chilli and the ground coriander and toss in the pan until the garlic is golden brown.

3. Add the tinned tomatoes and season. Simmer for 5 minutes.

4. When the sauce is thickening up, chop your the red onion.

5. Add your fish, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. The steam will cook the fish evenly and will be really fresh and juicy.

6. In another pan, heat some olive oil and ass the rest of the garlic, (courgettes if you have) red onion, with cumin and season. Wait until the veg has softened then put to one side.

7. Couscous is really easy to cook. I measured out what I needed, added some of the spices I used earlier -coriander, cumin and I added some paprika along with some lemon juice. Boil the kettle and add just enough to cover the couscous. stir with a fork to loosen the grains and cover with a tea towel or cling film. After 4/5 minutes, add the sautéed veg

8. Check the fish is cooked through. Zest half a lemon, put to one side and cut the lemon in half. Fluff the couscous with a fork and add more lemon juice.

9. Spoon the sauce over the fish and top with lemon zest.

The is a really easy meal to make and doesn't take a lot of time. I really like to make this when I want a light healthy meal with fresh flavours (this is one of my mum's favourites!)

A few from Dubai Mall

This is only a couple of the delights I've eaten / seen since moving to Dubai.

This red velvet cupcake (the first one I've ever tried) is from Magnolia Bakery in Dubai Mall. They have a really pretty display of freshly prepared cupcakes and baked goods and is apart of Bloomingdales. The cream cheese icing wasn't too cheesy and the cupcake wasnt overly sweet.

This is me having my first ever Ben's Cookie! One word - AMAZING!! I had the chocolate chip cookie and it was seconds out of the oven. Delicious.

This is a picture of the Burj Khalifa on New Years Eve. Amazing view