Tomato ragu with chicken milanese

We’ve shared our chicken milanese recipe on the blog before.  Here is an alternative sauce to serve with the pasta accompanying the chicken.  This would work equally well as a starter pasta course.

For 2 adults you will need:

The Gingerbread Man – Molly’s blog

‘Run, run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man….’  I love that story.  In fact I love all stories.  I can even tell a lot of stories by myself now.  Yes – I am a BIG GIRL!

Mammy says I am a really good girl. 

Pasta with prawns and feta

Once upon a time I took this from a Jamie Oliver recipe leaflet that came in an Irish Sunday newspaper supplement.  I’m sure it’s not 100% correct now but this is the version we’ve ended up with over the years.

For 2 adults and a little one you will need:

Greek salad

Happy days – it’s sunny again!  Ever since a fantastic trip to Mykonos, we eat a lot of Greek salads.  It’s a brilliant lunch for all the family.  You can use a combination of any of the ingredients listed below.  Cucumber, tomato, feta and onion with an oil and vinegar dressing are a must  The rest are optional.

Lunch for 2 adults and a little one:

Lentil and Chorizo Soup

A deceptively easy and delicious soup. This freezes well so pop some in the freezer and take it out for a treat when you don’t feel like cooking!

For 4 servings you will need:

Pasta shells with and broccoli, pine nuts and chilli

Here’s another great pasta and broccoli dish.  A simple traditional Italian recipe that is light on your pocket but big on taste.

For 2 adults:

Pasta shells with ricotta and spinach

This is a useful veggie dish if you’re having a crowd around and need to prepare in advance.  You can keep this in the fridge once it’s prepared and do the final cooking step in the oven at your leisure.

For 2 adults and a little one you will need:

Chicken and Panzanella

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a roast dinner on a Sunday.  Not all of them need to have the full roast trimmings.  Panzanella is a mediterranean salad and is a great side dish for a roast chicken.  There isn’t even any lettuce involved… What kind of salad is that? Try it this weekend.

Feeds 4 adults and a couple of little ones:

Onion Bhajis

These are a massive treat as we don’t usually indulge in fried beer snacks!  That said, they are absolutely delicious. This recipe is from the BBC food website, where we find a lot of easy recipes.

For 4 adult snack portions you will need:

Frozen grapes – a simple weekend treat

This is our big cheat recipe which we saw on a Jamie Oliver show once, stole and have served liberally since! It’s one of the easiest, cheekiest deserts going….  Get a big bunch of black (they need to be black, not red) grapes.  Put them in the freezer for a few hours before dinner.  Serve them straight from the freezer – it turns out just like a sorbet but with none of the effort. Great served with chocolate and red wine!