What I've Been Cooking #1

If you follow me on Instagram you'll see that I'm always taking photos of my food (I mean, that's what it was invented for, right?). I've wanted to share my trials and tribulations of cooking and baking with you for a while, but I've never considered myself as a food blogger. Then I looked over my recent posts and realised that all I ever talk about is food, and that's probably because all I ever think about is food too! I like to experiment with recipes, and although I'm not at the stage where I can just whip up an amazing meal off the top of my head, I have been practicing with different skills and scouring Pinterest for new things to make. So instead of just leaving my cooking pics to wither away unloved on my Camera Roll, I've decided to share them occasionally here so that you can try them too if the mood should take you!

Pasta pie

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and it looked so delicious I figured why shouldn't I give it a go?! It is essentially pasta bolognase served vertically, but when I revealed it to my little sister she did a brilliantly extravagant gasp which confirmed I'd done a good job! Just remember to use a spring bottom cake tin to cook it in so you can have the pleasure of showing the gravity defying structure to your friends. 

Original recipe for pasta pie was found here.

Grilled chicken and veggies

This recipe doesn't sound like much, but the marinade for the chicken is the perfect blend of spices that it's rapidly become a favourite of mine. In fact, I think I've made it at least five times by now because it is so simple and so tasty. It's good for you as it's grilled and the veggies are done in a very small amount of oil too. The fact that it uses chicken legs as well makes it really cheap as well, especially as I have the majority of the spices in my cupboard at most points. Definitely check it out if you are looking for something to make for dinner tonight.
Original recipe for grilled chicken and veggies can be found here.

Sesame chicken

Another recipe that's becoming a firm favourite in my household. I love Chinese food (as you may have seen from my recent trip to Beijing!), but I find England lacking in a really good takeaway. If I want to eat something from that area, I don't really want to fork out a whole heap of money on the one place I feel does it really well: Hakkasan. Once again, I found this recipe on Pinterest and had a lot of the ingredients in my cupboard already; slightly out of the norm things like toasted sesame oil and oyster sauce - all products well worth buying as you're bound to need them at some point! One thing I would say with this recipe is you need a decent frying pan or the egg-based batter just sticks to the pan instead of the chicken. But it's great with brown rice and some thinly sliced spring onions.

Original recipe for sesame chicken can be found here.

I'd love to know what you've been cooking, and if you try any of these recipes please do tell me what you think!