life | simple homemade mini pizza

Today I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite recipes - that's ridiculously quick and simple.

Pizza is one of my favourite types of food - it's literally one of my basic food groups and something I'll always order at restaurants if I get the chance! But they aren't the most healthy of meals so I decided to mix it up a little and make a mini healthy-ish version to share with you lot.

You'll need..

- a pizza base

- tomato puree

- mozzarella cheese

- your chosen toppings

What to do..

1) Start by putting your oven to 200 degrees (fan) and put some foil down on an oven tray. 

2) Next, put your pizza base down. You can use any old base but I wanted a healthier option - I found some Warburton brown sandwich pittas which are the perfect size. I think Warburton's sandwich thins or just a wholemeal wrap can also work

3) Pop on some tomato puree and then some little cubes of mozzarella cheese.

4) Then go ahead and put on your toppings that need to be cooked. For me, that's prosciutto ham. Make sure your ingredients are cooked beforehand because they'll only be warmed up in the oven.

5) Bang it in the oven until it's gone brown around the edges and the cheese has melted a little. It'll only take ten minutes or so.

6) If you fancy, you can put more ingredients on the pizza once it's out of the oven. I added a heap of fresh rocket and then some parmesan shavings, and then a final sprinkle of pepper.

And then tuck in! This is such a lovely and quick meal that'll keep you nicely filled up for lunch. You can even put a few vegetables on the side and have it for dinner as well, so it's good for all occasions - and you can change the toppings up so it never gets boring!

Let me know if you have a go at making this, and what toppings you'd choose to have yourself!

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life | food diary

Since New Year, my diet has changed pretty drastically. I'm not sure why - it might have been because I went away with my boyfriend's family and we ate so much good food that I wanted to carry it on at home.

Since then I've been really getting into cooking and trying out new food, and taking a lot of instagram pictures of it! I've had so many comments on facebook and instagram (and off the people who eat my food) that it looks and tastes really good so I thought I'd share some of my favourite meals with you all.

I'm definitely having a lot more fruit and veg but if you go look over at my instagram (laurapratt_) you'll know I still eat a lot of naughty things too, so I'm not suddenly eating in a bid to lose weight or anything - I've just started to really love fruit and veg again!

BREAKFAST

Breakfast is the only meal that I'm extremely 'samey' with. I've been eating the same thing for at least a year now and cannot even think of changing it over. I have either one of two meals depending if I am up early for uni or work, or if I'm having a lazy morning.

Lazy mornings consist of two slices of wholemeal bread (I've always hated white bread!) and one boiled egg. This is definitely one of my favourite things to eat and I sometimes have it for lunch rather than breakfast. I also have a glass of milk with it so I get enough calcium. 

On days when I'm up early I have a lovely bowl of natural yoghurt, fruit and granola with cinnamon and honey. I actually got this idea from Sammi of Beautycrush, and it really is a delicious and filling breakfast!

LUNCH

I always find lunch the most difficult meal to cook just because I always get bored easily of salad or eating the same thing every day. I make sure I mix it up so I don't get as bored of it. 

Sometimes I need lunch quickly and so I grab these Ryvita flatbread/crisp hybrids and top them with either Philadelphia or, like above, homemade bruschetta. I always try and make an interesting salad on the side - this one is Greek inspired.

I'm also a sucker for re-heating my dinner from the previous night - in this instance it was a veggie chilli. I'm in love with this chilli - it's a Jamie Oliver recipe and is so filling and good that I sometimes make a huge batch to freeze in case I ever run out of lunch ideas. It's just a dollop of creme fraiche on top in this picture.

More recently I've been making wraps - I stir fry some Mexican-flavoured chicken with vegetables (here: onions, peppers and green beans) with some chilli and garlic before wrapping it in a warm wholemeal wrap. It tastes lovely with a drizzle of Nando's medium sauce in it as well.

Finally, we have my most recent concoction in terms of this salad - a warm bacon and avocado with some spinach and parmesan. I ate this with some lovely cheesy potatoes and this is definitely the meal I get the most compliments on. I'll be writing a full post on this meal and how to make it soon hopefully! 

DINNER

I get most of my ideas for dinnertime meals from my Jamie Oliver cookbooks. He's definitely my favourite chef as his meals are so cheap and simple to make and follow, and they always taste amazing.

Firstly we have a chicken and chorizo paella. I've never really been fond of the rice in paella as it always seems to be really stodgy but this one is lovely and light! Along with all the vegetables and a drizzle of lemon, I can never get enough of this dish.

I also recently made posh fish and chips - sea bass coated in my own breadcrumbs on a bed of sweet potato with peas on the side. So delicious and a much healthier version of fish and chips. I did slightly burn the potatoes but at least I know for next time!

Finally, this is a butternut squash and vegetable stew with rice - it wasn't the best thing I have ever cooked but this was so healthy and I've learnt how to sort it out and what to add for next time. It isn't my favourite dish but was lovely all the same.

A tip I have if you're struggling for ideas on what to cook for dinner, check out what you eat at restaurants. I have come away from meals with so many ideas and can usually remake them to some degree in my own kitchen. In the past I've made the delicious Marco Polo pasta from Bella Italia and the Chicken and Chorizo skewers from Chiquitos. Whenever I go out I always check all the ingredients and guess how they were cooked so I can copy!

SNACKING

Snacking is definitely where my diet has changed the most - I used to eat packets of crisps or biscuits etc. pretty much every day, whereas now I prefer to chop some fruit up instead. 

It sounds so crazy but I prefer eating fruit when it's all cut up, like above. I don't really care too much for eating apples normally but when it is all sliced up I think it's much nicer. Any fruit makes the grade usually - as you can see from the second picture! Mango, strawberry, grapes, apple, kiwi and banana are my current favourites. Having yoghurt to dip in is also really lovely.

Finally, my holy grail of crisps are these ones by Walkers. They are seriously so tasty and much better than normal crisps for me personally.

And there we go; sorry for the picture-heavy post but i take a lot of pictures of my food!

Would you like to try any of these recipes?

If you want any specific ones let me know and I can write up a post!

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the foodie post | homemade plum and cherry crumble

i think a crumble is the perfect winter pudding. i can't think of anything better than sitting in your toasty front room with a huge bowl of hot, sweet crumble. this is my recipe for a lovely plum and cherry crumble, i hope you enjoy!

Ingredients;

fruit mixture:

4-6 plums

250g cherries (i used tinned as fresh are out of season - either will do!)

60g demerara sugar

a few pinches of cinnamon

crumble mixture:

125g plain flour

125g demerara sugar

125g oats

150g butter (diced)

1. set your oven to 190 degrees celsius. start cutting up all of your fruit into bite size pieces. remember to destone any of the fruit that has them in - not a pretty find when you're eating it!

2. put the fruit into a bowl and cover with the sugar. sprinkle in as much cinnamon as you like (i like a lot of it!) and then mix all of the ingredients together until the fruit is covered by the sugar.

3. in a separate bowl,  sieve in the flour and then add the sugar. mix them together before adding in the oats. finally, dice the butter into smaller chunks and then add this to the oat mixture.

4. now this is the messy bit! put your hands in the mixture and rub the butter into the oats. this is my favourite bit just because you can really smell the butter! it's ready once it's formed into small clumps of crumble mixture.

5. put the fruit into an oven dish and then evenly spread the crumble mixture on top.

6. bake for a good 30 minutes or until the crumble is golden.

7. leave to cool for 5 minutes or so for it to cool down a little and then enjoy a bowl of damn good loveliness.

(i don;'t do my crumble servings by halves!)

what's also great is that you can change up the fruits in the crumble too and add whatever you fancy - peaches, blackberries, raspberries, apples!

will you be making this? what's your favourite winter pudding?