RECENTLY #6

it's been 21 days since my last post. wow. I can't believe I've not posted for that long and I'd like to say that I've tried blogging and that I've been missing it but honestly this is not the case. there has been so much going on that all I wanted to do is just live my life with all the new things that are happening so blogging had to wait. however, it is great to be back and I have missed writing posts and creating recipes. 

since it's been so long I thought I'd start with a little update before getting started with new recipes and everything else. as I said in my last recently post I've settled in quite well in my new home in the north west of the UK and I'm really loving uni aswell. 

I have been trying to sort out my schedule and get into a routine with uni work and it's been going quite well so far. I'm really loving my course and I've met some lovely people at uni. I've also started playing football after years of watching it and I'm so happy I did, it's not only a great way to stay fit with all the cooking but it's just so much fun.

I've also found great places to buy food, there's a brilliant store not far from me that sells lovely fresh veg and I'm actually enjoying the budgeting, it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

me and my housemate have been cooking quite a lot together which I am really enjoying, I'm so happy to be living with someone who shares my love for food and delicious things. now that I'm kind of sorted out here I hope I can get back into a blogging routine aswell, it probably won't be as many times a week as it used to be but I'm sure you'll understand that uni is a lot more important, but I've missed my little blog and I don't want to stop blogging so I'll try my best to get back into it.

I'm going to be starting a little series about student recipes, so if anyone has any ideas or wishes just let me know. also, I have now finally got instagram to post pictures of my food and other things, so if you want to follow me you can do so here.

hope you're all well, and I'll be back soon, I promise.

Magdalena.

#49 SWISS CHARD AND POTATOES

Hi everyone, wow, it's really been a while!  thought it's about time I share a little recipe again, this is something I made a while ago while I was still back in austria but I thought I'd still share it as it's one of my favourite things and it'd also be a great as a student meal as it's super simple and will give you plenty of energy. I've had way too much pizza in the last few weeks even though I cook for myself most of the time, but I've just not been able to create any recipes just yet. so this is something to get started and after planning my weekly timetable I do think I'll fit some blogging in there in the future so don't worry, there will be recipes and all those things up here soon, but for now, here's some swiss chard and potatoes for you!

I don't know how many of you clicked on this asking themselves 'what is chard actually'. I actually don't know, as I grew up knowing what Mangold (the german word for chard) is, but the day I was making this my boyfriend asked me what I was having and I said chard and he said 'what?!' and he usually knows a lot of things when it comes to food so maybe it's just not that popular (you can find more information about what it is here in case you did ask). thinking about it it's probably not that popular over here either as I was very surprised to find some beautiful leaves of it at the market one day. (sorry for the bad quality phone picture)

of course the first thing that came to mind was to make chard and potatoes as that's what I've had many times when visiting croatia and slovenia as it's a very common side dish over there. I thought it can't be that difficult to make myself and as it was super easy and really delicious I couldn't not share it with you guys.

Swiss Chard and Potatoes

for two as a side

4 leaves of swiss chard

4 big potatoes

1 clove of garlic

salt

start by cooking the potatoes as you do, don't worry if you leave them for a bit longer, it works well when they're a bit mushy.

remove the big bit of the chard's stalk if you want to and cut the leaves into big pieces. add chart to the boiling water for about a minute. take off the heat and pour it all into a colander. rinse chard with cold water and set aside.

take a pan and heat some olive oil (not too high heat though) peel the potatoes and cut into small pieces, add to the pan and also add the chard. mince your garlic and add to the pan too, add salt to taste.

and there you go! that's all you need to make this lovely delicious side dish which you can easily also enjoy as a lovely summer meal with some salad if you like.

hope you liked this little different recipe idea, I fell in love with this dish in croatia and it always gives me that mediterranean feel. I love to enjoy it just by itself on a summer day. do let me know what you think and if you've ever tried chard and what you think about it.

Magdalena.

Guest Post: HANNAH'S STUDENT FOOD

as I am currently busy getting used to uni, I have found some lovely guest bloggers to take over for me until I'm all settled. today's guest blogger is Hannah who blogs over at Heart Of Cake, she's one of the loveliest people and she loves food just as much as I do, I'm really happy to have her on my blog today and she's created a brilliant post.

Hi I'm Hannah from theheartofcake.com  Guest Posting for Magdalena whilst she's moving over to Manchester to start life as a brilliant little student! As she'll be moving to a new country and becoming a student I thought I'd do a student inspired recipe post! So, hope you all enjoy!

As a student, it can be really hard to eat well, on a budget with healthy nutritious food. When I was a student I used to rely on the same food day in day out because it was easier, but it got boring really quickly! So, I thought I would share a few of my favourite budget student eats. This are recipes that I still use all the time, plus they make sure you get plenty of fresh healthy food in your diet!

Breakfast

Muesli & Fruit Greek Yoghurt.

• 3 tablespoons of 0% fat Greek Yoghurt
• 3 tablespoons on muesli (I love Dorset cereals simply nutty)
• a handful of any of your favourite fruit

This is a really simple breakfast. All you need to do it put your yoghurt and muesli into your bowl and let it sit for a minute or two. I like to do this to soften my muesli, but if you like it crunchy, just serve it straight away. Then just add your fruit. Simple! :)

Lunch

Leek & Potato Soup

• 2 medium sized leeks
• 6 medium sized potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 vegetable stock cube

This recipe is another really easy and simple, delicious meal. The quantities make quite a bit of soup so it can last over a couple of days, can be shared with friends or frozen. Firstly, dice the leeks and onion and fry in a pan with a little butter, just until they are softened. Chop the potatoes up roughly, if you have some bigger ones and smaller ones it doesn't matter as it gives the soup some texture. Add the potatoes and stock cube. Add enough water to the pan to cover the potatoes and leave on a low boil for 40 minutes. Keep adding water if the soup looks like it's drying out. Make sure to add plenty of salt and pepper, and if you have a hand blender (I think they're a necessity as a student because they're great for making soups, salad dressings and smoothies) whizz up the soup until it gets to a nice thick consistency.

Dinner

Fridge Spaghetti Bolognese

• 1 pack of lean mince (around 350-400g)
• a pack of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• a few basil leaves
• 1 stock cube
• 1 large onion
• any vegetables that are in your fridge (peppers, tomatoes, courgette..)
• spaghetti

I love a good spaghetti bolognese, it's a really warming food and perfect when you need a good feed! I'm not a fan of the pre-made sauces as they tend to be full of salt and sugar and can taste really overly sweet. It's so simple to make a sauce from scratch and it's also much healthier and tastier than the jarred stuff. I make this spag bol when I have veg in my fridge that need using up, when they're cooked down in the tomato sauce, you can't tell that there's tons of different veg in there, it just makes a really delicious sauce (it's also really great for getting veg into fussy kids).

To start fry the mince until browned then remove from the pan, I like to take it out so it doesn't all cook away when making the sauce. To the same pan, add the diced onion and fry until softened. add the garlic, cherry tomatoes and other veg and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, plenty of salt and a little sprinkle of sugar and leave to cook for a good hour. Keep adding water to keep the sauce nice and runny. If you have some in and fancy making the dish a bit more adult, add a splash of red wine.

 Once everything has softened, get the hand blender out again and whizz up the sauce until it gets to a really nice smooth consistency. Add the mince back in to the sauce and leave to heat up again for another 10 minutes. Serve with spaghetti and some fresh garlic bread!

Enjoy! Hannah x

thank you very much for your post Hannah, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Hannah's blog over at Heart Of Cake, you can also find her on twitter here.