Day 9: Turkey Wraps

Yesterday was a terrible dish... This is not! Turkey, red pepper, onion and mushrooms, with a sprinkling of chives and coriander, a splash of soy sauce and some chilli flakes to give it some kick!

Everything thrown in the pan, doesn't it look good? I think so. 

Warm wraps, ready to go!

The finished product. Clearly I'd cooked too much, but it was as much a case of using the remaining ingredients as it was greediness. I ate it all, though. I was starving! For what it's worth it tasted lovely, well worth the 15 minutes it took to cook!

Day 8: Cheese and Ham Toastie

YES YES. I know this isn't cooking, but with the day I've had, I really didn't fancy cooking all sorts of fancy shit. I apologise that this isn't an interesting dish and an even more boring read, but it's only one, right? Better than doing nothing whatsoever!

Anyway, a good cheese and ham toastie takes some skills! Butter the bread, grate the cheese and rip up the ham.

This is the before picture, obviously. The ingredients are inside and now I'm ready to cook! 

Cooked! See? It looks lovely! It could have done with another two or three minutes, but it filled the hole and tasted good along the way.

Apologies again for this terrible excuse of a dish.

Day 7: Sausages covered in Beef, Wrapped in Bacon with Chips

That title is a mouthful, right? I don't think this dish has a name, so I just threw one together. Let's put it this way, I wasn't counting the calories in this one.

First off the mince. You'll need some way of binding it, otherwise it'll just fall off of your sausage as you're trying to cover it. I rolled the mince around in a bowl along with an egg - by far the weirdest feeling ever - until it was all covered. Binding complete. You'll notice the cheese on the right, and that's basically to mix with the mince as you cover the sausage.

Sausages! Fry them. That's it. You'll notice I have one that looks a bit messed up, and that's because I wanted to make sure it was cooked... Bit iffy with meat, sometimes!

Homecooked chips! Peel a potato (or several) and chop it up! Then deep fry for a few minutes and you have chips!

The aforementioned cheese. You shouldn't need too much, really.

The finished product! It was far too messy to take pictures of each stage, but all you need to know is the sausage is covered in beef and then the bacon wrapped round. That easy! Once you've done all this, stick them in the over on 200 degrees for 25-30 minutes, and you're ready to eat!

Ready to eat! That said, you should use thinner strips of bacon, as they wrap around the mound of meat far better than the thicker strips.

DONE.

Not the best picture, and hell, it actually doesn't look appetising, but by God did it taste nice!

Sausage, beef and bacon... SO MANY CALORIES.

Day 6: Omelette

This was the first meal I got stressed with. I've never made omelettes before, and whilst they're ridiculously easy, for some reason I found myself getting wound up by them. I also completely forgot to take pictures, bar two!

The first finished omelette. You'll notice there's ingredients all over the shop, and that's because they decided to fall out as I was moving it from pan to plate!

This was my omelette. Is it obvious by my total lack of care that I just wanted this one done? I think it is. After all this, I didn't particularly like the omelette anyway, but according to the other two eating, it was lovely, so I think it's just the fact I don't like omelettes.

Mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, peppers, chives and coriander were all thrown in, and if I'd have thought about it a bit earlier, a hot roll or two would have been nice, too!

Day 5: Roast Beef with Vegetables

Firstly, this was my first attempt at cooking a roast dinner. Secondly, whilst I knew I'd be able to prepare everything and cook it, I fully expected everything to be ready at different times. The pictures below will be pretty self-explanatory, but I'll still go to the trouble of explaining... Makes me feel important.

Those are carrots, obviously. I left the skin on and 'topped and tailed' them, which means removing the top and bottom - rocket science! - before chopping them up.

Leeks! Easy enough, just chop the bottom half off and stick 'em in a tin. I personally only go about four inches up, but I don't think there's any harm in going higher or lower than that.

Everybody loves broccoli, right? Chopped from the stalk and put in a pan. Easy as that.

I hate chopping this up. I don't know why, but I seem completely unable to do it... I actually cannot cut it up without making it fall apart. This is one of the better times I've done it, though.

I cheated with the stuffing, I'm not going to lie. Paxo's own with some water added and you're ready to go... Sort of.

Half cooked roast potatoes... I forgot the prep picture, so this is the best I could do! Chop 'em up, put them in a dish and spoon oil over them every so often.. Helps 'em crisp up!

The stuffing in a bowl! Magic! Simply stick this in the over for 15 minutes and you're actually ready to go!

That is a chicken pie you spy on the top right of the plate, yes. That was for a friend who decided they didn't like beef... Anyway, you'll spy a nice looking Yorkshire/Batter pudding there, which was homemade! YES. That was a huge pain though. Eggs, flour, water, salt, pepper and a lot of whisking/beating. Worth it though.

The finished product... Apologies for the steamy picture, but that couldn't be helped... Gravy was made using the beef stock from the slow cooked beef (cooked for 12 hours) and adding some Bisto gravy granules. It tasted lovely!

Day 4: Pizza

Now, this was a simple meal because I had little to no time to prepare or cook, what with getting ready to go out. I literally walked in the door from work and threw this together, so don't expect anything fantastic below!

On top of that, I didn't get hold of the best pizza bases, so that didn't help.

See that? That's a quickly made pizza! Pepperoni, ham and cheese! I would normally whack some mushrooms on there, but unfortunately I forgot them. Such is the rush of getting ready to go drinking!

Extra cheese on top! You can never have too much cheese! Plus, with the extra toppings, the cheese will stop them from cooking too quickly and burning. WIN WIN.

The finished product. Looks like shit, but it did taste nice... Provided a decent enough lining for the night's festivities, too!

Day 3: Prawn Noodles

Yeah, you read the title right; Prawn noodles. Something I've never eaten before, let alone attempted to cook. That said, I like challenging myself so I thought I'd give it a bash, and low and behold, I did...

First things first, what did I put in it?

• Prawns (really!?)
• Mushrooms
• One chilli (no seeds)
• One pepper
• Coriander
• Chives
• Soy Sauce
• Ground chilli flakes

Sounds like a lot? It was. I cooked enough to feed four or five people... I was a fatty and ate all of my portion, though!

I can't help but see cheerios in this pan, rather than prawns.

I might have missed a picture or two, but basically everything is in the pan now. Those noodles were a pain to stir around, believe me... It was as if they had a life of their own. 

Also, I'm a highly messy cook. You should see the kitchen after I've finished cooking noodles.

My finished meal! It was nice, although it looks a bit bland and boring, I can assure you it tasted lovely. Not as good as I would have hoped and next time I do it, I'm definitely using thicker noodles, but still, a good attempt! Oh, I almost forgot! I served it up with a couple of hot rolls, too - lovely!

Recipe Used: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3990/chilli-prawn-noodles

Tomorrow: Pizza!