The Blue Walnut, Chelston, Torquay

On the Thursday (29th September) Mr VST and I had booked a groupon pamper deal which included a massage, manicure, pedicure, a glass of fizz and chocolates. Once we had floated out of the clinic we went next door to The Blue Walnut for a late lunch.

We both went for the special which was cheese stuffed ravioli with a creamy tomato sauce and tomato and garlic flat breads. The pasta was lovely with a gently but tasty cheese filling and a lovely creamy sauce. The flat breads were a great accompaniment, with lovely sweet tomato and garlic topping.

The Blue Walnut is a cafe, restaurant, bar and music venue and although quiet when we were there one quiet Thursday, the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. The food was very reasonably priced and I can recommend that you drop in if you are in the Torquay area. 

Linguine with Mushrooms, Peas and Tomatoes

Monday evening saw a return of this quick and easy pasta recipe. The peas give it a lovely sweet taste and it's not too bad on the calorie count either.

Pasta Pesto

A quick meal of pasta with Mr VST's home made pesto before going to the cinema to see The Inbetweeners which was great, very funny indeed. 

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake

After having such a crazy weekend I hadn't managed to plan our meal for the week. I found myself with a load of veggies but not wanting to make another curry or Mexican. There was also a tub of crème fraîche in the fridge. I decided to roast up the veggies, you can't really go wrong with roasted veggies, and mix them with some cooked pasta and top with cheat's cheese sauce from the Summer Lasagne recipe.

You take 300ml of crème fraîche, season it, grate some nutmeg in and grate about 50g mature cheddar into it and mix.

I mixed up the roasted veg and cooked pasta with a tin of tomatoes, spread the crème fraîche mix on top, added a bit of extra grated cheese and popped it in the oven for about 15 mins.

Fusilli Bolognese

Had a surprise visit from the in-laws this evening. They emailed Mr VST this morning to say that they would be in the area and might pop in and see us. He specifically asked them if they wanted dinner and they said no. When they arrived I had already cooked dinner for Mr VST and I with enough left for lunch tomorrow. I didn't make a huge amount, just enough for healthy sized portions today and little ones for lunch. I didn't have enough linguine so I cooked up some fusilli as well. Mr VST got hungry while they were here so then asked them if they wanted to eat with us which of course they did. Small portions of fusilli bolognese were had by all. Thankfully I had taken some rhubarb cake out of the freezer on Saturday to see us through the week and so we had that for pudding with custard as well.

Fusilli Bolognese

A quick bolognese with fusilli as I'd run out of linguine on Thursday. 

Pasta Pesto

Mr VST's pasta pesto for dinner this evening made with home grown basil and served with home grown salad leaves. It was delicious. He used this recipe but with only 100ml of oil.

Tomato and Sausage Pasta Bake

As I had spent so long preparing dinner yesterday and I had two dinners to make tonight (tomorrow's as well as we're off to meet Paula Radcliffe at dinner time) I thought I'd go for something simple. I'd made this recipe before and it's aimed at student so it's pretty simple!

Here it is made vegetarian and slightly adapted.

(serves 4)

2 small onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp soy sauce
200g pasta
50g mature cheddar, grated
4 cooked vegetarian sausages, sliced (I used the new Linda McCartney Italian Style ones)

1.  Fry off the onions and garlic.
2.  Add the cans of tomatoes, bring to the boil and simmer for twenty minutes. 
3.  Cook the pasta
4. Add the soy sauce and season.
5.  Mix the pasta and tomato sauce together and spread out in an oven proof dish.
6. Scatter the sausages over the top and grate the cheese on top before grilling for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

Veggies and pasta

A quick healthy meal last night veggies and quorn pieces and pasta.

Creamy Cheese and Tomato Macaroni

I haven't made this for ages. It's a really quick and easy store cupboard recipe. I made it with light cream cheese instead of crème fraiche today because I don't usually have anything else to do with the crème fraiche and it goes to waste. It's quite flavoursome and filling, especially served with salad.

Pasta and Veggies

I'm not sure the whole protein thing is working. After two days of protein based meals I've never been so hungry! Back to pasta and veggies on Thursday evening made by Mr VST.

Veggies and pasta

Another great meal from Mr VST this evening. Loads of good veggies, quorn pieces and pasta.

Pasta pesto

I wasn't going to bother with dinner tonight. My digestive system is letting me know that I've eaten far too much and far too much junk over the last week. Mr VST suggested we finish off his home made pesto and it sounded like a good idea. If it is possible I think it was even more delicious this time round.

Pasta, pesto and roasted veggies

I didn't end up having Mr VST's pasta and pesto for lunch today because I didn't cook myself any pasta and also because it is quite garlic-y and I didn't want to make my clients or work colleagues suffer my garlic breath all afternoon!

As we are going away for Christmas I am trying to use up all the food in the fridge and to avoid buying anymore as it will just go off. Somehow I ended up with lots of green peppers so I roasted them with some red onions and mixed them into some pasta with lovely home made pesto.

I then decided to use up the bananas in a banana bread but that's another story.....

Vegetarians as guests....

Do you dread having vegetarians as guests? Whenever I have guests with special dietary requirements I usually enjoy the challenge of being out of my comfort zone cooking-wise. When Mr VST's coeliac cousin came to stay I served Dahl (which seems to be every diet proof) and made this gluten-free lemon drizzle cake with mashed potato, yes MASHED POTATO, warm for pudding with cream, it was absolutely delicious.

This weekend we were the dreaded vegetarian guests but our hosts did their usual wonderful job. Mr VST was doing the hell runner at Longmoor and we went to stay with our friends in Somerset so that we were (a bit) closer to Longmoor. Friday night's carbo-load was pasta and sauce with chunky roasted veggies and goat's cheese - delicious.

We got up to have the breakfast of champions (baked beans on toast) at an un-Godly hour for a Saturday and then made our way through the Winter wonderland to Longmoor. When we got there the ground was frozen as was the water in the bog of doom! Being the supportive wife I carried bags, cheered on when Mr VST started, got out of the bog and finished and provided him with a hot chocolate to warm up.

Here are some of the Hell Runners coming out of the Bog of Doom.

We had a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches and delicious sticky toffee cake and chocolate brownie with thick chocolate butter icing on top to get us back to our friends' house.

When we got back we had pizza and chips and then later in the evening as we all were collapsed in a heap we nibbled on cheese and biscuits.

I also extensively sampled out hosts tea collection. Mr Host had bought himself the kind of tea box that is usually seen only in hotels and filled it with every kind of herbal tea imaginable. I was very jealous of his box. I think it may be going on my Christmas list!

Creamy cheese and tomato macaroni

This was not my plan for tonight's meal but as I didn't have time to buy any onions today it was my only onion-less option other than heading for the freezer again.

It's another BBC Good Food recipe which can be found here. It's a healthy version of macaroni cheese. Found it while on a health drive earlier this year. It's very quick and easy to make.