Deliciously Ella's Mediterranean Vegetable Spaghetti

She's done it again. Another masterpiece by Deliciously Ella.
Kicking off my final term of first year with this scrumptious recipe. 
I spend a lot of my time trawling the internet for meal inspiration on this tiny student budget. Deliciously Ella is often a website that I end up at, and rarely come away disappointed. 
I have no idea how I missed this recipe but I am so glad I found it.
This recipe is sooooo yummy and it smells amazing. 
At less than £1 per portion, full of veg and oh so colourful, its not one to miss.

Recipe (serves 2): 
Ingredients:
Spaghetti or other pasta (I used whole wheat)
2 tomatoes - 30p
A good handful of cherry tomatoes (about 10)- 30p
Mixed herbs - 1p
1 pepper - 30p
1 courgette - 50p
A generous tbsp of tomato puree - 5p
A good handful of spinach or about 4 frozen cubes - 20p
10 black olives cut in half - 25p

Total cost: £1.91

Method: 

• Cut the big tomatoes and pepper into chunks and add to a saucepan with a glug of oil and a generous sprinkling of herbs.
• Add the tomato puree and give a good stir.
• When the sauce starts to disintegrate, add the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters and the courgette, sliced. Mix well. 
• Start cooking the pasta
• Add the cooked pasta to the sauce along with the olives and give a good stir so that it is nicely covered. 
• Serve with extra olives, herbs or cherry tomatoes (or all 3!)

*** Top with a little basil if you want to look reaaal fancy ***

Baked Strawberry and Banana Porridge

This was my first try at baked porridge and loved it so much and it was so easy that I had to share it.
As its baked and is a sort of flapjacky texture its basically like eating pudding for breakfast! 
You can even make it up the night before so that you only have to pop it in the oven the next morning. 

Recipe (serves 1):
Ingredients: 
1/2 cup oats
1 banana
1/2 cup almond milk
2-4 strawberries
1 tsp cinnamon

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 150oC
• Mash 1/2 - 1/3 (depending on how much you want for the top) of the banana in a bowl 
• Chop half of the strawberries (the rest can be used for the top) into small pieces and add the oats, milk and cinnamon
• Stir to combine and transfer to an oven-safe dish
• Top with the remainder of your fruit
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is firm and golden. 

*** This really basic recipe means that you can easily swap and change ingredients- try adding nuts or switching up the fruits ***

Hot Cross Buns

I am so excited to share this recipe with you all!
After a lot of searching, I found this masterpiece of a recipe:
http://glutenfreescdandveggie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/allspice-grain-free-hot-cross-buns-gf.html
No messing around with yeast or rising time or proving draws, mix all the ingredients up and put the buns in the oven. Et Voila you have a super healthy hot cross bun without it tasting super healthy! 
I did a little tweaking to suit my preferences and have a bit of fun but this gal got it spot on! 
Gluten, wheat, dairy and refined sugar free doesn't sound too appealing, and I thought that the result would be far from the original.
However, these are light and delicious and not too dissimilar to regular hot cross buns!
I added flaked almonds to the mix to give it a bit more of a bite, the same can be done with other nuts and seeds.

Chocolate chip with a marzipan cross on the top row and fruity with coconut cross on the bottom 

Recipe(Makes 6 buns):

Ingredients: 
300g ground almonds
20g flaked almonds (broken into smaller pieces)
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
2 eggs
3 1/5 tbsps honey
2 tbsps olive oil

For citrusy, raisin buns:
rind of 1 lemon
rind of 1 orange
70g raisins

For chocolate chip buns:
70g dark chocolate chips 

For marzipan crosses:
3 tbsps ground almonds 
2 tsps honey (or until at the right consistency)

For coconut crosses:
2 tbsps coconut flour 
9 tbsps/ 50 ml water (or until at the right consistency)

Method:

Chocolate chip bun with a marzipan cross

• Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a baking tray with baking paper
• Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together
• In a separate bowl, add all of the wet ingredients and mix using an electric whisk until fluffy
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir to combine (the dough should be quite a sticky consistency)
• Divide the dough into 6 and, using wet hands, roll into balls. 
• Place the balls onto a lined baking tray and flatten them slightly
• Make your crosses by combining the ingredients in a small bowl. 
• Spread the coconut mixture onto the buns in a cross shape 
• Put them into the preheated oven. After 5 minutes turn down the temperature to 140oC and cook for a further 15-20 minutes until deep golden brown on top and cooked through
• Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool
• Once cold combine the marzipan mix and roll between two sheets of baking paper to about 0.5cm thickness, cut to size and place on the buns
• Grill and enjoy with butter or jam or nut butter or even on their own

*** Can easily be made throughout the year as fruit buns! ***