Now that the weather is getting hot, I really fancied something 'meaty', with a BBQ taste without the hassle of starting up the BBQ. I have to admit this is the most delicious hot sandwich I've ever tasted and it was so quick! I enjoyed it with a carrot and ginger juice for a fiery refresher in the heat. It's also great because you can alternate the vegetables to whatever you fancy, or to match what you've currently got in the fridge. Other great veggies for this sandwich include squash, aubergine, beef tomatoes, maybe peppers (but I don't like them so I wouldn't know) and steamed kale.

Ingredients

1 wholemeal/multigrain bagel

1 large flat mushroom

2 1cm thick slices of courgette (sliced from top to bottom, not horizontally)

Around 6 cherry tomatoes

1tbsp tahini

A refreshing drink like this carrot and ginger juice or my blackberry and ginger smoothie to serve!

Prepare all of the ingredients, then put a grill pan on a high heat and allow it to warm through and get nice and hot, adding in a little oil. Place the mushroom in the pan and press down with a spatula. Leave for 1 minute, then turn over and add the courgette slices and whole tomatoes to the pan. Once the courgettes start to brown and become slightly translucent, slice the bagel in half and place in the grill pan. Flip the mushroom over, then spoon the tahini on to the mushroom to melt into it, and don't flip it again. Once the bagel has toasted, assemble your burger, and top up with a handful of salad (I used rocket).

This pasta dish is genuinely one of my favourite things because it's just SO quick! It takes about 10 minutes from starting to eating so I love this as a quick lunch or a meal before I go out. You can mix it up a bit by changing the cream for more tomatoes to make a tomato sauce, or choose different vegetables like sweetcorn, mushrooms or squash.

Ingredients

3 handfuls Brown Fusilli

4 Cherry Tomatoes

3 Long Stalk Broccoli, chopped into 3cm pieces

2 handfuls kale

2 handfuls peas

3 second glug White Cooking Wine

100ml (approx.) Soya Single Cream

Sprinkle of oregano or basil, and salt and pepper to season

My brown pasta took 11 minutes to cook, but check the back of the packet of yours. Add it to water and boil. Once boiled turn down to a simmer. When the pasta has 10 minutes left, put the broccoli and kale in a steamer above the pasta and put the lid on. In a separate pan, add the white wine and bring to a boil. Turn down to a light simmer and add the tomatoes to the wine, as well as the herbs and seasoning. Once bubbling slowly, add the cream and peas and leave to simmer slowly until the pasta is cooked. Drain the pasta and then add to the cream sauce, and mix in the other vegetables. C'est Fini!

I love baked beans, but I've recently been put off by the sugar content. With nearly 10g of sugar in just half a tin, that's almost half my RDA, and I've also been trying to eat only natural sugars. I also love a large variety of beans so I get nutrients from all kinds of beans and pulses as well as a rainbow of colours and textures. So I created these healthy 10-bean baked beans, with only natural sugars but double the flavour! I enjoyed them with baked sweet potato and kale, (also vegan cashew cheese, but this experiment didn't taste as good as I hoped so I scraped it off!). It took quite a while to make them, but next time I will make a large batch, to store some in the freezer for a quick go-to snack.

Ingredients
4 handfuls of dried mixed beans (I use Waitrose 10 bean mix)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (check it's 100% tomatoes and water, no added sugar)
1tsp maple syrup
1 whole clove of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp tomato puree
Salt and Pepper to taste

Before soaking

After soaking

The dried beans need soaking overnight, so put the beans in a bowl and cover with plenty of cold water, and leave in the fridge to soak. If you don't want to wait, buy a tin of beans already in water and skip this step.


After soaking, rinse with cold water and top up with fresh water in a pan and put on to boil, once boiled allow it to simmer for 1 hour. Pour away the water and rinse the beans with freshly boiled water, then add all the ingredients to a pan and heat until it boils (keep the garlic as a whole crushed clove, and pick it out before you serve). Leave to simmer for 30 minutes to let the beans soak up the sauce. Keep in the fridge and heat up in a pan for a few minutes when you're ready to eat it. It will keep in the fridge for about a week, or keep in the freezer.