Casserole and Cake

I took a day’s leave off work yesterday, so that I could attend son1’s Autumn concert for his year at school in the afternoon.  It was a lovely event.  The children all did very well and there was even a special role for son1, giving out programmes. But I used the morning to catch up on chores and to do some cooking.  I tidied a corner of the garden, picking some gone to seed onions, that got missed from last year’s crop, but they didn’t yield much – less than the equivalent of one large onion. I prepared a casserole (including the onions) ready for tea and baked a cake.

Onions rescued from the garden

Meatball Casserole

Ingredients (serves 2 adults and 2 children)

20 Richmond Mini Meatballs (200g)
4 Medium to Large Potatoes
1 Onion
4 Carrots
25g Lentils
Sausage Casserole Mix

Method

Peel and chop potatoes, onion and carrots.
Put vegetables in large casserole dish.
Add lentils and meatballs.
Tip casserole mix into a jug and add cold water according to packet instructions.
Stir and pour over casserole.
Cover the casserole dish with a lid.
Cook in fan oven at 160deg for 1 hour.
Serve and enjoy.

Meatball Casserole – ready to cook

Meatball casserole – serve and enjoy!

I was planning to bake a Cherry and Almond cake, but found I didn’t have enough cherries, so I modified it to a Fruit and Almond cake.

Fruit and Almond Cake

Ingredients

175g margarine
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self raising flour
75g glace cherries
125g mixed dried fruit
few drops of almond essence
75g ground almonds
1 tablespoon milk

Method

Grease a 17cm round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
Cream margarine and sugar.
Beat in the eggs.
Sieve and fold in the flour.
Add almond essence.
Chop the cherries in half.
Fold in the ground almonds, mixed fruit and cherries.
Add enough of the milk to give a dropping consistency.
Spoon mixture into tin.
Cook in fan oven at 160deg for 40 minutes.
Cover with foil and cook for approx 10 more minutes.
Cool on wire rack.

Spoon cake mixture into tin

Fruit and Almond Cake

Yummy! Enjoy!

And I thought I’d enter my cake for The Great Bloggers Bakeoff which is being run by Jenny of Mummy Mishaps and Helen of The Crazy Kitchen.