~*Cooking with Bae: Part 3 - Fajitas*~

It's been a while since I've posted a "Cooking with Bae" piece!




Last weekend was the first time in ages since J and I were able to cook something at home (blame the Christmas madness!) and to be honest, it wasn't anything massively exciting or complicated. Nevertheless, I am going to share it with you and hope that this inspires you to cook at home...maybe with your bae too!




This time, we decided to cook Fajitas, mainly because it's cheap and quick to prepare, and J wanted Mexican food (like he always does). We did cheat a little...well, quite a lot actually, because most of the stuff that we used, such as the Fajita seasoning and the accompaniments, were shop-bought, i.e. from packets and bottles! BUT...please take this as a review of the products we used, as we still encourage home cooking as much as possible!


First, we cut up some fresh chicken breast, onions and peppers and placed them in a frying pan, lightly cooking over medium heat. We then mixed in a packet of Santa Maria Fajita Mix (mild) and stirred until the chicken, onion and peppers were covered in seasoning.

We also chopped up some fresh iceberg lettuce and grated some cheese (J's job!) to add to the Fajitas.

For accompaniments, we used Mexi Grande Guacamole (in a bottle), Santa Maria Classic Mexican Salsa and Aldi's Snackrite Sour Cream. I have to be honest, the shop-bought Guacamole has nothing on the proper homemade stuff!!

The wholemeal wraps that we used for the Fajitas were Asda's own brand which I lucky managed to buy from the "Whoopsies!" section for 10p a packet (of 8 wraps). So I bought 5 packs and froze most of them! :D


We also cut up some fresh watermelon for dessert.

For those who know me are aware that I am not a big fan of pre-made sauces, seasoning, etc, but the ones we used in this instance were OK - nothing too special. I wouldn't discourage people from purchasing the products we used, but I personally wouldn't be in a rush to go out and re-buy them either.

Overall, I would give the food portion of the dining experience a 5/10, though dining with J after a 2-week gap was a lot of fun - I really miss him when he's not around. Next time, we will definitely be cooking from scratch!

~*Cooking with Bae: Part 2 - Super Easy Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce (aka "Speggy")*~

One of J's all-time favourites but this time, without a ready-made sauce jar in sight!



For part 2 of "Cooking with Bae", we decided on a simple, inexpensive and incredibly tasty homemade Spaghetti Bolognaise sauce, served with a side of warm bread, Italian ham with a hint of Rosemary, sliced Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil and olives, all drizzled with olive oil and mixed herbs. Oh, and not forgetting the red wine to wash all of the deliciousness down...super nom!



It's difficult to go wrong with Spaghetti Bolognaise (or "Speggy", as J calls it). With the simple ingredients that are super cheap to pick up from your local supermarket (ours were all purchased at a reasonable price from Aldi) and the easiness of putting them together, you'll find that the most difficult bit is to make sure that the pasta and sauce are done around the same time.




Again, head chef J did a great job working the cooking tools - you wouldn't think that this was only his second time cooking something from scratch! I only had to guide him occasionally, just to talk him through the order in which things had to go into the pan, how long to cook them for, etc, but in general, he had it all well under control. It was obvious that he had grown in confidence following the success of his Paella (please see "Cooking with Bae" - part 1!) and he whipped this concoction of tomato-based delightfulness up to perfection.




And folks, this is how he did it...




Super Easy Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce (aka "Speggy") - serves 4*



*It actually served 2 in our case. Both J and I have pretty big appetites, though J can REALLY put it away!



1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil
500g minced beef
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1/2 diced onion (white or red) - we used white.
1/2 diced red pepper
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 chopped button mushrooms
Tomato puree
Green olives
A splash of red wine (to taste)
Mixed herbs (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to season)
Shredded basil




1. Heat oil in a cooking pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook over a medium heat for around 30 seconds.




2. Add the minced beef and fry until browned. Stir in the can of chopped tomatoes. To make the mixture more "sauce-like", add a little bit of water to reach your desired consistency.



3. Add the tomato puree. How much depends on how "tomato-ey" you want the bolognaise sauce to be.



4. Allow the sauce to simmer for a couple of minutes, then stir in the red pepper and mushrooms. Add a handful of green olives and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. Let the sauce simmer lightly (over a low heat) for another couple of minutes.



5. Splash (or pour, it's completely up to you!) a bit of red wine into the sauce. As tempting as it may be, please refrain from adding the entire bottle! Mix the sauce.

6. Place a generous amount of sauce on top of cooked pasta (we chose Spaghetti) and decorate with shredded basil. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Chopping away at onions!



Head chef J at work!

Adding a "splash" of red wine...glug glug.

The finished product!

Nom nom!

The sides!

After dinner! Alfie cat missed the dinner party!

~*Cooking with Bae: Part 1 - Simple Paella & Guacamole*~

J and I had been hemming and hawing for a while about what to cook for our first "Cooking with Bae" sesh. Japanese, Mexican, Italian...so many great cuisines to choose from!



In the end, we settled on a Spanish/Mexican/French fusion - a simple Paella, Guacamole dip and a side of baked baguettes (which we didn't bake ourselves - yes, we cheated!), Ardennes pate and Spanish meats. This was served with a large bottle of Sangria.


Head chef J was in charge of cooking the Paella while I, sous chef MY, whipped up the Guacamole and prepped the table.


For someone who hasn't had very much experience in the kitchen, J did a brilliant job of the Paella! I was pleasantly surprised at how well he took to cooking, and he looked so cute using the spatula when mixing everything up in the frying pan...:) I'll be sure to give him a more challenging dish to cook next time...without my help!


Both dishes turned out very well, but the Paella for sure was the star of the show. J was so proud of himself that he ended up cooking the Paella for some friends when he went back down to London. I've been told that he got massive thumbs-up for his efforts too!


Anyway, here are the recipes that we followed for the Paella and Guacamole...enjoy! XOXO

Paella  (serves 2)

1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil
Slice chorizo (please feel free to be generous with this!)
1/2 diced onion
1/4 tsp turmeric
300g cooked plain rice
100g cooked prawn
50g frozen peas
Lemon wedges (to serve)

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Tip in the chorizo, onion and garlic, then cook for a couple of minutes until softened. Stir through turmeric, followed by the rice, prawns and peas and 150ml of water.


2. Keep stirring until everything is warmed through and the water has been absorbed. The rice should still be wet. Decorate with lemon wedges.



Guacamole (serves 2)


2 ripe avocadoes, mashed
1 diced tomato
1/2 diced red onion (or a whole one, depending on how strong you want the bite)
Chopped coriander
1/2 lemon for the juice (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to season)


1. Place the mashed avocadoes, tomato, red onion and coriander into a bowl and mix well.


2. Take the lemon and squeeze small amounts of juice into the avocado mixture at a time. Keep adding the juice until you are happy with the taste.
3. Add salt and pepper to season.







J working his magic!



The table! Alfie the cat was "guarding" the food at the time!



Made with love

~*Introducing...Cooking with Bae!*~

Hi everyone!




I can't believe it's been so long since my last post (especially after I promised I would blog more)! I would say I've been super busy with life in general, which is kinda true, but to be completely honest, I've been pretty lazy with blogging over the past few months (or years)...but I'm back now!



Anyway the reason for this post is to introduce a new segment to MyMy's Munchies, which is called...*drum roll*... Cooking with Bae!! And you've probably guessed it...I will be cooking with bae! My boyfriend J (i.e. "bae") and I are currently in a long-ish distance relationship (him being in London and me being 294 miles away up north, near Newcastle), and since we both love food and are trying to find inexpensive things we can do as a couple so we can afford travel fares to see each other, we are going to be experimenting with cooking dishes from around the world from the comfort of my kitchen!



As some of you may know, I really enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes, however J hasn't had a lot of experience in the kitchen and is very much a "sauce from a jar" kind of man. In order to challenge his limits, J has been appointed head chef during our "Cooking with Bae" cookathons, a responsibility I am confident he will undertake very well (though if I get food poisoning, you know why!).

We hope that you will enjoy this segment and maybe learn some new and simple dishes to try out yourselves along the way!

Also, if you are an Instagram user, you can find some of our dishes using #cookingwithbae! Make sure you click the "heart" button to like!

Happy cooking!

XOXO