Cheese, Cheese, Cheese and Cheese

Have a careful guess on what this post is all about. No, sorry, you are wrong, it's not all about cheese. What a misleading way to put a title of a blog post. How can I do a thing like that? Yes, just go for it and write it.
While I love cheese very much and all that, this is not going to be a post dedicated to cheese. And this is not a report of about the German cheese museum or a cheese festival that is taking place near to the museum and ... in fact is taking place next month and ... it's not too far from my place. Well, who knows, maybe I get the chance to visit it and then I could write something about it, but now it's simply a recipe containing quite some cheese. That dish is a pasta recipe with a cheese sauce, not just one of those where you put two kind of cheeses in or even three. No, it's Pasta with Quadruple Cheese Sauce.

Let us have a closer look at what we need and how we could go about.

Ingredients:
250 g Ricotta
250 g Gorgonzola
100 g Emmental
50 g Parmesan
2 hands full of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying
Yes, of course, pasta

Method:
Note the time your pasta needs to cook. It depends on type and size and when you make fresh pasta, well you have some extra work, but you will love it even more. Right, I didn't do my own pasta, although I could have done that.
Get a pan and get some oil to a hot temperature and fry the garlic and the tomatoes.
Meanwhile in a bowl over hot water you carefully melt the cheeses ...as far as they need melting ... in fact it will suffice to melt the Emmental and the Gorgonzola first and then stir in the Ricotta and Parmesan.

Once you have achieved a nice and lovely cheese mixture you can add the fried tomatoes and garlic to it. Check the seasoning ... eh ... we didn't put in anything so far ... so check whether some salt and pepper is necessary and add at own will.
Did you check the time for your pasta at the beginning? Since you can imagine that it doesn't take that long to put together the quadruple cheese sauce, you for sure agree that it's good to start getting the pasta ready at an early stage.
When all is ready ... enjoy ...

So I really hope, I can manage to visit this cheese festival. Do you know how it is when you want to go to so many things and would love to do so many things and in the end you don't even manage half of it? Well, well, well, life is like that ...

... then there are also these things happening in your life, I'm sure I have mentioned it more than once already here, when you go shopping and see certain ingredients and you feel you need to have them, although you haven't planned anything to do with them, then ... I guess it's time for the No Waste Food Challenge from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than ... is managing the challenge this month.
Well, this time it was the Ricotta ...

... and if you feel like it and have leftover cheese, why not go for a quintuple cheese sauce or even ... but that would be all up to you ...

In the past I was younger, but now ... Vatapa

That's a ridiculous thought! In the past I was younger. Although I know that for sure, I am not quite so sure whether I'm already feeling it. Today at work already half way through, I thought it could be over now, because my energy was gone and yesterday evening I was totally shattered. Somehow, it seems, I can't do the things anymore I was able to do five years ago. Somehow! Ah, that is really ridiculous! There ought to be a different reason for all that.
On the other hand, today, I am able to do things I wasn't able to do five years ago. Something like this ...

That's a Brazilian dish called Vatapa, a stew with fish, prawns, cashews and coconut milk. Fine, I had read something about it a month ago and we already had an entry with this dish for Bloggers Around the World quite at the beginning, but I didn't read anything about it lately.
So today, I just went for it without looking at any recipe, with just the key-thoughts in mind: you have to use fish, prawns, cashews and coconut milk.
Well, I let you know some more details now ...

Ingredients:
Splash of vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 medium sized red peppers, roughly chopped
1 small red chilli
4 small tomatoes, quartered
100 g salmon
100 g prawns
100 g cashew nuts, roasted and salted
165 ml coconut milk
150 ml water
3 spring onions, chopped up
A hand full of chopped fresh coriander
Salt and pepper

Method:
First heat up a sufficiently large pan with the vegetable oil and start with the chopped up onion in it until those pieces go soft. Try not to cry while chopping the onion, though.
Good, if you want to serve the dish with rice, it might take as long from this point on as it takes to prepare steamed rice, at least in the way I use to do it.
Back to the pan, we add the red peppers, chilli and tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes, so the vegetables start to soften up a bit, but we still want to have some crunch on those peppers in the end.
Time for the fish, prawns, cashews, coconut milk and water to join. Bring everything to the boil and let it all simmer for 10-15 minutes. If you want to reduce it more, increase the time, but then the rice will already be ready before you are finished (that shouldn't be any problem) or the peppers might go to soft. Choose for yourself, what you like.
Just before you are finished, check the taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if you have to.
Now add the spring onions and chopped coriander. It's time to serve, it's time to eat, it's time to enjoy. I did!

I would say now, this dish is for the World Cup Bloggers Around the World as Brazil is playing Germany today. For Germany I only have some beer in the fridge. No, I don't think the colours of the labels have any meaning as to the German flag, although on this photo it might look like it. 

I might try the left one of them later today. It's called Marc's Chocolate Bock. That sounds intriguing. I would never have thought about buying those beers would it not have been for a 20 % discount at the shop due to the World Cup. This 20 % was on any kind of beer. So people were really pushing out beer from the shop in truck loads.
Anyway, I will see whether that beer was worth its cost. After all one of my workmates recommended it to me. He knows a lot more about beer than I do, but then on the other hand, everyone has to find out for himself, what he likes or not.

Enough about beer! I am not going to do any advertisement for beer here right now. No one asked me to and I have no time for it now.

Well, I also want to add this post to the No Waste Food Challenge. I wouldn't want to miss that one this month. This month Anne from Anne's Kitchen is hosting on behalf of Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. After all I saved those red peppers from annihilation as they were far too advanced toward that direction already. Good, it was time for the prawns, too as they were freezing away in the freezer already.

As a conclusion ... I might not be 20 anymore, but since then I have learned a lot and I don't want to trade in this experience ...

Brazil vs Croatia - Filé à Osvaldo Aranha vs Fritule

Finally, this is the day where the World Cup 2014 in Brazil starts. Brazil and Croatia will kick off in the opening game in São Paulo. Who will win? I don't know and I don't favour any country is this tournament. Whoever wins, wins.
However, when it comes to individual cuisines of the various countries, things are different. There I know what I am looking for, great taste and lovely food.
All that leads us to the Bloggers Around the World: World Cup 2014 Brazil. From today on things get serious. At a day such as this you can share Brazilian and Croatian dishes. Watch out for more tweets or post on the Cooking Around the World Facebook page to find out what you can share with us on what day. Or simply keep up to date the real World Cup.

Well then, today it's Brazil vs Croatia and while it's the opening, I decided to do a food Brazil vs Croatia as well. Since I can't eat two large savoury dishes in one day, I went for one savoury and one sweet.

Let's go Brazil first ...

Filé à Osvaldo Aranha

Ingredients:
Fillets of beef
One onion, chopped up
One beaten egg
Two large knobs of butter
80 g cassava flour
Garlic, finely sliced and fried
Salt, Pepper
Flat leaved parsley, coarsely chopped
One spring onion,chopped in rings
A few potatoes to make potato chips

Method:
Things are quite fast paced here. The fillets of beef need 3-4 minutes on each side a brief time for resting. The potato chips won't take too long, once you have cut the potatoes in shape.
The bit that takes slightly more time is the Farofa. So I decided to start with this one. All the other jobs you can do in between.
Have a sufficiently large pan ready and melt some butter. Then add the chopped up onions and soften them. After that you add the beaten egg and scramble it. Finally you add the cassava flour and season with salt and pepper ... not too much salt.
Stir the whole bit ... eh ... a bit and let it go until it gains some colour.
As I mentioned, the beef needs 3-4 minutes on each side. Use a frying pan for that with some butter in it.
Be careful, when you fry the potato chips. Make sure, you patted the potato bits dry before tossing them into the hot oil.
A general reminder, don't burn anything ... especially not your fingers or any other body parts.

When everything is ready, plate up. The amount of Farofa should be enough for four people. In order to assure that, you can also serve steamed rice alongside. I read, that this is done in Brazil, too. For me, that was fine. I wasn't in need of any rice here.
Anyway, serve he fillet of beef with the fried garlic on top. On the side you put the Farofa, which you garnish with the parsley and spring onion rings. Of course, don't forget the chips and ... whatever drink you need alongside it.
That was a quick and lovely dish. However, I would recommend not to use too much salt on the Farofa and I guess, a small serving of the Farofa is sufficient.

Onward to Croatia ...

Fritule

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
3 tbsp. sugar
50 g raisins
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. plum brandy (or brandy or rum)
1 sachet of dried yeast (7 g)
500 g flour
Water, if the dough is still too dry (we want it slightly sticky)
Oil for frying

Method:
Let's make the dough for the fritule. Ahem, what else should we be doing?!
Get a large bowl and crack the eggs into it. Add the sugar, including vanilla sugar, and whisk it together. Then add the raisins, lemon zest and juice, vegetable oil and the plum brandy. Thoroughly mix things up ... no ... through.
Combine the yeast with the flour and then add it to the bowl. Bring all the ingredients together. Use as much water to get the right dough, not too dry, but not too wet either, you know. No? You will see, slightly wet that is.
Cover the bowl and leave to rise until doubled in size.
After that make small balls from the dough. Does that not remind you of football a little bit. You could even serve the finished product to the football watching persons in your household ... but don't forget, there is booze in these small donuts.
Yes, we got carried away. we won't have a finished product unless we do some frying for those balls. Have sufficient vegetable oil in a pan for it. The fritule need to have the chance to float in the oil without touching the bottom of the pan.
A sensible thing to do is to put the small donuts onto kitchen paper after remove them from the oil. Later you can put them into an appropriate bowl for serving.

Hm ... eh ... well, it's best to sprinkle them with some icing sugar before serving and you can also use some wooden sticks for people to help themselves to the fritule.

I reckon, as a snack for the game they would just do or ... have them any other time you want. Well, I was satisfied here, too.

What should I say to this? Brazil vs Croatia: 1 - 1. I hope we get some more lovely dishes for Bloggers Around the World during the World Cup.

However, we don't want to focus all our activities just around the World Cup. This post goes also very well to the No Waste Food Challenge, which Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary is managing together with some other lovely bloggers. This month it's Michelle turn from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families (I just love that title).

I was really lucky I still had cassava flour in my pantry or otherwise the Brazilian dish would not have been complete. However, I don't know, why I had cassava flour in the first place. Finally I found a way to use it.

As for the fritule, they were a brilliant opportunity to use the plum brandy on, which I kind of made myself, but never drink from it. So, I could even add this post to the No Waste Food Challenge twice.

Besides all this ... hm ... eh ... whatever ... don't forget to have fun and ... some delicious food from around the world ...

Warning: Extremely Delicious Vegetable Lasagne

Ha, you weren't expecting this. You thought this crazy guy would give you another one from his loose bottomed tart tin. Nope! Instead I give you something from the bottom of my heart and i hope you will love it too. Today I have a vegetable lasagne for you. 
Simple? Yes, but be warned, in my opinion this vegetable lasagne tastes extremely delicious. Of course, I have to say this, but there is only one way to prove me wrong. You would have to try it for yourself. Besides that, you will also find some ... eh ... what to call them ... eh ... let's try ... twists and an unexpected ingredient.
Less talking more cooking ...

Ingredients:
6 lasagne sheets
1 medium aubergine
2 small courgettes
A few splashes of olive oil
1 large tomato
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp. tomato puree
100 ml water
50 ml red wine vinegar
A few basil leaves
Salt and pepper
200 ml crème fraîche
1 egg
A hand full of grated parmesan
3 tbsp. grated radish

Method:
The times I made a vegetable lasagne before, was to cook all the vegetables into a kind of sauce. However, we are not doing this today. We like to preserve the pure individual tastes of the single vegetables ... at least most of them. I was inspired to do it in a different way by watching an episode of MasterChef Australia.
Therefore we cut the aubergine and the courgettes in a way they fit to the lasagne sheets, that is they are going to be cut into fine slices. Then get a baking tray ready with some grease proof paper and heat up your oven to 180 ºC.
Be generous with salt to the sliced vegetables. Off into the oven they go for about 15-20 minutes. Just make sure, they don't get burned.
Meanwhile get your tomato sauce ready. Get a pan ready on heat. Be generous again. This time with olive oil in the pan. The ancient principle 'those who give bountifully, will receive bountifully' still applies.
Cut the tomato in small chunks and throw them into the hot oil to let them sizzle away. Finely chop your clove of garlic and toss it into the oil as well. When you start to smell the beautiful odour of the garlic on your kitchen add the tomato puree, the water and the red wine vinegar. Go through the sauce with a spoon and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. On a low heat reduce the sauce for a while. When the sauce is thick enough and you are almost finished use the basil leaves to finish off the sauce.
Before we can start putting the lasagne together we have two more jobs to do. The fist one is to pre-cook the lasagne sheets in boiling salted water for about three minutes. The second job is to prepare some kind of white sauce to put between the layers.
For this white sauce we simply ... yes, very simply ... spoon together, the crème fraîche, the egg, the parmesan and the grated radish. Well, I suppose you could use horseradish, too. 
Anyway, I used to have radish when I was way younger and then ... didn't have it for a long time. Due to the fact, that radish is in season right now, I thought I give it a go again. For sure I had something in mind for it, but I just ended up eating most of it raw. So far I never had used radish in cooking. Bravely I decided to grate some of it into my white sauce for my vegetable lasagne. Well, it worked ... well.
After this brief detour into my use of radish we get back to our lasagne. We are almost there.
Now get yourself a 20 cm x 20 cm oven-proof dish. Remember that the oven is still at 180 ºC. We start the lasagne with a splash of olive oil that you rub onto the bottom of your dish. Then a few slices of aubergine follow, two sheets of lasagne, white sauce, courgette, white sauce, lasagne sheet, aubergine courgette, white sauce, lasagne sheets and white sauce.
Well it all depends on the amount of sliced vegetables you have. Feel free to change things a tiny little bit. Just make sure, you have three layers of lasgane sheets.
Before the vegetable lasagne goes into the oven, grate some extra parmesan on top and while you are at it allow some olive oil to be drizzled on it, too.
The lasagne should go into the oven for about 15-20 minutes. It may look like this afterwards ...

You see, there is a bit of colour on it. If you want more, you have to give more. This vegetable lasagne will make for four humble portions, but be warned ... I said it before ... it tastes extremely delicious. So you might want to plan ahead for this.
Whatsoever. serve the lasagne with a few spoons of the tomato sauce on top.

You know, if you add more sauce there is more of it to enjoy and it will all drip onto your plate and you might want to do something with the plate later.
In my opinion, this vegetable lasagne was the best I had so far. You can still taste the aubergine and the courgette individual and you have a gorgeous tomato sauce, too.

I can only recommend to try it for yourself. I might be wrong here, but ... you'll never know if you don't go for it.

Speaking of going for it, this post will go to some blog challenges in no particular order ...

Elizabeth's No Waste Food challenge hosted by Ness at Jibber Jabber UK this month. Fine, I would never have thrown the remaining radish away, but here I used the left over radish in a delicious way.

Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. Check it out for yourself!

Helen's and Michelle's Extra Veg Blog Challenge. If I haven't used some extra veg here, I don't know and then again, I used the radish as I have never used it before.

Camilla's Credit Crunch Munch. Having a vegetarian meal with vegetables either on offer or in season or both will help you to save some money.

Manjiri's and Jacqueline's Pasta Please challenge. The theme for April is Olive Oil. No, I wasn't especially generous with it because of this challenge. I just wanted to and found it necessary for the sauce to work properly.

The Four Seasons Food April Challenge from Delicieux and Eat Your Veg. The goal was to celebrate vegetables. In my opinion ... again ... this is what this very vegetable lasagne is doing.

Then we have the Simple and in Season challenge from Ren. Do I have to say it again that radish is in season?

Just because I can, I add this post to Recipe of the Week from Emily, too.

Last but not least we have Karen's Cooking with Herbs challenge. Guess why?

Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart

Finally I managed to buy a loose bottom tart tin. I was looking for it every ... I went to and thought they might have one. Now I managed. Therefore I can go for it and bake madly as ... eh ... I want to.
The first thing on my list of things I wanted to bake was a frangipane tart. This almond filling taste so gorgeous, at least in my mind. Here we go then. Over enthusiastically as I am at times I had stocked myself with lemons that I didn't actually have a plan for. Apart from that there was some basil growing on the windowsill, which wasn't too sure about whether to die or still live on happy ever after ... or rather until dying a natural basil's death of being used up in cooking.
To cut a long story short, before I go overboard here, the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart was about to rise from the ashes of the basil ... no, the basil wasn't that bad, in fact it wasn't looking bad at all, but that could have changed any day now, kind of unstable that herb is.
Anyway, top talking, start baking ... Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
150 g butter
100 g sugar
Pinch of salt
250 g flour
Zest of 1 lemon
Handful of chopped up basil leaves (use more, if you need more basil in your life)
1 egg
For the frangipane filling:
1 egg
100 g ground almonds
100 g butter
90 g sugar
Juice of one lemon (how would that lemon have looked otherwise)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
100 g icing sugar
Apart from that:
100 g raspberry jam
Icing sugar
Melted chocolate

Method:
We like to start with the pastry for the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart. First of all we cream the butter and the sugar so that you don't see any loose sugar grains anymore, but instead everything should have been assimilated by the butter. While you are at it sneak the salt in, too.
Next goes in the flour. Sometimes I like to massage it in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. At other days I simply go for it and add the remaining ingredients as well. In this case, the lemon zest, basil and the egg.
Carefully bring all the ingredients together into a fine lump of dough. Wrap it into clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
After that it's time to get your loose bottom tart tin (I love it now) ready. Rub some butter all over the tin and push the dough into the tin. Well, you could roll out the dough first and then go for it. The good thing with this kind of pastry is, you can still push it everywhere you want, even if the rolled out dough tears.
Whatever, that same pastry now needs some serious blind baking for about 15 minutes at 180 ºC.
Meanwhile, we can make the frangipane filling. Honestly, I don't want to make any fuss about it. Get a sufficiently sized bowl and mix all the ingredients for the frangipane filling thoroughly.
The 15 minutes of the blind baking should be over at one point ... about 15 minutes after they started, I reckon, unless you prove me wrong here.
Here a little picture, I tried to put together, showing the different steps of the tart until the product is finished.

To follow those steps, spread the raspberry jam on the blind baked pastry and after that try to top it with the frangipane filling. At least that was the idea originally. During that process the jam and the frangipane filling rather might mix a bit. No worries, though, it's part of the package.
Having now an empty bowl, where the frangipane filling used to be and a filled pastry case, I'd say it's a rather good time to put the tart into the oven, which is now at 190 ºC.
Further 18 minutes will bake things right.
Sadly, as some might see it, you have to cool down the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.
At this point it doesn't look too gorgeous as would everyone agree on, I suppose.
Have some icing sugar on it. Oh, that's better, but ... we can do even better. We need something that'll always do: CHOCOLATE. No, not that much, just sprinkle a few fine lines on top of the tart ... blob. Great, no fine lines! We can attempt a few fine lines and put here and there some occasional blobs to make it appear to the beholder it was on purpose. Said and done ...

... I am rather pleased with the outcome. While being at it, I just simulated the case I would have a guest for tea time enjoying this delicious tart together with me. I even put on a candle. At other times it might give the impression of being romantic, but ...
I simply wanted a yummy frangipane tart. 
Now have a closer look at the tart in the next picture and have a guess of what it reminded my malfunctioning brain! 

Anyway, the taste of the frangipane tart was so temptingly dangerously good I even could here the tart calling from the kitchen: "Come and get me, get another slice ...!" Great!
Then it wasn't even a shame that it didn't taste that much of basil. You get more taste from the raspberry jam and the frangipane filling. However, there is a slight hint of basil. Therefore, if you have the feeling, there hasn't been enough basil in your life, feel free to increase the amount until the dough has the colour of your lawn, reminds you of Ireland or until you are well pleased with it.

Things were fine with me. Right, apart from the fact of what I had to do with the tart in the course of days that followed ... it wasn't my fault, was it? Yes,I could have, but I didn't.
However, have an even closer look and tell me ... right to my face ... how you could possibly resist a piece of that tart. 

So, once more, totally heart-broken and shattered I have to admit, it was all my fault entirely, for who has created this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart ...

While still being in grief ...over various things, I can't change now anymore anyway, I like to move on and submit this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart to a cleverly devised selection of blog challenges, due to various reasons ...

Let's do it in alphabetical order then. I might not have used mint in this tart, although I could have, based on the behaviour of the mint on my windowsill, but I didn't want to have an ill-behaved Mint and Lemon Frangipane Tart. Karen from Lavender and Lovage said, it would be alright, if I use any kind of herb to join the Cooking with Herbs challenge, which I from the bottom of my heart want to do.

That brings us already to the letter 'M' and Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. Just to make sure you can use homemade quick raspberry jam with raspberries and sugar, but since I couldn't get that many raspberries I had to go with the nearly as good as homemade raspberry jam to have a from scratch recipe for the Made with Love Mondays.

Then I like to talk again about the lemon and the basil. I didn't want any of those two go to waste, that is let them die before I get the chance to use them. Therefore, I like to add this to the No Waste Food Challenge, which is brought to us by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. However, this month, the challenge is hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK.

So, if you want to count in, that I ate the whole cake as well to the not wasting food, then ... oops. Now it's out!

Quickly, on with the fourth and final challenge. We go back to Karen, although it is a joined challenge by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers. However, this month it's Karen's turn and the chosen theme is: Jams, Curds and Preserves. Hopefully, at this point you don't have to guess for too long which of the three I used in my recipe.

Having reached this point of the post, I wish to say thank you to all those, who have continued reading this far into the post. You are wonderful people, thank you for being out there!!! Really, I mean it, it's not just a phrase. I hope to see you again. You can bring friends, too.

Now I have some work to do. Whatever that may be ...

The Round-Up for the No Waste Food Challenge March

It has been a wonderful month. It's good that the weather now is straightly heading for the warmer and more pleasantly type. Whatsoever, it was a wonderful month, because so many lovely entries poured in for the No Waste Food Challenge - really inspiring.
I am really glad that Elizabeth's gave me the opportunity to host the challenge for March.
Thank you to everyone, who joined in this month. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did ... at least. To many more months of not wasting food.

Right, I reckon we should start with the round-up now and get some more ideas. Let us travel through the posts as the month kept progressing ...

Quite early in the month Choclette from the Chocolate Log Blog had some Almond Mincemeat Slices for us.

So, do you think when you have some leftover chocolate mincemeat in the freezer, this is something for you? Think harder, at least the frangipane top totally intrigued me.

Next up is Alida from My Little Italian Kichen. Well, I don't know if I am allowed to say this, but she has some gorgeous little nibbles for us. There were some olives lurking in the fridge, so Alida had to do some Quick olive nibbles with puff pastry.

Isn't that lovely? Sure, you can make them also, if you have puff pastry lurking in your fridge ...

For the next post you might need to familiarize yourself with the term 'brownie detox' in connection with 'addiction'. Kate, the Gluten Free Alchemist, brings us Chocolate-Banana-Coconut Brownies. Several cheeky over-ripe bananas were brewing trouble.

Kate opens her post with a question, I couldn't find an answer to: 'Who can resist brownies?' Hm ... eh ... let's have a very very close look at that picture  and let us do a quick mini survey: Can you resist those brownies?

After you have finished pondering over this fundamental question, I like to take you back in time on my very own blog ... let's say about two years back. It was very close to my beginning of blogging. I did some risotto burgers from leftover risotto.

I just wanted to share it once more, because I liked it so much.

For all those, who thought we are doing a sweet and savoury alternating kind of round-up, I have to disappoint you, we stay savoury. But down blame me, blame Anne from Anne's Kitchen. Oh, sorry, that wasn't nice to be said, especially since Anne has such a lovely looking and delicious dish for us: Honey and Mustard Sausage Casserole. Hey, you see, there is something sweet in this savoury dish, too.

Apart from that, the dish offers so much more: stray leftover potatoes, kidney beans and some rather tired celery.

Did I tell you already that the bananas in Kate's, the The Gluten Free Alchemist, kitchen were looking for trouble? Yes, I did. Instead of going bananas because of that, Kate did come up with a more delicious plan: Coco-Banana Freeze Bites.

Now you even might to want to encourage your bananas to go over-ripe.

I still believe that Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen was tempted to serve Slow-Cooked Pulled Chipotle Brisket. I can't really prove it though. You can check it later for yourself. Although Janice did refrain from using green food colouring, there still were leftovers from that brisket. Good, it freezes nicely. However, Janice also made a lovely Leftover Chipotle Brisket Curry for us.

You see? There is something green ... oh, that are peas ... fine.

From something green to something red and to saving tomatoes. Manjiri from Sliceofme has something comforting and homely for us: Tomato and Lentil Soupy Broth.

Check it out and you know that you want something of it. Do you feel it already?

In case there are no tomatoes nearby to be saved, there might still be the possibility you need to save some children or even grown-ups from starving. Ness from Jibber Jabber UK has the perfect solution for it: Pasta. No, not any kind of pasta, but Hotdog pasta.

Right, I have to mention there are some beautiful vegetables like carrots and green peppers as well.

Speaking of veggies and children, Louisa over at EatYourVeg was having a photoshoot with her children and ... lots of veggies. In fact, quite a heap of veggies. This called for a Photoshoot Soup or rather a Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup.

As we got your mind working here, we conclude: lot's of veggies will do a lovely soup, so you eat a lot of veggies.

Actually I have an idea right now, that is not due to my own brain. What would you think of having some lovely croutons in that soup? I'd think it be lovely. So, why not try then Tina's Sourdough Red Pepper Croutons. Read all about it on her blog: the Worktop.

That's something lovely for leftover bread. At least it worked out perfectly for me, when I tried it this month. The croutons are great in a salad or ... hey, don't judge me ... even as nibbles.

Now to something completely different. For this we follow Jane to her blog Onions and Paper. For sure you are aware of having a plan in life. Even if you don't have an overall universal plan for your life, it's at least good to plan a few things. Jane gives us a great plan for Eating Cheep-ly - five days, no waste. It's a great post and I am sure you will get some fine ideas. That might even lead to not wasting something that you wouldn't have thought of as wasting something when you simple throw it away. Do you get me? Maybe you do, if you read the post. I even tried something of it myself already after reading it.

While you might later head over to search for what I was referring to, we now head over to Corina and Searching for Spice. There we'll find some yummy Beef Noodle Soup.

You don't have to cook the exact same soup. It all depends on the kind of vegetables you have left over and whether you want to tread the same dangerous way as Corina did. It was a battle between being economical and being tempted to eat more.

Let us see then, whether Siobhan - we know her better as Vohn - will be able to tempt you with her "everything but the kitchen sink" Meatloaf. When you have a closer look at the post on Vohn's Vittles, you will see that there was quite a list of things Vohn wanted to use up creatively. Among those things were chicken livers, beef mince, pork sausagemeat, pancetta, ground pistachios and breadcrumbs. 

You can already see, where this will lead to. That meatloaf will not be finished in one sitting, but ... see for yourself ...

I don't know how you feel by now, but I need something sweet again. I reckon a cake would do the job perfectly. Good that Ness from Jibber Jabber UK has a Microwave upside down pineapple cake for us.

When you have some pineapple slices left at home you can go for it, too. You know, those package sizes in shops can be tricky sometimes.

I hope that satisfied your craving for something sweet as we continue with my post about three uses for tomato sauce. Let me just mention one very simple and totally yummy one ...

... this Four-cheese Pizza. For the other two uses, you have to check it out yourself.

Of course I could have mentioned, that the two other uses involve pasta, but then again we are going to focus on pasta anyway with Katharine from Leeks and Limoni. It's going to be Spring Vegetable Pasta Gratin. Already the name of the post makes me happy, because of the Spring part.

Then the obvious use of cheese mad me even happier. Definitely a great way to deal with odd vegetables lurking in the bottom of your fridge.

For the next dish there have to be other items lurking somewhere. To be more precisely, it will be plantain. You can read all about it at Chef Mireille's East West Realm. Mireille has some Ghanian Street Food for us: Tatale.

I had plantains a few times already, even in more authentic environments instead of my home, but I have to say, so far I like this dish the most judging by the looks and the recipe.

When we move over to EatYourVeg again, we don't want to talk about authentic shapes, but rather original shapes. Louisa got inventive with bringing us Salmon Fishcake Stars. The kids love it.

Have a guess then what leftover-something you could use in those lovely looking fishcakes? Well ... mashed potatoes. 

Are you happy now? Oh, some seem to be quite difficult to please when it comes to that. Chase no further, but rather try Quinoa Rice Pudding with Saffron from Spicy, Quirky and Serendipitous.

Here you go with some lovely pudding using leftover rice and quinoa and ... always remember ... the little things are what brings you happiness.

Among those little things are of course also muffins. Therefore it is only fitting that we go on with Camilla from ... eh (be careful, I said this wrong before) ... Fab Food 4 All. Camilla has some scrumptious Blueberry, Banana and White Chocolate Muffins for us.

Really great, Camilla had some blueberries in her freezer and even better ... they didn't have freezer burn. So, have a muffin or two or ... if you want more, make your own.

On the other hand, you might like some more pasta. Pravina from Indo Global Food has a dish for us: Vegetable Penne Pasta.

A good way to use up some vegetables lurking around somewhere.

Yes, indeed, so many lovely dishes we had this month. Thank you once more to all, who had a share. Can you imagine what would have happened had we all been into wasting food? I don't want to ...

Hang on as the No Waste Food Challenge goes on. In this very April the quest will continue over at Jibber Jabber UK. I am sure Ness will be happy, too, when you flood her with all your lovely and delicious ideas ...