Super Scrumptious Cauliflower Cheese & Spinach - Perfect Mid-Week Dinner Treat😃😋

Hi Honeys, 

How are you today?  Can you believe we've reached day eighteen of Blogtober already?  This month is just flying past so quickly.  Hubby was working from home today so while he was upstairs working all day, Jade and I had fun in the kitchen. 

We've been buying those little pouches of pureed vegetables, the little organic ones they sell for babies?  Well, a favourite YouTuber buys them for her beautiful furbabies and, since we're always looking out for new ways to keep our furbaby happy (and healthy) we bought a half dozen (in different varieties) to let her try them. 

Long story short, she loves them!  So, after a few days of mixing a little sachet with her dinner, I decided to attempt to make this puree myself, using Jade's favourite veggies.  It was a huge hit honeys, I mixed it with her chicken tonight and it was lovely to see her enjoying her dinner.💖 I'll try to share in my next post, but for today's I thought I'd share one of Hubby's favourites...

This is such a yummy dish honeys but so simple to make that it's perfect for a quick-to-make mid-week treat and the family will love it😃😋

As usual with my posts there are a few photos, why not go grab a cuppa dear ones (and maybe even a cookie or two?😃) and join me after the page break?  See you in a minute or two...Welcome back honeys.🤗 Do you have your cuppa? Good, me too☕🍪 Settle back and get comfy then and we can chat.🤗

Oddly enough, this (new) favourite started life as one of our kitchen experiments.  Hubby & I are often to be found in the kitchen trying out recipe ideas spotted on Pinterest or changing or tweaking old favourites to make them interesting.😊 In that vein, this happened...

Super Scrumptious Cauliflower Cheese & Spinach🧀

Since we're trying to be a little healthier, we've been trying to include veggies with every dinner and to try to cut carbs where we can too.  As a child I would never have gone near spinach, no matter how many Popeye cartoons I watched😊but now it's a favourite.  This is one of those super-easy, super-fast version of an old favourite. Something for a night when you're too tired to be in the kitchen cooking for too long but you still want to eat something yummy and healthy.  

Ingredients:

  

1 bag of frozen cauliflower

1 large bag of fresh spinach 

2 sachets of cheese sauce (and 1 pink & extra milk to make up)

250g Cheddar cheese - grated (or swap for your favourite cheese honeys)

Optional: 

a teaspoon of garlic powder added to the cheese sauce is so delicious. I didn't add it this time but have before and it's lovely.

Directions: 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 honeys. 

I used our little steamer to prepare the cauliflower and the spinach but you don't have to.  The cauliflower can just as easily be placed into a saucepan (carefully!) in hot water for 8-10 mins and the spinach can actually be added to the cheese sauce uncooked (it will wilt/cook in the sauce and of course will be going into the oven too.)

I love using our little steamer, it can cook potatoes, veggies as well as fish in no time and lets me get on with other things.  So, into the steamer I put the spinach and the cauliflower and started it cooking and while that was steaming away, I started on the cheese sauce. 

2. Into a saucepan, I placed 1 pint of milk and put it on a low heat to warm.  To a small bowl I added the contents of two sachets of cheese sauce.  Making a cheese sauce "from scratch" is so easy honeys but I'm trying to make this version of a favourite (Cauliflower cheese) as quickly and as easily as possible.  

This means it could be made as a mid-week, too busy/tired/can't be bothered cooking kind of dinner that can still be healthy.  Healthier than phoning for a take-away anyway (and saves money too!)    

Back to our saucepan then honeys, with the milk warming I added the two sachets of cheese sauce to a small bowl and then added a little milk and mixed to a paste.  To this paste I added a couple of spoons full of warm milk from the saucepan and mixed it through again.  This almost custard type mix is then added to the saucepan of milk and stirred through on a medium heat until the sauce begins to thicken. 

3. When the cheese sauce has thickened, add the yummy steamed spinach to the cheese sauce and stir through... 

 

4.  Next, add the lovely cauliflower to the cheese sauce too honeys...

5. Remove your saucepan from the heat and stir through around half of your grated/shredded cheese into the cheese sauce mixture.  

6.  Carefully pour your delicious cauliflower cheese & spinach into an oven-proof dish and scatter the rest of the cheese over the top... 

7.  Very carefully (it'll already be hot!) place your oven proof dish onto the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and a gorgeous golden colour...

 

8. Serve to loved ones with some lovely, crunchy salad and/or yummy garlic bread and await praise and hugs.💖

This really is a super-fast, super-easy way to make a really yummy dinner that's healthy too honeys, which makes it a perfect way to get a dinner on the table on a busy day.  

Over to you then, what's your favourite quick and easy mid-week dinner?  Do you have a shortcut version of your favourite dinner? If so, why not share in the comments?  Are you taking part in Blogtober or Vlogtober?  If so, leave me your link and I'll come say hello.

Till next time then dear ones, stay warm, it's getting so chilly in the evenings now, time for jumpers and cardigans I think. Hugs always,