So My Kitchen Nightmare was actually fun and everyone got fed. Plus everyone was catered for so there’s no need to panic when cooking for our varying dietary requirements, it just takes a little bit more planning time.

The best way to get this all done – and keep your hair on – is to keep the oven at 180 degrees, and marinade the meat and fish the day before.

With oodles of nibbles, it means you can keep chatting while you cook and I also make it a golden rule to feed the kids first, so while it may seem a faff, the little horrors angels will be well occupied while you get the next round ready. 

You should also get the veg prepped before anyone arrives so peel your potatoes and put in water, a rough guide is 1.5 potatoes per person.  Chop them to about 2 inches all round and add maldon salt and parboil for 10 minutes, drain and leave on the side until ready to pop in.  Make sure you split into two lots as you’ll be roasting twice.  As the potatoes are small, you only need to blast them for 40 minutes so keep your oven timer working!

Nibbles to Keep Hunger Pangs at Bay…

Falafel & Hoummus
This is a great little packet mix which saves loads of time, you can make 16 balls out of this but probably more. I follow the recipe but tinker with the cooking style by frying them in a little olive oil for a minute or two until they start to crisp and then pop in the oven to finish off – you can roll these in gluten free flour before cooking to make them crispier.

When they’re done, cut them in half and put a cocktail stick in each one and pop on a plate with a big tub of hoummus in the middle – that’s a great little starter with minimum fuss.

Cheats Garlic Bread and Pizza Bites
Don’t make a meal out of your starters, you can make your own, but with so much to do, you’ll be forgiven for using a few packets.  You can buy sliced frozen garlic bread from Sainsburys, pop in the oven with a thin crust margherita pizza (M&S does a square one with very thin crust) and both cook in 10 minutes – slice up the pizza into one inch squares – and hey presto, hot nibbles.

See the photo below for what your falafel should look like before you cook it. 

Kids Roast Chicken with Broccoli 

I used four organic skinless chicken breasts for this dish and the marinade is;

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

3 Cloves of garlic

1 handful of fresh basil

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

2 tablespoons of dry white wine

I use the Pour & Store bags to marinade my meat and fish in, they save space in the fridge as well.

To bake these, slice longways in half and then wrap in organic bacon and place on a baking tray.  Pop in the oven along with the parboiled potatoes, which should be sprinkled with olive oil and salt.  After 30 minutes, stick a large head of organic broccoli into a pot of boiling water and no salt – cook to taste, that’s 5 to 10 minutes. It’s all ready in 40 minutes and you can cheat with instant Bisto gravy. This serves 8 – and the bacon is really added just for flavour so don’t worry if they leave it.

 And for the Grown Ups…

Once you’ve got the kids’ meal underway, put the rest of the potatoes in the oven and after 20 minutes pop in the salmon, wrapped in foil and the lamb on a baking tray. Cook the broccoli as above and serve with a winter salad – you can use the Som Tam recipe on my credit crunch page, but you’ll need to double up for this many people.

Rapturous Rack of Lamb

The lamb marinade is;

2 tablespoons of rose water
2 tablespoons of Ume Plum seasoning
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon of sugar

Sumptuous Salmon Steaks

This marinade is a doddle and the longer it’s left to infuse, the better it tastes
2 tablespoons of Nom Plah fish sauce
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of honey
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic

So when that’s all done, sit down and enjoy a natter with a glass of chilled white wine – and let the children play!

Oh, if you want to know about dessert – I’d love to say I had the time to pop a few home made muffins in the oven but after this lot, it’s frozen fruit juice pops all the way, Fruitinis and Smoozes are packaged to look like the usual E-number laden ice lollies but instead they’re mostly sugar free and have a very high fruit juice content.

If you ever try any of these, let me know how you get on!