Finally, a recipe... Tray Bake

As you all already know, I got this idea from Jamie Oliver’s magazine. It’s so easy to adapt and there’s no skill at all involved, just chuck some food that you fancy on a tray. Here’s my version for you all to peruse…
(There are no pictures because 1) This meal was no great shakes looks-wise, 2) My camera appears to be broken and 3) I was too hungry to delay eating by trying to take a decent photo of it)

Ingredients:
Half an aubergine
A whole red pepper
Halloumi cheese
Palma ham
Salt, pepper
Dried herbs (I just used oregano)
Sunflower oil
Couscous
Boiling water

Method:

Cut up your aubergine, red pepper and halloumi into equal sized chunks and put them all on a tray, drizzle with the oil and season with the salt, pepper and herbs. Mix it around a bit. Put it in a hot oven – I have no idea what temperature I turned the dial to but it was probably around 200 Celsius.

Cook until the veg has softened and the halloumi is starting to turn a little bit golden – this time will vary depending on how big you’ve cut your veg. It probably won’t be more than 20 minutes.

Towards the end of the cooking time take the tray out and add in some chopped up ham – I also drizzled the veg with a bit of balsamic glaze which added a nice flavour – and pop it back in the oven.

Now, you’re meant to add “1 part couscous to 1 part water” but I just tipped some couscous in a bowl and poured boiling water over it so the water came just a bit higher than the couscous. (Turned out I’d used far too much couscous and a little too much water so I ended up with a mountain of damp, sticky couscous – it still tasted nice.) Anyway, so add the water and cover the bowl with a lid of some sort and wait until it’s absorbed all the water – five-ten minutes.

When that’s done, season it, fluff it up, take the veg out the oven and plonk it on top.

It tastes nice, I promise. And it’s so quick and easy. Pretty well balanced and healthy too.

As I made much too much for just me, I kept it in the fridge and tonight I used it as a filling for stuffing peppers which were super tasty.