Simply Cook

If you are not the best chef in the world (a little like me) but still enjoy the taste of good home cooked food then look no further than Simply Cook.

We were bought a three month subscription for a Christmas present and have been loving the idea. Once a month a box, which can fit through your postbox arrives filled with four different recipes and three spices per recipe. The meals usually take less than 20 mins to prepare and the ingredients will cost between £3-5 per meal. As a result these are an excellent way of spicing up your mid week meal plans.

Your first box will be determined for you but after this you will get a degree of choice with your recipes. We have almost worked our way through all twelve and would recommend anyone to try this idea. There isn't really another way to have dishes from all over the world each night of the week without hours studying a recipe book, buying hundreds of different spices and cupboard ingredients and wasting precious post work relaxing time slaving away at the cooker.

The dishes we have whipped up and tried are:

• Chorizo Rigatoni (quite spicy!)
• Paella (I would add some celery and peas to this dish, maybe also some squid)
• Nyona (this was one of our favs and really took us back to our Malaysian holiday)
• Hot Cajun Meatballs (again, these are very spicy)
• Tandoori Chicken
• Mushroom Penne (this was nice but not the most imaginative)
• Char Siu BBQ Pork (this was delicious, I would recommend)
• Biryani
• Chicken and mushroom risotto (despite being simple this was very, very tasty)
• Cassoulet

Next week we have the Vietnamese Pork and the Bibimbap, which is a Korean dish to look forward to.

The other good thing about these recipes is a large number of them are gluten free so are ideal if you suffer with an intolerance and they are all relatively healthy and under 600 calories per portion. Most recipes serve 2-3 but we like our food so have never invited anyone to join us!!!!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our subscription and will probably take out another one later in the year as we haven't tried several of the other available recipes. This would make a great birthday or Christmas present for someone as is inexpensive at £30 for three months or if you want to spice up your food and try some unique, tasty dishes from around the world then sign up to a £10 per month subscription.

Happy Cooking!