Sitting down for a good meal always brings people together. If you're quite a good cook and you want to strengthen your relationship with your housemates, there's nothing better than organising a special meal that you can all prepare together and discover new flavours whilst making it. And living with other people has lots of advantages, one of which being the amount of plans that you can make all together.
For this reason, we have prepared you a menu made up of easy and cheap recipes that are suitable for all palates. And just because, why not, they're healthy too!
Are you prepared to turn your apartment into the next three Michelin star restaurant?
1. Avocado with eggs and bacon
The frenzy around avocados just keeps growing, and nowadays, the possibilities with this fruit are endless. This dish cannot only be served as a starter for a meal, but it can also be part of a good breakfast or be prepared as part of an energetic Sunday brunch.
It is really simple to make. We start by cooking the bacon for a few minutes in the fry-ing pan (this can also be done in the microwave). Whilst the bacon is cooking, we cut the avocados in half and take the stone out of the center. In the hole that is left there, we add a little bit of bacon, cover it in egg and then season it with salt and pepper. If you want to, you can also add a little bit of sweet paprika, basil or oregano to your liking. Finally, we put the avocado in the microwave at minimum power for a couple of minutes, so that the egg sets a little. Then, it's ready to eat!
2. Vegetable and mushroom skewers
We could say that these skewers are one of the easiest and healthiest dishes in the world. They can include almost any ingredient, but we are suggesting these vegetable and mushroom ones that are so good you'll want to lick your fingers afterwards. To make them, we choose our favourite vegetables (pepper, tomato, courgette, aubergine, onion...) and we put them together with mushrooms.
We chop up the vegetables into a size that will fit well on the skewers and we cook them in a frying pan with salt, at a medium heat. To add a special touch, you could add spices such as curry spice for example, and maybe even a little bit of spicy paprika if you dare.
3. Poke Bowls
Poke bowls originate from Hawaii, but they quickly became popular across other parts of the world. This recipe, which transports us to the pacific islands, is really easy to make at home and also, includes a large variety of ingredients.
The base: We recommend that you use rice (the best option being sushi rice, cooked with a little rice vinegar and served cold). But there are other options, such as quinoa, salad...
The protein: A good cut of tuna or salmon is always a succulent choice. Alternative-ly, big carnivores can opt for chicken and vegetarians for an option such as tofu.
The toppings: Our suggestions for ingredients to go on top would be edamame beans, wakame, mango, orange, carrot, cucumber, avocado, cherry tomatoes... Chia seeds or sesame seeds etc., and equally, nuts will also go great with this dish.
The dressing: Finally, our recommendation is a simple sauce made using orange juice, wasabi and soy sauce.
As you can see, it is a really simple and highly flexible dish, which means that it won't be disappointing for anybody.
4. Açai bowls
And finally, as a dessert, we enter into the amazing world of açai bowls. This is con-sidered one of the healthiest and most in-fashion dishes of 2021, which is made using this beneficial, Amazonian fruit which is rich in nutrients and antioxidants.
The steps are really basic, yet the result is spectacular. All you need is the açai fruit (or its pulp at least), a fruit of your choice (we recommend banana or any fruit that has a creamy texture) and vegetable milk and voilà!. Simply crush all of the ingredients together with a whisk or in a blender, and then serve it in a bowl. Afterwards, you can (and should) add toppings to the mixture. Our top suggestion would be granola, coconut and goji berries, but you can let your creative side loose. We can assure you that you won't regret it.
If you choose to try these recipes, you can let us know in the comments how they turned out for you, and more importantly, if they played a part in you having a good time!
We're sure you'll end up making them more than once!