Food for friends

This week is turning out to be Traybake Week at Kitchen136. What a great way to feed people - you cut up a few veg, add some chunks of chicken if desired, mix some spices or herbs, and into the oven it all goes. There's not even very much to wash up at this stage, and the kitchen will be in a tidy state before the doorbell rings and the wine gets poured.

The spice mixture on the Chicken, red pepper, etc traybake was really good - fennel seeds, smoked paprika, cumin, lemon zest, garlic - who knew!

The Spinach, ricotta, and chicken recipe, with veg roasted in a separate pan, is untried, that happens tonight ... and it needs the chicken breasts stuffing with a spinach and ricotta mixture, which is a teeny bit fiddly imho, but it all cooks at the same time, without different saucepans needing timing, which is my criterion for an easy life.

The spicy roast veg and lentils recipe is untried too -- but lots of veg are on hand for tomorrow's debut. The recipe calls for tinned puy lentils, which will take further searching for - or else I'll boil up some dried ones, just like we used to do in the bad old days before everything came in tins.