Quorn Lettuce Wraps + Caramel Apple Crumble

A couple of days ago, our dinner ended up being extra delicious so I thought I would share. I don't usually use Quorn mince, but my Mum gave me a bag that had been randomly lurking in her freezer, so when I read this recipe for tofu lettuce wraps, I decided to make something similar using the Quorn mince.

Quorn Lettuce Wraps
(serves 4)

• 1 bag frozen Quorn mince (300g)
• oil
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• smoked paprika, to taste
• 200g quinoa
• vegetable stock cube
• cheddar, grated
• lettuce (I think I used mini gem...ideally something with cup-like leaves!)

1. Put a little oil in a pan and heat to a medium heat.
2. Add the quorn and sliced pepper, fry for a few minutes.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, smoked paprika and water if needed (I re-filled the tomato can about half way with water). Simmer for 15-20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, put the quinoa and stock cube in a pan. Cover with boiling water and cook for approximately 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked.
5. Serve the mince mix, quinoa, cheddar and lettuce separately so that people can make up their own wraps.

Unfortunately I cooked this quite later so the lighting was very poor -but here are the photos I managed to take...

Very tasty, but very messy...

Izzy always loves meals where she can be involved in the process, so these were good for her too...

I was pleasantly surprised by these. I wasn't expecting much from the Quorn mince, but it was actually pretty good. Not much flavour on its own (but you add that with the other ingredients) but the texture was nice. One I will make again. If you want a fancier recipe though, have a look at A Healthy Passion's lettuce wrap recipe that I linked to at the start. I've just looked at it more closely now, and it looks great! Lots more ingredients than my recipe - I tend to stick to really simple, chuck things in a pan recipes during the week, but like to experiment when I have more time (& Liam home to watch the children) at the weekends.

Anyway, back to this meal. Whilst it was a mid-week meal, it was made extra really special as I also made dessert. I started off intending to just make a simple apple crumble, but it ended up being super caramelly!

Caramel Apple Crumble
(serves 3)

• 2 large Bramley apples (plus I also used one normal apple as I had extra crumble topping left)
• 60g caster sugar
• 80g butter
• 160g plain flour
• 100g dark soft brown sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180C fan).
2. Peel and finely dice the apples. Toss them in the caster sugar to coat.
3. Put the sugared apples into the bottom of your baking dishes - I used two small ramekins, and 2 slightly larger individual dishes.
4. In a food processor, blitz together the butter, flour and dark brown sugar until it is fine bread crumb consistency.
5. Place the crumble topping on top of the apples and lightly press down.
6. Cook crumbles in the oven for approximately 25 minutes, until the crumble has turned golden brown, and the "caramel" is bubbling up from underneath.

Given the high amount of sugar in this recipe, I really shouldn't have been surprised at how caramelly the result was!

Served with double cream - the perfect end to a delicious meal...

Can I pretend that as the main course was pretty light, my huge portion of crumble was "allowed"?? Haha, we were all pretty full after this!

Do you usually cook different "types" of meal during the week compared to weekends? What are your favourite ways to make meals seem special? I don't actually cook that differently during the week vs weekends in terms of meal styles, but I do leave meals that require lots of chopping until the weekends when Liam can do the knife work! We hardly ever have desserts (Liam and I usually snack on shop bought stuff when the children are in bed instead) so when I do make them, it makes meal time a bit more of an occasion.