Whoops, but... yay! We're back!

I know, I know... I leave you for a whole year and then come back with a post that doesn't even have photos on it. Sorry about that.

To fill you in, I've been a little busy for the past 12 months or so. I grew, birthed and am raising a lovely baby boy. It preoccupied my mind somewhat and baby brain destroyed my ability to sew and cook (no joke, I tried to make him a room decoration at Christmas and ended up in tears with mis-shapen fabric swatches in front of me!). Blogging was at the back of my somewhat shrivelled mind. But my post isn't about the whole baby thing. It's about something I cooked tonight!

I have reignited my love for cooking proper food and eating well, and this is echoed not only by my husband but my son has some pretty healthy eating needs too!

On Saturday we had reheated cajun chicken (home cooked a week or so ago) with rice and vegetables for dinner. Not any old rice though - cauliflower rice! Or should I say "riced cauliflower"?

I steamed it in big florets for about 20 minutes, then put it through my potato ricer. The first lesson I learned was that what looks like a lot of cauli doesn't go very far in rice form. The second lesson I learned was to rice it into a sieve, to allow the water (soooo much water) to drain away leaving fluffy "rice". The third and final lesson I learned was that everyone loved it, including me! I normally like a bit of cauli but only if it's smothered in cheese sauce and served with a Lincolnshire sausage. It's acceptable in curry too. At Sunday roasts it's one of the things that gets eaten off my plate first to get it over and done with. Saturday's attempt was a revelation.

I promise next time I make it (it'll be soon, I have half a cauli to use up), I will take photos and make them available! Yippee for riced cauli.

I wonder what else I can rice...

P.s. you know the last post was about beetroot? Turned out that was a massive craving. Madness.

Smooth talking

I recently decided that my diet could be improved. Not that I don't enjoy what I eat, far from it, and indeed I am healthy, but I realised how many days I go without the full range of vitamins and nutrients I should be having daily. In a bid to fix this, I started making myself breakfast smoothies.

Here are some of the recipes that have worked for me (and some tips about what doesn't work for me!). Bear in mind I'm not a nutritionist and have applied the standard "make it up as you go along" principle to my recipes as I do for anything else...

I've been having my smoothies where possible with a coffee by its side, and the combination is dynamite for brain power and motivation (with no slump when the caffeine wears off, wow!).

Glorious greenie

1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
4 strawberries
Big handful of kale
About 200ml almond or soya milk (but eyeball it to the right consistency - you can always add more but you can't take it away!)

Blueberry delight

1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
1/4 cup blueberries
Big handful of kale
200ml almond or soya milk (as above)

Fruity Popeye 

(pictured above)
1/2 cup pineapple (from the freezer)
1/2 a banana (frozen or fresh)
4 or 5 strawberries
Big handful of spinach
200ml almond or soya milk (as above)

I've been preparing all of these with my hand blender. I put the fruit into a plastic beaker (the one that came with the hand blender) and then have just used the blend attachment to mix everything together. It's not a perfectly smooth end result but the texture is really pleasant, and makes you feel like you haven't been diddled out of a "proper" breakfast.

Tips

Freeze as much fruit and veg as you can, chopped and ready to use. I freeze pineapple in chunks (makes a 75p pineapple last weeks), bananas are amazing peeled, sliced and frozen, and spinach and kale work as well from the freezer as they do fresh. I've also used frozen berries on occasion but while they're in season I've been adding fresh ones from the fridge. I tend to put the frozen fruits in my mixer jug as soon as I get up, then shower, dress etc and go back to make the smoothie at least half an hour later, allowing some defrosting to take place. Oh and keep the prepared fruit in freezer bags, not a box; significantly aids retrieving as much as you want without breaking your fingers.

Make sure you add enough liquid. One day I didn't add very much and the the smoothie coagulated before my eyes. Hard to suck up through the straw and the gelatinous concoction nearly put me off the whole affair. I've been alternating between almond and soya milk - based on availability and nothing else. I prefer almond milk but soya is no hardship and my local Co-op stocks it.

Lob in a bit of what you fancy. Trusting your taste instincts is underrated. If you think it'll work it probably will.

Greens make the smoothie richer. Don't know why, they just seem to. None of my smoothies have tasted green or veggie either. Weird.

Don't leave the smoothie alone for too long. Another coagulation issue could arise. Or the dog could steal it.

Use a straw. Not only does it give you something to stir it with as you get down it, it makes it feel like you're at a kids party too!

Slow cooked lamb hotpot

I make beef stew quite regularly in my slow cooker, and whilst it's one of my favourite meals to make and eat, it's easy to just stick to that and try nothing else, which isn't very adventurous. As the sun is out and spring looks like it's on its way, I thought it was time to vary the contents of the slow cooker and do something with lamb. As always the first thing I did was preheat the slow cooker, then I started with my ingredients:

500g lamb leg steak (I used leg steak because it was meatier than the chops in the supermarket)
200g Chantenay carrots, topped and tailed
2 sticks celery
1 white onion
1/2 swede
2 tablespoons plain flour
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons dried rosemary (my shrub has had it, so we're back to dried)
Two tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1.5 pints of beef stock (I thought I had lamb stock in the cupboard, but was wrong)
Sliced waxy potatoes - enough to cover the meat, veg and gravy in the slow cooker - for me that was 4 small spuds

1. I diced the lamb into bite size cubes, then coated it in seasoned flour and sealed it in a frying pan. Then I transferred this to the pre-heated slow cooker (on high).
2. I chopped the onion and fried this in the juices left from the lamb. I added the remaining flour which had not stuck to the lamb, and made sure I'd got all the goodness out of the pan by adding some of the stock until a thick gravy was produced. That was then added to the lamb.
3. To the preheated slow cooker I added the carrots (whole), celery and swede (which were chopped into bite sized pieces). I then added the herbs and Worcestershire Sauce, gave it a good stir and added the remaining stock.
4. I added the sliced potatoes to the top - I sliced them to about 5mm thick so they would hold shape without staying uncooked. They were layered up - just enough to ensure all of the top of the stew mix was covered. I added a little salt and pepper so that the top wasn't completely boring. A sprinkle of extra rosemary might have sneaked in too. I left the slow cooker on high for the first 30 mins, then turned it to low for the rest of the cooking time.
5. I started this around 12pm, and served it at around 7pm with green beans and a little cabbage

Ray's Allotment Cassoulet

Ok, I'll admit I'm not sure what a "cassoulet" is, but it sounded right for the "thing" that's happening in the slow cooker right now!

Here's what's in it:

3 medium beetroots from Ray's Allotment, peeled and cubed
About 8 runner beans from Ray's Allotment, cubed with the snaggy ends chopped off
A large tin of red kidney beans
A large onion, peeled and chopped into large pieces
A carrot, cubed, not peeled
A large tin of thick cut chopped tomatoes in their own juice
Water - I refilled the tin from the tomatoes
A chicken stock cube
A heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds

...and some Savoy cabbage is going in after about 2 hours

I fried off the onion and fennel seeds in olive oil in a pan to soften them up and release some flavour, before adding the whole lot to the slow cooker. I'm planning on adding some cabbage in a couple of hours - I think the whole thing will cook for about 4 hours so adding the cabbage after two seems reasonable.

I'm so excited - the beetroot was in the ground only an hour ago! Eek!

Ray is our lovely neighbour, who grows the most incredible veg on his allotment, which is in the next village from ours. He grows cucumbers, tomatoes, marrows, courgettes, lettuce, beetroot, runner beans, and I'm sure much more than that too! He's very generous in keeping me in veg for the small price of an occasional bottle of wine and parcel of lavender shortbread (although he always says not to give him anything).

Sort of restores your faith in people when you meet someone so willing to take care of you for nothing in return. Oh, and he also waters my pot plants when I'm too busy too!

Thank you, Ray!

It turned out really well! Tasty yum yum! Very pink though!