With thanks to @laurapicklechop for the recipe, i made this rather delicious and healthy Shakshuka for dinner tonight. Apparently its normally a breakfast or lunch dish in Tunisia but it seems to do equally well as a main meal… #recipes #shakshuka

My first Ringuey Pie that I’ve made. This was one of my favourites when I was little that my Mummy would make… ???? #recipes #summercitrus #GoodFridayBaking #Easter????????

Mexican Sweet Potato and Black Beans, in a bowl… thank you @laurapicklechop for suggesting this one… #goodeating #recipes #eatinghealthy @deliciouslyella

Another delish @deliciouslyella meal tonight in the form of creamy mushroom and garlic pasta… #recipes #eatinghealthy

Tonight’s sauteed sesame and aubergine noodle bowl was super-noodily yummy! #recipes #eatinghealthy

Another bowl of yummy deliciousness in the form of Roasted Aubergine and Tahini… #eatinghealthy #101thingsyoucandowithaubergines #aubergine???? #recipes @deliciouslyella

Tonight’s colourful, nutritious meal: sweet potato and carrot mash bowl… #recipes #healthyfood #healthyeating @deliciouslyella

Tonight’s healthy dinner, Tahini Aubergines. Thanks again, @deliciouslyella! .
#recipes #aubergine #eatinghealthy

Sausage and polenta. Suitable for vegetarians and carnivores alike… #sausages #polenta #cauldron #omnomnom #recipes

Inspired by @laurapicklechop’s meal last week, my first go at a @deliciouslyella recipe. Simple, wholesome food… #recipes #eatinghealthy #deliciouslyella

Mushroom risotto in our week of fish and vegetables… #risotto #recipes #FrancescoDaMostto

May I present to the deliciousness that is Celery Bake… #celery #celerybake #NigelSlater #recipes #tender

Often Slimming World meals can be nice enought but after a lot of faff. So much so that I would say that moree likely than not I would rather a little more fat in return for a little  it less faff.

This Christmas we have  been enjoying their new Festive Feasts book. Already we have enjoyed a delicious recipe of Mediterranean Sea  Bass on a bed of roasted red peppers and black olives. Tonight, for New Year’s Day we had seared duck breast with an orange sauce and a side of mashed parsnip. It was quick, it was easy, and super scrummy. And most importantly of all it was faf-free.

Watched the first episode in the new series of Sherlock which was predictably equal measures of Clever and the Incomprehensible (does Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock understand some of streams of dialogue to escape his lips?). I think my favourite moments were the text exchanges between John Watson (Martin Freeman) and the person whom I shall call ‘the girl onf the bus’. I don’t remember her haeing any spoken lines at all and would like to remember it as this being like this.

This classic British pie is the perfect comfort food, just right for the whole family. Serve it with peas or your favourite Superfree veg for a filling, sumptuous supper.

Serves: 4
Cook time: 45 mins
Syns per serving: 4½

Low calorie cooking spray
300g beef frying steaks, all visible fat removed, cut into bitesize pieces.
100g ready prepared, lamb`s kidneys, white cores removed, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely cubed
1 celery stick, finely cubed
200g baby button mushrooms
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
300ml beef stock
1 level tsp gravy granules
112g ready-to-roll light puff pastry
2 eggs, lightly beaten
700g floury potatoes, such as maris piper, peeled and cut into chunks
salt and freshly ground pepper
200g fat-free natural fromage frais
300g frozen or fresh peas
a small handful each of fresh mint and flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1. Preheat your oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. place a large pan sprayed with low calorie cooking spray over a high heat. Add the steak, kidneys, carrot, celery, mushrooms, onion, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, thyme, beef stock and gravy granules. Bring to the boil, then cook over a high heat, stirring occasionally for 6-8 minutes or until thickened.
2. Divide the mixture between 4 individual pie dishes. roll out the pastry on baking paper and cut out 4 lids. Brush the rim of eash dish with a little of the egg, add the pastry lids and seal the edges with a fork. Make a hole in the centre of each pie, then brush the lid with more egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has risen.
3. Meanwhile boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Drain, season, then mash with the fromage frais until smooth. Just before the pies are ready, boil the peas with the mint for 2-3 minutes, then drain and season. Serve the pies with the peas and the mash garnished with parsley.

Tip: You can make an adults-only ale pie by replacing 100ml of the beef stock with the same amount of brown ale, adding ½ syn per serving.

Easy Chicken Bake

395 calories per person / 3 Slimming World Syns

Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 35 minutes

3 medium courgettes
25g extra-mature Cheddar cheese
45g sun-dried tomatoes, well drained (about 6 pieces)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (each about 175g)
1 medium red onion, cut into 12 wedges
2 medium sweet potatoes (each about 225g), peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
2 yellow peppers, deseeded and cut into 3cm chunks
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
12 cherry tomatoes
flaked sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220°C/Fan 200°C/Gas mark 7. Trim the courgettes and cut 2 of them into diagonal slices, about 1.5cm thick. Grate the third into diagonal slices, about 1.5 thick. Grate the third courgette on the medium-sized side of your grater, not too fine or too coarse if possible. You want it to be in fairly thin stands.

Scoop up the grated corvette in your hands and squeeze out as much water as you can, then put it in a bowl.

Grate the cheese on the medium-fine seeing of your grater – the same vas the courgette – and add it to the courgette. Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into rough 1cm chunks and add them to the bowl. Season with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper, then mix well.

Slice the chicken breasts into strips diagonally and combine week with the courgette mixture.

Put the sliced courgettes in a large rotating tin or dish and add the red onion wedges, sweet potato and helps peppers. Drizzle over the oil, season with the salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper and Todd together well. Nestle the chicken mixture among the vegetables, and season with ground black pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and disaster in the cherry tomatoes. Put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are tender and lightly browned.

Serves 4
3 medium aubergines, sliced
2 large onions, finely chopped
2x 400g/14oz cans chopped tomatoes
5ml/1 tsp dried mixed herbs
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
6 sheets no pre-cook lasagne
salt and black pepper

For the cheese sauce:
2 level tbsp cornflour
284ml/½pt skimmed milk
142g/5oz fat free natural fromage frais
1 level tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper
57g/2oz reduced fat Cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6.

1. Layer the sliced aubergine in a colander, sprinkling lightly with salt between each layer. Leave to stand for 1 hour, then rinse and pat dry.
2. Grill the aubergines with a little frylight for about 5 minutes each side.
3. Fry the onions for 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes, herbs, garlic and seasoning. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for about 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce, blend the cornflour with a little milk. Heat the remaining milk and bring to the boil. Stir in the cornflour mixture and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring until thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the fromage frais, mustard and nutmeg with a wooden spoon. Season to taste. Stir most of the grated cheese into the sauce, reserving a little for the topping.
5. Arrange the aubergines in the base of an ovenproof dish, spoon over half the tomato sauce. Arrange 3 layers of lasagne on top. Repeat with second layer. Add a third layer if desired.
6. Spoon over the cheese sauce, cover an bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid for the last ten minutes to brown the crust. Serve hot with a mixed salad.

Freezer Note
This dish freezes well; cook for only 20 minutes, cool, then freeze. Reheat at 170ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 3 for 20 minutes; increase the temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6 for 10 minutes to brown the top.

But I like quiche and wanted to persevere, and so tonight I had another go, with altogether much better results. The quantities still seem a bit weird. It says it serves 1 but this made 5 mini-quiches, which was a good serving (with salad and new potatoes for both emej and myself, with 1 left over for a lunch. The other thing is that it says you don’t have to do anything to the vegetables but I think a bit of dry frying to take out the moisture is essential. I’m attaching my amended recipe…

Ingredients
peppers, diced
onions, chopped
mushrooms, chopped
(maybe a little bit of ham if you have it)
3 eggs
150g fat free natural cottage cheese

Method

1. Prepare whatever Superfree veggies take your fancy… I’ve used peppers, onions, and a bit of ham, all cut up finely. Dry-fry them until soft.

2. Mix together the 3 eggs, 150g fat-free natural cottage cheese and season.

3. Add the vegetables (and ham) to the eggy mixture and mix well. Pour into shallow quiche tins.

4. Pop in the oven at 190ºC/375ºF/Gas 5 for around 30 minutes, or until the quiche is set and golden brown.

Tip: Serve the quiche in wedges with Free Slimming World chips on an Extra Easy or Green day, or piles of salad – ideal for lunchboxes!

As this recipe contains all Free Food, you can eat as much as you like!

I cooked two of them in the spagetti carbona. The yokes were so big and rich and yellow, and the resulting dinner really was the best yet. So, so nice.

Biscuit is very cute with lopsided, flopsy-daisy ears and has currently taken up residence in our downstairs toilet (well it’s too cold at the moment to put her outdoors!)

But what of Herman, I hear you ask? Herman is a cake, a living, monster cake. I was first offered a phial of Herman’s great-grandfather last year, but the timing came just as our kitchen was going to be ripped out, but now I can give him a proper home I have a quarter of his father.

Em was a bit bemused when she asked what the hell I was doing in the kitchen, and almost-certainly, only slightly more the wiser once I’d told her. For the next 10 days, Herman will be living with us, in a bowl covered with a tea towel, and in a place that’s not too hot and not too cold. I shall stir him every day, and from time to time, feed him, and then on the tenth day I shall divide him into four and make a cake with a quarter of him. The remaining three quarters will be handed out to three friends who will nurture the sons of Herman and so the monster will live forever…

2. This evening I popped into Sainsbury’s on the way home from work – it was to be the Summertown M&S Simply Food but I changed my mind after I could only find candles in there (oddly the only thing that I couldn’t get in Sainsbury) – and impulse bought India Corn (the decorative sort) and little squashes and tiny pumpkins to make my house all nice and festive for the Autumn season.

3. Does anyone know how one would go about drying/preserving mini-pumpkins and gourd squashes -€“ I can remember one year I did it wasn’t terribly successful. Is there a technique like with drying flowers?

4. I’m really enjoying the current Jamie Oliver series, Jamie at Home – there’s more of an emphasis on ‘real’ recipes that you can actually see yourself having a go at cooking, and it’s all centred around vegetables, which of course, depending on the size of your garden you can grow yourself (I can grow some vegetables in my garden but its not ideal…). Given the predominance of vegetables it’s a little odd that most of the recipes end up being meat dishes. And here’€™s the thing, to my knowledge there haven’t been any TV series out there (or indeed books) which deal with providing exciting, easy, everyday (and special occasion) recipes for both vegetarians and meat-eaters. And yet the number of households out there where couples are of mixed persuasion, or familes with a vegetarian in their midst must be in their millions. Could this idea be the next big thing? A series that gives recipes that are exciting and scrummy and everyday but which suit both tastes…

5. There should be a fifth thing here. I think you might already have guessed that I love Autumn…

First meringues
Originally uploaded by shepline on 16 Apr ’06, 11.57pm BST PST.

Granpy used to make them for us whenever we visited. I guess the baton may have passed to me…

]]> https://shepline.com/2006/04/16/easter-day-dessert/feed/ 2 https://shepline.com/2004/01/24/lamb-to-the-shepherd/ https://shepline.com/2004/01/24/lamb-to-the-shepherd/#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2004 22:35:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=366 Cooked this recipe from stelpa – thank you – ’twas delicious…

Ingredients
750g lamb fillets, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, crushed
60ml light soy sauce
80ml sweet sherry
1 tbs cornflour
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
8 spring onions, sliced thinly

1. Combine lamb, garlic, half of the sauce, half of the sherry and cornflour in large bowl; mix well.
2. Hear vegetable oil in wok; stir-fry lamb mixture, in batches, until browned all over.
3. Return lamb mixture to wok. Add remaining sauce, remaining sherry, sugar and sesame oil; stir-fry until sauce boils and thickens slightly. Remove from heat; stir in onion.

Serve with rice. Serves 4

Ingredients
750g lamb fillets, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, crushed
60ml light soy sauce
80ml sweet sherry
1 tbs cornflour
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
8 spring onions, sliced thinly

1. Combine lamb, garlic, half of the sauce, half of the sherry and cornflour in large bowl; mix well.
2. Hear vegetable oil in wok; stir-fry lamb mixture, in batches, until browned all over.
3. Return lamb mixture to wok. Add remaining sauce, remaining sherry, sugar and sesame oil; stir-fry until sauce boils and thickens slightly. Remove from heat; stir in onion.

Serve with rice. Serves 4