Thursday 23 August 2012

Rice pudding - slow cooker

I love rice pudding - cheap and easy!

100g pudding rice
50g sugar
I litre ss milk
1tsp cinnamon or nutmeg

Put all the ingredients into your slow cooker and leave on low for about 4 hours. Real comfort food. 

This makes four portions - 1 hea due to milk and 2.5 syns per portion form the sugar.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Full of beans

I am not a huge fan of baked beans, they tend to lack bite as they have a soft bland texture.

I recently discovered Heinz five beanz, I love them!


 The mixture of beans varies the texture.  I find the cannellinni beans to have the most bite.  To make the flavour more interesting I sometimes add some cumin, chili or paprika or I may add some strong cheddar (healthy extra A).   They would also be great added to chili con carne.

I certainly would recommend them as a store cupboard standby for a quick and easy lunch.

Beef and Pumpkin curry (slow cooker)

I love curry and will probably post quite a few curry recipes!  This as the titles suggests is a beef and pumpkin one and is made with ground spices.  I am on the Extra Easy plan so this is free and contains my superfree for the meal too.


Beef and Pumpkin curry (slow cooker)
serves 6

400g extra lean stewing beef
1 butternut squash cut in to 2 cm cubes (mine weighed about 750g before peeling)
1 tbsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp garam masla
400g tinned tomatoes
2 onions finely chopped
750 ml water

Put all of the ingredients into the slow cooker stir and leave on a low setting for a few hours.

It really does smell devine - will give my verdict on how it tastes when it finishes cooking!

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Summer holiday group exercise

A couple of years ago I was regularly cycling with my family, we even managed a 20 mile cycle together.  After a cold and wet spell we didn't really get back into it and I certainly lost my cycling fitness, then my son became too big for the seat he had on my bike (making excuses? Of course not...). 
A friend very cycling gave me her trail-a-bike for me to attach to my bike.  Very similar to this one. The first time I tired it it was HARD work, I was unfit and my son felt so heavy. 
I persevered and after just a couple of weeks really got back into the swing of it.  I am amazed at how quickly you can go from finding a couple of miles hard work to being able to do 16 miles with relative ease.

I would really recommend cycling as a fantastic exercise to fit in with your family and to do with your family.

Only problem is being starving after a long bike ride!

When slow food can be fast

Quick meals are perfect for busy days or for when you just don't fancy standing at the cooker for ages!

One of my favourite fast meals is

oven baked oriental salmon
(serves 4)

4 skinless salmon fillets
2 pak choi
1 lemon
2 tbsp soy sauce

Oven 180/160

Place the Salmon and chopped pak choi in a baking tray, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from one half along with a couple of tablespoons of water over the salmon and the pak choi.  Bake for 20 mins, add the soy sauce in the last  4 mins of cooking.  Perfect served with stir fry veg and rice.



Slow cooker beef

I love my slow cooker, I prepare my foods in the morning and enjoy the smell of fresh food all day until dinner time!

Here is a recipe that was a big hit a couple of nights ago for my family of five – It’s syn free and contains 1/3 superfree.

Moroccan spiced beef
(served 2 adults 3 children)

500g lean stewing beef
1 onion – chopped and fried in a non-stick pan wiped with a tiny bit of oil
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
400g tinned tomatoes
1 tsp salt
250ml veg stock
a handful of red lentil
250g mixed frozen veg

Put everything into the slow cooker, leave it on low for 6 hours + and relax! I served mine with pasta but would go equally well with cous cous or rice. The smell of cinnamon was quite over powering but the taste was just perfect.