New Year - New Plans
I don't really "do" resolutions, because, like many of us, I think I am setting myself up to fail! But I am still determined to carry on my weight loss project, started, successfully I feel, last year. The one plan I do have this year is to use my slow cooker more.
I was talking to mum about recipe books and how I remember looking through them when I was younger. She has shelves of cookery books with books dating back to at least the 1960s, including a whole set of Cordon Bleu Cookery magazines
and this book
which I used to think was so sophisticated!! Every recipe used at least one can of Campbell's Condensed soup, and I felt deprived that we were never fed anything from the section "When the kids come home hungry". When I came home from school hungry, mum was usually asleep and I had to prepare my own snack. I thought this was so unfair - although in later life, I came to realise that, as a mum of three teenagers, holding down a fulltime job as a teacher and looking after a large 4 bedroom house, she probably needed a nap between getting home from work and dealing with us three!
As I reminisced, I remarked that I was thinking of buying a Slow Cooker recipe book, as I had decided to try to use mine more. Mum went to her shelves and produced this for me:
which dates from 1978. It doesn't have shiny photos, but I guess the recipes are still good today. The back reads:
It cost 95p (and in the Republic of Ireland, it cost more - £1.04½
p !) and was probably considered quite expensive then. So I am planning on trying to use this at least once a week, for meals on Wednesdays: this is the day when I leave for Roanne at 10.30 am, and get home at 7.00 pm. That will give me the early morning to prepare the meal and then it will be ready when I get home. I also bought a wide mouthed Thermos flask in the UK, so I can take hot soup with me on Wednesday for my rather rushed packed lunch. That will be better than extra sandwiches!
I have a new book for writing down my meal plans, and so we're ready to go!
TUESDAY: (yes, I know that was yesterday, but I thought I'd be nice and neat, and begin with 01/01/13) We had a chinese stir fry, from a special offer at Tesco in the UK. Buy a pack of vegetables, a sauce and a pack of fresh noodles for £3 - so we did! I chose sweet chilli sauce, and yesterday bought a pack of two steaks. I used one in the stir fry, and the other for...
WEDNESDAY: Steak chilli, with home made guacamole (as long as the avocado is good!), grated cheese and HM tortilla chips. I found three tortillas in the freezer, which had been there a little too long, and had a bit of freezer burn, so I thought I'd bake them with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper to make tortilla chips.
THURSDAY: We bought some black pudding in Tesco, and some bacon too. Now while we could save this for later on, I really thought we could have one last pig out before austerity measures kick in. So today we are having an all-day breakfast: sausages, bacon, black pudding, egg, mushrooms, chips and beans. Oh my giddy aunt! How delicious will that be!
FRIDAY: After yesterday's extravaganza of artery-clogging goodness, we return to my old friends, the Hairy Dieters
to have Salmon with chilli ginger sauce I do adapt this, as I don't have stem ginger to use, but I have ginger purée, and a bit of sugar, so that's okay! We'll have this with rice, purple sprouting broccoli and braised leeks.
SATURDAY: I'm trying to ring the changes a bit more, rather than relying on just one recipe book, so I've gone back to an old Slimming World favourite "Fast Food"
This has some really good recipes in, and I find the layout easy to use. So from here, we're having Aubergine and Pasta Gratin. I can't find a recipe to link to, but it's basically a sauce made with cooked pasta, mixed with aubergines, red onion, red peppers and chopped tomatoes (plus herbs/seasoning etc) with reduced calorie mozzarella on top and baked in the oven until the mozzarella has melted.
SUNDAY: The first outing for "Crockery Pot Cooking" gives us Lamb with Spinach & Yoghurt.
INGREDIENTS: 1 kg lean lamb, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp tomatopurée dissolved in 300 ml boiling water (I'll probably use passata), 3 medium onions (chopped), dried herbs, 1 kg spinach leaves, 300 ml natural yoghurt
METHOD: Turn the cooker to HIGH for 20 minutes.
Trim the lamb, cut into cubes and fry in the oil. Remove from pan. I suspect I will use less oil for this step.
Then soften the onions in the same pan & put them in the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the meat on top. Sprinkle herbs over the meat and then add the tomato purée mix/passata
Cover and cook at LOW for 8-10 hours/ HIGH for 4-5 hours
One hour before it is ready, add the spinach, pressing it down well. Cover & continue cooking on HIGH.
Season & stir before serving. Spoon yoghurt over to serve.
Looking at the recipe, I might be tempted to use some garlic, a little bit of strong stock and maybe a tad of Worcester sauce to give it a bit more "oomph". I suspect that several of the recipes might need a little bit more of something, as tastes have changed from the 70s, and garlic has become much more common and other flavourings have become more easily available.
Our lunches/suppers (depending on when we eat the main meal - that depends on the days I'm working/out all day) will mostly be of the soup-and-a-sandwich variety, but I will probably make a broccoli, pepper and cheese quiche to have with salad on a couple of evenings.
And so there we are! I hope you might find some of the recipes/menu suggestions useful in your every day life. Do please let me know if you use any of them - it's nice to know if you've enjoyed them or not.
I was talking to mum about recipe books and how I remember looking through them when I was younger. She has shelves of cookery books with books dating back to at least the 1960s, including a whole set of Cordon Bleu Cookery magazines
As I reminisced, I remarked that I was thinking of buying a Slow Cooker recipe book, as I had decided to try to use mine more. Mum went to her shelves and produced this for me:
I have a new book for writing down my meal plans, and so we're ready to go!
TUESDAY: (yes, I know that was yesterday, but I thought I'd be nice and neat, and begin with 01/01/13) We had a chinese stir fry, from a special offer at Tesco in the UK. Buy a pack of vegetables, a sauce and a pack of fresh noodles for £3 - so we did! I chose sweet chilli sauce, and yesterday bought a pack of two steaks. I used one in the stir fry, and the other for...
WEDNESDAY: Steak chilli, with home made guacamole (as long as the avocado is good!), grated cheese and HM tortilla chips. I found three tortillas in the freezer, which had been there a little too long, and had a bit of freezer burn, so I thought I'd bake them with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper to make tortilla chips.
THURSDAY: We bought some black pudding in Tesco, and some bacon too. Now while we could save this for later on, I really thought we could have one last pig out before austerity measures kick in. So today we are having an all-day breakfast: sausages, bacon, black pudding, egg, mushrooms, chips and beans. Oh my giddy aunt! How delicious will that be!
FRIDAY: After yesterday's extravaganza of artery-clogging goodness, we return to my old friends, the Hairy Dieters
to have Salmon with chilli ginger sauce I do adapt this, as I don't have stem ginger to use, but I have ginger purée, and a bit of sugar, so that's okay! We'll have this with rice, purple sprouting broccoli and braised leeks.
SATURDAY: I'm trying to ring the changes a bit more, rather than relying on just one recipe book, so I've gone back to an old Slimming World favourite "Fast Food"
SUNDAY: The first outing for "Crockery Pot Cooking" gives us Lamb with Spinach & Yoghurt.
INGREDIENTS: 1 kg lean lamb, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp tomatopurée dissolved in 300 ml boiling water (I'll probably use passata), 3 medium onions (chopped), dried herbs, 1 kg spinach leaves, 300 ml natural yoghurt
METHOD: Turn the cooker to HIGH for 20 minutes.
Trim the lamb, cut into cubes and fry in the oil. Remove from pan. I suspect I will use less oil for this step.
Then soften the onions in the same pan & put them in the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the meat on top. Sprinkle herbs over the meat and then add the tomato purée mix/passata
Cover and cook at LOW for 8-10 hours/ HIGH for 4-5 hours
One hour before it is ready, add the spinach, pressing it down well. Cover & continue cooking on HIGH.
Season & stir before serving. Spoon yoghurt over to serve.
Looking at the recipe, I might be tempted to use some garlic, a little bit of strong stock and maybe a tad of Worcester sauce to give it a bit more "oomph". I suspect that several of the recipes might need a little bit more of something, as tastes have changed from the 70s, and garlic has become much more common and other flavourings have become more easily available.
And so there we are! I hope you might find some of the recipes/menu suggestions useful in your every day life. Do please let me know if you use any of them - it's nice to know if you've enjoyed them or not.
* * * * *
Nancy - did you make the Christmas cookies? I hope you liked them! I had to leave the tin of cookies for my friends in their letter box, without a note (they weren't in and I didn't have a pen in my bag) - I hope they guessed they were from me!
Kezzie: If you do go to Wagamamas, I'd definitely recommend the Chu Chee curry. And the white chocolate and ginger cheesecake...but perhaps the least said about that the better!!!
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