Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Ratatouille a la Holly

anyone else a huge fan of this ridiculously healthy tasty side ?? No?? ... oh well - i'm going to blog about it anyway!
I made it last night to go with gammon and it caused uproar in our house.
Gammon can only be eaten with egg and chips in my husbands eyes (or curly fries as he had last night) and i suggested having ratatouille as a healthy option, he could not get his brain around that one.
We had a friend over as we so often do and he adored it - so score !!
The combo worked exceptionally well ...


Blogging on this recipe is literally a guessing game. I throw a bit of this in and a bit of that it but hey ... give it a try.

Literally use what ever quantity you fancy as this freezes really really well and is like about 1 W.W pro point a serving so you can have quite a lot. As you can see from my plate last night.

so this is what i do ...

I dice 3 small red onions and start cooking them down with a knob of butter or two(literally the butter is the only thing you have to count in the recipe so you don't have to worry too much). Meanwhile dice up some carrot (I used two large), into really small chunks so that they are nice and soft, throw them in the pan and keep stirring every few minutes.At this point i add my herbs, two dried bay leaves, garlic (i used dried and threw about a teaspoon in, then crumble a veggie stock cube in, stir through. I DO NOT put salt in. I was eating it with gammon and stock cubes are full of salt and it thought it was perfectly seasoned, but if you want to add salt i would wait until the end and taste it first. I then cut up my courgette, i only had a half of one left so i used that, but i would probably go for one big one if i had had it in. Throw that in, then the peppers, i used one red and one green, i tend to chop into fairly large chunks as it is a nicer texture. Then i whack the lid on, you do have to stir it often though else it sticks. I probably gave it about 10-15 mins with the lid on. Then i take the lid off and add a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, then i let it simmer down. I left it on the hob for about 25 mins stiring regualrly. Et voila ... Ratatouille a la Holly !!

Don't forget to take the bay leaves out before you serve! this serves about 3 or 4 people. If your being strict weight watchers, way out your butter knob and divide the points between the servings to be massively accurate. It shouldn't be more than two points though. If so you've put way more than you needed in the first place.

But pretty much ratatouille goes with any meat and potato dish ! Enjoy an enormous tasty heap of 1 whole weight watchers point. Mmmm mmm!

Sorry for the lack of photos - we have moved house and i cannot find my cable to get photos off my camera so i had to take this on on my phone.

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

light lemon cheesecakes

well ... it has been a while ...



since i was last on here we have bought a house, taken it back to bare brick and built it up again to a gorgeous little pad for me and Tim.

Got some friends over tomorrow and i've made some light little desserts for dinner as i'm still trying to do the dreaded diet. Fairly difficult when you love food as much as i do! :( lol

anyway heres a little treat for you !!

I made four little ones out of this recipe:

ingredients:

4 tbs fat free greek yoghurt
6 tbs lemon curd
1 tsp lemon juice
125ml double cream

5 digestive/oaty biscuits (I use a mixture)
50g butter

Whiz biscuits in a processor until they are finely crushed.
Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan.
Mix the butter and biscuit crumbs together and press into four cheesecake moulds.
Mix the yoghurt, lemon curd, and lemon juice together in a large bowl.
Whip cream in a separate bowl until you get "floppy" peaks.
Fold the cream, a tablespoon at a time into the mix.
I did mine in little glasses and just layered the cheesecake mix on top of the biscuit.
I used a spatula to push the topping flat, i couldn't fit a pallet knife inside the glasses. 
Chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
I did mine the night before and ... they are sat there right now - tempting me!




Monday, 26 March 2012

Stu's Killer Jungle Sauce

I best start this blog off with a public health warning!! 
this sauce is HOT !! 
It's Hotter than hot ... 
In fact it's just totally insane ... but if your up for trying it ... he's given me his recipe ... 
Just to give you an idea ... I literally put my finger in the rim of the bottle and tried the tiniest bit ... 
I then downed about 4 pints of milk! Insane ... 
but this is how many Scotch Bonnets he put in it ... so you get an idea ... 




so yeh .. He's pretty insane ... these babies are also home grown! 


anyway if you dare try it ... here's his recipe ... 
I'd suggest cooking this one on a nice day so you can open all the windows and ventilate the house! 


I honestly think though a few drops of this bad boy in a chilli or something would be awesome! 


Jungle Sauce!

10-20 Scotch Bonnets / how ever many you dare!
2 inches ginger
2 garlic cloves
1 tin of tomatoes
handful of chopped oregano or basil 
sea salt
A huge glug of cider vinegar!

Extra:
(half a chopped mango if you fancy it)
1.chop 2.simmer 3.blend 4.bottle! 5.ouch! 

Monday, 19 March 2012

Lemon Tart

yet again an easy but delicious and pretty impressive!



I cheated with ready made pastry which made it like 50x easier!
What you need to do is ...
Blind bake your pastry ... for about 15 mins on gas mark 6/200 degrees
Whilst it's in the oven ...
cut up 200g of fresh strawbs into whatever shapes you want really then ...
whisk together ...
3 medium eggs
75g caster sugar
220ml double cream
finely grated zest and juice of 3 lemons


and that's it really ...  when the pastries done pull out the shelf and place your strawberries on the pastry, then pour your mixture ... if you fo this on the oven shelf you'll hopefully have no spillage.

Then bake it on 180 degrees or gas mark 4 for 30 mins - 40 mins ... keep your eye on it and check it with a skewer. Dust it with icing sugar if you fancy.

strawberry cider





this was the lovely 'aperitif' at our mothers day banquet ... I sort of made it by accident ... but it turned out like a dream!

all it was was a apple and raspberry J2O and a large bottle of cider, and some cut up strawbs ...
pour the J2O  in first (but i think you could use any store bought raspberry fruit juice.
throw you strawbs in the jug, then you pour the cider in exceptionally slowly so that the drinks don't mix .. et voila ... one little word of warning ... this is very VERY drinkable !!
ENJOY !!

Gorgeous lamb chops

delicious and pretty easy ... this was the meal i made for my lovely mum as it was mother's day here in the uk last sunday.

I forgot to take photos so this was a quick shot before the last bit got eaten.

I cooked a bit of a feast so i used a lot.

ingredients:
14 lamb chops
125 g streaky bacon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 sticks of celery
2 carrots
1 tin of tomatoes
225ml of red wine
225ml of stock
2 sprigs of rosemary

it's this easy ... cut up all the ingredients into chunks ... and throw it all into a casserole dish apart from the chops (set them aside in the fridge for later)

Put the covered dish in the oven on gas mark 2 //150 degrees for about 2 hours
then get a griddle pan and seal the lamb on all sides and seal in all the flavour!
Then place the lamb on top of the casserole leaving it uncovered in dish and leave in the oven for between 20 mins and 40 mins depending how well cooked you like it ...

Monday, 20 February 2012

easy freezy meals for mamas to be

ok ... well i'm off work this week (still living with the mother in law - but hopefully i'll have my own kitchen soon and then the blogs will be back) so i've got a bit more time to be in the kitchen (even if it isnt my own :( ) anyway ...

Both my best friends are at the baby stage of life! one had a baby just before christmas and the other has 3 weeks to go !! It was the baby shower on saturday which was fun! anyway .. I'm going over later and i'm taking a few freezer meals for her and her hubby incase she just can't be bother to cook or just incase Baby Girl Groeneweg comes early !! so i thought i'd give you a few ideas of what you can cook really easily for your friends freezer (or for your own)



I did cheat though as it had to be simply as today was all about doing the long list of jobs !!

So i did for meals for two and all you need is:

one pack of mince meat (pork mince/turkey mince or beef - it doesnt matter)
one pasta sauce
one tin of tomatoes
one egg
one pack of bacon
three large potatoes
a potato bake sauce (or you could make your own thick smokey cheese sauce)
one red onion

and some herbs ...

literally all you need to do is make your meatballs and brown them ... then place them in a pot (I use disposable for my preggy friends so they dont have to wash up)





then i also made two trays of Cheese and Bacon Potato Bake ... yummy but easy peasy.

Literally buy the sauce and it takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 40 mins to cook.

Slice you potatoes and layer them up with cooked bacon and diced onion.
Then when you've filled you dish up to half way use one quarter of the sauce in each dish and pour over.
Then layer up to the top again and pour over the rest of the sauce. I always get the dregs of sauce out with about 2 cm of water in the bottom of the jar, put the lid back on, and shake ... then pour over and bake for 40 mins.



Then write your instructions on the lids so your friends know what to do to finish baking there dishes !

and there you have it ... easy peasy blessings for friends !!