Butternut Squash Risotto

This is a very easy midweek meal that takes about 40 minutes to make.

Ingredients (serves 2)
150g of arborio rice
1 onion
1 butternut squash
1 chicken stock cube
Salt and pepper 
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Method
Chop the onion and fry in a heavy based pan using fry light spray.  Once the onion is soft add the rice and stir, cook like this for a couple of minutes before adding water (about a pint) and the stock cube.  Chop the butternut squash into 1 inch (2.5cm) chunks and place in the pan.  Cover the pan with a lid and cook for around 30 minutes.  Keep checking to make sure you have enough fluid in the pan and add extra as necessary.  Season with salt and pepper and top with grated parmesan cheese if feeling indulgent.

Serve with a green salad.

Tomato and lentil soup

Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 red pepper
100g dried lentils
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon of sweetener
Salt and Pepper to taste
Tomato puree

Method
Chop the onion and red pepper into chunks and place in a pan with the lentils.  Add about 2 pints of boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sweetener then simmer for a further 5 minutes. Let it cool for a while then place it in a blender. You may need to do this in portions if you don't have a large blender.  Blend the mixture and return it to a pan. Add tomato puree to thicken the mixture or more water if necessary. Season with saltand pepper. Heat through before serving.

Jammin'

It has been a bumper crop for all the fruit this year and we thought it was about time we made some jam.  The abundance of damsons made the fruit an easy choice. Picking damsons can be labour intensive so we opted for the 'olive picking' style.  Place a sheet on the ground and then shake the tree.

Before long we had a tub full of damsons; I would say in the region of 15 Kg.  This was just from a couple of the trees, there is so much fruit left on there still.

Next stage was to wash the fruit and put it in the biggest saucepan we had and start to mash it up using a potato masher as we heated it up.  This gets the stones free from the fruit and leaves a pulpy mess.

Next job is to remove the stones and skin from the pulp.  To do this we placed a large colander over a mixing bowl and poured some of the pulp into the colander.  Using a wooden spatula we stirred until we were left with skin and stones.

Although this mixture would produce a jam we wanted didn't want cloudy jam so we passed it through a nylon mesh to filter out any pulp that had got through the colander.  Meanwhile the dishwasher was washing the jam jars to make sure they were sterile.

The juice from here was put into the jam pan. We had about 10 pints (almost 6 litres) of juice which we then heated up on the stove.  As it heated up we began to add the jam sugar, the first 3 Kg didn't sweeten the juice much so we added more and kept tasting until we got the right sweetness.  Once it was sweet enough we went for the 'rolling boil', it's important to get the temperature high enough to form jam.  Now it was time to place a plate in the fridge and the jars into the oven to dry them; 120 C is enough to do this in a fan oven.

The colour was amazing as you can see in the picture.  Every so often we kept tasting and adding a little sugar then testing a teaspoon full on the cold plate.  Once we got a set on the cold plate I made the call 'We have Jam'.  Time to act quickly (if you take too long the jam can become like a hard jelly) now and get the jars from the oven.  Using a jam funnel (thanks Sheila) we topped up the hot jars with jam and screwed the lids on. You have to do it hot as this will form the vacuum that pulls the lid down.  

The end result was 15 one pound jars of damson jam.  However my hands were bright red 

and the kitchen looked like Sweeny Todd had been at work!

BBQ Pulled Beef

I made this for a family BBQ as a low fat option. It was really tasty and froze well so it could be defrosted and reheated.

Served here in a lettuce taco with a baked potato and a tomato, red pepper and red onion salad.

Ingredients

1kg of beef brisket (trip all visible fat)
400g carton of passata
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of chili flakes
1 tbs of sweetener
1 tsp of mustard powder
50mls of dark soy sauce
1 tbs of smoked paprika
2 tbs of white wine vinegar
Fry light spray

Method

Peel and chop the onion and garlic cloves and fry them in a heavy based pressure cooker. Once the onion and garlic are soft then brown the sides of the beef in the pan. Take the beef from the pan and de-glaze using a cup of water.  Place all the other ingredients in the pan and stir before putting the beef back in the pan.  

Cook under pressure for 90 minutes. If using a slow cooker it will be overnight.  If using a heavy pan it will take about 5 hours but you will need to keep topping up the sauce with water to stop it boiling dry.

Once cooked, take the beef from the pan and shred it using 2 forks. Then replace the meat back in the sauce and season as required. Add water to the sauce if you need to thin it out or use some tomato puree if you need to thicken the sauce.

Serve in a bun or as above in lettuce leaves.

Virtually fat free Lasagne

This is really low in fat and packed with vegetables that help to speed up weight loss.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
500g of minced beef (5% fat content)
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 sticks of celery
2 carrots
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 stock cubes
Italian mixed herbs
Tomato puree
Lasagne sheets
1 egg
200g fat free greek yoghurt
Salt and pepper to season

Method
Dice the carrots, onion and celery and finely chop the cloves of garlic then fry them off in a large pan using fry light spray. Add the minced beef, the stock cubes and herbs and cook until the mince has browned. Deglaze the pan with a small amount of water and then add the tin of tomatoes. Cook for about a hour (this can be reduced to 30 minutes in a pressure cooker) until the mince is nice and tender. Thicken with the tomato puree and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Using an oven dish start to build the lasagne by layering the lasagne sheets then the meat ragu. I normally end up with 3 layers of each and then top with a final layer of lasagne sheets.

Beat the egg and then add the yoghurt and mix with some salt and pepper. Pour this over the lasagne to form the topping. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 40 minutes. Serve withsalad. The lasagne can be reheated if any is left over and it makesa great lunch to take to work.

Chicken and Butternut Squash Risotto

This was so tasty and so easy to make.

Ingredients (Serves 4)
1 Butternut Squash
400g of Chicken chopped into chunks (I used 2 large chicken breasts)
1 Red Pepper
1 Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
2 Chicken stock cubes
200g of Risotto Rice (I used Aborio rice)
Fry light
2 tsp of Dried Italian herbs
Salt and Pepper to season.
Parmesan Cheese for dressing
Method
Chop the Butternut Squash in half, remove the seeds with a metal spoon, spinkle over salt and pepper then place on a baking tray in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes to roast it.
While the Squash is roasting chop the onion, red pepper and garlic.
After 30 minutes take the Squash from the oven and scoop the roasted flesh in chunks from the skin and put to one side.
In a heavy pan, fry the Onion, Red Pepper and Garlic in Fry Light for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, chop the chicken into 3cm chunks or so.  Add the herbs and cook for a further minute before adding the Chicken to seal it.
As this is happening boil the kettle with about a litre of water in it (you may need more or less).
Add the Rice to the pan and stir for 2 minutes just to toast the rice slightly.  Crumble the stock cubes into the pan and add about 500ml of water. Add the roasted Squash and cook for about 20 minutes but keep checking the pan every couple of minutes to see if it is drying out. 

Add more water as necessary to give a nice sticky consistancy. 
Test the Rice after 20 minutes to see if it is cooked, keep cooking until you get the rice just how you like it.
Finally add Salt and Pepper and serve with grated Parmesan Cheese 

Rhubarb and Custard Muffins

Rhubarb and Custard muffins (makes 12 small muffins)

This is me experimenting in the kitchen attempting to make a low syn, fat free muffin. Each muffin comes in at about half a syn if being used as a healthy extra B or 2 syns if not a healthy B

Ingredients

   250g Fat Free Vanilla Yoghurt

1 Stick of Rhubarb

3 eggs

140 rolled oats (3 muffins = 1 HE B)

30g sweetener (plus extra to dust rhubarb)

2 tsp. baking powder (1 Syn per 12 muffins)

  1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 200C and prepare a muffin tin by lining them with paper liners or spraying the muffin tin with fry light.

2.     Add all ingredients except for Rhubarb to a blender or food processor and process on high until oats are broken down and batter is smooth and creamy.

3.     Peel the rhubarb and chop into 1cm cubes then dust with sweetener (put 24 pieces aside) and fold into the batter.

4.     Pour batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each cavity until it is about ¾ full. Add 2 pieces of rhubarb to the top of each muffin.

5.     Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tops of your muffins are just turning golden brown and set. Use a toothpick to test by inserting into the middle and seeing if it comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in tin for 20 minutes before removing. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.