Easy Egg Fried Rice

Last nights dinner - egg fried rice using ASDA diced lean bacon. So yummy and hubby took the leftovers into the office for lunch. 2 syns for half of everything in the pan.

Ingredients:

Asda diced lean bacon
Sliced chestnut mushrooms
Trimmed bunch of spring onions chopped
Frozen peas
Frozen sweet corn
2 chopped red peppers
Garlic
Fresh ginger
Chilli
Soy sauce
Syn free oyster sauce (sorry I can’t remember which one)
Aldi basmati rice pouch (2 syns per pouch)
Eggs beaten

Method:

1) in a large non-stick wok fry off the bacon and mushrooms, keep cooking till the moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated
2) add the rest of the veg and fry till the frozen veg is tender
3) remove from the pan and set aside
4) scramble the eggs in the wok and when they’re almost set, remove them from the pan and set aside
5) squeeze the rice pouches to break up the rice
6) fry the rice until it starts to toast stirring frequently
7) add the chilli, garlic and ginger, oyster sauce and soy sauce
8.) return the vegetable and bacon mix and eggs to the pan and stir everything together till it’s all piping hot again and well mixed

Quick Friday Night Curry

Quick Friday Night Curry

20 minutes to table! Get your hearty spice fix on! One pan dish. Oh and it’s completely vegan and if you serve it with something other than bread it’s gluten free too! BONUS!!!

Ingredients:

1tsp sunflower oil/fry light

1/2 red onion cut into chunks and the layers separated 

1 can potatoes, drained and rinsed and cut into even chunks

1 can chickpeas, drained

3 ripe tomatoes cut into chunks

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 handfuls of fresh baby leaf spinach 

2tbsp punch pooran (whole spices)

2tbsp curry powder of choice

2tsp chilli powder 

1tsp dried turmeric 

Method:

1) Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add oil/fry light and onion. Gently fry stirring frequently until the onions start to brown.

2) Add the potatoes and fry on a medium to high heat, stirring occasionally until the potatoes start to brown.

3) Add the whole spices/punch pooran and stir through the potatoes and onions until they are well distributed and you can smell the spices being activated by the heat. 

4) Add the chickpeas and peas and stir till warmed through.

5) Add the curry powder, turmeric and chilli powder and stir into the veg.

6) Add the tomatoes and a little water to stop the spices from burning and helps get the jammy caramelised juices off the bottom of the pan. 

7) Add the spinach on top and cook everything on a medium stirring occasionally until the spinach has wilted, everything is piping hot through and the moisture is the pan has evaporated. 

8) Serve with flatbread or popadoms.

Sunday’s are for Food Prep

Sunday’s are for Food Prep

I like to take advantage of my days off work to prepare as much as possible in advance to avoid the typical pitfalls of trying to stick to a diet without having suitable food handy.

Typical Productive Sunday afternoon:

FREE protein snack pots - eggy muffins/quiches 

(FREE (P) bacon medallions in the bottom of muffin tins, filled with SPEED spinach, SPEED spring onions, chopped SPEED peppers and beaten FREE (P) egg, topped with sliced SPEED plum cherry tomatoes) baked at 200*C for 15-20 mins.

FREE +1xHEA Veggie and cheese snack pots 

(SPEED celery, SPEED carrots, SPEED red pepper, HEA 3x Babybel Lights)

Spicy Roasted Red Pepper and Carrot Soup 

(SPEED white onion, SPEED fresh orange and yellow peppers, SPEED carrots, FREE drained and rinsed jar of roasted red peppers in brine, chopped garlic, chopped chilli, ground cumin, smoked paprika, Sriracha hot sauce (1/2syn per level tbsp), all brought to the boil and simmered till tender, then blended with a stick blender, till smooth.

I was a bit heavy handed with the chilli so added a touch of fat free creme fraiche to my bowl (aka wussy bowl ha ha).

PS: round pots are from Poundland, roasted peppers in brine are from B&M.

Slow Cooker Dump Bags

Really should uploaded this last week especially seeing as it was so popular Facebook. Came across an idea on Pinterest and thought I’d give them a go.  A couple of hours work for a couple of weeks of dinners. All you need is some decent ziplock bags/Tupperware, plenty of room in your freezer and that coolest of contraptions - the Slow Cooker.  You stick them in the freezer then just pull them out the night before to defrost then dump in the slow cooker with any extra ingredients like tinned tomatoes or mushroom soup etc. Should make dinners even easier through the week plus most of the veggies in them are already frozen so cost pennies.

A few things to note:

1) I used mostly already frozen veg. Quicker and easier otherwise I’d have to blanch stuff before freezing. And all the meat was raw. Chicken was frozen raw chicken breasts.
2) I googled crock pot dump bags for ideas
3) ingredients are written on the bags but I did them by eye so no quantities I’m afraid.
4) the bags I’m using are from Ikea but any good zip lock bag or indeed Tupperware would work.
5) it’s the first time I’ve done this so not sure how they’ll all turn out but thought I’d give it a go.

Samosa Pie

Trying to lose weight but really want some crunchy pie action? Then look no further!

This is my sped up version of a fantastic recipe by Tom Kerridge.
https://www.itv.com/thismorning/food/pork-samosa-pie-tom-kerridge-recipe
He dry roasts his mince in the oven to create a deeper flavour and uses raw potatoes so they absorb the spicy flavours in the stock. But this adds about an hour to the overall cooking time. So I cheated. You can (I did just last night in fact) get this on the table within 30 minutes of walking through the door after work.

My secrets to the speed:
A) I dry fry my mince in a non-stick pan till it starts to caramelise and catch in places. It gives the same effect as the dry roasting in the oven but much much quicker.
B) I used tinned cooked potatoes. Yes those things you can grab from the corner shop that come in water.
C) I used a rich beef stock pot with a little water instead of the beef consume and chicken stock Tom uses. It gives the same intense meaty flavour without having to wait an age for all the liquid to reduce.

I also had to work with the spices I had in the house (infinitely more now thanks to my amazing sister and brother in law for their kind Christmas gift but) I didn’t quite have the exact spices called for in the original recipe but made it work for me.

Serves 4
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins

Ingredients:
500g of 5%fat beef mince (feel free to swap pork mince here)
1x large white onion finely chopped
1tsp garlic purée
1x can of cooked potatoes in water (drained and chopped into even size pieces)
1x can chopped carrots (drained)
1x cup frozen peas
1x knorr rich beef stock pot
1x long green chilli (pricked with a knife in a couple of places to stop it exploding when cooked)
2tsp punch poran (whole spice mix includes: cumin, mustard seeds, fenugreek, nigella seeds, fennel seeds)
2-3tbsp curry powder
1 cup hot water

6x sheets filo pastry (removed from a fridge for a few minutes so it’s less brittle to work with)
1-2tbsp nigella seeds
Olive oil fry light

Method:
1) preheat oven to 200*C
2) heat non-stick frying pan on a high heat
3) dry fry mince stirring till all the liquid has evaporated and the meat has started to brown.
4) add onion to mince and fry till softened.
5) add chopped potatoes and carrots, along with the garlic purée and spices
6) fry till the spices are fragrant and everything is well coated in the seasoning
7) add the frozen peas, stock pot and hot water. Stir well till the stock pot has dissolved.

8) give it 5 mins on a high heat for some of the water to evaporate then decant into an ovenproof dish.
9) put scrunched your sheets of filo on top of mince mixture, spritz with a little fry light then sprinkle over the nigella seeds

10) bake in the oven for 10 mins till it’s golden and crispy. Then serve and enjoy!