Another quickie...

Loved our dinner tonight!  It's another pretty speedy one and, even better, you can prepare about 90% of it in advance and just reheat and finish it off when you need it. Win!!

Tonight it was mushroom stroganoff and rice for tea. Mushroom stroganoff contains a heap of my favourite ingredients, and because I'm keeping an eye on my calorie intake just now it's pretty healthy too. Yes, it would appear that if you sit on your bum being lazy but stuff your face with lots of good food, you put on weight! Imagine!  I lost a couple of stone last year but it's starting to creep on again so I'm nipping it in the bud now before it's all back on again.  I use a website called Weight Loss Resources to keep track (http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk), it's basically a huge food database so you log everything you eat and it works out how many calories you have had each day. It takes your personal height/weight info and rate of weight loss you want and sets you a daily allowance.  You also log your exercise and it's got me into the habit of doing exercise if I want to 'earn' more calorific foods.  Or I just don't have them.  The lovely people at WLR have kindly given me permission to use the nutritional info from their database to include the details to my recipe blogs.

Anyway, here's the recipe I used for tonight's meal...

Because I'm logging everything just now I had to measure how much of each ingredient I was using. I'm usually a chuck it in and hope for the best kind of girl but this has really made me pay attention to how much I'm eating!

Ingredients: (serves 2, or 1 hungry person!)

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

1 medium onions, sliced thinly

1 tbsp olive oil 

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1.5 tbsp vermouth

1 clove garlic, crushed 

juice of half a lemon

1 tsp paprika

100g half fat creme fraiche (or sour cream)

chopped fresh parsley

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan on a med-high heat and saute the onions and mushrooms for about 5 minutes until they soften.  Add the garlic and paprika and fry for about 30 seconds, stirring it through the mixture.  Add the tomato puree and allow it to cook out for 30 seconds or so.  Add the mustard, vermouth and lemon juice and cook out for another 30 seconds or so.  At this point you can either save the mixture for later, or finish it off to serve immediately.  Lower the heat and stir through the creme fraiche and some chopped parsley.  Serve with pasta or rice, adding a blob of creme fraiche on top, if you like, and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

I served ours tonight with a packet of microwaveable long grain rice between the 2 of us and the nutritional info for the meal is:

Nutrition Per Serving:

Calories (kcal)              307.4

Protein (g)                    6.8

Carbohydrate (g)          26.7

Sugars (g)                     5.9

Fat (g)                          17.4

Saturates (g)                 6.5

Fibre (g)                       2.9

Sodium (g)                   0.1989

Not bad for a tasty dinner.  And if you're starving you could eat the whole lot yourself and still have a very healthy meal for 600 calories (if you care!).

I'd love to know if you have any great, quick, healthy dinners you can recommend. Leave me a message, or pop over to my Facebook page and say hi there :o)       https://www.facebook.com/PotsofLove

Say yellow, wave goodbye...

Apologies for the title!  I've had Say Hello, Wave Goodbye by Soft Cell in my head for days so when I was thinking of a title for a post about a yellow curry... Yep, that's how my mind works! Although, the wave goodbye bit is apt since the yellow curry in question was devoured to leave very clean plates by not only the boy child but my very fussy 'wife' (i.e. the other person in my life that I cook for. Not an actual wife!).

Now, if you know me it is quite likely that at some point I've asked you, "Have you heard of Chilli Papas?", to which you've then answered, "Yes, Jill. You harp on about it all the time". Some things are worth harping on about!!

This is their website---> http://www.chillipapas.com/  Here's a link to their Facebook page --->  https://www.facebook.com/redhotchillipapas .  It's updated all the time with their latest news, products, where they will be direct selling, asking for customer feedback and opinions, recipe ideas - loads going on. I like companies that interact with their customers like this. And they do listen and take on board what people tell them.  And to put an extra smile on my face, they are based right here beside me in Dunfermline. Yes, my Fife foodie mission continues...

I've been using their products for a while now and my favourite mix changes all the time, but at the moment I am really into the yellow curry.  I love a curry, but if you've ever made your own from scratch you probably know the problems with it:

1. you buy a dozen jars of spices which take up a lot of room in the cupboard and go out of date before you're even halfway through them
2. it takes time to measure out all the quantities of all the different spices
3. if you're trying to watch calories and fat content then curry is a no-no

I do love making a curry from scratch but I have to have the time to spare, and as a very busy working mum that doesn't happen very often.  Chilli Papas provide 2 of their mixes in each pack and each sachet contains all the spices you need for each curry.  The 2 in 1 Tikka has beetroot powder in it too which gives it a fabulous colour without any artificial additives that you might find in shop bought curries.  I'll do a blog post on the tikka mix separately as I adore it!  The Chilli Papas tagline is "Authentic curry the oil free way", and it is!  I suppose if you really wanted to you could fry the onion and spices in oil first, but having tried all of their mixes using the age old 'bung it all in a pot and let it cook' method, I can vouch for the fact that oil really isn't needed.

So on Mothers Day this year, as nobody was likely to cook dinner for me (boo hoo...), I wanted something I love, something easy that I could leave to cook without having to keep an eye on it and something both the child and the wife would like too. I decided on yellow curry with roasted butternut squash, baby corn and green beans. Phwoar!  Along with the spice mix and my veg I needed an onion, a stock cube, a tin of coconut milk and some easy garlic and ginger (or you can use fresh but I was going for superfast, superlazy cooking, I even used microwave basmati rice!). And here it all is:

The butternut squash was chopped into chunks and roasted in the oven with a bit of salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil until it was tender. 

This is what is in one of the Chilli Papas sachets of yellow curry mix, spices plus kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass:

As I say, you get 2 of these in a packet so enough for 2 curries and all for the bargain price of £2. You can buy them as single units on their Facebook page, or they also offer bundles of 3 or 6 packets for £5 and £10 respectively. And even more good news, free postage!  The inlay card gives you cooking instructions and a list of ingredients you will need, along with directions on how to cook rice.

So, my butternut squash was roasted and into the pot it went with a bundle of green beans, a packet of baby corn, a chopped onion, a teaspoon of easy garlic, a teaspoon of easy ginger, the spice mix, a tin of coconut milk and half a stock cube. The pack says a whole stock cube but as I had put salt on the squash to roast it and don't like things too salty, I cut back.  You could leave it out altogether if you're keeping an eye on your salt intake, or use a low salt one.  Give it all a stir, leave it to cook for 20 mins or until the raw veg or meat is cooked, and serve with whatever you like!  I chucked an Asda garlic and coriander naan in the oven and a packet of microwaveable basmati rice in and we had a splendid dinner:

It's so easy to make a nice authentic curry using the mixes that I even had a cheeky nana nap on the sofa whilst it was cooking! (Well, it was Mothers Day!) As for the flavour, well the young one and the picky one both scoffed the lot in record time.  There was talk of licking the plate... Again, if you are watching calories etc you can swap the full cream coconut milk for a reduced fat version and it still tastes great. To be honest, the curries are very versatile so go ahead and add what you like!  A squeeze of lime juice would be lovely in the yellow curry, add a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes if you like it with a bit more bite or chuck a handful of chopped coriander leaves and stalks in at the end to give it some more freshness - it's completely up to you.

The Chilli Papas range at the moment includes a 2 in 1 Tikka (you can mix it with yogurt etc and use it as a marinade, or you can make it into a tikka masala sauce), yellow curry, Mandalay and a mild, medium and hot version of vindaloo.  They also put together brilliant hampers for any occasion and can include chilli chutneys, chilli chocolate, chilli seeds, pamper products, cakes, chillipapa or chillimama aprons ( I have one, I heart it!), anything you fancy really to suit your budget. Keep your eyes open later in the year too as they are looking to launch new mixes in the summer, including a fajita mix which I am probably more excited about than would be considered normal.  I can't help it, I LOVE fajitas!!!  But for now, if you want a fast, authentic tasting range of curries to have as a store cupboard essential, head over to Chilli Papas and get stocked up!

Just a quickie...

I just stuffed myself with one of our favourite quickie dinners in a hurry, so whilst I'm trying to figure out how to roll myself off the sofa I thought I would do a quick blog post to find out what your staple quick dinners are.

Unfortunately, we were far too hungry to stop and take any photos before stuffing our faces but never mind!  So this is my quickie cheats 'carbonara' for 2:

150g linguine (or spaghetti)

1 x 100g pack of diced pancetta

1 250ml tub of single cream

A good handful of grated parmesan

Ground black pepper

Easy peasy dinner - whilst the pasta cooks in a large pan of salted boiling water, empty the tub of pancetta into a hot frying pan.  You won't need any oil as the fat from the pancetta will render down and do the job for you.  When the bacon is crispy, reduce the heat and add the tub of cream.  Stir to lift all the crispy bits of pancetta off the bottom of the pan and heat the cream through. Increase the heat a little til the cream is simmering and begins to thicken a little.  Add in a good few grinds of milled black pepper and the parmesan and combine well.  When the pasta is cooked to your liking, add this into the cream mixture, allowing some of the water the pasta has been cooked in to go in too as the parmesan makes the cream pretty thick so this will loosen it a little. Mix the pasta into the sauce until it's coated in the sauce and serve in 2 bowls.  The sauce should just coat the pasta rather than drowning it.  Fast and a bit tasty!

So what's your best super speedy dinner?

Oh, one last thing before I go and let the button of my jeans out...  The lovely Darren @ Chilli Papas is arranging the Fife Food Fayre to be held in the Kingsgate shopping centre in Dunfermline on 12th May 2012. If you are a Fife based food business and would like to take part, or know of one that would, get in touch with darren@chillipapas.com and let him know.  Now. Do it now. NOW!!  Ta :D

Warm and sultry? Don't mind if I do...

It's taken me ages to get round to writing this review of Foodles Mixes but, like the product itself, it's worth the wait! Once you Foodles-ise your life you'll not go back!  A little background to the product - they are based in Markinch (yes, another fine Fife foodie product!), and currently produce 3 different mixes.  Warm & Sultry produces a lovely Moroccan spiced dish with a deep sweetness, Sticky & Sweet has an oriental twist with lots of star anise and soy, and their new mix, Fragrant & Fiery, a coconut and cardomom based curry mix.  You can order the 2 original mixes at http://www.foodlesmixes.co.uk/ or via their Facebook page, (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Foodles-Mixes/236091043076561?sk=wall)

I received one each of the mixes in December 2011 but with the whole Christmas chaos going on we didn't really do much eating of proper food.  My diet consisted mainly of party food and gin. Lovely, but it takes its toll!  So in early January, on a very grey, damp and cold Scottish day, it seemed the perfect time to make a Warm & Sultry beef casserole.  This is what is in the pack...

I love their packaging!  The first packet contains the spice mix, the 2nd contains lots of lovely sticky dates.  The cooking instructions are all on the back of the packet but it's pretty much a case of bung it in a pot, stick it in the oven and leave for a couple of hours.  All the ingredients are of a very high quality.  Yes, they could probably make the product cheaper but I think it's worth the price of £4.49 (website price, only £3.32 on Facebook, hooray!) for the excellent quality of the ingredients.

This is the end result...

Sorry I didn't make it look prettier by presenting it on a plate, but really, what's more welcoming and warming than a big casserole full of beef stew??  Loooovely!  The dates melt into the sauce to give it a sticky sweetness and wonderful depth, the spices are subtle and warming and fragrant.  We had it with mash one night and a huge baked potato with butter another night. If you like comfort food, this is for you!  My son is almost 9 and he ranks this as one of his favourite dinners ever. WIN!!

A few nights later I thought I should try another mix to make sure the success of the Warm & Sultry wasn't a one off. Ahem...  So I popped to the butcher, bought some pork ribs which, judging by the size of them, I'm not entirely sure didn't come from some mutant dinosaur pig, and tore into the Sticky & Sweet mix...

Again, fabulous packaging!!  The first packet in this mix contains a mix of sugar and spices including star anise and cinnamon, the second packet is soy sauce. Once again I was struck by the really good quality of the ingredients. The star anise were all large and chunky, the cinnamon was thick and coarse and held together rather than disintegrating into dust like cheaper variations are inclined to do, and the soy sauce was thick and rich and obviously excellent quality.  Again, it's a case of bung it all together and stick it in the oven to cook low and slow.  Here's our mutant ribs all tossed in the mix and ready to go into the oven...

Phwoar!!!  The smell even from the raw spices was amazing!  After a couple of hours in a low oven they became...

Not the prettiest presentation again!  I just threw some veg into a wok and did a quick stir fry to serve with the ribs, this picture was taken as my lad was on his way to munch on it.  Another success!

The quality of the ingredients really made this dish shine.  You can't go far wrong with good quality ingredients cooked simply.

I have yet to try the Fragrant & Fiery mix but I'm pretty confident it will become another favourite in our house.  So go on, treat yourself and stock up on a few Foodles mixes. And if you try them, please leave a comment below to let me know what you thought.

Also, if you like the idea of easy peasy mixes to throw in a pot and end up with a delicious dish, then watch out for my upcoming blog on one of my favourite Fife companies, Chillipapas.  (www.chillipapas.com)

Happy eating!

Fabulous Fife Food in Foaties!

Well, what a busy week!  Saturday we went to the farmers market in Dunfermline (http://www.fifefarmersmarket.co.uk/) and the Fife Diet Christmas Fayre in Burntisland (http://www.fifediet.co.uk/).  Sunday saw the event that was the 4th annual Festive Lasagne at Casa Blair. Alister and I plus 3 of my very best and long suffering friends gathered for our usual pre-Christmas stuffing of our bellies.

This is the table all set and ready for the girlies:

We had the obligatory Blair family recipe home made lasagne, which I used to help my dad make when I was just a lass.  I'd probably struggle to write exactly what I put in the bolognese sauce but roughly speaking it's pancetta, onion, carrot, steak mince, peppers, mushrooms, tinned chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, bouquet garni and seasoning. But you can't use a fresh bouquet garni. Oh no. You have to use the shop bought ones that look like a teabag because for years that's what my dad had me believe it was. It always makes me smile when I pop it in and I remember that and remember happy times with him.

Dessert was a rather yummy milk, dark and white chocolate cheesecake from M&S.  I would have made something myself but at this time of year life is so hectic with festive goings on that there just isn't time.  After the dessert was coffee and mince pies and a beautiful but small cheese board. I'd much rather have a small amount of good cheese than a whole host of cheap supermarket cheeses (not that you don't get good cheese in supermarkets these days!).  It was the Dunfermline Farmers' Market on Saturday, however, and I had bought a big chunk of Anster cheese and of Red Anster cheese from St Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company (http://www.standrewscheese.co.uk/).  Anster cheese is a Fife cheese made with unpasteurised milk, it has a real nice tanginess to it. The Red Anster has garlic and chives added and is slightly addicitve! Those gorgeous cheeses were served very simply with 'Fife Cut', wonderfully rough oatcakes by another Fife company; Your Piece Baking Company (http://www.yourpiecebakingcompany.com/OurOatcake.htm). They are the roughest oatcakes I've had and the creaminess of the oats in your mouth is so lovely with the tangy Anster cheese.

I also bought venison burgers, pork sausages and chorizo at the farmers market. More on them at a later date:

Also on Saturday we had gone to the Fife Diet Christmas Fayre in Burntisland, which is where I bought the amazing oatcakes. Wow!! What a great afternoon! If you are free next year make sure you go along! We made a lovely wreath for our front door to which I added a big red bow later and it looks beautiful (well, I think it does, what do you think?)...

Not bad, eh?! After that, Alister made gingerbread biscuits at the cooking workshop. There were a few local maker stalls there and we bought some beautiful bread from The Steamie Bakehouse (http://www.steamiebakehouse.com/) as well as the oatcakes from Your Piece. The bread is a white bloomer and a fruit loaf.  I ate about half of the white loaf just with butter and a few glasses of red wine on the Saturday night when Ally went to bed, heaven!!  The fruit loaf was full of plump juicy raisins and lovely sticky bits of candied peel with a wonderful warm spice in the background, all topped off with the most wickedly sticky and delicious glaze on the crust. It's lovely just sliced and munched, or try toasting it with some butter melting into it. Yum!!!!

Then Ally had a lesson in knitting, turns out he's a bit of a natural! After knitting a few and purling a few we moved on to the wee cafe area for a big slice of home made Victoria sandwich and a cuppa before heading over to the Christmas tree decoration workshop where Alister made this very cute addition to our tree:

After about half an hour in the storytelling room, the boy re-emerged to ice his gingerbread biscuits (no photos, they were pretty much inhaled as soon as the icing went on!) and then we headed home.  All of the workshops were free and we had a brilliant afternoon. It will definitely become part of our annual Christmas plans!

Lots more been going on but I'll spare you all for now!

Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas preparations. I'm full of festive joy, I can't wait!

Love, Jill xx

Practise what you preach

Further to my Keep It Local post, this weekend I'm planning a bit of a Fife foodfest! Practise what you preach indeed.

The Fife Farmers Market is on in Dunfermline on Saturday.  My shopping list includes duck eggs from Kilduncan's, sausages and chorizo from Puddledub, veg from Bellfield and maybe a cheeky ice cream from Nelson's if they're there!

Then, after that, we are off to Blacketyside farm shop in Leven to pick up some Foodles mixes so I can try them out before writing a review of them.  Yum! What a tough job...  I've also been told that their café is nice so we'll probably have lunch there. Then it's off to Burntisland for the Fife Diet Christmas fayre which includes making gingerbread and festive wreaths etc. Really looking forward to that, and it's free!

Then back home, to make a bolognese sauce and possibly to collapse on the sofa and order a chinese for tea!!  Sunday is usually a busy day for us but this week, as well as church/Sunday school, there's nativity play rehearsals too. Then swimming lesson at 12.30pm and home to get the house ready for the annual Festive Lasagne!

Every December, although snow buggered it up last year, my lovely friends, Fi, Karen and Kirsty, come over for a lasagne dinner. We used to exchange presents but these days Alister's the only person who receives presents, it's just too expensive for us all to give to everyone else.  We have the Blair Family Recipe Lasagne, hence making bolognese sauce on Saturday night, garlic bread, salad, wine, fizz and dessert. It's one of the very few times in the year that we all get together, no questions asked - Festive Lasagne is compulsory in our calendars!

So, a busy weekend ahead!  After that, next week I really MUST get my Christmas shopping started/finished. Not done a thing so far. Oops.

Hope you are all staying safe. We've been hit by a terrible storm today which has been a bit scary but seems to be passing now and moving on. Tiles flew off houses in our street, windows blew in at one of the high schools and at someone's house locally, awful!  Stay inside, keep safe and warm and eat something lovely!

Jill xx

Keep it local!

I'm supposed to be cleaning the house just now. The living room is spotless (well, by my very low standards!) and ready for us putting the Christmas tree up when Ally gets home from school today though.  I'm this [    ] close to feeling festive, the tree might just do it!  And I have a pack of ready made puff pastry in the freezer and a jar of mincemeat in the cupboard so there may even be super speedy mince pies on the go later too.

However, as I was dusting the window sill and hoovering the rug, my mind drifted off to thinking about local foodie companies. Some I already use, others are on my 'to cook' list.  One of my favourites is Chillipapas (http://www.chillipapas.com/), a company based right here in Dunfermline who make a range of curry spice mixes. As a busy mum I always have a stash of their mixes in the cupboard as they are so quick and easy.  You can just bung everything in a pot with the spices and leave it to cook.

I also know there is a company called Foodles Mixes (http://www.foodlesmixes.co.uk/) just up the road in Markinch.  I haven't tried their mixes but they are right at the top of the 'to cook' list!

I'm planning to dedicate a blog post to each of them in the very near future but in the meantime if there are any Fife based companies you think I should know about then shout about it right here! I'm a big supporter of The Fife Diet (http://www.fifediet.co.uk/) which aims to get people eating local produce but I think supporting local companies like these should also be a part of this.  Maybe if any of them read this they can get together!

Ok, I HAVE to go and clean Alister's room. I may not make it out alive...eek...

Jill xx