This works fine for me, but you know your own soup makers and what the limits will be. Change the amount of ingredients to suit your machine. Check your instructions if you are not sure.
This is something I tend to make quite frequently, with differing amounts of fruit, to change the taste. I’ll add others as I get time to. I quite often forget to take pictures, which I should get better at. It’s fab for adding protein, especially where it’s missing in anyone’s diet. I can’t persuade my mother to eat meat now, unless it’s cold, and I’m hoping to find a version of this that she’ll eat, but I’m not there yet. #fussyelder
Two of my boys love this style of dessert, especially if I add a few sprinkles on the top, like this one, or some chocolate shavings, or mix a little fresh cream through it before serving. This recipe could easily be split into two, as it’s rather a large serving. I often have something like this for breakfast or lunch.
Cut the carbs by using berries.
High Protein Frozen Mango Yoghurt
Lesley Smith
My preference is for Skyr, because of the silkier taste but today, I had Fage, Total 0% in the fridge, which has similar properties in the plain, with slightly different protein amounts from Skyr.
Take one or two chunks of your mango and keep it to one side. Add the rest to a blender, with the yoghurt, and blend until it reaches a consistency you like. I prefer mine not to be completely smooth, but we all have different preferences.
Add the mixture to an ice cream maker if you have one (and use it) or if you're like me today, I popped it into a freezer proof plastic tub and let it chill for an hour, then took it out and stirred it before putting it back.
I like to leave mine for around 4 hours, then stir briskly, before it's totally set. I like that consistency. If I make for the kids, I'd add a touch of cream at this stage and mix it in well, then pop it back for another hour. The larger portion you make, the longer it will need to be in the freezer for.
Use the mango set aside to decorate the top, and add sprinkles for some lovely colour, or to make the dessert look impressive on the table.
For however it happens, sweet potatoes don’t send my blood sugar as high a regular potatoes. It’s a real shame, as we grow potatoes on our plot and have some to use year round. We do eat a lot of potatoes though, and many go into soups. Sweet potatoes aren’t an easy grow, especially this far North of the border, where there isn’t much sunlight in a year, although I really do wish we could grow them.
Anyway, this is a nice and simple slow cooker recipe, although remember that my amounts are fairly large, and you might be better cutting them down for a smaller slow cooker or smaller family batches.
I’ve used round steak from my local butcher, the lean butcher in Chattan Place, Aberdeen. He delivers across the UK, so it fits in well for me. I dislike having to actually go shopping terribly often. I find the round steak is perfect for us, but slow cooking does well with tougher cuts of meat too.
500gMixed Sweet Potatoes. Mine are white and orange.
2Dessertspoons Cornflour.
Seasoning or Stock.I used chicken seasoning, and put in 3 teaspoons.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Water.
Instructions
When you're vegetables are all chopped, add them to your slow cooker, with the meat. At times, I will lightly fry the meat and onions, but for slow cooking, the method of cooking seems to be more than enough for us to miss out this step at times.
Stir the cornflour into a little water in a cup, until it forms a smooth paste or is dissolved completely. It should look a little like milk. Add to the slow cooker.
Add seasoning and or stock cubes etc.
Stir the ingredients around well.
Add enough hot water to cover around half way up the ingredients. Be careful not to scald yourself.
Pop on the lid and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low, for a high wattage slow cooker. Adjust the cooking time based on your knowledge of your own machine. The vegetables are likely to take the longest to cook, especially the carrots and white sweet potatoes.
If your gravy looks too thin close to the end of cooking, mix up a little more cornflour and water, and add to the slow cooker, stirring the ingredients, and let cook for a further half hour.
Before I start my review, I have a confession to make. A miserable tale of electronic devilishness.
Like the annoying snapper at a wedding, I’d walked around the restaurant, pointed my lens at everything I thought looked amazing, and sat back in the knowledge I’d a lot of lovely images, including great ones of my kids enjoying a rare evening out with their parents. Cheerily I loaded my SD Card, looking forward to printing some off for the kids and for my review, to find nothing registering, nada….dead as the preverbial Dodo.
So, in short, all I can do is tell you how it went for us. Pictures usually say a thousand words, but in this case, the thousand words will have to do instead. I’ll try to make them easy reading, but I know that without those colourful additions, it’s really difficult to convey how good our experience was last week.
To make up for it, I’ve borrowed some images directly from Harvester, so thanks go to the PR team allowing me to do that.
This blurry picture is the only one I’ve got from my phone when we were about to leave the house. Not ideal, but I was looking forward to going out with my family.
Setting
The lovely offer of a meal at our local Harvester was welcome indeed. We had a very lovely meal, which was a really nice family evening, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Seeing my boys eat so much was nice too, although the fussy youngest went for a kids meal, which was no problem.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.ukImage Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Our Harvester, the Ghillies Lair, is set at the Bridge of Dee, and overlooks the Dee itself. The restaurant has a lovely extension with views over the River Dee, which would be a lovely sight on a nice evening.
The Bridge is old, very old, and dates from 1527. It’s used daily by all sorts of traffic, to leave or enter the City of Aberdeen. It’s built along a row ribbed arches, using granite and sandstone. I’ve known that bridge my whole life. Along with the old suspension bridge a bit further along, it’s steeped in history, and we’re lucky enough to still be using this one, although the suspension bridge was closed to traffic long ago.
The Ghillies Lair has an outdoor seating area, overlooking the river, for lovely summery days, and although we’re not there yet, but I’ve fond memories of sitting outside on a nice day for an ice-cream when I used to work at that end of town.
Service
What can I say! Our server was lovely and nothing was too much trouble. She was polite and friendly and they accommodated my wish for the BBQ Chicken Stack, without the BBQ sauce as I don’t often like it. She even posed, in good spirits, for an impromptu picture that’s gone belly up with my SD card. Perhaps she’ll be very pleased about that… I did spring it on her, without warning…. 🙂
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Menu
Three of us went for the set menu, we had one child dish and I chose from the regular menu. In our local Harvester, there’s an evening set menu, where from 5pm every evening, we have the choice of a main meal + either a starter or a dessert for £10.99, or add a third course for £2. There was lots to choose from and the menus are online, so it’s easy to take a cheeky peek before you go.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Drinks
It was nice to see the option of drinks that we can refill as often as we want ourselves, as with three kids, our drinks bills, even for soft drinks, often outprices the cost of meals. No worries here, with the ability to choose from several different options, and fill up with ice and fizzy drinks as much as we wanted. I know many people don’t like fizzy drinks for kids, but when we’re out, it’s a treat, and I’ve always been happy enough for my kids to choose what they want. Sometimes one of mine chooses a water or orange juice, but refillable drinks tick the boxes for me.
Sauces
A whole bar of them. Loads and loads to choose from. BBQ, tomato, relishes, mayonnaise, speciality glazes and lots of different sauces to choose from.
Salad Bar
What can I say. Lots of different choices, from coleslaw, beetroot, pickled onion, tomatoes, lettuce, carrot, and much much more. The trays were replenished throughout and I felt confident I was eating fresh food. It’s not a one visit fits all, so we could visit the salad bar as often as we liked. My eldest went up three times for a top up. There was plenty to go round for everyone.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Bread, butter, croutons, dressings, bacon bits and more, were also available. If someone goes in there and says there’s nothing to choose from, I’d think they were nuts… Wait, that’s exactly what my youngest said…… No problem. Kids menu and chicken in a southern fried coating with chips saved the day.
Main Courses
The man and middle child chose from the set menu, going for the Signature Fish and Chips, with Ice-Cream for afters. When their fish and chips arrived, the plates were brimming over with the large fish and enough chips to even keep middler happy. He’d already eaten four or five of the small bread rolls from the salad bar, and a bowl – brimming full of salad. Eldest went for the set menu burger, and I had the BBQ Chicken Stack. There’s a sauce station with lots of different sauce and glaze options, so I had plenty to choose from. Much more than I’ve ever seen in any restaurant I’ve been to in the past.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.ukImage Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
Dessert
Spoiled for choice, we couldn’t decide. Three opted for the simple ice-cream, but I decided to throw my calorie budget to the wind and go for the Rocky Road – a sundae full of chocolate brownie deliciousness, topped with fresh cream, and including honeycomb and fudge pieces.
My youngest chose the Chocolate Fudge Cake with Belgian chocolate sauce and real dairy ice-cream, and the slice that came seemed huge. He did have a dilemma when he compared it with the Eton Mess Cheesecake, as the raspberries in sauce and fluffy cream were a definite screaming taste bud temptation.
His eyes popped when the cake was carried out. ‘I’m going to eat it all,” he announced to our waitress, with a smug grin…. She smiled knowingly.
Image Courtesy of Harvester.co.uk
At the point he exhaled with exhausted happiness at eating as much as he could, eldest quickly slid the plate over and began to dig in. By the time he sat back and patted his full belly, there was even a little left over.
Information and Nutrition
This may not seem like much to some of you, but to some pernickety chiels, like me, and many others, allergens and nutritional content is important. I want to know where I sit with my calorie and nutrient budget for the week.
Working a weekly budget fits high calorie items into my life. I don’t do deprivation. As a diabetic, it’s essential for me. At many restaurants, I have to guess by plucking figures out of thin air and hoping for the best, but not with the Harvester – as they had all the information on their website.
They also have an allergen, gluten and milk guide, so meals or special diets can be planned in advance. I had two very high calorie dishes, but because the information was all there, it was easy to fit it all in, and be confident that I’d got it pretty right. And it was worth every last wicked calorie…
Overall
Between the five of us, we ate masses of food. Apart from the meal, how much else we eat, is up to us.
With the unlimited salad, sauces, breads and fizz. I can’t imagine anyone ever leaving a Harvester, and still being hungry. And with a clean and fresh ladies room, everything I looked for ticked all the boxes. I don’t remember having such a lovely evening with my boys for quite a while. Having all the teens in one place and eating together gets harder and harder as they grow older.
Although we benefited from a welcome voucher towards our meal, we thoroughly enjoyed it, and will be back as full paying guests. We’ve been to Harvesters before, and always enjoyed the experience.
Hey you all, protein is something that many of us just don’t get enough of. As a newbie runner, upping my protein count is important, to make sure I have the ability to repair the damage done to my muscles as I learn to run.
I wanted something lovely and puddingy, but not always a smoothie, and this is it…. with a whopping 40g protein in a serving. Split it in half if you want to keep to 20g Protein in a serving.
The longer it is in the fridge, the thicker it gets, so if you can make it the day before, or a few hours in advance, that’s even better. If you use a different protein powder, factor in the different amounts of protein.
Feel like cutting the calories and carbs a bit? Reduce the flour and swap out the banana, and perhaps use unsweetened almond milk. Add even more protein by using cows milk. I sprinkled one square of grated white chocolate over the top.
Add all the ingredients to your blender or Nutribullet. This makes enough for one person. Blend until completely smooth.
Pop your pudding into a glass/dish and put it in the fridge for an hour, preferably longer. I put mine into the freezer for a couple of hours if I can.
This is a veritable taste bud smacking flavour. You must like the sweetness of sweet potato, and the chilli flavour that tempers it. If you just want a very sweet soup, simply leave out the chilli, or add some cream to make it even richer, but I suspect that would be too much for me.
I used zero onions, as I wanted the sweet chlli type flavour from my soup.
Add all your ingredients to the soupmaker.
Top up with water, to above the minimum and below the maximum levels.
Crumble the stock cubes over the top, and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Make sure your lid in on properly.
Choose the smooth setting. I put this through my soupmaker twice. I did one cycle, then gave the soup a good stir before putting it on again. You can judge it by the results you get on your own version. I found it quite thick. I'd even be tempted to leave out one tin of chopped tomatoes in future, and add it for a second chunky setting for a more lumpy style soup, but I don't yet know if that would take my ingredients below the minimum line. I'll have to try it.
In this new e-book, Soup Maker Recipes there are 30 More tasty recipes, each one of which, has a fabulous picture to let you see how my versions turned out. I’d like to thank everyone who supported me with my first book, and those who were kind enough to leave reviews for me. My books are not available in print format, but if I can work out the formatting, I might eventually manage to do that.
You can buy this book on Amazon, along with my first e-book. Book 1 is Red and Book 2 is Green.
Buy from Amazon – Kindle App Reading
You can read it by downloading the Kindle app for your devices, or by viewing online in the Amazon viewer. Click the “shop now” buttons in the Amazon widget to take you to the books. The recipes include lots of new ones that are not published anywhere else, although I will share one or two on my blogs over the coming months:
See some of the pictures, and which soups and smoothies are included below.
Any book that can encourage our kids to eat more healthily has to be a good thing. That goes for adults too, if I’m honest. I think a very large proportion of the population doesn’t eat enough fruit and veg.
In this book, there are more than enough recipes to get started with, and includes lots of lovely and bright images of foods and their descriptions. We get to meet the fruit and veg within each colour, and there are lots of little tips, more than suitably tailored towards our younger cooks, with handy safety rules and a guide to the equipment needed for the recipes.
You can soon be cooking tasty, healthy meals with this recipe book. Alongside nutrition facts, there are 25 simple vegetarian recipes for children to cook at home, including soups, salads and stir fries, as well as sweet delights, such as muffins, cheesecake and cupcakes. The focus of the book is on earning to cook with our greens, reds, yellows and purples.
You can find out how carrots help your vision, and why peppers boost your immune system, while learning how to use different fruits and vegetables, and using different cooking methods.
For reds, recipes include tomato, pepper and cherries, with the purples, like aubergine, blueberry and raisins being quite neat.
Eat Your Greens, Reds, Yellows and Purples is published by DK on 1 April 2016, £9.99. DK.com
My personal favourite is always going to be the oranges, with carrot, butternut squash and pumpkin featuring, much to my approval.
There are some lovely recipes, including:
Green Bean Stirfry
Green Smoothie
Tomato and Onion Tarts
Layered Berry Cheesecakes
Sunshine Rice
Carrot and Orange Treats
The carrot and orange treats will go down nicely with my boys, and the green smoothie for me. Thanks for the permission to post the smoothie recipe.
Green Smoothie
Ingredients
1 small or 1/2 large banana
75g (2oz) green grapes
60g (2oz) baby spinach
150ml (5fl oz) milk (use almond milk if preferred)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp almond or peanut butter
handful of ice cubes
Method
Peel the banana and break it into chunks. Put into a blender along with the grapes.
Add the spinach, milk, honey, nut butter, and a handful of ice cubes to the blender.
Blend the mixture until smooth. If it’s too thick or not chilled enough, just add a few cubes of ice and blend again.
We’re told that spinach is rich in vitamins, which helps keep our blood healthy, and we can adapt the recipe to get a different flavour, by adding a large pinch of ground cinnamon or even a few fresh mint leaves.
In summary:
I love the light and bright pictures, with the great tips throughout the book. This would make a lovely present for kids who already have everything.
Eat Your Greens, Reds, Yellows and Purples is published by DK on 1 April 2016, £9.99. DK.com
Most of you wouldn’t like the toasted spelt in the way that I do. The lovely nutty flavoured wheat is perfect for snacking. I toast mine until it becomes almost a dry nutty consistency as that’s what I enjoy. If you prefer yours softer, simply don’t roast/toast for long and check the cooking times on your spelt. Some of you might just prefer the spelt straight from the packet if you buy the ready to eat kind, such as I did, or a quick heat up for a minute in the microwave.
I made this in the Actifry, but you could easily use your oven to toast the spelt, or not toast it at all if you prefer the slightly chewy consistency it can give us.
I cheated and used a pack of Merchant Gourmet Spelt, that is ready to eat. Nobody said everything should be done from raw… I don’t always have time for that sort of thing.
I used my snacking basket to Actifry my sun dried tomatoes for 5 minutes.
After doing my tomatoes, I then put my spelt and chopped dates into my machine, along with a pinch of salt and pepper, and the oil.
I Actifried my spelt for 8 minutes, which will be far too long for most of you. Some might just like 1 or 2 minutes. Keep an eye on it and check every minute or so, to find out if it's the right consistency and taste for you.
Serve with the sun dried tomatoes on top, and I added some edible rose petals to enhance the look of the dish.
These are made from leftovers. Who wouldn’t want to know how to make something so delicious, and economical, while keeping lots of food waste out of our bins? You could even win a Slow Cooker with your own tips. Read on to find out more.
Ok, so what’s the issue? Did you know that around £260 million pounds worth of beef products are wasted each year in our UK homes? I know I didn’t. We might be nation of beef lovers, but that’s a lot of wasted meat.
And that’s not all. There’s also the half eaten sandwich, unfinished steak in a restaurant, or like some of my extended family members, anything that isn’t eaten on the day, is thrown out and never eaten.
I don’t subscribe to that way of cooking, and many of us are on a budget these days, so it makes sense to use our leftovers and put them to good use. It’s something I do regularly for my own family.
MEATY ISSUES – WHAT’S THE BEEF?
Love Food Hate Waste is launching the Meaty Issues campaign, where they will share our favourite tips, tricks and left over recipes to help us reduce the amount of beef we throw away at home saving us money and helping the environment along the way. Farmer and television presenter Adam Henson will also be talking about how we can do our bit to help get the best from our beef.
RECIPE USING LEFTOVERS WITH SOME ADDED INGREDIENTS
My Tips
Freeze what you can’t use immediately for another day. I have frozen banana, cucumber, meat, chicken, soups and much much more waiting to be used. I especially dislike throwing away beef, as it’s so expensive, and if an animal is providing food for me, I like to use as much of it as I can.
Make stock from bones to use another day in gravy, soups, stews and casseroles.
Measure your ingredients and check portion sizes before grabbing things in the shopping aisle. I find it easier to shop online for many things, as I tend to buy what I need, rather that just grabbing a big bag while the boys are moaning about being in the shop too long.
Meal planning. It really does help. This is one thing I really need to get smarter at, as I tend to over shop and have to freeze lots.
Recycle. Having a separate scraps bin really made me take stock of the raw/fresh food that went by way of the bin. In the days it went into the big bin, I didn’t have a good handle on how much we threw away. Now I do…..
If you don’t have enough of one thing, add something else from your cupboard to pad it out. This is exactly what I did for my Beef Rostis. I had a pan full of mashed potatoes, when family cancelled supper at the weekend. I wanted to use them up, along with a packet of beef slices that my mum had asked for, but hadn’t eaten more than one teensy slice from.
BEEF ROSTIS WITH ONION AND MINI SWEET PEPPERS
I had nowhere near enough of any one thing for this recipe, so I just threw a lot of different things together, and out came these lovely beef rostis. Even my husband was well impressed, and he’s quite a picky eater.
I had a load of mashed potato, so I added enough for a large batch of rostis. My boys ate two each with some mushy peas for supper, so they were very quickly demolished around here. I’d make these again, in different varieties.
Ingredients (Makes 10 Rostis)
800g Mashed Potato. 200g Beef, sliced thinly. 200g Onion, finely sliced. 3 Mini Sweet Peppers, sliced and with seeds removed. I used red, yellow and orange. 50g Carrots, sliced and cubed. Ruskoline Crumb Dressing. 5 Eggs. Plain Flour. 5ml Rapeseed Oil.
Method
I used my Actifry with the Snacking basket to cook these, but you can easily use a frying pan or even oven cook them too, although I’ve never actually made rostis in the oven.
Step One
Cook your onions with the peppers and carrots in the rapeseed oil, until fully cooked.
Depending on how you cook, you might need a little more oil. If yours are already cooked leftover vegetables, you can miss out this step. I sauteed mine in the Actifry. Try not to let them turn brown as it spoils the look of the Rosti when they’re cut open. I took around 10 minutes to cook mine.
Step Two
Put your potatoes and beef into a bowl, and add your vegetables and mix thoroughly.
Step Three
Get three dishes, and crack three eggs into one, and whisk them up briskly until mixed. Put Ruskoline into your second bowl, and plain flour into the third. You can add more of these as you go, if you need it. I used 5 eggs in total.
Step Four
Form your mix into slightly smaller than palm sized balls and flatten them, pressing together to firm them up. They may be a little moist at this point, which is what the flour is for. Dip each patty into the flour and make sure it is fully coated. I flour all my rostis first. When they are all covered in flour, I finish the next two steps for each rosti in turn, covering it with egg, then rolling each one around in the ruskoline until fully coated. Be warned. It’s a messy business. Kids love making these.
Step Five
In my Actifry Snacking Basket, these took around 5 minutes for mine to be thoroughly hot. You could shallow fry yours or oven bake on a moderate heat for around 20 minutes, or until fully hot inside.
Now pop on over to Love Food Hate Waste and add your own tips…
Leave the skin on baby potatoes, and simply wash and chop them into small pieces. I didn't do this scientifically, or to any definite shape.
Peel the sweet potatoes, and chop them up in the same way as the baby potatoes.
Put them all into the Actifry, and drizzle on two spoons of the oil, and mix in the bullion powder. For this, I used what I had, which was a tub of red wine casserole powder. Just use what you have, and if you're out of something, crumble in a stock cube or two.
Select around 20 minutes on your machine, or until your baby potatoes are fully cooked.
Serve with a little parsley to garnish on top.
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Newest Comments:
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.
My nana used to say it to me, I’m sure I heard my mam say it too. We were from…
This is the first recipe I've used in my new breadmaker and the family are all loving it!
For your dry potato, look for Kerrs Pink, September onwards.
My nana used to say it to me, I’m sure I heard my mam say it too. We were from…
This is the first recipe I've used in my new breadmaker and the family are all loving it!