ideas for more variety and less cost in my diet?

RAS

Ames wrote: »

Another stupid question, if I get chicken legs how can I season them? Do I just pour loads of dried herbs/spices on and stick it in a roasting tin? I'm assuming I can't do it in the slow cooker without some kind of liquid?

For the slow cooker, those small quantities of wine would be a great way of addign a bit of flavour (cider works as well). Any acid tenderises meat.

For the mini-cooker think

Bits of chicken, some small new-ish potatoes, a bit of olive oil, some garlic plus lemon or lemon juice. You could add some red pepper, courgettes or olives if you want.

Cut the potatoes lengthways into halves or quarters depending on size leaving skins on, and toss lightly in oil. The chicken needs to be fairly small pieces - drumstick size say. If you are using pepper or courgettes, keep the pieces about the same size.

Mix everything up, put on the tray and grill or bake - check after say 30 minutes first time until you know your cooker. Turn it all over half way through if you can to ensure the pieces cook through evenly.

The potatoes and chicken should be cooked about the same time, check the potaotes are cooked with a knife or skewer and ensure the chicken is cooked by checking that the juice runnig from them is clear.

Eat.

Think this is "after" Nigel Slater.

If there are left over, use them in wraps or make a rough chowder.

Small tin of sweetcorn plus a bit of skimmed milk, diced chicken from the above recipe, diced cooked potatoes plus the juices from cooking. Put it all in a pan and heat or put it in a micorwaveable lidded container and cook. season and eat.

Ames

Mmm all sounds good! I'll be doing a big shop tomorrow, so plenty of tinned veg and beans.

Not sure I could go to a slaughterhouse, but I go to the local butchers which are cheap and fantastic quality.

mummysaver

Sprouted seeds make a good snack, nutritious and not calorific - worth keeping a jar on your window sill - just soak some seeds (alfalfa/chickpeas/mung beans - all available in the supermarket in the dried pulses section) overnight, then drain the water off, I cover the jar with a piece of muslin and hold it on with an elastic band. Then morning and evening fill the jar with water, swirl it about and tip it out again, within a week you'll have sprouted seeds. They can then be kept in the fridge for a few days.

As for blending soups that you make in the slow cooker, my stick blender has a small pot that screws onto the end of it, which means that you don't need to hold the weight of blender yourself. I don't know if it would be possible for you to ladle a portion of soup from the sc into the pot then blend it? It'd also mean that if you did slip or drop it then you wouldn't end up with soup everywhere! Something I'm prone to doing frequently, just because I'm clumsy!

Good luck with your continued weight loss and healthy eating. People here are full of amazing ideas, I'm sure you'll have more recipes and inspiration than you know what to do with soon!

Edit:

just thought, roast veg are fairly simple, and you can use soft easy to chop veg that won't put too much strain on your wrists, courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, perhaps an onion cut in half and just broken up, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, pop on oven tray and bake.

Ames

Mmm the roasted veg sounds good.

I'll look out for one of those blenders when I've got to the point of being confident enough to buy things knowing they'll get used.

nicholataylor

blenders can be really cheap.

30 pounds for the top of the range bullet blender. There are cheaper alternatives but the bullet will blend anything. I blended straberries and it blended the seedS!

sonic911

go to the market latish on good bargains prep and freeze

dont need to chop veggies for soup buy casserole bag from frozen foods use half boil in chicken cube or veg stock add a thickner hey presto soup add anything you like
nimble brown bread keeps for a week and good for you
pitta breads for a change

casserole you meat and veg make a hotpot

use leftovers for a chiil or add curry powder

Have you a slow cooker does it all for you simples as the ad says

make a shepherds pie with instant mash add anything you like
freezes well too
any spare put into little tubs to freeze for later
frozen foods shops have frozen fruit for the winter months

hope it helps

gb57

HOMEMADE SOUPS - once I discovered how easy they were I have never looked back. My other half watched me make one, asked how I did it, and now makes soups for himself when he is at his place. AND he hates the texture of broccoli, but loves broccoli soup!

Roughly chop an onion, soften in some butter or oil. Add some roughly chopped broccoli (or whatever veg you fancy), boiling water, a chicken stock cube (buy good ones such as Knorr). Salt and pepper to taste.
Boil, stir to make sure stock cube dissolves, simmer until veg is soft. Leave to cool a bit. Blend.

Make enough to freeze some. You can defrost it gently in a pan if you have forgotten to take it out of the freezer.

Works with almost any veg. For peas add some mint or other herbs for a superior soup

Since I started to make soup we can't eat tinned or even "Covent Garden" soup - they taste chemically and over-salted.

Rocket grows from seed in a pot, easy. Ditto lambs lettuce. Put a few seeds in every few weeks so the harvest lasts over time. Keep watered but don't overwater.

Because it has not been "salad weather" my rocket and lambs lettuce "has growed like Topsy".

josment

Hi

This dinner recipe might interest you - it's called Gudewife Chicken and I can't remember where I got it from - some recipe book, so apologies for any copyright infringements!

For 4 people: a chicken (or chicken pieces); about 1/2 lb chopped streaky bacon; 2 large onions, chopped; some water; salt and pepper; 1-2 tbsp of the secret ingredient (scroll down for that!)

For 1 portion with the minimum amount of handling, I suggest: 1 or 2 chicken thighs, skinned if possible (the cooking makes the meat fall off the bone anyway, and the skin will detach itself if you can't find skinned thighs); handful of ready-chopped frozen onion (I've only seen these and not used them so I don't know what they're like - maybe dried onion would work better); 1 or 2 rashers of bacon, chopped if you can, or left (nearly) whole - the fat helps with the flavour, but you can cut off a lot; some water; salt and pepper; 1-2 heaped teaspoons of the secret ingredient - Crosse and Blackwell Branston Pickle. It has to be Branston Original and NOT the squeezy Branston sauce 'cos it doesn't work with that!

Throw everything in a slow cooker/saucepan/casserole in the oven and cook it until the meat falls off the bones! For dinner parties, remove all the chicken pieces and whizz the sauce through a blender then serve the blended sauce separately, but I usually don't bother with that. (Slob!)

It goes with boiled potatoes or rice and I guess it would go well with couscous too. Grilled tomato is very nice with it - perhaps tinned tomato would be good if you can't cope with a fresh one.

I know it does sound like a boring recipe - after all, there's hardly any ingredients and there's no browning to help with the flavour, but you will be surprised! It's one of our top favourites, anyway.

Enjoy!

Ames

Mmm that sounds nice. I'll have a go at some of those when Im feeling better. Right now I'm concentrating on getting the flat tidied out, when that's done I'll be able to do more in the kitchen. Thanks for all the ideas.

I've just got (well picking up tomorrow) a chef's trolley on freecycle, it'll double my worktop space and give me more storage, which'll help a lot.

pjw123_2

There are plenty of blackberries in south london. I usually pick some, wash them and then put on a flat tray in the freezer then tip into a bag so they are all separate.
favourite uses - frozen into american pancakes, they will thaw and cook by the time the pancake is cooked. Also add frozen to chocolate cake or chocolate muffins.
fresh just eat them one at a time or put in the blender with milk or soya milk for a purple smoothy.

There are also LOADS of small plums around this year, Wash them in hot water, and cook, (6 mins in microwave) take out the pips. Then make a pudding (plum fool) by making custard with three quarters pint of milk and quarter pint of plums
I heard a rumour that there are raspberries to be picked somewhere between Barnes and PUtney.
I am also keeping an eye on apple and pear trees, growing on waste ground hanging over the edge of gardens, and in parks.