National Vegetarian Week - Recipe 5

Wow, its Friday already and Day 5 of supplying you all with one of my favorite recipes.  This one is very quick and easy to make.  It is also surprisingly good!  I can eat this one on my low carb diet and the girls will eat it with me.  They get to have freshly baked bread with it, while I have salad but even so it is yummy.

Today's recipe is:

  

Creamy Mushroom Soup

You will need:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 shallots or 1 small onion finely chopped
• 2 packs (10 ounces each) mushrooms roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 pints vegetable stock (we use veggy oxo cubes)
• 1 cup cream
• Freshly milled pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. 

Add the shallots, mushrooms and thyme. Cook for 10 minutes, until the mushroom pieces are lightly browned. 

Add the vegetable stock and water. Reduce the heat; simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat; add cream. 

Puree in batches in a blender until it reaches the desired consistency.  We like ours quite thick but with a few lumpy bits of mushroom in it.  Next Return the soup to the saucepan.  Finally add  freshly milled pepper to taste. 

Enjoy.

Karen x

National Vegetarian week - Recipe 4

As I have said before, I do not usually publish recipes but seeing as though it is National Vegetarian Week, I thought I would share some of the ones I cook at home. I am not an amazing cook, but I do like to have a go.  Most of the stuff I make is very easy to prepare and is just made with everyday foods we usually have in the cupboard or fridge. The rest of my family are not vegetarian but they do eat plenty of vegetarian food too.  Sometimes they will have it alongside meat or sometimes they will have it for a change.

Tonights recipe is:

Vegetable Curry

You will need:

• Mixed fresh vegetables (eg mushrooms, onions, carrots, broccoli, peas, potato)
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• Coconut milk
• Curry powder
• Rice

First put the rice on to boil.  We like to use wholegrain rice but you can use whichever you like. Just follow the instructions on the pack.

Next in a separate pan or wok (we use the wok for everything), heat a little oil.  Add the chopped onions and mushrooms.  Once they are starting to go a little brown add the peppers.  If using carrots and potato's I often steam them for few minutes. We have great little microwave steaming dishes that means no mess or hassel.  Then add them to the pan too. Peas and broccoli don't take long so once everything else is done I would add these.  

Next add the coconut milk.  You can buy it ready made in tins or in a pack where you add it to boiling water and stir until it becomes coconut milk. Both are good. Reduce the heat so its simmers and add the curry powder. Poppy only likes it mild so we tend to use mild curry powder but you could use whatever your family enjoy.  Let it simmer for about 20 minutes. 

There you have it, a delicious vegetable curry for the whole family to enjoy (whoops forgot to take a picture of it looking like this). Now that Poppy is approaching three and becoming a little fussy.  I tend to whiz the sauce up in the blender for the children and pour over the rice, that way Poppy will eat it and Rosie is happy that she has the same as her Sister!  

Feel free to serve it whichever way you choose and with your favorite condiments. 

Enjoy

Karen x

Vegetarian Week- Recipe 3

I m not normally one for posting recipes but this week is special. It is National Vegetarian week and being vegetarian myself I am doing my bit and posting a new recipe each night. These are all easy recipes I use myself. I wanted to show that you do not have to be a fantastic chef to cook meals for your family. I myself am no Delilah but I do like to cook and like to know what we are eating, no additives and preservatives in this house...well not many! I am no Saint either! Anyway today's recipe is:

Cheesy Tomato Pasta Bake

You will need:

• 250g pasta
• Mixed fresh vegetables (eg mushrooms, onions, peppers, carrots etc)
• A tin tomatoes
• A tin of Heinz tomato soup
• Cheese
• fresh basil leaves
• Freshly milled pepper

First part boil the pasta so that it is almost cooked but not quite.  It should still be a little on the firm side.

In a separate frying pan sauté some onions, mushrooms, peppers and whatever other vegetables your family enjoy.  I sometimes add courgette, garlic, carrots or sweetcorn.

Tip the pasta and the vegetables into an appropriate oven dish.  Pour over a tin of chopped tomatoes and the secret ingredient....a tin of Heinz tomato soup. Honestly it is great for this sort of thing. This one is a bit of a cheat recipe.

Next top with grated cheese. If you want it really cheesy, stir some in with the vegetables and pasta first, before adding more on top. Sprinkle the top with pepper (I don't use salt but you could if you wanted to) and torn basil leaves if you have them.  As you can see from the picture below I didn't have any basil in tonight.

Pop into an oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the cheese is all golden brown. If you are running late and don't have much time you can just stir it all up in one of the pans to gently warm it and then pop under a grill for about 15 minutes until it is all bubbling and brown.

The result...a meal for the whole family to enjoy (except me who is on a low carb diet). This one is very easy to make and very cheap too!  You can serve it with salad or vegetables and crusty bread. The girls love it served with chopped tomatoes and cucumber chunks and whatever does not get eaten gets divided up into child sized portions and frozen for another day.  Perfect.

Hope you enjoy

Karen x

National Vegetarian Week - Recipe 2

Okay so it is day two of vegetarian week and my second recipie.  Lke everything I cook, it is very easy to prepare, doesn't take long and can be enjoyed by the whole family.  Both my girls love this served with chunks of fresh bread.

Leek, Onion and Potato Soup

You will need:

• 4 large leeks
• 1 medium onion peeled and chopped small
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 pints (850 ml) hot vegetable stock (we use vegetable Oxo cubes)
• 10 fl oz (275 ml) milk
• Freshly milled pepper to taste
• 1 tbs oil for frying
• Fresh chives or chopped parsley to serve

Start with trimming the leeks, discarding the outer layer.  Split them in half lengthwise and finely slice.  Wash well.

In a heavy saucepan gently heat the oil and then add the leeks, onion and potatoes, stiring them all around so they all get thinly coated in oil.  Season with pepper, cover and let sweat over a very low heat for about 15 minutes.

Next, add the stock and milk, bring to simmering point, cover and let simmer for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Pour into a blender and blend to your desired consistency.  We like to have it thick with a few lumpy bits in it but its up to you. Return to the saucepan and reheat gently.  Finally stir in the chives or parsley and it is ready to serve. If you really want to, you could add a dash of cream or creme fresh before serving but we don't tend to bother.

Hope you enjoy

Karen x

National Vegetarian Week - Recipe 1

Apparently this week is National Vegetarian week. So being vegetarian I have decided to share some of my favourite recipes with you everyday this week.  Today's recipe is one I made up myself a few years ago.  I actually had it for supper tonight, luckily for me I am allowed this on my low carb diet.

Vegetable Mushroom Tower

This one is so easy, anyone can do it. Basically you take one (or as many as required) giant mushroom(s):

Top with chopped fresh tomatoes, spring onions and peppers. You could add anything else you like but there is not a huge amount of room on a mushroom.   I have used sweetcorn, pineapple and jalapeño peppers in the past (but not all together). You can be as inventive as you like.

Next sprinkled with a vegetable cube (1 cube will be enough for up to four mushrooms) and top with slices of Hulloumi cheese.  For those of you who don't know this is a Cypriot cheese and can be found in most supermarkets. Once it is ready place in an oven for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

The result is delicious:

The cheese is crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle and the stock cube mixed with the mushroom juices make makes a kind of sticky gravy.  For me being on a diet at the moment., it is the closest thing I can have to pizza.  I like to serve it with a large salad but you could also serve it with vegetables or whatever you like. Ordinarily, one would be enough but I was starving tonight so had two.

Enjoy.

Karen x

Vegetarian and difficulties cooking meat

Being a vegetarian and not liking my children eating pre-packaged, ready to heat, convenience foods means they eat a lot of vegetarian food when the Husband is away. I do not claim to be a Delia Smith or Nigella Lawson in the making (I most definitely am not that good!) but I do use fresh products and cook our meals from scratch.  I enjoy doing this and find is much cheaper too.

Cooking meat for me is hard, I do not like the look or smell of it, I cannot touch raw meat and I cannot taste it to see if it is cooked.  I can just about manage to cook casseroles but the girls tire of them easily, so this is a product I do cheat with: Sainsburys cooked chicken slices.  They come in a variety of flavours including plain, sweet chili and tikka.  My girls love them.  I can heat them up and serve them with potatoes and vegetables or serve them cold with chopped tomatoes, cucumber and crusty bread.  They cost £2.59 each or you can often buy two packs for £4.00.

Here is a picture of what they had tonight.  Chicken, peas, carrots and cheesy mash potato and not a scrap was left on either of their plates.

When the Husband has time off we tend to have a big cook up of things like Sheppard's pies, casseroles, curries, meatballs, chicken in lemon & black pepper etc that we freeze.  Our stock is running low right now but after tomorrow he has 2 weeks off so we plan on doing lots of cooking!

Karen x