Easy Spanish Paella

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix is taking place in Spain, and as I'm on holiday I made this Spanish paella in honour of the race a couple of weeks ago. It's really easy and a lot quicker than 'proper' paella as I used microwavable rice. I often don't have the time or patience to cook rice from scratch and am usually only doing it for one or two people anyway, so the microwave pouches are just right. But that's not to say I don't want to add my own twist to it!

I had some leftover red peppers in brine in  jar in the fridge and also some leftover chorizo which were perfect for this recipe. I'd bought a big bag of frozen king prawns from Iceland for - if I recall correctly - £4.99, which seems expensive for Iceland but it's a huge bag that has lasted ages.

I fried some onion and garlic in the base of the pan, added the red pepper and chorizo, then the cooked rice and some vegetable stock - also left over from another recipe in the fridge - and some seasoning plus a spice mix of saffron, paprika, and oregano. Stir it all around, heat through until the prawns are cooked, and serve!

I'm not pretending at all this is the correct recipe for a paella but it is a dish along those lines and I like the fact that it's quick and I can throw in whatever I have in the fridge or store cupboard!

I'm sharing this firstly with the blog challenge I host, Formula 1 Foods; the idea is to cook something inspired by the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

I'm also sending this to Kitchen Clearout, hosted by Madhouse Family Rules, as it uses up leftover and storecupboard ingredients.

The theme for this month's Spice Trail challenge, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, is spice mix - my own blend of spices for this paella fits in with that.

Slimming World-style Cauliflower Rice

I’d seen a few posts on Facebook about Slimming World cauliflower rice – not an official SW recipe but something that people following the plan were making. It’s a low-carb alternative to rice or potatoes, and fits in well with Slimming World’s new Extra Easy SP plan (the SP stands for ‘speed’ I think, as it’s a way of giving your weight loss an extra boost). The other advantage is that it only takes a couple of minutes to make.

 

It’s really easy to make and tasted OK – you can tweak the added flavours as you like – but it did taste very strongly of cauliflower. That seems an obvious thing to say but what I mean is that the taste is very condensed and intense, as you are reducing down the cauliflower. I would say the texture is more like cous cous than rice but it seems to have developed this name which has stuck.

 

You can grate the cauliflower by hand but it’s much easier to use a food processor if you have one with the correct grater or shredder attachment. Cut the raw cauliflower into florets and grate until you have fine crumbs.

Place in a microwavable dish and cover with a lid or piece of clingfilm, leaving it a bit loose. Cook on full power for 2 minutes. If you don’t have a microwave you can cook the cauliflower ‘rice’ in a steamer but make sure the steamer has very small holes so it doesn’t fall through!

 

 

Add salt and pepper to taste and any other seasonings you wish – herbs and spices are ‘free’ on Slimming World so you could add cumin, parsley, whatever you like. You could also treat this like a cous cous dish and add raisins, or spring onion, or anything else that takes your fancy.

 

I’ve only made this once but did enjoy it and think I will try to have it once a week instead of potatoes, pasta or rice.

 I bought a really cool plate from Amazon which helps with portion control; the plate is divided into three sections. The largest section can either be for your protein or your veg and the smaller portions are good for carbs such as potatoes, or a sauce, or anything that you want to control the portion size of. If you want to buy one you can click on the 'shop now' link below.
 

I'm sending this to the Spice Trail Challenge hosted by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash as the theme this month is 'temple food' and this is really virtuous!

Slimming World Fakeaway Chinese New Year Meal

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the goat or sheep, which means it should be an important year for people born in 1979 such as myself!

 

I wasn’t specifically planning to celebrate Chinese new year but we were having some people over to dinner and it seemed a good opportunity to make Chinese food. At least, if you ignore the fact that one person doesn’t really like Chinese food (though he’s so fussy there isn’t much he likes, which makes dinner parties hard!), one was vegetarian, two don’t really eat vegetarian food (being big meat eaters and quite picky about vegetables) and the other two eat pretty much anything.

 

Despite all that I thought I could make a few variations on the same dish to keep everyone happy. I’ve got a great Slimming World recipe book called ‘Fakeaway’ – i.e. how to fake your favourite takeaways and make them much healthier. Chinese food isn’t as unhealthy as some anyway – there are a few dishes like duck which are fatty, and if you go to a takeaway that does deep-fried sweet and sour balls (yum!) that will rack up the calories, but a lot of Chinese restaurants do a more upmarket sweet-and-sour dish which doesn’t involve batter and the deep fat fryer. At the same time, you need to watch the oil and the fattening sauces when you are stir-frying (not to mention the prawn crackers!).

 

I picked a few recipes from the book and spent a good half hour chopping, preparing, mixing sauces and marinating meat. I lined everything up in rows so I knew which ingredients were for which dish – you can see here them all ready to go!

 

First of all I made chicken chow mein. Mix soy sauce, Chinese rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and five spice powder in a bowl and coat 1 chopped chicken breast per person. Leave to marinade for 20 minutes.

Stir-fry with Fry Light until the chicken is cooked, then add the vegetables to the pan: julienned carrot, sliced mangetout, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots (unfortunately I couldn't get hold of either of those so had to leave them out), sliced red pepper, baby sweetcorn (though the supermarket had sold out of that too), sliced spring onions, beansprouts and finally I added a whole bag of straight-to-wok noodles.

 

 

Pour over 1 tbsp. oyster sauce mixed with 2 tbsp. soy sauce and 1/2 tsp oil and stir-fry until the vegetables have softened to your liking.

 

At the same time I made a dish called speedy vegetable noodles with tofu. Again make the sauce first, mixing soy sauce, garlic, ginger and five spice powder. Spray a wok or large frying pan with Fry Light and stir-fry mangetout, mushrooms (which I forgot to buy - not doing well here!), red pepper, spring onions, pak choi (left out as the vegetarian doesn't like it so I added courgette instead) and cubes of tofu. Add noodles, 1 tbsp. sweet chilli sauce and 2 tbsp. soy sauce and stir fry until cooked.

 

 

I cooked extra noodles and also decided to do egg fried rice, though this was less of a success. I used microwave rice to make my life easier so cooked that, then placed it in a saucepan with peas and spring onions, soy sauce and a beaten egg. But I got sidetracked speaking to my guests and the rice started to stick a bit on the bottom of the pan! It wasn't too bad when it came to serving at least.

 

 

 

Finally for my boyfriend who doesn't like stir fry I made chicken satay, from a recipe on the Slimming World website. Marinade one diced chicken breast per person in a mixture of soy sauce, sweetener, garlic and ground cumin and when you are ready to cook, just fry the chicken in Fry Light.

 

 

Make the sauce in another pan: you need peanut butter, water, garlic, sweetener, soy sauce and fromage frais. Simmer until the mixture thickens and serve with the chicken - I thought this tasted really good and luckily so did my fussy boyfriend!

 

I had some lovely sets of chopsticks I bought in Kuala Lumpur and some fan-shaped paper napkins; the prawn crackers were put out in bowls for the guests to nibble on while I finished cooking and we had quite a feast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As this is a really healthy meal I'm sharing this with the Spice Trail challenge, which has as its theme this month 'temple food'. The challenge is hosted by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash.

 

As I used courgette in the vegetarian dish I can send this to Anyone Can Cook, this month hosted by Catherine at Cates Cates as the theme is zucchini and marrows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Potato and Halloumi Burger

Who doesn't love a good burger? But burgers don't have to be beef or even chicken - as my Burger recipe book with over 100 recipes shows. I made these when my boyfriend's mum came to dinner just before Christmas; she is vegetarian and I wanted to make something that would be different from the food we would be eating over Christmas. My mum and I - who are not vegetarians - really enjoyed these burgers too, while my boyfriend and dad had homemade beef burgers.

These burgers are soft -a little like fishcakes in texture - but as long as you are not expecting a firm burger like a beef burger, these are great.

To make three, you need:
200g sweet potatoes
100g broccoli
1 clove garlic, crushed
half a red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
100g halloumi cheese, grated
1 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
burger buns

 

Cook the sweet potato in a pan of salted water until tender, then add the broccoli for the last few minutes and cook until tender. Drain and mash both together.

Add the garlic, chilli, cheese and season with salt and pepper. Use your hands to shape the mixture into patties, coat in the flour, and put on a plate in the fridge for about an hour to firm up.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers on both sides and serve in bread rolls.

These were tasty, low in fat and a good way to get some extra vegetables into your meals! In fact it Is so virtuous compared to a regular burger that I am sending this to the Spice Trail challenge as the theme this month is 'temple food'. The challenge is hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash.

I'm also sending this to Eat Your Greens, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen. The green vegetable in this is broccoli.

Shaheen also runs the Vegetable Palette challenge and this month the theme is any veg that you love - and I love broccoli and sweet potato!

Extra Veg, a challenge aimed at getting us to eat an extra portion of veg, is hosted by Kerry Cooks this month, on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy.

Sweet Chilli Turkey Burgers

These sweet chilli turkey burgers are low fat and really zingy, they make a lovely change from a beefburger and are very easy to make.

Allow about 100-120g turkey mince per person. Mix the mince in a bowl with some chopped red onion, chopped spring onion, 1/2 tsp oregano per person and 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce per person. Combine well and shape into patties with your hands.

Place on a foil lined tray and cook in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve with rocket, and tomato if desired, in a crusty bread roll or burger bun.

I'm sending this to the Spice Trail Beach Barbecue Challenge, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash.

Christmas Cupcakes

 The company that I work for has a Christmas party every year for employees' children. I've wound up co-organising it this year and doing everything from booking an entertainer (who twisted his ankle the night before, luckily they sent a replacement!) to buying and wrapping presents for Santa to hand out to the kids. I was also tasked with getting some food from Tesco - sausage rolls and sandwiches for the kids, mince pies for the adults, that sort of thing - and decided this was also a good opportunity to do some baking.

I bought this cupcake set from Wilkinson in the January sales last year, so it was reduced from £2 to just 50p. You don't get a whole lot in it - 16 cupcake cases and 16 cake picks, cardboard pictures of Christmassy creatures (Santa, snowmen, gingerbread men and reindeer) to stick into each cake. The cupcake cases are also very small - I am used to baking in muffin cases - which I thought would be ideal for small children.

  

I wanted to find a Christmassy cupcake recipe that was still fairly plain, as I didn't think children would necessarily like sophisticated or strong flavours. I came up trumps in a little book from Marks & Spencer called Easy Cupcakes. The recipe is called Gold star cupcakes, as that is how they are decorated, but I liked the flavour of the cake itself - brown sugar and cinnamon. I adapted the recipe as I didn't use their decorating recipe and I also doubled the quantities.

For 16 small or a dozen larger cupcakes you need:

170g butter, softened

170g brown sugar

2 eggs

170g self-raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp milk

For the buttercream

About 150g butter

300g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Cream the butter and the sugar then add the egg. Then fold in the flour and cinnamon and a splash of milk to loosen the mixture.

 Spoon into cupcake cases. Bake for about 10 minutes- cakes this size won't take long, but if you make larger muffin-size cakes, give them a couple of minutes longer.

 Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

I made a simple buttercream by creaming softened butter with icing sugar and piped the buttercream on top of the cakes. I only piped on a small amount because I thought small children might not want a lot of frosting and their parents would probably appreciate not too much of a sugar rush either!

Finally I added the festive cake picks. This is a simple recipe but that's what I wanted for small children, and the brown sugar and cinnamon flavour does give a festive feel.

I'm sending these Xmas cupcakes to Alphabakes - poor Ros will be overwhelmed with entries this month I think!

The December challenge for Four Seasons Food is party and these cupcakes were made for a children's party. The challenge is hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg.

Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel at DollyBakes and Laura at Laura Loves Cakes has 'jingle bell rock' as its theme this month and so I will send them my Christmas cupcakes.

I'm also sending this to Cakeyboi's Treat Petite as the theme this month is happy holidays, and these bitesized cupcakes fit right in.

Finally I am sending this to the Spice Trail challenge as this month's ingredient is cinnamon. The challenge is hosted by Bangers & Mash. 

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