Slow Cooker Sunday: Spring Sausage Stew (Vegetarian)

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I am not an expert at slow cookers, but I'm getting there. About six months ago, the enthusiasm of The Moiderer (who is a big fan of them) made me go and buy one; a good brand that was reduced to clear. I tried a vegetable stew in it. After seven hours of cooking on high, I had to transfer everything over to a saucepan and blast it for 30 minutes as the vegetables were still basically raw. I returned the slow cooker to the store, brandishing raw carrots and threatening the manager with it if I didn't have my money back. Luckily, he relented in the face of root vegetables and I gave up on them, declaring slow cookers stupid.

That was until I was recently sent on to review. My husband and mum, both had been subjected to the non-slow-cooked vegetable stew, wondered if I was off my trolley but I gave it a go as it was for review. I am a convert! This is mainly due to the fact that I now have a slow cooker which actually cooks the food, it's kind of a plus point. The first thing I cooked in it was gammon (bah!) for my dad and husband, it was a true success. Since then I've also cooked chicken, beef and risotto in it, not at the same time I hasten to add. I adore it and am very enthusiastic about it.

The rather fabulous Mediocre Mum is a bit of an expert when it comes to slow cookers, and she has a plethora of recipes on her blog which I am in awe at. She has realised that there is a bit of a fanbase for them and is therefore starting up a weekly linky for slow cooker recipes which I am joining in with, as eagerly as possible.

Spring Sausage Stew

This recipe has come about because I also take part in Meal Planning Monday and last week everyone seemed to have sausage stew on their planner. I thought I'd give it a go this week, I don't like to miss out on things!

  • six mushrooms
  • one leek
  • one courgette
  • three carrots
  • four vegetarian sausages
  • a big chunk of butter
  • stock cube
  • 200g of Rachel's Organic Greek-Style Natural yoghurt (obviously there are other brands available but I'm trialling this for cooking with)
  • two tablespoons of parmesan cheese
  1. Chop the leek, courgette and mushrooms and place them with the butter and stock cube in the slow cooker pot directly on the gas (our slow cooker allows this, some don't). Sweat them down 'til the leek is translucent.
  2. Chop the carrots and sausages into chunks, add to the pot with 30ml of water and transfer the pot to the slow cooker base. Cook for two hours on high (or three on medium).
  3. Spoon in 200 g of natural yoghurt and two tablespoons of parmesan cheese, and leave to cook through for another thirty minutes on medium.
  4. Serve with herby potatoes (I bought a pack of these from Aldi the other day; 99p and three minutes in the microwave = perfect!)

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I'm linking this up to Slow Cooker Sunday at Mediocre Mum and to the recipe bank at The Moiderer

Sponsored Video: Baking With Rice Krispies

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One of the activities that The Boy and I like doing the most is cooking. A few months ago we were sent a box of one of the best cereals on this planet: Rice Krispies.

Mr. TheBoyandMe was incredibly amused when he found out we'd been sent a box of the snap, crackle and pop stuff, but he was of course more than happy to chow down on the delictable puffs of rice and what we did with them.

Snow Mountain Krispie Cakes

We mixed them together with golden syrup, white chocolate and melted marshmallows, then sprayed them with silver spray and finally drizzled melted white chocolate all over. Absolutely scrummilicious!

And they were gorgeous!

Now, did you know that the cereal that's been providing countless children and adults with a cheerful breakfast since 1928 is getting a little makeover? As with most other Kellogg's cereals vitamin D is being added to them. I can hear two questions whirring through your brains right at this point in time: 'why?' and 'surely we get that from sunlight?'

Vitamin D can be derived in our bodies from sunlight. However, as we all know, children aren't playing outside in the sunlight as much as they used to, and of course when they do they slather on the sunscreen to protect themselves from skin cancer. And without vitamin D? Well that would be why there has been an increase in Rickets. It's a little bit of a catch 22 situation isn't it?

Rickets. That disease that we all thought had died out in the 1930s, is on the increase again due to deficiencies in vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency impairs the absorption of dietary calcium and phosphorus, which increase the chance of bone deformities in children, and bone pain and tenderness as a result of osteomalacia in adults. And that is why, by the end of 2012, the marvellous folk at Kellogg's are adding vitamin D to most of their cereals, particularly those aimed at children.

As we come up to the warmer (ha!) months with (theoretically) more sunshine, we need to be more aware of the need to ensure we are keeping ourselves safe from the harmful sun rays and getting enough vitamin D. As we are pale and pasty in this household, and burn too easily, I'm going to be supplementing our diets to ensure we're getting enough of this important vitamin throughout the year. The most fun way for us?

Baking with Rice Krispies and I'm going to be adapting some of these recipes:

This is a sponsored post.

Meal Planning Monday #5

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I only had one blip last week, on Thursday evening after a long day at work at the end of a long half-term I sent Mr. TBaM to the chippy, my heart was not in making something from scratch!

This week's meal planner is obviously reduced due to the Easter weekend.

  • Sunday: free for Easter festivities.
  • Monday: travelling back from west Wales so I'll be needing something easy.
  • Tuesday: fajitas, an easy way to get the veggies in to our diet. It can be a healthy option if I don't cover everything in dips and cheese!
  • Wednesday: vegetable and cheese pasties, and salad. When I was off on maternity leave, I made pasties all the time, they were such a frugal and relatively healthy (low-fat butter and thin pastry) option for dinner. I'm trying to pinch the pennies for various reasons and need to make a big batch of these.
  • Thursday: vegetable stirfry. Can you try I'm trying to get more veggies into our diet?
  • Friday: pasta and salad.
  • Saturday: Chinese. I made a batch of deep-fried tofu the other week and it lasted for a few meals. I'll be making some more. I've just learnt some nonsense that crispy seaweed is not seaweed? I refuse to believe it, I felt I was getting in touch with my Welsh side and appreciating laverbread.

I need to use the next fortnight off work to batch cook some meals for the freezer, money-saving and far healthier.

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I'm linking this up to Meal Planning Monday at Mrs. M's

Easter Cookies, Baked By Me! (and The Boy)

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As regular readers will know, The Boy and me I like cooking together. It's a great activity to do with little ones, offering them a wealth of experience, education, sensory stimulation and fun. We usually go for cakes, have dabbled in pizzas, but have never tried cookies before. When I was a teenager, I had an amazing recipe for cookies (but have since lost it) and any that I've tried have never come close on the moistness front.

Then I was sent a cookie mixture in a beautiful kilner jar by Baked By Me.

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Mint Chocolate Birthday Cake

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Today was Mr. TheBoyandMe's birthday. 37. He's getting old now but refuses to admit that he is now in his late 30s.

I digress.

We decided to make him a birthday cake, and as The Boy has an obsession with chocolate cake (thanks Peppa Pig) and that Mr. TBaM's favourite flavour is mint chocolate, I decided to have a go at making a mint chocolate cake.

I used the basic Mrs. Beeton's Victoria Sandwich recipe of 5oz butter/self-raising flour/caster sugar and 3 eggs, and added two sachets of mint flavoured drinking chocolate to the mix. I also added a teaspoon of baking powder as my sponge cakes don't tend to rise very much. (It still didn't, but I'm now beginning to wonder if that's more about my oven than anything else.

We made the cake yesterday and then wrapped it in tin foil once cooled.

Then this morning while hubby was sleeping soundly (because I am a good wife and Mr. TBaM never seems to get lie-ins anymore, so I let him), The Boy and I did the filling and topping. We made a form of buttercream using unsalted butter, icing sugar and chocolate philadelphia (which is yummy). However, in hindsight I needed to add more icing sugar because it was a little too fluid.

Once that was spread on and the cake had been put in the fridge for it to set a little, I melted down chocolate to put on the top. We smoothed this around roughly and then sprinkled over a variety of toppings, including; crushed mint Aero, chocolate flake and white chocolate stars.

The finished cake was incredibly yummy, although very difficult to cut due to rock solid chocolate on the top and slippy buttercream filling! But Mr. TheBoyandMe was happy!

Meal Planning Monday #2

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Last week was my first week taking part in Meal Planning Monday and it was a complete success. I managed to stick to the plan all week, and it worked brilliantly. I'd taken into account my complete lack of energy on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, therefore planning food which Mr. TheBoyandMe could reheat/cook from scratch with ease. Everything else was easily managed and I didn't have that flagging feeling come 5pm when I needed to start cooking.

This week is going to be a little less regular as we have a few interruptions with Mother's Day, Mr. TBaM's birthday, and his parents coming down to take us out for lunch on Saturday. That meal will probably be Pizza Express because The Boy eats the entire meal with ease, and therefore I'll do a lightweight salad buffet for tea that night. Therefore we're having a Chinese take-away meal for a treat on Friday!

  • Sunday: Slow-cooked gammon in cider for the omnivores, cheese souffle (from Asda) for the veggies, sauté potatoes, leeks in cheese sauce.
  • Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs (I have difficulty getting The Boy to eat meat other than chicken, I recently tried him on Ikea meatballs and he loved them!)
  • Tuesday: Mr. TBaM's birthday tea
  • Wednesday: chicken and cheese escalope for Mr. TBaM and The Boy, Linda McCartney Cheese and Onion Plait for me, carrots and chips! (Freezer food for the work night)
  • Thursday: Pasta and salad
  • Friday: Chinese take-away
  • Saturday: Salad buffet

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I'm linking this up to Meal Planning Monday over at At Home With Mrs. M.

Flip!

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In February of last year I had a discussion with the impish @InceyWinceyMum on twitter about pancakes. We both adore pancake day and were discombobulated to discover that it wasn't until the March. We decided to hold an unofficial one in the February instead, and tried to get others to join in; they didn't! However, we both enjoyed pancakes with ice-cream and a variety of toppings.

This year we had a discussion about pancakes and decided to go for a trial run last week. Only I forgot. So, yesterday we had a practise of pancakes for tomorrow. Mr. TheBoyandMe wanted to know why, I told him 'because' which as far as I'm concerned is a good enough reason. I didn't think 'because I promised @InceyWinceyMum' would work as well.

Spinach and Goat's Cheese Pancake

I added wilted, chopped spinach, seasoning and a small amount of parmesan to half the batter mix. I fried it in unsalted butter as normal, flipped and then added goat's cheese while cooking the underside. Definitely scrummy as it melted into the pancake.

Tomorrow I intend to add a butternut squash and tomato filling to the goat's cheese.

Black Forest Pancakes

To the other half the batter mix, I added Galaxy drinking chocolate and whisked it in. Normal cooking, but served with vanilla ice-cream and cherry-pie filling.

Whatever you have tomorrow, get flipping and enjoy!