Cheers Sarah Ann!

One for my book club!

Thanks for the dahl recipe Sarah I will need to try that.

Keep an open mind about this one!

My Chav neighbour gave me this recipe and, incredibly, its REALLY nice, very low cal/fat and very tasty:

Serves 1:

Half a pint of stock (any flavour but I used a Knorr ham stock cube)
One clove of garlic
6 ounces fresh or frozen brussel sprouts

Cook the sprouts and garlic in the stock until soft, then pour the whole thing in the liquidiser/blending and zuzzzz until pale green, very smooth and creamy. Add pepper (salt probably not needed).

Scary... the Chavs have started cooking - all the local take-a-ways will go out of business!

Yikes Sarah.I love brussel sprouts but the thought of drinking them

Seriously... I felt like that when she told me what it was I was tasting. It actually tastes really nice. Honest!

I thought she was telling porkies (although she's not the sort) - which is why I came back home and tried it out.

You really need to zuzzz it long enough so there isn't a trace of leaf left.

Ok I know don't knock it till you've tried it. I suppose you could put it in a bowl and eat it like a soup.

That just....doesn't sound good, sorry Sarah's neighbour!

I prefer my sprouts whole with a little salt and pepper .

CG - thats how I ate it - in a bowl. I didn't think its the sort of thing I'd have in a cup. I've had it a couple of times since and its still nice. (Yeah... I know.... you'll never believe me. )

New burger recipe - very nice - turned out very moist:

Blue Cheese & Pear Turkey burgers.

1lb / 500g Turkey mince
4 ounces / 120g blue cheese - any sort but I used Danish blue
1 big firm pear (or 2 small), peeled and chopped in to small dice.
lots of pepper
One or two cloves of garlic finely chopped or crushed. (Optional)

Crumble the blue cheese in to fairly big crumble.

Mix the turkey mince, blue cheese, pear, garlic and pepper all in together and then divide in to 4 patties. (When you make them PRESS the mixture hard together and it'll stay in shape). Put them on a plate and cover, put the fridge for minimum of an hour. (You can make them the day before if you want).

I dry fried mine (took about 15 minutes) but they could be oven baked.

Well I made a lovely pork tenderloin last night.

This will not be an exact recipe

Chop pork tenderloin and brown with an onion.
Put in slow cooker with 2 sweet potatoes chopped, can of tomatoes and a can of sweet corn.
Cook on high 5-6 hours.
Very nice we had it with rice.

I made up the following recipe for some vegie friends and it turned out much better than I expected:

Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Bake served on Butter Bean Puree

Serves 4 (no idea about calories....)

1kg (2lb) butternut squash, peeled and de-pipped and flesh cut in to one inch cubes.
2 red onions, peeled and then cut through the root end and then each half cut in to 3 or 4 through the root (bit like segments of an orange)
2 Tablespoons of runny honey
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 red chilli, de-pipped and very finely chopped
6oz Goats Cheese cut in to half inch cubes
(optional) 2 tablespoons of pinenuts or flaked almonds
2 garlic cloves very finely chopped

Butterbean puree:
2 cans of butterbeans
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Black pepper
Salt


1. Put squash cubes and red onion segments on a non stick baking tray, drizzle honey over and cumin and turn until veggies are coated. Bake in a medium oven for 40 mins until the squash is brown.

2. Take veg out of oven and then scatter over the cheese, chilli, garlic and seasoning and put back in oven until cheese goes golden.

3. If using the nuts then take veggie bake out of the oven when the cheese is just starting to bubble, scatter over the nuts and put back in the oven until nuts go lightly golden.

While the veg bake is cooking you need to make the butter bean puree - very easy! Just heat the butterbeans in a pan until piping hot, drain and then mash with the olive oil, crushed clove of garlic and salt & black pepper.

To serve, put a big dollop of the butterbean puree on a plate and then spoon over the veg bake. If you have it, it looks pretty with chopped parsley, chives or corriander leaves snipped over.

I served it with crusty mixed grain bread and a baby spinach /red onion salad

Everyone really enjoyed it. DH and I agreed that next time (when there aren't any vegies for dinner) we'll add some frizzled chopped chorizo

You need:
A large pan
A sharp knife
A chopping board
A hand blender (or liquidiser)

Ingredients:
2 can good quality chopped tomatoes
2 aubergines
4 white onions
4 red onions
Fresh or dried basil
Fresh or dried garlic
Paprika

Instructions:
1 - pour 1 tsp of oil into your big pan
2 - chop onions
3 - fry onions, stir
4 - chop aubergine
5 - add aubergine to pan, stir
6 - add chopped tomatoes and rinse out cans pour this in as well, stir
7 - add basil, garlic, paprika to taste
8 - cover with water
9 - put on lid
10 - leave to simmer for about 1 hour, or until most of the liquid has gone
11 - take off heat, blitz

Voila... a huge pan of great tomato base sauce with only 5g of fat... if you only used 1 tsp of oil!

You need:
A bowl
A hand blender

Ingredients:
1 can tuna in brine - well drained
30 g fat free cream cheese
2-3 tbsp tomato base
Dried or fresh dill (basil if you have no dill)

Method:
1 - Drain tuna well
2 - Put tuna, fat free cream cheese, herbs and tomato base in a bowl
3 - Blitz with hand blender
4 - Add more tomato base if too stiff

Enjoy!

Personally I put this on pitta bread and grill in my "george forman grill" then add a few slices of cucumber

Aj

Honey barbecue kielbasa


One large ring of Polish Kielbasa ( I suppose any sort of sausage could be used really)

One 16 oz jar of honey

One 16 oz barbecue sauce


Cut kielbasa into slices, ¼ “ thick. Cut slices in half.

Add all to a crock pot and cook for a few hours.

The sauce it made was wonderful, we had it wit mashed potatoes and veggies...

That's a lot of honey.