Is Chicken Soup really good for the Soul?

Hi there everyone

It is absolutely freezing here today. I have the heating on full pelt and am spending the day trying to keep warm. I thought it would be a good time to share this recipe which is a real Winter warmer. ...

Have you read that book ... Chicken Soup is good for the Soul? I must confess I haven't, but the phrase seems to stick in my mind for some reason.

It was a Monday morning a week or so ago and I seemed to have accumulated a, not so random, selection of pretty manky vegetables ... bendy celery, slimy leeks and a random parsnip left over from our roast dinner.

Trying to be a bit more mindful of waste I didn’t really want to chuck them out.

Whilst not looking as though they would have much use as a veg on the side of a dinner, they were exactly the right thing for my favourite chicken soup recipe.

It’s in an old Weight Watchers cook book and I remember serving it to someone once and telling them it was a Weight Watchers one and then them telling me, at a later date, that they’d been looking for it in the supermarket and couldn’t find it. High praise indeed.

Anyway, we are now more fans of Slimming World, (actually, maybe fans isn’t the word Martin would use), but it’s very easily adapted. Just don’t fry the veg in margarine, swap it for butter flavoured daylight.




I added an onion and soon turned the manky pile into a nice pan full of chopped bits and pieces and got them frying off.

The only drawback of this recipe is that I can’t make it in the soup maker. This is because once the veg has softened, you add the stock and then throw a chicken portion in to cook while the soup is bubbling away. It should be a full boned portion really, but I only had a boneless breast so used that instead.










Once it’s bubbled away for 30 minutes, you take out the chicken portion, shred it and put most of it back in ...
... before the messy task of blending takes place. I tend to do this in my big blender, rather than using my stick blender, so I always tend to end up slopping it all over the place ... no such problem with the soup maker.

After it’s blended you add it back to the pan and put the rest of the shredded chicken in with some freshly chopped parsley. I didn’t have any of that so just threw some dried in.

Oh, in the recipe you should also stir through some creme fraiche at the end, but I like to keep it ‘free’ so leave this out and it is no poorer for it. It still ends up luxuriously thick and creamy and the chicken flavour really does come through.

It’s one of the only soups I really like eating that doesn’t have to be accompanied by a slab of bread on the side, though if I’m being really naughty a chunk of fresh bread is always a bonus.

So, in about 40 minutes we went from this ...

... to this ...

So is it good for the soul? I think so, especially when it means you make something tasty and full of goodness out of stuff that would otherwise just hang around until it really was only fit for the bin.

I think it has to be my favourite soup so far 🍜🍜🍜

Just Loving Autumn #2 - Butternut Squash Soup, with a hint of Bacon

Hi there everyone

I've got another of my real 🍁Autumn favourites🍁 for you this week ... home made soup.

We had a soup maker for Christmas a couple of years ago and, after spending a while wondering whether we would ever use it, it has definitely ended up earning its keep.

It has been languishing at the back of the cupboard over the Summer months but the onset of  🍁Autumn🍁 has seen it back in full force, working overtime.

One of the most popular posts on my blog ever, is one of my favorite soup recipes, so I'm guessing you guys are loving it too. If you've not tried it yet you can find the recipe for Dad's Tomato Soup here.

Over the last few weeks I've been experimenting with another favourite, butternut squash, and I think I've now got another recipe worth sharing.

Butternut squash is a real winner as a soup ingredient. It always turns out thick, smooth and creamy and it has a real taste of 🍁Autumn🍁, reminiscent of Halloween and bonfire nights. That extra bit of smokiness from the bacon, really just finishes it off nicely.

Ingredients
Serves 4

4 slices lean smoked bacon, cut into small chunks
Half a decent sized butternut squash, cubed
1 medium size sweet potato, cubed
1 large onion, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pint vegetable stock

Our soup maker is a Morphy Richards Saute and Soup and I always start this soup off by searing off the bacon for about 3 minutes.

Then I just throw in the rest of the vegetables, sprinkle with the ginger and continue to sear for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

It's then time to add the stock and switch over to the soup making function.

21 minutes later and here you go ... The smoothest, creamiest, 🍁autumnal🍁 bowl full of goodness you could wish for with just a hint of smokiness from the bacon and just the right amount of heat from the ginger. It really is 🍁Autumn🍁 in a bowl ...

Not got a soup maker? Don't worry, you can still easily make this soup on the hob. Just saute the bacon, add the vegetables and ginger and saute until the veg starts to go softer, add the stock and simmer until all of the veg is fully cooked through. Then blend to the consistency you like.

Enjoy 😋

Just Loving Autumn #1 - Slow Cooker Dinners

Hi there everyone

I just love Autumn and thought it would be good to share some of the things that make it one of my favourite seasons of the year.

We haven't turned the clocks back yet, but we are already getting used to drawing the blinds and cosying up with lots of candles, a good film and a slow cooker dinner. Whilst we do use our slow cooker all year round, it's in the Autumn when its use starts to really ramp up.

We used it twice this last weekend and, as it's been so long since I've shared a recipe, I thought you might like this fab Chinese style pulled pork with vegetables, which just happens to be very Slimming World friendly ...

Ingredients
When it comes to quantities of pork
just go with what feels right for you ...

Pork shoulder joint
1 large onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 can water chestnuts, sliced
2 tbsps light brown sugar
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 tsps grated ginger
2 tsps Chinese five spice
500g passata
3 tbsps light soy sauce
4 tbsps dark soy sauce
2 tbsps Hoisin sauce
1 tbsp cornflour


Method

Place onions, peppers, carrot and water chestnuts in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Mix together the sugar, black pepper, garlic and ginger and rub this all over the pork joint.

Place the pork joint on top of the vegetables in the slow cooker and surround with the mushrooms. 

Sprinkle with the Chinese five spice powder and mix together the passata, soy sauce, hoisin sauce and cornflour and pour over the pork.

Slow cook for 6-8 hours.

Remove the pork from the slow cooker, check fully cooked, shred up and add back into the slow cooker and mix thoroughly.

Serve with rice and enjoy in front of the TV watching a good film ...

Find out more about what we love about Autumn and see what we got up to whilst on holiday on the Isle of Wight over the coming weeks 😀

Mediterranean Fish Cakes

You don't have to be following the Slimming World diet to enjoy these tasty fish cakes, which are really simple to make.

If you are following the Slimming World diet, then you'll be pleased to hear that these are totally Syn free, so fill your boots.

I served these as a starter at our recent Saturday night get together meal with friends and they went down a real treat.

As an added bonus, the mixture can be made up well ahead of time and stored in the fridge until needed, giving you chance to have a good old tidy up before you start cooking.

It should take about 40 minutes to prepare and cook this dish, which serves 4 and makes 20 fishcakes.

Ingredients
300g skinless and boneless cod fillet
400g shelled raw prawns
4 spring onions, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
1cm piece root ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
small handful of fresh dill, plus extra to garnish
1 tbsp grated lemon zest plus wedges to serve
2 tbsp capers, drained
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Low calorie cooking spray

Place the cod, prawns, spring onions, chilli, ginger, garlic, dill, lemon zest and capers into a food processor, season well and process until fairly smooth.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and, using wet hands, shape evenly into 20 fishcakes.

Spray a large based frying pan with low calorie cooking spray and add the fishcakes.  Fry for 5-10 minutes on each side until golden brown, making sure all are cooked right through.












Garnish with dill and serve as a starter with a green leafy salad and lemon wedges.  You can also serve with a selection of dips, but don't forget, if your're following the SW diet, you will need to add any additional Syn value.

I think these fishcakes would also make a great weeknight tea, adding sweet potato fries.

Beef Strogonoff ... with Quark

As mentioned in my post last week ... on our foray into the world of slimming we have discovered a new ingredient .... Quark.

Now Quark is something that neither Martin or I would have even contemplated trying before. We would have written it off as some new age hippy kind of stuff that wasn't really for us.

However, on our new super duper 'healthy' eating plan it seems we can have as much Quark as we like, sadly the same can't be said of my old favourite .... creme fraiche.

I managed to find a recipe for a Quark Beef Strogonoff here and I've adapted it to slim it down just a little bit more and would recommend giving it a go.

Ingredients
Frylight
1 onion, finely chopped
350g rump steak, fat removed
2 cloves garlic, chopped
250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp Dijon mustard
250g Quark
salt and ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley








Spray a non-stick pan with Frylight, add the onion and garlic and saute until golden.

Whilst the onions and garlic cook, slice the steak into thin strips and set aside.

Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and season to taste.  Cook over a high heat until the mushrooms soften and any liquid has evaporated. Transfer mixture to a plate and set aside.

Add more Frylight to the pan, add the steak and fry over a high heat until just cooked through.

Return the mushroom mix to the pan, add the sherry and when the sizzling subsides, add the paprika and stir. Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and mustard and remove from the heat.

Add the Quark to the pan and stir well.  Gently reheat until the sauce is hot, do not boil.

Sprinkle with parsley to serve

We served ours with chips and green French beans, but I'm sure it would be just as nice with either rice or pasta.

We really enjoyed this and will definitely be having it again.

Brussels Sprouts & Bacon Pizza

Still got sprouts kicking around?

Fancy doing something different with them?

Seriously ... why not try this Brussels sprouts and bacon pizza?

I've been meaning to share this recipe for ages, I know it may sound a bit random, but really, its pretty darn good ... and if you don't fancy the topping, I know you'll like the pizza base recipe as its just so easy.

The topping is a bit of an adaptation of a recipe that I found on a blog that I follow here.

Martin then discovered a fab pizza base recipe that has no actual yeast in it but always works an absolute treat. It's a Good Food recipe.

Pizza Base Ingredients
To make two medium sized pizza bases

• 300g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 300g natural yoghurt

Basically you mix together the flour, yoghurt, baking powder and salt. We tend to do this with the electric mixer, with the dough hooks on, till the ingredients are all well combined.

Martin then kneads the mixture for 5-10 minutes until its a a nice smooth ball of dough.

It is quite a wet mixture but don't worry, just use plenty of flour for dusting when kneading and all will work out well.
We then tend to leave the mixture for about an hour to 'prove', though it won't double in size as there is no yeast in the dough.

Once you are ready to use the dough then just roll and stretch it out to the shape that you want.

The thing that surprised us with this recipe, apart from there being no yeast, was the fact that you bake the pizzas in a 200c fan oven for about five minutes until they begin to rise, before you add any topping.
Then you remove them from the oven, turn them over and add your toppings before putting back in for another 5-10 minutes.

We have found that a just a couple of tablespoons of pizza sauce topping is plenty for each pizza and actually less sauce makes the pizzas hold together better when eating and all of the toppings don't just slide off.

Brussels Sprout & Bacon Pizza Topping Ingredients

• 2 tbsps BBQ pizza sauce
• 1/2 red onion finely sliced
• About a cup of Brussels sprouts cut into 1/4s
• 3-4 slices bacon, chopped
• Grated cheese

Fry off the chopped up bacon, then add the quartered sprouts to the pan and fry until crispy.

When the pizza base has been cooked on the one side, as described above, remove from the oven, flip over and add your toppings.

We used a BBQ flavoured pizza tipping, from a jar I'm afraid, spread over the top of the pizza, topped with the fried bacon and sprouts, then raw thinly sliced red onion, before sprinkling with a liberal layer of mixed grated cheese.
As I said at the beginning of this post ... it might sound a bit random, but it always works out a treat and ... so pretty too.  Give it a go and ... enjoy!

Ameretto, Cranberry & Lime Cocktail

Whilst I do have lots to tell you about our Christmas break, which was completely different to usual this year, I thought I'd kick the New Year off with a cocktail recipe.

This has got to be my favourite cocktail of all time. It's dead simple to make and always delivers.

It is so simple that I've padded out the post with plenty of pictures!









Ingredients

• 1 measure of Ameretto (or cheap imitation from Aldi if you are being economical - it tastes just as good, I promise)
• 2 measures of cranberry juice
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• Ice
• Lemonade

Add the Ameretto, cranberry, lime juice and ice to your cocktail shaker and ...... shake.  Note - Tastes better if someone else does the shaking!!
Pour into a glass and top up with lemonade or, if you are feeling really naughty, then use Cava or Asti.
Brilliant for any time or occasion.

Cheers!

In the Garden - August

August - In flower ...
As I predicted in July, the Agapanthus has been amazing this month and is still going strong.  At the moment it is making a really good show against the backdrop of the Acer, which is starting to turn a flame red colour.
I've had my first Hollyhock flower and it is just lovely.  This is the third year they've been in the garden, I planted three and this is the first time that one has managed to beat the Hollyhock rust that seems to attack them with a vengeance.
We've also currently got Kaffir Lilies in flower, along with the first blooms of the Hibiscus.
On the patio, the Sweet Peas are looking a bit scraggy and the hanging baskets are still colourful, but past their best. The Zinias, however, are still going very strong and looking really bright and cheerful.
Back in July I wrote that the borders in the garden were looking very green, with not much in flower. Well, I took my own advice and headed to the local garden centre to see what was currently on show.

I ended coming back with three new plants, none of which we currently have in the garden.  I bought a Rudbeckia, a Stokesia (which I have never heard of) and a yellow daisy, for which I can't remember the name!
We also bought some bargain lilies, and two Hibiscus from Aldi!  Now it's fine buying plants from Aldi, as long as you pretty much get them on the day they have them.  Our Aldi is certainly not known for plant care and we often see very sorry sights of racks of plants just dying of severe thirst on the Aldi forecort.

August - What we've been up to ...
As predicted in July, we've made up a batch of Courgette & Apricot chutney.

We've also had bowls of blueberries, I would say it's been the best year ever and we've made both sticky lemon and blueberry cake and a blueberry frangipane tart.  
We've continued to water, feed and deadhead, but have to admit to getting a bit behind with this at times.

We were hoping for a family Bank Holiday BBQ to show of the garden, but we were thwarted by the weather, so we had to postpone.

August - What's next ...
Lots of preparation will be needed for the Autumn.  The hanging baskets will need to hit the compost bin and the privet is ready for another prune.

It would be great to get all of the borders tidied up before the leaves start to fall, but whether we'll get round to that or not is anybody's guess.

It would also be nice to have a bit of sunshine and get a few more BBQs in.  Fingers crossed for that one.

August - and finally ...
Though we are not encouraging him, Harry seems to know when we are in the garden and has become a regular visitor.  We often are surprised by him jumping over the garden gate to see what we are up to.

Morello Cherry Jam

This year the Morello Cherry tree has been amazing.  It has been absolutely laden with fruit and we've been waiting patiently for the cherries to ripen so that we could make our favourite jam.

We've only actually made this Morello Cherry jam the once, a few years ago.  There just hasn't been enough fruit to make it worth the effort since then, but this year there has been plenty.

Not only have we had enough for a good batch of jam, but we also have a few tubs in the freezer for pies and crumbles and enough, teamed up with the first of the blueberries, for a very nice sweet and sour clafoutie.

As cherries are very low in pectin, additional pectin needs to be added to achieve a good set.  Adding commercial pectin is an easy way to do this.  Jams made in the this way need only a short boiling time and little or no water.



Ingredients
Makes sufficient jam to fill 7 small jars

1.2kg Morello cherries (weight is after pitting)
45ml lemon juice
1kg sugar (there is no need to use jam sugar)
250ml liquid pectin

The original recipe also called for 150 ml of water. However, after pitting the cherries we had 150ml of cherry juice so didn't include any water at all.

• Place a small plate in the freezer to help test when your jam has reached setting point.
• Put the cherries (including the juice) and lemon juice in a large pan.  Include the water if using. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring until the cherries are tender.
• Add the sugar to the fruit mixture and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved completely.  
• Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 1 minute.
• Add the liquid pectin to the pan and stir it into the jam.  Return the mixture to the boil and cook for a further few minutes, until the jam is ready to set.
• You can test whether your jam has reached setting point by placing a drop onto the plate that you put into the freezer earlier.  If at setting point the mixture will ripple when pushed with your finger.
• Remove the pan from the heat and, using a slotted spoon, skim off any froth from the surface.
• Set the jam aside and then leave it to stand for 5 minutes.
• Stir the jam briefly to distribute the fruit evenly, then pot into sterilised jars and seal.

To add a final professional touch we've managed to find a 'jam labeliser' website, where you can print your own personal labels. Though we didn't believe it would work, we've stuck the jam labels on with milk ....... yes, I really said milk.  I don't understand the science but it works a treat. 

Give it a go!

So having made it, bottled it and labelled it, there really is only one thing left to do .......

We are really pleased with how this jam has turned out. The fruit is spread right through the jar and the taste of the cherries really comes through.