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 😀

Chocolate & Raspberry Roulade

This was the dessert I served at my recent Saturday night Slimming World friendly dinner with friends.

It actually wasn't unlike something that I would normally have served, just with a few tweaks, which made for a 3.5 Syn per portion dessert, which was just what I was looking for.

Don't feel that you have to use raspberries, I have made this roulade four times now and, as well as raspberries, I've tried it with cherries, strawberries and blueberries, all equally as nice.

It's definitely a dessert that can be made ahead, which is always a bonus as far as I'm concerned so here goes with the recipe ...

Serves - 6
Ready in - about 50 minutes

Ingredients
For the cake:
Fry light
6 medium eggs, separated
100g caster sugar
2 tbsp artificial sweetener
2 level tbsp coca powder, reserving a little for dusting

For the filling:
125g Muller light vanilla yoghurt
250g Quark
Few drops vanilla extract
1 tbsp artificial sweetener
200g fresh berries, plus extra to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line a swiss roll tin with baking paper and lightly spray with Fry light.

Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar and sweetener in a large bowl until pale and thick.  Fold in the cocoa powder, using a large metal spoon.  Don't forget to reserve a little for dusting. I find half a teaspoon is plenty to give a good dusting.

Put the egg whites into another large bowl and whisk until the stand up in stiff peaks.

Fold the whisked egg whites into the cocoa mixture, using a large metal spoon.  Pour the mixture into the Swiss roll tin and bake in the centre of the over for 15-18 minutes, until springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin.

Meanwhile, make up the filling.  Put the yoghurt, Quark, vanilla extract and sweetener into another bowl and whisk until smooth.

To assemble the roulade, turn out the cooked cake onto a sheet of baking paper.  Spread with the filling, dot with berries and roll up lengthways, using the baking paper to help you.

Carefully ease onto a serving plate and dust with the reserved cocoa powder.  Slice into 6 and serve with the extra berries.

This was a really light, but tasty, dessert.  Just the job to finish off a nice 3 course meal.  Also nice with a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, in the garden on a sunny afternoon ... well, there's always leftovers!

Sorry, there's not that many photos ... Martin doesn't like having meal preparation interrupted with photography when we've got guests and I have to let him have his way some times!

Deconstructed Beef Wellingtons

If you're looking for a tasty treat for a special dinner, with some good visual appeal, these deconstructed Beef Wellingtons really hit the spot.

I recently served these as the main course for a Saturday night meal with friends and they were easy to make and they went down a real treat.

From a Slimming World point of view, it's a great recipe for sticking to your eating plan, without feeling like you're being deprived, just what we need over here!

The recipe serves 4 and takes about an hour to prepare and have ready to serve. Each serving has just 2.5 Syns, so just the job for feeling you're having a treat, without breaking the bank.

Ingredients
250g chestnut mushroom, finely chopped
6 shallots, finely chopped
Frylight
A small handful of fresh tarragon and parsley, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
57g Sainsbury's ready rolled light puff pastry
300ml beef stock
1 tbsp Bovril
4 thick beef fillet steaks, all visible fat removed

Preheat your oven to 200C

Transfer the chopped mushrooms and shallots to a frying pan sprayed with Frylight and stir-fry over a high heat for 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat and continue to cook for a further 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated.  Remove from the heat, stir in the herbs and season well. Set aside until needed.  I made up this mixture ahead of time and then just re-heated when I was ready to serve.

Divide the pastry into four portions and roll into a 9cm diameter circle and place on a non-stick baking tray.  It doesn't have to be a circle, if you've got some fancy cutters, then feel free to give them an airing. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up and golden.

Meanwhile, bring the stock and the Bovril to boil in a pan.  Reduce the heat and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture has reduced and thickened.  I made this up ahead of time too.

Season the steaks and spray with Frylight.  Cook in a hot non-stick frying pan until they are the way you like them.

Divide the mushroom mixture between four plates, top with a steak and a pastry lid and drizzle over the gravy.


I served the Wellingtons with a Syn free two potato Dauphinnoise and a selection of steamed vegetables.

It was really tasty, I didn't miss the full pastry wrap and the 'jus' was lovely.  If this tastes a bit strong then you can sweeten up with a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly, but don't forget to add in the Syn value.

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.

Dinner Party ... A la SW!!

Well, Martin and I are still on our Slimming World journey and all is going pretty much OK.

We are finding lots of really nice things we can eat plenty of and have only fallen foul when we've had meals out or the odd extra treat here and there.

Last weekend it was our turn to host our good friends, Jackie & Phil, for a regular Saturday night get together and we wondered whether we would be able to pull together a meal that meant we could stay on plan, but didn't leave us feeling disappointed or underwhelmed with what we'd served.  After all, typically these events usually involve lots of butter and double cream, in addition to copious amounts of alcolhol!!

I spent a good while scouring the recipe books and the Internet and managed to come up with a menu that I thought would fit the bill.

Starter
I decided that we would start off with Mediterranean Fish Cakes, which are totally Slimming World friendly, being completely Syn free (for the benefit of the uninitiated, this means you can eat as much of these as you like).  These were to be served with some green salad and a choice of either a lemon mayonnaise or sweet chilli dips.  The dips weren't Slimming World friendly, but I didn't feel too bad about that.

These were so easy to make and, bonus, you can make up ahead of schedule and get all the yucky clearing up done before your guests arrive.

You just chuck all of the ingredients into the food processor, hit the button and turn the mixture into mush.  You then shape it into small fish cakes and you can either grill or fry them.  The mixture comes out quite firm so it is really easy to work with.

With all of the prep done ahead, all that was left to do when our guests arrived, was to fry them off, which didn't take very long at all.

I served us three of these each, with the salad and they were absolutely scrummy.  They were really light and, to me, they were more of a Thai flavour than Mediterranean, but what do I know?

Main Course

The main course was to be a take on an old favourite ... Beef Wellington, served with two potato dauphinnoise, cauliflower, green beans and carrots. This dish wasn't entirely Syn free, but with only 2.5 Syns per portion, it didn't totally break the bank, so it seemed to hit the spot.

The Wellington is served in a pretty much deconstructed state, with a nicely cooked fillet steak served on a bed of mushroom duxelle, topped with a disc of lighter puff pastry, we cut ours out in heart shapes.

The dauphinnoise is totally Syn free and is made up of a mixture of both sweet and white potatoes, with a sauce made predominantly of our new favourite ingredient, Quark.

Again, lots of the prep can be done ahead and we were just really left with the steaks to fry, whilst the dauphinnoise finished off in the oven and the veg did in the steamer.

It looked really nice on the plate and the Wellington was gorgeous. Sometimes having the whole thing wrapped in pastry can be just a bit too much and, with just having the pastry topper, there was no sign of any soggy bottom.

Dessert
To finish off with I did a Chocolate and raspberry roulade.  Again not totally Syn free, each portion has 3.5, but then you do have to have some treats.

The 'sponge' is predominantly made up as a meringue and the filling is a combination of Quark and vanilla yoghurt, which is a really good substitution for either fresh cream or, another favourite, mascarpone.

All can be made ahead, so all that is left to do, when you are ready for dessert, is to whip it out of the fridge, say Ta-Dah, though mine did actually look just a little bit flat (it didn't affect the taste though), and cut everyone a slice.




 So, we managed to serve a really nice, filling and tasty, three course meal, with just 6 Syns per person (again, for the uninitiated, you should have between 5 and 15 per day), so well within the treat budget!

We all really enjoyed all that we had, plates were pretty much cleaned up and we all felt like we'd had plenty.  It was hard to believe that we'd managed to have such a lovely meal, all on plan .....












... oh yeah, then there was the alcohol, but we can just skim over that can't we?

After all, we are friends.

I will try and post the three recipes separately over the course of the next week or so, just in case you fancy giving any of them a go.

Thanks for reading.

Dad's Tomato Soup ... in the Soup Maker!

We had this Morphy Richards soup maker from some good friends as a Christmas gift.

If I'm totally honest, our initial reaction was ... "Why would anyone need a soup maker? After all, what's wrong with a big pan?" This thought was swiftly followed by ... "Oh no! Another kitchen gadget to find a home for."

We couldn't see ourselves using it and imagined it would languish at the back of the cupboard with the steamer, the ice cream maker and the bread maker.

Being given it as a gift did spur us to clear out all of the kitchen cupboards in order to at least find a home for it and we decided to just give it a try to see what it was like.

One of our favourite soups and the first we tried was Dad's tomato soup. I'm not sure where he originally had the recipe from but it's our 'go to' recipe for tomato soup.

It's dead simple to make, uses lots of lovely veggies and turns out perfect every time. And what's more, it has no syns in it all if you're following the Slimming World way of eating.

Ingredients
1 red pepper
1 sweet potato
2 sticks of celery
1 onion
Frylight
Pinch of chilli flakes
600g ripe tomatoes
1 pint vegetable stock
Worcestershire sauce
Basil

Start by chopping the red pepper, sweet potato, celery and onion.




Switch the soup maker on to the sauté setting and spray with Frylight. It only takes a few seconds to heat up. Throw in the chopped veg with the pinch of chilli flakes and sauté for a maximum if 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.






In the meantime chop the tomatoes and prepare your stock.




Throw the tomatoes into the soup maker add the stock, basil and as much Worcestershire sauce as you fancy and add the lid.

We like our soup smooth and creamy so we set the programme to smooth, but there is the option to set for a chunkier soup if you prefer it this way.





That is basically it. The timer shows how long it will take to make the soup and you can see it counting down. I think it starts at just over 20 minutes. Just enough time to put the kitchen back together and load the dish washer.

The first time we made the soup we got the fright of our lives as part way through the programme the motor started up to blend the soup.

When the programme is finished, all you need to do is turn off the soup maker and remove the lid. So far we have had a perfectly smooth and creamy soup every time. We've made quite a variety and each one has turned out really well.

At maximum capacity the soup maker makes enough soup for 4 decent sized portions, which surprised us as it didn't seem very big and the fill level is quite low, to account for the space that the blender part takes up.

I pour mine into takeaway containers ready for freezing, have a quick taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. At this point you need to make sure you have a plate or something to rest the lid and motor part on as, if you don't, soup will drip everywhere which could be a bit of a pain.

All that is then left to do is to clean the soup maker, which can be a bit of a faff but is fairly straightforward. I just tend to swill out the jug straight away with hot water and then just run the blender part under the tap. Give both parts a quick wipe over and it's ready to go away for next time.

I do believe you can get soup makers with a self cleaning function, which would be good.

So ... Our verdict on the soup maker, now that we've given it a good test run ...

We like ...

• how easy it is to use
• the sauté function
• the quantity it makes
• the fact that once it's started off you can just leave it
• the consistency of quality of the soups we've made so far

It would be even better if ...

• it had a self clean function
• it made an even greater quantity

Overall, I think we can safely say it was a pretty decent pressie and we will get lots of use from it, so thank you Jo, Steve, Hannah and Megan!