Tweak week 3

I'm sure that by now, after two weeks of tweaking, you're getting the gist of this and I hope that you might even have a little more “spring in your step”. Hope it's goin' good!

Tweak week 3

Pulled chicken

Spie

(Friday supper and Much Maligned Mince)

Baked jacket potatoes

Chicken stir fry with noodles

Couscous

Ratatouille

Here's the grid for this week :

Monday :        Pulled chicken              Ratatouille with an omelette

Tuesday :        Couscous                     Spie

Wednesday :   Ratatouille                    Stir fry chicken and noodles

Thursday :       Spie                             Baked jacket potato

Friday :           Couscous                     Weekend – hurray!

Remember that there are no set rules here, if you've enjoyed combinations from the previous two weeks mix it up to suit you.

Salad or Slaw – this is the question!

If you are trying out this “tweaking” lark and you're not keen on the traditional idea of salad and by that I mean greenery – it's quite expensive and has a limited lifespan – limp greenery is not nice, read on. Prepared bags of “leaves” deteriorate very quickly and it's also my experience that it's not packaged in suitable sizes. You've generally got to buy huge amounts for it to be economical and then of course you've lost the will half way through.

Here's my solution – try the “raw slaw” concept. It's better and more practical than salad that has to be “made”.

Finely slice whatever you fancy and bag it – red cabbage (or sweetheart, or white), carrots and onions. Bag each ingredient separately – red cabbage and carrots can bleed and onions will taint your other ingredients.

If you like fruit in your slaw throw a couple of handfuls of sultanas into a box (with a lid) and cover them with apple juice – leave for 2/3 hours and then drain off the apple juice – lovely plump bursts!

You can then make up your slaw as and when you need it – fresh to go with whatever you've chosen that day.

The method is easy – grab 2 handfuls of cabbage to 1 of carrots and 1 of onions as a rough guide.

Now for the dressing – you can if you wish do the low fat mayo and ditto crème fraiche – a dessertspoon of each, mixed and a slug of lemon juice. You could even add a tsp of Dijon mustard. Season with salt and black pepper a good pinch of sweet smoked paprika or chilli powder if you prefer.

The final addition is the drained sultanas and add an eating apple of your choice – the sharper flavour the better – ¼ed, cored and chopped. For another variation in texture add a handful of chopped walnuts.

If you'd like another low fat dressing choice, try this :

Pomegranate Dressing

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

juice of two limes

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Generous pinch of nigella seeds

1-2 tsps sumac

Mix all the ingredients together and keep in a screw top jar

and fridge

The raw slaw ingredients are relatively inexpensive and have a longer fridge life in addition to which because you are bagging and fridging individually in their raw state they don't deteriorate as quickly as green salad alternatives.

I'd like to bet you'll never buy ready-made coleslaw again.

Tweak week 2: Recipe Help

Your MTM….

...and recipe help

(For the uninitiated see the original Multi-Tasking Morning post!)

Pre-heat your oven to 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Make your Asian Spiced Salmon marinade and submerge your fillets – enough for a lunch and a supper – set aside.

Wrap your jacket potatoes in foil and pop into the oven.

Make your chilli and cook on the hob. The chilli is a “throw it all in” recipe and is really quick – if you're being really strict don't add the chocolate at the end of the recipe and avoid high fat sides. You could try a blob of mango chutney for a change.

Put your salmon in the oven – don't forget to set your timer.

Make your meatballs and tomato sauce. The meatball recipe is straight forward and not too time consuming. When made seal the meatballs on all sides in a frying pan with a drop of rapeseed oil – leave to cool and then “fridge” - these are then ready to use. Pop into a pre-heated oven on a baking tray for 15 minutes.

Tomato sauce – see below.

Prep your raw slaw – see separate post – Salad or Slaw.

Low fat cream cheese and cashew nut paté to go with Tuesday's lunch.

Low fat cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g low fat cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge – you can if you wish use the individual baby pots if you are transporting your lunch – an ideal use. If you are feeling really virtuous have a side of raw carrot.

Prep your San Choy Bow. Have a glance at the recipe – chop your chilli, chestnut mushrooms, spring onions (sorry – salad onions – oops!) and water chestnuts. Wrap or bag as you wish. Make up your sauce mixture and that's all the advance prep done and dusted.

I realise that this MTM list looks to be out of order with the grid. I'm just making the best use of your time – your chilli is cooking whilst you're moving on to the next task and you'll not be hanging around twiddling your thumbs waiting for stuff to cook!

Tomato Sauce

If you've the time and inclination you can spend a morning making a sauce from scratch – if you'd rather not, here's a shorter route :

500g passata or the equivalent in cans of chopped tomatoes

1 medium/large onion, chopped finely

1 garlic clove crushed or tsp of garlic paste

1 tbsp of rapeseed oil

knob of butter - optional

1 vegetable stock pot and 250ml of boiling water

Good pinch of oregano or garlic Italian seasoning

salt and black pepper

1 tsp caster sugar

Melt the oil and butter in a saucepan, add the onion and fry gently until soft then add the garlic. Add the oregano or garlic Italian seasoning, salt and black pepper. Then add your stock pot and boiling water so that it melts, add the tomatoes and sugar. The sugar is meant to balance out the acidity that one sometimes gets with tomatoes. Simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes. The sauce will improve with “standing” so if you want to make it a couple of days ahead and refrigerate so much the better. You can also freeze it.

N.B. If you want to add extra depth you can add a tbsp of tomato paste. I would suggest that you taste your sauce before you simmer for 20 minutes. If you add paste then the simmering process will cook it out and its important that you do this - it tastes horrid and bitter if you don't. A lot depends on personal taste and how good your tomatoes are.

A basic carton or jar of passata is not expensive, i.e. 68p for 680g.

Just before I go, consider this. Why not substitute the mince element in either the San Choy Bow or the chilli in this week's grid with the Quorn version – it's a healthier low fat option and because of the nature of these two recipes i.e. they both include lots of different flavours even if you're not a convert give it a try – you might be pleasantly surprised!

Tweak week 2

I hope you found the first tweak week's suggestions helpful and that you are feeling better. Regaining control after all that mayhem leading up to the holidays is empowering, me thinks! Anyway I digress – if you're up for it here's another week with another lunch and supper grid.

Tweak week 2

San Choy Bow

(“Culinary Lucky Dip”)

Meatballs and tomato sauce

(“Saturday night slob”)

Asian Spiced Salmon

(“Life with GOM: Chapter two”)

Baked jacket potatoes

Winter coleslaw

Chilli

(“Saturday Supper with Strictly”)

Monday :       Asian Spiced Salmon                     San Choy Bow

Tuesday :      Rice cakes with Cream                  Meatballs in tomato sauce

                      cheese & cashew nut paté             with rice or spaghetti

Wednesday :  San Choy Bow                               Chilli

Thursday :     Meatballs                                       Baked jacket potato with Asian Spiced Salmon

                                                                              and Winter coleslaw

Friday :          Chilli                                            Weekend – hurray!

By the way – are you a cabbage fan but don't like it boiled to within an inch of its life – try this :

A sweetheart cabbage

(or a Savoy)

2 carrots

1 medium onion

1 pepper

all finely sliced

plus any other stray vegetables that you've

got in your fridge – again finely sliced

heat a glug of rapeseed oil in your wok until hot

throw (not literally) in all the above and

stir fry – add a tsp of garlic paste if you feel

inclined

season with sea salt and black pepper

keep it moving for 2/3 minutes

add a slug of Balsamic vinegar and

a slug of dark soy sauce

keep it moving for another minute ensuring

that all the veggies are coated

Serve straight away

It just so happened that I had a sweetheart cabbage in my fridge last week and this is what happened to it – there wasn't a scrap left!

… and another thing

Remember the suggestion sprinkling bran flakes on top of fruit and yogurt for breakfast – I thought you might be interested to know that you can get spelt flakes too. They are expensive - £3.86 for 375g but I suppose you're not using a large amount per breakfast so you might consider it worthwhile.

“Doves Farm” make a healthy range of flapjacks – useful for “on the go” and stashing in the car/about your person for emergency purposes - gluten free too.

I know I've mentioned “Mrs. Crimble” products previously but – did you know there is a range of gluten free snacks – both sweet and savoury.

“Nairn's” make a whole range of products but they are probably most famous for their oatcakes. They also produce gluten free cheese oatcakes. If you get fed up with rice cakes and feel like a change these little gems are well worth keeping in your pantry/emergency/on the go stash. You get 3 packets of oatcakes, each containing 5, per box. It's true that gluten free products are more expensive but this is one I believe is worth it.

My final snack tip (for the moment) I found in Home Bargains, one of the cheaper “bargain” stores if you get my drift. Rice Thins are made by Rice snax. Suitable for vegetarians and gluten free. Available in different flavours – sour cream and onion, salt & vinegar to name but two. Another handy store cupboard item. Thought you might like to see a photo

I'm sure that there will be more stuff to add to this list – it's a work in progress!

Tweak sweet!

For those with a sweet tooth and needing a sweet hit after lunch or supper there are loads of choices :

if biscuits are your thing, you can buy sweet

flavoured rice cakes – I mentioned the brand

Kallo – they have a blueberry and vanilla

version as well as caramel

check out what fresh fruit is in season or,

what is on offer or reasonably priced – prepare

ahead, box and fridge, then you're ready to roll

check out the frozen fruits, these days you can

get pretty much anything you like

if using frozen fruit, defrosted, use the juice

from it to drizzle over frozen yogurt

if you are a jelly person, there are sugar free

versions out there – add frozen fruits to the

jelly

check out frozen yogurt - “Yoo Moo” make

vanilla and cherry to name but two – there are

other brands out there

of the non frozen variety check out “The Collective Dairy”

range of yogurts – loads of different flavours

plus “Straight up” in other words plain and

simple

“Skyr” produces a fat free, reduced sugar

high protein yogurt – honey and strawberry flavours

A small tip – low fat usually means high sugar so check the labels.

Another small tip – check out the baby aisle for individual pots. You can make your jellies in these dinky little pots. They are well made with lids that fit – perfect for travel and safe for the dishwasher. They also come in fab colours – have a look at the photo.

How cool are they!

Tweak week 1...

….recipe help

Take a look at the Nasi Goreng recipe (Culinary Lucky Dip) and you'll see there's very little to prepare for Monday supper. You don't have to make the omelette top. You can use microwave rice. Put your prawns in a sealed container in the fridge on Sunday to defrost in time for use on Monday evening.

Smoke the chicken fillets – poach them in chicken stock for 6/7 minutes and allow them to cool in the stock. The smoked chicken fillets should be small – set your timer and leave to their own devices! When you are smoking your chicken fillets include the extra 175g to include in the Nasi Goreng.

The soup really is straight forward and can be on the hob simmering whilst you are moving on to make your paté.

I've said baked jacket potatoes plural, since you may be serving more than one person in your new “tweak week”. Wrap the required number in foil and bake whilst your oven is on.

For the potato filling :

120g approx tin of tuna in sunflower oil

sweetcorn

one red onion, chopped finely

one tsp garlic paste

pinch of chilli

salt and black pepper

malt vinegar

1 tsp creamed horseradish

Flake the tuna using a drop of the sunflower oil. If you are using tuna already drained then use a drop of rapeseed oil. Add malt vinegar, season and add the remaining ingredients, mix well.

Roast your beetroot in your trusted foil tray.

The Squashed does take some boring slicing and dicing but it's not too bad – if you're feeling adventurous peel and dice a small bunch of beetroot into small cubes and add to the recipe – it's not compulsory – just a thought. If you can't be bothered to prep the bunch of beetroot then buy vac packed organic beetroot – cube it and add it when the Squashed vegetables are cooked.