Tweak week 3: Recipe Help

Your MTM...

… and recipe help

Your MTM this week is quite light compared to the previous two.

First up your Pulled Chicken – prep and leave it to do its magic in the slow cooker.

Pulled Chicken

4 large chicken breasts

2 tbsp Worcester sauce

½ tsp chilli

pinch of cayenne

250ml tomato ketchup

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tsps lemon juice

1 garlic clove, crushed or 1 tsp garlic paste

125ml maple syrup

Place the chicken breasts in a slow cooker – low setting. Place the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix until well blended.

Pour over the chicken and cook for 6 hours. Shred with two forks and cook for a further 30 minutes.

A healthy accompaniment would be rice – try and steer clear of bread but if you must indulge have a warmed pitta, split and filled with the chicken, the raw slaw base and use some of the remaining marinade drizzled over the slaw. Reserve the remaining marinade and “fridge”.

As usual pop your jacket potatoes into the oven to bake – bearing in mind that you'll need extra to cover your Spie this week.

Whatever vegetables you've on your shopping list don't forget to include extra for your stir fry. The marinade from the pulled chicken is great flavour to toss through it for 2/3 minutes just before serving. Don't forget that if you want noodles, use the nests that are quick and easy. A great store cupboard addition for a stir fry is a can of water chestnuts - crunch and texture both.

Couscous is very easy to prepare – select the required weight, add boiling water, mix well, cover and allow the water to be absorbed for 5 minutes. Fluff up with a fork and it's ready – how plain and tasteless is that! Couscous is durum wheat semolina and, like any staple, rice, potatoes blah, blah, it's what you put with the staple that gives it its flavour. I would use stock instead of water – a great base and you can tailor it to suit vegetarians or meat eaters.

If you've got a surfeit of fresh herbs that need using up here's the perfect vehicle, along with any leftover roasted vegetables.

Use Middle Eastern spices like a pinch of cinnamon or a larger pinch of cumin. Try sumac or ras el hanout which is a blend of spices - fried with a drop of rapeseed oil to release their flavour and then add onions, garlic and sliced mushrooms too. Add to your fluffed up couscous.

Add a preserved lemon for extra zing. Rinse the lemon, scoop out and discard the pulp and finely slice it.

Add a can of chick peas along with some roasted pine nuts.

If you are a fruit lover throw in a handful of pomegranate seeds, chop some ready to eat dried apricots and/or a handful of sultanas.

If you don't want wholly vegetarian, you could add a baked salmon fillet.

Just a few ideas for you!

Your Spie base is quick and easy – prep in a frying pan on the hob. When the base is ready, tip it into your trusty foil tray – you could do individual portions or a whole – individual portions would be less faffing around – Thursday lunch is then ready to go.

Oh and just in case you thought I'd forgotten – if you are really committed to tweaking you will of course be omitting the butter and grated cheese topping from the Spie – nice try!

The filling for your baked jacket potato is :

Sumac-roasted Tomatoes

6 ripe tomatoes

salt and black pepper

light sprinkling of molasses sugar

olive oil

1 tbsp sumac

sprigs of thyme, leaves only

Pre-heat oven 140 fan/160c/gas mark 2.

Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking try. Season with salt and pepper, add a light sprinkling of sugar. Drizzle with oil, then sprinkle with the sumac and thyme leaves.

Slow-roast the tomatoes until soft and beginning to caramelise, about 20-30 minutes.

Serve with crumbled feta cheese.

I take no credit for this recipe – it came from Laura Santtini's book Flash Cooking (Fit Fast Flavours for Busy People) – a great addition to your bookshelf.

Waxing lyrical on ratatouille – have a look at the following post.

Respect the Ratatouille!

There are definitely different schools of thought on how to cook a ratatouille. There is the “chuck it all in approach” which I think is where I must have gotten my first impression of the dish – as a bowl of unappetising mush – or – you can take some care and respect the ratatouille.

Cook the onions, garlic and peppers and then add the tomatoes to make your base sauce. Cook the aubergines and the courgettes separately so that each retains its own flavour.

This dish originates from the Provence region in France and quite simply is a vegetarian stew.

3 tbsp rapeseed oil

2 large onions, peeled and chopped

3 large red peppers, de-seeded and chopped

3 garlic cloves crushed or 3 tsps garlic paste

450g courgettes chopped into even pieces

450g aubergines chopped into even pieces

700g chopped tomatoes

salt and black pepper

miso paste – optional

dash of Worcestershire sauce

Large pinch of Herbes de Provence

Herbes de Provence are an absolute must and so called because they are a mixture of herbs typical of the region, i.e. savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme or oregano.

For added flavour try miso paste – as a guide 1 tsp of paste to 8fl oz/225ml of liquid.

Monday supper suggests an omelette with your ratatouille – might sound a little unusual – give it a go – lovely stuff and versatile too.

The E word

Two weeks in to our tweaking – now I have to break it to you that you'll feel even better if you include some exercise in your new routine.

I can hear your howling protests. Give me a chance - I'm not recommending you sign up for a marathon!

I'm sure you think that exercise has nothing to do with a food blog – totally beyond the remit. Erm, there is a connection and I would be remiss if I didn't plant a few ideas – the tweaking and the E word are a great combination if you can find the right recipe for you – sorry!

It's the same principle mentioned in Lets begin .... Choose an activity that you'll enjoy and suits your timetable.

Stating the obvious I know, but wherever possible during your day, walk when you can (briskly) and as often as you can. If you normally take a lift take the stairs – obviously if your office is on the 10^th floor or higher don't do it – but you could walk up a couple of floors.

Walk the dog further – if you don't have a dog you could always borrow one! Every effort counts, no matter how small.

Make sure you're wearing the right kit for the job. Your best stilettos aren't advisable for a brisk walk.

If you are considering taking exercise in the way of a class there are all sorts to choose from that don't involve an expensive gym membership.

Check out a Pilates class – the best ever for posture and creaking bits and pieces and the least impact. 20 years on and I would never give it up.

Dancing – whatever sort – if you love music and dancing why not. It's also possible these days to do a class like Zumba, which includes both. If you think you can't do a dance class because you need a partner – wrong – try line dancing.

However it's no good signing up for any class if you can't fit it in to your daily schedule relatively easily, so think about what time of day suits you and proximity to work or home – you'll be more likely to stick with it if it's convenient and doesn't involve, for example, a round trip of an hour or more travelling time to get to and from said class.

Make it easy on yourself – to quote that brilliant song from 1965.

P.s. It goes without saying that if you have any health issues or concerns you should check with your Health Care Professional that you are able to embark on any exercise programme.

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!