Go to Lamb Stew from the 4 Blades (with extra wine)

Well because today was my birthday I was planning not to cook, and had gone to great lengths plotting a menu which included lots of leftovers last night. I was driving around today and listening to the 4 Blades Podcast and wouldn't you know it they were doing a recipe which sounded easy, delicious and would use up  some of the split pumpkin out in the garden as well as the exact leftover vegetables I had in my fridge. This was obviously meant to be so I bought 800g of diced lamb and came home to try out my best birthday present - a new camera with a food setting!

The recipe can be heard here or you can just read it here The only thing I really did differently was double the wine and that was because I wasn't paying attention.

This is really easy to do ahead and you could walk the dog, transport the kids or put your feet up with a gin and tonic while it cooks.

First you go out in the garden and pick a chilli and some parsley. Put them in the TM with the garlic and onion.

 Then you scrape down and fry it and the kitchen smells heavenly

Add lamb (I had 800g)

 

 and tomatoes and pumpkin

 and vegetables I used capsicum, broccoli, and cauliflower

and wine and stock. I was listening to another episode of the podcast and got completely distracted and put in 250 ml of wine instead of 100 ml (WHOOPS!)

As Bec says it is very full when you start

Here is where the MC sat

after 10 mins it started to smell really good

after 40 minutes it looked like this

so I took out the MC and put the basket on it to hopefully reduce it a little

And in an hour we had this and it was absolutely delicious! Sorry about the picture quality (still making friends with my camera) - there is a nice one at the original place here 

6 serves easy - and only 6 Weight Watchers Pro Points per serve so you can have bread, rice, pasta, dessert, whatever you like!

Lamb, pomegranate and roasted vegetables

Take 2 small sweet potatoes, a red onion and half a cauliflower.
Cut them into small pieces and place on silicon sheets to bake in the oven
Drizzle each tray with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and a little chopped garlic

Bake 25-30 minutes until browning nicely, take out, combine gently and dump on a bed of baby spinach

While that is cooking roll some lamb backstraps in oregano rub

And grill or barbecue them till they are done. Slice and place on top of the salad. Squeeze the juice of one lemon and two pomegranates over the top. If you bang the pomegranate with a wooden spoon the seeds will come out and look really pretty

Enjoy! This is definitely WW friendly - only 6 ProPoints per serve based on a 400g backstrap for 4 serves

WW Lamb and vegetable hot pot with herb dumplings

Again today is a lazy, cold day so I was looking for a hearty meal that didn't require much effort. We chose the recipe here which is also in the Cook Hearty book, but I Thermomixed it up.

I am so good at photographing steam!

So the initial steps were much the same, brown the lamb, add the vegetables and thyme. I wasn't too fussy with the veg quantities but I ddn't like the idea of squeezing it into a 2 litre pot so I made it in the CT saute pan.

In hindsight I would probably double the sauce to accommodate the pot and any side dishes. I added a cup of extra water before putting the dumplings in but we are a whole family of gravy lovers.

Add the liquid - I substituted Thermomix vegetable stock for the chicken stock.

Then I chopped the herbs in the TM and just tossed in the butter and flour for 5 seconds at speed 8. No need for long minutes spent rubbing the butter and flour together.

Add the liquid and in 5 seconds more (at speed 5) the dough is done. How about that? Dumpling dough in less than one minute!

This is what it looked like coming out of the oven - as it was a bit dry I added a cup of water. I may have left it in too long - I have a very efficient oven and we did take the dogs to the park.

After I added the water it looked better

And here it is with the dumpling dough on top

I served it with steamed cabbage, and warmed up vegetables from last night's meal (they only needed 5 minutes in a tray in the oven to reheat)

The recipe says 13 points but we fed 6 not 4 so I think maybe 10 or 11 WW ProPoints per serve

Lamb chops and warm cabbage salad

Dinner last night was quick and easy - warm cabbage salad is able to be kept in the pan until the meat is just right. Just take:

 1/4 cabbage (shredded)

 2 cloves of garlic (sliced) 

1 long red chili (sliced and seeded)

a couple handfuls of green beans (trimmed) 

gorgeous Chefs Toolbox tools make the job easy

Heat a large pan, fry garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant then throw in the cabbage and beans and cook until just tender.

I served this with new potatoes, chantenay carrots and grilled lamb chops. Weight Watchers ProPoints, depending on how much potato you have, only 5 or 6 in total! (I didn't eat the tails from the chops)

Meat and 3 veg at Cafe Disarray

Lamb and roast vegetable salad

Last night we wanted a low carb meal, so started playing with some ideas.

I took a Chefs toolbox slice pan and stacked it with delicious vegetables. Four big mushrooms cut into four pieces, a red onion cut into wedges, two sliced zucchini, about 20 halved cherry tomatoes, chopped garlic drizzled with 30 ml olive oil.
We put that in a 200 degree oven for about half an hour.

While that was cooking we used some high tech to make a dressing 

30 ml olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 clove crushed garlic

Put in jar and shake well

Take two lamb loin fillets, roll in bush spice mix or some other handy herb blend. Grill 3-4 minutes each side. Rest the meat for 10 minutes. While the meat is resting throw a handful of basil leaves into a big bowl with 150g of baby spinach leaves.

Take the vegetables out of the oven and toss the dressing through. Spoon over the leaves. Slice the lamb and pile on top. Serve and enjoy - this is 4 serves at only 7 Weight Watchers ProPoints a serve!