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!

Low fat shaksuka

This is based on Israeli Shaksuka - a dear friend shared her breakfast recipe with me

Tonight we were out till almost 7pm and needed dinner in a hurry

I put 2 cloves garlic in the Thermomix for 3 seconds at speed 7

Then added 2 medium onions and a red pepper, chopped 4 secs speed 5

Add 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp paprika

Add 800g diced canned tomatoes (this is also great for using up a garden tomato glut)

Cook 9 minutes 100 degrees speed 1

You will know it is done when the aroma assaults your senses

Pour into a pan on the stove which has a wide base

And add your eggs. Tonight we are having two eggs each. 

Simmer in the pan until the whites are cooked. Leave the yolks runny.

Scoop out into a bowl, sprinkle with parsley and serve

Only 4ProPoints per person so you can add crusty delicious bread - How awesome is that?

WW Coq au vin

It was chilly here this morning so I planned to cook something out of the Cook Hearty book you can buy here The recipe in the book is slightly different but there is a version on the WW site here Buy the book - go on you know you want to!

I started off browning the chicken in my CT saute pan which is a gift for dishes like this. I really like lovely legs they are SO cheap and the money I save on these once a week can be used to buy the more expensive lean cuts of meat like lamb or beef eye fillets.

The recipe in the book was unclear about what sort of shallots so I bought 12 lovely sweet French eschallots to put in our coq au vin tonight

I had the most beautiful tiny potatoes but they were really tiny so I put in 16 because these were so much smaller than a normal potato. I was a bit low on normal carrots so I used two purple heirloom carrots.

 This is what it looked like in the pot once all the prep was done. That's thyme from our garden on top. I didn't have any brandy so I chucked in oloroso sherry. We chose shiraz for the wine.

I turned it off, we took the kids to work and training, went to the park with the dog, and came home and switched it on again. I cut up some cabbage and microwaved it to use as a bed for the dish.

Here it is ready - absolutely beautiful colour - not all down to the wine - I think those carrots generated a lot of the colour

And it was delicious (the cabbage is hiding underneath) According to the website it is 9 WW Propoints - the book says 10, it doesn't matter that much - I'm full!