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 shanks and roasted vegetables

Lazy Saturday afternoon with music on shuffle and we wanted food that was filling and delicious but does not need fussing over. So we have done our take on two Weight Watchers recipes - balsamic lamb shanks which are in the WW Cook Hearty book as well as online here

Firstly I don't like extra washing up. So the part about brown first then transfer to an oven proof dish. We won't do that will we? That's a 100% increase in effort for no reward. Who wants that?

Saute pan

Take your wonderful Como Saute Pan from Chefs toolbox and brown the lamb shanks while you cut up the vegetables. Or better yet while someone else cuts them up. Then you can just pop in, take a photo and blog away!

Add the vegetables. We didn't use one carrot we used a whole packet of the Chantenay carrots Coles is selling at the moment - very sweet, no need to peel and easy to top and tail the whole kaboodle.

Here is what it looked like just before we chucked all the rest of the ingredients in. And this pan is great because you can choose to put it in the oven or leave it on the stove over the lowest possible flame. If I had done this 6 hours ago it would be in the slow cooker but I didn't so it isn't. Tonight we are doing it on the stove top.





And vegetables. Our Weight Watchers meeting his morning was all about increasing the variety and number of vegetables and I think this recipe is a great start. Of course I don't actually follow it (the quantities on the website are a bit dodgy - one mushroom and one cherry tomato? what's that about?) .
Here is what we are having tonight:

Pumpkin - half a butternut squash

Eggplant - from our garden

Purple sweet potato

Zucchini - two because I am leaving out the mushrooms

Cherry tomatoes - one punnet

Capsicum - one red 

Red Onion - one

Cut them all up small, and decide what you are cooking them on. I use my two oldest crappiest baking trays with my lovely CT baking sheets Cut everything up small except the tomaoes - I just halved them. I chopped the garlic with the rosemary and sprinkled that lovely fragrant mess on top at the end. This is a TON of veg for two people and one fussy boy (no big boys here tonight) but it is really delicious cold as well and makes a great quick lunch.

We don't do the rocket either - just double the baby spinach. And 240g of chick peas? What's that about? All the cans in my cupboard have 400g so that's what I will be dumping on top.

So after 30 - 40 minutes you pull it all out of the oven, throw the chick peas and feta on top (by the way we have a serious Danish feta habit to support in this household) Bake 5 more minutes and you get this:

Throw the baby spinach into a BIG salad bowl and dump everything else on top. Make sure the juice goes in as well as all the vegetables. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the whole lot.

The heat will wilt the spinach and this is your opportunity to mix it up a bit.






Meanwhile serve up the lamb shanks. Enjoy. Save the excess veg for healthy lunches over the next few days.

Only 11 ProPoints per serve - comfort food done right!