Cooking with Your Own Produce

Tonight's meal was a real mish-mash but hugely enjoyable for all that.

We had shop-bought Scottish mince burgers (good quality) with cheese on buns, home-grown new potatoes and shop-bought salad. We finished with home-grown rhubarb crumble.

Growing our own produce has become something we experiment with every year. I normally try growing tomatoes and watch in despair as the plants wither, but the tomatoes remain! This year we have grown them hanging upside down and it has been a great success, but they are still green at the moment.

Potatoes were a first for us and they have been very successful. We grew them in bags which had flaps near the bottom to harvest the potatoes. They are delicious when eaten so fresh.

Finally we bought two rhubarb plants and have put them in far too hot a place. They are surviving and providing us with rhubarb. It needs quite a bit of sugar but was very nice to be eating our own rhubarb. We will also look forward to blueberries from our own blueberry bush in a pot later on in the year.

What have you tried growing this year?

Wraps rather than sandwiches

Hi,
Today's Healthy Home Cooking Tip.

A tasty alternative to sandwiches can be to use a tortilla wrap instead of the bread. Wraps come in plain, wholemeal or even seeded, so there are plenty of varieties to choose from.

You can spread half the wrap with salad cream or mayonnaise, then add a slice or two of cooked meat. Add some iceberg lettuce and sliced tomatoes and you have a very tasty lunch. You can substitute cheese for the sandwich meat. Children often enjoy wraps - no dry crusts to munch!

Or make a hot wrap. Cook some breaded chicken fillets or goujons in the oven. Spread the wrap with relish (tomato and red pepper is really nice!) and add the hot chicken and some softened onions and peppers before wrapping and eating.

Mmmm scrummy and still healthyy home cooking!

Slow Cooking

Hi,
Welcome to the Healthy Home Cooking Blog.

Using a slow cooker is one of the best tips I can give. They come in family-sized these days and are not too expensive. Mine is an oval 6.5 litre slow cooker and it can fit a medium chicken!

We took ours on holiday this year and it was great to come home after a day out to a ready-cooked meal. You use the ingredients from scratch, and can use cheaper cuts of meat as the soaking for four to eight hours really makes it tender. There are plenty of slow cooker recipe books out there to choose from, but many recipes can be adapted that you already do. The chilli recipe mentioned on the last post for example.

A slow cooker recipe
Try this:

Sweet and Sour pork

Lean boneless pork (enough for your family)
Plain flour
onion
celery
2 or 3 carrots
4 table spoons wine vinegar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons tomato puree
pineapple juice (from tin of pineapple rings)
pineapple rings (add about half hour from end, chopped up)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
water (just enough to cover about 3/4 of ingredients in the slow cooker)

Coat the pork in the flour and then brown the meat in a frying pan. Soften the vegetables next, then add everything to the pot. Some slow cookers recommend heating the pot first - so check instructions.

The meal should take about four hours on high and about six hours on medium.

Either bring home some nice Chinese microwave rice or put it with some easy cook rice boiled for about 15 minutes (or whatever it says on the packet).

Mmmm. Just off to get some pork...!

Do leave your favourite recipe ideas on the Healthy Home Cooking blog.

Tasty chilli

Hi,
Welcome to my healthy home cooking blog.

My husband made dinner last night. He's pretty good at it too. He made a chilli with a recipe he found on the web.

When I do chilli, I use minced beef, onions, peppers, a tin of chopped tomatoes, some powdered chilli, maybe some real chilli (if the kids aren't sharing it!) and paprika and garlic.

He added cumin and some real tomatoes into the mix!

I have to say it was absolutely gorgeous! So that's the tip of the day - add cumin to your chilli!


Have you got any tips for the Healthy Home Cooking blog? Do write a comment and let me know.

Pass it on!
Love Sassie x

Welcome to Healthy Home Cooking Blog

Hi,
Welcome to my healthy home cooking blog. I hope to share tips, ideas and recipes to help you cook delicious meals for your family.

Please feel free to comment on this blog and share your own thoughts and ideas. I look forward to hearing from you on the Healthy Home Cooking Blog.

Best wishes,
Sassie C x