Lazy Sundays

No such thing in my house! I like to do a full roast whenever possible, including sauces, stuffing and yorkshire pudding where appropriate. Is it healthy home cooking? It can be.

This week, I roasted a silverside of beef, and added roast potatoes, carrot and swede mash, cauliflower, peas, yorkshire pudding and gravy.

I use spray cooking oil to roast my potatoes and it greatly reduces the fat you use. I use the whole potatoes to work out how many I need and then peel and chop them. I then put them in boiling water and bring it back up to the boil for two or three minutes.

I use olive oil cooking spray and squirt a few times into a pyrex dish. Then I tip in the hot potatoes and spray some more. Then they go in the oven. For me the temperature of the oven depends on what else is cooking. Usually the meat is still in there so the temperature of the oven is at about 190 degrees C. Having said that, if the meat is cooked and you want the potatoes sooner, then put it up to 220 for faster cooking.

Finally you can also use spray oil for parsnips although I don't usually parboil them first.

Happy 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