Turkey Curry

There hasn't been a new recipe on the blog for a little while now, due to being swamped with schoolwork last week! Poor Adam didn't get a single home cooked meal for the entire week. I tried to make it up to him yesterday, by putting this curry in the slow cooker, so it would be ready and waiting for him as soon as he got home from work!

Turns out trying to make a curry look photogenic is quite difficult - for me at least! 



Turkey Curry

Based on this curry.

Ingredients:

600g turkey breast, cut into bite sized pieces (you can use an equal amount of any meat or veggies you'd like)
500ml passatta
200ml light coconut milk
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp turmeric
1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp dried coriander
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (warning: this curry is very spicy. If you don't like it as hot then take this down to ½ tbsp or 1 tsp, adjust to taste. Remember it's easier to make something more spicy than it is to make something less spicy!)
3 green cardamom pods
Black pepper

Method:

1. Finely chop onions, place in a saucepan sprayed with frylight (or other non stick spray) and cook slowly over a very low heat. Add a small splash of water if they seem like they are starting to stick, and stir often.
2. Add garlic cloves and passatta, and simmer for five minutes
3. Optional: Adam hates lumps of onion in his sauces so I always do this step, but you don't have to. I transferred the sauce into a blender, and carefully (it's hot!) blended.
4. Add turkey to slow cooker, season well with black pepper and pour sauce over.
5. Add spices and coconut milk and stir to combine
6. Leave in slow cooker for about four hours. Ensure turkey is cooked through before serving with rice.


Serves 4.
Syns: 2.5 per serving

Amazing Pasta Sauce

I'm a big fan of pasta. When I was younger and still lived with my parents, my sisters and I would eat it every single day. It really fills you up and I think it's quite healthy too. Unfortunately, the sauces that come in the jars or pots that we would eat it with are not. They're usually full of sugar and oil and chemicals. Over the years I've tried to make my own pasta sauce with varying degrees of success - from the edible to completely inedible. And you know what? I think I've finally got it.

Amazing Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

500ml passata
1 tsp dried oregano
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tbsp sun dried tomato (or regular tomato) puree
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of sea salt
Black pepper

Method

Add all the ingredients to a pan, stir well and simmer gently for about five minutes. That's all!

The sauce is so versatile; I originally made this as a sauce for lasagne, and it really was just delicious. I saved some leftover sauce, and reheated it the next day to stir through hot pasta. I let it simmer for longer so it would be thicker, then stirred it through hot spaghetti. So good! I could just eat another bowl full now!

Syns: Less than ½ per serving!

Stuffed Red Peppers

I snagged a couple of organic peppers at the supermarket a little while ago, and they needed using up quickly. I also had some leftover rice in my fridge, and so the following creation was born!



Ingredients:

Red pepper, cut in half

One cup of cooked rice per red pepper half

Tomato, diced

Half an onion, diced

Half a chilli, finely chopped

Garlic clove, grated

Mozarella ball, diced

Seasoning of choice (I used black pepper to taste, about a tsp dried coriander/cilantro, pinch of paprika and dried chilli flakes)

Mix all the ingredients together apart from the red pepper halves. Spoon into the red pepper halves, and pop into a preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes.

These were delicious, and so quick and simple to throw together! I loved the addition of mozarella but you could omit it for a vegan version.

What are you favourite quick and simple but still healthy recipes to put together when you're short of time or don't feel like spending much time cooking?

Have a good weekend!

Hi! Happy Weekend!

My weekend has been pretty good so far! Last night, Adam and I went to the supermarket to get half of our weekly shopping. We do half of our shopping on a Friday night (oh yeah, we're wild!!) at the supermarket, and the rest at the local market on a Saturday morning. I got some more amazing deals on fish from the shop yesterday, which led to me to last nights dinner:



Hot and spicy smoked mackerel with salad (I went back for another massive helping of salad!) and a few pieces of an organic baguette. We weren't sure what we wanted for dinner last night but I saw the fish and bread which were really cheap, and knew I had some salad which ideally wanted using before today. It was delicious! I enjoyed it with this:



Which was also delicious! I don't drink very much, and haven't had any wine since probably Christmas so I really enjoyed this glass last night. That's Adam's pear cider in the background, and we also munched on the grapes while we got everything ready.

This morning we were up bright and early and headed into the market, and came back overloaded with two huge bags of fresh fruit and veggies! Didn't manage to get a picture today before I started throwing things into the fridge, my mouth and the blender! I'd run out of fruit yesterday, and really missed my daily smoothie! So I whipped up this:



It had 2 kiwis, some chunks of frozen pineapple, about one cup of apple juice and a small bunch of watercress. It was gorgeous! I finished putting the shopping away while Adam headed off to work, and did a bit of tidying up. Then I had a repeat of last nights dinner for lunch! As we still had some of the mackerel left over. It was still nice the second time around but it was nicer with a glass of wine

What do you have planned for the weekend? I'm going swimming now and have Zumba and a long walk with Adam and Izzy tomorrow! Apart from that I'm taking it easy

Asian inspired pasta

I love picking up reduced items when I go shopping! There's nothing better than feeling like you've got a bargain! When I went shopping last weekend, I picked up a piece of salmon for 60% off! I ate it in this Asian inspired pasta dish:



Asian inspired pasta for one!

Salmon

Three brocolli florets

Four mushrooms

Garlic clove

Half chopped chilli (optional)

Spaghetti

Handful of spinach

Soy sauce

Chop chilli and garlic, add to a bowl with about half a cup of soy sauce and stir to combine. Cut the salmon into bite size pieces and add to the bowl, stirring well and leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Chop the vegetables. Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet, while they are cooking spray a pan with cooking spray, add the salmon (reserve the marinade), brocolli and mushrooms. About halfway through cooking, add the reserved marinade into the pan. Drain and rinse the spaghetti, and mix everything together. I don't cook the spinach, I just stir it into the hot pasta so it doesn't wilt too much but feel free to add it earlier if you prefer!