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Meal Planning Monday 8th April 2013

Week two of school holidays! I’m on my knees but have ordered in a case of wine so I should survive. As always, the majority of our meals this week will be done in a slow cooker. Well, actually they all will be.

On Mondays we do #meatfree, but no chance I will convince our 5 year old to eat a veggie curry so I’ve opted for Lasagna which hopefully she will eat. Fingers firmly crossed. I will leave you guys to debate my spelling of Lasagna and for the record that is an ‘e’ in Kedgeree and not an ‘a’.

The second new recipe we are trying is the Paprikash – she loves pork, mushrooms and sour cream so hedging my bet on this one.

We will also be having a few tried and tested favorites. The links to the recipes are below.

If anyone is looking for me this week, I will be hiding at the bottom of a bottle of red! :-)

Have a great week!

Slow Cooker Sunday: Lentil and Sausage Casserole 25 Nov 2012

Here is my offering for Slow Cooker Sunday, where we come together to share our favourite recipes.

This recipe came from one of my new Recipe Books, ‘The Slow Cook Book’ by Heather Whinney. I really like it because each recipe has instructions for using in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one it also has the traditional method listed.

The original recipe called for Toulouse sausages but I just used regular Cumberland Sausages, I think. It doesn’t look appealing but I can assure you it was very tasty. We served it with crusty bread and a dollop of Sour Cream. Perfect winter food.

Serves 4-6

Temp: Low

Time: 6-8 hours

Ingredients

2 TBSP of Olive Oil
6 Cumberland Sausages, roughly chopped
1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
140g Chorizo Sausage, diced
Pinch of dried Rosemary
Pinch of Thyme
200g Puy Lentils, rinsed
175ml red wine
500ml Pork Stock you can use Chicken if you don’t have any
1 Red Chilli left whole

Method:

Heat 1 TBSP of oil in frying pan, fry the sausages for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat another TBSP of oil, add the onion and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic, chorizo and herbs give it a stir. Return the sausages to the pan and stir in the lentils. Add the wine, bring to a boil and cook for a minute.
Transfer everything to the Slow Cooker and add the stock and chilli. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Prior to serving remove the Chilli. If you prefer your dish with a bit of kick you could chop the chilli and add it.

Now it’s your turn. Add your recipes by simply using the Linky below.

Don’t forget we’re also on instagram #scsunday and all of the recipes can be found on our Pinterest Board

Slow Cooker Sunday: Chinese Style Pork and Noodle (18/11/12)

I have a small confession to make. This was originally supposed to be Chinese Style ‘Beef’ and Noodles but for some strange reason I bought pork. However, I had a quick look at the ingredients Spring Onion, Ginger and 5-spice and thought it might work with Pork and it did. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. The only changes I made were the Pork of course and I substituted Pork stock instead of Beef Stock.

This recipe originally came from SOUPS FOR YOUR SLOW COOKER by Diana Peacock

Ingredients:

1TBSP of vegetable oil
5 spring onions, chopped
3 cm piece ginger, grated
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ tsp of 5-spice powder
½ tsp chilli flakes
2 TBSP rice wine
2TBSP dark soy sauce
1 TBSP hoisin sauce
1 litre of pork stock
1 TBSP of vegetable oil mixed with 1 TBSP sesame oil
400g pork cut into bite sized pieces
200g egg or rice noodles

Method

Heat the oil in the slow cooker on High. Then add all of the ingredients from the Vegetable Oil to the Hoisin Sauce. Mix well.
Add the stock and stir.
Heat the second portion of oils in a frying pan, add the pork and cook until sealed. You could season with salt and pepper but I wasn’t sure how salty it would be with the stock and soy sauce so I didn’t. Transfer to the slow cooker, cover and cook on LOW for 5-7 hours.
An hour before finishing, add the noodles to the cooker. We served it in large soup bowls accompanied by store bought Prawn Toast.

Join in

So, what have you been up to with your slow cooker this week? Please leave your links below a moment to check out the other recipes. If you don’t blog you can always leave your recipes in the comment section.

We’re also on instagram #scsunday and featured recipes can be found on our Pinterest board.

Our top ten things to do in Copenhagen

This is the one where we didn’t go to Tivoli Gardens! I know the story goes that this is the place that inspired Walt Disney but my husband and I are not into fair rides. However, if we had our daughter with us it would have been a completely different story and a much different trip altogether.

This was a difficult decision for us when I won the trip a few months back. I was torn whether to take her or not. In the end, as it was our anniversary and we hadn’t had a proper trip away without her since she was born we decided not to. It was a bit of a logistical nightmare but we got there in the end. However, Copenhagen is a great place for kids, on a couple of occasions I did think ‘ahh, she would have loved this or she would have loved that…..’ but this just means that we will have to go again another time as a family, it’s only a 90 minute flight from Heathrow.

Getting Around

Copenhagen is incredibly easy to get around being compact, flat and with efficient transport links. We were lucky enough to have a Copenhagen Card which entitled us to free public transport and free or discounted entry into a lot of attractions, museums and galleries (e.g Boat Tours, Rundetarn, Jens Olsen’s Clock).

I do regret not taking advantage of this cycle friendly city, it was such a pleasure to see cyclists and cars on the roads harmoniously, and bikes can be hired for as little as 20 DK. However, with our history of cycle accidents in our house I was a bit reticent. We were absolutely fascinated by the number of cyclists and all the quirky bikes. One of our favourites was a family going by with Dad cycling and mum and children were in a large box at the front. I’m sure it would have been a right scream but I don’t trust my hubby that much.

We went at the end of September and it was surprisingly mild. I’m not sure why I thought it was going to be so cold.

It was a jammed pack weekend, but weirdly we still managed to see a lot of it at a leisurely pace. Here are our highlights in no particular order!

Jens Olsen’s World Clock

located in the town hall, not one of the better know attractions but very interesting it was set running in 1955 and has over 14,000 parts, it tells the time, moon phases, solar eclipses and planet orbits. The slowest gear takes over 25,000 years to make a complete a circuit!

Nyhavn

A very trendy part of town, lined with bars cafes and restaurants. It’s a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee or a beer and people watch. If you are travelling on a budget you can always enjoy a drink and then hit one of the ‘Sausage Wagons’ on the way home.

A boat tour

is a must especially if you’re limited on time as it allows you to take in many of the sites; The Opera House, The Little Mermaid, The Canals of Christianshavn, Our Saviours Church, Christiansborg Palace and the Old Stock Exchange. Do take an umbrella as it hammered it down.

Harbour Wall

If you’re travelling with a sea lover like I was, a stroll along the harbour is a must. There are some beautifully crafted wooden boats moored up.

Kastellet

The oldest functioning Military base in Europe. An idyllic place for a stroll and only a short walk from Osterport Metro Station.

St Alban Church

Is next to the Kastellet Citadel and is simply known to locals as the ‘English Church’. It was named after the first Christian Martyr who coincidentally was beheaded in our home town St Albans, Herts UK.

Amalienborg Castle

Home of the Danish Royal Family since 1794. We stumbled across the changing of the Livgarden and were surprised how similar the uniforms were to the Guardsmen in the UK.

Rundetarn (Round Tower)

a spiral ramp winds its way to the top, it’s the oldest functioning observatory in Europe and a great vantage point to see the sprawling city.

Stroget

Also known as the walking street. If you’re into shopping and people watching this is for you. Personally, it was a bit busy for me but we did find an outdoor pub with a Happy Hour half way up.

MASH

This one is a bit embarrassing. Whenever I travel to new countries I always make a point of trying the local food. A local recommended this restaurant to us for our Anniversary, it was amazing with the most extensive wine list and probably the best steak I’ve ever had but then I worked out why it was called ‘MASH’ – Modern American Steak House. Whoops! But nonetheless I highly recommend it. You’ll find it at 20 Bredgade.

A huge ‘Tak’ to Visit Denmark and Scandinavian Airlines for a very memorable anniversary.

Tree Top Flyers, Chase Canyon

‘Put your knees to your chest, legs apart, chin to your chest and grit your teeth’ sounded a lot like child-birth to me but in fact is the landing position for Ziplining.

I’m absolutely terrified of heights; well in fact, I’m scared of a lot of things but most of my fears boil down to a fear of death. However, I went Zip lining in Chase Canyon, BC, Canada with my niece, hubby and friends yesterday. Unfortunately, our daughter wasn’t old or heavy enough.

The scariest part for me was the training line, it’s not as high or long as the others, but the suspended stairway to the platform was unnerving as it swayed from side to side as you walked up it. My technique was not to look down come neither love nor money, if I did I would have bottled it.

On the way over to the platform, I had a quiet word with Daniel, one of the owners, just to let him know I was terrified of heights so he let me go first. He did admit later that they secretly like it when people are scared and on one occasion they had to ‘boot’ a lady off the platform; but she did ask them to do so. She was fine going up but chickened out at the top so when she wasn’t expecting it, after she was safely connected (obviously), they just pushed her off the edge. Apparently, she loved it and said thanks.

The drive up to the lines in the Canyon was hairy to say the least with a sheer drop on one side. I was so glad I was sitting on the other side of the van and spent most of the journey working out my escape route through the window in case it rolled, but once you got to the top the scenery was stunning.

The lines in the Canyon were not as scary as the training platform nor the drive up, but flying through the trees, over waterfalls and close to the Canyon walls was exhilarating.

They’ve only been open for a few weeks but we were truly impressed with the level of safety and customer service. They’re really a friendly bunch of guys that put me totally at ease. Thanks to the team at Tree Top Flyers for a great day out and we hope to see you again next year.