ideas – Page 4 – Mediocre Mum

Finally, some help in the kitchen!

I’m no Super Ninja Mum, I do like to cook from fresh but on occasion I need a bit of a break and am always up for a bit of a cheat sometimes. I want to let you in on a secret; I’ve got someone helping me in the kitchen and she’s come to my rescue on a few occasions recently.

I don’t know how many times I have tried to make Roast Potatoes, I’ve tried goose fat, par boiling, knocking them about in the colander etc and they never turn out brilliantly. Recently, I’ve discovered Aunt Bessie’s Frozen Roast Potatoes. Some of you may be grimacing but honestly they are quite good and I can’t be bothered with all the effort of pealing and working out the timings and temperatures.

This weekend after a couple of wines in the pub I thought it was a good idea to invite friends over for an impromptu roast as I’d left one in the oven. Luckily, my freezer was stocked full of Aunt Bessie’s stuff: Homestyle Gravy, which is much nicer than the granule stuff, Roast Potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding and Apple Pie. No one complained and I almost looked domesticated! :-)

And another discovery I’ve made, Aunt Bessie’s Casseroles are suitable for slow cooking with instructions on the pack. All you have to do is put 300ml of water in and your set to go! As I said, I like to cook from fresh normally but they are great for a mid week meal and were surprisingly nice. Another bonus is that they have less than 5 Weight Watcher Proplus points so I can have dumplings as well!

I’ve been having a chat with the people at Aunt Bessie’s and they’ve kindly offered 3 prizes so you can try them for yourself. £10 may not seem like a lot but you could probably buy all the accompaniments for a roast with them. Simply enter by using the Rafflecopter form below. Competition Closes on the 27^th of October at midnight (EST).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a selection of products complimentary.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

Slow Cooker Sunday – Caramelized Onion Soup

The weather is going to make a turn for the worst this week so if you’ve packed your slow cooker up for the summer it may be time to dig it out!

Slow Cooker Sunday is all about sharing your favourite recipes; you can either link up a blog post or a website you have used, tweet a picture with #scsunday and I’ll include your twitter handles so people can contact you about recipe or you can leave a recipe in the comments section.

This week we had Caramalized Onion Soup, for me it was reminiscent of French Onion Soup. The recipe came from Sara Lewis’ 200 More Slow Cooker Recipes. If you don’t already have one of her books I’d highly recommend them as I’ve rarely had disasters with her recipes.

Caramelized Onion Soup

Serves 4
Cooking Temp: Low
Cooking Time 4-5 hours

Ingredients

25 g of butter
2TBSP Olive Oil
500 g onions, halved and thinly sliced
1TBSP Caster Sugar
2TBSP plain flour
250ml brown ale
750ml of Beef Stock
2 bay leaves (I didn’t have any so skipped them)
1 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper

Cheese Toast

8 slices of French bread
75 g cheddar cheese
2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce

Method:

Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions for about 15 till they are soft and starting to turn golden. Then add the caster sugar and fry for another 10 minutes until they start to caramelize on the edges.
Stir in the flour, mix for about a minute. Then gradually add the stock, ale and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then transfer to the slow cooker. Cover and cook for 4-5 hours on low.
When it’s just about time to serve, sprinkle cheese onto the French bread and drizzle a bit of Worcestershire Sauce on each one. Grill until the cheese starts to bubble.
Serve the soup in large bowls and float the toast on top.

I look forward to seeing your recipes!

Slow Cooker Sunday: Squid in Puttanesca Sauce

Now that we’re into September, I can’t believe it, it must be time to get those slow cookers out and dust them off. Feel free to share some of your favourite recipes.

I said tentacles not….

I was a vegetarian for over 20 years but now happily eat meat in moderation. However, there are still some things that I can’t do. I could never select a calf for slaughter later in life, cut the head off a fish, deboning chicken makes me squeal and the mere thought of tripe makes me want to gag.

So, when I was sent squid from the lovely people at Fish is the Dish as part of their campaign to get people eating more fish, which was totally my choice as I’d never cooked it and was keen to try, I was a bit unsure of what to do with it and the thought of the tentacles made me squirm a bit.

Here is the moment, I had to touch it for the first time……yes, I squealed like school girl!

Most people would probably chop it up, bread it, deep fried it and served it with chips, but I was determined to try something in the slow cooker. I was a bit worried, as it’s a delicate meat that it would turn rubbery in the slow cooker. In the end, I opted for Sara Lewis’ Squid in Puttanesca Sauce served on Linguini accompanied by Caesar Salad and Garlic bread. I would have posted the entire recipe but that would have been blatant plagiarism.

Verdict

I can assure you it wasn’t rubbery, this may be due to the fact it’s cooked on low for a shorter period of time and the tentacles aren’t added till 30 minutes before the end of cooking.

Hubby loved it and had 3 helpings, I’d definitely have it again, but sadly our daughter was a bit scared of it but this may have to do with me chasing her around the kitchen with it earlier.

Do check out the recipes below, like a few and add your own.

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Disclosure: The Squid was courtesy of Wing of St Mawes

Slow Cooker Sunday – DIY Frozen Dinners

Apparently summer is on the way and the UK is about to be hit by a mini heat wave with temperatures reaching 30 degrees on Thursday. Most of us tend to use out slow cookers more in the winter than in the summer. However, this is the perfect time to use your slow cooker as it won’t heat up your house like the oven will and you can spend more time in the garden drinking Pimms!

A friend of mine, who knows I have a thing for my slow cooker, sent me the following link, DIY Frozen Meal Packs for your Slow Cooker. I think it’s a fabulous idea. You can bung all of the ingredients for your slow cooker recipes into a Ziploc bag and then put them in the freezer so when you need a meal, just grab a bag from the freezer and bung it into the slow cooker! How easy is that! There are also some great ‘Summer’ Slow Cooker recipe ideas on there. I now just need to work out where I can put a chest freezer.

I could really use some summer recipe inspiration. Do you have any recipes I should try? Feel free to link up your own recipes or ones you found online. Alternatively, you can always leave your recipe in the comments section.

Thanking you in advance.

Slow Cooker Sunday – 2 June 2012

Thanks to Slow Cooker Sunday last week, I was inspired to make Falafel’s.

I was absolutely stunned that this worked. It defies the law of slow cooking, how did they brown on both sides without flipping?

I originally found this Falafel Recipe at Stephanie Odea’s A Year of Slow Cooking. Yes, she used her slow cooker for an entire year; I thought I had an unhealthy relationship with my slow cooker.

She suggested mashing the chickpeas with a fork and then pouring the mixture of lemon, egg, spices etc on top and mix. As usual, I cut corners and just threw all the ingredients into my food processor, chopped and then formed into balls.

When she said ‘dip’ in the oil, I took that as coating both sides of the flattened balls in the oil in the slow cooker.

Verdict:

They were a bit dry if I’m honest, I think I may have cooked them a bit too long. Nevertheless, we quickly rectified that with a huge dollop of Greek Yoghurt. We will definitely be having them again.

Feel free to share your own Slow Cooker Recipes by simply adding a link to your blog/website or alternatively, leave your recipe in the comment section below.

For more of our favourite slow cooker recipes click here.