Happy Independance Day to all of my American friends. I thought I would show you a quick, easy and tasty meal that you could serve to your friends and family on the 4th. A meal which you could do ahead of time, leaving your hands free to enjoy all of the festivities of the day! This is the type of food I like to eat in the summer. Light and fresh, and easy to prepare.
I was recently asked if I would like to try this new protein ice cream by Wheyhey!
"Making sure you have enough protein in your diet is essential to getting the most out of your body - and life! Protein is the building block for all human cells, the second most abundant component of the human body after water, and can help with everything from losing weight to muscle repair and skin anti ageing! Protein is made up of amino acids of which there are 9 known as ‘essential’, and 11 other ‘non-essential’ and ‘conditional’ amino acids."
Wheyhey is made using a whey protein isolate, which contains 9 essential and 11 non essential amino acids that the human body needs. Whey protein isolate is a by-product of the cheese making process and it’s 100% natural and considered to be easily and rapidly digested.
This ice cream is designed to not only taste good, but also do you good at the same time. Each pot contains 20g of protein. It's also sugar free and suitable for use by diabetic, being naturally sweetened by a natural sweetener called Xylitol in all of their flavours. (Xylitol is a derivative of tree bark and it’s what you find in sugarfree gum and toothpaste.) Wheyhey protein ice cream helps keep your blood sugar levels stable by slowing the absorption of glucose into the blood stream.
So now you know all the healthy stuff about it, but bottom line . . . does it taste good?
I quite liked the strawberry and the banana, but I am not fond of chocolate flavoured milk anything . . . not ice cream, not milk, not hot chocolate . . . so I didn't really care for that, but don't take my word for it because I am not fussed. A chocolate milk lover might find it exceptionally tasty. It just wasn't me. Also the vanilla pot I think might have melted and then been frozen again as it had a really weird texture . . .
which you can see in the middle pot in this photo on the top line. It was foamy and airy and almost a bit like Styrofoam. It did say on the pot not to refreeze if it melted, so I really couldn't make an honest judgement on it's flavour.
It comes in four flavours . . . Banana, Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry, and is free of sugar, additives and chemicals . . . which can't be bad actually. I often worry about all the chemicals we ingest nowadays. (That can't be good for us I am sure. So it's nice to see a product that tastes nice and is additive, sugar and chemical free.)
From the sports perspective ingesting more protein makes sense and this is a pretty tasty way to get it.
From the weight loss perspective, upping your protein intake helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer, cuts cravings and helps slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, which is also a plus.
It is available online now at Ocado and at Musclefood and is available in the single serving sizes and a larger family size.
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I wanted to present to you today a simple and quick toastie sandwich that is perhaps a bit lower in fat than your usually toastie sandwich. Not only is is quick and easy but it's quite delicious as well, but then you probably already know that because if you have been reading me for a while, you will know I never show you anything that I don't think is delicious!
As promised yesterday I am back today with a delicious recipe created to use up some of those tasty leftovers from the pot roast! This is a simple casserole that really is tasty and so very simple to make. If you can boil water and have been thrifty enough to save some meat and some of that fabulous gravy, you can make this!
I normally wouldn't show you two beef recipes in a row, but I was meant to show you this last week and am only now just getting around to it. We don't eat beef very often and we would only ever very rarely have it two days in a row!
This is a pot roast recipe which I have been using for years and years. It is a tried and true and something my family always looked forward to me cooking.
I think that I got the original recipe from off a packet of dry onion soup mix. In fact, I know I did.
I have adjusted and tweaked it so much through the years that is only now very faintly resembles the original recipe.
It's such a simple roast to cook, and perfect for the cheaper, less tender kind of roasts such as chuck, or blade, rump or brisket.
It's such a simple roast to cook, and perfect for the cheaper, less tender kind of roasts such as chuck, or blade, rump or brisket.
The meat always comes out tender and delicious.
It has a fabulous gravy also. Perfect for spooning over the cooked meat and plenty of hot mash.
It has a fabulous gravy also. Perfect for spooning over the cooked meat and plenty of hot mash.
The recipe is as simple as banging everything into a lidded casserole dish, or roaster, popping it into a low oven and then waiting.
Which makes it perfect for on those days when you have plenty else on your plate. I often cook it when we have church so that it is waiting for us when we get home.
It basically cooks itself. No browning needed. Cooks itself. Tender meat.
Flavourful gravy. What more could you want??
*Onion Pot Roast*
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 large bay leaf broken
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and black pepper to taste
Preheat
the oven to 165.C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Have ready a lidded
roaster/casserole dish large enough to hold the meat and vegetables.
Place
the prepared vegetables in the bottom of the casserole or roaster.
Season the meat all over with salt and pepper and lay on top of the
vegetables. Sprinkle with the dry onion soup mix and thyme. Whisk
together the beef broth, apple juice, vinegar and brown sugar. Pour
over top of the meat and vegetables. Tuck in the bay leaf. Cover
tightly.
Roast for about 3 1/2 hours without
disturbing. Remove the lid and roast for a further half an hour, until
the meat is very tender and lightly browned. Remove from the oven.
Remove the meat to a plate, cover lightly with foil and set aside to
rest. Scoop out the vegetables to a bowl and keep warm. Remove and
discard the bay leaf.
If the roaster/casserole is
flame proof, place on top of a stove burner and turn on to medium heat.
If not, pour the juices into a sauce pan and proceed. Whisk in the
flour which has been shaken with the cold water. Cook over medium heat,
whisking constantly until the gravy boils and thickens. Reduce to low
and cook for at least five minutes.
Serve the meat sliced with some of the gravy spooned over top.
Tune in tomorrow to see what deliciousness I created with the leftovers!
Note-
This will make lots of delicious gravy. Any that doesn't get used can
be frozen in containers ready to use at a later date in pot pies, etc.Tune in tomorrow to see what deliciousness I created with the leftovers!
One thing we really enjoy eating in the summer months are great grilled steaks. There is nothing nicer than a steak cooked properly and served up with something scrumptious on the side. Today I cooked our favourite Creamy Garlic Mushrooms to have with some simple grilled steaks that I had grilled on our electric grill. They went down a real treat!
One of my favourite late spring/early summer fruits is cherries. When we lived down in Kent at this time of year you could find lots of cherry sellers set up on the many laybys in the area, their tables just laden with glorious cherries, of several different varieties.
We had the Missionary Sisters over for supper last Thursday evening. As we all had a meeting that we needed to dash out to afterwards, I decided to keep it simple.
I cooked burgers. Yes, hamburgers.
And they loved them. Plain old burgers, done on the grill . . . in toasted cheese rolls with their choice of garnishes . . .
cheese, pickles, mustard, onions, ketchup . . . whatever they wanted to put on them.
I also had a bowl of potato chips for them. Thank goodness those are gone.
I daren't have potato chips in the house because they have the bad habit of getting in my mouth.
A tossed salad because, you need to get some vegetables in somewhere, and girls always like salad . . . unlike the guys.
The girls always eat it up.
And then this basic old fashioned macaroni salad. No pretense here.
It's simple. It's easy. It's delicious. Oh . . . and yeh . . . I confess . . . I bought a cheesecake . . . and I liked it.
*Basic Macaroni Salad*
Serves 4 to 5
Oh, it is a cold and rainy day . . . blustery . . . the kind of day that would have Pooh scrambling around with his umbrella, complaining to Piglet . . . I can almost hear his voice.
Whatever happened to spring . . . here we are in June and it still feels like April. Nevermind . . . the warm sunny days will be with us soon enough and then we will be complaining it is too hot!!
What can I say . . . there are times in life when I just long for . . . indeed crave . . . a bowl of pasta. And sometimes it can be as simple as a bowl of hot spaghetti adorned with nothing but butter, salt, pepper and a bit of parmesan and sometimes it can be something a bit more complicated . . . it just depends on my mood and how quickly I want it on the table.
When I was growing up my mother never bought mayonnaise as such. I don't know why, only that she didn't. There were only type such things that she did buy. One was Miracle Whip and the other was Salad Dressing. Both were very mayonnaise like, but couldn't be considered mayonnaise per se because they contained ingredients which were not considered proper in a mayonnaise. A proper mayonnaise should only contain egg yolks, mustard, some vinegar and oil and perhaps some seasoning.
One of the things I love most over here are Cream Teas, and of course when you think of a cream tea you must think of a scone. That delicious light bun thing that closely resembles the baking powder biscuits (not to be confused with a cookie) from back home in appearance, but is nothing like them at all in taste or texture.
I had my first cream tea when my husband and I were on holiday down in Devon. They brought the tea to our table in a lovely porcelain pot on a tray along with some dainty china cups and a plate full of lovely light scones, and bowls of red berry preserves and lucious clotted cream. I was hooked from first bite. I had never tasted anything so lovely in my life. (You don't have to have regular tea. You can get herbal blends also, which is nice. We don't drink regular tea.)
We've been having some really nice this week with not a lot of rain . . . it's looked threatening of rain at times and felt very close, but it's been quite dry for the most part. Todd soaks it all up. He loves this kind of weather!
This week it's been time to lighten things up a bit. You don't want heavy food when the temps are high.
If you had told me when I was a child that I would one day love blueberries, I would not have believed you. Nova Scotia, Canada, the place where I grew up, has some of the nicest wild blueberries in the world, just ripe and free for the picking. You can stop just about anywhere at the side of the road and find them just waiting to be picked.
One of my absolute favourite things to make in warmer weather is Potato Salad. The potato is my favourite vegetable and well, potato salad is one of my favourite salads.
My mother always made fantastic potato salad. She would boil the potatoes up the day before. Then on the day she would peel them carefully and cut them into little cubes. Then she would peel a cucumber, remove the seeds and cut that into little cubes as well.
A bit of minced onion, some Kraft Salad Dressing, salt and pepper, and chopped egg and it was done and delicious! We used to get a ice cream scooped ball, sitting nicely on a few lettuce leaves on our plates. Very pretty. Very good.
Once I got older I discovered that there were many ways to make potato salad. One version I particularly like comes from the Fanny Farmer cookery book.
You make a French vinaigrette to infuse the warm potatoes with an extra added dimension of flavour.
Then there are potato salads that use only a vinaigrette dressing, like the Barefoot Contessa's, another favourite of mine.
This is not your mama's potato salad, nor is it even the Barefoot Contessa's. It's mine. And, dare I say it . . . . it's delicious.
I had a lovely bunch of radishes from our garden tubs that I wanted to use. Fresh radishes, just picked are a wonderfully tasty ingredient. I also had some French Haricot beans that I wanted to use up as well, a most delicious addition.
We ate this yesterday, Al Fresco, with some tasty burgers and ice cold lemonade. It was wonderful . . . quite simply wonderful.
*Not Your Mama's Potato Salad*
Serves 4 to 5
Printable Recipe
Easy to make, refreshing and probably quite different than anything your mother every made. This is incredibly moreish.
2 1/2 pounds waxy new potatoes, such as charlotte, halved if large
5 or 6 radishes, trimmed and finely sliced
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1/2 a punnet of mustard cress, trimmed
a handful of french haricot green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch lengths
Dressing:
2 TBS creamed horseradish
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 TBS good olive oil
2 TBS mayonnaise
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, adding the green beans during the last five minutes of cooking. Drain well and then tip into a large salad bowl.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour them over the potatoes and beans. Season with some sea salt and cracked black pepper and toss together. Leave to cool.
Add the radishes, spring onions and cress, gently tossing all together. Serve at room temperature.
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