Tasty Halloumi and Spinach Stew - vegetarian friendly

As promised to one of my lovely twitter followers here is the recipe for my healthy halloumi and spinach stew - the only vegetarian dish that my carnivorous brother will actually admit to enjoying! :)

Ingredients:
250g halloumi - cubed
100g spinach
x2 peppers; one red, one green - quartered
half a red onion - finely sliced
half a white onion - finely sliced
390g carton of passata (or you could use a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tbs tomato puree)
x1 clove of garlic - crushed or finely diced
tin of beans; cannellini, haricot or butter beans all taste great!
olive oil
100g mushrooms - quartered
150g cherry tomatoes - halved

Method:
1  First quarter the the peppers (leaving stem), drizzle with oil and place them under a hot grill for 5 minutes, turning occasionally.
2  In a large pan over medium heat add olive oil, crushed garlic and the finely sliced onions and leave them for 2-3 mins with regular stirring.
3  Then add the passata and the halved cherry toms, mushrooms and chosen beans along with any of the liquid in the tin, then cube the halloumi.
4  Replace the peppers under the grill with the halloumi cubes, leave the halloumi under the heat for about 5-7 minutes or until the cubes are starting to golden - remember to turn!  Remove the stems from the peppers, slice them and add to the pot.
5  Add the spinach whole and leave the stew to simmer for 10-15 mins on a low heat, adding the halloumi when it is ready.

The stew is usually ready when the spinach has melted into the stew and is tasty either served on its own or with pasta, you could could also add more beans of your choice or even mixed beans.

...Enjoy!

High energy/low carb breakfast

Here is a great recipe for a tasty and low carbohydrate breaky, and the best part is it's super quick & easy to make;

Ingredients:

Spray of frylight 

2 eggs

1 banana

1/2 tsp honey (optional)

Blitz all of the ingredients together in a bender

Then I sprayed a little frylight into a pan over medium heat and poured a small amount of the mixture into disc shapes - the mixture is quite runny so smaller, skinny cakes are better 

Cook for about 2 minutes then place under a grill until the pancakes are golden. You can try to flip them but as they are quite flimsy this can lead to a few disasters (of which I had a few!)

Serve with some tasty fresh berries :)

Apple & Cranberry Crumble

Today's task with little mister Pj was baking, or to be more exact - Apple & Cranberry Crumble Baking.  Yum!

You will need:

3 Large Bramley Apples

50g Dried Cranberries* 

3 tbsp water

1 Cinnemon Stick

125g Demerara Sugar

150g Plain Flour

1 tbsp Ground Nutmeg

75g Softened Butter

* Cranberries can be optional or you could try raisins or other dried fruits :)

This should feed about 6 people.

First you will need to put the oven on to heat @ 180C 

1- Peel & dice the apples into 1 to 2cm squares, place in a bowl of water during preparation to keep them from going brown.

2 - Place chopped apples, dried cranberries, Cinnemon stick, 50g of the sugar and water into a pan & put over a medium heat until the apples are soft and mushy (about 10 mins).

3 - Whilst the apple mix is heating time to make the crumble topping! :)

Place the soft butter, nutmeg, flour and another 50g of the sugar into a mixing bowl and use your fingers to crumble the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

4 - Now place the stewed apples into a deep oven proof dish (in the pictures I used several smaller dishes as the lil cuz wanted to share the crumble around the family :>) - don't forget to remover the Cinnemon stick!  After the apples sprinkle generously with the crumble topping and the left over 25g of sugar.

5 - Now place in the oven for 30 minutes. :)

Serve warm from the oven with ice cream or custard...

...yummy!