Posted in Recipes

Because you also need a good Spicy Beef & some sneaky extra protein recipe – aka ‘Mom, eat more protein.’

Yes, I’m being given nutritional advice by my grown up children. To be fair they are muscle bound and fit so I will gladly take it.

This beef recipe will have the protein of the lean minced beef to begin with but I do always like to stretch and ‘healthify’ fried beef by adding tinned legumes – in this case black beans and lentils. The sneaky extra protein in this recipe is to be found when serving it. I like to serve this on a toasted wholemeal flatbread spread thickly with hummus (BONUS protein points) and a good dollop of Greek yogurt (again, kerching!!)

NB – take it easy on the chilli flakes and jalepenos, let you be the judge of how much your audience can tolerate!

Spicy Beef Recipe

You will need:
A little oil
Lean beef mince (5% fat)
2 onions
3 to 4 fat cloves garlic
Tin black beans
Tin lentils
Spices – cumin, coriander, chilli flakes
Tin tomatoes
Tomato puree (i use from tube)
Jalepenos
To Serve:
Wholemeat flatbreads
Hummus (i used red pepper flavour)
Greek yogurt
Fresh Coriander (optional)
Method:
Heat the oil and fry the minced beef in a large frying pan until beginning to brown – approx 8/10 minutes.
Add chopped onions and garlic to centre of pan and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the drained black beans and lentils, mix well and heat through.
Add the spices next and mix well, allow to cook for a minute or two and then add in tin of tomatoes and a good dollop of tomato puree plus a handful of chopped jalepenos.
Add some water – depending on how saucy you like it – mix well and cook until bubbling, then reduce the heat to keep warm while you toast the flatbreads (pittas or any wraps good too).
Serve on a heated flatbread topped with thickly spread hummus then the mince topped with Greek yogurt and coriander.
Wholegrain rice would make a good alternative to the flatbread.

Please Enjoy!

x Sheila

Posted in Recipes

You NEED a 20 minute simple salmon supper recipe in your life & BONUS points for healthy!

Tray with cooked salmon darnes, cooked cayenne spiced chickpeas and cherry tomatoes with some fresh basil on top before mashing

Recipe for Cayenne spiced salmon darnes with a delicious chickpea, tomato & basil mash. Throw on some extra easy veggies for extra healthy points.

You need to buy/have:
Oil
Salmon Darnes – 1 or 2 per person
Cayenne pepper
Tinned Chickpeas (1 can for 2 or 3 people, 2 cans better!)
1 small punnet Cherry tomatoes on the vine
Fresh basil – keep this for the end
Easy veg like baby sweetcorn, tenderstem brocolli & sugarsnaps
Method:
Whack on the oven to 200C.
Pour a little pool of oil in the centre of a large baking tray.
Place each salmon darne in the oil to baste, then place the salmon darnes together at one end of the tray.
Drain the chickpeas and place these at the other end of the tray.
Pop the vine tomatoes on top of the chickpeas and drizzle this end with some oil.
Dust the darnes and chickpeas with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper and season with some salt and pepper.
Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
After 10 minutes prepare your easy cook veg (I boiled all three listed above together for 5 minutes, drained and left with lid on to stay hot).
Once the cooking time is up for the salmon, use a scissors to snip the tomatoes off the vines and then snip in a good handful of fresh basil. Use a potato masher to squash the tomatoes and chickpeas together into a mash.
– it should be easy to pick out any coarse tomato skins if there’s any fussiness in the audience!
Delicious!
Please Enjoy

salmon, spiced chickpea and tomato mash with easy cook veg

x Sheila


Posted in Recipes

Refried Lentils – 10 MINUTES to Delicious!

Yes, this does exactly what it claims. A deliciously filling meal is available to you in under 10 minutes. To my mind it’s well balanced. It has the ‘good’ fats of avocado, the protein of lentils & cheese and the carb of the wrap. This will satisfy your hunger.

Delicious spicy lentils on a crisped wrap with mashed avocado & grated cheese

Mexican food is one of my favourites and I took inspiration here from refried beans.

Spiced lentils
Spiced Lentils

Refried Lentils

Serves 2:
You will need:
A little oil
1 tin lentils
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp chilli flakes
Splash water
1 avocado mashed with juice of one lime
2 wraps
Small amount of cheddar cheese grated (or any cheese) – think small handful

Method:
Heat a little olive oil and fry up a drained tin of lentils in a small frying pan for a couple of minutes
Add 1 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tsp garlic granules, 1 tsp chilli flakes & a splash of water and then cook for a couple of minutes more giving it the odd stir.
Heat two wraps in a hot oven until beginning to crisp up (keep an eye on them, you want to pull them out just when their turning from soft to crisp, firm enough to hold content and soft enough to fold without completely cracking)
Heat the grill.
Pile on a portion of avocado mash to one half of each wrap and spread on one half only, top this with the fried lentils and a small scattering of grated cheese. Flash the filled side of the wrap under the grill to melt the cheese.
Once cheese has melted fold over the other half to close the wrap and tuck in.

Enjoy!

x Sheila

Posted in Recipes

Pickle It! A recipe for quick pickled red onion.

Have you sometimes bought a bag/net of onions when you really only needed a couple? The remainder sit there in the vegetable rack as you walk past them, day after day, ignoring their existence. You wanted them in your life yet you just let them sit there. Ghosted! …or is it Gaslit? Who knows!

Red onion pickle in a kilner jar

Why not dress them up and show them some love? A dash of something sassy and sharp combined with sweetness will lift the spirits and tantalise your tastebuds. In the process of pickling red onions you will transform their appearance rendering them a vibrant pink.

Red onion pickle on top of beef burger served with coleslaw, paprika seasoned sweet potato fries and a garlic mayo.

Pickled Red Onions Recipe
You will need:
Red Onions
Apple Cider Vinegar or White/Red Wine Vinegar
Honey or Golden Syrup
Method:
Peel & slice the onions
Place them in a bowl and splash with some vinegar and pour over some honey/syrup – Use your judgement on quantities as this will depend on how much onion you have. You don’t need to drown them.
Ensure the onions are mixed through and thoroughly moistened – using two forks can help to ensure you’ve separated the onion strands and doused them well.
Store in sterilised jars in the fridge.

Great on burgers.

Enjoy!

x Sheila

Posted in Recipes

Fast Food : Beetroot & Feta

What’s not to love here. Simple, easy, delicious recipe with video for the people who are screaming at the bloggers to ‘JUST GIMME THE RECIPE’. Enjoy!

Crumbled feta & beetroot salad.

Mixed Salad Leaves
(Dunnes Stores Ireland Bistro salad actually has beetroot in it)
-Chopped Cooked Beetroot
-Red Onion
-olive oil
-balsamic vinegar
-crumbled feta

x Sheila