Southwest Sweet Potato Chili

The weather is officially colder, and I'm in the mood for hearty, warm comfort foods. Chili is one of my favourite meals to whip up, because it's a toss-it-all-in-one-pan-and-forget-about-it kind of dinner, which is especially important when you have a baby who is learning to walk and determined to get into absolutely everything. Like, seriously. Yesterday she put a banana in the dryer... and then turned it back on. I need my hands free, is the bottom line here - so this dinner takes about 10 minutes to throw together, and then it just bubbles away on the stove while you do whatever it is you have to do. Oh - and it's great in a slow cooker, too!

You see, I'm sort of looking to take this blog in slightly new direction - I've started a YouTube vlog type thing (look for Munchie Mummy!), and I want to help people to not only eat healthier, but on a budget! Living healthily is more than just buying fancy organic foods, so I'm on a mission to show everyone how they can live better - for less! Our grandmothers really new how to stretch protein in a meal - which is great because it saves us money on our grocery bill, and eating less meat in general is better for our health! This meal has so much veg in it, it's really an "eat the rainbow" dish. If you want spice, add chili powder as well as the other spices, but since I'm sharing this meal with our little one, I just tossed chopped hot peppers/hot sauce into mine as I liked it! For a vegetarian option, replace the beef with 1 can of black beans or chickpeas.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb mince beef
1 sweet potato, diced
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can kidney beans, drained (or black beans)
1 white onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (I used half red, half green)
1 cup frozen sweetcorn
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced (optional)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprika
Sea salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Chili powder, to taste (optional)

For the garnish (all optional, but I use them all!)
Chopped coriander (cilantro) or parsley
Grated cheddar
Greek yogurt or sour cream
Hot sauce

I brown the beef in a pot with the onion, then add the seasoning, the tomatoes, 1 can of water, and sweet potatoes. Add in the beans and frozen corn. Taste, season (I usually chuck in more seasoning, but do it as you prefer!) and allow to bubble away uncovered until the chili thickens and the sweet potatoes are tender. Serve with rice, couscous, or on its own as a hearty winter stew!

Meal in a Jar: Roasted Vegetable Panzanella!

Ok, I'm a total sucker for anything served in a jar. There, I said it. But jar lunches, besides being adorable, are also extremely practical for anyone who is meal prepping for a week ahead, or wants to transport a meal or salad without mixing everything together until it's time to serve.

Panzanella is basically a fancy Italian word for bread salad. Yup - bread salad. I took a leftover half of a baguette, made some quick and delicious croutons, and tossed them in with sweet roasted vegetables and a 30-second vinaigrette - tadaa! Lunch (or dinner), any day of the week. If you're entertaining, you could easily double or triple the recipe and serve up a big platter, topped with sprigs of fresh basil. Don't be afraid to improvise using whatever you have on hand - I had some fantastically sweet organic cherry tomatoes lying around, so I threw some of them in, and roasting only intensified their natural sweetness. Such a satisfying and unbelievably easy meal!

Leftover Rescue: BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

We love a Sunday roast dinner in our house, but the leftovers can get a little monotonous. This week, I completely transformed some leftover roast chicken into a flavorful barbecue dish that is sure to please the whole family.

My husband and I both love dark meat, so we usually eat the legs/thighs when I roast a chicken. So, for this recipe, I used the leftover breast meat. If you have leftover leg or thigh meat, it works just as well, and you might even be able to trick chicken breast lovers into eating some dark leg meat for once!

I whipped up a batch of quick homemade coleslaw to go on the side - 1/2 head of shredded cabbage, 2 tbsp free range mayo, 1/2 tsp organic honey, 2 tbsp white vinegar (I used rice vinegar, but that's just my personal preference), and a dash of white pepper. If you're whipping some coleslaw up to go along with your meal, I recommend doing it before you begin cooking the potatoes, so that it has plenty of time to sit, marinate & mingle in the fridge.

So there you have it! An easy Monday recipe that mixes up some leftover chicken. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Avocado Mousse

I am not a baker. In fact, I don't make dessert much at all, save the occasional batch of ice cream when I actually have the patience and foresight to get the machine ready. I really wanted something cool, creamy, and chocolatey today, but someone ate all of the ice cream (and will consequently be sleeping on the sofa tonight. Humph!). I had a few avocados ripening on the windowsill and thought, hmmmm, let's give this avocado mousse thing a try. 

I sort of improvised and adapted the standard formula to suit my tastes: first, I added maca powder, because I really love the caramel-y flavor it adds, and I've been using it a lot lately in my smoothies. Maca powder is great for balancing hormones, and with all of the post-baby-body changes I've got going on, I can use all the hormonal balance I can get - plus it's rumored to help cope with stress, and what mom doesn't deal with that on a daily basis?

Then I added a big heaping teaspoon of this Pip & Nut Maple Peanut Butter - it's a great, simple no-nonsense natural peanut butter without palm oil or added sugar, and I'm a Reese's junkie so I'll take PB & chocolate any day of the week.

A teaspoon of organic honey and a splash of milk and a few minutes later I had this rich, velvety (with the occasional crunch of peanut, so use creamy if you want it totally smooth!) mousse. It is so rich that I only ate a few spoonfuls before popping it in the fridge to save for after dinner later. Definitely going to be making this one again!

Pink Pasta!

Pasta salad: often we think of a sad bowl of mayo-dressed macaroni, left out in the sun to die at a barbecue or picnic. But that need not be the case! This super yummy, veggie-laden pasta salad makes a great summer meal for the whole family, or an impressive side dish for your next potluck. Plus, it's pink from those yummy seasonal fresh beets, so it's pretty to boot. I'm all about mixing up salads for summer meals lately. I love a good pasta dinner for Meatless Monday (or any day of the week, really) but July isn't really spaghetti & red sauce weather, so I had to think outside the box a little. This dish is filling yet cool and refreshing, packed with flavor, and is a true 'eat the rainbow' type recipe.

In the warm(er) summer months I love to keep fresh pesto on hand. Whether I make it myself or buy good quality, it's so delicious to toss a spoonful into dishes to really liven up the taste. If you're buying it, go for fresh if you can, and make sure the ingredients don't list any nasties.

Red Wine Braised Lamb Shank

So I sent out the hubby to pick up a bottle of red the other week, and he came home with... well, with something I could only stomach one glass of. Sorry, dear. It's the thought that counts.

But being someone who can't let anything go to waste, I had to figure out a recipe to use it all up. I mean, it's a lot of wine, and good or not, we don't waste wine in this house! Luckily at our farmer's market this past Sunday, our local lamb vendor had some gorgeous looking lamb shanks. I have to admit I'd never cooked them myself before, being that lamb isn't that widely available in America, but I took the well-beloved classic recipe for osso bucco (hailing to my Italian roots) and tweaked it a smidge. The result: A rich, hearty dish that is so satisfying on a cold rainy day - aka, summer in the North.

It's a great set-it-and-forget it kind of meal, because it takes about 10 minutes of prep and then you don't need to fuss with it at all, just let it slowly roast away in the oven for a few hours. I imagine you could make it in a slow cooker, too, but then it might end up looking a bit anemic instead of lovely and browned.

The ingredients are fairly simple: 2 (or 4) lamb shanks; a large sprig of fresh rosemary; 1 cup of dry red wine; 1 cup of organic chicken stock (or vegetable); 1/2 one red onion, chopped; 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Season the lamb with salt & pepper. In a large enameled pot, brown the lamb shanks in olive oil for 2-3 minutes on each side over medium high heat. Remove from the pot, reduce the heat slightly and add the onion & garlic. Stir for several minutes until the onion begins to brown; then add the balsamic vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to deglaze it. Return the lamb shanks to the pan, add the rosemary, red wine, and stock, and place in the oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 5 for 1 1/2 - 2 hours (or until the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender). I turned the meat every half hour, but if you want to set it & forget it, this step isn't really necessary. Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes or so to brown the meat, and voila!

Best served with lovely seasonal greens, such as asparagus, haricots vert, or broccoli rabe, and a yummy root vegetable (I chose simply boiled little carrots with 1tsp honey and butter to glaze).

Ham Shank: The Forgotten One-Pot Wonder

This recipe is a total throwback to simpler times, when dinner was literally boiled meat in a pot with a bunch of root vegetables. Doesn't sound appetizing? Then think again.

The ham shank is an incredibly flavorful, ridiculously inexpensive cut of meat, and this recipe hails from a time when every part of the animal was used because, well, meat was expensive. And it still is today, so next time you think that you need to save a bit of dough, ask your butcher for a ham shank. This whole big thing cost me £3, and we've gotten 2 meals out of it already, with leftovers to spare. If you like ham, you'll love it. It's simply a cheaper cut of meat that has been cured the same way.

For this recipe, I used potatoes, swede (that's like a big giant turnip, for my American readers), carrots, one red onion, a bulb of garlic, and a head of cabbage. The seasonings in the pot included 6-8 whole peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of rosemary and a handful of fresh parsley (stems and all). Cut up all your vegetables into big 2-inch chunks, and cut the head of cabbage into quarters. Try to aim to have everything cut to the same thickness so that it takes the same amount of time to cook.

Begin by covering the shank with water in a stock pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for approx 1-1 1/2 hours, skimming the top of the pot occasionally to remove any foam & sediment that might come out of the bone. Seriously though, leave it and don't worry about it, this is easy.

When the meat is fork tender, chuck everything except the cabbage in the pot, cover and cook for another 20 minutes, then add the cabbage and cook for the remaining 10. Drain the vegetables, lift out the ham and pull the meat off using forks and/or a knife.

To make a quick gravy, make a roux from 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour in a pan, then add a few ladles of the cooking water. Add white pepper and salt (to taste).

Tadaaa! A big, hearty, healthy, delicious meal that your great-grandmother would be proud of.

Pesto Baked Mushroom & Eggs

Looking for a quick and easy weekend brunch idea that is totally fuss-free?

I always have pesto of some sort on hand - it's delicious, healthy, and a great way to add flavor to a meal. Sometimes I even just spread it on toast! This baked egg & mushroom recipe can be multiplied if you have guests, and you can experiment with other fillings as well (I just happened to have spinach and tomatoes on hand).

This recipe cooks the egg yolks solid, so if you like a runny egg, try baking the mushrooms with all of the other fillings, and then topping with a poached or fried egg.

Spicy Stuffed Eggplant

Aubergine, eggplant: whatever you call it, I love it! It's much more versatile than your run-of-the-mill eggplant parmesan, which is what I tried to highlight in this riff on a really traditional recipe. Stuffed eggplant is popular in both Moroccan and Greek cooking, and it's a fantastically filling grain-free recipe, keeping this beefy meal virtually guilt-free.

I used up the remaining ground beef from our Taco Tuesday; since there's only two of us (the little one isn't up to eating tacos yet!), we generally use 1/2 of the beef in a pack per meal, so this is a great way to use it all up without having two dinners that are really similar.

I chose to go the Moroccan route with my flavor profile, adding harissa paste to the veggie & meat mixture. But, if you're not a fan of the taste of harissa, feel free to sub in sriracha or your favorite hot sauce. If you're not using harissa, omit the cinnamon, as it might not work well otherwise. But if you do add the harissa, you're going to love how the cinnamon works in this dish! It's not just for baking, trust me! I would've garnished it with chopped parsley, but mine got infested with aphids or something so I chucked it outside and I'm too afraid of bugs to investigate it any further. I'm such a wimp; I love gardening, but the minute I have to touch a bug, I'm done. 

As a side dish, I cooked up some beet greens (which are chock full of great vitamins like B6) with a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, and a little of our fantastic local butter. You essentially can cook them just like spinach, swiss chard, or your other favorite greens. They even can bake in the oven like kale chips, so don't toss your beet greens next time you get some! Mine were quite wilted after spending a few days in the fridge, but they were still in perfect cooking condition, so don't let a limp bunch deter you as long as they're nice and green and dry.

A little greek yogurt with a tiny bit of harissa mixed in is a great cooling sauce for the eggplant, but if you're like me and mix everything on the plate together as you eat, it tastes great on the beet greens, too!