slow cooker - AnnaTheApple

February 26, 2014

Let’s talk about food

Hey, hey, hey. So I know it’s been a lot about running lately. So I thought I’d talk about one of my other loves (no, not cake today). FOOD.

So I thought I’d join in with WIAW this week to liven things up (check Jenn’s blog out for more info).

I’ve been really loving using my slow cooker lately. OK yes it does involve a little forethought and preparation to get things going but once you’ve mastered the planning, it’s a dream. I love coming in at night from work and smelling a meal already on the way.

Bless Ben, I love him to be bits, but he doesn’t cook (beyond scrambled eggs or pasta with ready-made sauce). I don’t mind at all because I love cooking and, though I hate the term ‘housewife’, I love the idea that I’m fulfilling an ancient wifely duty of making a meal for my man. Plus I can bribe Ben with meals 😉

First up is a meal which is a firm favourite.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken (Serves 2)

Two chicken breasts
One jar of salsa (I used Discovery)
Tin of adzuki beans (I’ve also used borlotti as well – any works)
Extra seasoning and spices
Optional toppings: cheese, sliced avocado, crumbled tortilla chips

– Put everything in the slow cooker.

– Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.

Yep that’s it. Embarrassingly easy really. I suppose you could make your own salsa but this is simply an easy weekday meal if you know you’re going to be rushed. As you can see, I served mine with roast butternut squash and, er, a lot of broad beans. Ben grated cheddar over his.

My next successful slow cooker meal that I’ve recently tried was also very simple (why make things complicated on a weekday?)

Slow Cooker Tandoori Turkey (Serves 2)

One turkey leg (remove skin if desired)
One white onion, chopped (not diced)
Tandoori spice blend (I used the one in the photo but you can use any or THIS recipe)
Juice from a lemon

– I removed the turkey’s skin as we’re not fans. Mix the lemon juice with your tandoori spice blend so it becomes a paste that you can spread evenly over the turkey.

– Put the onions at the bottom of the slow cooker, place the turkey on top. This helps it stop sticking and you get some lovely juicy onions to go with your turkey.

– Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.

**Word of warning: don’t then go to your personal training appointment (at 6.15am) straight afterwards. You will smell of Indian spices. It takes a while to stop smelling that way!**

– Remove turkey when done and basically the meat should fall off the bone. Remove any small bones.

Ben had his with onion rings and vegetables, while I threw mine in a monster salad.

The photo is dreadful. I’m sorry. It’s also in a salad bowl if you can’t tell. *Hangs blogger head in shame*

Side note: can you believe I ate an entire turkey leg on our honeymoon?

Though not something particularly to be proud of…I do see this as an achievement.

And on a non-cooking note…The other week my work friends and I went out at lunch for Thai food. I went for fisherman’s soup to start (which was basically like a broth with seafood in it) and a spicy beef salad with crackers for my main.

Well, the soup blew my head off. It was so spicy. My mouth was on fire and my eyes started to run. But I persevered!

Then the main came. My poor taste buds were inflamed once again. This meal was literally the hottest meal I’ve ever had. My mouth was burning. My eyes were running. I was sweating. I had to order a glass of milk. I kid you not. I felt sick by the end. It was nice, in a perverse “I’ll never taste anything again” way but seriously, 10 minutes later and I was still suffering. Everyone thought it was oh so hilarious.

Snacking-wise both Ben and I have been loving the Cocofina coconut and date bars that I won from lovely Lauren’s blog.

When I get that drop in energy mid-afternoon at work I have one of these bad boys and it helps perk me up. Very tasty.

This weekend, after Reading half, can you guess where we’re going to eat? My favourite restaurant of all time…Jamie’s Italian. And can you guess what I’m going to have? I’m so predictable. I swear if they don’t have the Turkey Milanese I will cry. It’s the best meal in the world (in my humble opinion). Happy days.

What’s your favourite restaurant? And favourite meal?

What have you been snacking on lately?

Do you use a slow cooker?

October 30, 2013

Slow Cooker Obsessed

Why did it take me so long to get the slow cooker out of the back of my car?? It is amazing. Not only does it hugely help when we have a busy evening but it is so nice to come from work and smell dinner. And so far, everything has been delicious!

All it takes is a bit of forward planning and minor prep in the morning. And I’m nothing if not lover of planning. And looking up loads of recipes on Pinterest or my favourite blogs. Always fun!

So for a bit of WIAW fun, here are my latest meals thanks to my slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Disassembled Cottage Pie:

This was very simple. The night before I chopped a white onion and fried it with garlic ready for the morning. Then in the morning I added that to the slow cooker with 400g/~1lb lean beef mince. I added a few tablespoons of tomato paste, herbs and crumbled a couple of beef stock cubes and gave it a good mix. Then I popped it on low and went on my merry way to work. It probably cooked for 8-9 hours.

My intention had been to pop it into a casserole dish with mash sweet potato on it and cook it for another 20mins but in the end I couldn’t be bothered. So Ben got his with garlic bread and I whizzed up some cheesey cauliflower mash for me. Done.

I’d suggest it could probably serve 4 with potato but for me and my monster appetite (and only having cauliflower mash) I finished off half and felt very satisfied. Ben struggled with his half!

Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken:

I used THIS recipe for this meal. It was unbelievably easy. Just chicken, a tub of cream cheese (I used medium fat), a tin of condensed chicken soup (I used Campbell’s), lots of Italian herbs and 1/2 cup of water. Mix and put on low for 6-8 hours.

Slow Cooker Roast Chicken:

Again, another simple chicken meal. I chopped up an onion and added it to the slow cooker with lots of garlic and herbs, then placed a whole chicken on top. 6 hours on low (until the juices in the chicken ran clear).

I then served the chicken with a bit of the drained roasted onion and lots of roasted squash (which I did in the normal oven) and vegetables. And half a bottle of BBQ sauce… You know it makes sense.

Squash Soup with Chickpeas:

Ingeniously I did all the prep for this the weekend before. I chopped up an onion, a delicata squash, a butternut squash and a sweet potato and popped it all into a freezer bag.

I popped the bag into the fridge ready. Then a couple of days later I in the morning I added the contents of the bag to the slow cooker, added some spices (I like cumin, paprika and a bit of curry powder), a crumbled vegetable stock cube, half a tin of coconut milk and a cup(ish) of water and stirred. Again, 6-8 hours on low.

When I got in from a run all I had to do was whizz it all up using a hand blender and then added a tin of chickpeas. I left it on high while I showered (20 minutes?) and then dinner was ready!

So I’m pretty chuffed with the slow cooker. It has really helped when we’re working late or I’m out running in the evening. It just means one less thing to worry about and a beautifully tasty meal! Also it means less washing up.

I’m looking forward to try out different soups, BBQ ribs (*swoon*), chilli…the possibilities are endless! Any suggestions are more than welcome too 🙂

What’s your favourite slow cooker meal? So far mine is the creamy chicken. Ben was a big fan of this one too (surprise, surprise…)

What are your time-saving tips for cooking in the week?

Do you do a lot of food preparation at the weekend? I try to but sometimes the weekends are so busy, just getting the normal stuff done is tight!

October 25, 2013

Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! I cannot believe how quickly time is flying. I’m started to get those pre-Christmas panics (you know the ones…cards, presents, food, decorations). But it’s still October. Whew.

I thought I’d do a post on some stuff I’m loving lately.

Treats in the office:

Although it’s always sad when someone leaves, I do fully appreciate them buying cakes for us to indulge in. Or having a wife that bakes cake and has leftovers!

Clockwise: Halloween themed cupcake, oat and raisin cookie, caramel cupcake

Delicious! Nothing like cake to brighten up a day in the office.

Ben embracing the plank challenge:

I’ve been trying to do planks every other day, usually in an evening in my PJs just before bed. Ben sits on the sofa watching TV muttering some weak words of encouragement (“come on, it’s not that hard”). So when I’d collapsed into a heap on the floor I turned and challenge him to do a plank. I scoffed that he wouldn’t manage a minute.

Challenge accepted and accomplished! He proved me very wrong. He did a very successful minute plank. He refused to go further than a minute though. Apparently proving me wrong was enough.

Doing stretches in the ladies’ toilet:

Yeah it sounds weird. Yeah it is weird. I need to get these stretches in and so I’m squeezing them in wherever I can. Nothing major, just hip flexor stretches and pendulum kickbacks.

I ~~live~~ stretch in fear of someone walking in and seeing me though…Not like I haven’t already got a reputation at work of being a little bit strange (mug incident).

Slow cooker meals:

I’ve been enjoying a fair few slow cooker meals recently and I’m loving it.

It does involve a little preparation either the night before or in the morning, but it saves so much time in an evening. Perfect for when I’m back late. More on my favourite recipes to come!

Running in thunder storms:

My eight mile run on Tuesday evening began with some scattered bits of lightening which was all very exciting. On mile four, however, the heavens opened up and it was a crazy downpour!

Running in the rain

Sorry that the video is a bit rubbish! You can see how hard it was raining in the puddles though. When I got home I was soaked and ready for a lovely hot shower.

Doing my best drowned rat impersonation

But other than getting drenched, it was a good run. I kept it fairly easy running 8.30-8min/miles. I wanted to ease gently back in to it after my niggle reoccurrence and also with the race on Sunday.

My best friend and worst enemy:

I recently got a new foam roller as I found my smooth one wasn’t quite ironing out all my kinks. So I upgraded to this bad boy:

A Trigger Point foam roller. It has ridges in it to mimic a person’s hand, attempting to emulate a sports massage. I love it. It really does get into your muscles and work hard. Plus it’s nice and small to tuck away easily. Now if only I could take this to work and use it in the ladies’…

Cold weather running gear:

I can run in the cold no problem. I get warm quickly and it doesn’t bother me. All except my hands. They never get warm on runs. Last winter I just used regular gloves and they were sort of OK but a nightmare when I wanted to do something on my iPod. Now I have some great running-specific gloves with a thumb area that works on the iPod/phone screen!!

Plus they just look cool and aren’t bulky. In fact I feel a bit like a magician in them

And here’s some random links for your viewing pleasure:

Does foot strike really matter in running?
12 great core workouts
Good advice for hill running
10 types of people you find at the gym – The last one is SO true.

What things are you loving lately?

What’s your essential workout item?

Foam rollers: do you use them? I can’t live without mine now.

April 12, 2013

Running with the big boys

Well hello there Friday, nice to see you around again. These last couple of days in the office I have been FREEZING. A choice few of my fellow workers have decided to commandeer the air con dial and make it sub-zero temperatures. I spend my time glaring at them while hunching over my laptop sipping hot drinks all day long. They’re comments of “there’s nothing of you” for reasons why I’m cold are not well accepted. I mean, what if I was to say the reverse to them hmm? I’m not sure that would go down so well.

Anyway, it’s Friday!

This week has been fairly good (hypothermia aside). I’m really pleased with a few runs I did –especially my out of the blue super speedy run the other evening for example. And though I skimped on the Tuesday night running club run, I did go to the Thursday night (last night) one instead.

I didn’t really know what to expect to be honest. I got to the meeting place and there were like 30 people. And they were planning on doing an off-road style run, but in different paced groups. There were three paces 11mins/mile, 9-10mins/mile and 7.30-8mins/mile. My plan had been to take it easy and just enjoy the run but I really didn’t want to be running 9mins/mile or slower. I hugely faffed about not deciding what to do. Then after speaking with the three guys who were doing the 7.30mins/mile they persuaded me to join them.

It started well, I was happy with the pace. UNTIL we got to like three consecutive hills. Oh my goodness, these hills. And these guys were just bouncing along happily while I was ~~quietly~~ dying. It was definitely an ego check for me. I’d say about 60% of the run I was trailing behind them. To put this into perspective, one of these guys had just done the Paris marathon and was treating this as a RECOVERY run.

I think I held my own quite well, and the guys looked after me well and looped back if they went off too fast and pushed me on when I lagged. There was a great team-feel between us. But by the end I was just couldn’t maintain the pace and had to lag back. I felt terrible that I was holding them back but they didn’t seem to to mind.

I was so shattered by the end that when I past a fellow runner (not part of the club) who said hello to me I replied “morning” in a spluttering daze.

But it was brilliant. Though at the time there were many points where I literally wanted to cry it was so hard (ahh OK maybe it wasn’t that bad) and when we ran close to where I live it took every ounce what strength I had left to not run away home, it pushed me and I felt hugely satisfied by the end. I’d run with the big boys and done myself proud. They seemed happy to have a female member in their clan as well! Haha.

When I got home it was just after 8pm and I literally didn’t want to eat at all. Though obviously I did have dinner it was really hard to get myself motivated to feel hungry.

But I am never one to miss dinner and I knew it was really important to refuel after such an epic run. So I had three whole eggs, a LARGE scoop of cream cheese, and lots of veggies.

When I stood up after dinner my calves had massively cramped and were so painful, so after I showered I made sure to get some of this action in.

Yes those are my PJs

And I am so glad I did because honestly this morning my legs were still quite painful but I imagine not half as bad as they would be. THOSE HILLS!!!

Though I enjoyed running last night it did mess with my system last night. Like not wanting dinner, feeling a bit unsettled in my tummy (lots of strange noises going on in there when I went to bed) and not being able to feel tired at all. Usually I’m ready for bed at like ~~8.30pm~~ 9pm but I got into bed at 10pm and just didn’t feel sleepy. I didn’t fall asleep until after 11pm!!

I know this is because of doing quite intense exercise in the evening and it is a bit annoying but I’m happy to have a change in routine, and plus the next day is FRIDAY so it isn’t that big a deal.

On a non-running related note, I am so excited that my lovely parents have let us borrow their slow cooker so we can give it a test drive to see if we want to buy one ourselves. I have seen so many recipes using slow cookers that I’ve look longingly at and pinned in the hopes that one day maybe we’d invest. But the thing is, I know the slow cooker is potentially one of those appliances that could end up on the Dead Shelf. You know the shelf. The shelf where those amazing, gadgety appliances you bought ages ago because they’d save time and looked cool and of course you’d use every day…that you now never use. Yes, hand-held milk-frother, I’m looking at you.

To stop this from happening, I’m going to see if I’d actually make use of a slow cooker before parting with my hard-earned moolah. I’m hoping it’ll work out well. Especially with me doing the running club now it would be ideal to not have to worry about cooking when I get in late.

So watch this space… if you don’t hear anything about it, you know it’s gone back to my parent’s Dead shelf after failing.

Right, lovely readers, have a lovely weekend!

Do you exercise in the morning or at night?

Does mixing up your exercise (or eating) regime mess with your system?

Do you use a slow cooker? What’s your favourite recipe?