Showing posts with label slow cooker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slow cooker. Show all posts
Now that I have shaken that off and stocked on some necessities from the shop, I thought I would list a few of my favourite meals that I am planning to make while staying at home, in the hope that it might give people some inspiration. And please remember that these are all dependant on whether you have the ingredients at home, good luck getting some!
Now don't get your hopes up, none of these will be ground breaking. I am a simple cook :)
- Good old simple tomato pasta and garlic bread
- Homemade pizza made from naan breads, pitta breads and bread rolls
- Sausages and mash
- Slow cooker chicken roast
- Herby baby potatoes
- Chicken in a bag with potatoes
- Stir Fry
- Slow cooker curry
- Homemade wedges - these make any dinner that little be better!
- Pie and mash with lots of peas and gravy
- Sausage roast in a pan
- Shredded chicken in pasta
- Toad in the hole
- Pasta Bolognese with lots of leftovers
- A giant lasagne if you can find both sauces!
- Sausage Casserole
- Chicken tray bake
I have a list of meals I want to make/cook/bake while I have time at home so watch this space for that post. It would be silly to not try out some new dishes while I am home all day. The more meals I can make at home, the longer it will take us to get bored and lose our minds.
Also feel free to read some of my other food related posts where I go into more details on how to make them! Lazy Girl Guide To Cooking | Favourite Home Cooked Meals
I think as much as I love the idea of Christmas being right around the corner (yes I've just used the C word...), it has only just struck me that the end of year is also near! I do feel like I have achieved a lot during the year but their are a few more things I want to do before the year is over.
Make a current cake
A bit of a random one to start with but I have been saying that I will attempt my mum's famous current cake for months. What better time then autumn when you want something to fill a long afternoon?
Attend a Halloween party
I love getting dressed up and Halloween is the best excuse to go crazy with your outfit. I like to plan dress up days at work around this time as well so that is two excuses to dress up! Who is inviting me to their party?
Visit more villages
Callum and I love to pick a random village neat us and take a long walk, looking at the cute old fashioned houses and old style roads. We like to try the local pub as well for some weekend lunch and we haven't been disappointed yet. We would like to add more village pubs to our list. You never know when someone will ask you for a recommendation.
Get my batch cooking butt into gear
I love batch cooking and during the winter, my work lunches can get bored very easily. I recently made a big batch of spaghetti Bolognese and cottage pie and I looked forward to my lunch all week. I want to turn Sundays into batch cooking and slow cooking days.
Use my slow cooker on a weekly basis
I love using my slow cooker but during the summer I didn't use it very much at all. Time to get that bad boy out and like I said in my last point, use my slow cooker on most Sundays so I can spend my day batch cooking meals for the week.
Pass my second exam in Bookkeeping
I have only just passed my first exam for unit 1 but I am hoping by the end of autumn, I can say I have done two units. I am giving myself three months till I want to start the next stage.
Get my house sorted for Christmas
This will be the first year I have hosted my family for Christmas day and I am nervous! I only have a few things to do to get the house ready, like get some curtains for the living room, get a new table which will fit all six of us and buy a dishwasher because I do not want to be washing up all that! It is just getting time before one day you look at your phone and its the start of December.
Complete my Christmas shopping by the end of November
I know I have used the C word three times but I don't care. I have already started Christmas shopping and I would say I am 70% of the way so my plan to be ready by end of November should work out well. I am trying not to go crazy with presents this year so maybe I will do a budget gift guide.
Like i mentioned in my previous post Lazy girl guide to cooking, I have learned to cook an array of different meals since moving out and over the last year I have learned some tips and tricks to make my food cook quicker and taste better. The best thing I have done is invested in kitchen appliances! Making a great home cooked meal everyday can be very time consuming and take a lot of energy so at the minute I have two appliances which help me out a lot.
T H E S L O W C O O K E R
Best invention ever made, there I said it.
For someone who gets anxious about cooking various meats, my slow cooker has become my life safer. I always worry that I haven't cooked meat enough or that I'll cook it too much and ruin the taste but with this, I can leave the meat in the cooker all day and know neither will be a problem. I'm still trying different things out in it all the time but my favourite meal to make is a roast with shredded chicken, it is the easiest thing to do and saves you fathing while watching everything else and entertaining the family on a sunday. I mention how to make shredded chicken in my previous post so pop over if you want to try it.
I found out how to make shredded chicken on Pinterest of all places, it seems there is a H U G E cooking community on it! I always thought it was more for clothing and interiors but I was just looking in the wrong place. I look on Pinterest for most of my meal ideas now because there is something for everyone and with slow cookers, you can cook basically anything in them! Chicken, Pork, Lamb, Mince, Lasagna, Pasta, Potatoes, even a deep dish pizza. If you want to see what I have been pinning on Pinterest click on my Slow Cooker Recipes board.
Lastly, the best thing about a slow cooker is you can place all your ingredients in there in the morning, go out all day and when you get home in the evening the food is cooked and ready for you. I know i am going to be using my slow cooker even more in winter because it means I can spend more time during the evening in the bath rather than cooking. goals
T H E S T E A M E R
This is a recent addition to my kitchen collection bur I have fallen in love with it already and use it most days. I bought a 3 tier Russel Hobbs steamer from Argos which aren't too expensive and stack away really easily.
I bought one of these because I was tired of spending all night in the kitchen standing over my hob boiling my veg. I love veg and i like to have it with every meal but boiling it can be a nuisance especially while your in the middle of cooking a roast. My mum suggested I get a steamer and I haven't looked back since.
Like the slow cooker, you can cook most things in the steamer from veg and potatoes to fish and chicken. On a daily basis I throw baby potatoes and veg in with some breaded chicken in the oven and we have a easy, quite healthy meal. One of the reasons I bought the steamer was so I could cook different vegetables more regularly. Callum doesn't like broccoli whereas I love it but i never saw the point in boiling some just for me . With the steamer I can throw some in with some peas and carrots and it is no extra work for me.
Having both of these appliances make cooking a roast dinner for my family a breeze! I have my meat in the slow cooker, my vegetables in the steamer and my roast potatoes in the oven and I still have room on the side (and time to dance around the kitchen to Mamma Mia)
I am planning to write another post about some recipes I have been making lately and both of these tools will feature heavily in it! Hope I haven't made you too hungry reading this!
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