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(from Good Food Sept 2009 supplement, _Take Five Ingredients

Takes about an hour and a half.

Ingredients for 4:
1kg braising steak
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
3 onions, thinly sliced
300ml red wine
300ml stock
3 rounded tablespooons cranberry sauce
salt and pepper

1. Cut the meat into large slices. Tip the flour and some salt and pepper into a large food bag, and shake with the beef to coat.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and brown the beef – this may need to be done in batches. Remove to a plate.
3. Add more oil if needed. Fry the onions quickly for 5 minutes until starting to brown.
4. Return the beef to the pan and add the stock and wine. Bring to the boil.
5. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered, for about 90 minutes until the beef is tender.
6. Stir in the cranberry sauce, seasoning, and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
7. Serve with mashed potatoes.

A surprise nom! I’d defrosted some individual portions of beef yesterday for a slow cooker meal, and halfway through cooking discovered I’d left one of the portions in the fridge – d’oh! So, quick look to find something to use a single portion for today – and this was the first recipe in the book!

It sounds like a faff ‘cos it takes so long, but other than checking the pot once in a while it’s really easy – you just let it cook away. Makes the beef wonderfully tender, and the sauce is yum! Perhaps a tad on the rich side, so do serve with lots of nice green veggies :)

It does freeze, had I made more than a single portion.

Fruity booze! It takes two months to finish.

Recipe on my blog.

I based this on the Sainsbury’s feed your family for a fiver recipe card, adapted to throw in some more moroccan-y flavours to jazz it up to my tastes.

For one:
splash of olive oil
1 chicken breast
sprinkling of cinnamon (about 1/8th teaspoon)
half a small red onion, sliced
small tin of tomatoes (240g?)
half teaspoon oregano
half teaspoon harissa paste, or to taste (I could have gone for a bit more heat!)
black pepper
chickpeas – about a third/quarter of a big tin, or to taste

1. Using a high heat, seal the chicken (sprinkled with cinnamon) in the oil until browned.
2. Add the onions and fry quickly to soften.
3. Add the remaining ingredients – tomatoes, oregano, harissa and pepper, then the chickpeas.
4. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Finish with the lid off to thicken the sauce a bit.

Serve with couscous – I used a pre-flavoured version, stirred through with roasted peppers and onion leftover from last night.

Worked well – am pleased :)

I’ve never been a huge fan of bread pudding, but I had some bread I didn’t really want to trash, so….I used the recipe in The Joy of Cooking, which I figured I would like since it’s very custardy. Very simple. I used whole wheat sourdough and whole grain bread instead of white and it turned out well.

I didn’t read the recipe really closely and didn’t cut the crusts off before cubing the bread, so I had to go back and cut the crusts off the little bitty pieces.

Took it to a hoot and it was a biiiig hit! There was not a smidgen left!

Cooked up the last of the fresh garbanzo beans, which I’d never had before. Steamed them and added a little very good olive oil. Wonderful farmer’s market tomatoes and fresh basil. Fresh baby artichokes sauteed with onions and garlic and topped with a little Parmesan cheese.

I found the recipe for the baby artichokes at Simply Recipes. I’d never used fresh baby artichokes before. It does take a while to clean these, but they don’t have well-developed chokes, so you can just eat the whole trimmed artichokes.

I love artichokes, really I do.

per person:
40g fromage frais (or try yogurt, flavoured or otherwise)
125g soft fruit, fresh or frozen, eg raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants
1 meringue nest, broken up small

Once in a blue moon, WW comes up trumps! This is nice and light and refreshing, but the meringue adds a sweetness that tips it over into feeling a bit more indulgent.

All quantities are fairly rough – I tend to just spoon in some fromage frais (low fat, of course!) and as many berries/other fruit as I fancy. Try one meringue, but you can always add more if you find the dish needs more sweetness – obviously depends on what kind of yogurty stuff you use (strawberry Onken works well!).

I’ve been using frozen fruit – raspberries and blueberries – partly ‘cos of the season, but also makes it all very easy to make for one.

hint
Don’t put the meringue in until you’re ready to serve, as it will dissolve and you’ll lose the sweet crunch :)

My nephew’s recipe for almond biscotti, slightly tweaked from one he found online. Yum! These will be a staple in my house from now on.

This was really delicious. I liked the sauce so much I used it on the fish I served with it, too. Roasting veggies is the best!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/asparagus_garlic_lemon_sauce.html

ingredients for 4
225g pork tenderloin, cubed
225g pineapple, cubed, plus juice
1 green or yellow pepper, cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, crushed (I used puree)
1 tsp freshly grated root ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce

1. Combine the soy sauce, pineapple juice, garlic and ginger (suggestion is to put it in a sealable plastic bag, I used a bowl!) and marinade the pork for 30mins – 4 hours.
2. Either thread the ingredients on skewers, or bung’em all in a pan!
3. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until pork is done.
4. Serve with rice or couscous.

Based on one of sm’s WW recipes I was fed when I was last home, you’re meant to put marinated pork, pepper and pineapple on skewers. Well, (1) what a faff – both the skewering and the cooking, and (2) I don’t own skewers! So thought I’d go for the easy/lazy version of bunging it all in a pan! And it worked fine – the pineapple juice bubbled away, leaving coated pork and veg, which made a nice, light bowl of food with some rice.

Quick and easy, healthy and light. Duly added to repertoire! :)

Actually, this is another time when I’m flying without a recipe. Just picked up stuff that looked good at the store.

1 quart chicken broth
3 baby bok choy heads, sliced thin across width
3 stuffing portobellos (about 3 inches across) sliced thin
1 carrot, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp Chinese 5 spice mix
1 Tbs olive oil

Saute the garlic in the oil.
Add in the mushrooms and Chinese 5 spice mix.
When they’re cooked, add the broth, carrots and bok choy.

Simmer until it’s all cooked, about 15 minutes if you’ve cut everything thin enough.

I threw in some pre-cooked not breaded chicken strips but I don’t think it really needed it.