Sneaky Chilli with extra vegetables

I'll have to admit I had never been one for Chilli - its the beans. My mother tortured myself and my sister in childhood with a chili inspired dish called "Red Dragon Pie" I loathed it and as a result for many years avoided all things with beans in like the plague. I am now cured thanks to a dinner invitation to a lovely friend's who cooked the most delicious chilli. I could not possibly not eat it in good manners and I was won over.

This chilli is a gentle warming chilli because its made with families and tender young palates in mind. Of course you can hot things up by adding extra chili powder or better still raiding my greenhouse for some of the fresh chillis growing within and chop one or two more in.

Sneaky Chilli with extra vegetables. Serves 8-10
(the trick is to make loads and freeze the extra for another day!)

Ingredients
2tbsp corn or vegetable oil
500g minced beef or pork
500g stewing beef, or pork, cut into rough 2cm chunks
2tsp ground cumin
1tbsp flour
2tsp fresh oregano, or thyme
1tbsp tomato purée
1 x 350-400g can chopped tomatoes
1 x small butternut squash (peeled and diced)
2 x sweet potatoes (peeled and diced)
3 x medium sized courgettes (sliced and diced)
2 x 500g tinned red kidney beans
1 litre beef stock
Ground black pepper
2 red onions peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 medium red chilli, seeded and chopped (or more, or less)

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the minced and diced beef on a high heat, stirring until browned. Add the cumin, flour and tomato purée then stir in the chopped tomatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and courgette and beef stock. This will allow the cumin spice to cook for a while and release its lovely flavour.

Meanwhile whizz the onion, garlic and chili together in a blender with a dash of water until smooth. Add this mixture to the pan. Bring the mixture to the boil, season and simmer for 1 hour.

Wash the kidney beans and add to the pan and continue cooking for another 45 minutes, or until the beef chunks are tender. The vegetables will break down to become part of the sauce and almost vanish in it altogether.

I like to serve this with brown rice (its much better for you and good for the digestion) but use white rice if you prefer. Its lovely with nachos too!

Chocolate and Raspberry Slice

We were invited to freind's for Sunday lunch and volunteered to bring dessert, as any good guest should... So I opted to make a simple tray cake, eaten hot it makes a delicious pudding when served with either custard or ice cream, cold it becomes a lovely cake slice. We have an abundance of raspberries in our garden and this is an excellent way to use them up - especially the ones that have gone a little squishy.

This is another fat free recipe and this one is also sugar free as I have sustituted sugar with xylitol which is a great sugar replacement, less of it turns to fat in your body, and it has fantastic health benefits including helping to boost the immune system and being great fro healthy teeth!

Chocolate and Raspberry Slice

Ingredients:
2 eggs (as always I'd say for baking duck eggs work best!!)
150g Xylitol
150g peeled and finely grated courgette
120g rice flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
60g good quality cocoa powder (or for a stronger dark chocolate taste try 60g grated 100% cacao - try Willies Cacao its amazing)

1 preheat oven to 180c/350f/gm4, grease 20cm x 20cm (or equivalent) brownie tin.

2 beat eggs and sugar until light and pale (about 5 mins), add grated courgette and beat. Add flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt.

3 Pour into tin and scatter raspberries on top

4 Cook for 30 minutes, cool - you can sprinkle with either cocoa powder or icing sugar but I prefer it as is.

This makes a really juicy cake that holds its body and retains its moisture. Try it its delicous - and again as its made with rice flour its another gluten free recipe.

Auntie Vicki's Stuffed potatoes

My daughter eats most things - but she is none too keen on potato skins. She adores her Auntie Vicki so I figured I'd try one of Vicki's recipes on her and see what happened. She scoffed the lots skins and all!! We've used this dish as an accompaniment to a meal and also as a light lunch in itself, try adding chopped ham or pancetta to the mix to beef it up a bit. If you want to make it a bit more fancy you could sustitute parmesan for the cheddar.

I have also made extra of these and frozen them and they are easy to pop out and oven cook for a quick easy meal.

Auntie Vicki's Stuffed potatoes (serves 4)

4 baking potatoes
300g cheese (cheddar / parmesan - whatevert akes your fancy - this is also nice with blue cheese)
A knob of butter
2 tablespoons yoghurt

Pre heat oven to 170c Bake potatoes in oven for about 30 mins (you can cheat by microwaving them on high for about 10 - 12 minutes but the skins won't be as crispy and tasty)

Remove from the oven and with a sharp knife slice them lengthways in half. With a large spoon scoop out the potato from the centre leaving about .5cm of potato flesh inside to give the skin shell some strength.

Mash your scooped out potato, add the cheese (retain a tablespoon for topping), butter and yoghurt and mix well.

Place the potato skins on an oven tray, scoop your cheesy filling into the potato skins and sprinkle with cheese.

Return to the oven and cook for about 20 mins until golden on top.

I try to serve this with a meat or accompaniment which also requires cooking in the oven so as to be less wasteful with energy use. It goes well with breaded fish or chicken gougons or with roasted sausages.

Paivi's Blackberry Slice (a fat free version)

One of my dear freinds Paivi makes this amazing tray cake. Its out of this world and I nagged her for a long time for the recipe. Now I have fiddled with it and created a fat free version. Its delicious and the perfect way to use up those late blackberries still in the hedgerows... oh and its also gluten free so great for those tricksy gluten free visitors!

Paivi's Blackberry Slice (a fat free version)

Ingredients:
2 Eggs (I always use Duck becasue I have them on hand but chook eggs work just as well)
150g Caster Sugar
150g Peeled and finely grated courgette
120g White Rice Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
200g Blackberries (preferably freshly foraged!)

1 Pre-heat oven to 180c/350f/GM4 Grease a tin (Paivi often uses a cute heart shaped one)

2 Beat eggs and sugar until light and pale (about 5 mins) Add grated courgette and beat. Addf lour, baking powder and salt.

3 Pour into tin and scatter with blackberries

4 Cook for aprox 30 minutes, cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Yummy Chicken and Butternut Squash Risotto

I haven't had much chance to post recently - life has been pretty hectic here. Seasons have shifted and we are now firmly in Autumn, so I have been cooking some of my favourite Autumn dishes. For me risotto is a huge comfort food. It is full of warmth and conjours thoughts of crispy autumn leaves and breath so cold you can see it like fluffy clouds. My butternuts are ready now and this is a perfect recipe for home grown squashes which are often smaller than the shop bought variety. I have to say my little one adores risotto and this is her absolute favourite!



This one is a huge family favourite. This is often a great recipe to cook the day after a Sunday Roast. As you can cook up the bones for your fresh chicken stock and use the pickings from the carcass in your risotto. So its tasty and good value for money! I am a firm believer in using good quality chicken, free range (organic if possible) and making this better tastier bird earn its keep and last over several meals. The tast difference is huge from the cheap plastic chicken you find in many supermarket's value ranges - explore your local farm shop or farmer's market - or pay a visit to your local butchers and test out the difference - you'll be amazed!


Chicken and Butternut Squash Risotto (Serves 4)

800ml chicken stock
1 small butternut squash (about 500g) peeled, deseeded and cubed into little cubes.
500g chopped cooked chicken (I often use the pickings from a chicken carcass after a roast)
1 tablespoon olive oil
200g carnaroli or arborio rice
2 tablespoons finely chopped oregano
1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil
4 tablespoons double cream (or plain yoghurt works well if you are feeling healthy)
50g freshly grated parmesan cheese

N.B My mum is a dairy free lady (well no cows milk products) so I often make a dairy free version using Alpro Soy Cream and either a vegan cheese for completely dairy free or for a cows milk free a good sheeps cheese like manchego.


Bring the stock to the boil, add the butternut squash and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until tender. Remove the squash with a slotted spoon and keep for later. Keep the stock hot.

Heat olive oil in a heavy based pan, add the rice and stir over a low heat for a couple of minutes. The key is wait until the rice becomes transluscent. Gradually add the hot stock a ladleful at a time. Keep stirring and make sure that the stock has been soaked up before you add the next ladle of stock. After about 20 to 25 minutes when the rice is almost cooked add the butternut squash, chicken herbs and cream (or yoghurt if you prefer) cook for a further 5 minutes then stir in the parmesan cheese.

It is delicious aal by itself and never lasts for long on my little one's plate. It also freezes well for handy fast meals on those "I don't want to cook" days! note would be if you were to chop a leek or two and slow fry them adding them to the dish with the chicken and (or) the butternut it add a whole new and different dimension. I adore leeks espeically now while they are in season.


This recipe was inspired by the delicious Butternut Squash Risotto recipe from one of my favourite cook books Eat Up: Food for Children of All Ages