Recipe- Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole

Who doesn't love a sausage? Well, I have to admit, the sausages I used for this recipe left something to be desired, unless you happen to like sausages that taste like cat litter. They sat languishing in my freezer and so I decided to use them up by putting them in a casserole to try and make them a little bit less cardboard-esque and then vow never to buy them again. You can use whatever sausages you like for this, just check the syns. The Slimming World sausages from Iceland aren't too awful, and would work well in this, and they're syn-free. The ones I used were Asda reduced fat sausages, at half a syn for 2, and trust me, they're not worth it. Add plenty of flavour in a stew, just don't put them in your fry up.

To make Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole for four you will need:

• 8 sausages (remember to check the syns)
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 200g mushrooms
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin baked beans
• Worcestershire sauce
• 1 beef stock cube
• 1 tbsp mixed herbs
• salt and pepper

Brown your sausages under the grill. If you don't do this they end up looking like flaccid willies and are very unappealing. Chop your onion and mushrooms while they're browning. Once they're brown all over throw everything into your slow cooker, crumbling the stock cube, with a shake of Worcester sauce and salt and pepper, and cook on low for around 6 hours (or do it in the oven in a casserole dish at around gas 4/180 for an hour and a half). Serve with some green veg like broccoli, cabbage or kale.

Flavourless sausages, saved. My search for a decent banger continues...

Hx

Recipe- Syn Free Slow Cooker Chicken Chasseur

It's those skinless, boneless (fnar) chicken thighs again. This week I made them into a chicken chasseur in my slow cooker for 2 reasons: 1 - it was literally pissing it down, I got soaked on the school run twice and I wanted comfort food and 2 - Mr MGAMT isn't keen on anything that comes out of the slow cooker and he was being mean to me so I wanted to piss him off. Never annoy the person who cooks your food. Anyway, my mum used to make this a lot (with a packet mix, for shame) but I wanted to create a syn-free version and I think I got quite close. I served with a little rice and a lot of broccoli - speed food a-plenty.

To make Syn Free Slow Cooker Chicken Chasseur for 4 people you will need:

• 500g pack skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 carrots
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 300ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
• 200g mushrooms
• salt and pepper

Chop your onion, mince your garlic, slice your carrots and quarter your mushrooms. Throw everything into a slow cooker (or oven dish if you don't have one) and season to taste. Cook on low for 8 hours (or in a low oven for 2 hours). That's it, done! 

This recipe would be good to make one of those "dump bags" with if you're an annoyingly organised person - just throw everything into a freezer bag, freeze, and then just defrost and "dump" into the slow cooker when you want it. A word on slow cookers - if you don't have one, you need one! They are so handy for soups, stews, chilli, ratatouille, curry, and great for using up what's in the bottom of the fridge. I have a Morphy Richards Sear and Stew with a metal pot which means you can brown your meat in the pot then stick the whole lot straight into the slow cooker - less washing up! Genius, and it's lighter than a ceramic pot so it doesn't make my bingo wings flap. The chicken is so tender cooking it this way, it will just fall apart - so even if you don't use the boneless thighs the meat falls off the bone anyway. 

Although it's been positively roasting here this week (34 degrees in mid-September!) it's time to face up to the fact that Autumn is coming, and so it'll be less salad, more stodge as the hunter-gatherer instinct make us want to lay down our winter fat stores, you can look forward to more SW stews and casseroles you lucky lucky buggers!

Ohh and if you're of the Pinterest persuasion, you can now pin me to your heart's content! 

Hx

Recipe- End of the week Veggie Dhal

Picture the scene - it's the end of the week, the fridge is looking bare, and you don't have the energy to drag the kids around the supermarket, the only things in the cupboard are a few tins of pulses that you've had in there since the millennium bug threatened the end of the world and the wrinkly carrots in the veg rack are begging to be put out of their misery. Plus, payday is still 2 days away and you're already watering down the gin to make it last. Throw together a veggie curry, use up those last bits and relish in how tasty and healthy it is. I used to be a vegetarian (but I'm alright now) as a student and curries were a staple - the chick peas and lentils are a cheap source of protein and you can make a huge batch for around £3. Can't say fairer than that.

To make a massive cauldron of End of the week Veggie Dhal you will need:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder of your choice (I use medium and adjust for the kids with yogurt)
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 veggie stock cube
• 1 can of chick peas
• 1 can of green lentils
• plus whatever veg you have lurking in the fridge or freezer - I used half a sad butternut squash, a wrinkly leek, two forgotten carrots, and about 4 lumps of frozen spinach. I would have used half a cauliflower as well, but it was just too far gone. RIP little choux-fleur.
• frylight, or your favourite oil-spray

Sweat off your onions in a generous spray of frylight for a few minutes before adding the garlic for a minute more. Add the spices and toast for about 30 seconds before adding a splash of cold water - this cools the pan and stops the spices from burning. Add the rest of your veg chunked up any old way you like and stir to coat in all the spices. Add the tomatoes, then fill the can with water from a recently boiled kettle and add that too, with the stock cube. Drain and rinse the lentils and chick peas, and throw them in then cover and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling turn it down to a gentle simmer and leave it alone for at least half an hour, but the longer the better. You could chuck it all in a slow cooker and come home to your kitchen smelling like a delicious armpit if that's your thing. I jest, it doesn't smell much like an armpit, but I promise it's tasty and makes enough easily to serve 6 adults depending on how much of a veg hoarder you are (I hold my hands up). Some other good veg to use up would be courgette, squash, peppers, sweet potato, mushrooms (but add these at the end), baby corn, green beans, fresh tomatoes - anything you need to use up really. And it's perfect for SP as long as you don't add potato, parsnip or sweetcorn, yogurt at the end, or serve it with rice. Freezable too, so fill your boots!

Hx