Tenderstem broccoli and turkey in black bean sauce

As a rule I don’t eat broccoli. Growing up I was a fussy eater, especially when it came to vegetables and in particular “greens”. Over the last 5 years or so I have gradually increased the variety of vegetables that I eat but a few vegetables still remain off the menu in our house (cauliflower, sprouts and broccoli). Every so often my husband will complain about the lack of broccoli we eat and so when I was approached by tenderstem broccoli to take part in Tender in 10 I decided to give it ago. The challenge is to create recipes using tenderstem broccoli that can be cooked in 10 minutes or less, with 10 ingredients or less.

I knew that incorporating the broccoli in to a flavour packed dish was the best way forward. So with this in mind I decided to include it in a stir fry. I have used turkey in this recipe but you could use beef, chicken or pork. I cook with turkey at least once a week as it is good value and a healthy, lean meat. Again I find turkey works best in a dist with lots of flavour like a stir fry or these fajitas.

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Fresh from the oven June 2012 – Pita breads

This months fresh from the oven was hosted by slice of my life. The challenge set was to bake pita breads. Thank you Anita for hosting and to everyone who took part this month. Below are the photos of all this months entries. Next months challenge will be announced on 1st July on lavender and lime. Next month’s round up will be published by utterly scrummy food for families.

Culinary travels

Signor biscotti

Mint custard

Lavender and lime

Fika and more

My custard pie

Things we make

Valentina

Confessions of a courious cuisiniere

Mimi’s kitchen

Idealo holiday reads challenge 2012

This summer foodie 100 are running a holiday reads club to see what food bloggers are reading in their spare time. As part of the club Idealo UK are purchasing £25 worth of books for each food blogger who was chosen to take part in the club. I do love to read (fiction as well as cookbooks) so I was thrilled to be asked to take part. Although we have already been on our main holiday this year (which explains how quiet it has been on here recently) we are hoping to have several long weekend camping trips over the summer. So here are the books I will be reading this summer.

Gok cooks Chinese (I couldn’t resist chosing one cookbook). I’ve been loving watching this series the past few weeks and as someone who hasn’t cooked that much Chinese food I’ve learnt a lot. I wasn’t sure what to expect before I watched the first episode but the recipes are simple, healthy and look delicious and Gok and his dad make great tv. I can’t wait to get this book and start cooking from it.

Turkey fajitas

I’ve been cooking with turkey for sometime now (this white chilli is a regular dish in our house). It’s too healthy a meat to be reserved just for Christmas. Not only is it low in fat but it contains many essential vitamins and minerals too (for more details on the nutritional benefits of turkey visit the British turkey website). Below is my entry in to their competition to create an all year round recipe using turkey and pappadew peppers.

I’ve cooked this recipe a number of times now. Not only is it delicious but it is also on the table in less than 30 minutes. Fajitas are also a really fun dish to share with friends. Simply put the turkey mixture in the centre of the table along with a plate of warm wraps, a pot of the yogurt mixture and a bowl of grated cheese and let everyone make their own fajitas.

Hamlyn quick cook recipe books review

As much as I enjoy cooking, there are many days when I don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen cooking. Other days I happily spend longer in the kitchen baking our bread, a cake for a special occasion or trying out slightly more time consuming recipes. When time is short I often fall back on a few much loved, simple recipes. Sometimes though I feel stuck in a cooking rut when it comes to quick meals.A few weeks back I was sent a collection of 6 cookbooks that might just be the answer to those evenings when you get home from work, tired and hungry. Hamlyn quick cook books each contain 360 recipes that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less. Each page includes 3 recipes that share a common group of ingredients/theme and is paired with a full colour photograph of one of the dishes. The 3 recipes are always one that can be cooked in 10 minutes, one in 20 minutes and one in 30 minutes. For example I chose to cook crab fried rice which took 20 minutes but if I only had 10 minutes I could have cooked crab and rice salad with lime dressing or if I wanted to spend 30 minutes cooing I could have cooked crab and rice cakes with lime dipping sauce. Each page also contains a unique code that if you type into their website you can download a recipe to print or have the recipe emailed to you (text only) so you could access it on your phone to buy the ingredients on your way home from work for example.

Crab fried rice (20 minutes)

Fresh from the oven round up – April, hot cross buns

This month’s Fresh from the oven challenge was to bake hot cross buns. The challenge was hosted by the little loaf, who kindly shared her own recipe with us. I think you’ll agree that all the entries look and sound delicious. It was great to see so many entries and a nice mix of the traditional with some interesting new twists such as hot cross loaves and muffins as well as different flavour combinations. Next months challenge will be hosted by La cuisine de Sarah and will be announced on the 1st May. Utterly scrummy food for families will be publishing the round up at the end of the month.The little loaf

Two greedy Italians DVD review

If like me you enjoy Italian food, you may have watched two greedy Italians when it was shown on the BBC last year. The new series is due to be shown this month and ahead of it the first series has been released on DVD today.