Pasta And Turkey Meatballs In A Tomato And Herb Sauce

Growing up in a working class household, spaghetti and meatballs was a regular family meal for us. A tasty, satisfying meal that would easily feed a family of 6, on a very low budget, I have fond memories of sitting around the table with a big bowl full of this and enjoying every mouthful. This recipe is my slightly healthier, batch cooked, and somewhat nostalgic, take on the old school spaghetti and meatballs I grew up with.

You will need:
350g brown fusilli

For the herb mix:
2 tsp dried basil
1 & 1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 & 1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

For the meatballs:
1 tbsp vegetable (rapeseed) oil
500g turkey mince
1 egg
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, grated or very finely chopped
3 tbsp dried breadcrumbs (I used panko, but only because I had most of a bag sat in the cupboard)
1 tsp worcestershire sauce

For the sauce:
1 tbsp vegetable (rapeseed) oil
2 small onions, 1 finely and the other fairly chunkily chopped
2 medium/large carrots, 1 finely and the other fairly chunkily chopped
2 celery stalks, 1 finely and the other fairly chunkily chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tin chopped tomatoes
200ml chicken stock

Method:
1. In a small bowl, mix together the basil, oregano, thyme salt and pepper until thoroughly incorporated.
2. Pour the oil into a high sided pan and place over a medium heat to warm.
3. Add the turkey, egg, garlic, onion, breadcrumbs, worcestershire sauce and 2 tsp of the herb mix to a large bowl and mix until fairly well incorporated.
4. Form the mix into 8 evenly sized balls, place the balls into the pan and fry for about 10 minutes, turning regularly to ensure they're browned on all sides Once browned remove from the pan and set aside.
5. If needed, add more oil to the pan and allow to warm over a medium heat.
6. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften and colour lightly.
7. Add the garlic, carrots and celery and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the veg starts to soften.
8. Add the tomato puree, stir through the veg and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
9. Add the remaining herb mix, stir through, and pour in the tomatoes and stock.
10. Add the browned meatballs into the sauce, bring to the boil, turn the heat to low, put the lid on the pan and allow to gently simmer for approximately 30 minutes, until the meatballs are entirely cooked through.
11. After about 20 minutes, cook the pasta in salted water for 2 minutes less than the stated cooking time, drain, add the pasta to the sauce and stir through.
12. If you're going to be eating this straight away, allow to cook, uncovered, for the remaining 2 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. If this is going to be re-heated later, remove from the heat straight away and stand the pan in a bowl of cold water to cool the sauce as quickly as possible.

Notes:
Cooling the sauce quickly, before the pasta has time to cook through, should mean that when it's re-heated the pasta isn't rubbery and over done.
Dish this up into foil containers, sprinkle over a bit of grated cheese and freeze for individually portioned pasta bake ready meals. 45 minutes, from frozen, in a cold oven set to 150 degrees and you're done, that's just about enough time for a quick soak in the bath.

Office Humour

This appeared on the break room notice board approximately 10 minutes after a, somewhat...ok... extremely, passive aggressive email was sent to all staff regarding the 150 forks that have mysteriously vanished in the last 6 months.

A Bit Of Comfort

When you’ve had a particularly shit day at work, and know that it’s only going to get worse over the next few weeks and maybe even forever, it’s impossible to over estimate the sheer peace of mind, and general comfort, that your favourite blanket, dark chocolate, strong spiced tea and an old book can bring. To be honest I barely even read any of the book, just the act of holding it and scanning my eyes over the words, along with that amazing old book smell, was a comfort in its self.

Yet Another Selfie

A truly horrific image of me, taken under the harsh lights of the NEC at the, somewhat disappointing, creative craft show last weekend.

Comforting Beef And Tomato Stew

I’ve posted recipes in the past for both a hearty beef stew and a simple beef goulash, this rich, tomatoey and comforting beef stew is somewhere in between the two. Flavoured with rich paprika and a variety of winter root vegetables, this recipe is warming, filling and healthy.

You will need:
3 tbsp plain flour
3 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1000g braising steak, cut into good sized chunks
2 tbsp vegetable oil (rapeseed oil)
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 medium/large carrots, roughly chopped
1 small swede, roughly chopped
1 large parsnip, roughly chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes
750ml beef stock
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 rounded tbsp english mustard
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
2 large potatoes, roughly chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, roughly chopped
1 small butternut squash, roughly chopped
1 tin butter beans, drained

Method:
1. Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper together in a large bowl, add the braising steak and toss until thoroughly coated.
2. Add half the oil to a very large saucepan and warm over a high heat.
3. Add the beef to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the beef is nicely browned.
4. Remove the beef from the pan and set aside in the large bowl.
5. Turn the heat down to medium/low, pour the remaining oil into the pan and add the onions. Cook the onions for 3 - 4 minutes, until they start to soften.
6. Add the finely chopped carrot, celery and tomato puree and cook for a further 3 - 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Return the beef to the pan, add the remaining carrots, swede, parsnip, tomatoes, stock, vinegar, mustard, worcestershire sauce and oregano and stir thoroughly. Allow the stock to come up to the boil, turn the heat down low, cover with the lid and allow the stock to simmer for 20 - 30 minutes.
8. Add the potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash to the pan, re-cover and allow to cook, over a low heat, for a further 30 - 40 minutes.
9. Add the butter beans, turn up the heat to medium and cook uncovered for 5 - 10 minutes, to warm through the beans.
10. Check the seasoning of the stew and add more salt and pepper if required.

Notes:
Serve with warm, buttered toast for just about the most comforting meal there is. I had half a punnet of mushrooms sat in the fridge and threw these in to add a little extra bulk and flavour.

Why I Won't Work Late

Some people say I'm lucky because I have the type of job where I rarely stay late and I hardly ever have to bring work, physically at least, home with me. Unfortunately for me lucky isn't exactly how I'd describe my working situation.

The reason I rarely stay late isn't because the company I work for is a compassionate employer that values their employees and wants them to have a good work/life balance. The reason I rarely stay late is because the company I work for refuse to pay their employees overtime and don't show any appreciation, or even really acknowledge, when their staff go above and beyond for them.

The reason I don't physically bring work home with me isn't because my workload is manageable and my quarterly KPI's (key performance indicators) are generally achievable within normal working hours. The reason I don't bring work home with me is because, even though my KPI's are already quite difficult to achieve, when I do meet my targets, rather than rewarding me, they assume it means that my KPI values must be too low and adjust them to make them harder to meet for the next quarter.

The is also another, much bigger reason as to why I neither stay late nor bring work home with me and that is my wage. Although I am paid above minimum wage, my hourly rate is so low that, taking into account that the company refuse to pay overtime, it makes absolutely no sense for me to give up my own time for nobody but the companies benefit.

Simply put the company I work for doesn’t make it worth my while, in any way, shape or form, to work beyond my contracted hours.

The Lunch Break Work Toilet Selfie...

The lunch break work toilet mirror selfie, because I am the living embodiment of vanity and slightly weird face pulling... love me! LOVE ME!!

Gaining Weight Is Easier Than You Think

It really wasn't until I'd spent a fair amount of time actually counting calories that it occurred to me just how ridiculously easy it is to go over your recommended daily intake. The average man needs to consume 2500 calories a day just to maintain his current weight, with the average woman needing somewhat less at 2000 calories. These numbers sound like a lot, but they're really not and making the wrong choices can quite easily leave you consuming more than half your daily intake in a single meal.

Let's put those numbers into some sort of perspective and think of what most people would consider an average, fairly healthy, day. Let's start at the beginning with breakfast:

You're having a bowl of porridge with a glass of fruit juice and a banana. Looking at an average pack of porridge oats your suggested serving is 40g porridge oats, 100ml semi skimmed milk and 1 tsp of honey, this would make roughly 210 calories, or 150ml, worth of porridge. Taking into account that the average breakfast bowl holds 440ml of food, this works out to be less than half a bowl. Scaling this up to make a full (ish) bowl of porridge you're looking more like 100g of porridge oats, 200ml semi skimmed milk and 2 tsp honey, giving you a serving of 490 calories. Add in a 250ml glass of fresh orange juice, at around 120 calories, and a small banana, at 90 calories, and you've already consumed 700 calories before you even left the house.

You arrive at work, at 8:30am, and the first thing you do is make a mug of coffee with milk and sugar, providing you with an additional 50 calories.

10:30am arrives and you pop to the loo and make a second coffee for another 50 calories.

Before you know it, it's 1:00pm, it's lunch time and your stomach is rumbling. By 1:10pm you're sitting in the canteen slurping a capri sun with a pleasantly full belly, and an empty lunch box, having just polished off a fairly reasonable lunch of a ham sandwich, a packet of cheese and onion, an apple, an orange and a muller light for a grand total of 660 calories (including the capri sun).

You sit and read a couple of news articles on your phone, you have a chat with Barry from accounting, 2:00pm comes around and you head back to the office with your 3rd, and final, mug of 50 calorie coffee.

It's been a long afternoon when 5:30pm finally rolls around, you're tired, you're hungry and you've got a 20 minute walk home before you get to eat. There's only one thing keeping you on the straight and narrow and that is you know there's a slow cooker full of home made bolognese waiting for you and all you'll need to do is boil a bit of pasta, toast a slice of garlic bread and serve it in your favourite bowl for a respectable 750 calories.
It's 7:00 pm and you've just finished the washing up, you've popped the kettle on to make a pot of tea and the biscuits are calling your name, you've been good, you've not snacked and you've even managed to get most of your 5 a day, a couple of chocolate digestives with your tea, coming in at a total of 220 calories, isn't going to break the scales.

You climb into bed, your alarm clock reads 10:00 pm, you contemplate how your diet is going and you come to the conclusion that you're doing really well right before you drift off to sleep.

So let's do the maths:

700 + 50 + 50 + 660 + 50 + 750 + 220 = 2480 calories in one day.

Now if you're a man this isn't actually too bad for a day, you've more or less broke even and, whilst you might not be losing weight, you're not gaining weight, however, if you're a woman this would be a bad day and it would only take a few days like this a week to find yourself putting on a stone in weight over a 6 month period. So for anyone who is trying to lose weight and is having any sort of success, believe me when I say that even the slowest of weight loss should be considered success, you are doing amazingly well and you deserve respect.

The Creative Craft Show: I Made A Bit Of A Rookie Error

I think I’ve made a bit of a rookie error, based on visiting other conventions and seeing the huge amount of different things they normally have on show, I’ve bought tickets to The Creative Craft Show in Birmingham next weekend. I’m now starting to wish I’d put more research into the convention before jumping in feet first and purchasing myself a ticket.

Last night I was sitting with a mug of tea, and a toasted cheese sandwich, I thought I’d take a more in depth look at what’s there and maybe even plan out what I’d like to see. With a name like The Creative Craft Show I was expecting there to be a real variety of things going on, lots of different of stalls to explore and some interesting displays and workshops. I was actually getting pretty excited and thought things like wood working, metal working, jewellery making, leather craft, pottery, baking, paper craft, sewing, knitting etc. would all have some sort of representation, unfortunately it seems I was mistaken. Having looked through the list of stall holders, and some of the workshops available, the whole show is more or less dedicated to sewing with a small amount of knitting and paper craft thrown in as an afterthought. There is literally nothing, or extremely little, available for anyone interested in the majority of crafts outside of sewing and this is extremely disappointing to say the least.

To be honest I can genuinely understand why they’ve chosen to call it the The Creative Craft Show, naming it what the show actually is, The Textile and Sewing Show, would severely limit it’s interest to the majority and would discourage a lot of people from attending. Even though I understand where they’re coming from I still feel that it’s a somewhat misleading and quite dishonest move by the organisers.

Simple Turkey Chilli

A few weeks ago I posted a Tomato Free Sweet Potato And Turkey Chilli recipe, I’d never really made this style of chilli before, or even one using turkey instead of beef, and it turned out delicious. Inspired by the success of my sweet potato based recipe, and wondering how well turkey would work as a replacement for beef, here is a more traditional tomato based chilli made with turkey mince and a few vegetables add to a bit more depth.

You will need:
1 tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 small onions, chopped
1000g turkey mince
2 tbsp tomato puree
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 bell peppers, roughly chopped
2 sweet potatoes, roughly chopped
8 baby sweet corns, cut into thirds
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
250ml chicken stock
1 tin red kidney beans, drained
200g spring greens, roughly chopped

Method:
1. In a small bowl combine the chilli powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt and black pepper.
2. Pour the oil into a saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the onions, turkey and half of the spice mix to the pan then cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions start to soften and the turkey is browned.
3. Add the tomato puree, garlic and remaining spice mix, stir through and allow to cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Add in the peppers, sweet potato, baby corn, tomatoes and stock, allow the chilli to come up to the boil, turn the heat to medium-low, put the lid on the pan and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sweet potato is nearly cooked through.
5. If the chilli is too watery at this point continue to simmer with the lid off until the sauce thickens.
6. Add in the kidney beans and spring greens, stir through and continue to cook until the beans are warm and the greens wilt.

Notes:
As with any other chilli this is great served with boiled rice, over a jacket potato, over chunky oven chips or with a side of tortilla chips smothered in melted cheese.

Shredded Chicken With Chilli Sauce And Mayo In Ciabatta

For dinner on Saturday I made seasoned chicken, served with boiled rice and grilled veg. It was nothing particularly special, but the chicken turned out amazing (I seasoned it with Dunns River Chicken Seasoning and lightly tossed it in flour). After everyone had finished eating I was overjoyed to discover that I had 2 thighs leftover, these were promptly boxed up and popped in the fridge for my Sunday breakfast. Sunday morning and I treated the chicken the a quick warming in a hot pan, cut it off the bone, shredded it up and served it on a toasted ciabatta with lashings of chilli sauce and a little squirt of mayo. It went down an absolute treat with a fresh pot of tea and a packet of sweet n salty popcorn.

So I’ve Been Learning To Drive...

I've been having driving lessons off and on for the last few years and up until recently I've not had all that much success, however, about 4 months ago I got a new instructor and since then I feel like I've been making some really good progress, everything is starting to feel more natural, I'm making less mistakes and I'm even starting to feel confident when I'm on the road, a total lack of confidence being one of the main reasons that I've put off learning to drive for so long. That was up until Monday morning when I received a message from my driving instructor saying that he was going to have to cancel all lessons for the foreseeable future due to a medical issue and, whilst I do genuinely hope that he's ok and gets well soon, I'm now a little worried about what this means for me and the progress I've made. Learning to drive for me has been a long, expensive slog, I'm currently on my 8th driving instructor in 3 years and with most of them I feel like I ended up spending a small fortune, but having absolutely nothing to show for it. I'm not saying that they were bad instructors, though 1 of them had to stop teaching altogether after failing his ADI standards check, another was such a dick that I couldn't understand how he managed to retain any customers and another just stopped showing up after 4 lessons, just that for whatever reason I either couldn't get on with them on a personal level or that their teaching style just didn't work for me and I felt like I wasn't actually learning anything. Essentially it's taken me 3 years to find an instructor that I can get on with and who's teaching methods have enabled me to make any real progress. I don’t want to sit and wait for him to be back on his feet and start teaching again because that may never happen, he’s coming up to retirement age, he only works part time and he’s doing it more to stay active, and to physically get out of the house, than because actually needs the income. I don’t want to stop making progress, but my worry is that it's going to take me a long time, and who knows how much money wasted, to find another instructor that I get on with and, when I finally do, I'll be so out of practice that I end up having to start from scratch all over again.

Hideous Bridge Troll

I’ve been seeing a lot of good looking people online recently, and I’m not talking celebs or models etc. I’m seeing normal everyday folks, who happen to be pretty stunning, and I just don’t understand how there is so many of them. At first I thought that maybe I’m just imagining it, perhaps it’s down to the photos themselves, maybe the lighting happened to be particularly good or the angle just framed the face perfectly, but when I really thought about it that simply wasn’t true, I’d seen them in so many different situations, both indoors and outdoors, and from so many different angles that it couldn’t be the explanation. Then I thought that it was down to great photo editing, but I’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds, of them and it’s just not feasible for there to be that much photo editing talent about in the general public. After a lot of thought, a bit of soul searching, and maybe just a tiny bit of perving, I’m now certain that I’ve come to the truth of the matter, there’s genuinely a lot of attractive people out there and, by comparison at least, that essentially makes me some sort of confused, hideous bridge troll who thinks it’s a real person.

Windswept And Not So Interesting…

Out and about enjoying the somewhat stormy weather.

Jerk Seasoned Turkey With Sweet Potatoes, Greens And Kidney Beans

If you look back through the recipes I’ve posted over the last few years you’ll see that I’m a fan of caribbean food, I particularly love the flavours associated with jerk seasonings. This is my attempt at carrying over those flavours into my current experiments with batch cooking and turkey mince.

You will need:
1000g turkey mince
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
3 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp hot chilli powder
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp nutmeg
0.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vegetable oil (rapeseed oil)
2 peppers, roughly chopped
3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into roughly 1.5cm chunks
1 tin of red kidney beans in water (do not drain)
200g chopped spring greens

Method:
1. In a large bowl mix together the turkey mince, onions, garlic, ginger and spices then set aside to marinade.
2. Warm the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat.
3. Add the turkey mix and cook for 5 - 10 minutes, until the turkey is cooked through and the onions start to soften.
4. Add the peppers, sweet potatoes and tin of beans, including the water, cover with the saucepan lid and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
5. Add the greens and cook for 1 - 2 minutes, until wilted.

Notes:
As with previous recipes, this is meant to be an all in one meal, however, if you wanted to bulk it out simply serve this over plain boiled rice.

Moody Sky

Grey clouds and stormy sky’s are definitely my aesthetic, they're a very accurate representation of my personality. When I was younger, particularly in my late teens up to my mid twenties, I spent a lot of time, emotionally, in some dark places. I found myself self medicating with food, alcohol and other things, eventually I ended up on various prescription medications. Whilst a few I tried did even me out a little, none of them really completely agreed with me, some made me worse, most just left me feeling completely numb and, to me at least, that was worse than not taking them at all. As I was coming up to my mid twenties I came off the meds entirely and, after a while, I found myself leveling out towards the lower end of the emotional spectrum. I refer to this as the grey zone and, whilst sometimes I do slip towards the darker side and occasionally even towards the lighter side, it's basically were I exist and were my personality seems to make the most sense.

Rustic Comfort Food

Sunday dinner all prepped and ready to just pop in the oven later. It’s cold, wet and windy out so I’ve made a bit of old school comfort food in the form of a rustic cottage pie (Also it’s the first day of national pie week and I need to make at least one pie-ish).