Quorn & Vegetable Satay Recipe - served with Veetee Egg Fried Rice

Veetee sent me some of their microwaveable steamed rice in a hamper and challenged me to come up with a recipe.  I made a vegetarian Quorn and Vegetable Satay, which is the perfect partner to the Veetee Egg Fried Rice.  The recipe is so quick and easy and you can be enjoying a yummy Chinese meal from scratch in about 20 minutes.  The Veetee rice is really time saving and convenient, cooking in its tray in a microwave in just 2 minutes, and is a great accompaniment to a home cooked Chinese style meal. The eggs used in the Egg Fried Rice are free-range, which is good to know, and the quality rice gives a great, light and fluffy result.

The ingredients I used were enough for a family of four, served with two trays of the Veetee Egg Fried Rice as an accompaniment.

Here is my recipe video:

                                 


Look out for the new wholegrain rice from Veetee too.  Another great cupboard staple for quick meals.

Discovery Foods Instagram Competition!

To celebrate the launch of the brand new Discovery Foods Instagram page @Discoveryfoods, they are encouraging us to get creative in the kitchen with a great competition starting today.

To enter all you need to do is simply create a mouthwatering Mexican meal using Discovery Food products and share your photo on the Instagram page to be in with a chance of winning one of 10 exciting prizes to the value of £25 every week for 4 weeks!  

Discovery sent me some of their products so I could make some tasty Quorn and Mushroom Fajitas using their packet Fajita seasoning mix and Sour Cream Topping...

...and some Cheese Topped Enchiladas using a Discovery Season and Sauce jar!

Making Mexican food is fun, easy and is a firm favourite with my family.  If you make any Mexican food using something from the Discovery range, be sure to take a photo and post it to Instagram using this as your caption  'My #deliciousdiscovery entry for a chance to win with @Discoveryfoods'  Good luck!!

My Vegetarian Cooked Breakfast

We love a good veggie fry-up here Inside the Wendy House!  It makes the perfect breakfast (or brunch if you have a lie-in).  This weekend I was treated by the lovely folk at McCain to the ingredients for the perfect fry-up, and Kizzy did the honours of making me a wonderful Full English, vegetarian style!

With McCain Hash Browns, Quorn sausages and bacon slices, fried mushrooms, baked beans, fried eggs, tomato sauce and buttered toast on the menu, we had everything we needed for the ultimate veggie breakfast.

McCain have recently improved their Hash Browns so they are now even better.  The chunky, crispy, golden hash browns have a tasty new recipe with added onion and seasonings so they are full of flavour.  They are a great addition to any fry-up and are just the thing to mop up egg yolk or baked bean juice!  They take just 20 minutes to cook from frozen so are quick and easy to prepare.  They are an essential addition to the line-up of my perfect fry-up.

Kizzy did a brilliant job making the breakfast and was very proud of the end result.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  The only thing that went wrong was when we realised that the sausages had been put in the oven to keep warm, and had been forgotten about when the cooked breakfast was served!  So we had them later.  But that didn't deter from the fabulous fry up that Kizzy served me.  DELICIOUS!

McCain Hash Browns are available in all major retail outlets priced at £1.65 RRP for a 700g bag.

Quick and Easy Vegetarian Recipes!

I really enjoy making vegetarian meals that my family enjoy.  Quorn plays a big part in my repertoire and I've been getting a bit experimental, coming up with my own ideas for using it.  From hearty slow cooked Italian inspired stews with Herby Cobbler to warm us up in this Wintry weather, to Satay Sticks to accompany our Chinese New year meal, to a Wellington to accompany all the roast dinner trimmings.

Here are my recipes which I hope will inspire you to give veggie food a try, even if it is just for one day a week.  (They are guaranteed to be 100% horsemeat-free!)

4 sliced carrots

1 small chopped swede

2 chopped sweet potatoes

2 chopped potatoes

2 sliced red onions

2 crushed cloves of garlic

carton of tomato passata

1/4 pint boiling water

1 teaspoon of Italian herbs

1 bag of Quorn chicken style pieces

1 single veggie stock pot pod

8 oz flour

4 oz margarine

1 teaspoon of Italian herbs

milk to form a dough

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker (except the Quorn) for about 4-5 hours.   Add the Quorn and continue cooking for another hour.  Make the cobbler by rubbing the fat and flour together.  Add herbs then make to a stiff dough using milk.  Roll to an inch thick and cut out rounds using a small cookie cutter.  Arrange on top and then finish off in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Pack of Quorn pieces (defrosted)

1 pack of Satay Marinade

This is so easy and worked so well.  Simply marinade the defrosted pieces in the satay marinade.  Then thread onto wooden skewers that have been soaked in water.  Pop in the oven at 200 degrees for 12 minutes.  Serve with veggie Spring Rolls and Vegetable Noodles.

1 Quorn Roast (defrosted)

1 pack of garlic & herb stuffing

1 packet of SOS Mix (veggie sausage mix)

1 packet of puff pastry

Slice the Quorn Roast in half lengthways.  Make up stuffing and sausage mix and combine.  Cover the Quorn with the mixture.  Roll out the pastry and place the stuffing coated Quorn on lengthways.  Wrap the pastry around and glaze with milk.  Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Slice and serve with roast dinner accompaniments.

It's National Vegetarian Week

Food For Thought...Veggie Shepherd's Pie

This week is National Vegetarian Week and I'm sharing one of my recipes for a Cheesey Topped Veggie Shepherd's Pie which is packed with veggies that are hidden so even the kids will love it.  When Iit comes to cooking I take a more artistic approach than a scientific one...adding extras, adjusting seasonings to taste, swapping ingredients.  I'm an 'anything-goes' cook!  But this is the gist of one of my regular meals!

Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

2 onions
4 carrots
2 cloves garlic
2 courgettes
veggie stock cube
2 handfuls of red lentils
1 carton of tomato passata
mixed herbs
ground pepper
1 bag of Quorn Mince
1 tspn Marmite

8 peeled and chopped potatoes
veggie stock cube
grated cheese

Method

Put all the veggies into a food processor and whizz up until finely chopped. Put in saucepan and cover with cold water.  Add stock cube and lentils and bring to boil until lentils are cooked (about 20 minutes).  Add passata and seasoning and return to boil.  Add Quorn Mince and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.  If the mixture is too watery, spoon off some of the liquid that collects on top, or simply add a few teaspoons of veggie gravy granules to thicken it.

Meanwhile chop the potatoes and put into a pan of water.  Add veggie stock cube and bring to boil, cooking until tender.  Mash (adding butter and milk and pepper to taste).

Put base into oven-proof dish and dollop on mash.  Grate cheese on top and put into an oven at GM6 for about 15-20 minutes until all bubbling and brown.

It's simple, inexpensive, adaptable, nutritious and tasty!

Get creative in the kitchen and cook up something for your family for National Vegetarian Week!

School Dinners!

I posted earlier about my memories of school dinners as I was due to enjoy lunch with my 9 year old at her school.  Well, I can now report back on how things have changed since my school dinner experience of the 70s!

Kizzy's Junior School cooks all its meals on the premises in well equipped kitchens that are attached to the multi-purpose hall.  Many of the ingredients used are locally sourced and include free range eggs, local farm vegetables and locally produced cheese.  It also focuses on seasonal foods and often uses organic ingredients.  In fact our school meal service here in Shropshire has been recognised as a 'Beacon of Excellence' in this area. They also cater for vegetarians, with a different option available everyday.  It all sounds really impressive, but how did my experience hold up against their reputation?

On the menu today was roast dinner, and I was delighted to see Quorn fillets as an option for those who didn't eat meat.  It came with all the trimmings; gravy, mash, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, fresh carrots, broccoli and cauliflower cheese.  The presentation was from the 'pile-it-high' school of serving, but it was a good size meal.  Pudding was an old-school cornflake cake with custard...I was a bit excited by that! Other choices today included freshly made wraps with salad, fish fingers or quiche.  I was so tempted by the quiche, I remember loving school cheese flan as a child, but I wanted to do the whole school roast dinner experience.  Fruit salad and apple crumble were alternative pudding options.  Spoilt for choice!

Kizzy had the same as me and I was impressed to see the portion size and the fact that she had three of her five-a-day right there!  I liked that they had their meals on real (albeit melamine) plates and bowls rather than on those horrible all-in-one plastic monstrosities with separate spaces for dinner and pudding on the same plate.  Sloshing gravy into your custard is just not on!

The dinner really got a big thumbs up from us.  It was 'real' food, not processed rubbish.  The vegetables were not overcooked and the mash wasn't lumpy!  How things have moved on in the last 35 years!!  The traditional school pud was exactly how I wanted it to be, a bowlful of pure nostalgia!  (I did notice that the pastry base was wholemeal...nice to see them sneaking some extra fibre into the kids' diets!)  We also got a cup of cold water (from a rather surly Year 4 water monitor!) served at the table.

I was really impressed by the quality, quantity and choice available.  I will definitely let Kizzy have school dinners now and again as £1.95 is really good value.  I'd go as far as to say that the vegetarian roast dinner surpassed some of the pitiful veggie options I've eaten out at restaurants!

It's nice to see that school dinners are at last providing wholesome, freshly cooked food for our kids and are no longer relying on cheap processed food.  Is Jamie Oliver to thank for this??  If he is, good on him!

I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch date with my daughter today and can confirm that school dinners are no longer objects of revulsion or the butt of jokes!  I look forward to the next open lunch so I can be cooked for again with a two course meal for under three quid!

A Blogger's Dozen

I've been tagged by Mummy Alarm in another Q & A meme, so without further ado here are my answers to this Blogger's Dozen!




1. If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I'd have to pick Stairway to Heaven...it's got it all.  The slow bit, the rocky bit, the guitar solo and the anthemic finish.  It ticks all the boxes for me!

2. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done/said in public?
I've got out of my parked car, after feeding my baby with my boob fully out.  It took me a while to realise why the two male car park attendants were sniggering and pointing.

3. Do you play a musical instrument and if so what?
I've tried the guitar but apart from a poor version of Space Oddity I've never managed to get a tune out of it.  This is particularly upsetting as my husband and my 15 year old daughter are both great musicians.  But I do however kick ass at the recorder!!

4. If you could book your dream-holiday, where would you go?


I'd love to do the whole Florida thing: Disney, Epcot, Universal. Seaworld, Busch Gardens and the rest of the attractions.  I've almost booked so many times, but as we are not a standard 2 adult /2 children family it has just seemed so difficult to find a hotel room that would suit.  We looked at villas but the hire car complications with 5 kids in tow was just too much for me to cope with!  


I won a holiday to L.A. when my eldest son was 5 and Ian and I took him and our 5 year old niece.  I love theme parks and glamour and glitz, and I've always wanted to go back and do it all again with the rest of my kids.  LA is a bit too far though, the flight was torturous!  Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to bite the bullet and splash the cash and 'do' Florida!

5. What’s your most hated household chore?


Any household chore I hate...Ian does!  I am so lucky that I have a husband who happily launders, cleans floors, empties bins, scrubs toilets and washes up!  We take the teamwork approach to chores...and I get to delegate the jobs I don't like to him :)

6. What is the one thing you make sure your child/children learn/s from you?


I hope my children will learn to love themselves.  I feel that is the most important thing at the heart of their wellbeing.  Through loving themselves they will be open to loving others on an equal footing.  They will be respectful of their health and their bodies.  They will make good decisions or have the courage to admit to themselves that they have made wrong ones.  They will be happy in themselves, which is ultimately what I want for them.  It has taken me a long, long time to love myself.  I hope my children will learn by my mistakes and be the best version of themselves that they can be.

7. If you could jump into a children’s book, which one would it be?


Ooh great question.  I could go for the Narnia route or maybe Hogwarts...but no, I'm picking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I'd love to be a golden ticket winner and enter the amazing factory with Willy Wonka and see the Oompa Lumpas.  Plus all you can you eat choccie....bliss!!!

8. What’s your most annoying habit?


I talk too much.  I can chat on about nothing .  Then I start to worry that I don't let anyone else get a word in.  I'm pretty sure it annoys people!

9. What new skill would you like to learn and why?


I'd love to be able to take amazing photos.  I have a fancy Lumix Digital SLR camera but the settings just confuse me.  If I take a good picture it's generally a fluke!  I'd love to learn how to use my camera to its full capacity and capture beautiful photos on a regular basis.

10. Who would play you in a movie?


Angelina Jolie would play me.  Her angsty 'Girl Interrupted' performance would be perfect for my teenage years, and her experience of being a mum to many may help her get into the role of me latterly!  Plus we both share a love of Brad Pitt!

11. What would you like to be famous for?


I always dreamt of becoming an author whose best selling book became a Hollywood movie,  until I realised that I have no original ideas in my head!  So I'd settle for being famous as the person who had the biggest ever win on the lottery :)

12. What is the one meal that you always pull off?


My vegetarian Quorn Enchiladas or my Mushroom Pie are my two signature dishes!!


I'm not going to tag anyone else as I've recently done a similar post...but anyone who wants to roll with this, please do...consider yourself tagged!!!!

Healthier Meals With Quorn

Everyone wants to give their family a healthy diet, but at the same time we still want to give our partners and children the foods they love.  With Quorn you can do both!  Cutting out the meat in your diet, needn't mean compromising on meal choice or losing out on a key source of protein, vitamins and minerals.  All you need to do is swap the meat in most recipes for Quorn.  It is not only delicious, it is a good source of essential nutrients and is low in saturated fat and has no cholesterol.  You can cook all sorts of recipes from scratch and discover new dishes, expanding your repertoire of  fabulous, tasty and healthy family favourites.  What's more, you can hardly tell the difference so there is no compromise on taste at all!  It's an easy change to make.

Whether you are a seasoned vegetarian or someone looking to cut down on meat, the Quorn website is full of recipe ideas to give you inspiration.  From family favourites such as Cottage Pie and Spaghetti Bolgnese using Quorn Mince to an exciting Risotto or Thai Green Curry using Quorn Pieces, there are plenty of suggestions for feeding your family healthier, tastier dinners.  Quorn also makes a range of ready meals, deli products and snacks giving a wide range of options for all mealtimes.

Quorn Tikka Masala

You can share your own recipes and photos of Quorn dishes on their Facebook Page and share your favourite meals to inspire other families who are trying to make the change to a healthier lifestyle.  

Thai Green Curry

  My family has been vegetarian for over 10 years.  My two youngest children have been vegetarian since they were in-utero!   Quorn products make it so easy to serve up healthy, interesting and delicious dinners for us all.  I can cook in confidence knowing my family are getting all the protein and nutrients they need.  I love the extensive range which means that  I can feed my children many traditional kids' favourites such as burgers, nuggets, sausages, meatballs and the incredibly yummy Fishless Fingers!  The mince and the pieces are so versatile that I enjoy being experimental. Our family favourite cuisine is Mexican and we love making Fajitas, Enchiladas and Tacos using Quorn products. I swear by it!

Fishless Fingers

Quorn really is a great choice and is many things to many people.

• For the food lover it is a simple way to make favourite dishes ...healthier.
• For anyone looking to reduce their meat intake Quorn means you don't need to give up choice or taste.
• For the weight watcher it drastically reduces the fat and calorie content of meals without compromising on favourite meals.
• For the healthy eater it is a cholesterol free source of protein, fibre and essential nutrients.
• For vegetarians it is a great source of protein which causes no suffering to animals.
• For the busy mum like me, it is convenient, versatile, easy to use, nutritious and delicious...who could ask for more?!

Find out more at Quorn.co.uk

Featured post in conjunction with Quorn.

Listography...Products You Couldn't Live Without

Kate is looking at products for Listography this week, those things we simply couldn't live without.  It is tricky to pick just five things...I rely on so much just to get me through the day, but if I really had to choose, these five things would be the items I'd hold onto at all costs!

1: Sky + HD Box...

I want to sing Leanne Rimes lyrics when I think about my Sky +.  Without it I'd have missed numerous episodes of True Blood, Dexter, Desperate Housewives and Being Human.  I'd have nothing to watch when Freddy decides to take an afternoon nap and Disney Junior is no longer a necessary distraction to him!  Without it I'd be forced to watch soaps, re-runs and reality TV. So *sings* "How do I live without you?!"

2: Quorn...


With a family of veggies to feed, I love to be able to grab something that is quick, easy and convenient to feed them. I do love lentil loaves, 3 bean chilli and veggie casseroles, but nothing beats Quorn Chicken Style Nuggets for an effortless dinner!

3: My Credit Card...

Not only do I hate carrying around cash, which makes my credit card a marvellous invention, but the magic Credit Card Fairy (aka my husband) pays off my plastic every month.  That'll do nicely!

4:  My Flip...


I love being able to whip out my Flip and record snippets of video footage of Freddy and the kids.  When I had a cumbersome camcorder I hardly ever filmed anything.  With the Flip I know have hours of random footage which will be priceless as Freddy gets older.  I've crashed my laptop three times by clogging up the hard drive with Freddy laughing, Freddy walking, Freddy playing football, Freddy watching TV...you get the picture!

5: My Duvet...


Nothing in the world comes close to my bed as my favourite place in the world.  My King Size duvet is light and fluffy, yet warm and cosy.  Blissful.  I'm generally in a state of exhaustion, so wrapping up in my duvet is the perfect antidote to life's stresses and strains.  I hate that just-made-bed feeling you get in hotels, I like the sloppy, loose freedom that only my big old duvet can give me.

I will relinquish my Benefit eyeliner, my silicone bakeware, my jeans, my Converse and my huge Ikea saucepan (which almost made my top 5) just so I can keep it!