Hi all, Seems we are all having a rotten time, in my case self inflicted…too many visitors this week! Lovely but oh so draining. Here hoping you’ll all be feeling much better tomorrow! Good luck with the journey Sonia. Hope your meal was good Pat, sounded delicious ! Blowing an absolute gale here in Herefordshire, can’t get to sleep its so noisy. Ironic really, we battened down all the hatches last week and although we had inches of rain the wind wasn’t too bad. No damage at all. Tonight’s quite another matter ! Can’t imagine what we’ll find in the morning, while I’ve been writing I’ve heard several potted plants crashing and rolling around! Husband sleeping through it !! Take care everyone, Nina x
Abel & Cole do some frozen ready meals. I get some in for my husband so he can have a decent tea on a Tuesday night after he gets back from taking our youngest to football practice. Don’t eat them myself, but as he does they must be OK. He wouldn’t touch supermarket ready meals.
Hi hcd, I tried Abel & Cole for a while but they used to deliver to me at 6.30am!!! I’m good for nothing at that time and then couldn’t get back to sleep… although agree their ready meals are excellent and fantastic pies!
Pat x
Hi all. I wonder if the change in weather can affect us. I wouldn’t say I’m ill but I’ve been stiff and ache all over, head’s a bit fuzzy, I’m sure you can all related to it. Hope you feel better Teresa and Sonia, I agree that research into prevention of UTI’s would be much appreciated.
Pat your meal sounded lovely. Do most pasta sauces cook alright in the slow cooker? I’m still a novice using mine, tend to just make the same things over and over. My daughter got sick of stews since I bought it. I’ve bought a cook book for it but jars of sauce are fantastic as you find recipe books ask for herbs etc that I never keep in as they go off before you’ve used more than five teaspoons full.
Hope you’re all well, Lovely sunshine here but frosty. Cath xx
Hi Cath, yes pasa sauces do work well… as do tins of tomatoes.
The sauce I used the other day actually wasn’t that good… it was a home-made one which works well on pasta but wasn’t that great in a stew… however the ones in the shops work well… but I’m going to try the sauces for slow-cookers as I’ve heard they are great and as you say it’s such a pain getting all the herbs etc… AND the whole point is to make cooking easier and if there’s a whole list of ingrediants and prep’ it’s hardly worth doing!
Lovely sunshine in London and I’m trying to get the umph needed to go out… but might just give in and stay in!
Hope you’re having a good day hon… btw… which slow-cooker book do you have? I’ve been looking at some on Amazon but such a wide choice! I might just not bother and experiment with the jars of sauces.
Pat x
Hi Pat. I’ve a book by Catherine Atkinson, Best ever recipes, slow cooker. It’s very good as in the back it has guides on different meats etc, which are best for the slow cooker, what kind of methods are best to cook them etc, but I find that I don’t bother cooking many of the recipes due to number of ingredients. I think I have a reasonably well stocked kitchen as I used to love cooking but I hate waste and buying a bottle or jar of something to use one teaspoon full goes against my beliefs.
I must admit that since the fatigue really kicked in I’ve found that jars of sauce are easy, tasty, less work and much cheaper than making from scratch. Some of the own brand extremely cheap jars aren’t great but the “chosen by you” brands are cheaper than named brands and just as good. I’ve even converted my mum into using jars as she’s had some really good meals I’ve made with them.
I’ve just never used these in the slow cooker though, and would love to if you can give me an idea of what works. We love chicken and stews, if I vary them a bit, and most things but don’t eat spicy food as it really disagrees with me. I’d appreciate any advice you or anyone else can give me please as I do find evenings hard to manage.
Thanks. Cath xx
Hi Cath, I’m going to get some cook-in sauces and try them out in slow cooker and let you know how it goes.
My new 1.5 litre cooker came yesterday. Very nice. Much better size for me as old one is 3.5 and much too big.
I don’t think I’m going to bother to get a book as all of them seem to need many ingredients… am going to improvise and see what I can come up with.
I’ll let you know if they work well.
Btw… I’ve also heard that ready-made soups make good sauces… so worth a try.
Pat x
I’ll let you know how I get on too. I’ve got some pork shank to throw in and I’m looking forward to doing that. I think it’ll be this weekend that I cook them.
Take care and please let me know what works, I’m really keen but can’t afford much waste.
Cath xx
If you can manage to chop up chorizo sausage (or, actually, you ban buy it chopped or sliced), then chuck it in a microwavable bowl with some chopped veg (celerly, onions and peppers particlarly good) which, again, you can often buy pre-prepared. Then add some chilli sauce and olive oil. After 3-4 minutes on full power in microwave have some bread handy and, hey presto, delicious meal.
The juices from the chorizo combine perfectly with olive oil. Very healthy too. (low salt etc)
I am naming and shaming Marks & Sparks Country Vegetable Soup (in plastic tub).
YUK!
How they managed to get a list of good, fresh ingredients taste so disgusting is a mystery. Like very bad baby food. Has now been poured down loo and flushed away.
Pat x
Oh no, that’s rubbish!
Next time you go there I can recommend the Nutritious and Delicious range - the spicy ones are quite good 
Soup sounds like a bad job tho 
Sonia x
I bought some prepared soups in plastic tubs as my daughter loves soup. She threw them out as she said they were awful and we’ve have gone back to trusty tins. Can’t remember where we’d bought them but I remember reading the descriptions and thinking they sounded really yummy.
Maybe that’s another thing I can try in my slow cooker, I’ve loads of recipe books and they should work well in it. Firstly though it’s the pork shanks. I’ll do them tomorrow. Please keep the ideas coming.
Cath xx
Let us know if you do it Cath, I used to love the Covent Garden ones but when I went Gluten free I was a bit let down on that and I kind of got out of the habit.
Sonia x
Sainsbury’s tubs of fresh soup are good… their chicken broth is lovely. Tesco’s are, in my humble opinion, too rich.
Sainsbury’s do a lovely lentil and red pepper soup so I’m going to try that with chicken pieces in the slow cooker.
Pat x
That sounds lovely Pat, I like most of the Sainsbury’s soups but NOT their Butternut squash and sage risotto soup! Yuck! It looks revolting which doesn’t help, and tastes very bland. I love Tesco’s Butternut squash soup in the cardboard carton, and the covent garden one.
The campbells condensed soups are great for cooking with, you can thin them out according to how you like it, and they do a chicken and white whine which is really nice for a casserole, some of them are reduced fat too.
The sun is out at the moment in Cornwall, though its pretty chilly, but everywhere is so waterlogged, I don’t think there can be much rain left up there!
Hope everyone has a good weekend
Bxx
We don’t have Sainsburys, in fact it’s 20 miles to the nearest ASDA and nearly 30 to Tesco. The joys of living out in the beautiful English Lake District. We do have a Spar and Co Op four miles away. I have a big freezer but it’s frustrating when you forget something, and I’m sure you all understand now why I hate lots of ingredients.
Anyway have a nice weekend.
Cath xx
Here’s something interesting regarding cooking & caring… OK I know we are not carers (except for ourselves!) but it’s an interesting idea and about a man who cares for his wife who has SPMS:
http://jaynemcox.com/blog/cooking-up-care-introducing-the-ice-cold-chef/
Cath… I hate lots of ingredients too… actually I think the best food has the least ingredients. Some Italian pasta dishes have only a few ingredients and are far more delicious than their complicated cousins…
Sometimes I just boil some spaghetti, toss it in olive oil (and fresh basil if I have some) and sprinkle with parmasan and black pepper. Couldn’t be easier and not only that but the Italians themselves often serve it like that.
Pat x
Good call on the Campbells, that’s their USP really isn’t it, the cans made double as you added water so it make sense they’d be pretty versatile to cook with 
I count myself extremely lucky, in that my husband was always the better cook (now I compensate with easy things from M&S to make up for him doing virtually all of it).
I am missing baking tho, that I can do! I think I’ll have to get some spelt flour in and make some cakes very soon, if I do it at the weekend it should be ok (I am literally kicked out of the kitchen in the evenings now as I’m a bit of a disaster area by then!)
Sonia x
Pat that site you put on is lovely. What a positive, loving man he is. If he publishes and there are minimal ingredients I’ll get one. I am so impressed at these husbands, yours included Sonia. I never had one like that, in fact my mum believes that every man I brought home needed mothering or smothering and the worst part is that she’s right. Single life suits me but my parents have that kind of relationship too and it’s lovely to see.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.
Cath xx
Hi All. I cooked my pork shanks in the slow cooker. The meat was so tender I lifted the bone to get it out and all the meat stayed behind, the bone coming out clean. It was from Aldi and in a cider and Apple sauce though which neither of us enjoyed. I can still taste it seven hours later. Think I’ll stick with the minted lamb shanks in future, they really are special.
Take care.
Cath xx