Organ meats are good for us; I have written about why here. The nutrition from offal foods like liver is simply outstanding and something that we should get into the habit of including in our meals a couple of times a month.

For many, liver isn’t the most delicious meat so it is important to use recipes that are simple and also tasty. Chris Masterjohn gives some excellent tips here on liver storage and preparation and if you scroll down readers share helpful cooking tips.

Garron cooks a delicious onion and liver dish coated in flax seed meal that I havent yet managed to beat. It is started on the pan and finished in the oven and if I get my hands on the recipe I will share it.

I prepared a slow cooker liver dish yesterday.

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It’s time to revamp your boring salad!

Salads can be the most boring dish ever that no one wants to eat; or a delicious blend of your favourite flavours. It’s all down to deciding to make it a little bit more interesting. We are in Winter here so if I have forgotten some wonderful vegetables from other seasons across the globe, my apologies.

When it comes to making a tasty salad the point is, GET CREATIVE!

Often you can make a very tasty salad out of what is left-over in the fridge; but with a little forethought and buying new salad vegetables on your weekly shop, you can start to create fast tasty vegetable dishes that are filled with colour and nutrition.

Caution: it doesn’t take much to turn a healthy salad into a calorie bomb – watch how many add-on’s you add, be sensible about portions, and mindful about dressings and dips!

The basics:

• Any green / purple salad leaves, the darker the better: for example; rocket, spinach, lettuce, chard, dandelion greens, Chinese lettuce, watercress, and any of the multitude of coloured leaves available.
• The cruciferous power players: red cabbage, purple cabbage, green cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
• Chopped vegetable selection: tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, corn, onions, scallions, baby beans, snap peas, baby corn, etc.
• Power herbs: basil, coriander, parsley, chives, etc.

The twists:

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Boom! Another great dinner; rich without the rich ingredients. This slow-cooked oxtail dish can be prepared in a slow cooker, crock-pot or casserole dish. You may need to tweak the…

Beef mince is often on special offer in the supermarket, so when you spot it grab it. Don't worry if you don't have the time to deal with it there…

Here is a quick and simple soup. I had planned on making tomato soup but the supermarket had other ideas about what was fresh and seasonal so carrot and butternut…

Hi,

So now that we are in the New Year it is time to tidy up your diets. Here is a quick meal suggestion that is simple, tasty and nutritious:

What you need:

• Organically farmed salmon fillets (avoid non-organic salmon when possible)
• Water
• Butter (the real grass-fed irish stuff)
• Casserole / baking dish and aluminium foil
• Green cabbage – my cabbage was a bit on the pale side; the darker it is in colour the richer it is in magnesium and other nutrients
• Green kale
• Cucumber – if you don’t like cucumber get inventive; I am sure that red peppers or celery will also work nicely
• Optional pomegranate seeds or sultanas
• Greek yogurt or low-fat yogurt
• Stem ginger in syrup
• Optional fresh ginger
• Good quality mayonnaise – the best I had to hand was Hellman’s 
• Dijon mustard

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Hi folks,

it is a while since I posted up a new bread recipe. I still bake gluten-free breads from time to time using all sorts of healthy twists; this one was a real winner so I am taking the time to write it up for you. Quantities are approximate because this is how I bake; so long as your end result is a ‘bread-like’ texture before baking you cannot go too far wrong.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free jumbo oats
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup potato flour
• 1/2 cup psyllium husks
• 1/2 cup flax seeds (whole)
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 large grated courgette
• 1/3 to 1/2 half grated pear (not essential – I had this knocking about and needing use)
• 1 large duck egg (or large hens egg)
• some treacle; approximately 1 teaspoon melted into some hot water
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1-2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• some broken walnuts
• small fist of jumbo sultanas and/ or juicy chilean raisins
• water to desired quantity (preferably filtered)
• optional salt to taste – e.g. 1 teaspoon

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It’s the run down into Christmas; so slow cooked meals are THE PERFECT choice for time crunched busy-bodies doing their best to eat clean and healthy in the count-down to Christmas day.

We just invested in a new crock pot after reluctantly leaving the owners le Creuset casserole pot in our last home 🙂 . BUT with every cloud there is a silver lining because we invested in some fabulous kitchen appliances for our new home.

So, this is the beast! The Crock Pot Crock-Pot 5.6L Digital Slow and Multi Cooker. I purchased mine here on Harts of Stur.

We have prepared a few meals to date in this and are really loving how easy it is to use, with no fuss. Garron has prepared a traditional South African tomato bredie, I have poached a ham (great feedback from our guest) and today was round two for me making a vegetarian tagine to balance all the meat that we have been enjoying of late.

It is good to include beans and lentils in the diet regularly as they are more alkaline in nature (when processed by the body) than meats and dairy foods, and rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants; ones that are often limiting in other foods. Here is some tidbits about black beans and lentils.

Before I charge on to the recipe, here are a few tips for this busy period.

Tips to survive the Christmas mayhem

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