Well I’m not sure it feels right blogging in the current circumstances - partly it makes me feel selfish and that I should be doing something more constructive and selfless to help. However it is food and cooking that are helping me to get through this period of isolation. Manically checking to see what I can rustle up from the store cupboard to sustain or increase energy for others, frantically making lists and planting seeds by the bucketful ... have a succession of salad crops to keep us going. We won’t have enough room for all our plants at the allotment but will be able to gift to friends and neighbours in this time of possible scarcity.
Apart from producing things to give a sugar inducing highs like flapjacks and shortbread
I’ve been trying a few new recipes which will use up ingredients I’m sure to have excess of in the summer months... courgettes and gnarly celeriac. These were already in the store cupboard before lockdown along with the porcini mushrooms so please don’t think I’ve been scouring the shelves of Tesco for these quirky, unseasonal ingredients when I should have been social distancing!
But when everything gets back to normal I can highly recommend these two incredibly healthy recipes ... the first, little beef and mushroom pies, from the BBC Good Food magazine
and the other from lovepork.co.uk although sadly for them I didn’t follow their guidelines and used turkey mince instead making their recipe even healthier.
With its colourful noodles made from butternut squash and courgette ribbons and vibrant punchy sauce made with chilli and low fat creme fraiche it was definitely one to make you drool! Without adding too much to the waistline!
and the other from lovepork.co.uk although sadly for them I didn’t follow their guidelines and used turkey mince instead making their recipe even healthier.
With its colourful noodles made from butternut squash and courgette ribbons and vibrant punchy sauce made with chilli and low fat creme fraiche it was definitely one to make you drool! Without adding too much to the waistline!
Same goes for the pies. No pastry to add calories just lots of healthy veg to provide essential fibre and vitamins and pretty quick and easy to rustle up too.
I hope that while you read this you are taken away just for a brief moment from the worries of the world ... these difficult times can only make us cherish the small things so much more and help us learn not to take our freedom or indeed the time we are given for granted. As the Italians say
'Andra Tutta Bene' - everything is going to be all right
The world will be a different place after all this but hopefully we will have learned some very valuable lessons
Xxx
https://www.lovepork.co.uk/recipes/pork-meatballs-with-vegetable-ribbons/
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/little-beef-mushroom-pies
