- Slow cooker Vegetable Balti - 

Happy Monday guys and welcome back!

Today I thought I'd share something a little different for me, its a kind of recipe, although to be honest it's so lazy I shouldn't even call it a recipe, but I'm brazen so I'm going to! This Slow cooker Vegetable Balti using Aldi's Specially Balti sauce is so easy, but delicious, and I love that its a slightly healthier twist on a quick weeknight curry. The sauces are fantastic, and I love that they come with spice pots, it helps me feel like I'm doing more than sticking a jar of sauce on some veg, I've added spices too you know!

I would suggest using a slow cooker, but to be honest you could easily pop it into a big crock pot in the oven or on the hob and just cook for less time. I usually pop mine in my ancient Morphy Richards slow cooker at around 9am, you can pick them up so inexpensively, I got mine here from Amazon for under £35! and allow it to cook on a medium/high heat until 3/4pm......so around 6 or 7 hours.

To create this you'll need the following -

-Two Jars of the Aldi Specially Balti curry sauce.

-Two large sweet potatoes - cubed.

-Two small, or one large butternut squash - cubed.

-One tin of chopped tomatoes.

-One drained tin of chickpeas.

-One small white onion roughly chopped.

-Three cloves of garlic finely chopped.

-Four handfuls of fresh spinach.

Method........

It honestly couldn't be easier, once everything is chopped I simply layer each ingredient, sweet potato, butternut squash, garlic, onions, chick peas and tinned tomatoes into the pot, I don't know if its actually necessary but I always stick the harder veg at the bottom, logic being it needs more heat to cook, I don't know, always works for me anyway!once they're in I pour on both jars of sauce but only ONE of the little spice pots, I don't really stir at this point I just stick the lid on and leave it for about three hours.

Once the three hours has passed I pop back, give it a stir and add the extra spice pot, mixing it in, the lid goes back on and I leave it alone until about 40 minutes before I want to serve. At this point I squeeze on top the washed, fresh spinach, again I don't mix it in as it just falls out, I put the lid on and after 20 minutes or so the spinach has wilted and can be mixed into the curry.

And just like that, its done, you can serve with rice or naan bread depending on what you fancy, we often have a garlic naan along side, its quite a soupy curry so its great to mop up the sauce. This dish also keeps really well in the fridge so its great for lunch the next day!

Thanks so much for reading, please let me know if you give this a go! Id also love to know what meals you cook in your slow cookers, feel free to share your ideas with me!

Don't forget to follow me on all of my social media, just search All About Jemma and you'll find daily pictures and ramblings.

You can also follow our family YouTube channel, The Tizards, we upload a minimum of three videos a week, we absolutely love sharing so id love to see you over there!

Take care my lovelies, 

Much Love 

xoxox

What I Ate Wednesday

Hey Hey! 
Happy Hump Day.
 

Welcome back and as promised, to a new what I ate Wednesday. 

Today wasn't a usual day, I had such a huge meal at lunch time I couldn't stomach an evening meal. 

I started my day with a pint of water as usual, along with a decaf Neapresso, a banana and the breakfast of champions, 50/50 toast with plastic cheese! Not good for you but yummy! 
 

And of course, a blob of ketchup!

Steve and I decided to head to Dorchester, initially to look at some house hold stuff, but decided to go for a quiet childfree lunch while the boys were at school.
Nando's was the restaurant of choice! We had a hankerin' for some chicken!
We started with hummus, warm pita bread and piri-piri drizzle, delicious!

Our starter was followed by the butterfly chicken for me, with chips and piri-piri salt and coleslaw, Steve had the Churrasco burger, with piri-piri salted chips and garlic bread, we both went for the medium spice option, a little kick but full of flavour!

We were both stuffed after this, but had some time to kill before the school pick up, so of course it would have been rude to not indulge in desert! I'm so pleased we did, it was so so good! Neither of us could move after but it was well worth it, Caramel Cheesecake, Steve had cream with his....this was probably the best cheesecake I've had in a long time! It was of course finished with an Espresso for me and Double Espresso for Steve, we love our coffee!

 

Yum! A lovely impromptu day date with my man! Something about the sunny weather makes me want to get out and about and today was perfect for it!

That's all for now!
Have a great rest of the week, ill be back on Friday with a look at a new summer outfit I recently purchased from Yours Clothing.

Take care lovelies,

Much Love,
xoxox

 

What I Ate Wednesday - Date Night Eddition.

Evening all, and happy Wednesday......it's still Wednesday right? I swear the days just mush together at the moment!

 

I'm sat in bed, my children are finally tucked up beneath their pug sheets, and quiet, kind of. They were both shamefully sent to bed early tonight for bad behaviour, Harry was sent to the Headmistress' office, he's 6, my 6 year old was sent to the Head....oh the shame!

He sheepishly came home with his tail between his legs, and after a lengthily rollicking made a 'I'm Sorry' card that he will deliver to school in the morning, little sod.

Yes, I am one of those mothers that isn't ashamed that occasionally, the halo my children directly inherited from their angelic mother slips, I actually detest that kind of mother, that insists their child is perfect and does no wrong. My children are perfect, perfectly normal! They can be badly behaved, cheeky and sometimes push me to the brink of Vodka! They are also beautifully loving and kind souls, pretty intelligent too....another thing they must get from me, but anyway, I digress.

 

This post is a What I Ate Wednesday!

Although, it doesn't feature food I ate on a Wednesday, it's actually bloody lovely scrummy grub I ate on Sunday when my handsome husband and I escaped for a few hours and had a meal in peace!

It was a long time coming and I loved every second. We visited Carluccio's in the next town. It was a first for us both and we were not disappointed! Everything we ate and drank (oh how I love a Peach Bellini, or two) was beautiful, and the service was wonderful.

Ready for the onslaught of pictures?! Here we go!

 

Rocket, yellow and red tomatoes with mozzarella and capers, drizzled with olive oil and herbs.

 

Sea Bass with a barley, tomato, sun dried tomato and rocket salad.

 

Veal wrapped in Parma ham cooked in a sage and white wine sauce, served with rosemary potatoes.

 

More potatoes!

 

Lemon and Watermelon sorbet.

 

A selection of Italian cheese....mmmmm cheese!

 

The obligatory coffee, we like our coffee!

 

Corr, makes me hungry all over again!

I definitely recommend this place, everything was beautiful, and the atmosphere was so relaxed. I can't wait to go back again soon.

 

And of course, a date night isn't complete without the obligatory selfies!

 

 

I love the in-car make up mirror......great lighting for a sultry selfie!

 

So that's all for today, i'm slowly getting back to normal and hope to resume a regular schedule asap....so you'll have more of my ramblings to look forward to! sorry guys ha!

 

Until next time, be safe.

 

Much Love

xoxox

 



What I Ate Wednesday

Hey Hey!

 

 

Welcome back to my blog and to my very first 'What I Ate Wednesday'.

 

I find these posts really interesting when others do them, so thought I would give it a go! Please leave me a comment if you would like to see this become a regular thing.

 

 

I start my day with breakfast once my little munchkins are off to school, this morning I had a warming bowl of porridge, made with semi-skimmed milk, I put a few raspberries on top and sprinkle of cinnamon, so yummy and perfect for these really cold mornings!

 

 

I try to drink lots of water throughout the day, but always have a big glass midmorning with my coffee and a snack, today I had a Granny Smith apple and a Decaffeinato Intenso from the Nespresso range, I LOVE our Nespresso machine so much!

 

 

I've really not been enjoying cooking at all lately so my lunch was completely lazy! Shop bought sushi!

Tasted good though!

 

 

My boys came home from school starving so I made them a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, always goes down with them and that's important because they are so so fussy!

 

My husband and I tucked into a huge plate of pork stir-fry with egg noodles and sweet chilli sauce, It was delicious (even if I do say so myself!) and really filling. I had it with another large glass of water....trying to meet my daily quota!

 

 

So that's it! I really hope you enjoyed this, if you want to see more from me please pop over to Facebook and Instagram and follow along!

 

I'll be back here later this week with a Valentines inspired post that I am really excited about!

 

see you soon!

 

Much Love,

xoxox