Vonshef Premium Halogen Cooker - a review

The Vonshef Premium Halogen Oven has landed in our kitchen for review, available direct from Domu or alternatively Amazon  using this link.

The Vonshef represents very good value for money if  you are in the market for a halogen oven for the miserly sum of £34.99 (slightly less if you go for another colour than white) you can purchase a 12 litre (family sized) oven which comes complete with all the accessories you need, plus a stripey oven glove and handy Hamlyn 200 Halogen oven recipe book. This is sized oven is ample to cook a roast chicken and roasties for a family of 4.

Initially I was a bit sceptical of the claims that the oven would be new favourite thing but I must say after cooking a roast dinner in the oven, I think I am smitten. The oven is a little large for my family size and I am struggling to find worktop space but  I love the oven and the speed it cooks food especially meats, its also very handy for reheating food as the oven does not have to be preheated. I am still learning the best ways to cook various dishes but if you want a quick, healthy way to cook halogen ovens are for you.

The oven is easily controlled with the control knobs and once you work out the way the oven cooks then any recipe you can cook in a traditional oven can be cooked in a halogen oven. The washing up is also easy as all parts except the lid can washed in the sink or dishwasher and the lid itself just needs a good wipe and I have found so far that there isn't as much mess as normal as you cook with less fat than you normally would.

I am looking forward to trying baking in the oven, the roast beef was excellent beautifully browned but still juicy and moist, the roast potatoes crispy and tasty, given the level of interest in the oven at the recent cake club a few of my friends will also be splashing out on an oven soon too.

The oven was kindly provided free of charge for review purposes by Designer Habitat, I was not compelled to write a positive review, all views and opinions are my own.

Ragbag pasta with roasted courgette, basil and mint

Well its that time of year again when our courgette plants are yielding a courgette a day and my quest is to find new and novel ways to serve this vegetable. This recipe came about as a way to use up the part bags of pasta that you often find lurking in the cupboard waiting for a little love, it works fine with gluten free pasta which I find remains al dente for longer than normal pasta.

I also spotted that this months cooking with herbs had the theme of basil, at its peak flavour wise at this time of year, I combined it with mint for a pesto flavour twist and lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. A delicious, frugal and tasty dish, rich in courgettes and herbs. This dish is healthy and fresh tasting and makes use of some great seasonal ingredients that just sing summer.

What you need

• Courgettes (Zucchini) - approx 3 medium sized cut into 2cm slice, cut in half
• Olive oil - good drizzle
• Fresh basil- 3 sprigs
• Fresh garden mint - 3 sprigs, leaves picked off
• Parmesan cheese - handful
• Cooked pasta (cooked to the instruction on the packet)
• Black pepper - freshly ground

What you do

• Toss the chopped courgettes with olive oil and place on an oven tray

• Roast in the oven at 180c for about 40 minutes or so until the courgettes are softened and tinged golden brown
• Whilst the courgettes are roasting, cook the pasta so that it ready when the courgettes are ready.

• Drain the pasta and toss with the roasted courgettes and oil , add the cheese and the herbs torn into small pieces

• Toss and then serve with freshly ground black pepper

I'm including this post in this months cooking with herbs, whose theme this month is basil. Created by Lavender and Lovage and hosted also this month by Karen too.

             
                                                         

I am also linking to Pasta Please created by Tinned Tomatoes and Hungry Healthy Happy, hosted this month by Hungry Healthy Happy, the theme is a pasta dish healthy or lightened.

                                          

And also to Eat Your Greens over on Allotment2Kitchen.

                                           

Spanish Paprika chicken using Schwartz flavour shots ! - recipe mix in oil

You've seen the TV advert, which is very cool and very colourful so I was intrigued to try Schwartz newest kid on the block. Flavour shots are essentially a recipe herb and spice mix in oil, ready for you to cook with. Most of the shots are gluten free (do contain maltodextrin but this is considered safe for most coeliacs) (not all) and vegetarian friendly ( not all), the website has various recipes for you to try the shots with plus videos of others as well. The package also has a suggested recipe for you to follow.

Flavour shots are available in most supermarkets and in eight tasty flavours (not all supermarkets are carrying the full range) and retail for around £1.

I plumped for the Spanish smoked paprika chicken shot, which is a pretty easy recipe to follow and I had the necessary ingredients to hand.

What you need

• Flavour shot
• 1 onion - chopped finely
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup 
• 1 pepper - finely diced
• 2 large chicken breasts - chopped into bite sized pieces
• 75g chorizo - chopped (optional I didn't use)

What you do 

• Mix up the flavour shot with a spoon and pour into large frying pan
• Heat over a medium heat, add the chopped onion and stir and cook for about 5 minutes until softened
• Now add the chicken pieces (and chorizo if using) and fry another 4-5 minutes
• Next add the chopped pepper, tomatoes and ketchup
• Stir and simmer over a low heat, covered for approximately 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through.
• Remove the lid and simmer to reduce sauce to desired consistency.

Serve with rice, roast baby potatoes or whatever takes your fancy, a pretty tasty dish a little too tomatoey for me which I felt dominated the chicken a little. 

This is a featured post for Schwartz for which I have received compensation, all views are my own. 

          

#BoothsCheers with The Spice Tailor

                                     

We lucky to have been invited to take part in #Boothcheers again, this time excitingly we have a very special guest, TV chef Anjum Anand who will be joining us to discuss Indian food and her delicious Spice Tailor range. 

In our lovely VIP parcel from Booths we also have received a bottle of Spice Trail Hungarian  Pinot Grigo / Irsai Oliver, wine specially blended to match Asian and pan asian food and a bottle of Wye Valley brewery HPA which again is a great match for spicy food.

Why not join in the fun ?

Easy Tasty Clean - Janice Cumberlidge

Easy Tasty Clean is a new e book from Janice Cumberlidge, focusing on easy, tasty, healthy recipes which can assist in weightloss. Janice  the author really practises what she preaches and has dropped over 2 dress sizes by following this diet and lifestyle plan. She is also based in Lancashire too !

Janice has kindly asked me to review her book and allowed me to publish one of her recipes, but more of that later. The e book is available from www.easytastyclean.com  and covers the nutritional background to each of  the recipes and features a section on healthy clean ingredients and on healthy cooking techniques. Every recipe is illustrated and the book also features photography by the author and a foreword by her "guru" Nancy Reinhardt.

The book has a great layout and I particularly liked the sections on the more unusual ingredients such as chia seeds, quinoa amongst others and how to prepare them, the word layout on some pages was a bit strange and didn't seem to be justified correctly but that might be my PC. All the recipes look tasty and the recipes cover breakfasts, balanced main meals, savoury snacks and soups, sweet snacks and desserts , and smoothies. 

The recipe I chose to test from the book is

Stuffed Walnut Topped Mushrooms

Serves: 2. Prep: 10 mins. Cook: 25 mins.   

Ingredients:

• 4 Portobello mushrooms (large, flat) 
• 300g / 3oz tub low fat, low sodium cottage cheese 
• 1 clove of garlic, minced 
• 1/2 small red bell pepper, finely chopped 
• 1 banana shallot or 2 small regular shallots, finely chopped 
• Ground black pepper, to taste 
• 10 walnut halves, finely chopped 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 190C / 375F / Gas 5. 
• Cut off the stalks of the mushrooms then lay them upside down on an oven tray. 
• In a small bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, garlic, shallot and red pepper. 
• Spoon the mixture onto the upturned mushrooms, pressing it down slightly and making sure it is pressed into all edges. 
• Add freshly ground pepper to the surface of the cottage cheese mixture then top with the finely chopped walnuts. 
• Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes, turning half way through the cooking time. Once the walnuts start to brown the stuffed mushrooms are done. 

*You may find that quite a bit of water is released from both the mushrooms and the cottage    cheese, this is quite normal and the water can be discarded. 

Serve immediately with some steamed vegetables on the side.   

Nutritional information:

Two stuffed mushrooms gives: 219 calories, 21g protein, 13g carbohydrates, 10g fat (2g of which is saturated fat).   

*Tip:

Pre-bake the mushrooms in the oven for 15 minutes and they will release much of their excess water ready for you to use in the recipe as directed.

Here is Janice's picture 

and here is mine

I tweaked the recipe slightly as unfortunately Mr Lancashire Food doesn't do nuts, so I substituted a sprinkling of oats to add crunch ( this will affect the protein content of the recipe) and also I added a pinch of dried thyme to the cottage cheese mixture to give a little extra flavour as sometimes cottage cheese can be a little bland especially as I was omitting the nuts. This was a nice snack dish and I served it with steamed homegrown green beans. I am keen also to try some of the other healthy dishes too but as quite a few feature ingredients I don't have in the store cupboard so I  will need to visit the health food shop first.

The book would be great to purchase if you were looking to make a serious change of diet and follow Janice's healthy living plan to eat easy, tasty and clean. Check out her website or facebook page for more information.