Marie Cookpad

   It was so lovely and sunny today that I decided to make us a salad for our supper.  I loosely based the flavours on a traditional Nicoise Salad (which uses Tuna), but used chicken instead and added some potatoes for my Carb Loving husband!    My version was low carb, which meant no potatoes. Instead I had some leftover steamed asparagus that I used and some sliced cooked beetroot. In all truth I could not finish it, and it was delicious!   I have only recently discovered that you can roast frozen beans on a baking tray at the same time you roast other things like potatoes or meat.  They come out beautifully.  A bit caramelised on the edges, perfectly cooked, and the flavour is fantastic!   To be honest I have never been overly fond of frozen beans, but this way I love them.  We are funny in our family, we like tinned beans . . .  that's what we were brought up on.   I had some leftover Rotisserie Chicken from one we had boug...

  This is another quick and simple supper we enjoyed recently that is low in fat, carbs and sugars.   That's because I make the fajita seasoning from scratch . . .  not from  packet.   It is quite surprising the amount of sugar that will be in a ready-prep seasoning packet!!  Or maybe not.  We have been conditioned through the years to eat sugar in just about everything without even knowing it.   Its only been in recent years that healthy studies have confirmed that it really isn't fat that is our enemy, but sugar. There are several generations of people who have been sadly misinformed about that, and I am one of them.   For years I have been buying and eating low fat this and low fat that, only to keep getting, well . . .  fatter.  When you take the fat out of things you take out a lot of the flavour and sadly the need to put the flavour back in has resulted in gross amounts of sugar being added to things in on form or another...

  I have always been fond of the flavours of Teriyaki.  Teriyaki is a Japanese term for fish or meat that has been marinated or cooked in a Teriyaki sauce/marinade, which is generally composed of soy sauce, sake or mirin, ginger, and sugar (or honey). Sometimes garlic is also added   When my children were growing up I used to make something which I called Amanda's Steak , which was basically Flank Steak marinated in a teriyaki marinade.  My youngest daughter Amanda loved it, which is how it eventually got called Amanda's steak in our home. I can't believe I have never cooked it on here.  Time to rectify that I guess because, it is really, really good and I am sure you would like it.   Today I decided to adapt my favourite Teriyaki Meatball recipe to use ground turkey instead of beef, with excellent results.   We like ground turkey in our house, but if you don't, feel free to use ground beef in it's place, or even pork or ground chicken!  ...

  This recipe I am sharing today is not only very tasty, but also quite family friendly, simple to make and fairly healthy, especially if you use the leanest ground turkey you can buy and a low fat cheddar.  It is also very economical!  So its a winner all round!    I confess that I am not overly fond of ground beef. It goes back to my childhood I guess.  Mom always bought really cheap ground beef. It was fatty and full of gristle and sometimes bits of bone.  If there was any gristle or bone in it, it always seemed to end up on my plate and as soon as it hit my teeth I would be gagging! Very unpleasant.    I do eat ground beef now, but not very often and I always grind my own when I do. Did you know that when you are buying ground beef at the shops, the meat in your pack can come from several animals, but if you buy a piece of beef and trim it, then grind it yourself, you know for sure it came from just one.    We I actually prefer...