Healthier Garlic Bread Alternative

I think everybody has a favourite cuisine, and, as much as admittedly I do like a bit of fish and chips, Italian is the one for me. It's a tad hard going dairy free here, but it is doable both in your own home and eating out.Anyway, I'm a great lover of garlic bread in all forms - baguettes, pizza dough, naans: you name it, I've probably tried it (and loved it). But, this little recipe is a great simple thing to do when you don't want to buy a calorie- and grease-laden lot of garlic bread. It takes less than 5 minutes from start to finish, so is handy for a little pick-me-up or as an accompaniment to a meal.

Ingredients:

Butter (or dairy free alternative)

1 garlic clove

Granary bread

Dried Basil

Dried Parsley

Dried Rosemary

Sea Salt

1.) Finely chop or crush the garlic. 

2.) Put the garlic in a small tub. Add about 50g butter.

3.) Sprinkle a large pinch of parsley, and a small one of basil and rosemary on top. Add a little bit of salt. 

4.) Toast some bread and top with the mixture. You now have your own ready-made nasties-free garlic bread!

(garlic bread feat. my home-made dairy and gluten free lasagne!

If you want something a bit more heavy duty, why not top with some grated mozzarella?

Love and Light

Steph 

Any comments/queries are always very welcome

Delicious Shoulder of Lamb

Now as part of my clean diet I generally don't eat red meat, instead sticking to chicken and turkey when I do have meat. However, a little treat is in order now and again, so I made this for me and the boyfriend last week. I always think that if you have treats like this, which aren't actually bad for you because they're done in moderation, it keeps you off the processed foods. or at least me. When I do have something like this I also usually eat incredibly well during the rest of the day so that it won't affect my diet.

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

Lamb shoulder

Dried Rosemary

Dried Thyme

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garlic 

Sea Salt

Ground Black Pepper

1.) I think it's best to prepare the lamb a number of hours before you intend to start cooking it. So I did the first part of this before going to uni for the day, and cooked it when I got home. This sounds like a lot of hassle, but it really isn't. I spent about ten minutes prepping it in the morning, so it didn't mean I was up in the early hours of the morning like some kind of nineteenth century housemaid. Thankfully. I started by finely chopping two large garlic cloves. 

2.) Next I made the rub to go onto it. I put about four tablespoons of olive oil (adjust to the size of the lamb), a sprinkle of sea salt, half a teaspoon of black pepper, a teaspoon of dried rosemary and a pinch of dried thyme in a bowl. Sorry about the uber-long list. Give it a quick stir and add the garlic. 

3.) Rub onto the lamb. I also made little incisions into the meat in which I placed some garlic and rosemary. I feel that this always enhances the flavour a bit.

4.) Wrap in a couple of layers of clingfilm and place back in the fridge for a number of hours.

5.) Now it's time to actually get down to cooking. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees, or gas mark 2. Place foil over the lamb to retain moisture and cook for 3-4 hours. Every hour or so it's a good idea to baste the lamb again with the original mixture. This way none of the flavour gets lost with the cooking. 

I always thought that cooking lamb was something super hard that only my nan's level of expertise allowed you to do, but hey, if I can do it, so can you! 

Any comments/questions are always welcome

Steph :)