Sausage and Beetroot Traybake - Aldi Super 6 Recipe

One of the highlights of shopping at Aldi has to be their fantastic Super 6 offers. This week I thought that I would share with you an easy recipe that uses some of the products that I found in the Super 6 offers this week. Every week Aldi bring you a selection of 6 fruit and vegetable produce that is priced at just 65p and under and 6 meat and fish offers all at great, low prices. It really does pay to stock up on any favourite items while they are on offer.

Traybakes are a delicious way to cook a meal. They are so easy to prepare and cook. You simply place all of the ingredients in a large roasting tin and let the oven do all of the work for you. When cooking all of the ingredients together you create a meal that is so full of flavour, as they cook their flavours combine together to compliment each other perfectly. 

As soon as I saw that both beetroot and sausages were on the super 6 I knew exactly what I would make. This is what I did...

#SimplySeasonal - March 2017

Welcome to a new month of #SimplySeasonal.

We are now in March and it is lovely to see the signs of spring finally beginning to show. With spring on the horizon we have also been buying seeds for our vegetable patch and greenhouse. We are looking forward to being able to get outside more and have got plenty of ideas for what we are going to grow this year. Now that we are in March our chickens are now out of quarantine for avian flu so they have, at long last, started to lay eggs again which means I will be baking more!

Last month 19 deliciously seasonal recipes were shared and selecting which to feature was extremely difficult so they all get a mention! But my favourite 4 recipes from February's Simply Seasonal will definitely make you hungry for more!

Root Vegetables and Pearl Barley Broth with Crunchy Welly Ham Topping #ThriftyEats

As you will no doubt already know, I am all for saving money on our weekly shopping and love to create budget meals. When creating a new budget busting recipe it is essential that quality and flavour is not compromised. Just because you are being thrifty in the kitchen does not mean that your meals are going to lack on flavour or goodness!

So when I received an email from Welly Foods just after Christmas asking me if I would like to create a thrifty meal using some of their delicious, British ham or chicken I jumped at the chance as I knew that it would be perfect for the Hijacked By Twins ethos, good, wholesome food that does not cost the earth and what the whole family will love!

At this time of year soups and broths make a perfect meal, it is pure comfort in a bowl. Sitting in the warm with a bowl of soup and some freshly made bread, perfect. So with this in mind I got planning my recipe. I love to eat as seasonal as we can as this not only ensures we get vegetables while they are at their best but also helps to keep the prices down as seasonal vegetables tend to be cheaper to buy. At this time of year the root vegetables are definitely the stars of the season. When shopping for root vegetables most supermarkets sell great bags of mixed root that are often labelled as stew packs. That is what I have used for this broth, to bulk it out I have added super thrifty pearl barley and topped it with a crunchy ham topping.

This is what I did...

#SimplySeasonal February 2017

Welcome to February's #SimplySeasonal!

Last month I started this new monthly feature and blog party to celebrate all seasonal ingredients. Following Mother Nature and using the fruits and vegetables that are at their best is not only a delicious way to cook throughout the year but can also be a more economical way of cooking. Fruit and vegetables that are in season tend to be cheaper in the shops and if you have enough room you can even have some of them growing in the garden.

Before I tell you what fruit and vegetables are at their best this month let me show you what tasty recipes were shared in January.

I love kale at this time of year and the Pesto Kale Salad that I added to the linky has become a favourite dish. Since making this I have been adding kale more and more to salads.

Basement Bakehouse shared an easy way to transform a high calorie pizza into a vegetable, healthy based pizza. This Easy Peasy 30 Minute Cauliflower Pizza is a must try!

Soups are perfect for this time of year. Dragons and Fairy Dust shared this deliciously seasonal Parsnip and Cauliflower Soup and reasons why they are also eating with the seasons!

The second recipe that I shared featured more kale. This Naked Coleslaw is both syn free for anyone following the Slimming World plan and contains only low FODMAP foods so you know that it is going to be packed with goodness!

Smoked Fish Tagine - 101 Cook Books

One of my favourite Christmas presents had to this gorgeous, traditional tagine.

I have wanted to invest in a tagine for a while now and my lovely eldest son picked up on this and asked the hubby to buy me one for him to give to me as my Christmas present. This gift means a lot for two reasons, the first is that it is something that I have really wanted but secondly, J took the time to listen and realise this was something that I wanted and found this one for me himself. My first born is certainly growing up at a scarily rapid rate! As this is a traditional tagine a heat diffuser is needed to prevent cracking, so once I had one I could not wait to get cooking! 

You may also see in the title I have a new theme. This is the first, what I hope to become a weekly feature, 101 Cook Books posts. Like a lot of foodies I have a huge collection of cook books. I have had a count of the books that are in my kitchen, office and living room bookshelf and have actually accumulated about 101 cook books! Before I counted them I had no idea how many I had and yes, I was amazed by the number. My 101 Cook Books posts are my way of sharing the books that I love but I am also wanting the posts to encourage me to use my books more often. Each week I am going to use one of my cook books to make a meal and I am going to blog about it. My posts will feature the recipe, tell you what, if anything, I changed and tell you a little bit about the book. Over time I hope to tell you about all of my cook books and who inspires my everyday cooking.

Today's recipe is based on a deliciously slimming recipe that I found in Slimming World Free Food Feasts. Since I started to follow the Slimming World eating plan this has to be one of my favourite go to cook books. It contains 60 fantastic "free" recipes. If you do not know how Slimming World works, "free" foods are foods that can be eaten freely, no calorie counting, no weighing and no limit except from your appetite! My Smoked Fish Tagine has been based on the Slimming World Squash, Swede and Chickpea Tagine recipe. The majority of the recipe has been followed, I have not used the garlic as the recipe states as they are high in FODMAP's but have added carrots, red pepper and smoked fish.

This is what I did...

Naked Coleslaw - Low FODMAP and Syn Free

For the next few weeks we are following the FODMAP eating plan.

For years the hubby has suffered from digestive discomfort and one day while he was looking on the internet he discovered the FODMAP plan. FODMAP stands for Fermantable Oligo-saccharides Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides and Polyols, otherwise known as FODMAP's. FODMAP's are carbohydrates that can be hard to digest and cause digestive discomfort and eliminating foods which contain these carbohydrates can ease symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, gases and bowel problems. They are found in various fruits, vegetables, dairy and many other foods. After doing my own research and visiting various different websites I now have a list of FODMAP foods. The list is divided into two sections, high 'red' FODMAP foods, which I need to avoid in the hubby's meals and low 'green' FODMAP foods which he can eat.

This has meant that my meal plans need to be planned more carefully. Now when I write my weekly meal plan I am carefully looking at the ingredients that are needed for each individual meal and adapting them accordingly.

When I was planning this weeks meals I found a recipe in the Slimming World magazine that I knew everyone would love, but it was served with a homemade coleslaw which contained many high FODMAP ingredients. This got me thinking how I could make a coleslaw type salad that is both syn free for me and, of course, low FODMAP for the hubby. What I created was a huge success and is now a firm favourite.

This is what I did...

#SimplySeasonal - January 2017

Welcome to the first ever #SimplySeasonal!

SimplySeasonal is a new, monthly linky dedicated to the foods that are at their best this month. This year I want to pay more attention to mother nature and use as many in season fruits and vegetables in my cooking as possible. Foods that are in season can often be cheaper and it is a great timetable to follow if you have a vegetable garden.

Each month I will give you a list of the fruits and vegetables that are in season. I am sure that you will be surprised by how big the lists are going to be, I know that I was! To join in simply create a recipe using at least one of the seasonal ingredients, blog about it and share it. The recipes can be vegetarian, vegan, contain meat, be sweet, anything goes as long it contains seasonal ingredients! 

So lets celebrate produce that is at its best!